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 firft flight,

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

"To me it seems evident that Greaves and Niebuhr are prodigiously deceived in the perpendicular height of the great pyra mid. 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 infenfibly to the top. I measured several, 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 com pleted.

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

S 3,

entrance

fight, they elevated the ftones to the fecond by the aid of ma chines 219 constructed of short pieces of wood: from the second, 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 fpace 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 circumftances, 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 He vadotus 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 Ceftins, 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 these pyramids (the lat ter 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. These 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 maffivenefs of the greateft 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 difficulty. "How, in erecting and placing fo many machines, charged with fuch maffy ftones, and thofe continually paffing over the lower degrees, could it be avoided, but that they must either unfettle them, or endanger the breaking of fome portions of them? Which mutilations would have been like fcars in the face of fo magnificent a building."

"I own that I am of a different opinion from Mr. Greaves; for fuch maffy ftones as Herodotus has defcribed would not be difcompofed by an engine refting upon them, and which, by the account of Herodotus, I take to be only the pulley. The account that Diodorus gives of raifing the ftones by imagi nary xuar (heaps of earth) engines not being then, as he fuppofes, invented, is, too abfurd to take notice of. And the de. fcription that Herodotus has given, notwithstanding all the ob jections that have been raised to it, and which have arisen princi. pally from mifreprefenting him, appears to me very clear and fenGble.-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 occafion made it necessary: both modes have been told me, and I know. not which beft deferves credit, The fummit of the pyramid was first of all finished 220; defcending thence, they regularly com pleted the whole. Upon the outfide were infcribed, in Ægyptian characters 21, 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 thousand 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 spent in the hewing and convey. ance of the ftones, and the conftruction of the fubterraneous apart ments?" Vol. II, p. 41.

The reader will perceive that the notes of the translator on this paffage are more curious and fatisfactory than the passage itfelf; and he has in other parts of the work given an account of the present state of the pyramids from the laft perfons, both French and English, who were able to vifit them with leisure and fecurity. The following note however has escaped him.

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

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

"Great doubts have arisen 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 steps, little agility would be requifite to do this; if regularly coated it is hard to conceive how any agility could accomplish it.

Norden fays, that there is not the least 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 incontestable 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.”

22 Egyptian characters.]-Probably in common characters, and not in hieroglyphics.-Larcher."

$ 4

dux

dux et princeps eft Herodotus, uno ore prodiderunt, ingentem copiam marmoris, ex ultimis Arabiæ vel Ethiopiæ 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 quidem 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 ma. teriæ compages intra fe includentem, ablatam fuiffe censeat, et ædificiis ornandis deportatam*: præfertim cum fruftula non pauca pretiofiffimi iftius lapidis temere circumjacientia adhuc spectanda se præbeant."

"Dum vero fidem et auctoritatem veteribus aftruere conemur ex Arabis noftri teftimonio, fateor me nonnihil aliquando hæfiffe co 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 fignificarent: et præterea 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 factum 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 Abdollatiphi 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 Emperor; but in the arduous ftruggle the Greeks were finally victorious, be

"A British officer, who ferved in Egypt 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 build, ing." 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 againft Xerxes, as there have been traitors in the coalition formed against 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 themselves 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 disturbances 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 fome 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 state of Greece." Vol. IV. p. 70.

The ambaffadors who were fent to Syracufe to folicit the aid of Gelon, addressed 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 invasion 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 some 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 enterprise concerted with wisdom feldom fails of fuccefs." Vol. IV. p. 86.

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