{"id":"01KG8AKWWCHM79Z2S77BZ9E97Z","cid":"bafkreigs73jtjngahllyegeyvnt4g32sar3emlyoji5z2jdlszhckv2mfm","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":8198,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:18.539Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 1","source_file":"01KG89J1HYC04JWXEK48P07WPK","start_line":8133,"text":"CHAPTER LXXV.\r\nTime And Temples\r\n\r\n\r\nIn the oriental Pilgrimage of the pious old Purchas, and in the fine\r\nold folio Voyages of Hakluyt, Thevenot, Ramusio, and De Bry, we read of\r\nmany glorious old Asiatic temples, very long in erecting. And veracious\r\nGaudentia di Lucca hath a wondrous narration of the time consumed in\r\nrearing that mighty three-hundred-and-seventy-five- pillared Temple of\r\nthe Year, somewhere beyond Libya; whereof, the columns did signify\r\ndays, and all round fronted upon concentric zones of palaces, cross-cut\r\nby twelve grand avenues symbolizing the signs of the zodiac, all\r\nradiating from the sun-dome in their midst. And in that wild eastern\r\ntale of his, Marco Polo tells us, how the Great Mogul began him a\r\npleasure-palace on so imperial a scale, that his grandson had much ado\r\nto complete it.\r\n\r\nBut no matter for marveling all this: great towers take time to\r\nconstruct.\r\n\r\nAnd so of all else.\r\n\r\nAnd that which long endures full-fledged, must have long lain in the\r\ngerm. And duration is not of the future, but of the past; and eternity\r\nis eternal, because it has been, and though a strong new monument be\r\nbuilded to-day, it only is lasting because its blocks are old as the\r\nsun. It is not the Pyramids that are ancient, but the eternal granite\r\nwhereof they are made; which had been equally ancient though yet in the\r\nquarry. For to make an eternity, we must build with eternities; whence,\r\nthe vanity of the cry for any thing alike durable and new; and the\r\nfolly of the reproach—Your granite hath come from the old-fashioned\r\nhills. For we are not gods and creators; and the controversialists have\r\ndebated, whether indeed the All-Plastic Power itself can do more than\r\nmold. In all the universe is but one original; and the very suns must\r\nto their source for their fire; and we Prometheuses must to them for\r\nours; which, when had, only perpetual Vestal tending will keep alive.\r\n\r\nBut let us back from fire to store. No fine firm fabric ever yet grew\r\nlike a gourd. Nero’s House of Gold was not raised in a day; nor the\r\nMexican House of the Sun; nor the Alhambra; nor the Escurial; nor\r\nTitus’s Amphitheater; nor the Illinois Mounds; nor Diana’s great\r\ncolumns at Ephesus; nor Pompey’s proud Pillar; nor the Parthenon; nor\r\nthe Altar of Belus; nor Stonehenge; nor Solomon’s Temple; nor Tadmor’s\r\ntowers; nor Susa’s bastions; nor Persepolis’ pediments. Round and\r\nround, the Moorish turret at Seville was not wound heavenward in the\r\nrevolution of a day; and from its first founding, five hundred years\r\ndid circle, ere Strasbourg’s great spire lifted its five hundred feet\r\ninto the air. No: nor were the great grottos of Elephanta hewn out in\r\nan hour; nor did the Troglodytes dig Kentucky’s Mammoth Cave in a sun;\r\nnor that of Trophonius, nor Antiparos; nor the Giant’s Causeway. Nor\r\nwere the subterranean arched sewers of Etruria channeled in a trice;\r\nnor the airy arched aqueducts of Nerva thrown over their values in the\r\nides of a month. Nor was Virginia’s Natural Bridge worn under in a\r\nyear; nor, in geology, were the eternal Grampians upheaved in an age.\r\nAnd who shall count the cycles that revolved ere earth’s interior\r\nsedimentary strata were crystalized into stone. Nor Peak of Piko, nor\r\nTeneriffe, were chiseled into obelisks in a decade; nor had Mount Athos\r\nbeen turned into Alexander’s statue so soon. And the bower of\r\nArtaxerxes took a whole Persian summer to grow; and the Czar’s Ice\r\nPalace a long Muscovite winter to congéal. No, no: nor was the Pyramid\r\nof Cheops masoned in a month; though, once built, the sands left by the\r\ndeluge might not have submerged such a pile. Nor were the broad boughs\r\nof Charles’ Oak grown in a spring; though they outlived the royal\r\ndynasties of Tudor and Stuart. Nor were the parts of the great Iliad\r\nput together in haste; though old Homer’s temple shall lift up its\r\ndome, when St. Peter’s is a legend. Even man himself lives months ere\r","title":"Chunk 1"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJVJY8P8M7FTJ5ZB67FTN","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1HYC04JWXEK48P07WPK","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AKWWCND6MTCY90X741XC4","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:19.340Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:32.114Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}