RELIGION, EDUCATION, FINE ARTS. 



535 



construction is thought to have employed 

 100,000 men for thirty years or more prob- 

 ably half a century. The masonry consisted 

 originally of 89,028,000 cubic feet, and still 

 amounts to 82,111,000. The height is at 

 present 450 feet (originally 479), and the 

 length of the sides 746 feet (originally 764). 

 The King's Chamber is 19 feet 1 inch in 

 height, and in area 34 feet 3 inches by 17 feet 

 1 inch ; the Queen's Chamber is 20 feet 3 

 inches in height, and in area 17 feet by 18 

 feet 9 inches. It is now generally agreed that 

 there were no inscriptions on the external sur- 

 face of any of the pyramids, the casing-stones 

 bearing a smooth polish. The mechanical 

 means employed by the builders have been 

 partly ascertained. The hard stones, granite, 

 diorite, and basalt, were, in all fine work, 

 sawn into shape by bronze saws set with jewels 

 (either corundum or diamonds) ; hollows were 

 made (as in sarcophagi) by tubular drilling 

 with tools like our modern diamond rock-drills, 

 and small articles were turned in lathes fitted 

 with mechanical tool rests and jewel pointed 

 tools. The questions of the transport and 

 management of such huge stones, weighing 

 oftentimes more than thirty tons apiece, re- 

 main still to be answered. 



Septuagint. The most ancient Greek 

 translation of the Old Testament that iias come 

 down to us, and the one commonly in use at 

 the time of Christ, was the Septuagint. Its 

 origin is shrouded in deep obscurity. There 

 are a number of myths concerning it, but the 

 principal one is that it was made during the 

 reign of Ptolemy Philadelphus, 284-247 B. C. 

 This king, it is stated, anxious to embody in 

 a collection of laws of all nations, on which he 

 was engaged, also those of the Jews, invited 

 72 men of learning and eminence from Pales- 

 tine, who performed the task of translation in 

 72 days. The facts upon which this legend, 

 now rejected as a piece of history, rests, can- 

 not well be ascertained. It seems clear, how- 

 ever, that Ptolemy, aided by his librarian, 

 Demetrius Phalereus, did cause a Greek ver- 

 sion of the Pentateuch to be executed, proba- 

 bly during the time of his being co-regent of 

 Ptolemy Lagi ; but the translators were not 

 Palestinian but Egyptian Jews. This is evi- 

 denced from the state of the text from which 

 the translation must have been made, and from 

 the intimate acquaintance with Egyptian man- 

 ners and customs which it evinces. The Sep- 

 tuagint was held in the very highest repute 

 among the Alexandrine Jews, while the Pal- 

 estinians looked upon it as a dangerous inno- 

 vation, and even instituted the day of its com- 

 pletion as a day of mourning. Gradually, 

 however, it also found its way into Palestine. 



It was read and interpreted in the synagogues 

 for some centuries after Christ, until the in- 

 creasing knowledge of the original, fostered by 

 the many academies and schools, and the 

 frequent disputations with the early Christians, 

 brought other and more faithful and literal 

 translations. 



Holy Coat, a garment which is alleged to 

 be the seamless coat of our Saviour, and to 

 have been discovered in the fourth century by 

 the Empress Helena on her visit to Palestine. 

 It was deposited by her at Treves, where it is 

 preserved in the cathedral of that city with the 

 greatest reverence. The Treves relics were con- 

 cealed from the Ncrmans in the ninth century 

 in crypts ; but the Holy Coat was rediscov- 

 ered in 1196, and then solemnly exhibited to 

 the public gaze, which did not take place 

 again till 1512, when Leo X. appointed it to be 

 exhibited every seven years. In 1810 the ex- 

 hibition was attended by 227,000 people, and 

 in 1844 by still greater multitudes. The ex-. 

 hibition of the Holy Coat in this latter year 

 led to the secession 'of the German Catholics 

 from the Church of Rome. 



Portland Vase. The celebrated Port- 

 land Vase, which is one of the most valued relics 

 of antiquity in the British Museum, was made, 

 it is believed, to hold the ashes of the Roman 

 Emperor Alexander Servius, and was discovered 

 during the sixteenth century in a rich sar- 

 cophagus on Monte del Grano, where it had 

 been for about thirteen hundred years. It is 

 an urn, ten inches high. The groundwork 

 is of blue glass, enameled with white glass cut 

 in cameo, to represent the wedding of Thetis 

 and Peleus. It was placed in the museum by 

 the Duke of Portland in 1810, and in 1845 was 

 maliciously broken by a man named Lloyd. 

 The pieces, however, were collected and ce- 

 mented together, but the vase has not been on 

 exhibition since that date. It was at one time 

 known as the Barberina Vase, and was owned 

 by Sir William Hamilton, who found it in the 

 Barberina Palace, and purchased it in 1770. 

 In time it passed into the possession of the 

 Duchess of Portland, and was disposed of as 

 related. 



Shakers is the popular name given to a 

 religious sect who call themselves the ' ' United 

 Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appear- 

 ing." They were founded in England about 

 the year 1770 by an Englishwoman named 

 Ann Lee, in whose person they believed that 

 Christ has appeared a second time. Shortly 

 before the outbreak of the Revolutionary War a 

 small band of them, with Ann Lee at their 

 head, emigrated to America, and penetrated 

 far into the wilderness to Niskenna, and 

 there founded the settlement, which still exists 



