"And he garnished the house [i. e. Temple] with precious stones for beauty." [i. e. of workmanship.] [2 Chron. iii. 6.]
We shall conclude this Section with an analogy that may appear strange to the general reader, but it is no less true than original, and from which, Identity is apparent.
The Wisdom of Solomon (and inferentially his people also) did not embrace the practical Sciences of Architecture, Sculpture, or Navigation. He was compelled to apply for all these to the Tyrian Monarch. Solomon's wisdom was of the philosophy of Nature, and not in the defined Arts or Sciences.—This is shewn in the first Book of Kings [ch. iv. 32, 33.]
"And he (Solomon) spake three thousand Proverbs, and his Songs were a thousand and five. And he spake of trees,—from the cedar tree that is in Lebanon, even unto the hyssop that springeth out of the wall: he spake also, of beasts,—and of fowl,—and of creeping things,—and of fishes." Five centuries before Solomon,—the Hebrew artists,—Bezaleel and Aholiab,—were called by The Almighty, and presented to Moses for a special purpose. [Vide Exodus xxxv. 30—35.]
The Tyrians were the Architects and Sculptors of the Temple of Solomon, and in the description of that Edifice it will be found that the square,—or four-sided,—columns and bases prevailed, to the exclusion of the circular,—even the door-posts of the Temple were square:—the same are seen at Palenque!
"So also made he for the door of the Temple posts of olive trees,—a fourth part of the wall,"—[1 Kings vi. 33]—defined to be—"four-square."
The two brazen Pillars of the Porch of the Temple were square,—and about five feet six inches on each side,—(what are the Pillars at Copan?)—and the capitals covered with carved "nets of checker work" and "wreaths of chain-work,"—upon these were suspended "two rows of pomegranates."
The celebrated "bases" were distinctly square,—and about seven feet on each side.
"And he (the Tyrian Artist) made ten bases of brass,—four cubits (21 inches and a fraction each cubit, Scripture measure,) was the length of one base, and four cubits the breadth thereof" [this is a perfect square]. "And there were four undersetters to the four corners of one base,"—"And also upon the mouth of it (the laver) were gravings with their borders, four-square, not round."—"And after this manner he made the ten bases [i. e. square columns]: all of them had one casting [Hebrew: "fashioning">[, one measure and one size." [1 Kings, ch. vii.]
Now the square style of Architecture in Solomon's Temple may distinctly be claimed as Tyrian Architecture—for the Tyrians were the Architects, Sculptors, and Builders, directed by Hiram the Artist,—and it is self-evident, since they were so, that they followed that style generally adopted in their own country;—here then is a direct proof of the Tyrian Architecture being in Ancient America,—for the reader will instantly recognise that the Square-columns form the "door-posts" also at Palenque,—and that the Idol-Obelisks at Copan are "four-square, not round" and covered with "gravings"—(i. e. Sculptures). The superficial measure of the "square piers,"—or columns at Palenque, does not vary in a great degree from the square Porch-columns and bases at Jerusalem,—while the Hebrew "pomegranates" at the latter Capital, were varied,—yet the florid style of Tyrian Sculpture imitated in the "compositions of leaves and flowers" at Uxmal.