OBELISKS AT HOME.

Kumara Times, Issue 419, 29 January 1878, Page 4

OBELISKS AT HOME.

[Saturday Review. The question is sometimes asked, what is there wonderful about an obelisk ITt it not an unreasonable question Our ideas of the anchitectual art «faave never been made to include any reference to the size of the materials of :a building. It does not,; at first sight, •occur-;to .US', that'it can matter very anuch .whether a temple is made of bricksJa few inches thick, or of stones as Oiahy feet, so that toe temple itself is a work of magnitude. The ancient Egyptians and the so. called Cyclopean builders, thought differently. And it be atldwed that, if they erred, it waa ih a right direction. People often boast jthat; there are few pieces of Architecture in any European city more satisfactory than the Quadrant in Regeqt; - ißttoet ; j . but they do not reflect that ftoui an Egyptian point of view it would fall far short of. architecture. It is built of miserable little bricks, and covered over with plaster and pafcit in imitation. of pilastQrs. It is little, if better than a piece of theatrical scenery. But judging in this way, we have no great building in Eogdqn. /Perhaps the portico at toe British? Museqm may be called great from the magnitude of toe stones of which the pillars; are made; They are to ; beight, ancl each shaft consists Biit the column of at Alexandria has a shaft 73$ £ £jgh l0l epn|dsting of a. single block of gcainitodadferrthan.the< whole of one of toe : lonic colUnins at the British Mnseinfcf from base to entablature. The world of which (ariyK'j authentic aecounjb is a :^%:py%as,^ dis-: ' of blocks of iajairuto style which may renjiqd tbA English traveller of StoneLengAjj Butearfi block is of such a size that : Stonfehehgft'sinks into “nothing bed - i l to; ;ne ,agec4 the age the • ; uiaa Emperors, the size of the

materials of which a building was to be made was a powerful consideration. Unquestionably they secured stability. The difficulty of moving Cleopatra’s Needle gives us a reason why so many obelisks and temples are still standing. There are stones at Kamac 40ft long. On the roof of the temple at Edfou there are stones 20ft by 12ft, and more than 3ft thick. Such a roof may fall of itself ; but there is probably no engineer in Egypt who could pull it down without gun-powder or steam. We have nothing of this sort in England. The architects of such buildings as Salisbury Cathedral early taught us that greatness of parts is not necessary to grandeur of effect; but this lesson never seems to have occurred to the Egyptians, though the Greeks knew it, as the little Parthenon proved, and the Romans acted on it, but without the same success. The wonder of the obelisk is that it consists of a single stone. It has little other claim on our regard, if we except its antiquity, which will make it, if it ever reaches our shores, the pldesftfpublic monument in the three kingdoms.