venerable features of the Empress were inflamed with anger. The Emperor himself might be irritated, and a lasting sadness might invade his venerable consort. Memnon accordingly, dreading the wrath of these immortal princes, has of a sudden sent forth his melodious voice, thus showing that he takes pleasure in the companionship of Gods.'

The accounts of the Memnon Statue and of its Voice at sunrise, as transmitted to us by divers Pagan writers since the beginning of the Christian era, are clear, distinct, and consistent with each other. There is, however, a remarkable exception in that historical romance, The Life of Apollonius of Tyana,' by Philostratus. Dr. Jowett, in the Article on Apollonius which he contributed to one of Dr. Smith's Classical Dictionaries, describes that book as a mass of incongruities and fables;' nor shall we find any reason to modify that general judgment by the particular instance which is now before us.

Philostratus then, writing in the reign of Alexander Severus, that is between the years 222 and 235 of our era, describes the wanderings and the miracles of Apollonius in the first century since the birth of Christ. He makes his hero visit the Memnon, which he represents as not mutilated but entire. The head, he says, is of a beardless young man; his arms rest upon his throne, his figure leans forward as though in act to rise, his mouth and eyes betoken a man in the act to speak, and when the Voice does issue his eyes shine forth with especial brilliancy, like those of a man on whom the sunlight falls.

But what a fancy fabric is here! All the other effigies of Amunoph the Third represent him as bearded: it seems therefore all but certain that this Colossus when entire was bearded also. As to the figure bending forward as though ready to rise, M. Letronne assures us that no such attitude is to be found in any other Egyptian statue. The eyes that betoken an intention of speaking, and that beam with preternatural light whenever the Voice is heard, are plainly the work of the imagination, and of the imagination only.

But further still, it is expressly stated by Philostratus, though M. Letronne was the first to notice it, as bearing on this question, that Philostratus does not profess to give this description on his own authority, but quotes the words of Damis, who was a writer in Assyria a century and a half before. The account which Philostratus, still following Damis, proceeds to give of the first cataract, may vie for its inaccuracy with his account of the Memnon. Here he says the Nile is flowing along mountains, like to those of Tmolus, in Lydia, from which its waters

dash

dash down with so prodigious a noise, that many persons who approached them nearly, have lost in consequence all power of hearing. May we not then upon the whole adopt the judgment of M. Chassang, the last translator of the Life of Apollonius"? 'Tout porte à croire que cette description de la Statue de Memnon n'est qu'une amplification de rhétorique.'

If, as the Ancients did, we were to regard the Voice of Memnon as a miracle-as the manifestation of a Godhead to man-we must own that not many miracles could be better attested. We should have in its support an unbroken chain of testimonies, derived from the most various sources, and extending over scores of years. But in this case the light of modern science has supplied a natural and simple explanation. 'On sait que cette découverte est due à notre illustre Letronne,' -such are the words of M. Gaston Boissier. But in spite of this positive on sait, we will venture to assert that no such thing is known, for no such thing is true. Even for ourselves, the writers in this Review, we may claim precedence in the explanation over M. Letronne. And this the following dates will clearly

show.

The volume of M. Letronne on this subject appeared in 1833. We of the Quarterly,' on the other hand, in our 88th number, published in February, 1831, were reviewing Herschel's "Treatise on Sound.' Nor will it be any breach of confidence, after so long an interval, to state that this article was contributed by one of the foremost men of science in his day-by Mr., since Sir David, Brewster.

In his article then upon Herschel, Sir David took occasion to advert, though not at length, to the case of the Statue of Memnon. Here are the words he used: We have no hesitation in avowing our belief that the sound or sounds which it [the Statue of Memnon] discharged were the offspring of a natural cause.' In common with some travellers, whom we alleged, we 'ascribed these sounds to the transmission of rarefied air through the crevices of a sonorous stone.' And he adds: The phenomenon proceeded without doubt from the sudden change of temperature which takes place at the rising of the sun.'

It is plain, we may now subjoin, that in such a case the phenomenon could not be uniform or constant, but would depend on the varying conditions of temperature or season.

In the same Article we proceeded to point out that this is no solitary instance. There are several other well-attested cases of musical sounds which issue at sunrise from the like crevices, and which are explained by the same cause. Above all, we quoted the observations of the celebrated traveller, Baron Hum

boldt,

boldt, when wandering on the banks of the Oronooko: 'The granite rock,' he says, on which we lay is one of those where travellers on the Oronooko have heard from time to time towards sunrise subterranean sounds resembling those of the organ. The missionaries call these stones loxas de musica. "It is witchcraft," said our young Indian pilot. But the existence of a phenomenon that seems to depend on a certain state of the atmosphere cannot be denied. The shelves of rock are full of very narrow and deep crevices. They are heated during the day to about 50°. I often found their temperature at the surface during the night at 39°. It may easily be conceived that the difference of temperature between the subterraneous and the external air would attain its maximum about sunrise, or at that moment which is at the same time farthest from the period of the maximum of the heat of the preceding day.'

Nor did the acute mind of Humboldt fail to notice, even though very vaguely, the close connection between this case and that of the Theban Colossus. For he goes on to ask: May we not admit that the ancient inhabitants of Egypt, in passing incessantly up and down the Nile, had made the same observation on some rock of the Thebaid, and that the music of the rocks there led to the jugglery of the priests in the Statue of Memnon?'

