The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-02-25
GREEK AND EGYPTIAN ART.
IS AS MUCH DIFFERENCE AS RE-
 TWEEN LIFE AND DEATH.


 as Cave-LilSe as Possible-GreelS Temples
 Were Built on the Hilltops That the Sun
 Might Shine Through Them.
 Athens, Feb 6, 1885,
 To the Editor of the JOURNAL AND COURIER:
 The difference between Egyptian and Greek art is the difference between darkness and light; between gloom and sunshine; between death and life. The early Egyptians lived in caves; died in caves, and were buried in caves. They worshipped their ancestors where they were buried. The gloom and darkness of the earliest stages of Egyptian life Became such part of the innermost es- sence of the people that when they merged from their pristine caves, they made their tombs and temples as cave- like as possible. They were as diligent in excluding light from their temples as from their tombs Their worship must be shrouded in darkness, hung about with dim mysteries, performed to vaguely understood rituals. They shared their primeval habitations with birds and beasts of prey, with whom their bedimmed intellects associated the souls of forefathers. So when they came to make statues of their deified ancestors they gave them the heads of hawks, cats and jackals. No people who live in the sunlight and breathe the pure air of heaven can worship ani- mals. Even when the Egyptians of later centuries turned their hands in prayer to Osiris, the rising sun, Horus. his son, still has the hawks head; while Ammon Ara remains confounded with the ram-headed Chnum. Egyptian temples were all built low down close to the low leveled earth. All have subter- ranean rooms and passages. Greek temples are built on hill tops where the sun can shine through and through them and flood them with brightness. Greek temples are living, breathing, palpitating architecture Egyptian temples are, dead matter. So long as there be a single column upright: so long there is joy in the presence of a Greek temple. There never could have been joy at Karnak from the day it was founded. The tired soul which in Egypt begins to fear that the sense of aesthetic enjoyment may have left it is treasured the moment the. straining eye catches the outline of the acropolis. One minute withing the Proplae com pletes the cure. restores and comforts.
 Greece is in a very bad way indeed politically and f1nancially.Not mile of railroad has been added. In fact the road to the north which was to connect Greece with the great railroad systems of Europe has been abandoned. The millions of money the government ad- vanced to the enterprise might as well have been cast into the sea. The mill lions more put into the Corinth canal are virtually cast into the-sea, for large vessels would sooner go around the Pelo- ponesus than risk the shallow and tor turous navigation of the gulf Besides the charges for foreign vessels are so high as to exclude them. It is as diff cult to get to Thebes, Delphi or Tslo as six years ago. Nor is there any pros pect of improvement. Greece is bank rupt and should be placed in the hands of a receiver. Not once in twelve years has Greece failed to spend from twelve to twenty-five million dollars more than her income. There is an accumulated debt of nearly two hundred million dol lars, while the country is flooded with a vast unknown quantity of paper money worth about sixty cents on the dollar. Last year but about third of the in- terest on the debt was paid. This year probably none will be paid at all and foreign bondholders are clamorous for an arrangement which would be equiv alent to putting the Kingdom into the hands of a receiver. There seems no way in which the government can es- cape financial dishonor and ruin. Fix perts who have examined the situation closely are of the opinion that if the Greeks would work together in an or- derly and self-sacrificing manner, the ship of state might be rescued from its perilous position. But everybody Is waiting for his neighbor to commence the sacrifice. The Greeks have a sov- ereign contempt for taxation and will | upset in iiffy any ministry that pro- poses increasing taxes. They seem to | be of the opinion that the rich nations | of Europe should consider it an honor | to contribute to their necessities and to | their luXuries. The Greek lives in the | future just as much as he did twenty years ago. The realities of the present are unworthy of his consideration. The time of reckoning, however, seems to have come at last. A day or two ago it was reported that a merchant of Patras had effected quite a sale of dried cur rents, as they are called. The price of gold at Athens immediately went down. and for half an hour ruled at ten points lower than the normal rate. Then these queer children began to consider that one sale did not constitute a return of prosperity any more than one swal- low makes summer. A sovereign state can of course repudiate it's debt, but other states equally sovereign can gobble it up should it attempt to do so. The debt is about equally held in Eng land and France, and neither of these