The statues will generally be found as much as possible in or near the Architectural Courts of the periods and countries to which they belong, so that the eye may track the intellectual stream as it flows on, now rising to the highest point of beauty, and now sinking to the lowest depths of degradation. The visitor is invited to proceed with us on this world-wide tour of inspection, but he must bear in mind that our present task is to show him how to examine the Building itself, with its contents, and not to describe them, except by briefly pointing out the most remarkable objects that encounter him on his way. For detailed and valuable information the visitor is referred to the excellent Handbooks of the respective Courts, all of which describe with minuteness not only their contents, but every needful circumstance in connection with their history. The point from which we start is the Central Transept. Proceeding northwards, up the Nave, the visitor turns immediately to the left and finds himself in front of THE EGYPTIAN COURT.[5] The remains of Egyptian Architecture are the most ancient yet discovered. They possess an absorbing interest, not only on account of the connection of Egypt with Biblical history, but also of the perfect state of the remains, which enables us to judge of the high state of civilisation to which Egypt attained, and which have permitted the decipherers of the hieroglyphics, led by Dr. Young, Champollion, and Sir Gardner Wilkinson, in our own time, to give us clear insight into the manner of life--public and private--of this early and interesting nation. Egyptian architecture is characterised by simplicity of construction, gigantic proportions, and massive solidity. The buildings were almost entirely of stone, and many of them excavations and shapings of rocks. The examples of this architecture now before us are not taken from any one ruin, but are illustrations of various styles, commencing with the earliest, and terminating with the latest, so that we are enabled to follow the gradual development of the art. Little change, however, was effected during its progress. The original solidity so admirably suited to the requirements of the Egyptians continued to the end; and religion forbade a change in the conventional representations of those gods and kings which so extensively cover the temples and tombs. So that we find the same peculiar character continued in a great measure to the very last. [5] See the “Handbook to the Egyptian Court,” by Owen Jones and Samuel Sharpe; also, “The Egyptians in the Time of the Pharaohs, being a Companion to the Crystal Palace Collection,” by Sir Gardner Wilkinson, to which is added, “An Introduction to the Study of Egyptian Hieroglyphs,” by Samuel Birch. Crown 8vo., with Illustrations. [Illustration: Plan of the Egyptian Court.]