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 WILLIAMS AND NORGATE, 
 
 14, HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN, LONDON; 
 And 20, SOUTH FREDERICK STREET, EDINBURGH, 
 
THE HIBBERT LECTURES, 
 
 1879. 
 
THE HIBBERT LECTURES, iSjg. 
 
 LECTURES 
 
 ON THE 
 
 ORIGIN AND GROWTH OF RELIGION 
 
 AS ILLUSTRATED BY THE 
 
 RELIGION OF ANCIENT EGYPT, 
 
 DELIVERED IN MAY AND JUNE, 1879. 
 
 BY 
 
 ,/ 
 
 P. LE PAGE EENOUF. 
 
 SECOND EDITION. 
 
 WILLIAMS AND NORGATE, 
 
 14, HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN, LONDON; 
 And 20, SOUTH FREDERICK STREET, EDINBURGH. 
 
 188-i. 
 
LONDON: 
 
 PRINTKD BY 0. GREEN AND SON, 
 
 178, STRAND. 
 
^0 mg hm Miff, 
 
 IN GRATEFUL AND AFFECTIONATE REMEMBRANCE 
 
 OP OUR JOURNEY THROUGH THE LAND 
 
 WHOSE ANCIENT RELIGION 
 
 IS HERE VERY IMPERFECTLY DESCRIBED. 
 
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 
 
 The only alterations which have been made in the text of 
 these Lectures are corrections of a few errata and of the tran- 
 scriptions of a couple of Egyptian words. Other corrections 
 will be found in the notes. My general views remain un- 
 changed, but the continued study of Egyptian texts has led 
 me to the solution of an important problem arising out of the 
 conclusions arrived at in the Lectures. 
 
 " The Egyptian mythology, as far as I can see," it is said, 
 p. 250, "dealt only with those phenomena of nature which are 
 conspicuously the result of fixed law, such as the rising and 
 settiiiix of the sun, moon and stars." 
 
 This is most strictly true if spoken of the gods of Egypt. 
 Every one of these gods represents a fixed and unalterable 
 Law. It is in consequence of the unvaried succession of 
 physical phenomena that a god is said to be neb madt, an 
 expression literally translated by "lord of law," but really 
 signifying " conspicuous by fixed rule." And it may be held 
 as certain that every explanation of an Egyptian god or god- 
 dess which does not satisfy this canon is utterly erroneous. 
 
 But Egyptian mythology was not confined to the persons 
 of gods. There are mythological personages who are never 
 spoken of as gods. Mythological personification does not 
 necessarily imply deification. Xor does mythology deal with 
 
Vm PEEFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 
 
 persons only. There are mythological trees as well as reptiles 
 and other animal forms. 
 
 For the results of an inquiry into these " residual pheno- 
 mena," and also respecting some points upon which I spoke 
 hesitatingly in these Lectures, I must refer to a paper on 
 "Egyptian Mythology, particularly with reference to Mist and 
 Cloud," which I read on the 7th March, 1882, before the 
 Society of Biblical Archaeology, and has been published in the 
 Society's Transactions of the present year. 
 
 The following extracts relate to the identification of gods : 
 " I do not think I was wrong in identifying N"ephthys with 
 the Sunset, and Isis, Hathor, Neith, and other goddesses, with 
 the Dawn. But M. Naville was also right in his conjecture 
 that IsTephthys might represent the morning, and Isis the 
 evening, twilight. There were, in fact, according to Egyptian 
 ideas, two Dawns, and a word which means Dawn also means 
 Sunset. In the vignettes of the 17th chapter of the Book of 
 the Dead, the goddesses Isis and Nephthys twice appear 
 toixether, once on the Eastern and once on the Western direc- 
 tion of the bark of the Sun -god. Again, Isis is said to give 
 birth to the sun -god Horus, and Nephthys to nurse him. 
 This is, of course, on the eastern horizon. Yet both Isis and 
 Nephthys are called ' goddesses of the West.' According to 
 one of the glosses of the 17th chapter, Isis and Nephthys are 
 the two feathers on the head of the ithyphallic god Ames, 
 who (we are told in the same place) is no other than Horus, 
 the avenger of his father. In the more recent texts, the hiero- 
 glyphic sign representing the rising sun between Isis and 
 Nephthys, is ideographic of the word tttau, morning. When 
 they are associated in this way, it is right to speak of these 
 goddesses as the Two Dawns. When they appear isolated, 
 unless there is a special reason for the contrary, Isis remains 
 
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. IX 
 
 the Dawn, as in the myth where Horus strikes off her head, 
 or in the 133rd chapter, which begins as follows: 'The Sun- 
 god rises from his horizon ; the company of gods is with him, 
 as the god comes forth who is in the secret dwelling. The 
 mists fall away from the eastern horizon of heaven at the 
 voice of Isis, who has prepared the way for the Sun-god.' 
 And, on the other hand, ISTephthys considered as the spouse 
 of Set, the destroyer of Osiris, or as the mother of Anubis, 
 ' wlio swallows his own father,' can only be identified with 
 the Sunset. 
 
 " Hathor, ' the dwelling of Horus,' out of which he comes 
 and into which he returns, stands both for the Dawn and the 
 evening twilight. 
 
 "I thought it probable that Neith, the great goddess of 
 Sais, and mother of the Sun-god Ea, who in various texts is 
 identified with Isis, was one of the many names of the Dawn, 
 not of Heaven, as has generally been thought. I ought to 
 have spoken more positively. The passage 1 referred to in 
 the Book of the Dead (114, 1, 2) is sufficient to support a 
 decided assertion. The goddess herself says on the sepulchral 
 canopi, setua semdsera rd neb, ' I come at Dawn and at Sunset 
 daily,' and I ought to have remembered that a papyrus of the 
 Louvre says that ' the Sun-god Ra rises at the gates of the 
 horizon at the prime portals of Neith.' Upon which M, Mas- 
 pero says, * En tant que deesse cosmique \tlie Egyptians had 
 no others] Neith representait la matiere inerte et tenebreuse 
 d'ou le soleil sortait chaque matin.' I am pleased to find that 
 on some important points I am not so far at variance with 
 other Egyptian scholars as I thought when I delivered my 
 Lectures. I am certainly not disposed to admit the general 
 proposition, that the Egyptian goddesses represented space. 
 But M. Pierret's doctrine, ' (iu'elles personuifient la lumiere 
 
X PREFACE. TO THE SECOND EDITION. 
 
 du soleil ou I'espace dans lequel il prend set naissance et dans 
 Uqiid il se coiiche,' is very nearly my own view. I fear Egypt- 
 ologists will soon be accused, like other persons, of seeing the 
 Dawn everywhere. The ancient Egyptians at least saw these 
 goddesses where we see them. ' Oh Shu, Amen Ea, Harma- 
 chis, self-sprung,' says a hymn, ' thy sister goddesses stand in 
 Buchat, they uplift thee into thy bark.' Buchat, as Brugsch 
 proved many years ago, is the place on the horizon where the 
 sun rises. 
 
 " I am, I confess, compelled to see the Dawn, or rather the 
 Two Dawns, in Shu and Tefnut, the two children of the Sun- 
 god Ea. It may be quite true that in later times Shu repre- 
 sented Air, but this is only because the Dawn brings fresh 
 breezes — Oriens afflavit anhelis. But in all the early texts 
 Shu is the rising Sun. The Harris magical papyrus identities 
 Shu with ' the Sun travelling upwards at the prime of morning, 
 whilst Tefnut, seated upon his head, darts her flame against 
 his adversaries.' The myth, according to which Shu ' divided 
 heaven from earth,' only means that at the dawning of the day 
 heaven and earth, which were previously confused together in 
 darkness, are clearly seen apart. And when it is added that 
 * he raised the heaven above the earth for millions of years,' 
 what happens every day is, according to the well-known wont 
 of myths, related as having occurred once. The expression 
 hotejp shu, implies that Shu is used for the Sunset as well as for 
 the Dawn. Shu and Tefnut are called the Two Lions, but 
 they are also represented by a single Lion, as though there 
 were but a single divinity. In the tomb of queen Maat-ka-ra, 
 the two Eyes of Horus are said to be Shu and Tefnut — one 
 being in the morning boat and the other in the evening boat 
 of the Sun. 
 
 " As Tefnut etymologically seemed to represent some form 
 
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. xi 
 
 of moisture, I had conjectured that this was Dew rather than 
 Rain, which is not one of the regularly recurring phenomena 
 of Egypt. And Brugsch has recently come to a similar con- 
 clusion. This conjecture, however, scarcely does justice to 
 the powers of Tefnut, who is always described as a fiery and 
 even blood-stained divinity. It is fire that she spits against 
 the adversaries. ' I am Tefnut,' she says, ' thundering against 
 those who are kept on the earth, who are annihilated for ever.' 
 She surely represents 
 
 '■ The sanguine sunrise, with his meteor eyes 
 And his burning plumes outspread,' 
 
 or the ' crimson pall of eve.' 
 
