E G 
by fuch men as Lycurgiis and Solqn dudying legifistion 
in Egypt: this fame obfervation holds with refpeCt to 
philosophers and artifls. 
But the moft prominent feature of the progrefs of the 
arts in ancient Egypt, was the perfection and magnifi¬ 
cence of their architecture. Borrowing nothing from the 
itlie of other nations, they have added no foreign orna¬ 
ment, no fuperfiuity of materials. Order and fimplicity 
are ^he principles which they have followed, and they 
have carried them to fublimity. At this point they have 
flopped, and have attached fo much importance to pre¬ 
ferring the unity of defign, that though they have loaded 
the walls of their edifices with bas-reliefs, infcriptiohs, 
and hiftorical and fcientific reprefentations, yet none of 
thefe rich additions interfeCts a fingle line of the general 
plan, all of which is religioufly preferved unbroken : 
the fumptuous and rich decorations which appear to the 
eye when clofe to the building, all vanifh at a (liort dif- 
tance, and leave full to view the grand elements of ar¬ 
chitectural compofition, which are dictated by found rea- 
fon. It feldom rains in this climate; all that is wadded, 
therefore, is a covering of plat-bands to give fltade; but 
beyond this, neither roof nor pediment are added ; the 
plain fortification hope is the principle of folidity ; they 
have therefore adopted this form for every main fup- 
porter, doubtlefs with the idea that liability is the fird 
imprefiion that architecture fliould give, and is an elTen- 
tial condiment of this art. With thefe people, the idea 
of the immortality of the Deity is prefenled by the eter¬ 
nity of his temple ; thefe ornaments, which are always 
rational, always confident, always fignificant, demondrate 
a deadinefs of principle, a tade founded upon truth, and 
a deep train of reafoning; and if we even had not a full 
conviction of the eminent height to which they had at¬ 
tained in the abdraCt fciences, their architecture alone, 
in the date in which we now find it, would give the ob¬ 
server of the prefect day a high opinion of the antiquity 
of this nation, of its intellectual refources, and the im- 
preflivp gravity of its character. 
“ I defpair, (fays Denon,) of being able to exprefs 
half what I felt on danding under the rich portico of the 
matfive temple of Tentyra. I felt that I was in the fanc- 
tuary of the arts and fciences. How many periods pre- 
fented themfelves to my imagination at the fight of fuch 
an edifice ! how many ages of creative ingenuity were re- 
quilite to bring a nation to fuch a degree of perfection 
and fublimity in the arts! and how many more of obli¬ 
vion to caufe thefe mighty productions to be forgotten, 
and to bring.back the human race to the date of nature 
in which I now found them on this very fpot ! Never 
was there a place which concentered in a narrower com- 
pafs the well-marked memorial of a progredive lapfe of 
ages. What unceafing power, what riches, what abun¬ 
dance, what fuperfiuity, of means mud a government 
poffefs which could ereCf fuch an edifice, and find within 
itfelf artids capable of conceiving and executing the de¬ 
fign, of decorating and enriching it with every thing that 
fpeaks to the eye and the underdanding ! A condant 
fubjeft of adonifhment is afforded by the equality of care 
obfervable in all the parts of fo vad a whole, by that 
minute exaCtnefs of execution, and that perfeCt finilh, 
the fruits of an obdinacy and an inflexible perfeverance 
which charaClerifes a monadic fpirit, whofe zeal neither 
perifiies nor even cools, and whofe pride is not individual 
but corporate. Probably the artids themfelves were a 
condiment part of the colleges of prieds ; for it is fcarcely 
to be fuppofed that thefe would have allowed the arts, 
that elevate and adorn the human mind, to be entruded 
to any cad but their own. 
