long, and as many in height; the ftones very skilfully cemented, and none of them of lefs dimenfions than thirty feet.

"The afcent of the pyramid was regularly graduated by what fome call fteps, and others altars *. Having finished the first flight,

which at leaft will ferve to prove how difficult it is to come at truth.

"To me it feems evident that Greaves and Niebuhr are prodigiously deceived in the perpendicular height of the great pyramid. All travellers agree it contains at least two hundred and feven layers, which layers are from four to two feet high. The highest are at the bafe, and they decrease insensibly to the top. I measured feveral, which were more than three feet high, and I found none that were lefs than two; therefore the leaft mean height that can be allowed them is two feet and a half, which, according to the calculation of Greaves himself, who counted two hundred and feven, will give five hundred and feventeen feet fix inches in perpendicular height.-Savary.

"See the conclufion of this book for farther remarks on the pyramids.

"Shaw takes occafion from this paffage to intimate his opinion that the original defign of the pyramids never was completed.

"Neither does it appear that either this or any other of the three greater pyramids was ever finished. For the ftones in the

S 31

entrance

flight, they elevated the ftones to the fecond by the aid of ma chines 219 conftructed of fhort pieces of wood: from the fecond, by

entrance into the greatest being placed archwife, and at a greater height than feems neceffary for fo fmall a paffage; there being alfo a large space left on each fide of it, by difcontinuing several of the parallel rows of fteps, which, in other places, run quite round the pyramid; thefe circumstances, I fay, in the architecture of this building, feem to point out to us fome further defign, and that originally there might have been intended a large and magnificent portico. Neither were the steps, or little altars, as Herodotus calls them, to remain in the fame condition they have been in from the earliest records of time: for these were all of them to be filled up in fuch a manner with prifmatical stones, that each fide of the pyramid, as in that of Cestius, at Rome, was to be smooth and upon a plane. Now nothing of this kind appears to have been ever attempted in the leffer or greater of thefe pyramids (the latter of which wants likewife a great part of the point, where this filling up was most probably to commence); but in the fecond, commonly called Chephren's pyramids, which may hint to us what was intended in them all, we fee near a quarter of the whole pile very beautifully filled up, and ending at the top like the point of a diamond. Thefe ftones, agreeable perhaps to the depth of the ftrata from whence they were hewn, are from five to thirty feet long, and from three to four feet high. Yet notwithstanding the weight and maffiven fs of the greatest part of them, they have all been laid in mortar, which at prefent is eafily crumbled to powder, though originally perhaps it might be of greater tenacity, as the compofition of it feems to be the fame with that of Barbary."

19 Aid of machines.]—Mr. Greaves thinks that this account of Herodotus is full of dificulty. "How, in eresting and placing fo many machines, charged with fuch maffy ftones, and thofe con. tinually p.fing over the lower degrees, could it be avoided, but that they mu either unfettle them, or endanger the breaking of fome portions of them? Which mutilations would have been like fears in the face of fo magnificent a building."

The

"I own that I am of a different opinion from Mr. Greaves; for fuch maly ones as Herodotus has defcribed would not be difcompofed by an engine retting upon them, and which, by the account of Herodotus, I take to be only the pulley. account that Diodorus gives of raifing the ftones by imaginary zwarwy (heaps of earth) engines not being then, as he fup. pofes, invented, is too abfurd to take notice of. And the defeription that Herodotus has given, notwithstanding all the ob jections that have been railed to it, and which have arifen princi. paily from mire, refuting him, appears to me very clear and fenfible.--Dr. Templeman's Notes to Norden,”

a fimilar

a fimilar engine, they were raised to the third, and fo on to the fummit. Thus there were as many machines as there were regu lar divifions in the afcent of the pyramid, though in fact there might only be one, which, being eafily manageable, might be removed from one range of the building to another, as often as occafión made it neceffary: both modes have been told me, and I know not which best deferves credit. The fummit of the pyramid was first of all finifhed 222; defcending thence, they regularly com pleted the whole. Upon the outfide were inferibed, in Ægyptian characters 221, the various fums of money expended, in the progrefs of the work, for the radishes, onions, and garlic confumed by the artificers. This, as I well remember, my interpreter informed me, amounted to no lefs a fum than one thoufand fix hundred talents. If this be true, how much more muft it have neceffarily coft for iron tools, food, and clothes for the workmen, particularly when we confider the length of time they were employed on the building itself, adding what was fpent in the hewing and conveyance of the stones, and the construction of the fubterraneous apartments?" Vol. II. P. 41.

The reader will perceive that the notes of the translator on this paffage are more curious and fatisfactory than the paffage itfelf; and he has in other parts of the work given an account of the prefent ftate of the pyramids from the last persons, both French and English, who were able to vifit them with leifure and fecurity. The following note however has efcaped him.

"Norunt eruditi longe aliam fpeciem Pyramidum hodie exhiberi, quam qualem veteres defcripferunt. Illi nempe, quorum

66 225

First of all finished.]-The word in the text is moon, which Larcher has rendered, "On commença revetir et perfectionner."

"Great doubts have arifen amongst travellers and the learned, whether the pyramid was coated or not. Pliny tells us, that at Bufiris lived people who had the agility to mount to the top of the pyramid. If it was graduated by fteps, little agility would be requifite to do this; if regularly coated it is hard to conceive how acy agility could accomplish it.

Norden fays, that there is not the leaft mark to be perceived to prove that the pyramid has been coated by marble.

"Savary is of a contrary opinion: "That it was coated," fays he," is an inconteftable fact, proved by the remains of mortar, ftill found in feveral parts of the fteps, mixed with fragments of white marble." Upon the whole, it feems more reasonable to conclude that it was coated.-T."

