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Concerning the weather in Egypt, it is obferved, that from Alexandria to Fefhne, the air is often thick, the fky obfcured, and it frequently rains; but at Fefhne, and higher up, it is always fair. And yet, our Author fays at Mefhie it rained very hard, and thundered, for the fpace of an hour.

Mr. Greaves fays, that the ftones were hewen, according to Herodotus and Diodorus, out of the Arabian mountains. But our Author afferts, that a great part of the ftones employed in building the pyramids, were taken from the caverns which are feen in great number near the pyramids. The reft came from the other fide of the Nile: and when the waters were high, it was easy to convey the ftones to the bridge mentioned by Herodotus, and along that to the mountain where the pyramid was to be built.

The temples feen to the east, and joining the pyramids, were built of very large ftones. It is aftonishing fo few travellers have taken notice of them. They seem to have been open on the top. Their great circumference rendered it impoffible to find ftones large enough to reach from fide to fide: and as there are no remains of any column, it is to be prefumed the pyramids were built before columns were in ufe. This may perhaps account for their form; if they did not underftand the art of covering buildings, or fupporting them by columns, they could not be contrived fo as to be covered, but in the shape of pyramids *.

The blackness which Mr. Greaves difcovered within the pyramid, and which feemed to him to have proceeded from

That the pyramids were erected before the use of pillars, or fuch artificial fupports, was known to the Egyptians, appears a favourite hypothefis of our Author: but may it not be objected, that fuch fupports (without which the meanest hutt could scarce be built) muft, in all probability, have been very early, and na turally fuggefted to man, by obferving the flems of trees and plants, and the feet of animals; and that the pyramids, being works of great magnificence, are, doubtless, of much later date than the mention of the fimple, perpendicular, prop, which must have occurred long before the chizzelling, cementing, and polishing of marble-We are not to venture too far in our conclufions from what we have as yet discovered of the internal structure of the pyramids there may be many undifcovered paffages, and chambers in, and underneath them, of which we know no more than Herodotus and Pliny knew before us; and of which we must remain in ignorance, till the hand of time, or fome more fuccessful researches than have yet been made, fhall open to our view the hidden receffes of thefe amazing ftructures. As to the shape or form of the pyramid, it might have been previously determined, by the aftronomical pur poles for which they were, perhaps, originally defigned.

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hence, that thofe inlets had been a receptacle for the burning of lamps, is nothing more than the fmoke of the flambeaux carried by those who have vifited this monument fince it has been opened. Mr. Greaves fays, from Herodotus, that the fecond pyramid hath no fubterraneous structures. On which our Author obferves, that Herodotus must have faid this on hear-fay: for as the pyramid is fhut, he could not have examined into it himself. What can we think when told by Strabo and Pliny, that the water of the Nile enters the pit or well of the firft pyramid? Could they have feen this? Did they hear it from others?-It is certain their defcriptions fuit not the prefent ftate of thefe places.

Mr. Norden fays, it gives him great pain to examine minutely all that Mr. Greaves has faid of the fecond pyramid, it is fo very faulty. He thinks our Profeffor relied too much upon the authority of his Venetian friend, who might have. deceived him; and being tired with his examination of the firft pyramid, have paid two little attention to the fecond. It is certainly as large as the firft. Tho' the fteps or degrees do not appear at the bottom of this fecond pyramid, they are apparent towards the top; the lower degrees having been deftroyed by the violence with which they were treated when the granite which covered them, and which remains above, was taken away.

Authors are greatly mistaken in faying it is the third pýramid which is partly built of Bafaltes, whereas it is the fourth; which Mr. Greaves is the more excufable for not having feen, as it is hid by the others, and not eafily difcernable, even when you are at no great distance from it. Whether it is of Bafaltes or not, is uncertain; it is not however of the fubftance of that fine vase in the collection of Cardinal Albani at Rome: but it is as hard, and fomething blacker than Granite. The fummit of this pyramid is of a yellowish ftone, of the fame quality with that of Portland; and the other pyramids are conftructed of the fame ftone. There can be no doubt of the exiftence of this fourth pyramid. Lord Sandwich obferved it well, and Mr. Norden's defigns prove it.

The rest of the pyramids in the Lybian Defert are well worthy the attention of a traveller; and it is very frange, that ancient as well as modern authors fhould not have mentioned them. They confift of four or five degrees or ftories, each thirty or forty feet high. Lord Sandwich took great notice of these pyramids, and in particular, of one which was never finifhed, and which may ferve to fhew in what manner thefe buildings were conftructed. The two largest of these

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pyramids are equal to any of thofe at Memphis. Sakkara were certainly the oldeft, and from them the model was taken to build the reft.

We should now return to our Author's defcription of Alexandria, but having, on account of the importance as well as novelty of the fubjects treated above, exceeded the ufual bounds. of an Article in our Review, we shall defer the rest of this valuable work to another month, and conclude for the prefent with some remarks we have made upon Hieroglyphics.