“ Thefe monuments, which imprint on the mind the 
refpeCt due to the fanChiary of the Divinity, were cer¬ 
tainly the open volumes, in which fcience was fird un¬ 
folded, morality dictated, and the ufefit 1 arts promul¬ 
gated ; every thing fpoke, every objeCt was animated 
with the lame mind. The opening of the doors, the 
Y P TT 375 
angles, the mod private recefs, dill prefented a leffon, a 
precept of admirable harmony; and the riched ornament 
on the graved feature of the architecture, revealed, under 
living images, the abdract truths of adronomy. Painting 
added a further charm to fculpture and architecture, and 
produced at the fame time an agreeable richnefs, which 
did not injure either the general fimplicity or the gravity 
of the whole. Td all appearance, painting, in Egypt, 
was only an auxiliary ornament, and not a particular art: 
the fculpture was emblematical, as well as architectural. 
Architecture, therefore, was the great art, or that which 
was dictated by utility, and we'may from this circum- 
dance alone infer the priority,* or at lead the fuperior 
excellence of the Egyptian over the Indian art ; fince 
the former, borrowing nothing front the latter, has be¬ 
come the bafis of all that is the fubjeft of admiration in 
modern art, and of what we have conddered as exclu- 
fively belonging to architecture, the three Greek orders, 
the Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian. We fhould, there¬ 
fore, be cautious of entertaining the falfe idea, which is 
fo prevalent, that the Egyptian architecture is the in¬ 
fancy of this art, fince it is in fact the complete type. 
Yet it is wonderful that a knowledge of this advanced 
date of the arts in Egypt, fliould have lain dormant for 
fo many ages, and thaf the difcovery of it fliould have 
been left to dignify or mark the completion of the eigh¬ 
teenth century. 
“ I was particularly flruck with the beauty of the en¬ 
trance to the fanChiary of the temple of Tentyra, which 
is a mod magnificent fragment of Egyptian architecture. 
1 have copied with great exaCtnefs the different hierogly¬ 
phics, and have' fliewn the perfeCt prefervation of this 
part of the edifice ; on which account the view given of 
it in the annexed Engraving, unites the advantage of a 
geometrical elevation, with a piCturefque difplay of that 
fymbolical language which is now utterly unknown. In 
the fame engraving is reprefented a variety of capitals 
adapted to diderent columns, and other fragments of 
Egyptian architecture. In viewing fuch variety of form, 
uniting fuch richnefs of ornament, with elegance of out¬ 
line, one may well be furprifed that the world has al¬ 
lowed the Greeks, on their own aOertion, the merit of 
having been the inventors of architecture, and that all 
the truths of this art are to be fought for in the rules of 
the three Grecian orders. Might we not fuppofe that 
if fome hiftory, like that of the urn of the priedefs of 
Corinth, were attached to each of thefe capitals, they 
would each have acquired equal celebrity ; or rather we 
may aflert, that they require no adventitious reputation 
to claim the admiration of all lovers of the fine arts, as 
beautiful productions of human Ikill. The Egyptians, 
we fee, have copied Ample nature, fuch as.it appeared 
in their own country ; this the Greeks have borrowed 
from them, and have added to it nothing but fable. Here, 
the calyx of a flower, fupported by its Hem, has furnithed 
tiie form of the column, its bafe, and its capital; the 
lotus has afi'orded the fird model, and this plant was cx- 
preffive of the inundation, the emblem of the entrance 
of the Nile into the canals, the greated bounty which 
nature can bedow on the Egyptians; they have there¬ 
fore introduced this plant into the decoration of.their 
temples, as a homage of gratitude to Ifis, who prefided 
over this bounteous gift: as goddefs of the earth, they 
have alio dedicated to her the other productions of the 
foil, the reed, the palm, the vine, &c. The following 
is an explanation of thefe fragments of Egyptian archi¬ 
tecture : 
Fig. i. A golden vafe, emblematic of the overflowing 
of the Nile, whofe unlimited bounty difpenfes the necef- 
faries of life alike to man and bead. The richnefs of its 
appropriate decorations may well be admired ; an in¬ 
verted lotus flower ferves as a cover ; and the horle 
palfant, and the heads of goats and Arabian liorfes, are 
in fine dyle. Fig. 2. The capital to the columns in the 
temple of Typhon or Anubis, the evil genius, or god of 
