206 
NATURE FOR ITS OWN SAKE 
Nature’s 
building 
principle, 
The self- 
supporting 
globe. 
of sterner stuff. How like steel or flint that 
base supporting the Jungfrau! Those who 
cut the tunnels through Mt. Cenis and St. 
Gothard found out how compactly that wall 
of the Alps was put together, and of what 
rock quality it was built. It would seem as 
though those strata were laid, one upon an- 
other, with the aim and the design of their en- 
during forever. 
And how could the frame itself have been 
planned better ? Arched at every point by the 
great rock-beds of plain or mountain, it is 
more cohesive than any dome of human ma- 
sonry, be it of the Pantheon, or of Hagia 
Sophia, or of the Taj Mehal. The architect- 
ural drum is but a half-globe placed like an 
inverted cup upon supporting walls and mem- 
bers, but the earth is as complete in its rotun- 
dity as in its continuity. Braced by its own 
curve, the atmospheric pressure from without 
has as little power to crush it in as the possi- 
ble gases and vapors from within to bulge it 
out. Doubtless, ages ago, when the earth was 
soft and pliable, its whirling motion through 
space made it round, much as the rain-drop 
rounds itself by passing through the air; and 
now that it has hardened, itis not likely to lose 
