In the Egyptian conceptions the soul was supposed to remain, in a certain sense, connected with the body during a long cycle of solar years.

She could, however, quit the body from time to time at will, and could appear to mortals in various forms and places; these appearances differed according to the hour, and were prescribed in exact words and delineations.] "But enough of these matters; thou wilt find it difficult to enter into such thoughts.

Tell me rather what thou thinkest of our temples and pyramids." Croesus, after reflecting a moment, answered with a smile: "Those huge pyramidal masses of stone seem to me creations of the boundless desert, the gaily painted temple colonnades to be the children of the Spring; but though the sphinxes lead up to your temple gates, and seem to point the way into the very shrines themselves, the sloping fortress-like walls of the Pylons, those huge isolated portals, appear as if placed there to repel entrance.

Your many-colored hieroglyphics likewise attract the gaze, but baffle the inquiring spirit by the mystery that lies within their characters.

The images of your manifold gods are everywhere to be seen; they crowd on our gaze, and yet who knows not that their real is not their apparent significance?
that they are mere outward images of thoughts accessible only to the few, and, as I have heard, almost incomprehensible in their depth?
My curiosity is excited everywhere, and my interest awakened, but my warm love of the beautiful feels itself in no way attracted.