observed during eclipses of the sun and moon, see the articles, SOLAR ECLIPSE, and LUNAR ECLIPSE. ECLIPTIC. [EQUATOR AND ECLIPTIC.] ECONOMISTS. [POLITICAL ECONOMY.] sea. EDDY is a circular motion of the water, either in rivers or in the It exists more frequently in rivers between the proper current and the counter current; the edges of one current brushing against another giving to a small portion of the water a circular motion. But an eddy is also produced when the current, running with some violence against a rock or elevated shore, is driven back and meets in the bed of the river or on the opposite shore another obstacle to its course. In this case the eddy generally occupies the greatest part of the bed of the river, and is frequently called a whirlpool. Eddies occur in the sea likewise, where two currents run parallel, but in different directions, as between the Equatorial and North African current. Whirlpools also occur frequently among rocky islands near a coast. [WHIRLPOOL.] EDGE [ARRIS.] EDICTAL LAW. The English Equity has some resemblance to the Roman Edictal law, or Jus Prætorium or Honorarium, as it is often called. All the higher Roman magistrates (magistratus majores) had the jus edicendi or authority to promulgate edicta. These magistratus majores were consuls, prætors, curule ædiles, and censors. By virtue of this power a magistrate made edicta or orders, either temporary and for particular occasions (edicta repentina); or upon entering on his office he promulgated rules or orders, which he would observe in the exercise of his office (edicta perpetua). These edicta were written on a white tablet (album) in black letters; the headings or titles were in red. The alba were placed in the Forum, in such a position that they could be read by a stander-by ("ubi de plano recte legi posset," D. 2, 1, 7). Those edicta which related to the administration of justice had an important effect on the Roman law, and especially the Prætoria Edicta, and those of the Curule Ædiles. That branch of law which was founded on the Prætorian Edicta was designated Jus Prætorium or Honorarium, because the prætor held one of those offices to which the term Honores was applied. The edicta were only in force during the term of office of the magistratus who promulgated them; but his successor adopted many or all of his predecessor's edicta, and hence arose the expression of "transferred edicts" (tralaticia edicta); and thus in the later republic the edicta which had been long established began to exercise a great influence on the law, and particularly on the forms of procedure. About the time of Cicero many distinguished jurists began to write treatises on the edictum (libri ad edictum). Under the emperors new edicta were rarer, and in the 3rd century of our æra they ceased. Under the empire we first find the edicta of the Præfectus Urbi mentioned; but these must be considered as founded on the imperial authority (majestas principis), and to have resembled the imperial constitutions. (See Tacit. Ann, 6, 11; Suet. Aug., 37; Dio. Cass., 52, 21; and Dig. i. 12, and i. 28.) Under the reign of Hadrian a compilation was made by his authority of the edictal rules by the distinguished jurist Salvius Julianus, in conjunction with Servius Cornelius, which is spoken of under the name of Edictum Perpetuum. This edictum was arranged under various heads or titles, such as those relating to marriage, tutores, legata (legacies), and so on. By the term Prætorian Edict the Romans meant the edicts of the Prætor Urbanus, who was the chief personage employed in the higher administration of justice under the republic. The edicta which related to Peregrini (aliens) were so named after the Prætor Peregrinus; and other edicta were called Censoria, Consularia, Edilicia, and so on. Sometimes an edict of importance took its name from the prætor who promulgated it, as Carbonianum Edictum. Sometimes the Honoraria actiones, those which the prætor or ædile by his edict permitted, and which Ulpian opposes to Actiones Civiles, just as we oppose legal to equitable remedies (D. 44, 7, 25, 2), were named in like manner from the magistrate who introduced them. Sometimes an edict had its name from the matter to which it referred. The Romans generally cited the edicta by parts, titles, chapters, or clauses of the Edictum Perpetuum by naming the initial words, as Unde Legitimi, and so on. Sometimes they are cited by a reference to their contents. Examples of these modes of citing the edictum occur in the titles of the 43rd book of the Digest.' (See the title Quorum Bonorum.') In our own law we refer to certain forms of proceedings and to certain actions in a like way, as when we say quo warranto, quare impedit, and speak of qui tam actions. 