The Monticellonian. [volume] (Monticello, Ark.) 1870-1920, 1916-07-20

I ehaotically-chief among them .mys-
FERROUS" 'unchanging," formidable
terrific =" But the single, bigger mem
DRY that should link all these together
intelligibIy hides from sight the emo
ton too deep for specific recognition,
too vast. somehow, for artieulate re-
covery.
The Acropolis. the wonders of Japan
and India, the mind can grasp-or
| thinks so but this composite en0rmity
of Ramesseum. Serapeum. karnak,
| Cheops, Sphinx, with a hundred tenn
pies and a thousand miles of sand, it
knows 1t cannot. The mind is blank.
Egypt, it seems, has faded. Memory
| certainly fails. and description willis.
There seems nothing precisely to re-
port, no interesting clear, Ineligible
thing. what did you see in Egypt?
What did YOU like best? What impress
sion did Egypt make upon yoa2" seem
questions impossible to answer. Imagi-
nation flickers, stammers and goes out.
Thought hesitates and stops.
INDUSTRIOUS to Some.
For some, a rather dominant impress
sion is undoubtedly 1.-THE monStrous."
splendor of awful dream yet never
quite of nightmare. stalks everywhere
suggesting an atmosphere of khubla
Khan. There is nothing lyrical. Even
the silvery river. the slender palms,
the fields of clover and barley and the
acres of flashing peoples convey no
lyrical sweetness, as elsewhere they
might. All moves to a Statelier meas
ure. Stern issues of life and death are
in the air, and in the grandeur Of the
tomhs and temples there is solemnity
of genuine awe that makes the blood
run slow little.
Those Thehan hills. where the kings
and queens lay buried, are farhidding
to the point of discomfort almost. The
! listening silence in the grim Valley of
the TombS of the Kings, the intoler-
able glare of sunshine on the stones.
the naked absence of any sign of ami
NAL or vegetable life, the slow APP
preaeh to the secret hiding place
where the mummy of a once power
! full monarch lies ghastly now beneath
the glitter of an electric light. the i'm
placahle desert deadly with heat and
distance on every side-this picture,
once seen. rather colorS ones memory
of the rest of Egypt with its somber
and funereal character.
And with the great deitic monoiths
the effect is similar. Proportions and
sheer size strike blow after blow upon
the mind. Stupendous figures. shroud-
ed TO the eyes. shoulder their way
slowly through the shifting sands.
deathlesS themselves and half-appal-
ing. Their attitudes and gestures ex-
press the hieroglyphic drawings come
to life. Their towering heads. coffed
with zodiacal signs, or grotesque with
animal or bird. bend down to watch
you everywhere. There is no hurry in
Them they move with the leisure of
the moon. with the statelineSs of the
sun. with the slow silence of the con
stelations. But they move There is.
between you and them, this effect of n
screen, erected by the ages. yet that
them through upon you. A hand of
shadow. but with granite grip. NAV
steal forth and draw You away into
some region where they dwell among
changeless symbols like themselves n
region vast, ancient and indifferent
ated as the desert that has produced
them Their effect in the end is weird.
difficult to describe, but real. Talk
with mind that has been STEPPED for
years in their atmosphere and pres
ence, and you will appreciate this odd
reality.
The spell of Egypt is an other-world.
ly spell. Its vagueness. its elusiyeness.
its undeniable reality are ingredients
at any rate, in a total result whose de-
tailed analysis lies hidden in mystery
and silence-inscrutable