M. Letronne conjectures that the unlooked-for silence of the

restored Memnon was the motive which prevented the dedication, by an inscription, of this act of piety and vanity. This sugges- tion lays too much stress on the silence of Spartian,* as Hero- dotus and Dionysius (the two last nearly contemporary with Severus) respecting a fact so notorious as the restoration of the colossus, especially in an account of that Prince's travels in Egypt, and his visit to the statue of Memnon. So strange a silence would astonish us much more, if the cessation of a prodigy so long admired, had immediately succeeded the restoration of the statue. Would not these writers have spoken of it, were it only as a fatal presage ? It would have been so natural for superstition to connect with it the rapid extinction of the race of Septimus Severus !
In conclusion : I believe we may consider it as fully demonstrated,
* .Mius Spartianus, a latin historian : but he is not much esteemed either as an historian or a biographer. — Ed.
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that if the vocal statue was overturned by an earthquake, (and not by the fury of Cambyses), it was not the earthquake which Eusebius places as having occurred in the year twenty- seven or twenty-four before our era ; and, consequently, that M. Letronne's theory is raised upon a defective foundation.
Secondly, That the hypothesis, of the restoration of the statue, having been effected by Severus, is supported neither by proofs, nor by historical indication.
Thirdly, That it is not demonstrated that the statue of Mem- non became silent immediately after the commencement of the reigns of Severus and Caracalla ; and if the period at which the assumed miracle commenced is unknown, we are equally ignorant of the still more recent period at which it ceased.
The cause of the prodigy remains in equal obscurity. M. Le- tronne, as we have seen, adopts the explanation founded on the expansion caused by the sudden change of temperature. To the objections we have already offered, we may add the following : —
First, That this variation of temperature could not recur in a degree adequate to ensure the sounds on several different occasions during the day ; whilst it must be admitted that the voice of Memnon has been heard two and even three times, at different periods of the same day.
Second, It appears to me a gratuitous supposition, that the weight of the blocks that were placed on the base, at the res- toration of the colossus, became the cause of its sudden silence. The immense blocks of granite, the cracking of which was heard at Carnac, supported masses of greater weight than the stones which must have served for the restoration of the colossus ; and their almost spontaneous sounding, is beyond a doubt. As a general fact, the imposition of even a considerable weight, though it may arrest the vibrations of a body, at the moment when it is actually sounding, yet does not destroy the power of producing
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sound, but generally changes its quality. The change becomes less perceptible, if the substance imposed, forms one body with the original, and if it is of the same nature. Now, the blocks, vestiges of which are still to be seen, are of a stone identical with that of which the base of the statue is composed,* and they are almost equally sonorous.
Lastly, these blocks having been almost entirely overturned, and the colossus being nearly in the same state, as at the period of its first mutilation, would it not have recovered the voice which, in its restoration, it had lost ?
"Was the apparent miracle, we may now inquire, produced by fraud ? I conceive that it was the result of a deception. M. Le- tronne absolutely denies it. He concludes it impossible that a subterraneous passage, or a cavity, should have been formed in the base of the statue, several centuries after its erection. The objection supposes that the apparent miracle was not coeval with the erection of the statue ; yet the attempt to prove this has failed. Why, adds M. Letronne, did not Memnon cause him- self to be heard every time that he was visited ? I reply, because to deny occasionally, or to defer the assumed miracle, excited a more lively curiosity, and struck superstition with deeper awe, and inspired a more profound respect, than it would have done, had it become familiar, and of every day occurrence.
At Naples, has not the pretended miracle of St. Januarius been frequently deferred, in order to serve the passions, the caprice, or the interest of the priest ?
Mr. "Wilkinson, an English traveller, has recently discovered a sonorous stone, situated under the knees of the colossus. Behind this he discovered a cavity, which he conceives to have been pur- posely made for the reception of the man whose function it was to strike the stone, and perform the miracle. M. Nestor l'Hote, a
* Moniteur, Mardi, 9 octobre, 1838, Lettre de M. Nestor l'Hote à M. Letronne.
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French traveller, ascertained the existence of this harmonious stone, under the knee of the statue.* It is of the same nature as the stone employed in its reconstruction, and produced, on per- cussion, a sound similar to that of melted metal. The cavity behind it is nothing more than an enormous fissure, that rends the seat of the statue from top to bottom. We are authorized in concluding that it has not been made by design, and that the sonorous stone was only one of the materials employed in restor- ing it.
This fair conclusion, while it overthrows the hypothesis of Van- dale, which we have already rejected, proves nothing in favour of