 " Both Isis and Nephthys shoot flames against the adver- 
 saries of Ra. 
 
 " The same may be said of the two Uraeus goddesses, Uat'it 
 and Nechebet, who are in fact but one goddess, who is herself 
 identified with Hathor in a text published by M. Maspero, 
 which adds that she consumes the adversaries with her flames. 
 
 "Sechet, the beloved of Ptah, is simply the fiery Dawn. 
 'She sendeth flames of fire in the face of the foes; whoever 
 approaches sinks to ruin, she sendeth fire to burn their limbs.' 
 She is distinctly identified with Neith in the Ritual (66, 9).'" 
 
 All the myths just mentioned are founded upon facts eter- 
 nally recurring in regular and unvarying succession. 
 
 But the sky of Egypt, like that of all other lands, displayed 
 phenomena which it was thought impossible to reduce to rule. 
 The clouds with their varied aspects occupy a large portion 
 of Egyptian mythology, but always in connection with and 
 in subordination to some deity. There is no independent 
 " meteorological myth." 
 
 The crimson or scarlet tints of dawn and sunset assume 
 different mythological forms ; sometimes as blood proceeding 
 
Xll PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION". 
 
 from the gods, sometimes as the blood of the enemies of the 
 gods. 
 
 The Sun-god Ea hastens to his suicide, and Uoocl flows from 
 him. 
 
 Or he cut the foot of Hathor as he stretched his hand to 
 bring her to him in his evening boat. 
 
 A third myth speaks of Isis, the Dawn goddess, as stanching 
 the blood from the eye of the Sun-god Horus. 
 
 The blood of Isis, which is commemorated in one of the 
 chapters of the Book of the Dead, is probably that which 
 flowed when Horus smote off her head. 
 
 In other chapters the enemies of Osiris appear in the forms 
 of birds, beasts and fishes, and the Sun-god washes in their 
 blood. These enemies of the Sun are called Samiu or Sebiu. 
 Their transformations, their slaughter and the effusion of their 
 blood, represent the dissolution of the dark clouds into smaller 
 ones, assuming fantastic forms, and coloured by the sun's rays 
 in hues of crimson and scarlet. 
 
 But animal forms do not only represent the adversaries of 
 the Sun-god. They are sometimes the cattle of Horus, " his 
 oxen, his goats and his swine." And at other times Horus is 
 a hunter, his greyhounds representing the light clouds rapidly 
 skimming along under the influence of a steady breeze. 
 
 The Latin word cirrus, which signifies a lock of hair, is the 
 scientific name of one of the commonest forms of cloud. The 
 corresponding Egyptian word is NeUu. And in several parts 
 of the Book of the Dead, Nebtu appears as a demon who 
 encounters the Sun-god in battle. And in a text of great 
 antiquity he is called a son of Nut, that is, " a child of the 
 sky." 
 
 The Samiu, who have already been mentioned as enemies 
 of the Sun, and represent dark cloud, etymologically signify 
 
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. xiii 
 
 dark hair. The Samiu of Set exactly correspond to tlie ttAo- 
 
 KafWi €KaToyKec/)a/\a Tv(^w. 
 
 Hair is also the mythical equivalent of cloud when the 
 overcast dawn is represented by Isis covering herself by let- 
 ting her hair flow over her ; also by the wig of Hathor, which 
 covers the rising Sun-god Shu. 
 
 Clouds also appear as serpents, and the most important is 
 the great dragon Apap, or rather Apepi, who in the later 
 periods of Egyptian religion was confounded with Set. But 
 Set represents Night, and in tlie olden days was called tlie 
 great and living god and lord of heaven. Apepi never was 
 called a god. He therefore represents, not a regularly occur- 
 ring phenomenon, but an irregular and occasional one. He is 
 the strong, dark storm-cloud, and is overcome by the fire and 
 flinty sword of the Sun-god, and forced back into his subter- 
 ranean cavern. One of his names is the Eoarer ; he is repre- 
 sented as blind, and another of his names, Ubar, signifies " the 
 blind one," like the Latin Cacus or Cseculus. 
 
 The tree is another mythical representative of cloud, and 
 never appears otherwise than as a joyful or beneficent plie- 
 nomenon. 
 
 The light cloud under which the Sun rises is either the 
 Persea-tree, beneath which the great .Cat, which represents 
 Ea, crushes the head of the Serpent ; or it is the olive-tree of 
 Ptah, or the tamarisk, or the willow on whose branches the 
 hennu bird sits, or Isis suckles the infant Horus under bushes 
 of marsh plants. 
 
 The beautiful green tints on the horizon at daybreak and at 
 sunset are mythologically represented by "the sycamore of 
 emerald," through the midst of which the Sun-god advances 
 into the firmament. Green, no less than crimson or gold, was 
 to the Egyptians a characteristic colour of the Dawn. The 
 
XIV PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 
 
 Lion of Dawn had a green cap or mantle. The "golden 
 Hawk" has wings of green. One of the names of the Dawn 
 is UatHt, which signifies "the green one," just as rcdba or 
 Vaule signifies ''the white one." One of the names of the 
 Dawn-god Shu is neshem, " green felspar," and the green colour 
 of the frog is a clue to the meaning of the ancient goddess 
 Heqet. 
 
 Another mythological sycamore is that of Nut. This tree 
 in the sky, which yields both wind and water, is no other than 
 the rain- cloud. 
 
 I have ventured to identify the bright girdle of Ea (Todt, 
 110, 4) with the Eainbow. The Bow which is mentioned in 
 another chapter of the Eitual, and from which the Sun-god is 
 said to shoot forth, is not the Eainbow, but (as I have pointed 
 out) the Moon's crescent. 
 
 The Tortoise is so deadly an enemy to the Sun-god that on 
 each of the four gates of heaven it is written, " Life to Ea, 
 death to the Tortoise ! " There are, I believe, the strongest 
 reasons for supposing that the Tortoise stands for an Eclipse. 
 The Egyptians already knew, when the Book of the Dead was 
 composed, that the moon's light was derived from the Sun, 
 whom they addressed as " shining from the moon ;" but they 
 did not know that the Eclipse was 7ieh madt, as obedient to 
 fixed law as the sun and stars, and they never deified it. 
 
 Such is the summary of the principal results of this inquiry. 
 I concluded my paper on the subject with saying, that "if I 
 am not entirely mistaken, a key is now at our service which, 
 if intelligently used, will gradually open to us all, or at least 
 most of, the mysteries of the Book of the Dead." Since these 
 lines were written, however, a whole Eitual, consisting of a 
 long series of mythological texts, has been discovered, vying 
 in antiquity with the Book of the Dead. Though found in 
 
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. XV 
 
 the pyramids of the fifth and sixth dynasties, they are mani- 
 festly much more ancient. They contain the same mythology 
 as the Book of the Dead, and a great deal also which is not 
 found there. But the interpretation of all these texts depends 
 upon one and the same key ; and to those who cannot under- 
 stand that as Ea is the Sun of to-day, Osiris is the Sun of 
 yesterday, who was overcome by Night in the person of Set, 
 who in his turn was vanquished by Ilorus, the son and heir 
 of Osiris, and that Osiris and Horus, like Ea, Ptah and Tmu, 
 are originally but names of the Sun, the solution of all Egyptian 
 mythology must be mere arbitrary guesswork. 
 
 It is not without surprise that I have found myself described 
 by more than one distinguished critic as being a partizan of 
 the view of " primitive henotheism," and my surprise is not 
 diminished by finding that the same view is attributed to 
 Professor Max Miiller. "Primitive henotheism" appears to 
 me to be a contradiction in terms. Henotheism, as I under- 
 stand it, is but a stage of polytheism, and cannot possibly be 
 primitive. Nor have I anywhere put forth the opinion that 
 the Egyptians commenced with monotheism, or that their 
 most ancient religion was pure and perfect. I said, indeed, 
 that no one was better entitled to be heard upon the subject 
 than so eminent a scholar as the late M. de Eouge, but while 
 admitting the general accuracy of his facts, I respectfully 
 suggested a very different interpretation of them. 
 
 There are two distinct and independent currents in the 
 history of human thought, which very soon unite and are 
 confounded together ; but it is a grievous error to attempt to 
 derive one from the other. One of these currents is the 
 mythological, the other is the religious. 
 
 Mythology as such has nothing whatever to do with religion. 
 It has its origin in the more or less picturesque utterance of 
 
XVI PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 
 
 man in presence of nature. When the clouds rose up like 
 immense mountains, one above the other, obscuring the sky, 
 it was said that the earth-born powers, the Titans, were piling 
 up Pelion over Ossa in their war upon Zeus. The w^ord seh in 
 Egyptian means both "the earth" and a ''goose." When the 
 sun rose, it was said that the great cackling goose had laid an 
 egg. This was only one of tlie many mythological ways of 
 expressing sunrise. In none of these myths is there any reli- 
 gious idea whatever ; nor from them can any religious idea be 
 derived, any more than pure principles of morality could be 
 derived from myths which represent a god as being the " hus- 
 band of his mother," and another as striking oft' his mother's 
 head, while another great god is said to have slain his brother, 
 to have eaten his eye or swallowed his head. 
 
