CHAP. XVI. TOMBS. 393 



being always kept ready, the purchase was made 

 at the " shortest notice ;" nothing being requisite to 

 complete even the sculptures or inscriptions but 

 the insertion of the deceased's name, and a few 

 statements respecting his family and profession. 

 The numerous subjects representing agricultural 

 scenes, the trades of the people, in short the various 

 occupations of the Egyptians, were already intro- 

 duced. These were common to all tombs, varying 

 only in their details and the mode of their exe- 

 cution ; and were intended as a short epitome of 

 human life, which suited equally every future oc- 

 cupant. 



It has been a question why the Egyptians took 

 so much care in embellishing their sepulchres, 

 " styling them," as Diodorus * tells us, ^^ eternal 

 habitations^ and neglecting no excess of magni- 

 ficence in their construction ; whilst they termed 

 the dwellings of the living inns^ to be inhabited 

 only for a limited period, paying little attention 

 to the mode of building or ornamenting them." 

 Some have supposed that they considered the soul 

 conscious of the beauty of these abodes, and that 

 it took a pleasure in contemplating the scenes it 

 delighted in during its sojourn upon earth, which 

 were represented on their walls. The same idea 

 may be traced in the vv^ritings of Plato t, who 

 puts these words into the mouth of Socrates : — 

 " Death seems to me nothing else than the dis- 

 solution of two things, viz. of the soul and body 



* Diodor. i. 51. f Plato, Gorgias, p. 453-4. 



