George Jones

“ Warriors, and People were gathered as with one heart—with one impulse, to join in festive joy upon the Tyrian Sabbath of the Year. But the foes to this scene of human happiness, were crouched in ambush,—like the Serpent of Eden,—and waited for that Sun's appearance as if it had been the enemy of mankind, and were ready to wreak their fury upon its children and worshippers! ”

“ Architecture erected the Coliseum, but Sculpture like a funeral pall, mantles this human slaughterhouse of Rome;—not a stone of which, from the base to the ruined cornice, but has an historic voice that speaks, as from the Arimathean Sepulchre of our Religion, of the final Resurrection of those early martyrs to the Faith of Christ!
The humble gravestone of the village churchyard [41] is received as legal evidence of death,—it speaks a name, a date, and burial,—the Acropolis, as the tomb of Athens, can do no more, save that it is the record of a nation's downfall, and not a peasant's. ”

“ The Queen, on the contrary, by her death, rescued her young nation from a war of slavery—gave it additional power by her farewell wisdom, pronounced from the Altar destined to receive her ashes,—bound her tried and faithful Tyrians to elect their Rulers from the scrolls of Intellect only,—the fulness of patriotism was accomplished,—and as the steel pierced her heart, Nature never received a last sigh from a nobler victim! ”

“ The proportion given by Ictinus to the body of the Parthenon is fast falling to decay, while the sculptured mantle of Phidias which adorns it adds regality to splendour, and every stone that falls produces but another graceful fold to the gorgeous drapery! Sculpture still preserves Syracuse amid the wreck of time, as when Marcellus wept tears of joy at beholding his mighty conquest: it still points out Carthage, the fatherland of Hannibal, as when Marius upon a prostrate column mourned her desolation. Mysterious Pæstum has no other monument, for her deeds have perished with her records. ”

“ Painting,—the most beautiful in the triumvirate of the Arts, proudly follows Sculpture in her classic path,—the precedence only yielded as to one of elder birth, who attired in her snow-white raiment marches forward with majestic step, casting her shadow to the confines of History; while her graceful follower, clad in the rainbow-tinted garments, and having no shadow of herself, receives her coloured brilliancy from the glowing Sun of Genius, and thence in gratitude reflects back her pictorial light to illuminate the mind! ”

“ Although prostrate upon the earth, yet even in death, they have voices as speaking from the tomb:—but the Parents still live on, ever young and immortal, and can point to the proud remains of their fallen Children, and with the voice of historic truth proclaim their fadeless epitaph and character.
Egypt! My first-born and consort of the Nile!—while thy Pyramids and Temples shall remain—and they will even to the final tempest of the World—thou shalt be identified from among all the nations of the Earth! ”

“ But Architecture and Sculpture have lived on—severe and chaste, stern and graceful, majestic and beautiful—as when they were first created from the Eden of the mind! No sword of wrath has driven them forth to wander as outcasts; but as Messengers of Peace they have visited every clime; they have raised their temples and cities in every land, subjected to one power only—the insatiate monster of the earth, Time—the twin-born with Creation, and who will be the last mourner of Nature [35] and her name! ”

“ When Liberty lays the corner-stone,—Utility is the Architect,—Grace and Beauty the Sculptors,—and Freemen the builders and artizans: these combined, useless Magnificence can never cross the threshold, or Slavery breathe upon the Altar!
The absence of the Arch in all the Ruins of America will, also, identify those ancient cities with a nation having a Knowledge of, and contemporaneous with, Egypt,—for the Arch is not to be found in the cities of the Nile—nor was it at Sidon or Tyrus. ”

“ For the peace of Europe, and for the prosperity of Prussia,—for the advancement of Religious and Civil Liberty,—Education, Literature, the Arts and Sciences,—may the Disposer of Events prolong the life, and intellectual vigour of Your Majesty, to the utmost verge of venerable age; and when the monument shall enclose Your earthly remains, may Your subjects feel, that Your Royal Ancestor,—Frederick of Prussia,—was not the only Monarch of their father-land deserving the time-honoured, and historic surname of "The Great." ”

“ Architecture by his peculiar characteristic gives intelligence as we wander amid his works, that we are on the land of Egypt, or the plains of Pæstum: on the Acropolis of Athens, or the land of Romulus and the Coliseum: and whether we gaze upon the sky-pointing Pyramid, the stern or the graceful Doric, the Ionic of the Ilissus, or the acanthus-crowned Corinthian,—they one and all have voices of oracular power, proclaiming to the classic scholar the Nation from whence they arose to life and beauty. ”

