V, 
246 THE PYRAMIDS. 
CHAP. Grecian historians have written upon the sub- 
ject'. The arrogance and vanity vi^ith which 
they endeavoured to explain every thin?^-, con- 
sistently with their own fables and prejudices, 
caused the well-known observation made to 
Solon by an Egyptian priest, who, according to 
Plato, maintained that the " Greeks were always 
children, and had no knowledge of antiquity." 
Hence originate those difficulties mentioned by 
Pauw, as encountered by persons who study the 
monuments of a country concerning which the 
moderns have conspired with the antients to 
give us false ideas. ''The latter indeed," says 
he-, " were probably deceived by being at the 
discretion of a set of men called Interpreters, 
whose college was established in the reign of 
Psammetichus, and who might be compared to 
those people called Ciceroni at Rome. Tra- 
vellers who went and returned, like Herodotus, 
without knowing a word of the language of the 
country, could learn nothing but from these 
Interpreters. These men, perceiving the inclina- 
tion of the Greeks for the marvellous, amused 
them, like children, with stories inconsistent 
(1) "Minim est quo procedat Graeca credulitas. Nullum tam impu- 
dens mendacium est, ut teste careat." Plin. Hist. Nut, lib. viii. c. 20. 
iom.l. p. 425. J.. Bat. 1635. 
(2) Philosoph. Diss, on the Egyptians and Chinese, vol. II. p. 43. 
Lond. 1795. 
