amids were built is not very important in
connection with our present inquiry. We may, on the whole, fairly take
the points quoted above from Herodotus, and proceed to consider the
significance of the narrative, with sufficient confidence that in all
essential respects it is trustworthy.

There are several very strange features in the account.

In the first place, it is manifest that Cheops (to call the first king
by the name most familiar to the general reader) attached great
importance to the building of his pyramid. It has been said, and perhaps
justly, that it would be more interesting to know the plan of the
architect who devised the pyramid than the purpose of the king who built
it. But the two things are closely connected. The architect must have
satisfied the king that some highly important purpose in which the king
himself was interested, would be subserved by the structure. Whether the
king was persuaded to undertake the work as a matter of duty, or only to
advance his own interests, may not be so clear. But that the king was
most thoroughly in earnest about the work is certain. A monarch in those
times would assuredly not have devoted an enormous amount of labour and
material to such a scheme unless he was thoroughly convinced of its
great importance. That the welfare of his people was not considered by
Cheops in building the Great Pyramid is almost equally certain. He
might, indeed, have had a scheme for their good which either he did not
care to explain to them or which they could not understand. But the most
natural inference from the narrative is that his purpose had no
reference whatever to their welfare. For though one could understand his
own subjects hating him while he was all the time working for their
good, it is obvious that his memory would not have been hated if some
important good had eventually been gained from his scheme. Many a
far-seeing ruler has been hated while living on account of the very work
for which his memory has been revered. But the memory of Cheops and his
successors was held in detestation.

May we, however, suppose that, though Cheops had not the welfare of his
own people in his thoughts, his purpose was nevertheless not selfish,
but intended in some way to promote the welfare of the human race? I say
his purpose, because, whoever originated the scheme, Cheops carried it
out; it was by means of his wealth and through his power that the
pyramid was built. This is the view ad