12 JANUARY 1924, Page 3

It is on this side of the Egyptian discovery—on this

story of fanciful, of fantastic grandeur and buried mag- nificence—that we would dwell. Later on we are promised a ray of light on the history and the art of ancient Egypt. We may learn much that will affect our conceptions of "progress," and even of evolution, and so be of great practical importance, for on those conceptions our modern systems of thought to a con- siderable extent depend. But as yet we may let imagina- tion play on the mere "facts of the case," the bare revela- tion of the sweep of time and the grandeur of antiquity. Let us not be over-perturbed by the thought of the King's disturbance. "To subsist in lasting Monuments" was certainly his "large satisfaction," but let us remem- ber, also, that" 'tis all one to lie in St. Innocent's Church- yard as in the sands of Egypt," and realize that Tut- ankh-Amen must, like Sir Thomas Browne, be "as content with six foot as with the moles of Adrianus."