Page:History of Architecture in All Countries Vol 1.djvu/170

 138 EGYPTIAN AECHITECTURE. Part I. domination, han we do of them during the earlier dynasties. All the buildings erected after the time of Alexander which have come down to our time, are essentially temples. Nothing that can be called a pahace or pavilion has survived, and no tombs, except some of Roman date at Alexandria, are knoAvn to exist. We have conse- 42. View of Temple at Philae. cjuently no pictures of gardens, with their villas and fish-ponds; no farms, with their cattle ; no farmyards, with their geese and ducks ; no ploughing or sowing; no representations of the mechanical arts; no dancing or amusements; no arms or campaigns. Nothing, in short, but worshi]! in its most material and least intellectual form. It is a cui-ious inversion of the usually received dogmata on this subject, but as we read the history of Egypt as written on her monuineiits, we find her first wholly occupied with the arts of peace, agricultural and industrious, avoiding war and ])riest- craft, and eminently practical in all her undertakings. In the middle period wefind her half jiolitical, half religious; sunk from her early hai)j)y })sition to a state of affairs such as existed in Europe' in the Middle Ages. In lirr tliiid and last stage we find her fallen under the altsulute infiuence of the most degrading superstition. We know from her masters that she had no ]>o- litical freedom and no external infiu- ence at this time; ])ut we hardly exfiected to find her sinking deeper and dccpci- into superstition, at a time when till- wori.l was a<lvaiiciiig forward with such rapid strides in th.' march of civili/ation, as was the case between the ages of Alexander and that ni C'unstantiiie. It j.robably was in conscqutMice of this retro- grade course that her civilization j)erished so absolutely and entirely, "iid.r the induence of the rising star of Christianity; and that, long 43. Plan of Temple at Phlte. Scale 100 ft. to 1 in.