 But just as the purest and most delicate notions of morality 
 are found expressed in the early writings of the Egyptians, 
 so do we also find among them the consciousness of their 
 dependence upon a divine power, eternal, infinite, ubiquitous 
 and self-existent, wise and good. 
 
 It was by wholly different and independent exercises of 
 thought that the Egyptian mind gave birth to its mythology, 
 to its practical system of ethics, and to those notions of pure 
 religion which I have just mentioned. Mythology did not 
 make the religion, but it mixed with it and corrupted it at a 
 very early date — as soon, in fact, as appellatives grew into 
 proper names, and proper names led to personification, and 
 personification fostered, and finally implied, the belief in living 
 beings of infinite might, by whom some at least of the attri- 
 butes of divinity might reasonably be claimed. 
 
 Henotheism, which is a phenomenon recurring in the his- 
 tories of so many independent religions all over the world, is 
 the result of an attempt to harmonize popular polytheism with 
 
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. XVII 
 
 the necessary conclusions of human reason with reference to 
 the unity of the divine power. 
 
 Professor Lieblein coukl not have supposed that in asserting 
 the identity of Egyptian religion during some thousands of 
 years I intended to deny that new gods had been introduced 
 into the pantheon, or that new conceptions had been attached 
 to the names of the oldest gods. The addition of new gods to 
 a pantheon is as natural as the addition of new saints to the 
 calendar. Such additions do not necessarily imply the least 
 change in a religion. And my Lectures furnish numerous 
 instances in which the gods have attributes applied to them 
 which did not originally belong to them. But I do not believe, 
 as Professor Lieblein seems to believe, that the sublimer por- 
 tions of the Egyptian religion are the result of a process of 
 development or elimination from the grosser. Sublime and 
 gross proceed from separate mines of thought. This is not the 
 place to reply in detail to all the criticisms of Professor Lieblein, 
 which are sometimes based on a misconception of my meaning, 
 as when he thinks it necessary to protest against the ridicu- 
 lous assertion "that Egyptian civilization and religion have 
 remained unchanged through the course of time" ! On those 
 points in which we really differ, I beg to assure my learned 
 critic that in " boldly deciding the difficult and far-reaching 
 question as to the influence of Egyptian upon foreign thought, 
 as, for instance, on the Hebrew or Greek religions or philoso- 
 phies," I was not speaking rashly, or without due study of the 
 subject. I have all my life been an attentive student of the 
 history of religious and philosophical thought. ^Yhen I was 
 a L^niversity Professor, I delivered lectures on the history of 
 Greek Philosophy, and in discussing the evidence respecting 
 the origin of that philosophy it was impossible for me to arrive 
 at any other conclusions than those of Patter, in one of the 
 
 b 
 
XVlll PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 
 
 best chapters of his History, of Brandis and of Zeller. Greek 
 philosophy is essentially a flower of Hellenic origin, and not 
 traceable to any other soil. When one speaks of the Jewish- 
 Greek philosophy of Philo, it is not meant that Jewish thought 
 influenced the Greek, but the converse. As for times more 
 recent than Philo, no one, of course, questions the conquest 
 both of Greece and Piome by " oriental teaching" in the form 
 of Christianity. 
 
 Professor Lieblein points to the mythological nanaes To, 
 Themis and Kerberos, as " all having an unmistakeable 
 Egyptian stamp," to the worship of Zeus -Amnion, to the 
 Greek and Eoman worship of Isis and Serapis. 
 
 I do not see the unmistakeable Egyptian stamp upon the 
 name lo. I do not know, and I am sure Professor Lieblein 
 does not know, of any Egyptian story like that of lo ; nor do 
 I like to think that he connects her name with one of the 
 Egyptian words signifying ox or cow, such as aila or aha. 
 But even this would not prove transmission of "religious 
 ideas." 
 
 As to Themis, the stamp is so unmistakeably Hellenic and 
 Indo-European, that the onus probandi lies upon those who 
 insist upon another origin. Themis is etymologically akin to 
 
 Oea-fS, Oejxa, ^ecr/xos, Oe/xevat (rt^r^/xt). Between rWrj/xt and ^e/xts 
 
 there is the same relation in sense as between our lay and 
 laio, or the German setzen and Gesetz. From the same root 
 dha we have a large family of kindred words in Sanskrit and 
 Zend, in Sclavonic, Teutonic and Keltic languages. Our 
 English word doo7}i, the Gothic doms, the old High German 
 hcom, the Swedish and Danish dom, are in the estimation of 
 all good scholars derived from the same root, and are near 
 relatives of the Greek Themis. 
 
 Kerberos is as certainly Indo-European. The difficulty here 
 
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. XIX 
 
 lies in the choice of parentage. Has Professor Lieblein ever 
 seen the following words of Wilford (Asiatic Eesearches, III. 
 ■p. 408) : " Yama, the regent of hell, has two dogs, according 
 to the Puranas, one of them named Cerhura and Sahala, or 
 varied ; the other Sydma, or black ; the first of whom is also 
 called Trigiras, or tuitJi three heads, and has the additional 
 epithets of Calmdsha, Chitra and Cirmira, all signifying 
 stained or spotted " ? Has Professor Lieblein any parallel 
 Egyptian vnjth to produce ? I think not ; but even if he had, 
 the Egyptian origin of Cerberus would not be proved thereby. 
 The Indo-European origin must first be disproved or made 
 doubtful. Now it is indeed probable, as Kuhn thinks, that 
 Wilford's pundit explained the name Qahala by Karhura, 
 without that being the dog's real name. Anyhow, here is an 
 Indo-European etymology which fully explains the myth of 
 Kerberos. And very excellent Sanskrit scholars admit this 
 etymology. It is given as a probable one in Benfey's Sanskrit- 
 English Dictionary, p. 164, under the word karhitra. Penary 
 finds a Greek etymology for the name, and Professor Max 
 Mliller {Chips, II. p. 183) explains it as connected with the 
 Sanskrit carvara, which must have had the original sense of 
 dark or pale. "Kerberos, therefore, in Greek would have 
 meant originally the dark one, the dog of night, watching tlie 
 path to the lower world." QcMla, with which Professor ]\Iax 
 JNIiiller connects garvara, is the Vedic epithet of the dog of 
 Yama.* The nearest corresponding Egyptian mytli is that of 
 the jackal Anubis, who swallowed his own father Osiris. The 
 Amam of the Egyptian Amenti, who sits before the throne of 
 
 * The dogs of Yama have four eves ((^vfinau catiuakshau ^aluilau), 
 Rig-veda, X. 14, 10. The same ibur-eycd animal occurs in the Zen<l- 
 Avesta, Fargavd; ^'iii- 1^) '^^' 
 
XX PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 
 
 Osiris, is not a dog. It is a creature of threefold nature, like 
 the Greek Chimaera. As the latter is 
 
 SO is the former drawn and described as having tlie head of a 
 crocodile, the hind parts of a hippopotamus, and the middle 
 (including the fore -legs) of a lion. And, like the Greek 
 Chimaera, the Egyptian " eater of the dead" mythologically 
 represents some form of darkness, which is everywhere asso- 
 ciated with Hades — andramlyhane tamasi of the Eisf-veda 
 (i. 182, 6; vii. 104, 3), the "Endless Darkness" of the Zend- 
 Avesta, the Hellenic Erebos. 
 
 No one will deny that Isis and Anion were Egyptian divi- 
 nities, and that they were worshipped by Greeks of the later 
 periods. But when the Greeks adopted foreign gods, they 
 Hellenized them. This is not what I meant when I denied 
 the transmission of religious ideas from Egyptians to Greeks. 
 I do not believe that Serapis was an Egyptian god. According 
 to all ancient accounts, his statue was brought to Alexandria 
 from Sinope in the time of the Ptolemies, and his worship 
 seems to have been confined to the Greeks and Eomans. It 
 is found principally, as Wilkinson says, "in cities founded or 
 greatly frequented by them, as Alexandria, Canopus, Antino- 
 opolis and Berenice, in small Eoman towns of the Oasis, in the 
 Nitriotis, or in quarries and stations in the deserts, where he 
 was also invoked under the names of Pluto and Sol Inferus." 
 The identification of Serapis with Osiris -Apis is a mere 
 etymological conjecture, which is not in the least supported 
 by the Greek or Eoman types of him known to us througli 
 coins and monuments. 
 