6 The us Prætorium is defined by Papinian ('Dig.' i. tit. i. 7) as the law which the prætors introduced for the purpose of aiding, supplying, or correcting the law (jus civile), with a view to the public interest. The edict is called by Marcianus "the living voice of the Jus Civile," that is, of the Common' law. (Dig.' i. tit. i. 8.) The Prætorian law as thus formed (jus prætorium), was a body of law which was distinguished by this name from the Jus Civile, or the strict law; the opposition resembled that of the English terms equity and law. In its complete and large sense, Jus Civile Romanorum, or the law of the Romans, of course comprehended the Jus Prætorium; but in its narrower sense Jus Civile was contrasted, as already explained, with the Jus Prætorium. The origin of the Roman edictal law is plainly to be traced to the imperfections of the old Jus Civile, and to the necessity of gradually modifying law and procedure according to the changing circumstances of the times. It was by the prætors and the prætorian courts that the improvements in the Roman law were worked out after long years of labour, by a skilful adaptation of new forms to old processes, by an equally skilful use of fictions, and especially by means of the interdictal remedies. Nor was it because it was an easier method of doing this than by direct legislation that the prætors strove to improve the law in this way, but because they were under the imperious necessity of observing that reverence for old forms and old customs which is one of the most striking characteristics of the old Roman people, and which is nowhere more visible than in the history of their jurisprudence. (See on this point, the influence of the prætors upon Roman law, Dr. Abdy's "Historical Sketch of Civil Procedure among the Romans,' chapter ii.) Numerous modern treatises contain a view of the origin and nature of the Roman Jus Prætorium, though on some points there is not complete uniformity of opinion. (Bocking, Institutionen, vol. i.; Puchta, Cursus der Institutionen, vol. i., p. 293; Savigny, Geschichte des Röm. Rechts, vol. i.; Heffter, Die Oeconomie des Edictes, Rhein. Mus. für Juris., i., p. 51; E. Schrader, Die Prätorischen Edicte der Römer, 1815.) EDICTS, EDICTA, one of the five sources of Roman law enumerated by Gaius (i. § 2). 'The magistrates of the Roman people have authority to make edicts; but the greatest weight is given to the edicta of the two prætors, the Prætor Urbanus and the Prætor Peregrinus. In the provinces, the governors (præsides) have the same authority as the prætors (in the city). The authority of the curule ædiles, as to making edicts, is the same as that of the prætors, and in the provinces their powers are possessed by the quæstors." (On the Edict. Edil see Dig.,' xxi. tit. 1; and on the Edilian Actions, 'Cod.' iv. tit. 58.) It was the custom of the prætors on their accession to office to publish edicts, which were rules published for the benefit of suitors, and for the express purpose of regulating the practice of their courts during their year of office. This power of regulating the practice of their courts having been abused, especially by the custom of altering their original edict during their year of office, it was enacted by the Cornelian law, passed about A.U.c. 685, that when a prætor, on his accession to office, had published any edict or general rule, he should be bound to keep to it during the whole year of his office. After the adoption of this law, the prætors, though by no means bounded in the limits of their jurisdiction, were certainly tied down more strictly to the observ ance of the litera scripta of their edicts, and were not only obliged to submit to these edicts and to judge according to their provisions, but were responsible to the tribunes in the discharge of their functions. A prætor was not bound by the edicts of his predecessor; if he confirmed them, the edicts were called Vetera et Tralatitia; if he made new edicts, they were called Nova. On an occasion mentioned by Cicero (De Offic.,' iii. 20) the prætors and tribunes of the Plebs united in drawing up a penal edict (edictum cum pœnâ et judicio) relative to the coinage. This instance will serve as an example of the extent to which the prætors under the republic exercised legislative power. Instead of confining themselves to rules for the regulation of the practice of the courts, they gradually assumed the power of repealing written law and making new laws, on the ground of correcting the error of the written laws whenever they seemed inapplicable from generality or other defect. But, as M. Schrader has shown, it was not by opposing the old laws,-objects of reverence to the Roman people,-but by bringing them into accordance with the necessities of the times and the changing manners of the people, that reforms in the law were intoduced by the Prætors. (See on this subject Abdy's Civil Procedure among the Romans,' chapter ii.; Hugo's History of the Roman Law;' and W. Smith's edition of Gibbon's 'Decline and Fall,' vol. v., p. 266.) From the decisions of the prætors arose a large body of law, whoh was known by the name of Jus Honorarium or Prætorium (Papinian. 