Besides, I am sure that they will render my readers of to-day the same service that they rendered formerly to my colleagues in Egyptology. When they have thoroughly entered into the spirit of the Egyptian ideas concerning existence in this world and the next, they will understand what Egyptian art is, and why it is above everything realistic. The question for Egyptian art was not to create a type of independent beauty in the person of the individuals who furnish the principal elements of it, but to express truthfully the features which constituted that person and which must be preserved identical as long as anything of him persisted among the living and the dead. But why should I epitomize here in a necessarily incomplete way ideas which are amply set forth in the book itself? I shall do better in using the small space left me in thanking the publishers who have kindly authorized me to reproduce the illustrations which accompanied my articles, Jules Comte, the directors of _La Nature_, and my old friends of the firm of Hachette. They have thus collaborated in this book, and it will owe a large part of its success to their kindness. CONTENTS PAGE PREFATORY NOTE 5 I EGYPTIAN STATUARY AND ITS SCHOOLS 17 II SOME PORTRAITS OF MYCERINUS 36 III A SCRIBE’S HEAD OF THE IVTH OR VTH DYNASTY 49 IV SKHEMKA, HIS WIFE AND SON: A GROUP FOUND AT MEMPHIS 55 V THE CROUCHING SCRIBE: VTH DYNASTY 60 VI THE NEW SCRIBE OF THE GIZEH MUSEUM 66 VII THE KNEELING SCRIBE: VTH DYNASTY 74 VIII PEHOURNOWRI: STATUETTE IN PAINTED LIMESTONE FOUND AT MEMPHIS 79 IX THE DWARF KHNOUMHOTPOU: VTH OR VITH DYNASTY 85 X THE “FAVISSA” OF KARNAK, AND THE THEBAN SCHOOL OF SCULPTURE 90 XI THE COW OF DEÎR-EL-BAHARÎ 106 XII THE STATUETTE OF AMENÔPHIS IV 120 XIII FOUR CANOPIC HEADS FOUND IN THE VALLEY OF THE KINGS AT THEBES 126 XIV A HEAD OF THE PHARAOH HARMHABI 135 XV THE COLOSSUS OF RAMSES II AT BEDRECHEÎN 140 XVI EGYPTIAN JEWELLERY IN THE LOUVRE 145 XVII THE TREASURE OF ZAGAZIG 154 XVIII THREE STATUETTES IN WOOD 172 XIX A FRAGMENT OF A THEBAN STATUETTE 178 XX