 It is in vain that I look here for evidence of transmission 
 of '' religious ideas" IS^or do I see " manifestly the Egyptian 
 
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. XXI 
 
 doctrine of hell's fire and torturings" in a passage quoted by 
 Professor Lieblein from the fourth book of ^laccabees.* There 
 is undoubtedly a doctrine of hell there, but it is no more 
 Egyptian than it is Brahmanic or Buddhist or Greek. The 
 Egyptian doctrine is far more like that which is contained in 
 the forty-third section of the Vish^iu-smriti, and yet no one 
 will suspect tliat Egyptian and Hindu doctrines are otherwise 
 than absolutely independent of each other. Each religion has 
 a hell of its own. Professor Lieblein also assumes not only 
 that the writer of the Jewish work in question borrowed his 
 doctrine from the Egyptians (and this he does from the mere 
 fact of the book being written in Alexandria), but that the 
 doctrines of all other Jews, Palestinian and Babylonian as well, 
 were borrowed from a work never esteemed canonical by Jews 
 or Christians, and never sufficiently read to justify the notion 
 of its being the source of the popular Jewish doctrine of which 
 it furnishes a proof. If I had to look for the inspiration of an 
 Alexandrian Jew beyond the traditions of his own religion, I 
 should rather look to Homer and Plato for such notions as 
 Tartarus and the fiery stream of Pyriphlegethon than to the 
 Egyptian Amenti. But the real explanation of the matter is, 
 that wdien two religions agree in admitting the notion of retri- 
 bution for sin in the future life, they are very likely to agree 
 in some remarkable points of detail, and that without any 
 borrowinir. One of the most remarkable features of the Egyp- 
 tian doctrine is that of the lalancc in which human actions 
 are weighed. But this balance is also found in the Q'atapatha- 
 Brahma?ia. 
 
 I have thought it well to speak at some length on tliese 
 
 ^ I uiukTstand a passa^re quoted by Prof. Lieblein from the " Book of 
 Hades," not as referring to the punishment of wicked men, but to the 
 annihilation of the mytliical enemies of La. 
 
XXll PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 
 
 objections of Professor Lieblein, partly from sincere respect to 
 so estimable a scholar, but also because it is most desirable 
 that no misunderstanding should exist as to the real points in 
 discussion, or the method and principles by which right con- 
 clusions may be arrived at. 
 
 As Professor Lieblein argues that the Egyptians began with 
 nature- worship (which is a mixture of religion and mythology), 
 and gradually rose to a higher conception of the divine power, 
 so, on the other hand, did the late M. de Eouge, and so now do 
 his able successors of the French school, M. Pierret, M. Grebaut, 
 and others, depending chiefly upon texts of the henotheistic 
 period, argue that the Egyptian religion was essentially mono- 
 theistic, though disfigured by polytheistic imagery. The oppo- 
 site parties necessarily admit each other's facts, but in the 
 analysis of tliese facts they are, I believe, equally in error, 
 because neither party seems to me rightly to apprehend the 
 nature of mythology. 
 
 It would be very ungrateful of me to finish this Preface 
 without offering my sincere thanks for the exceedingly kind 
 way in which these Lectures have been noticed, both here and 
 abroad, in literary organs representing every variety of theo- 
 logical opinion. My thanks are also due to those of my 
 learned colleagues in Egyptology who have honoured my book 
 with their countenance, and specially to Dr. Karl Piehl, an 
 admirable Egyptian scholar, who has published a translation 
 of the book in the Swedish language. 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 LECTURE I. 
 
 The Sources op Information respecting the Ancient 
 Egyptian Religion. 
 
 Early Christians on the Egyptian worship 
 
 Heathen writers on the same subject 
 
 How far can such evidence be relied upon 
 
 Modern attempts at investigation 
 
 Decipherment of hieroglyphic writing 
 
 Dr. Young . 
 
 Champollion 
 
 His successors 
 
 Recovery of the ancient language 
 
 Publication of Egyptian texts 
 
 Most of the texts are of a religious nature 
 
 PAQB 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 4 
 9 
 11 
 12 
 14 
 19 
 20 
 22 
 26 
 
 LECTURE IL 
 Antiquity and Characteristics of Egyptian Civilization. 
 
 Egyptian chronology depends upon monuments recording con- 
 temporary facts . . . . .32 
 ^lonumcnts mentioning the year of a reign . . .33 
 
XXIV 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Monuments furnishing evidence of a succession of reigns . 34 
 
 Koyal lists and their verification by the monuments . . 37 
 
 Koyal list of Abydos . . . . .38 
 
 Evidence of the reality of sovereigns named . . .39 
 
 Omissions of this list . . . . .41 
 
 Genealogies . . . . . . .46 
 
 Manetho . . . . . . .47 
 
 Absolute dates . . . . . .48 
 
 Egyptian monarchy anterior to 3000 B.C. . . .49 
 
 Pre-historic antiquity of human race in Egypt . . 50 
 
 Egyptian ethnology . . . . . .53 
 
 Language . . . . . . .55 
 
 Art . . . . . . . .61 
 
 Moral code . . . . . . .71 
 
 Castes . . . . . . .78 
 
 Monogamy . ...... 79 
 
 LECTURE IIL 
 The Gods of Egypt. 
 
 Identity of the religious institutions from first to last 
 
 Temples ..... 
 
 Triads and enneads .... 
 
 Local character of Egyptian worship 
 
 The deities innumerable 
 
 Mean notions concerning these deities 
 
 Simplification of the list 
 
 Is the religion really monotheistic 1 . 
 
 Evidences as to the meaning of the word Nutar 
 
 The Power ..... 
 
 The Powers ..... 
 
 80 
 82 
 83 
 83 
 85 
 86 
 87 
 89 
 93 
 100 
 103 
 

 CONTENTS. 
 
 XXV 
 
 PAGli 
 
 IMyth and legend 
 
 . 
 
 104 
 
 Ra and his family . 
 
 . 
 
 109 
 
 Osiris and his family 
 
 
 110 
 
 Horus 
 
 t 
 
 113 
 
 Set . 
 
 . 
 
 115 
 
 Tlioth 
 
 . 
 
 . 116 
 
 The reign of Law 
 
 , 
 
 . 119 
 
 LECTURE IV. 
 
 Communion with the Unseen World. 
 
 Sepulchral rites 
 
 The tombs and their inscript 
 
 The ka or genius 
 
 Souls, shadows, apparitions 
 
 Possession . 
 
 Dreams 
 
 Oaths 
 
 Angels 
 
 Destiny 
 
 The king s divinity . 
 
 124 
 127 
 147 
 152 
 154 
 155 
 157 
 158 
 159 
 161 
 
 LECTURE V. 
 
 The Religious Books of Egypt. 
 
 The Book of the Dead 
 Beatification of the dead 
 The renewed existence "as upon earth" 
 Transformation 
 
 Identification with Osiris and other god.= 
 
 c 
 
 172 
 179 
 180 
 181 
 184 
 
XXVI 
 
 Amulets 
 Words of power 
 Moral doctrine 
 Other sacred books 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 191 
 192 
 194 
 200 
 
 LECTURE VI. 
 
 Religious Books and Hymns : Henotheism, Pantheism and 
 Materialism. 
 
 Lamentations of Isis and Nephthys 
 
 
 
 
 204 
 
 Book of glorifying Osiris 
 
 
 
 
 205 
 
 Book of the Breaths of Life 
 
 
 
 
 
 207 
 
 Rhind papyri 
 
 
 
 
 
 209 
 
 Magical literature 
 
 
 
 
 
 210 
 
 True notion of God . 
 
 
 
 
 
 215 
 
 Henotheism . 
 
 
 
 
 
 217 
 
 Pantheism . 
 
 
 
 
 
 230 
 
 Materialism . 
 
 
 
 
 
 239 
 
 Influence of Egyptian upon foreign thought 
 
 
 
 243 
 
 Conclusion . 
 
 
 
 
 
 249 
 
THE 
 
 RELIGION OF ANCIENT EGYPT. 
 
THE SOURCES OF INFORMATION 
 
 RESPECTING THE 
 
 ANCIENT EGYPTIAN RELIGION 
 
 The religion of ancient Egypt is known to ns 
 through authentic records of various kinds, extending 
 through a period of not less than three thousand years. 
 It may have been in existence for many centuries 
 anterior to the earliest of the monuments which have 
 been preserved. Its origin is a matter, not of history, 
 but of speculation. Its last centuries coincide with 
 the first centuries of the Christian religion which gra- 
 dually supplanted it. During this period the zoolatry, 
 or worship of the sacred animals, was the feature which 
 chiefly attracted the notice of the Christian apologists 
 who have made any observations upon the subject. 
 
 Early Christians on the Egyptian Worship. 
 