“ He gathered around him the wise and the good, the gifted and the talented, to illustrate his own conceptions,—for his brain was the casket, where, for his Nation's service and that of his Allies, were gathered those inestimable jewels of the mind, that wealth cannot purchase, and Death itself cannot destroy,—for corroding Time has hallowed them to the present day, and will to all posterity! The Temple of Jerusalem, erected to The One living GOD, claims not Solomon for its Founder, with a greater certainty than it does Hiram for its Builder. ”

“ As we dwelt upon the reign of Hiram the Great with that pleasure arising from delineating the blessings of Peace and the progress of the Arts; so were we elaborate in our description of the Siege and Fall of Tyrus, through the invasion by Alexander of Macedon,—that the horrors and curses of War, and the destruction of civilization, should be the more forcibly estimated by contrast; that Invaders or Conquerors should receive the scorn and curse they deserve, and Patriots and Peace-Makers the praise and blessings they merit, and must receive from God and Man! ”

“ Here, then, is the fact of a fleet having been built by the Tyrians, for a foreign king, on the shores of the Red Sea, and for a voyage to India. Now this Navy was built for Solomon three hundred and eighty-five years before the time of Pharaoh-Necho, the period now under contemplation. Why should not the Tyrians build another Navy upon the borders of the Red Sea, at a later period, for another nation,—and especially when for an expedition calling forth every energy of the renowned Navigators? ”

“ We think that it will instantly be admitted, that all [8] religious ceremonies are the strongest proofs of the characteristics of a people or race, of which no written history exists; for there is something so indescribably sacred in the conscientious actions of man with the Supreme God, that none but the maniac-atheist could doubt, that those actions should be received as the living features of a nation, when seen to be recognised and acknowledged, with as much certainty of identity, as when a mother gazes upon her fondly-cherished child! ”

“ The Fugitives being Tyrians, and of the great Sidonian family, which, in the language of Homer, comprehended every thing that was ingenious and accomplished, to the exclusion of their opposites, puts us at once in possession of the distinct intellectual character of those about to seek another land; and where, after 2000 years have passed, Time removes his veil of mystery, and discovers the truth of the Homeric tribute,—while over their Asiatic home of a more ancient day, Oblivion with her Lethean flood, has swept even their epitaph and their tomb away! ”

“ The useless, and unsupporting Pyramid of the Nile, may well serve for the emblem of Cheops, or the vainglorious Sesostris! Who were the builders and labourers of the Coliseum? Ninety-seven thousand captives, and believers in The Only God! That human slaughterhouse of Rome, is cemented from its base to its cornice, with the sighs and blood of Jerusalem! ”

“ Water,—that "sore decayer of dead bodies,"—be they of "flesh," wood, or stone, can have no effect in Egypt; for there the rains do not fall, and consequently moisture cannot exert her gradual but certain power;—in Ancient America this safeguard to edifices is not granted by Nature,—but yet the principle of the Pyramid has given duration, and proved the existence of Nations in the Western Hemisphere, traceable to centuries before Egypt mourned a Cleopatra, who, as the living emblem of her death, became the venomed and fatal Serpent of her Country! ”

“ The Promethean spark by which the flame of historic truth should illuminate his work, and be viewed as a gleaming beacon from afar, to direct wanderers through the dark night of wonders, has found no spot to rest upon and to vivify! But this he has done,—he has brought the timbers of the historic bark to view:—research must build, and science place the rudder; the pilot, constant as the northern star; enthusiasm [56] must drive her before the wind, every sail set, fore and aft, aloft, abroad and full, and it will be strange indeed if that spark will not be found upon Truth's phosphoric sea! ”

“ Why should we wonder then that another proof of the truth of Sacred Prophecy should only have been discovered in our own day, and upon the Western Continent? But mankind may well wonder, and they will so continue through all posterity, at the mysterious and inscrutable ways of The Almighty,—in the contemplation (we dare not say contrast) of whose ever-fruitful Power, the high soaring mind of man seem not only uncultured, but inarable! ”

“ The intelligence of the present movement of the Macedonian, flew on the wings of gladness to the surrounding Nations; where—through their own fears at the success of such military talent—could be seen the secret joy at the approaching downfall of a People, whose very existence as a Nation, had been derived from stern and uncompromising Monopoly;—who had looked upon all other countries as the mere instruments of her own imperious will. ”

