The Evolution of Sculpture. 357 



ABSTRACT OF THE DISCUSSION. 



MB. LYSANDER DICKERMAN: 



I think the audience must have been greatly impressed, as I have 

 been, with the force, beauty, and philosophic thought manifested in 

 the lecture of Prof. Davidson. I can speak only in commendation of 

 his carefully considered and matured conclusions. Since he has 

 drawn his illustrations and traced the line of evolution mainly from 

 the art of Greece, it may be of interest to note its characteristics in an 

 older country in Egypt. Had I selected my own views, however, I 

 should have made a somewhat different choice. I must use the mate- 

 rial at hand as best I may. [A series of about twenty-five views of 

 Egyptian sculpture was placed upon the screen, and explained by Mr. 

 Dickerman. They comprised three views of the Sphinx, several portrait 

 statues, and figures of the gods and goddesses.] In regard to the por- 

 trait statues Mr. Dickerman said: The object of the Egyptians in 

 making these statues, which are usually found at or near their burial 

 places, was to prepare an abode for the Ka, which was the fourth prin- 

 ciple composing the personality of the human being, the other three 

 being the body, soul, and mind. The Ka was something like our con- 

 ception of a ghost ; it may have been what Paul meant by the " spirit- 

 ual body." When the person died it must have an abiding place pre- 

 pared for it until it should again be united with the soul and body at 

 the resurrection ; it must not be left to wander about at a distance 

 from the body. Hence it was the aim of the Egyptian sculptor to 

 make a correct likeness of the deceased ; and it is noteworthy that in the 

 oldest of these statues the expression is dignified and life-like. I think 

 we do not find anywhere in Egyptian sculpture the conventional silly 

 and inane expression to which Prof. Davidson has called your attention 

 in these early sculptures of Greece and Assyria. This wooden statue 

 is 6,000 years old three thousand years older than the earlier products 

 of Greek art ; yet you observe that the arms are separated from the 

 sides, without destroying the symmetry of the body ; one foot is ad- 

 vanced, and the whole attitude is natural and life-like. 



There is a difference between the Greek sphinx and the Egyptian 

 sphinx. The former may have symbolized brute force, as Prof. David- 

 son has assumed. The latter was simply the symbolical representation 

 of the god Horus Har-em-akhu the rising sun. It is not true, I be- 

 lieve, of any period of Egyptian history, that that people worshiped 