1. It is evident from a flight inspection of these ancient infcriptions, that they are not entirely compofed of the representations of animals and other objects, but are intermixed with certain characters that cannot well be taken for any other than letters. Of this fort, we believe, are the three characters in a frame in the tree, in Mr. Norden's fifty-eighth plate; where are three human figures. One ftands pointing to a bar under the frame of the infcription in the tree; by his beard he should be a man. Another, feeming to be a female by the largenefs of the left breaft, is without a beard, and fits on a large fquare block: and fhe points likewife to the tree. The third figure ftands behind her, and has a beard, and a high corno to his cap. They have all different caps, which may serve to diftinguifh their characters. The oval figure over the three characters in the frame, we take to be a resemblance of the fruit, and, perhaps, the three letters exprefs the name of it. If it is an apple, the oriental word in Hebrew, and Arabic, for that fruit, is expreffed by thefe three letters, TFC; and the Coptic or Egyptian word is alfo very like it: but Strabo fays they have no apples in Egypt. Beneath the Bafs-relief are no more than five diftinguishable characters: one is round, and may fignify the fruit as above; another is waving, and may fignify water, or the letter M, as in the Samaritan alphabet; another, which we take to be imperfect, is like the Hebrew Vau: one of them is the fame with the middle letter in the frame; and another resembles a fquare, or large Hebrew Heth; and is the very fame with that held in the woman's hand, which looks as if it were defigned to be held up, that the bar or line, which the man feems to be about striking from him, towards the woman, might pass through it.

2. As the Obeliscs were all confecrated to the fun, and took their form, as Pliny and others obferve, from a folar ray, and might serve some astronomical purpose, as a Meridian, &c. it is not to be doubted but the principal characters inscribed on them, relate to Aftronomy. The early use of fuch characters is evident from the Sphinx, which emblematically defcribes the

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feafon for the rifing of the waters of the Nile; that is, when the fun enters Leo and Virgo: from these two constellations is made the Sphinx; which word fignifies, in the Chaldee dialect, to over-flow; and the cause of this over-flowing of the Nile being a riddle to the antients, probably gave rife to the accounts we have, from them, of riddles propounded by the fphinx.

3. Those inscriptions that are found in their cometeries or fepulchral caverns, and amidst the ruins of their temples, are certainly hiftorical, as they have ever been in all other the like places and if with the infcriptions we could obtain welldrawn copies of the bafs-reliefs, and figures that attend them, it is poffible we might in'time read, from authentic records, the most ancient history of Egypt.

4. The true reason why unknown characters continue unknown, is, because they are given, in too small parcels, into the hands of the interpreter; this was the cafe of the few Palmyrene infcriptions at firft brought into Europe. If a very arge quantity of thefe hieroglyphic characters were given, with all the helps that might be communicated, it is not to be doubtted but a good Decypherer and able Orientalist, might in time discover their use and meaning.

5. We therefore earnestly recommend to all who travel, or correspond, in Egypt, that accurate drawings may be taken of the infcriptions, images, and bafs-reliefs there: and when the communication is more open than at prefent, we could with the fame were done in Afriça *.

* See the Hiftory of Africa, by Leo Africanus; who mentions. many antient infcriptions, in various characters.

All the Orations of Demofthenes, pronounced to excite the Athe nians against Philip King of Macedon, tranflated into Englifh: digefted and connected, fo as to form a regular Hiflory of the Progress of the Macedonian Power: with Notes hif torical and critical. By Thomas Leland, B. D. Fellow of Trinity College, Dublin. 4ta. 6s. Johnston,

F not only to comprehend the true interefts of one's coun

I try, glorioully to every chort of mind in aniouat

ing all hearts to unite in the common caufe, can render any character illuftrious, that of Demofthenes was certainly fuch: who, in an age of corruption, felfishness, and vanity; and among a people, learned, generous, and acute; opposed wif

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dom to vanity, patriotifm to felfishness, and infamy to corruption.

And if active life, thus engaged, is worthy of admiration; a man of learning, who employs his leifure to impart to us, in our own language, the fentiments of fuch a patriot, at a time when these fentiments deferve our utmost attention, may may juftly be faid to merit our esteem and our praise.

But Mr. Leland hath not only tranflated, with a spirit nearly approaching to the original, and with a truth conformable to the letter of it, all the Orations which he fuppofes now to remain, of thofe pronounced by Demofthenes, to excite the Athenians against Philip of Macedon; but he has illuftrated these Orations, in order to adapt them to all readers, with Notes, not only from his own fund, but, among the antients, from Dionyfius of Halicarnaffus, whom he principally regards, and from Ulpian, Libanius, Suidas; and, among the moderns, from Tourreil, whom he seems most to honour, and upon whofe tranflation he animadverts, and from d'Olivet, and Mountenay, as alfo the authors of the Univerfal History, whom he corrects in a certain particular: and that nothing might be wanting to render Orations of fuch antiquity, and addreffed to a state fo long ago diffolved, entirely clear in every part, and inftructive in every circumftance, even to the most illiterate reader; he hath, in his preface, and in the introductory pieces to each Oration, and by a conclufion fubjoined to the whole, fo connected the Hiftories of Greece and Macedon, fo described the internal condition of their different ftates, and fo characterised the leading men at Athens, and Philip of Macedon, that nothing can be obscure, nothing uninterefting, in any of these Orations.

The Tranflation is infcribed to the Lord Viscount Charlemont; and accompanied with a map of ancient Greece, and the parts adjoining.

Upon the whole, our ingenious Divine, by judiciously adopting the obfervations of Dionyfius, in oppofition to those of Tourreil and the Scholiaft, hath enabled himself to arrange these Orations in the very order in which they were fpoken. Thus, in the Olynthiac Orations, he places firft, what common editors call the fecond; gives the fecond place, to what hath the third with them; and the third place, to what with them hath the first, We could have wifhed, however, that he had been lefs complaisant to Mr. Mountenay; and that, depending on his own judgment, fupported by the authority of the difcerning Dionyfius, he had entirely fevered

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