'Dig.' i., tit. 1, 7), as distinguished from the Jus Civile, and may to a certain extent be considered as corresponding to the English courts of equity. Under the early emperors the magistrates published edicts, but Hadrian commissioned Salvius Julianus (A.D. 132) to make a digest of all the best decisions, which were collected in a small volume called the Edictum Perpetuum, and ratified by a Senatus Consultum. From that time the power of making edicts was taken from the magistrates, and the legislative power was vested in the emperors. ('Cod.' i. tit. 17.) [CONSTITUTION, ROMAN.] EDUCATION. [SCHOOLS.] EDULCORATION. The operation of washing a finely divided solid with water, or other liquid, in which the solid is nearly or quite insoluble. It is chiefly employed in chemical analysis to separate soluble matters from insoluble precipitates. [CHEMICAL ANALYSIS.] EFFENDI is a Turkish word, which signifies Master, Monsieur," and is subjoined as a title of respect to the names of persons, especially to those of learned men and ecclesiastics; for example, Omar Efendi, Ahmed Effendi, in the same manner in which Agha is placed after the names of military and court officers, and is nearly equivalent to "Sir." The word Effendi occurs also as part of some titles of particular officers, as Reis Effendi, the former title of the principal secretary of state, and prime minister of the Ottoman empire, which was properly an abbre viation of Reis-al-Kottab, that is, "the head or chief of secretaries or writers." EFFERVESCENCE. The escape of bubbles of gas from a liquid. The phenomenon is seen when marble or chalk is dropped into vinegar, or when the cork of a soda-water or champagne bottle is removed. EFFLORESCENCE (from effloresco, to blow as a flower). A term applied to the formation of small crystals on the surface of bodies, in consequence of the abstraction of moisture from them by the atmosphere. Thus carbonate of soda and sulphate of soda, when exposed to the air, part with their water of crystallisation, and crumble down, or effloresce, to a white powder. Other salts on the contrary, such as carbonate of potash and chloride of calcium, absorb moisture from the air and become damp, or even liquefy in the water so absorbed. This is called deliquescence (from deliqueo, to melt), and the salts are called deliquescent, as in the former case they are termed efflorescent. EFFUSION. A term nearly related to DIFFUSION, and has reference to the velocities with which different gases pass through the same small aperture into a vacuum. These velocities are stated by Professor Graham (Phil. Trans.' 1846) to be inversely as the square roots of the densities of the gases. The lightest gas enters the most rapidly, and any change in the density of the gas has but little influence on the rate of effusion, the volume effused in a given time being nearly uniform. The same law also applies to liquids in passing through an aperture in a thin plate. In the case of gases, Graham made use of an aperture of about th of an inch in diameter. In the following table the numbers in the third column represent the rates of effusion of different gases obtained experimentally, and it will be seen that they coincide within the limits of experimental errors, with the relative rates of diffusion of the respective gases. Protoxide of nitrogen Carbonic acid [TRANSPIRATION.] EGG, WHITE OF. [ALBUMEN.] EGG TRADE. Apart from the interest belonging to eggs in connection with natural history, there is much that is remarkable in their relation to commerce and manufactures. The egg trade is now one of great magnitude. What the number of English eggs produced and consumed, either as food or in manufactures, may be, it is impossible even to guess; for there are no returns which can apply to this subject; but of foreign eggs we find that there have been imported the following quantities in recent years : These are principally obtained from France. The quantity imported in 1858 had a declared value of about 300,000l. Eggs are largely employed in the leather manufacture, in the conversion of kid skins into leather for gloves and shoes. In one process of the manufacture, yolk of egg is mixed with alum, salt, and flour in a barrel, and the skins are agitated with this mixture for some time. Much of the softness of good kid leather is due to this use of egg-yolk. There is one leather-factory in Bermondsey where from 60,000 to 80,000 eggs are used for this purpose every year; they are imported from France in the spring, and are kept good throughout the year in lime water. Mr. Cooley makes the following observations on the preservation of eggs:" Eggs may be preserved for any length of time by excluding them from the air; one of the cleanest and easiest methods of doing this is to pack them with the small ends downwards, in clean dry salt, in barrels or tubs, and to place them in a cool and dry situation. We have eaten eggs thus prepared that were more than twelvemonths old, and that had been for some months on shipboard, in a tropical climate, and which yet retained all the peculiar sweetness of new-laid eggs. With a like intention, eggs are placed in vessels containing milk of lime, or strong brine, or are rubbed over with butter, lard, or gumwater; all of which act by excluding the air. Eggs for keeping should