the degraded populace the vulgar Pan and the drunken 
-Dacchus. 
£ ral yl®st features of the earth, especially where con- 
nec ed with activity, still remained objects of reverence. In my 
inaugural address in 1870, on the opening for philosophical puit 
poses ; under the presidency of the Earl of Glasgow, of Sir Peter 
(mats s splendid gift to the town of Paisley, the Free Museum 
and Library, I pointed out that mountain-worship was evidently 
a feature m ancient religion, and one which had received too 
1 tie attention. I cannot fail to recognize the cver-burniuo- 
fires on the summits of the pyramidal temple in Mexico, and 
1 have no doubt originally on the pyramids of Egypt, as bein°- 
suggested to the worshippers by their contemplation of the 
terrible and sublime m the peaks of burning mountains; I 
further pointed out on that occasion my belief that the 
■Egyptians had erected the pyramids to supply the place of 
mountains near their abodes, on the sandy plains of Memphis 
as proper spots for worship. My address was extensively 
circulated at the time, and I now find the same remark in a 
work late y published by the Rev. Mr. Zincke, on Egypt,* and 
highly eulogized by the Spectator’s reviewer, who quotes Mr. 
Zincke as follows ; “We may be absolutely certain that had 
they (the Egyptians) lived in an alpine country, though they 
might have commanded the requisite materials on easier terms 
they would never have built the pyramids, for then an Egyptian 
pyramid would have been a pigmy monument by the side of 
features pyramids; but, built as they were in Egypt, and seen 
from the neighbourhod of Memphis and Heliopolis, they were 
veritable mountains.” I have not the least intention of 
questioning the perfect originality of Mr. Zincke’s idea, but I 
must claim the first publication of it. 
13. I look upon it as one of those coincidences arising from any 
science or study having arrived at a point which must produce 
new ideas and results, and which we find, as in the case of the 
electric telegraph, in that of the late invention of instruments 
to observe the solar photosphere, and also in the labours of 
Leverrier and Adams, led workers, having no previous commu- 
nication, to very similar opinions and results. 
14. But how are we to incorporate the idea of an evil serpent 
power with a symbol chosen to represent the beneficent river ? 
Are we to suppose that there was simply a recognition of the 
actual serpent as an object of dread ? Then why choose it at all 
as an emblem of good ? There must be something more in this 
Siuit^EWerf& ^ Co PhamoJlS and of the K * dive ’ F - Barham Zincke. 
