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to Memphis, of squaring them with mathematical precision, and, as Mr Fergusson observes, "of polishing them to a surface as smooth as glass, and of raising them higher than such blocks have ever been raised in any other buildings in the world, and setting them with a truth and precision so wonderful, that they now lie there without flaw or settlement, after thousands of years have passed over them and swept the more modern buildings of other nations from the face of the earth, or laid them in undefinable and indiscriminate ruin.

"At that early period, too, the art of sculpture in Egypt was as perfect as it ever afterwards became; the hieroglyphics are as perfectly cut, as beautifully coloured, and told their tale with the same quaint distinctness which afterwards characterised them. It is in vain to speculate on how long it must have taken any nation to reach this degree of perfection, more especially a nation so little progressive as the Egyptians were. We must content ourselves with the fact, and in our wonder at its immensity learn from it more humble notions of our own antiquity and knowledge, and more extended views of ancient history."

These two earliest Pyramids were covered with limestone, but a third, that of Mycerinus, is covered with the beautiful granite of Syene.

The investigations of Colonel Vyse enable us to recognize with considerable precision the vast dimensions and singular details of these invaluable monuments. Some notion of their enormous dimensions may be gathered from the fact that the largest of them occupies a square of 764 feet, from which the building rises uniformly on all sides at an angle of 51⁠1/2⁠ degrees to a height of 480 feet;—higher than the highest spire of any cathedral in Europe.

The construction of the Pyramids in Egypt appears to have been speedily followed by the erection of temples, under the Theban kings; and in the earliest of these, that