(Deut. xvii. 16. 1 Kings x. 28, 29. Is. xxxi. 1; xxxvi. 9).

The various processes employed for watering the land gave rise to skill in the structure of machines, which, though at first of a simple kind, prepared the way for others, and in course of time led to the formation of such as were capable of rendering efficient aid in the erection of vast architectural edifices. It is reasonable to suppose that, as the inundation subsided, litigation sometimes occurred between neighbours respecting the limits of their fields, which were unenclosed; and the fall of a portion of the bank, carried away during the rise of the Nile, frequently made great alterations in the extent of land near the river side. Hence the ne

cessity of some means to determine the quantity which belonged to each person. The land-tax also called for the resources of practical geometry. The science of mensuration, which would be needed in the earliest settlement of property in the hands of individuals, is by the monumental evidence carried back to the primeval ages of Egyptian history. Besides the measurement of superficial areas, it was of importance to agriculture to distribute the benefits of the inundation in due proportion to each individual, so that the lands which were low might not enjoy the exclusive advantages of the fertilising water by constantly draining it from those of a higher level. For this purpose, it was necessary to ascertain the various elevations of the country, and to construct accurately levelled canals and dykes; and if it is true that Menes, the first king, turned the course of the Nile into a new channel that he had caused to be made, we have proof that, long before his time, the Egyptians had arrived at considerable knowledge in this branch of science, since so great an undertaking could have been the result only of long experience. The peculiar character of the river led to minute observations respecting its increase during the inundation; nilometers, for measuring its gradual rise and fall, were set up in various parts of the country, and persons were appointed to observe each daily change, and to proclaim the facts. On their reports depended the time for opening the canals, whose mouths were kept closed until the river had risen to a certain height; on which occasion, grand festivities were observed throughout the country, in order that every person might show his sense of the great benefit vouchsafed by the gods to the favoured land. Superstition added to the zeal of a credulous people. The deity of the river was propitiated by suitable oblations. Seneca states, that on a particular festival the priests threw presents of gold into the stream near Phile, at a place called the Veins of the Nile,' where first they were wont to discern the rise of the inundation. The

fixing of the time when this auspicious event might be looked for, became an object of great social consequence. Experience showed that the annual return of the inundation coincided with the heliacal rising of Sothis, or the Dog-star. In the observations and calculations which these things implied, are involved the rise and growth of astronomy, which science, as well as that of geometry, is thus found to be referable to the peculiarities of the Nile, and must have been successfully cultivated in Egypt at very early periods. To these we may also attribute the accurate method adopted by the Egyptians in the regulation of the year. By the seasons so definitely marked in Egypt, its inhabitants were taught to correct those inaccuracies to which, at first, an approximate calculation was liable. Their year may originally have been lunar, but it was soon made to consist of twelve months of thirty days each, making a total of 360 days. Ere long, it was discovered that the seasons were disturbed. Five additional days were, therefore, introduced at the end of the last month, Mesoré. Still, there was a defect to which a people who were annually warned by the rise of the Nile, could not long remain insensible; for in 120 years they would find that they had lost a whole month. In order to remedy this evil, they added a quarter of a day, by making every fourth year to consist of 366 days.

These scientific attainments did not long remain, if, indeed, they ever existed, in a pure state. A knowledge of the resources of nature was abused in the formation of pretended arts, by which man's influence over external things might be augmented; the result, if not the aim, of which was, the domination of the learned few, who, as priests, magicians, and astrologers, held the people in complete subjection. Even as early as the days of Moses, we find dealers in the dark pursuits of credulity and imposturea distinct, recognised, and influential class, near, if not in, the court of the monarch (Exod. vii. 11); and as the simplicity of primitive manners was replaced by the sophistications of degenerate days and declining civilisation, Egypt became famous for occult science, and degraded by gross decep. tions. What, in relation to the age of Moses, may have been truly characterised as the wisdom of Egypt' (Acts vii. 22), sank by degrees into dark delusions which even religion did not disdain to employ, or a superstitious adherence to established usages which kept the nation bound hand and foot to' old wives' fables.'

