Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1847-06-03

SURVEY FROM THE PYRAMIDS.
BY HARRIET MARTINEAU.


= comment on the events which have beer
t passing in it. have been sailing up TIT
Nile, far into Nubia, some hundreds of mile:
eyond post offices and newspapers; SO that
on my return to Cairo, have to learn anC
, think over the news of the world instead O
remarking upon it. But have been taking
another kind of survey, full as interesting te
me as that of the busy living race: a survey
of Time instead of Circumstance and i
may be well for once to speak Of this, no
only because my own mind is full Of it, bu
because it is good for us all to have oul
thoughts now and then called off from pre-
sent affairs and fixed on a point Of view
which commands wider prospect.
We are all aptto overrae the importance
Of our own times, our own work, our own
experience. do not speak Of this as
faul, in us. 1t is natural to the human mind
and good in its effects; for we should
hardly put our full strength into our work.
Or our hearty interest into the events OF
every day, if we saw how small proper
ton any thing present bears to the history
of our race. This struck me powerfully the
other day when | was standing on the high
est stone of the top of the Great Pyramid of
Egypt. The present famine in Iceland and
trying winter in England seem naturally
enough, to those in full view or experience
| of them, the most important events that ever
happened in the world; but it is worth
while to look back to famines which occur
red in this Eastern part of the world several
thousands of years ago, and see if any thing
could be more important than their causes
and their consequences. During several
months past there have; been floods in vari-
Gus parts of Europe, sweeping away dwell
Iings and produce, and causing the loss of
some lives. To those on the spot this event
appears like the end the world-the great
est calamity in the experience of man. But
looking over from where stood, there was
a place almost within view where great
food rose and destroyed mighty monarch
and all his host, and affected the destiny of
the human = : - 80
we are vain of the enlightenment of our age;
we think that our knowledge is almost all
new, and that we are able to do things by
steam, water-power,e electricity, the telescope,
the printing press, sc. which were never be-
fore dreamed of by man. A survey of the
past from the heart of Egypt may show us
whether this is true, and perhaps sober our
views in regard to our own attalnments and
The prospects of the race.
!, was for some time taken for granted.
on the assertion CT scholars who judged too
hastily, that our 9 lobe has been created about
5000 years-lhat is, about 1000 years be-
fore Christ; and also that man was created al
the same Time. The science of geology has
! proved that the world is very much Older
than had been supposed and that it had
lasted long time, inhabited by curious
beasts and fishes, of kinds that we never see
now, before Man was created. And now,
the more we look into Egyptian history, the
more clear ii becomes that we have been
| mistaken in our judgment Of the lapse of
centuries, and that 5000 years ago some
nations were as busy about their works OF
art, their farming, manufactures, literature,
and philosophy, as we are now. When
any one speaks to us of 5000 years ago. we
| think of Adam and Eve gardening in Paradise
no such thing having been thought of as
human abodes, or clothing, or any of the
arts of life, or transactions of men living in
society; bat it is now believed, with good
reason, that the pyramid on which stood
the other day was there in its place 5000
years ago; and it is certain that the building
of that pyramid is thing which could no,
be done now, with all our boasts of our
modern resources. We cannot even under
stand how it was done.
This mighty mass Of building covers
eleven acres of ground, and is built Of blocks
of stone so enormous that it is inconceiva-
BILE how, with any length of time, or number
of men, they could have been brought from
the quarry and raised to their proper places
| 1t was once smooth and polished on the out,
side, and its history was engraved upon i
in hieroglyphic characters. So the old his,
torians tell us. But now the smooth ont
side is all gone-taken, probably, to buil(
other edifices; and the next range of stone
blocks forms set ofsteps, by which mean:
! got to the top, rough, broken, and diff
cult staircase of $50 feet high-the steps
being chiefly from four to three feet high
Each of our party had three Arabs for as
sistants-dark brown men, in turbans or lit
tie white caps, and loose shirts and drawers
and who never dream of being silent for
minute, or of leaving offasking for present
These Arabs are of a different race from tn
people who built the pyramids, and the,
know nothing whatever about them, no
can conceive why we 60 and examine sue!
monuments. They can only suppose tina
we go in search of treasure But they ar
; kind to strangers, and faithful to their trust
and felt in very good hands while the,