chester Literary and
Philosophical Society_.]

[87: De Groot, p. 5.]

[88: _Early Religious Poetry of Persia_, p. 145.]

[89: _Op. cit._ p. 264.]

[90: _Ibid._ p. 240.]

The Power of the Eye.

In attempting to understand the peculiar functions attributed to the eye
it is essential that the inquirer should endeavour to look at the
problem from the early Egyptian's point of view. After moulding into
shape the wrappings of the mummy so as to restore as far as possible the
form of the deceased the embalmer then painted eyes upon the face. So
also when the sculptor had learned to make finished models in stone or
wood, and by the addition of paint had enhanced the life-like
appearance, the statue was still merely a dead thing. What were needed
above all to enliven it, literally and actually, in other words, to
animate it, were the eyes; and the Egyptian artist set to work and with
truly marvellous skill reproduced the appearance of living eyes (Fig.
5). How ample was the justification for this belief will be appreciated
by anyone who glances at the remarkable photographs recently published
by Dr. Alan H. Gardiner.[91] The wonderful eyes will be seen to make the
statue sparkle and live. To the concrete mind of the Egyptian this
triumph of art was regarded not as a mere technical success or
aesthetic achievement. The artist was considered to have made the statue
really live; in fact, literally and actually converted it into a "living
image". The eyes themselves were regarded as one of the chief sources of
the vitality which had been conferred upon the statue.

[Illustration: Fig. 5--Statue of an Egyptian Noble of the Pyramid Age to
show the technical skill in the representation of life-like eyes]

This is the explanation of all the elaborate care and skill bestowed
upon the making of artificial eyes. No doubt also it was largely
responsible for giving definition to the remarkable belief in the
animating power of the eye. But so many other factors of most diverse
kinds played a part in building up the complex theory of the eye's
fertilizing potency that all the stages in the process of
rationalization cannot yet be arranged in orderly sequence.

I refer to the question here and suggest certain aspects of it that seem
worthy of investigation merely for the purpose of stimulating some
student of early Egyptian literature to look into the matter
further.[92]

As death was regarded as a kind of sleep and the closing o