174 PYRAMIDS OF DJIZA. 
CHAP, by other causes. We carried with us a few 
^^' . instruments; such as, our boat-compass, a 
thermometer, a telescope, &c.; these could not 
be trusted in the hands of the Arabs, and they 
were liable to be broken every instant. At 
length we reached the topmost tier, to the great 
delight and satisfaction of all the party. Here 
we found a platform, thirty-two feet square; 
consisting of nine large stones, each of which 
might weigh about a ton; although they be 
much inferior in size to some of the stones used 
in the construction of this pyramid. Travellers 
of all ages, and of various nations, have here 
inscribed their names. Some are written in 
Greek; many in French; a few m Arabic; one 
or two in Ens-lish; and others in Latin. We 
effect produced upon his mind, by the stupendous »ijht around him, 
was rather jiainful than pleasing, and had rendered him wholly unfit 
for the exertion it required. It is to this circumstance that allusion 
was before made (See Chap. \\. p. 45) ; and it confirms the truth of 
Mr. Burke's observations, upon the impressions to which men are 
liable, who, without the smallest personal danger, are exposed to the 
contemplation of objects exceedingly vast in their dimensions. Mr. 
Burke describes the impression produced by the sublime as bordering 
upon a sensation of pain ; illustrating this by reference to a person 
standing in perfect security beneath a precipice, and looking up to- 
wards its summit. fSee Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of our 
Ideas of the Sublime, i{c. by Edmund Burke. Sect. 27. Part 3. p. 2,37, 
^•c. Land. 1782. 
