which are found outside, generally are far removed from wooden forms; and it is only when we find the Egyptian indulging in decorative art that we trace this more primitive form. There are two doorways of this class in the British Museum, and many in that of Berlin ; but perhaps one of the best illustrations of the architectural forms of that day is the sarcophagus of Mycerinus, unfortunately lost on its way to England. It represents a palace, with all the peculiarities found on a larger scale in the buildings which surround the pyramid, with the peculiar cornice and still more peculiar roll or ligature on the angles, most evidently a carpentry form, but which the style retained to its latest day.

In many of the tombs surrounding the pyramids square piers are found supporting the roof, sometimes, but rarely, with an abacus, generally without any carved work, though it is more than probable that they were originally painted with devices upon which they depended for their ornament. In most instances they look more like fragments of a wall, of which the intervening spaces had been cut away, than pillars in the sense in which we usually understand the word; and in all instances in the early ages they must be considered more as utilitarian expedients than as parts of an ornamental style of architecture.

From the knowledge, however, that we do possess of this style, we may safely assert that it is one of the least beautiful artistically of those we are acquainted with, and infinitely inferior to the Theban style which succeeded it. The early Egyptians built neither for beauty nor for use, but for eternity. To this last they sacrificed every other feeling. In itself nothing can be less artistic than a pyramid. A tower, either round or square, or of any other form, and of the same dimensions, would have been far more imposing, and if of sufficient height-the mass being the same might almost attain to sublimity; but a pyramid never looks so large as it is, and not till you almost touch it can you be brought to believe that its dimensions are so great as they are. This is owing principally to all its parts sloping away from the eye instead of boldly challenging observation; but, on the other hand, no form is so stable, none so capable of resisting the injuries of time or force, and

none, consequently, so well calculated to attain the object for which the pyramids were erected. As examples of technic art, they are unrivalled among the works of men, but they rank among the lowest if judged by the æsthetic rules of architectural art.

The same character belongs to the tombs and buildings around them: they are low and solid, and possess neither beauty of form nor any architectural feature at all worthy of attention or admiration, but they have lasted nearly uninjured from the remotest antiquity, and thus have attained the object their builders had principally in view when they designed them.

THE moment we pass the local limits of the necropolis of Memphis, or chronologically come below the dynasties of the pyramid-builders, we are at once aware of being in the presence of a new style of architecture, differing in almost every respect from that which preceded it, and in many characteristics antagonistic to it to a remarkable extent.

We have no longer any pyramids, nor any traces of that quaint style of wooden architecture pointed out above. Obelisks become one of the most remarkable and striking features of the new style, all of them, so far as we know, situated on the eastern side, as all the pyramids were on the western side of the Nile. Columnar architecture becomes also general, comprising two of the forms of columns, afterwards more generally used; the Proto-Doric, so called from its extreme similarity to the Greek order of that name, and those with what is called the lotus-bud capital, from its supposed resemblance to the bud of that sacred plant. It is in this age that the great temple at Karnac was commenced by Osortasen, the first temple of which we have any cognizance in Egyptian history; and under another king of the same dynasty-Amenemha-the Labyrinth was also begun, though when it was finished, or how far it was carried by him, are as yet by no means clear. Nor is it known whether the pyramid that forms part of the group was built by that king, or belongs to some prior dynasty.

Under the kings of this period Egypt enjoyed great prosperity; the face of the country was changed; a new style of art and new manners were introduced. This state of things was suddenly checked by the Shepherd invasion, the greatest of all the afflictions which Egypt suffered during her long career, which humbled her into the condition of a subject province. It is by no means satisfactorily settled, even now, who these Shepherds were, though they must probably have been a race inhabiting either the Valley of the Euphrates, or some of the countries between that region and the Valley of the Nile, who, entering by the Isthmus of Suez, took possession of the whole country from the Cataract to the sea. The detestation in which the memory of these intruders was ever after held in Egypt testifies to the oppressiveness of their rule, and to the disgust which their barbarism inspired among their far more civilised subjects. We read that, during the steward

ship of Joseph "the Egyptians might not eat bread with the Hebrews; for that is an abomination to the Egyptians," and that "every shepherd is an abomination unto the Egyptians.'

The descendants of the old Egyptian kings, however, still existed, though they cannot be said to have reigned till lapse of time brought decay and corruption into the ranks of the Shepherd kings, when, joining with the other petty princes of native descent, they rose, expelled the Shepherd races, and restored the Theban Empire with even greater glory than before. Under their rule Egypt became the most powerful state in the ancient world, and attained a point of greatness in arms and art which she never surpassed, and which, in so far as architecture is concerned, is unequalled by any state which has existed from that time to this.

On the restoration of the old Egyptian monarchs they brought back with them the style of art which had prevailed before the interruption caused by their subjection, unaltered in all respects. The two periods, therefore, must be taken together as one group. As this group comprehends all that is best and greatest in Egyptian art, it will be necessary to treat it rather more in detail and more methodically than the previous style.

PILLARS.

Egyptian pillars are of very various forms. Of these we must be content here to describe a few, which appear the most distinct, and typical of the general style of art.

The simplest form is that of a plain square pier, with or without an abacus, as used in the tombs about the pyramids. Sir Gardner Wilkinson suggests that it was derived from the supports left in quarries to sustain the superincumbent strata, but its origin may be even earlier and simpler than this, for it is evident that, wherever a roof or verandah or open space is to be covered, whether the masonry is of brick or of stone, a square pier is the most obvious, the simplest, and mechanically the best mode of supporting a beam or beams. Such square piers were probably used in the bazaars, the houses, and temples of Memphis, before even the time when the pyramids were erected. When built of brick or a rubble stone, an abacus, either of flat tiles or of wood, becomes indispensable, to diffuse the pressure of the beams equally. Piers of masonry in regular flat courses were used contemporaneously with those of brick or rubble. In none of these is it necessary that the abacus should project beyond the line of the pillars, nor in fact does this appear to have been usual in any period of Egyptian art. The next form that this pillar took was that of an octagon, produced by cutting off the angles of the square: an improvement which, if not indispensable for pillars on the exterior of buildings, was nearly so internally, where the space occupied and the sharp square angles were particularly awkward. This step made, it was easy to carry it further by cutting off the angles of the octagon, so as to make

1 Genesis xliii. 32; xlvi. 34.

Q