In ancient times in all the Hindu and Buddhist temples and pagodas there was music, there was poetry, there was sculpture, and there was painting. In those times there were no printing presses, and no books could be published on philosophy and religion; but if one can find any scriptures expressing the ancient religious and philosophical ideas, they are in the ancient art. For instance, whatever sign can be found of the mysticism and the religion of ancient Egypt, of which so much has been said and so little is known, it is not in the manuscripts but in its art. Also the ideas of the Sanskrit age are still to be found in India engraved on the carved stones and rocks and temples. Travellers from the Western world often go to the East in order to see to what a degree of perfection Eastern art attained; but very few really know that art not only strove for perfection in those days, but that it was used as a means of communication by those who could not read.