are the companion of the princess of Abiffinia." "If the princess is pleased that her fervant fhould die, returned the lady, let her command fome death lefs dreadful than enclosure in this horrid cavern. You know I dare not difobey you: I must go if you command me; but, if I once enter, I never fhall come back." The princess. faw that her fear was too strong for expoftulation or reproof, and embracing her, told her that fhe should stay in the tent till their return. Pekuah was yet not fatisfied, but entreated the princefs not to perfue fo dreadful a purpose as that of entering the receffes of the pyramid. "Though I cannot teach courage, said Nekayah, I must not learn cowardice; nor leave at laft undone what I came hither only to do." CHAP. CHAP. XXXI. THEY ENTER THE PYRAMID. EKUAH defcended to the tents, РЕКА and the rest entered the pyramid: they paffed through the galleries, furveyed the vaults of marble, and examined the cheft in which the body of the founder is supposed to have been repofited. They then fat down in one of the most spacious chambers to rest a while before they attempted to return. "We have now, faid Imlac, gratified our minds with an exact view of the greatest work of man, except the wall of China. "Of the wall it is very easy to affign the motive. It fecured a wealthy and timorous nation from the incurfions of Bar Barbarians, whofe unskilfulness in arts made it easier for them to fupply their wants by rapine than by induftry, and who from time to time poured in upon the habitations of peaceful commerce, as vultures defcend upon domestick fowl. Their celerity and fierceness made the wall neceffary, and their ignorance made it efficacious. "But for the pyramids no reafon has ever been given adequate to the coft and labour of the work. The narrownefs of the chambers proves that it could afford no retreat from enemies, and treasures might have been repofited at far lefs expence with equal fecurity. It seems to have been erected only in compliance with that hunger of imagination which preys inceffantly upon life, and must be always appeafed by fome employment. Thofe who have already all that they can enjoy, muft enlarge their defires. He that has built for use, till ufe is fupplied, muft begin to build for vanity, and extend his plan to the utmost power of human performance, that he may not be foon reduced to form another wish. "I confider this mighty ftructure as a monument of the infufficiency of human enjoyments. A king, whofe power is unlimited, and whofe treasures furmount all real and imaginary wants, is compelled to folace, by the erection of a pyramid, the fatiety of dominion and tafteleffness of pleasures, and to amuse the tedioufnefs of declining life, by feeing thousands labouring without end, and one stone, for no purpose, laid upon another. Whoever thou art, that, not content with a moderate condition, ima gineft |