
not to be neglected; those who have kingdoms to govern, have understandings to
cultivate.
    Example is always more efficacious than precept. A soldier is formed in war,
and a painter must copy pictures. In this, contemplative life has the advantage:
great actions are seldom seen, but the labours of art are always at hand for
those who desire to know what art has been able to perform.
    When the eye or the imagination is struck with any uncommon work the next
transition of an active mind is to the means by which it was performed. Here
begins the true use of such contemplation; we enlarge our comprehension by new
ideas, and perhaps recover some art lost to mankind, or learn what is less
perfectly known in our own country. At least we compare our own with former
times, and either rejoice at our improvements, or, what is the first motion
towards good, discover our defects.«
    »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.«
 

                                  Chapter 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 co-extend 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
