I now understand why the Greeks were such great poets; and, above all, I can account, it seems to me, for the harmony, the unity, the perfection, the uniform excellence, of all their works of art. They lived in a perpetual commerce with external nature, and nourished themselves upon the spirit of its forms. Their theatres were all open to the mountains and the sky. Their columns, the ideal types of a sacred forest, with its roof of interwoven tracery, admitted the light and wind; the odour and the freshness of the country penetrated the cities. Their temples were mostly hypæthric; and the flying clouds, the stars, or the deep sky, were seen above. O, but for that series of 6306 wretched wars which terminated in the Roman conquest of the world; but for the Christian religion, which put the finishing stroke on the ancient system; but for those changes that conducted Athens to its ruin — to what an eminence might not humanity have arrived!Shelley’s Impression of Pompeii.
(From a letter to Thomas Love Peacock.) [c. 1818]
http://www.elfinspell.com/CelebratedLetters.html
"Again a revelation came to Joseph Smith from the Lord: 'Joseph, son of man, take a roll of papyrus and write on it these words: 'This papyrus represents Abraham and his sojourn in Egypt.' Then take another papyrus roll and write these words on it: 'This papyrus represents Joseph of Israel.' Now hold them together in your hand as one record. When the saints ask you what your actions mean, say to them, 'This is what the Lord says: I will take the papyrus of Joseph and join it to the papyrus of Abraham. I will make them one record in my hand.' Then hold out the papyrus rolls you have written on, so the saints can see them. And give them this message from the Lord: I will gather the people of Israel from among the nations and bring them to Zion."
http://www.myegyptology.net/file/id622.htm
We have visited the British Museum, which contains a vast number and quantity of Egyptian Sepulchres [Sepulchers], Mummies, Hieroglyphics, and Papyrus, the history and account of which we feel much interested in, and shall forward you an account of the same in a future communication.
We subscribe ourselves your brethren in the everlasting covenant,
C. KIMBALL, W. WOODRUFF, G. A. SMITH.
TIMES AND SEASONS.
D. C. SMITH, EDITOR.
CITY OF NAUVOO, FRIDAY, JANUARY 1, 1841http://www.centerplace.org/history/ts/v2n05.htm