workmanship are preserved as fresh, as if they had 

 been left but the day before.''* 



But one of the most important proofs of the indes- 

 tructibility of those materials, and of their capacity to 

 resist the united efforts of the agents of decomposition, 

 are those situated upon the plains of Geeza, the Pyra- 

 mids of Egypt. 



These awfully grand and stupendous monuments, 

 which have set time at defiance, whilst they frown in- 

 dignant upon the wrecks of ages, seem to say to the 

 astonished spectator, leave us alone and unhurt, and 

 we will survive the consummation of time, and enter 

 afresh upon the verge of eternity. 



In order to place the subject of the decomposition 

 of rocks, and particularly those last enumerated, in 

 their proper light, I have, in this hasty and imperfect 

 sketch, selected cases in which they have been em- 

 ployed in civil architecture, sculpture and statuary, 

 under the full persuasion that in this state or situa- 

 tion, they are equally as much exposed to the changes 

 of temperature and the agents of decomposition, as if 

 they lay upon the mountains, or under the soil ; and 

 hence, from the present shape and form of the mate- 

 rials, being able to judge of their primitive form, or 

 such as when delivered from the hands of the artist; 

 and knowing the date of their execution and period 

 of past duration, we are enabled to determine, with a 

 sufficient degree of accuracy, the extent of the injury 



* Denon's Travels, vol. Ill, page 206. 



