DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14564#0165
148
CITIES OF EGYPT.
Memphis, or the storied temples of Thebes. What these
tell is rather of Egypt's history than of the world's, and if
of the world's history, only of one time and of one line
of thought. The idea that Heliopolis suggests is the
true progress of the whole human race; for here was the
oldest link in the long chain of the schools of learning.
The conqueror has demolished the temple; the city,
with the houses of the wise men, has fallen into hopeless
ruin, down-trodden by the thoughtless peasant as he
drives his plough across the site of which he does not
know the name. Yet the name and fame of the City of
the Sun charm the stranger as of old, while, standing
beside the obelisk, he looks back through the long and
stately avenue of the ages that are past, and measures the
gain in knowledge that patient scholars have won. He
sees that phcenix-like power of renewing her youth which
gives all wisdom the deathlessness which is at once a
type and a presage of immortality. Forms may change
and perish, but the essence which they clothe, and often
conceal, knows no change but growth, and when it seems
to die, only begins a new and brighter life. Nor can the
forsaken form ever cease to speak, voiceless though it
be, of life which once dwelt within it, as the com of
CITIES OF EGYPT.
Memphis, or the storied temples of Thebes. What these
tell is rather of Egypt's history than of the world's, and if
of the world's history, only of one time and of one line
of thought. The idea that Heliopolis suggests is the
true progress of the whole human race; for here was the
oldest link in the long chain of the schools of learning.
The conqueror has demolished the temple; the city,
with the houses of the wise men, has fallen into hopeless
ruin, down-trodden by the thoughtless peasant as he
drives his plough across the site of which he does not
know the name. Yet the name and fame of the City of
the Sun charm the stranger as of old, while, standing
beside the obelisk, he looks back through the long and
stately avenue of the ages that are past, and measures the
gain in knowledge that patient scholars have won. He
sees that phcenix-like power of renewing her youth which
gives all wisdom the deathlessness which is at once a
type and a presage of immortality. Forms may change
and perish, but the essence which they clothe, and often
conceal, knows no change but growth, and when it seems
to die, only begins a new and brighter life. Nor can the
forsaken form ever cease to speak, voiceless though it
be, of life which once dwelt within it, as the com of