Wilkinson, John Gardner: Topographie of Thebes, and general view of Egypt: being a short account of the principal objects worthy of notice in the valley of the Nile, to the second cataracte and Wadi Samneh, with the Fyoom, Oases and eastern desert, from Sooez to Bertenice (London, 1835)

tlhap.III.J PRESCRIBED RULES OF ART. Id

terested in the examination of Egyptian anti-
quities ; and to become sufficiently acquainted with
the style of their architecture and sculpture, so as
to judge of and compare those of different epochs,
to comprehend the subjects represented, or im-
passionately to distinguish their beauties or defects,
require much more time and attention than the
generality of travellers can be expected to afford ;
but the limited space of one or two days is n6t
actually sufficient to entitle any one to the pre-
tensions of having seen Thebes.

The greatest enemy to deviation from the rules
of Grecian art cannot fail to take a lively interest
in the study of the Egyptian school, were it merely
from the circumstance of its having been the
parent of that refined and exquisite taste which
has ennobled the name of Corinth and of Athens;
where superior talent, unrestrained by the shackles
of superstitious regulations forbidding the smallest
deviation from prescribed rules as unpardonable
profanation,* rose to that perfection which the
student of nature can alone attain; In spite of all
the defects of Egyptian art, it has at least the

* According to Synesius, the profession of artist was not allowed
to be exercised by any common or illiterate persons, lest they
should attempt anything contrary to the laws and regulations
regarding the figures of the gods; and Plato (in his second Book
of Laws) says " they never suffered any pairiters or statuaries to
innovate anything in their art, or to invent any new subjects or
any new habits .... Hence the art still remains the same, the
rules of it still the same."

M