And it knows that though other things may be
done, better things can never be done. For no perfection can exceed any
other perfection.
And so in Edfu I feel that this untinted austerity is perfect; that
whatever may be done in architecture during future ages of the world,
Edfu, while it lasts, will remain a thing supreme--supreme in form and,
because of this supremacy, supreme in the spell which it casts upon the
soul.
The sanctuary is just a small, beautifully proportioned, inmost chamber,
with a black roof, containing a sort of altar of granite, and a great
polished granite shrine which no doubt once contained the god Horus. I
am glad he is not there now. How far more impressive it is to stand in
an empty sanctuary in the house divine of "the Hidden One," whom the
nations of the world worship, whether they spread their robes on the
sand and turn their faces to Mecca, or beat the tambourine and sing
"glory hymns" of salvation, or flagellate themselves in the night before
the patron saint of the Passionists, or only gaze at the snow-white
plume that floats from the snows of Etna under the rose of dawn, and
feel the soul behind Nature. Among the temples of Egypt, Edfu is the
house divine of "the Hidden One," the perfect temple of worship.
XV
KOM OMBOS
Some people talk of the "sameness" of the Nile; and there is a lovely
sameness of golden light, of delicious air, of people, and of scenery.
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