Page 27.
"Pyramid of Asychis?"
THIS pyramid, in mythology, divides with the Tower of Babel the
shame, or vain glory, of being presumptuously, and first among
great edifices, built with "brick for stone." This was the
inscription on it, according to Herodotus:
"Despise me not, in comparing me with the pyramids of stone; for I
have the pre-eminence over them, as far as Jupiter has pre-
eminence over the gods. For, striking with staves into the pool,
men gathered the clay which fastened itself to the staff, and
kneaded bricks out of it, and so made me."
The word I have translated "kneaded" is literally "drew;" in the
sense of drawing, for which the Latins used "duco;" and thus gave
us our "ductile" in speaking of dead clay, and Duke, Doge, or
leader, in speaking of living clay. As the asserted pre-eminence
of the edifice is made, in this inscription, to rest merely on the
quantity of labor consumed in it, this pyramid is considered, in
the text, as the type, at once, of the base building, and of the
lost labor, of future ages, so far at least as the spirits of
measured and mechanical effort deal with it; but Neith, exercising
her power upon it, makes it a type of the work of wise and
inspired builders.