 Clement of Alexandria, one of the most learned and 
 philosophical of the Greek Fathers, introduces his 
 
 B 
 
Z LECTURE I. 
 
 account of the Egyptian worship in a chapter against 
 the use or abuse of finery by Christian ladies.^ He 
 compares those ladies who elaborately decorate their 
 outside and neglect the soul, in which the image of 
 God should be enshrined, to the Egyptians, who have 
 magnificent temples, gleaming with gold, silver and 
 electrum, and glittering with Indian and Ethiopian 
 gems. ^' Their shrines," he continues, ^^are veiled 
 with gold-embroidered hangings. But if you enter 
 the penetralia of the enclosure and, in haste to behold 
 something better, seek the image that is the inhabitant 
 of the temple, and if any priest of those that offer 
 sacrifice there, looking grave and singing a paean in 
 the Egyptian tongue, remove a little of the veil to 
 show the god, he will furnish you with a hearty laugh 
 at the object of worship. For the deity that is sought, 
 to whom you have rushed, will not be found within, 
 but a cat, or a crocodile, or a serpent, or some such 
 beast, unworthy of the temple, but quite worthy of a 
 den, a hole or the dirt. The god of the Egyptians is 
 revealed ; a beast rolling on a purple couch." 
 
 Heathen Writers on the same Subject. 
 
 The language of Origen is very similar to that of 
 Clement. That Christian and Jewish controversialists 
 should have felt the utmost disdain for the Egyptian 
 
 1 Paedagog. iii. c. 2. 
 
ANCIENT EGYPTIAN RELIGION. 3 
 
 worship is natural enough, but this disdain was fully 
 shared by many of their heathen contemporaries. 
 ^'You are never done," says Clement to the latter, 
 '' laughing every day of your lives at the Egyptians.'' 
 He then quotes a Greek philosopher, Xenophancs of 
 Colophon, who tells the Egyptians, '' If you believe 
 these brutes to be gods, do not mourn or bewail them ; 
 if you mourn or bewail them, do not any more regard 
 them as gods." The comic writers of Greece had 
 already made themselves merry upon the subject. 
 Antiphanes, one of the most fertile and celebrated Athe- 
 nian poets of the Middle Comedy, jests at the cleverness 
 of the Egyptians who consider the eel as equal to the 
 gods. Anaxandrides, another famous Athenian comic 
 writer, tells the Egyptians: ''I never could be your 
 ally, for neither our customs nor our laws agree. They 
 differ widely. You worship an ox, but I sacrifice him 
 to the gods. You consider the eel a mighty demon ; 
 we think him by fixr the best of fish. You do not eat 
 swine flesh, and I am particularly fond of doing so. 
 You worship a dog, but I thrash him whenever I catch 
 him stealing meat. Here the law is, that integrity of 
 all their members is required of priests ; with you, it 
 appears, they must be circumcised. You weep if you 
 see a cat ailing, but I like to kill and skin him. A 
 shrew-mouse is an object of great consideration with 
 you, not of the least with me." Timokles, in a play 
 called ^' The Egyptians," asks, ^^ How is it possible for 
 
4 LECTURE I. 
 
 an ibis or a dog to save you ? For wlien men have 
 sinned against the gods whom all acknowledge, whom, 
 will the altar of a cat repel by its terrors ?"^ 
 
 Classical scholars are familiar with the Satire com- 
 monly attributed to Juvenal: ''Who does not know 
 what kinds of monsters demented Egypt worships ? 
 'One part adores the crocodile, another quakes before 
 the ibis gorged with serpents. The golden image of a 
 sacred long-tailed ape glitters where the magic chords 
 resound from mutilated Memnon, and ancient Thebes 
 lies in ruin, with her hundred gates. There whole 
 towns venerate cats, here a river fish, there a dog, but 
 no one Diana. It is impiety to violate and break with 
 the teeth the leek and onion. holy races, to whom 
 such deities as these are born in their gardens !"^ 
 
 It is not wonderful that, with such evidence before 
 them, many writers should at the present day speak of 
 the Egyptian religion as one of the lowest and grossest 
 forms of nature-w^orship, as consisting in what is com- 
 monly called African fetishism, or at least as being 
 based upon it. 
 
 How far can such Evidence be relied upon? 
 
 Yet the external aspect of a religion as presented to 
 strangers is not often one that is to be trusted. We 
 
 1 These comedians are quoted in Athen.: Deipnos. vii. p. 299. 
 
 2 Juvenal, Sat. xv. 1. Mr. Lewis's translation. 
 
ANCIENT EGYPTIAN RELIGION. 5 
 
 have but to remember the accounts of tlie Jewish reli- 
 gion and of its history which have been left us by 
 heathen writers, and the judgments which the most 
 enlightened of these writers passed upon Christianity 
 in the earliest and purest days of its existence. Chris- 
 tianity was not only considered as ah exitiahilis super- 
 stition but was popularly supposed to involve the wor- 
 ship of a brute animal.^ Do you think the prejudices 
 of men holding such opinions would have been weak- 
 ened had they accidentally heard of '' the Lamb of God 
 who taketh away the sins of the world," or read in the 
 Apocalypse of the Lamb with seven horns and seven 
 eyes who is the Lord of lords and King of kings, and 
 represented as receiving the worship of the four beasts, 
 the four-and-twenty elders, and innumerable angels ? 
 
 A Eoman soldier, according to the historian Diodo- 
 ros, incurred the furious wrath of an Egyptian village 
 by the slaughter of a cat. But the fury of a Moham- 
 medan population may at this day be aroused by an 
 attack upon its wild dogs ; and there are, or till very 
 
 ^ The Christians were popularly supposed to worship the ass, but 
 this worship was naturally imagined to have been derived from the 
 Jews, who worshipped not only the ass, but the swine. " Judaeus 
 licet et porcinum numen adoret ;" Petronius Arbiter, p. 224 : IJerlin, 
 1842. See Gill's Notices of the Jews and their Country by the 
 Classic Writers of Antiquity, and an essay of Geiger (Jiiden ti. 
 Judenthum nach d. Aiiffassung d. Schriftsteller d. AUerthums) in the 
 Illustrirte Monatshefte fiir die gesammten Interessen des Jadeidhurns 
 of Oct. 1865. 
 
D LECTURE I. 
 
 lately were, numerous Christian populations which 
 resented the slaughter of cloves or pigeons as impious 
 and sacrilegious. Yet neither Moslems nor Christians 
 have ever worshipped dogs or pigeons.^ 
 
 It is in the nature of things that persons living out- 
 side a religion, especially if they are not inclined to it, 
 cannot understand it or its symbols unless their inqui- 
 ries are conducted under conditions which are generally 
 considered superfluous or wrong. Men are rarely con- 
 scious of the prejudices which really incapacitate them 
 from forming impartial and true judgments on systems 
 alien to their own habits of thought. And philosophers 
 who may pride themselves on their freedom from pre- 
 judice may yet fail to understand whole classes of 
 psychological phenomena which are the result of reli- 
 gious practice, and are familiar to those alone to whom 
 such practice is habitual. 
 
 There is distinct evidence that the absurdity which 
 the Egyptian religion presented to strangers disappeared 
 on closer acquaintance with it. Philo, the philosophical 
 
 ^ Yet Mr. Herbert Spencer, Sociology, p. 354, after quotiDg a 
 remark of Mr. McLennan that the dove is ahnost as irreat a fod 
 among the ancients as the serpent, says, " that the still extant sym- 
 bolism of Christianity shows us the surviving eifect of the belief in 
 the ghostly character of the dove." N'est ce pas chercher midi a 
 quatorze heures ? Even if the schoolboy authorities on which Mr. 
 McLennan relies were not absolutely worthless, surely the belief in 
 the gospel narrative would be sufficient to account for the sym- 
 bolism of the dove among populations who in their heathen con- 
 dition had never heard of the dove as a divinity. 
 
ANCIENT EGYPTIAN RELIGION. 7 
 
 Jew of Alexandria, tells us that foreigners coming for 
 the first time into Egypt knew not what to do for 
 laughter at the divine beasts, but that the universal 
 superstition finished by overpowering them also. Apol- 
 lonios of Tyana, according to his biographer Philos- 
 tratos, decidedly condemned the Egyptian system as 
 absurd and ridiculous. But the form which his objec- 
 tions assume is quite inconsistent with the notion of 
 fetishism. He takes it for granted that the beasts are 
 not deities, but symbols of deity. ^'If you place a 
 hawk or an owl or a wolf or a dog in your temples to 
 represent Hermes, Athene or Apollon, the beasts and 
 birds may derive dignity from such representations, 
 but the gods will lose theirs." " I think," said Thes- 
 pesion, '^you slight our mode of worship before you have 
 given it a fair examination. For surely what Ave are 
 speaking of is wise, if anything Egyptian is so ; the 
 Egyptians do not venture to give any form to their 
 deities, they only give them in symbols which have an 
 occult meaning that renders them more venerable." 
 Apollonios, smiling at this, said, " ye sages, great 
 indeed is the advantage you have derived from the 
 wisdom of Egyptians and Ethiopians, if you find any- 
 thing worthy of your worship in a dog, an ibis or a 
 goat ; or if you think such creatures fit to represent 
 
 your gods If what the mind discovers couched 
 
 under such symbolical figures is entitled to greater 
 veneration, surely the condition of the gods in Egypt 
 
8 LECTURE I. 
 
 would be more highly respected if no statues whatever 
 were erected to them, and if theology was treated in a 
 different manner, with a little more wisdom and mys- 
 tery The mind forms to itself a something which 
 
 it delineates better than what any art can do ; but in 
 the present instance you have taken from the gods the 
 very power of appearing beautiful either to the eye or 
 to the understanding.'' 1 
 
 I do not quote this conversation as in any way 
 deserving to be considered authentic, but only as 
 evidence that the Egyptian worship of animals was 
 considered even by grave opponents as symbolical, 
 and not as pure fetishism. Celsus is quoted by Origen 
 as distinctly denying the worship by the Egyptians of 
 brute creatures of a day (C^^wv iifirjueptiovy And some 
 Christian Fathers even admit that the symbolical wor- 
 ship of animals denotes a higher stage of culture than 
 the worship of inanimate images, stocks and stones, or 
 of deities whose actions are inconsistent with the most 
 elementary notions of morality. Porphyry ^ explains 
 the animal worship from a Pantheistic point of view. 
 All living creatures in their degree partake of the 
 Divine essence, and ^^ under the semblances of animals 
 the Egyptians worship the universal power which the 
 gods have revealed in the various forms of living 
 nature." 
 
