Nothing can be done, however, until our type is purified, until we have at least become a people. For until that time it will be impossible to discover a type which may become the subject-matter of the graphic arts.
"Upwards life striveth to build itself with columns and stairs: into remote distances it longeth to gaze: and outwards after blissful beauties—therefore it needeth height!
"And because it needeth height, it needeth stairs and contradiction between stairs, and those who can climb! to rise striveth life, and in rising to surpass itself!
"Verily, he who here towered aloft his thought in stone knew as well as the wisest ones about the secret of life!
"That there is struggle and inequality even in beauty and war for power and supremacy: that doth he here teach us in the plainest parable.
"Thus spake Zarathustra."[78]
[39] I am quite willing with Mr. Gardner to acknowledge the superiority of the latter over the former. See Handbook to Greek Sculpture, p. 216 et seq.
[40] Encyclopædia Britannica (9th Edition), Article, "Egypt."
[41] See Dr. Petrie, A History of Egypt. On page 54 of this book, the author says, speaking of King Khephrën: "It is a marvel of art; the precision of the expression combining what a man should be to win our feelings, and what a King should be to command our regard. The subtlety shown in this combination of expression—the ingenuity in the over-shadowing hawk, which does not interfere with the front view; the technical ability in executing this in so resisting a material—all unite in fixing our regard on this as one of the leading examples of ancient art."