This architecture, anterior to the Christian era, may be broadly
divided into three great periods, during which it was successively
practiced by three peoples: the Egyptians, the Greeks and the Romans.
Then intervened the Dark Ages, and a new art arose, the Gothic, which
was a flowering out in stone of the spirit of Christianity. This was
in turn succeeded by the Renaissance, the impulse of which remains
to-day unexhausted. In each of these architectures the peculiar genius
of a people and of a period attained to a beautiful, complete and
coherent utterance, and notwithstanding the considerable intervals
of time which sometimes separated them they succeeded one another
logically and inevitably, and each was related to the one which
preceded and which followed it in a particular and intimate manner.

The power and wisdom of ancient Egypt was vested in its priesthood,
which was composed of individuals exceptionally qualified by birth
and training for their high office, tried by the severest ordeals
and bound by the most solemn oaths. The priests were honored and
privileged above all other men, and spent their lives dwelling
apart from the multitude in vast and magnificent temples, dedicating
themselves to the study and practice of religion, philosophy, science
and art--subjects then intimately related, not widely separated as
they are now. These men were the architects of ancient Egypt: theirs
the minds which directed the hands that built those time-defying
monuments.

The rites that the priests practiced centered about what are known
as the Lesser and the Greater Mysteries. These consisted of
representations by means of symbol and allegory, under conditions
and amid surroundings the most awe-inspiring, of those great truths
concerning man's nature, origin and destiny of which the priests--in