 1 Vit. Apollonii, vi. Id. ^ Be Abstinentia, iv. c. 9. 
 
ANCIENT EGYPTIAN RELIGION. 9 
 
 Modern Attempts at Investigation. 
 
 After all, tlie religion of the Egyptians was not con- 
 fined to the worshij) of the sacred animals. Herodotos, 
 Plato and other classical writers, mention Amon, Osiris, 
 Isis, Thoth, ISTeith and other divinities ; and the belief 
 in the soul's immortality is not only decidedly ascribed 
 to the Egyptians, but is said to have been first taught 
 by them. What relations did the various parts of this 
 religion bear to each other ? Was the religion in its 
 later ages identical with the primitive religion of the 
 country ? Had there been advance or retrogression ? 
 The solution of these and many other obvious ques- 
 tions was quite impossible until very recently. The 
 learned Eriicker, in his Critical History of Philosophy, 
 and Jablonski, in his Pantheon Aegyptiacum, have 
 with indefatigable industry put together all the evi- 
 dence that can be found in Greek and Latin writers. 
 But they had no means of testing this evidence. "No 
 history can be learnt with certainty except from evi- 
 dence contemporaneous with the events recorded ; no 
 religion can be studied with profit except in the very 
 words of its own votaries. But the knowledge of the 
 Egyptian language had not only actually perished, but 
 the key to the decipherment of its writings was sup- 
 posed to be irrecoverably lost. The hieroglyphic cha- 
 racters, consisting of representations of the sun, moon, 
 animals, plants and other objects, either natural or 
 
10 LECTURE I. 
 
 artificial, which are painted or sciil23tured upon so 
 many Egyptian monuments, were indeed looked upon 
 as symbols under which the mysteries of the religion 
 had been concealed from the vulgar, and several 
 attempts were made to explain them. All these 
 efforts, however, were destitute of any scientific 
 basis. The most elaborate attempts proceeded from 
 the learned Jesuit, Athanasius Kircher, who is not 
 without merit as one of the restorers of Coptic ; but 
 his enormous folios upon hieroglyphic inscriptions are 
 mere memorials of a frightful amount of time and 
 thought elaborately wasted. Every hieroglyphic sign 
 was supposed to represent an idea ; and groups which 
 we now know to stand for the names and titles of the 
 Eoman emperors Yespasian, Titus and Domitian, are 
 converted into long sentences of mystical rubbish. 
 Even at the beginning of the present century, the 
 Chevalier Palin indulged in dreams not unworthy of 
 Athanasius Kircher. Dr. Birch has briefly described 
 his views as follows. He " did not hesitate to assert 
 that it was only necessary to translate the Psalms of 
 David into Chinese, and write them in the ancient 
 characters of that language, in order to reproduce the 
 Egyptian papyri, and that these contained many Bib- 
 lical books." 
 
 Spurious monuments served the purposes of these 
 interpreters quite as well as genuine ones. In the 
 >'Isiac table" Kircher discovered a variety of sacred 
 
ANCIENT EGYPTIAN RELIGION. H 
 
 mysteries favourable to Christianity; Pignoriiis read 
 in it precepts of moral and political wisdom. Another 
 critic (Jablonski) considered it as a calendar of festi- 
 vals ; whilst a fom-th attempted to persuade the learned 
 world that ^Hhese characters described the j^roperties 
 and use of the magnet, and of the mariner's compass." 
 
 Decipherment of Hierog-lyphic Writing*. 
 
 The discovery of the Eosetta stone put an end to all 
 this guess-work. Most of you have probably seen this 
 stone in the British Museum. It is a tablet of black 
 basalt, about three feet long by about two and a half 
 wide, and was erected in honour of Ptolemy Epiphanes, 
 193 years before Christ. The inscriptions upon it are 
 in three distinct characters, the third of which is Greek. 
 The Greek text consists of a decree in honour of the 
 king, and it is expressly stated in the last line that 
 this decree is to be engraved on the tablet, rots re Upot^ 
 Kal eyx^ptots Kal ekXtjvcKoU ypa/x/^acrtv, '' in the sacred charac- 
 ters, in the vernacular and in Greek." The tablet is 
 unfortunately mutilated, great part of the hieroglyphic 
 portion is lost, and so is the end of the Greek. Fifteen 
 lines of the enchorial or (as it is now generally called) 
 demotic part have lost their first letters or words. 
 
 The conditions of the problem to be solved were now 
 of a very definite kind. The inquirer, instead of guess- 
 ing at the sense of the hieroglyphic text, had the sense 
 
12 LECTURE I. 
 
 supplied to him. His problem lay in dividing the 
 hieroglyphic text into groups or words corresponding 
 to the Greek words. The problem would be completely 
 solved if each Egyptian group were successfully ana- 
 lyzed and read, the verification of the result being 
 found in the facility of reading and interpreting other 
 texts by means of the alphabet and vocabulary thus 
 obtained. 
 
 Several of the most eminent scholars in Europe 
 attempted the problem, and some of them even with 
 partial success. The great orientalist Silvestre de Sacy 
 determined the demotic groups corresponding to Pto- 
 lemy, Berenike, Alexander and other proper names; 
 and the Swedish scholar Akerblad already, in the year 
 1802, even drew up a phonetic alphabet of the demotic 
 characters, which is remarkably correct as far as it 
 goes. The complete key to the decipherment of Egyp- 
 tian was, however, not revealed to the world till the 
 publication of Champollion's letter to M. Dacier in the 
 September of 1822. 
 
 Dr. Young". 
 
 It is even to this day a common habit of Englishmen 
 to couple the name of their countryman Dr. Thomas 
 Young with that of Champollion, as sharing with him 
 the glory of this discovery. No person who knows 
 anything of Egyptian philology can countenance so 
 gross an error. Dr. Young was indeed a man of extra- 
 
ANCIENT EGYPTIAN RELIGION. 13 
 
 ordinary genius, but the true direction of it was long 
 unrecognized by those very countrymen of his who 
 ridiculously put him forward as a rival of Champollion. 
 '' It fell to his lot," as Professor Tyndall has said, '4o 
 discover facts in Optics which Newton's theory was 
 incompetent to explain; and he finally succeeded in 
 placing on an immovable basis the Undulatory Theory 
 of Light." Helmholtz, a kindred genius, thus speaks 
 of him: ^^His was one of the most profound minds 
 that the world has ever seen." But it is not true that 
 he discovered the key to the decipherment of hiero- 
 glyphics, or even that his labours assisted Champollion 
 in the discovery. When the key was once discovered 
 and recognized as the true one, it was found that one 
 or two of Young's results were correct. Eut there was 
 nothing in his method or theory by which he or any 
 one else could distinguish between his right and his 
 wrong results, or which could lead him or any one else 
 a single step in advance. Young was certainly right 
 in assuming that the first two signs in the hieroglj'phic 
 name of Ptolemy^ were P and T, but his next step was 
 a failure, and so was the next after that. He did not 
 succeed in analyzing this royal name or that of Bere- 
 nike. All his other attempts were simple failures. 
 ^^He mistook Autokrator for Arsinoe, and Ca3sar for 
 
 ^ That the oval rmgs contained royal names was first pointed out 
 by the Danish scholar Zoega, who was also the first in modern times 
 to assert that some hieroglypliic characters were phonetic. 
 
14 LECTURE I. 
 
 Euergetes." ^^ His translations," says Dr. Birch, '^are 
 below criticism, being as nnfounded as those of Kir- 
 cher." Besides being unable to identify more than a 
 very few alphabetic characters, he failed to recognize 
 the nature of determinatives, no less an essential part 
 of the key than the phonetic. 
 
 ChampoUion. 
 