never be laid on their sides; and when kept in the air, should be occasionally turned to prevent the yolk attaching itself to the side, instead of floating in the albumen. Some persons place the eggs in a netting, or on a sieve or colander, and immerse them for an instant in a caldron of boiling water, before packing them away. The practice of packing eggs in damp straw, or anything else that can convey a flavour, should be carefully avoided; the shells of eggs are porous, and readily admit the passage of gaseous substances, especially of fetid odours. It is from inattention to this point that a large portion of the eggs im ported from the coast of France have a less delicate flavour than those of our poultry-yards. Damp dropped straw, as well as most other organic substances exposed to warmth and moisture, readily ferment or putrify; and during fermentation, a considerable increase of temperature takes place, as any one may readily perceive by examining the common hotbeds in our gardens, which are merely masses of organic matter in a state of decomposition. Eggs, as long as they retain the embryo of the future chick in a vital state, possess in themselves a certain degree of warmth, which tends materially to promote the decomposition of the substances they are packed in, particularly in the presence of moisture." In reference to the preservation of eggs, it may be stated that Mr. Jayne has patented a liquid for this purpose; consisting of two or three pounds of salt mixed with half a pound of cream of tartar, and dissolved in water to a brine strong enough just to float an egg. This liquid, it is stated, will preserve eggs fresh as long as two years; but Mr. Cooley is of opinion, that simple milk of lime will answer quite as well. It affords a curious exemplification of the large scale on which the consumption of apparently trifling articles is now conducted, that in July, 1859, a suit in equity was tried between the inventors of two egg-beating machines. A patentee of a method of beating up the whites of eggs complained of another machine-maker for infringing his patent. The offender admitted the use, but denied the validity of the patent; and he brought forward proof that the inventors of two previouslypatented churns, had anticipated all, or nearly all, that was really essential in the egg-beating machine. EGYPTIAN ARCHITECTURE. The architecture of almost every civilised people can be traced to that of an earlier people or country, of which it is an adaptation or development. The architecture of Egypt is, however, an exception. It is the oldest architecture of which any examples remain, or of which we have any record; and it differs from all other architecture in its distinctive characteristics. In magnitude, solidity, and magnificence, it far surpasses that of every other country; but in unity of plan, grace of proportion, and æsthetic feeling, it will not bear comparison with the architecture of Greece. The ancient Egyptians appear in truth to have been not merely deficient in æsthetic culture, but their mental and national peculiarities were adverse to its reception. Further, they were controlled in all artistic work by immutable hierarchic rule, and free mental development was therefore impossible. The art of one age was, in a certain sense, that of all. If there was change, it was due to a change of dynasty, and therefore to a foreign influence. Were we to treat Egyptian architecture chronologically, we might divide it into the architecture of Lower, Middle, and Upper Egypt, and of Nubia; but we could not so treat it without entering into a fulness and minuteness of detail which would be quite out of place in a general sketch like the present. Within the limits assigned to us it will be most convenient to describe broadly the several great classes of structures, and the chief architectural members. The most ancient edifices of Egypt are the pyramids, those of Gizeh being the earliest. But these we shall do little more than mention here, because, interesting as they are in themselves, they are structures of so very peculiar and distinct a nature as to have but little connection with the architecture of the country in general; being, when considered with reference to it, little more than uniform and simple though enormous masses. They are, in fact, greatly more important in an historical and archæological point of view than in one purely historical. Their shape is so familiar to every one that it requires no description, but may be defined as square in plan and triangular in section, its four sides being as many triangles united so as to terminate in a point; and as the height is much less than the width of the base, each side constitutes nearly an equilateral triangle. The extraordinary height and magnitude of these vast erections are combined with imperishable stability and solidity, the whole being nearly one entire mass of the hardest materials, for the inner galleries and chambers form but mere veins and cavities compared with the entire mass. For a description of them we refer to the article PYRAMIDS. For