In architecture it was that the science of the Egyptians was most effectually displayed. Their achievements in the construction of edifices even now presents to the eye of the wondering and gratified traveller, monuments which, for magnitude,

grandeur and durability, have never been surpassed. The banks of the Nile are on both sides scattered with the remains of Egyptian art. But at Thebes they appear in a grandeur which solitude renders imposing and sublime. The most remarkable object is the temple-palace of Karnak, of which the ensuing cut exhibits the chief entrance, with its two obelisks (restored).

sculptural decorations. The demolition of some of these masses excites even more wonder than their erection. Solid pyla (towered gate-ways) of enormous bulk are broken up or riven in twain. Vast-built columns seem to have been dragged from their foundations in a mass. Architraves many tons in weight, wrenched from their place, now impend over the aisles, suspended by yet heavier masses, which have perhaps been thus nicely poising them for ages. One might believe the men of those days were

'Giants of mighty bone and bold emprise.'

CHIEF PYLON, KARNAK.

Majestic in ruin, what must this building have been when perfect! The walls, columns, architraves, ceilings-every surface exposed to the eye, is overspread with intaglio sculp tures, gods, heroes, and hieroglyphics, painted in once vivid colours. No description can convey an idea of its sublime effect. What massive grandeur in its vistas of enormous columns! What scenic effects in the gradations of light and shade, and accidental gleamings athwart the aisles! As you move on, new combinations unfold themselves every moment. Wherever the eye wanders, it is filled with picture-rank behind rank-vista beyond vista. Here your eye runs along a pillared avenue, and rests upon a vast column at the end, torn from its basis and thrown against the next; now it is led a wanton chase' through a labyrinth of columns which, from another point, fall into regular succession. All the resources of Egyptian architecture are here displayed in perfection;- its enormous masses, its long close files of columns, its deep seclusions, and its rich pervading

HALL OF COLUMNS, THEBES.

But the hall of columns was but a part of this wonderful fabric. Immense pyla, halfburied quadrangles, and halls, granite obelisks, and tremendous piles of fallen masonry, once formed a range of buildings 1200 feet in length. The chief entrance was through the gate-way of the west front, sixty-three feet high. Besides these, there were other isolated and subordinate buildings. The whole appears to have been separated from the din of the city by an outward enclosure of unburnt brick, comprising an area of about 580 yards in length. A succession of four great pyla led across this area to the side of the chief structure. The outermost pylon, as it was exposed to the view of the city, and first received the advancing procession, was the most magnificent. These

grand pyla were the peculiar pride of Thebes. Each monarch sought to shed lustre on his name by the erection of some enduring monument. Superstition seconded the aspirations for fame, and proved the active patron of architecture. Edifices were always erected in honour of one of the gods. But every reign could not produce an entire temple; most kings, therefore, contented themselves with adding to one already built; and as any number of these pyla might be annexed to a building without disturbing the symmetry of its design, a work of this kind was generally chosen. Thus these stupendous monuments were so multiplied at Thebes, that they became associated with its very name; and hence the well-known epithet the hundred-gated.' An avenue of colossal sphinxes appears to have been continued from Luxor up to the outer precinct of Karnak. The few of them that now remain are mutilated and half-interred; but how imposing the effect of such a vista, extending nearly a mile and a half over the plain, terminated by the great facade of Luxor! All these buildings formed parts of one magnificent whole. All were constructed of gigantic blocks, and most were covered

with sculpture. In each block is seen the fruit of days or weeks of labour. How incalculable, then, the amount of toil and skill here expended! Pass through the successive courts and halls, ascend the pyla, and look down on the masses beneath; acquaint yourself with the general design and the decorative details; then place the symmetric whole before your mind's eye in the first glory of its variously-painted decorations;- and the temple-palace of Karnak will appear 'the splendid lie' of an enchanter rather than a real edifice, the slow product of human hands. Yet such was the imperial abode of the Pharaohs when Europe was yet in primæval barbarism; ages before Romulus took his omen on the Palatine hill.