In the same Article we also called attention to the analogous phenomena among the sandstone rocks of El Nakous, in Arabia Petræa. But without quitting the soil of Egypt, or even the neighbourhood of Thebes, a striking parallel can be adduced. We called as witnesses three French artists, Messrs. Jomard, Jollois, and Devilliers, who state that, being in a monument of granite placed in the centre of the spot on which the palace of Karnak stood, they heard a noise which resembled that of a chord breaking-the very comparison employed by Pausaniasissue from the blocks at sunrise. And they were of opinion that these sounds might,' in their own words, 'have suggested to the Egyptian priests to invent the juggleries of the Memnonium.' The fact indeed may be taken as now accepted and admitted by men of science. It is no longer, we think, doubted in any quarter that the action of the morning sun on the chilled air in the crevices of rock may and does produce the same effect as was observed in the Statue of Memnon.

We would observe, that although in this explanation we claim priority over M. Letronne, we most cheerfully accord it to Baron Humboldt and to the other explorers, whose remarks we have transcribed. Still earlier precedence is due to M. Dussaulx, the French translator of Juvenal, who was the first, we rather

think, to suggest the true theory of the magica chorda in his author.

It is also to be noted that M. Letronne himself never made that claim of priority which his countryman has thought fit to make in his behalf. On the contrary, he expressly quoted in his margin our Article of February, 1831, and derived from it the remarkable account by Baron Humboldt of the Oronooko sounds. His industry has also collected some further parallel cases-one, for instance, near the Maladetta mountain in the Pyrenees-and devoting a whole volume, instead of a mere digression in a Quarterly Article, to this subject, he has treated it in a most complete and convincing manner, with which our own cursory remarks could never pretend to vie.

Admitting then, as no one seems at present to deny, that the phenomenon of the Theban Colossus was produced by the vibration of the air, the question would still remain whether, as some persons persistently assert, the jugglery of the priests,' as they term it, was at all concerned. As we have already stated, we are convinced that it was not. Let it, in the first place, be considered that there is no hiding-place or secret chamber in or near the Statue; and that without the aid of these, it seems impossible that the Voice of Memnon could be either promoted or restrained. Secondly, had the priests really possessed any such power of promoting the miraculous Voice, they would cer tainly have used it in behalf of the great and powerful—of those whose favour they desired to gain. How then could we explain the fact that the wife of a Præfect of Egypt was allowed to make two visits without hearing the desired sound; that in like manner the consort of an Emperor came for the first time in vain, to her great displeasure and at the risk of her resentment; while a common soldier has put on record that he enjoyed the privilege no less than thirteen times?

The latest inscription that bears a date upon the Statue is by Marcus Ulpius Primianus, Præfect of Egypt, in the second Consulship of Septimius Severus, and in the year of our Lord 194; and the restoration of the Statue was, in all probability, made a few years afterwards. In its mutilated state, the lower half from which the Voice proceeded was part of the original monolith; when restored, or rather rebuilt, that lower half bore, as it still bears upon it, five ranges of enormous blocks of stone. The magnitude and cost of this construction must be held to indicate an Emperor's work, and the result of an Emperor's visit. Now since the time of Hadrian, no Emperor, except Septimius Severus, ever came to Upper Egypt. His biographer, Spartianus,

records

records of him that he carefully examined Memphis, the Pyramids, the Labyrinth, and Memnon.'

Such being the fact, it cannot but be thought surprising that while there are so many inscriptions on the base of the Colossus to commemorate the visit of Hadrian, not a single one appears to commemorate the visit of Severus. As is argued by M. Letronne, there is only one explanation that can be assigned as satisfactory or sufficient to account for the omissionnamely, to presume that when Severus came to the Statue it remained obstinately dumb. These inscriptions, it should be remembered, were never put up when there was a failure in the sound, unless in the case when the first failures were followed by

success.

It may also be inferred, with considerable probability, that the silence of the Statue in the august presence was the cause of its reconstruction. Severus was a sincere and zealous Pagan; and he lived in an age when the adherents of the old Mythology, alarmed at the progress of the Christians, strove hard to regain the public confidence and favour. It was during his reign that the main attempt was made to hold forth Apollonius, of Tyana, as a worker of wonders and religious teacher, in opposition to our Lord. In like manner the Voice of Memnon, as a Pagan prodigy, was esteemed a counterpoise to the Christian miracles. The priests and devotees, as M. Boissier puts it, would assure Severus that since Memnon even in his mutilated state gave his greeting often, though not quite so often as he ought, his Voice would certainly become both more distinct and more unfailing if once his Statue were restored. This is no mere vague conjecture of the popular belief. Several of the inscriptions on the base express or imply the idea that Memnon, when entire, could speak in language, but since his mutilation, was reduced to inarticulate sounds.

But there is yet another point of view from which the Emperor might be urged. The silence of the Statue denoted the displeasure of the Gods. Did it not, then, become a devout worshipper, such as was Severus, to take some step for removing that displeasure? Should he not appease the offended deity by a splendid reconstruction of his Statue?

Yielding, perhaps for there is no positive statement on the subject to some such representations, the Emperor gave orders for the costly work required. But alas for the result! In his new construction he, of course, filled up the ancient crevices, and in consequence silenced Memnon for ever. Aurora continued to rise as usual, but received no further greetings from her son.

We