g with the
white glare of the empty screen. As a result of the device the figures in
the first episode emerge from the dimness and in the last one go back
into the shadow whence they came, as foam returns to the darkness of an
evening sea. In the imaginative pictures the principle begins to be
applied more largely, till throughout the fairy story the figures float
in and out from the unknown, as fancies should. This method in its
simplicity counts more to keep the place an Ali Baba's cave than many a
more complicated procedure. In luxurious scenes it brings the soft edges
of Correggio, and in solemn ones a light and shadow akin to the effects
of Rembrandt.

Now we have a darkness on which we can paint, an unspoiled twilight. We
need not call it the Arabian's cave. There is a tomb we might have
definitely in mind, an Egyptian burying-place where with a torch we might
enter, read the inscriptions, and see the illustrations from the Book of
the Dead on the wall, or finding that ancient papyrus in the mummy-case,
unroll it and show it to the eager assembly, and have the feeling of
return. Man is an Egyptian first, before he is any other type of
civilized being. The Nile flows through his heart. So let this cave be
Egypt, let us incline ourselves to revere the unconscious memories that
echo within us when we see the hieroglyphics of Osiris, and Isis. Egypt
was our long brooding youth. We built the mysteriousness of the Universe
into the Pyramids, carved it into every line of the Sphinx. We thought
always of the immemorial.

The reel now before us is the mighty judgment roll dealing with the
question of our departure in such a way that any man who beholds it will
bear the impress of the admonition upon his heart forever. Those Egyptian
priests did no little thing, when amid their superstitions they still
proclaimed the Judgment. Let no one consider himself ready for death,
till like the men by the Nile he can call up every scene, face with
courage every exigency of the ordeal.

There is one copy of the Book of the Dead of especial interest, made for
the Scribe Ani, with exquisite marginal drawings. Copies may be found in
our large libraries. The particular fac-simile I had the honor to see was
in the Lenox Library, New York, several years ago. Ani, according to the
formula of the priesthood, goes through the adventures required of a
shade before he reaches the court of Osiris. All the Egyptian pictures on
tomb-wall and tem