256 THE PYRAMIDS. 
CHAP. At the same time, there are many weighty 
i > arguments against the opinion that such a stu- 
pendous pyramid would have been erected by 
Joseplis posterity over his remains, even if they 
had worshipped him as a god, when it was 
known that his body was not intended to 
remain in the country: but the honours paid to 
the dead in Egypt were, in certain instances, as 
it is evident, almost beyond our conception; 
and there is no saying what, in a century and a 
half, the piety of some hundred thousand indi- 
viduals might not have effected, especially when 
aided by the Egyptians themselves, who equally 
revered the memory of Joseph, although they 
became, at last, inimical to his descendants. 
This part of the subject is not altogether essen- 
tial to the end proposed : it has been introduced 
rather as a curious inquiry suggested by the 
Itoc sepulcrvm, vel aperiet, vel edam aliquid aliud dimovehit, vel ipse, vel 
per alium, nee terram sibl amhulanti, nee mare naviganti (propitia 
babeat), sed erndketur in omni generatione, omnia mala e.cperialur, et 
horrorem, et felrim, et quartanam, et elephantiasim, et cuncta mala, et 
quaccumque hominilus accidunt, ea eieniant illi, qui ausus fuerit ex hoc 
sepulcro aliquid dimovere." Muratori Thesaur. Vet. Inscript. p, 1298. 
No. d. vol. HI. class, ly. Medial. 1740. The very name of such a 
^iolated monument was used, even amon^ the Jsraelitt's themselves, 
to denote whatsoever was revolting and horrible. Thus David, speak- 
ing of his enemies, says, "their throat is an open sepulchre;" a 
passage of Scripture which loses all its force and beauty, unless it be 
understood with reference to this species of sacrilege. 
