The first idea in building had its origin (without doubt) from the Caverns of Nature, where Man would be protected from the raging tempest:--and, from being shadowed from the beams of Apollo by the spreading branches of the forest, he must have soon felt the necessity of converting the latter into more commodious forms than those in which Nature had left them. To huts made of trees and branches, festooned together by their own foliage, succeeded more convenient habitations, composed of upright and cross beams, the apertures closed with leaves and moistened earth. From these humble pillars of the forest, were derived those beautiful Columns composing the five received orders of Architecture. That of Egypt is not admitted into the Classic group. The interior of a cavern with the walls rising pyramidally, gave the natural instruction for the formation of a Tent,--poles rising from a broad base to a centre,--or of a single one, with the canvass outstretched by cords and fastened to the stakes driven in the earth;--such were the Tents of Israel,--those of the Aborigines of _North_ America, and of the wandering Gipsy, in the erection of their culinary edifice even to this day. The Pyramids of Egypt are but majestic examples of the same principle of construction,--viz., the corners and sides of a broad base rising on an inclined plane, until they meet and form an apex over a common centre. This construction has given them that defiance against the whirlwinds and sands for which they are so conspicuous. _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!