The ruins are strewed in chaotic confusion over a sandy plain broken into shapeless mounds. Here profound silence reigns. A few camels about to journey over the desert are reposing peacefully in the area of the great quadrangle. An Arab boy may be seen stretched on the sand in the ruined sanctuary, sleeping away the noon-tide heat, his meek-eyed ass standing by as motionless as the statues near him. The mournful cooings of unseen doves are alone heard in

halls that once resounded with Egyptian revelry; owls have established themselves in the obscure spots of the ponderous architraves, and as they sit mute and motionless they are mistaken for hieroglyphic figures; should they chance to move, the antique

sculpture seems suddenly endowed with life. You may seat yourself on a fallen column, and looking up to one of the great pyla, imagine an ancient procession defiling through its portal, the singers and the minstrels, the priestesses waving aloft their

sistra (timbrels), the streaming banners, the clang of trumpets, and the acclamations of the Theban multitude; then let your eye glance over the silent ruins around you, and no eloquence could so impressively enforce the trite lesson of the transitoriness of worldly grandeur.

The three great pyramids of Gizeh are the chief of an assemblage of sepulchral works, once the cemetery for the rich and noble Memphis (comp. Hosea ix. 6), which lay about ten miles to the south-east. The farfamed group are based on a ledge of rock seventy or eighty feet high, rising out of a swell in an arid waste, just where it sinks into cultivated lands, and between five and six miles from the Nile.

On leaving the village of Gizeh, on the river bank opposite Old Cairo, the pyramids rise before you, glittering white against the blue sky; but the flatness of the plain and the purity of the atmosphere deceive the eye as to their distance and their size. You appear almost at their base, while yet several miles intervene. As you advance, they gradually unfold their gigantic dimensions; but you must have been some time on the spotyour eye must have repeatedly travelled along the Great Pyramid's 740 feet of base, and up its steep, towering angles-before you can fully understand its immensity, and the untold amount of labour involved in its erec

The

tion. Thousands of enormous stones, all accurately squared, are here elevated bundreds of feet above the ground: each was hoisted step by step up the sides till it reached its bed. One can scarcely view these buildings without the conviction that they are the work of an enslaved and driven race. In their erection, little else was required of the artificers than physical exertion and obedience to the taskmaster. Yet these creations exhibit a sublime simplicity of conception, and a dauntless hardihood of enterprise, which, when fully appreciated, take possession of the soul. dimensions of the Great Pyramid have been differently stated, the mounds of rubbish round the base rendering it difficult to obtain accurate measurements. Those taken during Colonel Vyse's operations in 1837, are original base, feet, 764; original inclined height, 611. The original perpendicular height, therefore, supposing the pyramid to have been carried up nearly to a point, was about 480 feet, or 43 more than St. Peter's, and 100 more than St. Paul's. The area covered was almost thirteen acres and a half. The mighty mass may be described by the familiar illustration of a solid pile, occuping the whole area of Lincoln'sInn Fields, and ascending to a point one hundred feet higher than the top of St. Paul's. According to Pliny, 366,000 men were employed on its erection for twenty years; and Herodotus tells us, that an in

scription on the exterior stated that the expense of providing them with onions and other roots amounted to 16,000 talents. Col. Vyse estimates the masonry of the Great Pyramid at 6,316,000 tons. Though whole mosques have probably been built out of its spoils, the integrity of its form remains unimpaired, and from a distance you perceive hardly a trace of violence or decay. The present entrance is a small opening to the north front, about three feet and a half wide, and rather more than four high. This is the mouth of a long low tunnel, of the same contracted dimensions, descending at a steep slope into the heart of the edifice. Wathen has thus described his visit to the interior:'Two peasants accompanied me; one leading the way with lights, and another following in the rear with a supply of water, without which you go nowhere in this thirsty land. As we proceeded, the glimmer from behind grew fainter till it was quite lost. Now descending, now ascending, we made our way through narrow passages, winding communications, and gloomy, bat-infested chambers, till I had lost all clue to our real position. Before and behind was black darkness; our wax lights threw a fitful flicker upon the near objects; and as we moved on, our footsteps and voices awoke the echoes and startled the genii of the place. At last, after ascending a long and very lofty passage, we came to the central sepulchral chamber, the inner shrine of this vast mausoleum. Here, walls, floor and roof, are all formed with massive blocks of polished red granite, reaching from floor to ceiling, and stretching from wall to wall. A large granite sarcophagus stood at one end of the apartment-its sole contents being rubbish and dust, not a single hieroglyphic upon it or the walls of the chamber. The massive granite floor had been torn up, probably by some greedy searcher for hidden treasures: the gloomy walls were blackened with innumerable inscriptions. Such is the fate of the jealously-guarded tomb of the tyrant Cheops! -its secret chambers the abode of bats, and scrawled with the names of strangers of all lands; the era of its foundation and the intricacies of its interior, problems for the chronologist and the explorer. How admirably adapted would have been these mysterious penetralia to the purposes of a crafty priesthood in imposing on the credulity of superstitious devotees! How exactly fitted for the performance of their initiatory rites with awe-inspiring effect; for bodying forth the allegoric doctrines of their mystic faith, or enacting the fables ascribed to their gods!" (Arts and Antiq. of Egypt, p. 151.) In other chambers, Colonel Vyse discovered a few rough hieroglyphics on the walls, which were the first traces of writing found within the pyramids. Though probably nothing more than the chance scribblings of Cheops' ma