 Champollion's discovery was of a very different 
 nature. Besides the two kinds of Egyptian characters 
 which are used on the Eosetta stone, there is a third, 
 commonly called the hieratic. The hieroglyphic cha- 
 racters, with their accurately elaborate designs of 
 animals, plants and other objects, are very suitable 
 for monumental inscriptions, but very unsuitable for 
 the ordinary purposes of life ; and the Egyptians had 
 from the earliest times used a tachygraphic or cursive 
 character which is a rough and abridged form of the 
 hieroglyphic. The stones of the great Pyramid bear 
 notes upon them in this character which were already 
 written in the quarry. At a much more recent period 
 (some seven centuries before Christ), the character was 
 still further abridged and debased, and assumed the 
 form now called demotic, and this is the second cha- 
 racter on the Eosetta stone. A great many documents 
 in our museums are written in this character. Long 
 before he suspected the real nature of Egyptian writing, 
 ChampoUion had patiently studied the relations be- 
 
ANCIENT EGYPTIAN RELIGION. 15 
 
 tween its three different kinds, and had discovered the 
 essential identity of the three, demotic being a debase- 
 ment of the hieratic, the hieratic a debasement of the 
 hieroglyphic. Through M. Dacier he had presented 
 two dissertations to the French Academic des Sciences, 
 one on the hieratic and a second on the demotic cha- 
 racter. His enemy Klaproth asserts that he suppressed 
 the dissertation on the hieratic character for fear of its 
 telling tales against him, and showing his need of 
 Young's guidance. I do not know that it is true that 
 Champollion tried to suppress this '^ M^moire ;" but if 
 he did, it surely was not for the purpose malignantly 
 asserted by Klaproth and ignorantly repeated in this 
 country. The dissertation in question is a very excel- 
 lent work, chiefly consisting in plates, wherein passages 
 of the Book of the Dead written in hieroglyphics are 
 placed side by side with the same passages copied from 
 hieratic manuscripts, and the identity is made apparent 
 to the most imlearned eye. And if, as Klaproth asserts, 
 Champollion had wished to destroy all trace of certain 
 passages which occur in his text, he would certainly 
 not have repeated them, as he does, in his letter to 
 M. Dacier. But the most important step in his progress 
 was discovering the identity of certain demotic charac- 
 ters, the alphabetic nature of which had been demon- 
 strated by Akerblad, with the corresponding hieratic 
 ones, and consequently with their hierogl3'phic ori- 
 ginals. If any one has a right to be named in con- 
 
16 LECTURE I. 
 
 junction with Champollion, it is not Young, but 
 Akerblad, to whom he does full justice (as he does 
 indeed to Young himself) at the very beginning of his 
 letter to M. Dacier. But in 1822,i Champollion had 
 not only one bilingual inscription before him, but two, 
 the obehsk of Philse having been found, with an 
 Egyptian inscription and also a Greek one containing 
 the name of Cleopatra, which offered special facility 
 for decipherment, two of the letters in it being alike, 
 and others being the same as in the name of Ptolemy. 
 But in discussing this question, it must not be forgot- 
 ten that the key to hieroglyphic decipherment does 
 not consist in recognizing the phonetic nature of this 
 or that sign, but in the knowledge of the simultaneous 
 use of both phonetic and ideographic signs, not only 
 
 1 That Champollion never thought of hieroglyphic characters as 
 phonetic till after Young's publication, is one of Klaproth's un- 
 scrupulous assertions which has been thoughtlessly repeated by 
 some who should have known better. It has been refuted by 
 M. Champollion-Figeac, who in the Revue Archeologique of 1856, 
 1857 and 1858, has produced abundance of evidence from his 
 brother's writings between the years 1808 and 1814. In his Memoirs 
 sur les Ecritures Erjyptiennes, read on Aug. 7, 1810, before the 
 Society of Sciences and Arts of Grenoble, Champollion strongly 
 insists upon the necessity of phonetism, for otherwise how could 
 foreign names, for which no symbolism existed, be expressed in 
 writing? " L'inscription de Rosette presente les noms Grecs de 
 Ptolemee, Berenice, Arsinoe, Pyrrha, d'Areia, de Diogenes, d'Aetes, 
 d' Alexandre, etc. ; ils ne pouvaient etre exprimes dans la partie hiero- 
 glyphique de ce monument, si ces hieroglyphes n'avaient, comme 
 nous I'avons dit, la faculte de produire des sons." 
 
ANCIENT EGYPTIAN KELTGION. 17 
 
 in every line, but in nearly every word, and of the law 
 of this use. And neither Akerblad, nor, since the 
 language had ceased to be spoken, had any one else 
 before Champollion a notion of this. 
 
 The truth of Champollion' s alphabet was demon- 
 strated by its enabling one to read the name not only 
 of Ptolemy and Cleopatra, but of all the Persian, Greek 
 and Eoman sovereigns of the country. And, what was 
 far more important still, the meanings of many hiero- 
 glyphic groups, on being read according to his system, 
 were immediately known from the Coptic vocabulary. 
 Champollion's hypothesis that the old Egyptian lan- 
 guage was identical with Coptic, though a very imper- 
 fect one, and productive even at the present day of 
 many errors among those who discard it, was not 
 fatally wrong, for Coptic is in fact a later stage of the 
 language in which the hieroglyphic texts are written, 
 and the vocabulary of the latter is full of words whicli 
 are as intelligible to the Coptic scholar as the infinitives 
 of Latin verbs are to a mere Italian scholar. The 
 remaining years of his short life were spent in copying, 
 studying and interpreting Egyptian texts. The amount 
 of work accomplished by him in eight years is almost 
 incredible. He not only laid the foundations of a 
 Grammar and Dictionary, but illustrated the history 
 and religion of ancient Egypt by the translations and 
 analyses of short but authentic texts, opening an 
 entirely new world to the historical student, nnd con- 
 
 c 
 
18 LECTURE I. 
 
 vincingly proving that scarcely a single page wliich 
 had hitherto been written upon Egyptian history or 
 religion deserved the least credit. A splendid work 
 which he had begnn on the Egyptian Pantheon was 
 even discontinued in consequence of the fresh informa- 
 tion on the Egyptian religion which he was perpetually 
 discovering. 
 
 During his lifetime, Champollion had many oppo- 
 nents and detractors, but not a single person can be 
 named who in the slightest degree contributed to the 
 modification or development of his views. Whatever 
 corrections he adopted resulted from his own studies. 
 His immediate disciples did not advance a step beyond 
 what they learnt from him. One of them, Salvolini, 
 was guilty of the infamous wickedness, after his master's 
 death, of using the manuscripts of the latter for the 
 purpose of winning glory for himself at the expense of 
 the generous friend who had lent him his most valuable 
 papers. It was not till 1837, several years after the 
 death of Champollion, that his philological system was 
 subjected to a thoroughly scientific criticism by Dr. 
 Lepsius in his Letter to Eosellini, in which the ob- 
 viously erroneous portions of the system were elimi- 
 nated, the relations between the Coptic and the old 
 Egyptian languages were set in a truer light, and a 
 more accurate method of transcription was adopted. 
 
ANCIENT EGYPTIAN RELIGION. 19 
 
 His Successors. 
 
 For a good many years after this, Egyptian archae- 
 ology was chiefly cultivated by dilettanti, whose know- 
 ledge of the language seldom extended beyond the 
 decipherment of royal names. Whole systems of 
 Egyptian chronology have been devised by men inca- 
 pable of reading and understanding a single line of 
 Egyptian. Till 1850, the only genuine scholars who 
 can be mentioned in addition to Lepsius, are Mr. Birch 
 and Dr. Hincks in this country, M. Emmanuel de 
 Eoug^ in France, and Dr. Brugsch (then a very young 
 man) in Germany. But every one of these was a 
 scholar of more than average ability, and has left his 
 mark for ever upon the science. The important disco- 
 veries of M. Mariette belong to the next period, as also 
 do the first works of M. Chabas and Mr. Goodwin, two 
 scholars whose translations of some of the most difficult 
 texts in the language caused the study of it to advance 
 with gigantic strides. Since 1860, and particularly 
 since the foundation in 1863 at Berlin of a journal 
 in which everything connected with the language or 
 archaeology of ancient Egypt might be discussed, the 
 number of highly distinguished scholars has greatly 
 increased. A very valuable journal of the same kind 
 was founded in Paris in the year 1872. The names of 
 Dlimichen, Lauth,Ebers, Stern, Eisenlohr, Wiedemann, 
 Bergmann and Eeinisch in Germany and Austria, Pleyto 
 
 c2 
 
20 LECTURE I. 
 
 in Holland, Lieblein in Sweden, Golenischeff in Eussia, 
 Dev^ria, J. de Eoug(^, Horrack, Maspero, Lef^bure, 
 Pierret, Grdbant, Eobiou, Baillet and Eocbemonteix 
 in France, !N"aville at Geneva, Eossi, Szedlo and 
 Schiaparelli in Italy, are authorities familiar to every 
 Egyptologist. To these I must add Canon Cook and 
 Professor Lushington in this country. 
 
