it in a very high degree in the arrangement and harmony of the whole, of which they formed a part. The effect of the immense coloured reliefs which cover the walls of some of the caves and temples is said far to surpass that of the most celebrated efforts of Grecian art, notwithstanding the uncouthness and clumsiness of the details.

The impression upon the mind of the spectator when he first enters one of the vast halls which still remain in the interior of the palaces at Thebes, is described to be absolutely stunning. Some of these halls are 600 feet both in length and breadth, and are crowded throughout their entire area with massive columns 12 feet in diameter and 66 feet high. The walls, pillars, and gateways are all covered with colossal figures in relief of gods and kings, and with the representation of long triumphal and religious processions. These designs are also painted with the most vivid colours, which are applied every where with very skilful attention to general harmony of effect. It may readily be imagined that the sensations excited by the contemplation of a scene so wonderful and so strange are as difficult for one who has seen it to describe as for one who has not seen it to conceive.

Those who have visited Egypt also praise greatly the architectural effect of those temples the exterior of which remains entire, or nearly so. They speak of the air of solemn magnificence which is presented by these majestic ruins, in this respect, also, giving them a decided preference to the Grecian temples, and enlarging upon the singular propriety of this style of architecture for the construction of an edifice set apart for religious purposes.

CHAPTER IV.

RECOVERY OF THE MODE OF READING HIEROGLYPHICS.

IT has already been shown, that the devices and inscriptions on the temples and tombs of Egypt are historical documents, which, if understood, would most probably furnish highly important illustrations of the text of holy Scripture. And, therefore, it will be heard with deep interest that, in the course of the last twenty years, the scholars of Europe have made great progress in deciphering these inscriptions. Some account of the discovery of the mode of reading them will be desirable.

Many obelisks, and other works of art, still remain at Rome, which had been brought thither from Egypt by the emperors, most of which are covered with hieroglyphics. The meaning of these singular characters had been often under discussion among men of letters from almost the revival of learning in Europe in the fifteenth century. The Roman, and still more the Greek authors of antiquity, had written much upon them without knowing much about them, by no means an unusual case; and, upon their authority, it was believed, that very profound and important knowledge lay hid beneath these strange uncouth symbols; and that the discovery of the key to them would unlock to the world a

treasury of hidden and forgotten truths, both physical and metaphysical. From the same source, the moderns derived something like the hope that industry and critical skill would accomplish this discovery. A work was known to them written by Horapollo, and professing to have been translated into Greek from the ancient Egyptian, which gave the interpretations of several groups of hieroglyphics; and in other classical authors, also, similar interpretations were occasionally to be found. But it was not in consesequence of any encouragement afforded them by these ancient authorities that the moderns persevered in their laborious researches. The account of the classic writers rather led to the conclusion that the interpretation of hieroglyphics had been so studiously concealed from the vulgar by the priests of Egypt, and was so imperfectly known, even among themselves, that it was wholly lost or forgotten in the days of the later emperors, one of whom had offered in vain a large reward to any one who should read for him the inscription on an obelisk he was about to erect.

The first author among the moderns who seriously undertook the interpretation of hieroglyphics was A. Kircher. He was a man of great industry and stupendous learning. His work, which he entitled Edipus Ægyptiacus, appeared in six bulky folios, in 1636, and gave professed interpretations of the hieroglyphics on most of the Egyptian monuments then in Europe. Respecting these interpretations, it may suffice to remark, that they all treated of mysterious and recondite subjects, such as the soul of the world, the spirit of

*This notion began about 600, A.C., in the reign of Psammetichus it was afterwards revived by the Gnostic heretics, in the third century of the Christian era. See Zoga de Obeliscis, pp. 542. 549.