TO GRAND CAIRO. 6/ 
Buldc at midnight; having thus 
performed a voyage from Rosetta to the quay 
of Cairo in thirty-six hours, agai 
force and rapidity of the torrent. 
We arrived at Bulac at midnight ; having thus chap. 
of Cairo in thirty-six hours, against the utmost £\alc. " 
On fVednesdau, the twelfth of Aus-ust, we were '^'''^^' "f 
^ ^ & ' the Pyra- 
roused, as soon as the sun dawned, by Antonio, »"»«• 
our faithful Greeh. servant and interpreter, with 
the intelligence that '' the Pyramids were in 
view ! " We hastened from the cabin ; — and 
never will the impression, made by their appear- 
ance, be obliterated. By reflecting the sun's 
rays, they appeared white as snow; and of such 
surprising magnitude, that nothing we had pre- 
viously conceived in our imagination had pre- 
pared us for the sight of these monuments. We 
were instantly convinced, that no force of de- 
scription, no accuracy of delineation, can convey 
ideas adequate to the effect which is produced 
in beholding them. The formality of their struc- 
ture is lost in their prodigious grandeur. The 
mind, elevated by wonder, feels at once the 
force of an axiom, which, however disputed, 
experience confirms, — that in vastness, whatso- 
ever be its nature, there dwells sublimity '. 
(l) " Sublime objects are vast in their dimensious." Bmlte on the 
Sublime, !^-c. Sect. 27- Part 3. p. 237. Lotid. 1782. 
F 2 
