Wilkinson, John Gardner; Birch, Samuel [Contr.]: The Egyptians in the time of the pharaohs: being a companion to the Crystal Palace Egyptian collections (London, 1857)

viii PREFACE.

as a nation; we find no archaic style of art, no primaeval
habits; and the general character of the people, as of their
architecture, had been long established when we first become
acquainted with them from their monuments, and continued
to be the same till the decline of Egyptian power. What
their primitive habits were it is difficult to say, or what
they might have become if left unfettered by conventional
regulations. Eor conventional customs are artificial, and
imposed on a people. They have them not naturally; and
though a marked character distinguishes various races (as
well as individuals), mere conventional customs are the result
of special training. The rules may be based on the early
habits of the people themselves (like the Egyptian mode of
drawing the human figure in profile, with the eye in front);
but without these impediments, they would improve upon
and rid themselves of their early imperfections; and the
maintenance of old peculiarities, or the subserviency to new
ones, is always attributable to an artificial cause.

"When we first become acquainted with the Egyptians,
we find they were already guided by conventional rules,
which prevented all great changes in their habits during
the long period recorded by their monuments; but that
they should have had so marked an effect upon them is less
surprising when we recollect how some even of the Greeks