The Rameseum bears the same relation to all the other buildings of old Egypt that the Parthenon does to all the other remains of Greek architecture. It was built at the culminating point of Egyptian art and greatness. The conception was an inspiration of a consciousness of excellence and power. Everything here is grand, even for Egypt; the lofty propylons, the Osirid court, the great halls, and, above all, the colossal statue of the king seated on his throne, a monolith of red granite, weighing nearly 900 tons, and which is now lying on the ground in stupendous fragments, its overthrow having been probably the work of the vengeful Persians. Nothing can exceed the interest of this grand structure. It included even a spacious library, on the walls of which were sculptured figures of the god of letters, and of the god of memory. Over the door by which it was entered was the famous inscription, ‘The medicine of the mind.’ And this more than three thousand years ago: and yet we may be sure that it did not contain the first collection of books that had been made in Egypt, but only the first of which we have any record. We know that they had been keeping a regular register of the annual rising of the Nile then for nearly a thousand years, and that their written law ante-dated this library by between two and three thousand years. Both of these facts, to some degree, indicate collections of books. By a concurrence of happy chances, which almost make one regret that a grateful offering can no longer be made to good fortune, papyrus-rolls have been found dated from this library, and in the Háger behind have been discovered the tombs of some of the Royal librarians.