certain extent did in fact intrude itself, and that progress, development, decay, renaissance are consequently terms not wholly inapplicable to the art of Egypt at different periods. The earliest remains found at Saccarah and at Meydoun, consisting in part of statues, in part of painted bas-reliefs, exhibit a certain amount of rudeness and indecision, a certain weakness and want of regular method, indicative of an incipient art which is as yet imperfectly formed and does not know exactly how to proceed.1 When we reach the time of the fourth dynasty, improvement is observable, more especially in the statuary, which rapidly attains the highest degree of perfection that it ever reached in Egypt. The portrait-statues of Chephren, and of various private persons contemporary with him or with the other Pyramid kings, are the best specimens which occur of Egyptian sculpture in the round,' and are regarded by some as rivalling the busts and statues of Rome.'2 Up to this time Egyptian art is thought to have been wholly, or at any rate to a great extent, untrammelled by law; and so far as statuary is concerned, it has a naturalness in the human forms that disappears afterwards. But the bas-reliefs of the period are decidedly inferior to those of a later time. Not only is the aim low, scenes of common life being alone exhibited, but the rendering is unsatisfactory, the different representations being wanting in variety, and 1 Lenormant, having mentioned | A comparison of the busts in the works of art which he attributes to Roman room of the Brit. Museum, the second dynasty, says: 'En les ranging from Julius Caesar to Elaétudiant, on y remarque une ru- gabalus, with the best specimens of desse et une indécision de style qui Egyptian art, will (I think) show montre qu'à la fin de la deuxième this judgment to be very much too dynastie l'art égyptien cherchait favourable. encore sa voie, et n'était qu'imparfaitement formé' (Manuel, vol. i. p. 333). 2 Birch, Ancient Egypt, p. 43. 3 Wholly, according to Lenormant (Manuel, vol. i. p. 538); but not so, according to Birch (Guide to Museum, p. 18). CH. VIII.] EPOCHS OF EGYPTIAN ART. 291 the best of them deficient in expression and life. A new epoch introduces itself with the twelfth dynasty, when hieratic canons were absolutely enforced,1 and art, cramped so far, found compensation in an increased delicacy of rendering, an elegance and a harmony never previously realised.2 New ideas sprang into being under the fostering influence of enlightened princes. Obelisks were erected; piers were superseded by columns; and an architectural order was elaborated, which at a later date approved itself to the Greeks. Sculpture at the same time took a fresh start. The tombs of Beni-Hassan reproduce in a general way those of a more primitive age at Saccarah and Ghizeh; but the touch is more delicate, the proportions are better, and the subjects are more varied. After the time of the twelfth dynasty, Egyptian art does not so much decline as disappear, until the great reaction sets in under the eighteenth dynasty, when the Egyptian nation attains its acmé, and the perfection of art, as of most other things, is reached. The 'grand style' is now brought into existence, and supersedes the humbler and more prosaic one that had hitherto prevailed. Colossi are erected; huge battle-scenes are composed, containing hundreds of figures; variety of attitude is studied; life and energy are thrown into the drawing; even the countenances lose their immobility and have a certain amount of feeling and expression. But after the space of about three centuries a rapid decline sets in the higher qualities of art disappear 5 1 Lenormant, Manuel, vol. i. p. 354. 2 La qualité prédominante dans la sculpture de cet âge est la finesse, l'élégance, et l'harmonie des proportions' (ibid. p. 353). 