the same reason that we do not stay to describe the pyramids here, we may leave to a separate article those no less characteristic Egyptian monuments, the lofty four-sided monolithic shafts known to us as obelisks. [OBELISKS.] The oldest really architectural Egyptian buildings are the great temples, or temple-palaces like that of Karnak; but as this enormous edifice was really an aggregation of buildings, the growth of ages, of which the nucleus appears to have been the sanctuary, built by Osertesen, the great king of the 12th dynasty, whilst the great court in front only dates from the 22nd dynasty, a clearer notion may be conveyed of the plan and character of an Egyptian temple by examining one of simpler form, though of later date. We select, therefore, as our example the temple at Edfou, or Apollinopolis Magna, erected under the Ptolemies, one of the largest and much the most complete of any in Egypt. Its dimensions are given on the ground plan. This it will at once be seen from the plan, was far more varied and complex than the plan adhered to by the Greeks, which, consisted merely of a cella, either surrounded entirely with columns, or with columns only in front, or at both ends. Here, on the contrary, the temple is placed within an enclosure, which forms also a court in front of it, surrounded on three sides by colonnades; and the entrance to this court was through a colossal doorway, or propylon, placed between two [Fig. 2.-Ground Plan of to little more than voids left in the mass. Between these towers is the door, which leads into a spacious court, having a colonnade carried along three of its sides. Within the court the colonnades were pycnostyle, or a diameter and a half apart, which seems to have been the usual mode of intercolumniation adopted by the Egyptians, the columns being seldom more than a diameter and a half from each other, except in the centre of a portico, where there was generally a doorway between the columns, the lower part of the other intercolumns being walled up, as described above, and as shown in the view of Denderah (fig. 3). The floor of this enclosure (now filled with rubbish and wretched buildings), rises by gradual steps (as shown by lines in the plan), to the portico or pronaos, which answers to the great hypostyle hall of Karnak, and other older temples. This pronaos is narrower, as well as smaller than the first hall, passages being cut off at its ends by exceedingly thick partition walls. It consists of eighteen massive pillars, six in a row, the intercolumniation, which forms the doorway, being as usual the greatest. Of the front pillars the intercolumniations are walled up to more than half the height. From this we pass into a still narrower and smaller hall which has three rows of four columns each, so disposed as to occupy the whole area, leaving merely narrow aisles in every direction between them-a mode peculiar to Egyptian architecture, occasioned by the necessity for employing such thickly-set columns to prop the massive beams and slabs of stone composing the ceiling; and hence such apartments have obtained the name of hypostyle halls. These pillars have quadrilateral Isis-headed capitals of the kind described below. To this hypostyle succeed two chambers, the farther one having smaller lateral rooms attached to it, the Temple at Edfou.] which, it is conjectured, were appropriated to the use of the priests; and facing its entrance was that leading into the sekos, cella, or shrine containing the figure of the deity. Whilst all the preceding vestibules and chambers are placed transversely to the longitudinal direction of the building, the last and innermost apartment is parallel to that direction, and in continuation of the line of approach; the reason for which is obvious enough, it being almost indispensably requisite that the statue of the divinity should be at one end, and directly facing the entrance. In all probability likewise the object aimed at in disposing the rest as we perceive it to be, was twofold; first, for the sake of having a great number of apartments to be crossed before the sanctuary was reached and thus rendering it more difficult of access and more mysterious; and secondly, for the sake of contrast, the other divisions of the plan being intended to be merely passed through, but this, on the contrary, being the termination of the whole. If we keep this in view, and the peculiar nature of the worship to which these temples were dedicated, the arrangement must be allowed to be appropriate, notwithstanding that under different circumstances it might be objected to as constituting a very strong anti-climax since every portion of it successively diminishes, the last of the sacred chambers being, as the plan shows, hardly equal to the space forming the great doorway between the two towers. Yet what is thus an anti-climax, if we have regard to dimensions alone, became a perfect climax that must have made a powerful impression on those who were allowed to penetrate into the adytum-the most sacred part of the fane-the presence chamber, as it