DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14563#0243
THE ARTS IN EGYPT.
207
of darkness and uncertainty, we see the lost history of this
people revive, and take its stand beside that of other an-
cient empires; when we read the inscriptions of its kings,
recording their mighty exploits and regal qualities, and
gaze upon their monuments, with the full understanding of
the events which they commemorate, the impression is
scarcely less striking to an enlightened mind, than what the
traveller would feel, if, when silently pacing the catacombs
at, Thebes, he should see those corpses, which the cmbalm-
er's skill has for so many ages rescued from decay, on a
sudden burst their cerements, and start resuscitated from
their niches." *
These old Egyptians, whose tombs and temples are now
open to our inspection, and whose social, commercial, relig-
ious, and political history is written upon the imperishable
rock, where all may read it — these ancients, over whom we
of this nineteenth century are wont to boast in all the
"improvements" and the material comforts of life, had
wealth beyond all computation; commerce in all the " pre-
cious things " of Arabia, of Persia, and the Indies, in gold,
and jewels, and spices, and silks, and aromatics; manufac-
tures of fine linen and embroidered work, of vases of porce-
lain and pottery, of oil, of chariots, of baskets and wicker-
work, of glass ornaments and utensils, and of many other
articles of comfort and of luxury; husbandry that made
Egypt the granary of the world, and once and again the
support of neighboring nations in time of famine; civiliza-
tion that well supplied the comforts of domestic life, that
furnished their houses with chairs, sofas, and couches for
their parlors, as well as with copper utensils, caldrons, tri-
pods, mortars, pallets, ovens for their kitchens; mechanic
arts to fabricate various and formidable weapons of war,
* Science and Keligiou, vol. ii. p. hi.
207
of darkness and uncertainty, we see the lost history of this
people revive, and take its stand beside that of other an-
cient empires; when we read the inscriptions of its kings,
recording their mighty exploits and regal qualities, and
gaze upon their monuments, with the full understanding of
the events which they commemorate, the impression is
scarcely less striking to an enlightened mind, than what the
traveller would feel, if, when silently pacing the catacombs
at, Thebes, he should see those corpses, which the cmbalm-
er's skill has for so many ages rescued from decay, on a
sudden burst their cerements, and start resuscitated from
their niches." *
These old Egyptians, whose tombs and temples are now
open to our inspection, and whose social, commercial, relig-
ious, and political history is written upon the imperishable
rock, where all may read it — these ancients, over whom we
of this nineteenth century are wont to boast in all the
"improvements" and the material comforts of life, had
wealth beyond all computation; commerce in all the " pre-
cious things " of Arabia, of Persia, and the Indies, in gold,
and jewels, and spices, and silks, and aromatics; manufac-
tures of fine linen and embroidered work, of vases of porce-
lain and pottery, of oil, of chariots, of baskets and wicker-
work, of glass ornaments and utensils, and of many other
articles of comfort and of luxury; husbandry that made
Egypt the granary of the world, and once and again the
support of neighboring nations in time of famine; civiliza-
tion that well supplied the comforts of domestic life, that
furnished their houses with chairs, sofas, and couches for
their parlors, as well as with copper utensils, caldrons, tri-
pods, mortars, pallets, ovens for their kitchens; mechanic
arts to fabricate various and formidable weapons of war,
* Science and Keligiou, vol. ii. p. hi.