But in order to secure the advantages which might be found in the adoption of this method, certain conditions were necessary, a want of foresight, or neglect of which would render the attempt futile. The building on which the records were to be engraved, and sculptured, must be of such a size as to supply sufficient wall-space for the whole of the chronicles of the king’s reign, and for all the scenes, religious or secular, he might wish, from their connexion with himself, to depict and perpetuate. This, it is obvious, would necessitate very large buildings. They must, also, be so constructed as to be able to withstand all the accidents, and adverse circumstances, to which they might, in the course of ages, be exposed. No buildings that men had hitherto considered most solid and magnificent would fulfil these conditions. They all in time, from one cause or another, had become dilapidated. A double problem was thus presented to them: first, how to get sufficient wall-space, and then to get this sufficiency on buildings exempt from all the ordinary, and even most of the extraordinary, chances of destruction. The first was easily answered. The building—or if it be a tomb, the excavation—must be enlarged to the required dimensions. The second was more difficult. They answered it by the character they gave to the architecture. The smaller the stones of which a building is constructed, the smaller its chances of longevity: the larger its stones, the greater its chances. The stones, for instance, might be so small, that any one who, in times when the building might be deprived of all natural guardians, happened to want such pieces, might carry them off on his donkey, or, if larger, on his camel, to burn for lime, or to use for the walls of a house or enclosure. Stones, even of considerable size, might easily be thrown down, and cut up, to serve the purposes of those who could command the amount of labour always at the disposal of any well-to-do person; but it was possible to imagine stones used of so great a size that it would require such expensive tackle, and so many hands, to throw them down, that it would be as cheap, in most instances, to go directly to the quarry, and cut out for one’s self what was wanted. It was, too, hoped that there would be some indisposition to destroy such grand structures, for massiveness appeals to the thought of even the most uninstructed. Now, this was just what the Pharaohs of old Egypt foresaw, and acted on. They built with stones, which could not be removed, except by those who could command something like the amount of labour, machinery, and funds they themselves employed in raising them, and who might find it profitable to employ their resources in this way. The wisdom of the prevision was proved when the Persians were in complete possession of the land, and in their iconoclastic zeal, and hatred of the religion of Egypt, would, if they could have readily managed it, not have left one stone upon another in