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part of my lecture, by a reference to the peculiar wants or circum- 

 stances of the people in various localities. The hood or cap on 

 the head of the Sphinx is generally supposed to be a throne, and 

 alludes to the sovereignty of Upper Egypt. 



The Winged Globe comes next in importance, and is a type 

 of the enduring providence of the Almighty. This explanation is 

 equally applicable to the Scarabeus or .Mystic Beetle ; but the 

 latter admits of a fuller and more comprehensive meaning. This 

 is contained in an examination into the habits of this singular 

 insect, when its apparent absurdity as an emblem of God's provi- 

 dence must yield to a sense of its beauty and appropriateness. It 

 is thus explained. The Scarabseus envelopes its egg in a ball of 

 clay, and this ball, teeming with the germs of life, is adopted as 

 the type of the present world. It is rolled by the insect with 

 laborious care to a suitable place, where it is buried to a sufficient 

 depth in the soil to protect it from the effects of the approaching 

 inundation of the Nile. Here is symbolized the tomb. Tlie 

 chrysalis represents the mummy state — death as a transition to the 

 perfect day, when the Nile having retired, the grub emerges from 

 its swathings, and soars into ethereal space, emblem of resurrection 

 to eternal life. It would be difficult to conceive a more appropriate 

 symbol to the Egyptian mind of his belief in a future state and the 

 immortality of the soul. 



Next in order in Decorative Art I must allude to those 

 prevalent features in Egyptian architecture, the Papyrus and the 

 Lotus, and point to their wonderful influence in all the schools of 

 decorative art which follow. They are commonly used together 

 in Egyptian ornament, and have, like all Egyptian art, a highly 

 symbolic meaning. They represent the intellectual and material 

 wants of man. Thus the Lotus, or water lil)', is the accepted type 

 of their great river, the Nile, to which they owe the fertility of the 

 soil, and to which they are indebted for every material necessity of 

 their daily existence. The Lotus will be found as commonly 

 adopted in Assyrian as in Egyptian art, especially in its latest 

 forms, when the Assyrian may be said to bear the same, culminating 

 position with regard to Egyptian, as Roman bears to Greek art, 