were, of the presiding divinity, where the sanctity of the whole precinct was concentrated in a focus, and to which the magnificence and colossal grandeur of all the rest served merely as preparation and prelude. Such was the general disposition and distribution of an Egyptian temple. But, as was said above, in the older temples the hypostyle hall is a much larger and more important feature. That of the great temple of Karnak is 338 feet by 170 in extent, and has 134 columns disposed in nine parallel rows one way and sixteen the other. The hall consequently has the appearance of a grove of pillars; and their being so numerous and set so close together would have been no small inconvenience, had they not been of such prodigious bulk. But the smaller pillars of this hall are 9 and the larger 11 feet in diameter, and the intercolumniations are consequently equal to 13 and 16 feet. The central pillars are 70 feet high to the under side of the architrave. The area of this vast hall is 57,629 square feet; or with its two pylons, upwards of 80,000 feet-an area, as has been pointed out, greater than that of Cologne Cathedral, the largest of the Gothic cathedrals of Northern Europe, whilst four such churches as that of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields, London, would stand side by side within the hall without occupying its entire area. The effect of this vast grove of columns is spoken of by all who have seen it, as being surpassingly grand. The length of the entire building is upwards of 1200 feet; its breadth varies from 321 to 360 feet. It has twelve principal approaches, each of which has lofty doorways placed between enormous pylons, and before them have stood colossal statues, whilst avenues of sphinxes lead from them in various directions, one being continued the whole way across the plain to the temple at Luxor. The engraving of the front of the great temple of Denderah (fig. 3), the most perfect of the existing monuments of Egypt, will serve to show the character of Egyptian architecture at a somewhat later date than that of the temple at Edfou. The temple, which is of vast extent, is enclosed within a square wall, the side of which is 1000 feet, and which is in parts 35 feet high and 15 feet thick. In general form this temple resembles that at Edfou, but it has no forecourt or propylon. This façade from its perfectness exhibits very distinctly the sloping profile of the walls, the peculiar entablature, and the hieroglyphic carvings, all of which are so characteristic of Egyptian architecture, as well as a remarkable form of capital. Later temples show more irregularity of plan. In Upper Egypt and Nubia occur temples hewn out of the solid rock; but, like all excavations, they are copies of structural temples. The most remarkable is the great rock-temple of Ipsambul, or Abousambul, constructed by Rameses III. It has two faces formed out of the sandstone rock, each cut to resemble the front of a temple, while the temple itself penetrates 180 feet into the mountain. The front of the temple is nearly 100 feet high and 117 feet wide, and is adorned with four enormous colossi each 70 feet high, which produce a wonderfully impressive effect. The interior is in general plan like that of the structural temples; the first apartment is a pronaos 57 feet long and 52 feet wide, supported by two rows of large square caryatide pillars, in a line with the door of the sakos; beyond this is a the rock. (Fig. 4.) The extreme end of this temple reaches 76 feet into the rock. Having thus described the general plan and arrangements of the temples as the chief and most characteristic class of Egyptian buildings, we proceed to notice some of the principal elementary parts of which they are composed. The diversity observable in Egyptian columns is so great that it is impossible to specify here all their varieties, which can be understood only by studying the engravings in the large works devoted to Egyptian antiquities. Nor can they be reduced to any system, there being no peculiar form of capital or other distinct characteristic attaching to any particular type of column; nor anything in regard to proportion whereby they can be classified. There can be little doubt that the oldest and simplest form of Egyptian column was that of a plain square pier. From these, octangular, polygonal, and eventually cylindrical columns, were produced by the simple process of cutting off the angles. As a general rule, Egyptian columns, of whatever kind, were vertical in profile, thus contrasting in a marked manner with the sloping profile of the building. It must not be understood, however, that the shafts are either invariably or perfectly cylindrical, but that such was their general form. There is sometimes a slight difference between the upper and lower diameter; or else the shaft is cinctured at intervals by bands consisting of three or more rings encircling it, and thereby increasing the diameter in those parts. In addition to this species of ornament, the shaft was variously decorated in other respects, the spaces between the