1873.J (5ii) 



NOTICES OF BOOKS 



THE PYRAMIDS OF EGYPT.* 



A new work on the Pyramids of Egypt has been produced in 

 the present year in France, by M. Dufeu, Member of the 

 Egyptian Institute, and of the Society of Historical Studies of 

 Paris. 



It is a goodly-sized octavo, of 322 pages, and claims to have 

 discovered the true object, end, and aim of the " Four Pyramids 

 of Gizeh;" by means of methods, too, and strange discoveries, 

 which are entirely new to the world : while the chief results thus 

 attained to, are that — 



(1). Menes ascended the throne of Egypt at the date of 



5641 B.C. 

 (2). The Great Pyramid was founded in 4862 B.C. 

 (3). All the Pyramids are scientific monuments, and 



scientific only ; and — 

 (4). The authors of the designs of all of them were the 

 priests of the profane idolatrous Egyptian religion. 



The names of Champollion, De Rouge, Mariette, Lepsius, and 

 other well known scholars and literati occur so frequently 

 through the pages of this dazzling book, that one might at first 

 expect the author to be of the school of the modern Egypto- 

 logists ; but that is far from being the case, for there is no 

 deciphering of any piece of hieroglyphics all through the work ; 

 and its chief method of proceeding is the wonderful assertion 

 that the list of Manetho, so long held to be a chronological and 

 historical account of the kings of Egypt, is in reality nothing 

 but a series of readings (in an arbitrary unit) on the scale of the 

 Nilometer near Cairo, of the successive annual inundations of 

 the Nile, combined with occasional geological variations of the 

 level of the land through which it flows : a wild theory which 

 no Egyptologist has yet been found venturesome enough to take 

 up with. 



Again, there are so many quotations of figures representing 

 either cubits, metres, feet, or inches, and so much assertion of 

 science existing in the Pyramids, — that some persons might 

 imagine that the author is a partaker in that particular 

 " scientific theory," which was commenced by the late John 

 Taylor, in London, and has been carried on since his time to 

 farther developments by many other workers, including myself. 

 But that is also far from being the case : for M, Dufeu's results 

 in chronology, science, and religion are perfectly different from 



* Decouverte de l'Age et de la veritable destination des quatre Pyramides de Gizeh, Princi- 

 palement de la Grande Pyramide. Par A. Dufeu. Paris : Ve A. Morel et Cic., 1873. 