221 Egyptian characters.]-Probably in common characters, and not in hieroglyphics.-Larcher.”

$ 4

dux

dux et princeps eft Herodotus, uno ore prodiderunt, ingentem co piam marmoris, ex ultimis Arabiæ vel Æthiopiæ partibus advec, tam, iis ornandis fuiffe adhibitam. Recentiores contra qui eas ipfi oculis luftraverint, totam molem nativi faxi effe affirmant, et eadem plane fpecie qua rupes fubftrata. Veterum tamen, opinor, falva eft fides. Nam mihi quidem perfuafiffimum eft, Pyramides denudatas fuiffe, & marmore illo, quod in fumma earum fuperficie tanquam tegumentum erat pofitum, ab improbis hominibus exfpoliatas. Cujus rei teftimonio fint, verba luculentiffima Abdollatiphi (funt item in his lapidibus infcriptiones Calami, antiqui, ignoti). Cum enim is vel in decimo tertio feculo infcriptiones multa millia voluminum adæquantes in Pyramidum lateribus invenerit, quarum infcriptionum reliquiæ tantum et rara quædam veftigia noftro qui. dem tempore fuperfunt, profecto magna aliqua mutatio fuerit, neceffe eft, et infignis injuria monumentis illis vi ac manu illata; neque abfurde aliquis conjectaverit, fi marmorum fuperficiem, elegantiffime olim cohærentem, et corticis inftar cæteras rudioris materiæ compages intra fe includentem, ablatam fuiffe censeat, et ædificiis ornandis deportatam*: præfertim cum fruftula non pauca pretiofiffimi iftius lapidis temere circumjacientia adhuc fpectanda fe præbeant."

"Dum vero fidem et auctoritatem veteribus aftruere conemur ex Arabis noftri teftimonio, fateor me nonnihil aliquando hæfiffe eo quod infcriptiones is Pyramidum in immenfum augeat, et illorum certe traditiones in hac re longe longeque exfuperat. Illi nempe notas referunt incifas, quæ fumptus operi ftruendo impenfas figniticarent: et præterca nihil adjiciunt (Vid. Herod. et Diodor.) Quid fentiam de nodo hoc difficili, aperte exponam. Tanta fcilicet Hieroglyphicorum characterum erat copia paffim in Ægypto, ut fine admiratione in oculos fpectantium incurrerent, neque digni vifi fuerint qui in hiftoriam referrentur. Ob eandem caufam faétum eft, ut in defcriptionibus Obelifcorum, qui a folo ad fummum cacumen colati funt notis Hieroglyphicis, talium notarum memoria a pluri. mis veterum fit neglecta."

In Abdellatiphi Hift. Ægypti compendium; Notæ, p. 298.

Every man knows that the liberties of ancient Greece were long threatened by the Perfian Monarchs, as the liberties of Europe are now threatened by the French Einperor; but in the arduous flruggle the Greeks were finally victorious, be

"A British officer, who ferved in Agypt under Lord Hutchinfon, affured the writer of this article, that the colonel of his regiment carried off from the infide of the great pyramid, he did not fay whether from the Sarcophagus, marble for jambs, to the chimney of the principal room of a houfe which he was then building." Rev.

caufe

caufe the principal ftates of Greece were true to themselves. Human nature however has been much the fame in all ages and in every region; for there were traitors in the confederacy formed against Xerxes, as there have been traitors in the coalition formed againft Buonaparte. At a council, which was held on the occafion,

"All the Greeks affifted who were animated with an ingenuous ardour with refpect to their country. After a conference, in which they pledged themfelves to be faithful to the common intereft, it was first of all determined, that their private refentments and hoftilities fhould ceafe. At this period great difturbances exifted, but more particularly betwixt the people of Athens and Ægina. As foon as they heard that Xerxes was at Sardis, at the head of his forces, the Athenians refolved to fend foine emiffaries into Afia, to watch the motions of the king. It was alfo determined, to fend fome perfons to Argos, to form with that nation, a confederacy against the Perfian war: others were fent to Sicily, to Gelon, the fon of Dinomenis; fome to Corcyra and Crete, to folicit affiftance for Greece. It was their view, if poffible, to collect Greece into one united body, to counteract a calamity which me naced their common fafety. The power of Gelon was then deemed of fo much importance, as to be furpaffed by no individual ftate of Greece." Vol. IV. P. 70.

The ambaffadors who were fent to Syracufe to folicit the aid of Gelon, addreffed him to this effect;

"The Lacedæmonians, Athenians and their common allies, have deputed us to folicit your affiftance against the Barbarian. You must have heard of his intended invafion of our country, that he has thrown bridges over the Hellefpont, and, bringing with him all the powers of Afia, is about to burft upon Greece. He pretends, that his hoftilities are directed against Athens alone; but his real object is the entire fubjection of Greece. We call on you, therefore, whofe power is fo great, and whofe Sicilian dominions conftitute fo material a portion of Greece, to affift us in the vindication of our common liberty. Greece united will form a power formidable enough to refift our invaders; but if fome of our countrymen betray us, and others withhold their affiftance, the defenders of Greece will be reduced to an infignificant number, and our univerfal ruin may be expected to enfue. Do not imagine that the Perfian, after vanquishing us, will not come to you: it becomes you, therefore, to take every neceffary precaution; by affifting us, you render your own fituation fecure. An enterprife concerted with wisdom feldom fails of fuccefs." Vol. IV. .p. 86.

This reafoning was unanfwerable, though it moved not Gelon, who deeming the caufe of Greece hopeless, had deter