The Hindu is rejected, and justly, from the want of similitude; the field is now narrowed for the combat,--the argument is brought, in his estimation, to _one nation_ only. "_Lastly_, we come to the Egyptian. The point of resemblance upon which the great stress has been laid, is the Pyramid. The pyramidal form is one which suggests itself to human intelligence _in every country_, as the simplest and surest mode of _erecting a high structure_ upon a solid foundation." We grant that the first suggestion of an habitation would be of a pyramidal character, as instanced in the tents of wandering tribes, formed by poles rising from a base, more or less broad, and meeting in a common centre; but we deny that the "pyramidal form" is one followed "in every country," as a principle for rearing "a high structure." If it was so generally practised, why is Egypt the _only country_ where it is found? Why did not China, Japan, Hindustan, Greece, and Rome practise it? Egypt alone claims it as an Architectural practice,--the principle of the Pyramid identifies her amid the wreck of Empires,--it stands out on her _tableau_ of History as the prominent characteristic,--it was, and is, nowhere found but in the Nation of the Nile, and now in the Ruins of Ancient America! In the latter country the Aborigines modified and improved upon the original; but sufficient is shewn there, even in the base of the pyramid, to proclaim the association of the builders with Egyptian _knowledge_; nor does it follow that the Architects of Palenque should have been, of necessity, Egyptians. "The pyramidal form cannot be regarded as a ground for assigning _a common origin to all people_, among whom structures of that _character_ are found, unless the similarity is preserved in its most striking features." The Traveller says, "to all people." [_i. e._ nations] Why, his own rejections prove that _no other people_ practised the pyramid but the Egyptian,--upon that fact is he now arguing; for having failed to find the pyramidal form in all the nations of the earth, he says, "_Lastly_, we come to the Egyptian." If in America _an entire_ pyramid, from base to apex, had been found, he would not have rejected the useless mass, but instantly have claimed it for Egyptian; _or of that nation only_, having intimate knowledge of, and association with, that country. Why then reject,--or rather why does he not bring forward the same reasoning when _the essential part_ of the pyramid is found there? It will be shewn why he did not advance it. "The Pyramids [of Egypt] are peculiar and uniform, and were invariably erected for the same uses and purposes, so far as those uses and purposes are known. They are all square at the base, _with steps rising_ and diminishing until they come to a point."