“ Had the Tyrians possessed no knowledge of Colours, the discovery of them upon the Mexican Ruins would have been useless in reference to any analogy, and injurious against identity;—but, the Tyrians having the knowledge of the three primitives, and of a fourth colour, and had they not been discovered at Copan or Palenque, then the want of a similitude would be evident and material;—but, as both People,—the Tyrians and the Aborigines,—possessed the same knowledge, and practice of colouring their Temples,—the Analogy is not only apparent, but absolute. ”

“ It was useless: the brave defence exceeded in its results any injury received from the spirit of the attack; for where the battering-rams would otherwise have had effect, bales of cloths, linen and wool were hung, so that no impression could be made; at the same time hundreds of the invaders were crushed or slain by the high-mounted besieged, who continued to hurl down upon those beneath, and upon their works, ponderous stones, showers of darts and javelins, together with ignited combustibles and fascines. In this manner were several attempts upon the City completely foiled by the Tyrians. ”

“ Histories, and Traditions,—from Sculpture, Coins, and Architecture, and the entire range of the Arts;—Earth and Ocean have rendered their records, to establish that the same knowledge and customs were possessed by both Nations,—nor will the proof of identity stop there;—their mutual knowledge was also found in that science where Heaven itself was, and is, the illuminated map of study,—where the Stars, as letters of fire, form the language of the Skies,—God Himself being the Alpha and the Omega! ”

“ The principle of nature established in its law of attracting air even towards a partial vacuum, be it created by natural or artificial means of heat (for the quality of the result is the same) has been shewn to prove, that the Earth revolving one way, (West to East) and the current of air rushing another, having the Sun as its source of attraction, must of a necessity produce the constant East-Wind. This secret of Nature instantly unfolds why the great Ocean on the Western coast of America is truly named Pacific, when compared to the tempests of the Atlantic. ”

“ Woman does not ask Man to be generous, but to be just,—the latter will secure the former.
Every good or brave deed traced by the pen of History, should be for the purpose of Justice to the original party, and for the effect of virtuous example to posterity. Thence the self-sacrifice of the Queen of Carthage was not without its effect (in the same land) upon the mind of Cato, who, though he but imitated the Tyrian Elizabeth, and failed to reach her high motive, still her example inspired him, and secured his fame! ”

“ Athens!—My favourite daughter! Until the Rock of the Acropolis shall fall,—thy classic beauties,—around which have gleamed the meridian splendour of the mind, will proclaim that Minerva, Plato, Pericles, and Phidias, were thy own!
Palmyra!—My third joy! Although the wild Arab sleeps within thy roofless dwelling, with the whirling sands for his nightly mantle—yet, while thy Porticoes, Arches, and Colonnades shall be seen, the City of the Desert will live in Memory ”

“ The lately recovered Ruins, Cities, and Temples in Central America, and of which no ancient record is to be found, have shattered the chain of acknowledged History to atoms; and until that chain is again united by a firmly established theory,—Education herself must pause, ere she can with the wand of truth, point to her rising children the History of the World, or its inhabitants. ”

“ There was no Princess of antiquity endowed with more enlarged attributes of the mind than the Tyrian Elizabeth:—her resolution, active courage, intellect, and womanly devotion were alike conspicuous, and consequently she was worthy of being allied to a Prince possessing the exalted virtue and character of Acerbas. That the Oath was taken before the marriage is apparent; for the Tyrant did not prevent the union, but actually promoted it,—and from this deceitful acquiescence on the part of the King, their nuptials must have been solemnized amid the rejoicings of the Nation and of the Throne. ”

“ No one will say that that Pyramid is Roman architecture,—yet no one will deny that the builder had a knowledge of Egypt and her works,—and no Historian would claim Rome to be Egypt, because a Pyramid was found there; so in Mexican America, the Ruins partake of the Egyptian character sufficiently to give the style of the Architectural foundations to that of the Nile,—yet they must have been erected by another Nation;—yet that Nation must be proved to have a knowledge of, and intercourse with, Egypt. ”

“ The country, guarded by her feudal Towers and Banners, may be physically secure in parts of the kingdom; but the Nation that points to the Walls of Artistical and Scientific Galleries, to the Temples of the Muses, Literature, and Education, and to free swelling sails—for her Bulwarks and Standards,—is intellectually defended in every quarter of her domain,—for Peace is the Citadel, and the several branches of Prosperity, her moated outworks! ”