The Pyramid.
We have already seen how the Eddystone lighthouse was the precursor of many similar buildings all, like their predecessor, having their form copied, with more or less strictness, from the outlines of a tree-stem.
Another form of building which was intended for endurance, and, indeed, is the most enduring of all shapes, is the Pyramid.
We are all familiar with the simple, yet grand outlines of the Pyramids of Egypt, whose vast antiquity takes us back to the times of Isaac and Joseph, and which seem capable of resisting the effects of Time, the universal destroyer, for thousands of years yet to come.
We may ask ourselves what was the natural object from which the Pyramid was copied. The name itself, which is formed from a Greek word signifying fire, shows that a flame was thought to have furnished the idea of this form of building. I cannot, however, but think that the flame had little, if anything, to do with it, and that the real model may be found in the hills which have been formed by Nature.
Examples of the Pyramids and the Hills are given in the accompanying illustration.
Subaquatic Mortar.—Paint and Varnish.
Having now disposed of the chief points in Architecture, we take some of the subsidiary details.
Of late years, when the traffic between different continents has so largely extended itself, and when shipping has increased both in the numbers and dimensions of the vessels, it is absolutely necessary that we should have harbours and docks enlarged and multiplied sufficiently to meet the calls upon them.