London Philosophical Society. 1431 



considerable; because, while it fosters the vigorous growth 

 of original talent, it lops away the punv excrescences of 

 plagiarism, and the decayed branches of false and unwar- 

 rantable hypothesis. 



Tlie attention of the Society has, for this month, been 

 chiefly directed to a brief course of lectures on the Pyra- 

 mids, by Mr. Clarkson, as a prelude to a regular attempt at 

 illustrating the hicroglvphical language. 



The firrt object of Mr. C. is to establish the point, that 

 the Pyramids m question w ere not sepulchres, but temples 

 dedicated to the mvsieries of Solar Fire ; and we think he 

 has succeeded. Indeed, he has brought together such a 

 mass of evidence from every possible source, from Arabian 

 manuscript, Coptic tradition, Hindoo analocy, Greek re- 

 cord, various etymolosv, and logical deduction ; he has 

 condeiised such ati intense corradiation of proof, as we feel 

 assured will scarcely fail, on perusal, to produce a simul- 

 taneous conviction. It is impossible for us to follow him 

 through all the various channels ot his research ; it is suf- 

 ficient to say, that part of his lectun^s was occupied with 

 proving that the Pyramids were not sepulchres, and the re- 

 mainder in arguing that the passages of those singular 

 buildings'were devoted to the mysteries of Fire. In pur- 

 suing the first of these divisions, he rests his conclusions on 

 the following facts: — That the form of the Pyramids was 

 sacred and mysterious ; and this he proved bv the pyra- 

 midal stones sacred to the Sun, to Hermes, to the Paphiaii 

 Venus, and, in modern times, to Bramha. 



He prcsceeds from this to trace the connection of this 

 form with the geometrical philosojihy of the Egyptians, 

 which descended from them to the Platonists and Pythago- 

 reans ; and he imagines it scarcely probable, that a nation 

 imbued with such a veneration for this form as the Egyp- 

 tians were, would have consecrated it to the purpose of shel- 

 tering the body of a sni^le monarch at an enormous ex- 

 pense. If this building were intended to neutralize the che- 

 mical properties of Nature in this body, as Napoleon was 

 informed, he inquires, how it came that the builders left a 

 hole of a foot in diameter, which perforates the wall of the 

 second pyramid to the central room ? If liiis body was that 

 ot Cheojis, as it has been aflirmed, how was it that Cheops, 

 who despised the theology of the Egyptians, should s|)end 

 a whole lii'e in building a mausoleum which beiied his own 

 adieistical notions, and confessed his fears to be under the 

 influence of the priests whom he despised? As to the Sar- 

 cophagus, he remarks, that six circumrlances niark that it 

 wai never iiuer^ded for a tomb. If it could neither be intro- 

 duced 



