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Melville, Herman, 1819-1891 [1849], Mardi and a voyage thither, volume 1 (Harper & Brothers, New York) [word count] [eaf275v1].
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CHAPTER LXXV. TIME AND TEMPLES.

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In the oriental Pilgrimage of the pious old Purchas, and
in the fine old folio Voyages of Hakluyt, Thevenot, Ramusio,
and De Bry, we read of many glorious old Asiatic
temples, very long in erecting. And veracious Gaudentia
di Lucca hath a wondrous narration of the time consumed
in rearing that mighty three-hundred-and-seventy-five-pillared
Temple of the Year, somewhere beyond Libya; whereof,
the columns did signify days, and all round fronted upon
concentric zones of palaces, cross-cut by twelve grand avenues
symbolizing the signs of the zodiac, all radiating from
the sun-dome in their midst. And in that wild eastern tale
of his, Marco Polo tells us, how the Great Mogul began
him a pleasure-palace on so imperial a scale, that his grandson
had much ado to complete it.

But no matter for marveling all this: great towers take
time to construct.

And so of all else.

And that which long endures full-fledged, must have long
lain in the germ. And duration is not of the future, but
of the past; and eternity is eternal, because it has been;
and though a strong new monument be builded to-day, it
only is lasting because its blocks are old as the sun. It is
not the Pyramids that are ancient, but the eternal granite
whereof they are made; which had been equally ancient
though yet in the quarry. For to make an eternity, we
must build with eternities; whence, the vanity of the cry
for any thing alike durable and new; and the folly of the
reproach—Your granite hath come from the old-fashioned

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hills. For we are not gods and creators; and the controversialists
have debated, whether indeed the All-Plastic
Power itself can do more than mold. In all the universe
is but one original; and the very suns must to their source
for their fire; and we Prometheuses must to them for ours;
which, when had, only perpetual Vestal tending will keep
alive.

But let us back from fire to stone. No fine firm fabric ever
yet grew like a gourd. Nero's House of Gold was not raised
in a day; nor the Mexican House of the Sun; nor the Alhambra;
nor the Escurial; nor Titus's Amphitheater; nor
the Illinois Mounds; nor Diana's great columns at Ephesus;
nor Pompey's proud Pillar; nor the Parthenon; nor the
Altar of Belus; nor Stonehenge; nor Solomon's Temple;
nor Tadmor's towers; nor Susa's bastions; nor Persepolis'
pediments. Round and round, the Moorish turret at Seville
was not wound heavenward in the revolution of a day; and
from its first founding, five hundred years did circle, ere
Strasbourg's great spire lifted its five hundred feet into the
air. No: nor were the great grottos of Elephanta hewn
out in an hour; nor did the Troglodytes dig Kentucky's
Mammoth Cave in a sun; nor that of Trophonius, nor
Antiparos; nor the Giant's Causeway. Nor were the subterranean
arched sewers of Etruria channeled in a trice;
nor the airy arched aqueducts of Nerva thrown over their
vallies in the ides of a month. Nor was Virginia's Natural
Bridge worn under in a year; nor, in geology, were the
eternal Grampians upheaved in an age. And who shall
count the cycles that revolved ere earth's interior sedimentary
strata were crystalized into stone. Nor Peak of Piko,
nor Teneriffe, were chiseled into obelisks in a decade; nor
had Mount Athos been turned into Alexander's statue so
soon. And the bower of Artaxerxes took a whole Persian summer
to grow; and the Czar's Ice Palace a long Muscovite
winter to congeal. No, no: nor was the Pyramid of Cheops
masoned in a month; though, once built, the sands left by the

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deluge might not have submerged such a pile. Nor were
the broad boughs of Charles' Oak grown in a spring; though
they outlived the royal dynasties of Tudor and Stuart.
Nor were the parts of the great Iliad put together in
haste; though old Homer's temple shall lift up its dome,
when St. Peter's is a legend. Even man himself lives
months ere his Maker deems him fit to be born; and ere his
proud shaft gains its full stature, twenty-one long Julian
years must elapse. And his whole mortal life brings not
his immortal soul to maturity; nor will all eternity perfect
him. Yea, with uttermost reverence, as to human understanding,
increase of dominion seems increase of power;
and day by day new planets are being added to elder-born
Saturns, even as six thousand years ago our own Earth made
one more in this system; so, in incident, not in essence, may
the Infinite himself be not less than more infinite now, than
when old Aldebaran rolled forth from his hand. And if
time was, when this round Earth, which to innumerable
mortals has seemed an empire never to be wholly explored;
which, in its seas, concealed all the Indies over four thousand
five hundred years; if time was, when this great quarry of
Assyrias and Romes was not extant; then, time may have
been, when the whole material universe lived its Dark Ages;
yea, when the Ineffable Silence, proceeding from its unimaginable
remoteness, espied it as an isle in the sea. And
herein is no derogation. For the Immeasurable's altitude is
not heightened by the arches of Mahomet's heavens; and
were all space a vacuum, yet would it be a fullness; for to
Himself His own universe is He.

Thus deeper and deeper into Time's endless tunnel, does
the winged soul, like a night-hawk, wend her wild way;
and finds eternities before and behind; and her last limit is
her everlasting beginning.

But sent over the broad flooded sphere, even Noah's dove
came back, and perched on his hand. So comes back my
spirit to me, and folds up her wings.

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Thus, then, though Time be the mightiest of Alarics,
yet is he the mightiest mason of all. And a tutor, and a
counselor, and a physician, and a scribe, and a poet, and a
sage, and a king.

Yea, and a gardener, as ere long will be shown.

But first must we return to the glen.

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p275-277
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Melville, Herman, 1819-1891 [1849], Mardi and a voyage thither, volume 1 (Harper & Brothers, New York) [word count] [eaf275v1].
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