“I am willing,” said the prince, “to see all that can deserve my search.”  “And I,” said the princess, “shall rejoice to learn something of the manners of antiquity.”

“The most pompous monument of Egyptian greatness, and one of the most bulky works of manual industry,” said Imlac, “are the pyramids; fabricks raised, before the time of history, and of which the earliest narratives afford us only uncertain traditions.  Of these, the greatest is still standing, very little injured by time.”

“Let us visit them to-morrow,” said Nekayah.  “I have often heard of the pyramids, and shall not rest, till I have seen them, within and without, with my own eyes.”

CHAP.  XXXI.

THEY VISIT THE PYRAMIDS.

The resolution being thus taken, they set out the next day.  They laid tents upon their camels, being resolved to stay among the pyramids, till their curiosity was fully satisfied.  They travelled gently, turned aside to every thing remarkable, stopped, from time to time, and conversed with the inhabitants, and observed the various appearances of towns ruined and inhabited, of wild and cultivated nature.

When they came to the great pyramid, they were astonished at the extent of the base, and the height of the top.  Imlac explained to them the principles upon which the pyramidal form was chosen for a fabrick, intended to coextend its duration with that of the world:  he showed, that its gradual diminution gave it such stability, as defeated all the common attacks of the elements, and could scarcely be overthrown by earthquakes themselves, the least resistible of natural violence.  A concussion that should shatter the pyramid, would threaten the dissolution of the continent.

They measured all its dimensions, and pitched their tents at its foot.  Next day they prepared to enter its interiour apartments, and, having hired the common guides, climbed up to the first passage, when the favourite of the princess, looking into the cavity, stepped back and trembled.  “Pekuah,” said the princess, “of what art thou afraid?” “Of the narrow entrance,” answered the lady, “and of the dreadful gloom.  I dare not enter a place which must, surely, be inhabited by unquiet souls.  The original possessours of these dreadful vaults will start up before us, and, perhaps, shut us in for ever[a].”  She spoke, and threw her arms round the neck of her mistress.

“If all your fear be of apparitions,” said the prince, “I will promise you safety:  there is no danger from the dead; he that is once buried will be seen no more.”

“That the dead are seen no more,” said Imlac, “I will not undertake to maintain, against the concurrent and unvaried testimony of all ages, and of all nations.  There is no people, rude or learned, among whom apparitions of the dead are not related and believed.  This opinion, which perhaps, prevails, as far as human nature is diffused, could become universal only by its truth:  those that never heard of one another, would not have agreed in a tale which nothing but experience can make credible.  That it is doubted by single cavillers, can very little weaken the general evidence; and some, who deny it with their tongues, confess it by their fears".[b]