3 See above, p. 212. On the 'Grand Style,' see Sir Reynolds's Discourses before the Royal Academy, Discourse iii. J. 5 Birch, Ancient Egypt, p. 129; Wilkinson, A. E., vol. iii. p. 305; there is no more invention, no more expressivenessconvention resumes the grasp upon art which it had relaxed, and a dead period begins which continues till the time of the first Psamatik, Then there was a renaissance.1 By a not unnatural reaction, the style of the eighteenth dynasty was discarded, and the artists took the older productions of the fourth and fifth dynasties for their models, imitating them in all their principal details, but with greater smoothness, fineness, and floridity.'2 Much grace is visible in the contour of the figures-but the old vigour is not attained-all is too rounded and smooth-the muscles cease to be marked-and the attempted reproduction falls (as commonly happens) very much below the antique standard. Ultimately Egyptian art is debased by intermixture with Greek, most unpleasing effects being produced by a barbarous attempt to combine two styles absolutely and essentially incongruous. But this last stage of decline need not occupy us here, since it falls beyond the time whereto the present history is confined. Lenormant, Manuel, vol. i. p. 426. 'Les monuments de Rameses II.,' says the last-named writer, 'nous font assister à une décadence radicale de la sculpture égyptienne, qui se précipite avec une incroyable rapidité à mesure qu'on s'avance dans ce long règne. Il débute par des œuvres dignes de toute admiration, qui sont le ne plus ultra de l'art égyptien, comme les colosses de Memphis et d'Ibsamboul; mais bientôt l'oppression universelle, qui pèse sur toute la contrée comme un joug de fer, tait la source de la grande inspiration des arts. La séve Créatrice semble s'épuiser dans les entreprises gigantesques conçues par un orgueil sans bornes. Une nouvelle génération d'artistes ne vient CH. IX.] EGYPTIAN SCIENCE. 293 CHAPTER IX. SCIENCE. Egyptian Science. Arithmetic. Geometry. Astronomy―Observations of Eclipses-Planetary Occultations-Motions and Periods of the Planets— Tables of the Stars-Acquaintance with true Solar Year- General Character of the Astronomy. Egyptian Astrology. Medicine. Engineering Science. Περὶ Αἴγυπτον αἱ μαθηματικαὶ πρῶτον τέχναι συνέστησαν.—ARISTOT. Metaph. i. 1. THE sciences in which the ancient Egyptians appear to have made a certain amount of progress, and which will be alone considered in the present sketch, are astronomy, geometry, arithmetic, medicine, and engineering. The bulk of the physical sciences are of recent growth, and were utterly unknown, even to the ancient Greeks. Morals, metaphysics, logic, and political science, in which the Greeks made considerable advances, were either unknown to the Egyptians, or at any rate not cultivated by them in a scientific manner. There remain the abstract sciences of arithmetic and geometry, together with the practical ones of astronomy, medicine, and engineering, with respect to which there is evidence that they engaged the attention of this primitive people, and were claborated to a certain extent, though very different opinions may 1 The Egyptian ideas on morals were sound, as has been observed in a previous chapter (ch. iii. p. 104). But they did not reduce morals to a science. Their only ethical works were collections of proverbs (see Chabas, Le plus ancien livre du Monde, Paris, 1857). be entertained as to the degree of perfection which was reached in them. Arithmetic is a science some knowledge of which must of necessity be possessed by every nation that is not wholly barbarous. Savages frequently cannot 1 count, or, at any rate, not beyond some low number, as five, six, or ten; but the needs of civilised life, of buying and selling, hiring and letting, even of knowing the extent of one's possessions, require a familiarity with tolerably high figures, and the power of performing certain numerical processes. The Egyptians had an arithmetical notation similar to that of the Phonicians, the Etruscans, and the Romans, whereby distinct signs being attached to the unit, to ten, to a hundred, a thousand, ten thousand, &c., other numbers were expressed by repetition of these characters. Just as a Roman expressed 7,423 by MMMMMMMCCCCXXIII, so an Egyptian rendered it by 1111111een; and similarly with other numbers, excepting that the Egyptians did not have special signs for five, fifty, or five hundred, like the Roman v., L., and D. It has been observed,2 and it is undoubtedly true, that the Egyptian method must have been very inconvenient for calculation;' but this difficulty was in practice overcome, and there can be no doubt that all the ordinary operations of arithmetic were performed as successfully in Egypt, or in Rome, as among ourselves. Numbers were dealt with readily as far as millions, and, no doubt, would have 8 1 The Weddas of Ceylon are said not to be able to count beyond three (see Report of the British Association for 1875, part iii. p. 175). 2 Kenrick, Ancient Egypt, vol. 345. i. |