sons, they are very interesting. Among them appeared the name of Shufo, who is held to be the Suphis, or Cheops, to whom Manetho and Herodotus respectively ascribe the erection of this extraordinary structure. In the third pyramid also, Col. Vyse found the name of its alleged builder, namely, Mycerinus. The amount of labour employed in the construction of the pyramids exceeds all imagination, for they were numerous in Egypt. A tabular view lying before us gives details of not fewer than thirty-eight, of which remains still exist.

The pyramids about whose purpose and use so much has been written, were, with other stately edifices, designed for mausolea, or tombs, the aim being to enshrine the corpse deep within the earth or mass of masoury, far from the stir of the living world. Egyptian tombs are never found in cultivable or inhabited parts-always in the desert, on the skirts of the alluvial plain. In the pyramids the sepulchral apartment is either in the centre of the solid building, or

THIRD PYRAMID.

corpse in the remotest part. No pains was too great to express the concern the Egyptians felt towards the dead, agreeably to the touching sentiment which Sophocles puts into the mouth of the daughter of Edipus: 'Our latest, longest home

Is with the dead; and therefore would I please
The lifeless, not the living. I shall rest
For ever there.'

The pyramids of Gizeh, however, ill answered the purpose indicated in these lines. The bones of the two oppressors (Cheops and Chephren, builders of the first and the second), who for two generations,' we cite Bunsen ('Egyptens Stelle,' ii. 178), 'tormented hundreds of thousands day after day, have been torn from their sepulchral chambers, which were destined to defy the curiosity and destructiveness of men, and preserve their bodies for ever from the annihilation which they dreaded. Nay, Diodorus relates an Egyptian tradition, according to which both of these kings, owing to the apprehensions which were entertained of a violent outbreak of popular fury, were silently deposited in humble graves, and never occupied the pyramids. But the good and philanthropic king (Mycerinus, builder of the third), who put an end to the inhuman oppression of the people, and in consequence of this lived in poetry and song, even to the latest times, as the people's darling, has, even to our days, although his coffin has been broken open, remained in his own pyramid, and has now, rescued from the mass of ruins, found a restingplace worthy of him. A notable destiny! The old monarchy of the Pharaohs, of which he was the eighteenth ruler, has passed away; two other monarchies have followed it, and the destroyers of the most ancient have also made their exit from the stage of history. The gods of Egypt have crumbled into dust; son of the Pharaohs' is a name of reproach in the Pharaohs' land; even the language has grown dumb among the people. The body of Mencheres (Mycerinus), however, now rests more securely than it did 5000 years ago-in the worldruling island which is protected by the might of freedom and civilisation, still more than by the waves which encircle it-amid the treasures of every realm of nature, and the most sublime remains of human art.' For the explanation of the latter part of this passage it is necessary to add, that though the sarcophagus of the good Mycerinus, dis. covered by Vyse in the third pyramid, was itself lost off the coast of Spain on its voyage to England, the lid, with its inscription, and the body of the king, are now in the British Museum.

The view at sun-rise from the summit of the Great Pyramid is striking and impressive. The shadows of the three gigantic structures lie stretched beneath over the