round a vast wall still in
perfect preservation, which encircles the windowless parallelogram
formed by the temple, and reaches about half its height, leaving a
narrow court like a moat all round; and we felt that these religious
edifices had been fortresses likewise, and that temporal as well as
spiritual terrors had of yore surrounded them. When shall we be able to
wring forth the secret of that ancient time? When will its history cease
to be a myth, its kings become real personages, its civilisation
something better than a romance? As yet, nothing has been discovered
except a string of disjointed facts, which scholars arrange each after
his own fashion, and which no more resemble any other known series of
human actions than the accidental combination of the kaleidoscope does
this living and breathing world. We want a key, and a key has not been
found. So men go stumbling on through the inextricable labyrinth, and
exhaust more ingenuity in vain speculations than would suffice to bring
a variety of modern sciences to perfection.

It was perfectly safe to indulge in these thoughts, because even if any
mighty antiquary had been at hand, he would have been obliged to confess
that although some truth may have been brought to light, it is
impossible to put one's finger upon it. For almost all men who have
studied Egyptian antiquities differ entirely in their conclusions--all
arrange dynasties in a different manner, and find more mistakes than
discoveries in their predecessors. Well, thought we, let us leave them
to their researches: if they do not find the pot of gold, they may
cultivate the ground. For our part, we will hasten on to where yon pale
gleam of yellow light is pouring between the propylaea and the body of
the temple over the court-yard upon an enormous mountain of rubbish. It
was the moon that had risen--not to enlighten the scene, but to render
it more dim and mysterious, more full of strange shadows and illusions.
On such occasions it is difficult even for the least imaginative to
check a thought of what that pale, thoughtful-looking orb, which has
watched the changing aspects of this scene for so many thousand years,
could tell if it had a tongue! We gazed inquiringly at it; but as it
rose higher and higher, and poured down more light on all objects
around, it seemed to smile at our inquisitiveness, and to bid us turn
less eager glances towards the dust and rubbish of old times, where
perchance we may find a