A pilgrimage to the temples and tombs of Egypt, Nubia, and ...

104 EGYPTIAN ANTIQUITIES.
is perhaps the most ])erfect private collection
existing, and, as such, I cannot help regretting
that Doctor A. has not been induced to dispose
of it either to the English Government or to
some high-minded and wealthy individual of our
country, who would convert it into a source of
national instruction and amusement. Whereas at
present, although nothing can exceed the polite
and liberal manner in which Doctor A. allows
free access to it, it is necessarily restricted to
the knowledge of those travellers who pass
through Cairo, and who may, like myself, have
liad the good fortune to be furnished with an
introduction to the Doctor.
I thought this inspection was a good initiatory
preparation for the journey I am about to com-
mence among the antique monuments of Egypt
but I hope I may understand the subject better
when I return, for I own to you in all humility
that I am at present unable to discriminate be-
tween the merits of works of Egyptian art,
dating from the times of the Pharaohs (when
it is said to have attained its highest degree of
perfection), or from those of the Greek Ptolemies,
and the Roman Caesars, when, according to the
dictum of antiquaries, it had begun to exhibit
signs of degeneration. Among the objects pos-
;