The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-07-18


the tail, blond men, with love of free
dom, are the same. Everything but
| language they had in common.
| Another great fact is the similarity
| between the Semitic race and the Ar
yam race. Egypt is perhaps one of the
most wonderful countries in the world.
| No wonder the Egyptians made a god
| of the Nile The Nile may have caused
| the oldest civilization in the world
Some writers say the Egyptian thought
lacks system. The Egyptian himself
seems to be a somewhat unideal indi-
I vidual with the one exception of his
idea of soul. His life and religion were
| colored by the water. His pleasures
were mostly those of the body. Hence
the mummy, for the Egyptian thought
| the body should be saved as well as the
soul
AS far back as 1900 years ago. the
bank of the Nile knew civilization as
we know it. The modern representa-
tive of this Egypt is the camel driver,
the man who works in the field; he has
again become what the early Egyptian
was before civilization began. The
earliest civilization in the world was in
Egypt. 1t was probably civilized be-
fore our ancestors went to Europe. No
civilization in all probability has spread
itself all over the world as that of
t4SJ - LINZ lAlC 4NltS llStil, II renewed
itself from year to year. Before Rome
was founded, Egypt existed. In the
islands of the seas, in the Canaries,
there were signs of Egypt. In the ISL
and of Cyprus you find in the caves
evidence that commerce with Egypt
was in existence thousands of years be-
fore our era. The foundations of Car
image have been built on the founda-
lions of an older city which was built
long after Egyptian civilization had be-
gun. Everywhere one finds evidences
of Egypt's civilization
When we come to look at Egypt it.
self we shall see that human civiliza-
ton has developed under strange con-
ditions. Egypt has no two elements
In her civilization which developed
alike. Egypt achieved but little in lit
erature, and she gave no writing. She
gave us little in painting but in arch
itecture Egypt did burst forth and daz-
zle the earth. Place a people, instinct
with genius and with memory of
mountains, on a fiat like the valley of
the Nile, and they will make things to
simulate the mountains.
The art of Egypt is peculiar. No
people have perDetuated themselves so
well in art. We do not see a nation
IN Greek art; we see the artist, but in
the art of Egypt we see a race For
80 centuries they practiced architec-
ture. 1t was the constant occupa-
ton of the whole people. Art is con-
nected with religion in this earliest ci-
Vilization. The Egyptians despised
life and the whole effort of his art was
to make huge buildings in which to
be buried when dead, The tomb not
the palace, is the home of the Egyp-
tian. What had charmed and interest
ed the Egyptian in life were for his
h c
terity. Who shall say that Egypt has
not become immortal? The pyramids
have lived and every nation has been
under their shadows.
Egypt has influenced the world by
her architecture more than we think
Three times men strove to initiate
Egyptian architecture. The barbarous
tribes of Central Africa swept down
on Egypt and for centuries held the
lower part OF the country. Nothing
great or grand came out of that at
tempt. Everything in Egypt was
crudely initiated and nothing more
came of it.
The second attempt was of an en-
tirely different type. 1t was by the
Greeks. They We're nearly barbarous,
though they had borrowed a little from
Babylon. For 700 years the Greeks i'm
itated the Egyptian art In about 500
B. c., Greek art still smacked of Egypt
but two centuries later it had begun
the art which made it famous
The third people to initiate were the
Persians. They came into contact only
after Persia had swept down into
Egypt In that period they came under
the influence of Egypt. Two centuries
after Cyrus, Persia possessed no art,
and two centuries later art had bios
somed into an almost original skill,
and lived until Alexander conquered
Persia.
One can see in the capitals and shafts
of Persian columns a genesis of an
initiative art cut off and never coming
into prominence until the sixth CEN
fury. A. D., when the Arabs overran
the country. Egypt has written itself
large on all the countries. 1t lies Ger
tainly $4,000 years before our era.