disclosed by the
pick-axes of the Chaldaeans, the Arabs scampered off, and how all the
natives thought that Nimroud himself--the mighty hunter--was rising
grimly from the earth, are points in the discovery of this treasure
which all should read. The vigour with which English and French
explorers have possessed themselves of the treasures of ancient Egypt,
the master-pieces from the Parthenon, the strange stone revelations of
Lycia, and the majestic colossi of ancient Assyria, contrasts forcibly
with the indolence of the Turk, who sat at hand to wonder at the
enthusiasm of his Christian visitors. No more pitiful exhibition of a
national character could be furnished by any passage in the history of
the world than that which describes the ignorant and superstitious
Turk grinding the sculpture of the Parthenon into mortar for his
dwelling house. Truly, in all respects, is this a matter to be
pondered by the general visitor, as he retreats from the national
Museum for the third time. He has not passed an idle day here,
wandering amid sphinxes, and tombs, and temples, and ancient gods.
From the confusion he may gather something that shall not be
altogether a useless subject for reflection as he wanders homewards.
He may link himself with the remote past, recognise the elements of
modern society in these stone revelations of the remote history of the
world, feel the vibration of the great human heart coming to him even
from the bowels of Egypt's pyramids. There he has their family
histories written on their tombstones by weeping relatives; their
religion, with all its debasing idolatry, strong in death, exhibiting
pleasantly the firmness of their faith; splendid sarcophagi tardily
wrought from massive rock, yet perseveringly accomplished in the
strong conviction that the dead would shake off the mummy bandages,
discharge the natron from their pores, reclaim their scattered
intestines, pass the brain back through the nose into the skull, and
once more feel quickening blood in the veins. Proudly men of the
passing century look back upon all this worship of animals, upon the
Egyptian Anubis, and the intestine genii with their animal heads; but
even here, in this field of speculation, where the historian's hand
wanders unsteadily about his page, and all wears a mythical air,
pulses of human emotion are felt that assure us of the remote past.
Strange that the chief chapters of ancient Egypt's history should have
been written for mo