20 The Great Pyramid of Egypt. [January, 



in Egypt, and by means of their own examinations, readings, 

 and measures. 



Thus, as regards that strange priority of the Great 

 Pyramid to all other monuments of Egypt (and if of Egypt 

 then of the whole world), what says Dr. Lepsius, the most 

 experienced hierologist of the day ;' but one who really cares 

 little or nothing about the Great Pyramid on all the counts 

 of the new scientific theory, because regular Egyptian hiero- 

 glyphics of the late Theban date are his forte, and the most 

 f" fearful pictures of revolting animal gods, the study of all others 

 s 1 that his soul delights in ; and these things he does not find 

 in the Great Pyramid. Thus, then, on the one required point 

 of superior antiquity, writes the famous Prussian savant, 

 " the hope of Egyptology," as he was begun to be designated 

 even in his youth. 



" Nor have I yet found a single cartouche that can safely 

 be assigned to a period previous to the fourth dynasty. The 

 builders of the Great Pyramid seem to assert their right to 

 form the commencement of monumental history, even if it be 

 clear that they were not the first builders and monumental 

 writers." 



And again, — 



" The Pyramid of Cheops, to which the first link of our 

 whole monumental history is fastened immovably, not only 

 for Egyptian, but for universal history."* 



And still again, but this time to come closer home, take 



the most literary architect of the day, or that has yet 



appeared in our literature, — James Fergusson, — whose soul 



"likewise delights in the horrible details of such things as 



I " Tree and Serpent worship " by immortal man, and in 



degrading forms of idolatry which he persists in declaring, 



i on mere hypothesis, to have been necessarily the earliest forms 



of worship for all men on their gradually emerging, according 



to that hypothesis, by their own powers alone, out of a 



lower than merely savage condition. Even he then, our 



great sesthetical historian of the absolute and material, after 



confessing that — 



" No one can possibly examine the interior of the Great 

 Pyramid without being struck with astonishment at the 

 wonderful mechanical skill displayed in its construction." 



And even adding to that, — 



" Nothing more perfect mechanically has ever been 

 erected since that time." 



* Dr. Lepsius's " Letters from Egypt in 1843." Compare also the chrono- 

 logical arrangement of Lepsius's unrivalled colle&ion of folio Egyptian litho- 

 graphs, in the Denkmaeler. 



