Pure And Perfect
Is Its Design - Broad Propylon, Great Open Courtyard With Pillared
Galleries, Halls, Chambers, Sanctuary.
Its dignity and its sobriety
are matchless.
I know they must be, because they touched me so
strangely, with a kind of reticent enchantment, and I am not by nature
enamored of sobriety, of reticence and calm, but am inclined to
delight in almost violent force, in brilliance, and, especially, in
combinations of color. In the Alhambra one finds both force and
fairylike lightness, delicious proportions, delicate fantasy, a spell
as of subtle magicians; in the Cappella Palatina, a jeweled splendor,
combined with a small perfection of form which simply captivates the
whole spirit and leads it to adoration. In Edfu you are face to face
with hugeness and with grandeur; but soon you are scarcely aware of
either - in the sense, at least, that connects these qualities with a
certain overwhelming, almost striking down, of the spirit and the
faculties. What you are aware of is your own immense and beautiful
calm of utter satisfaction - a calm which has quietly inundated you,
like a waveless tide of the sea. How rare it is to feel this absolute
satisfaction, this praising serenity! The critical spirit goes, like a
bird from an opened window. The excited, laudatory, voluble spirit
goes. And this splendid calm is left. If you stay here, you, as this
temple has been, will be molded into a beautiful sobriety. From the
top of the pylon you have received this still and glorious impression
from the matchless design of the whole building, which you see best
from there.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 84 of 135
Words from 22796 to 23062
of 36756
