ney
Gray, contains, in a pleasant form, as much information as young readers
will usually need.

NOTE II.

Page 25.

_'Pyramid of Asychis.'_

This pyramid, in mythology, divides with the Tower of Babel the shame,
or vain glory, of being presumptuously, and first among great edifices,
built with 'brick for stone.' This was the inscription on it, according
to Herodotus:--

'Despise me not, in comparing me with the pyramids of stone;
for I have the pre-eminence over them, as far as Jupiter has
pre-eminence over the gods. For, striking with staves into
the pool, men gathered the clay which fastened itself to the
staff, and kneaded bricks out of it, and so made me.'

The word I have translated 'kneaded' is literally 'drew;' in the sense
of drawing, for which the Latins used 'duco;' and thus gave us our
'ductile' in speaking of dead clay, and Duke, Doge, or leader, in
speaking of living clay. As the asserted pre-eminence of the edifice is
made, in this inscription, to rest merely on the quantity of labour
consumed in it, this pyramid is considered, in the text, as the type, at
once, of the base building, and of the lost labour, of future ages, so
far at least as the spirits of measured and mechanical effort deal with
it: but Neith, exercising her power upon it, makes it a type of the work
of wise and inspired builders.

NOTE III.

Page 25.

_'The Greater Pthah.'_

It is impossible, as yet, to define with distinctness the personal
agencies of the Egyptian deities. They are continually associated in
function, or hold derivative powers, or are related to each other in
mysterious triads; uniting always symbolism of physical phenomena with
real spiritual power. I have endeavoured partly to explain this in the
text of the tenth Lecture: here, it is only necessary for the reader to
know that the Greater Pthah more or less represents the formative power
of order and measurement: he always stands on a four-square pedestal,
'the Egyptian cubit, metaphorically used as the hieroglyphic for truth;'
his limbs are bound together, to signify fixed stability, as of a
pillar; he has a measuring-rod in his hand; and at Philae, is represented
as holding an egg on a potter's wheel; but I do not know if this symbol
occurs in older sculptures. His usual title is the 'Lord of Truth.'
Others, very beautiful: 'King of the Two Worlds, of Gracious
Countenance,' 'Superintendent of the Great Abode,' &c., are giv