bands being sometimes sculptured with hieroglyphics; at others, reeded, that is, its surface was divided into a series of upright mouldings, or staves, so as to have the appearance of a bundle of smaller pillars bound together, and which, with the encircling of the shaft with ring mouldings, has suggested the idea of their being an imitation of reeds, or thin palm stems, banded together. The kind of striating, or striping, just described, is the reverse of that practised in the Doric and other Grecian orders, since in the latter it was produced by concave channels, or flutings, but in this by convex surfaces. In the rock-cut tombs of Nubia, however, true-fluted proto-Doric columns occur, the only character of the Greek Doric absent being the echinus moulding under the abacus: a characteristic example is that of the tomb at Beni-Hassan. Under COLUMN (col. 44) is a cut of an Egyptian column, now in the British Museum, in which are shown the cartouches of hieroglyphics spoken of above. Egyptian columns have rarely any distinct base, seldom more than a circular plinth; but they have frequently an ornamental footing, which differs however from a base in being contracted instead of expanded below. It may be described as shaped like the calyx of a flower, the resemblance to which is increased by its being sculptured into some forms of foliage, so that the shaft appears to be set in and rise out of a plant. Of this description are the bases of the columns of the temple at Latopolis or Esné. By some this has been insisted upon as a defect and as indicative of weakness: consequently, contrary to that law of architecture which prescribes that there should be apparent as well as real strength, more especially where the expression of solidity is naturally looked for. Still it may not unreasonably be urged that, as in all such cases, the judgment comes to the aid of and corrects the eye: what is known to be strong cannot fairly be said to appear weak; and the solidity of columns which have stood the test of some thou sands of years cannot possibly be called in question. It may ndeed be argued that the excess of strength which they gave their structures, and the prodigious solidity and durability of the materials employed, allowed the architects of Egypt to contract the diameter of their columns below, without rendering them at all weak. The most usual form adopted for capitals was that of the cup of the papyrus or the calyx of the lotus, but occasionally of some other flowers, with a rim bending downwards, which was sometimes quite circular, at others jagged, the circumference being divided into a number of convex curves, forming so many distinct petals. The six specimens given in the article COLUMN (col. 46) exhibit two of the latter and three of the first-mentioned variety of the bell-shaped capital. From these it will be seen what variety prevailed in the decorative details, some being cut into distinct leaves, either convex or concave, others embellished with sculpture representing branches and flowers. It will also be perceived that, in their general mass, the capitals of this class, far from having anything in common with that of the Grecian Doric, bear a general similarity to that of the Corinthian order, though both the foliage and its arrangement are of a different character. Yet there is not now much doubt that the Greek Corinthian order may, like the Doric, be traced to an Egyptian source. But there exists an exceedingly wide distinction between the Egyptian and every variety of either Grecian or Roman capitals; namely, in the abacus being a mere square plinth, considerably smaller than the capital. The Egyptian abacus is anything but ornamental in itself, and would be a defect, were it not that in the buildings it can hardly be seen, owing to its smallness and the projection of the rim of the capital; consequently, uniess it happened to be very deep, it serves chiefly to detach the capital from the architrave, and prevent that heaviness of appearance which would otherwise be occasioned. The first figure among the specimens given under COLUMN shows an example of what may be termed the double capital, peculiar to Egyptian architecture; for above the usual shaped capital is a square member, sculptured on each instance of the double capital in some respects similar to, in others greatly differing from the preceding. Here the lower capital consists of four Isis' faces, disposed so as to form a square, larger than the it: above each face is a kind of fluted abacus, and above is a square shaft, the folds of the head-dress hanging down and projecting beyond member. The shaft also varies considerably from those shown in the preceding examples; for instead of being striated vertically and banded horizontally, this is covered with hieroglyphics disposed in series of rings. Another remarkable circumstance is the great height of the whole capital, it being not less than two-fifths of the shaft. There is another species of capital of very frequent occurrence, which is distinct from either of the above two classes; and although |