Their records are for Ra, and must be studied by his rays.
In mine they shall speak not to the intellectual, but only to the
emotions and the soul."
And presently I went down, and yielding a complete and happy obedience
to Khuns, I wandered along through the stupendous vestiges of past eras,
dead ambitions, vanished glory, and long-outworn belief, and I ignored
eras, ambitions, glory, and belief, and thought only of form, and
height, of the miracle of blackness against silver, and of the pathos
of statues whose ever-open eyes at night, when one is near them, suggest
the working of some evil spell, perpetual watchfulness, combined with
eternal inactivity, the unslumbering mind caged in the body that is
paralysed.
There is a temple at Karnak that I love, and I scarcely know why I care
for it so much. It is on the right of the solitary lotus column before
you come to the terrific hall of Seti. Some people pass it by, having
but little time, and being hypnotized, it seems, by the more astounding
ruin that lies beyond it. And perhaps it would be well, on a first
visit, to enter it last; to let its influence be the final one to rest
upon your spirit. This is the temple of Rameses III., a brown place of
calm and retirement, an ineffable place of peace. Yes, though the birds
love it and fill it often with their voices, it is a sanctuary of
peace. Upon the floor the soft sand lies, placing silence beneath your
footsteps.
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