een erected since that time."[8]

[Illustration: VIEW OF THE GREAT AND SECOND PYRAMIDS.]

The architectural effect of the two greatest of the pyramids is
certainly magnificent. They do not greatly impress the beholder at
first sight, for a pyramid, by the very law of its formation, never
looks as large as it is--it slopes away from the eye in every direction,
and eludes rather than courts observation. But as the spectator gazes,
as he prolongs his examination and inspection, the pyramids gain upon
him, their impressiveness increases. By the vastness of their mass, by
the impression of solidity and durability which they produce, partly
also, perhaps, by the symmetry and harmony of their lines and their
perfect simplicity and freedom from ornament, they convey to the
beholder a sense of grandeur and majesty, they produce within him a
feeling of astonishment and awe, such as is scarcely caused by any other
of the erections of man. In all ages travellers have felt and expressed
the warmest admiration for them. They impressed Herodotus as no works
that he had seen elsewhere, except, perhaps, the Babylonian. They
astonished Germanicus, familiar as he was with the great constructions
of Rome. They furnished Napoleon with the telling phrase, "Soldiers,
forty centuries look down upon you from the top of the pyramids." Greece
and Rome reckoned them among the Seven Wonders of the world. Moderns
have doubted whether they could really be the work of human hands. If
they possess only one of the elements of architectural excellence, they
possess that element to so great an extent that in respect of it they
are unsurpassed, and probably unsurpassable.

These remarks apply especially to the first and second pyramids. The
"Third" is not a work of any very extraordinary grandeur. The bulk is
not greater than that of the chief pyramid of Saccarah, which has never
attracted much attention; and the height did not greatly exceed that of
the chief Mexican temple-mound. Moreover, the stones of which the
pyramid was composed are not excessively massive. The monument aimed at
being beautiful rather than grand. It was coated for half its height
with blocks of pink granite from Syene, bevelled at the edges, which
remain still in place on two sides of the structure. The entrance to it,
on the north side, was conspicuous, and seems to have had a metal
ornamentation let into the stone. The sepulchral chamber was beautifully
lined and roofed, and the