 Recovery of the Ancient Language. 
 
 It is not without a melancholy feeling that I enume- 
 rate these names (many of them belonging to dear and 
 valued friends), for the hand of death has already 
 thinned our ranks, and some of us are growing old and 
 disabled. The spell, however, is broken ; the language 
 of ancient Egypt has really been recovered — slowly, 
 it is true, and step by step. The decipherment of a 
 language does not at once put us in possession of a 
 language. The ancient Etruscan writings are read 
 with ease, but they are as unintelligible as ever. The 
 relationship between Coptic and old Egyptian happily 
 enabled Champollion to find the meanings of many 
 words and the general sense of entire inscriptions. 
 But the old Egyptian vocabulary, besides representing 
 an earlier stage of the language, is very much more 
 extensive than the Coptic, and the greater part of the 
 words which compose it had to be recovered, one after 
 another, by an inductive process. The truth of the 
 vocabulary which has thus gradually been built up is 
 
ANCIENT EGYPTIAN RELIGION. 21 
 
 verified by its enabling ns to read and understand entire 
 documents of every kind. This alone ought to be con- 
 sidered sufficient proof, for no imaginary vocabulary 
 can possibly adapt itself to the needs of an indefinite 
 number of texts. But sceptics who are incapacitated 
 by the imperfect acquaintance with the processes of 
 philological science from feeling the force of this proof, 
 may at least be referred to the confirmation of our 
 vocabulary by the bilingual inscription of Canopus. 
 In 1866, Dr. Lepsius discovered a tablet at San, in 
 Lower Egypt, of the same nature as the Eosetta stone; 
 that is to say, containing inscriptions in old Egyptian, 
 demotic and Greek, but much more considerable in 
 extent and quite perfect. The sense of this tablet, 
 according to the vocabulary already received among 
 Egyptologists, exactly agreed with that given by the 
 Greek text. And the truth of the Grammar is proved 
 in the same manner. Already in 1860, M. de Eougd 
 declared that there was no kind of Egyptian text the 
 translation of which might not be undertaken if only 
 the necessary pains were employed. We are now able 
 to read and understand not only the splendid and accu- 
 rate texts of the public inscriptions, but the wretched 
 scrawls of manuscripts in the cursive character. And 
 some scholars — Mr. Goodwin, for instance, and M. 
 Chabas, and before them Dr. Birch and M. de Eoug(^ — ■ 
 have successfully translated texts so frightfull}^ muti- 
 lated that in maiiv places only fragments of letters 
 
22 LECTURE I. 
 
 were visible. But their familiarity with the cursive 
 character enabled them to restore the text with an 
 accuracy of which no competent critic can entertain a 
 doubt. AYhen I speak of our being able to read and 
 comprehend the language, you will not understand me 
 as implying that all Egyptologists are equally learned 
 and skilful. 'Nov are all Egyptian texts equally easy 
 of translation.^ As in all languages, some are very 
 easy and others extremely difficult. There is one long 
 and most interesting document, of which I shall have 
 occasion to speak later on, which will, I fear, long 
 continue to baffle the efforts of translators. 
 
 Publication of Egyptian Texts. 
 
 The progress of the study was greatly retarded at 
 first by the difficulty of obtaining authentic copies of 
 
 ^ Other questions than those of a purely philological nature often 
 arise in reference to the texts translated. I do not quarrel with the 
 translations given by IVI. de Eouge and other scholars of the great 
 texts describing the invasion of Egypt in the time of Seti II. But 
 1 have always considered the identification of the foreign invaders 
 with the Achaeans, Tyrrhenians, Sardinians and Sicilians, as in the 
 highest degree improbable. Nor do I believe that the Danai or 
 tlie Pelasgi have been really identified under liieroglyphic spelling. 
 AVhen we reflect that Deutscbland is called AUemagne in French 
 and Crcrmany in English, that the people called Dutch by us are 
 called HoUandais by the French, that the Greeks only knew them- 
 selves as Hellenes, that the name Egypt was unknown to the 
 inhabitants of that country, and that its real name, Kamit, was 
 unknown to Greeks and Romans, we should be very cautious in 
 identifying names on the mere strength of similarity in sound. 
 
ANCIENT EGYPTIAN RELIGION. 23 
 
 Egyptian texts. Almost all the old copies, not even 
 excepting those made by Belzoni, are absolutely worth- 
 less. Science is insatiate^ and its wants can never be 
 adequately supplied, yet much has been done, both 
 through the unassisted efforts of private individuals 
 and through the munificence of governments and pub- 
 lic bodies. The collection of published Egyptian texts 
 which can be relied upon is now very considerable. 
 To the plates contained in the Description de I'Egypte 
 published in 1809 by the French government, as the 
 result of a great scientific expedition, must be added 
 the collections of Champollion, Eosellini and Prisse 
 d' Avenues, Burton's Excerpta Hieroglyphica, Sharpens 
 Egyptian Inscriptions, Dr. Leemans' Monuments Egyp- 
 tiens du Mus^e de Leide, Ungarelli's Obelisks, the 
 magnificent Denkmaeler of Lepsius, the Hierati(5 Pa- 
 pyri of the British Museum, and many other splendid 
 publications bearing the names of Lepsius, Chabas 
 Bonomi, Ehind, Brugsch, Dlimichen, Mariette Bey, 
 E. de Eougd, Eossi and Pleyte, Naville, Ebers and 
 Stern, Maspero, Guyesse, Golenischeff, Bergmann, Wie- 
 demann and others. Some of these costly works repro- 
 duce the original text in facsimile ; in some of them 
 the accuracy of the copy is secured by photography. 
 
 But large as is the collection of these texts, it is 
 but a fragment of the texts actually in existence. 
 Mariette Bey has published four folio volumes of 
 plates from the temple of Denderah alone, but he 
 
24 LECTURE I. 
 
 gives them only as a selection. To copy the whole 
 would, he says, be the work of years. Dr. Dlimichen 
 has published another folio volume of texts of special 
 interest, selected from the same temple, without inter- 
 fering with those published by M. Mariette. Every 
 square foot of the walls is in fact covered with picture 
 or text. I had the pleasure of passing some time, one 
 or two years ago, at Qurna, on the left bank of the 
 Nile, near Thebes, with a great scholar, who had spent 
 much time in copying the inscri^^tions of a single 
 tomb; but though he worked indefatigably and ra- 
 j)idly, he was compelled to come away leaving a great 
 part of his intended work unaccomplished. Would 
 that we might rely upon the zeal of future labour- 
 ers for the completion of such tasks as the present 
 generation is unable to perform ! Unfortunately the 
 monuments are rapidly perishing, and there are no 
 effectual means of arresting the progress of destruction. 
 The tombs are convenient abodes for Arab families, 
 who destroy the paintings and inscriptions either by 
 the dense smoke of their fires or by actually pulling 
 down walls. I was taken to see the " Lay of the 
 Harper," one of the most interesting remains of Egyp- 
 tian poetry, which was published a few years ago by 
 Dr. Diimichen ; but we found the walls on which the 
 poem was written a mere heap of ruins. But the 
 vandalism of European and American travellers is most 
 fatal to the monuments. There is, or rather was, a 
 
ANCIENT EGYPTIAN RELIGION. 25 
 
 famous picture at Benihassan wliicli was formerly 
 thought to represent Joseph presenting his brethren to 
 Pharaoh. An English lady has been heard to request 
 her guide to cut out for her the face of Josej)h. 
 
 But this destruction in some form or other has been 
 going on for centuries. Abd-el-Latif, a learned Ara- 
 bian writer of the middle ages, tells us in his descrip- 
 tion of Egypt that the ruins of Memphis in Lis time 
 extended half a day's journey in every direction, and 
 that, in spite of the removal for building purposes of 
 immense masses of materials, its ruins presented to the 
 spectator a re-union of marvels sufficient to confound 
 the intelligence, and which the most eloquent man 
 would vainly undertake to describe. He then proceeds 
 to give a very intelligent account of these marvels, 
 w^hich must have been scarce less astounding than 
 those still to be seen at Thebes. But of Memphis 
 there is at present hardly a trace left. And other 
 great cities known to ancient travellers have disap- 
 peared with their monuments. Mummy-cases and 
 coffins with most interesting inscriptions have for cen- 
 turies been used as fuel. And innumerable manuscripts 
 have suffered the same fate. 
 
 In speaking of our stock of information respecting 
 the ancient world, Mr. Grote says that ^^we possess 
 only what has drifted ashore from the wreck of a 
 stranded vessel.'' If this be true with reference to 
 such a literature as that of Greece, with its immortal 
 
26 LECTURE I. 
 
 poets, historians, orators and philosophers, how immea- 
 surably more true is it of Egypt ! Yet if we only look 
 to quantity, the stock of original and trustworthy 
 materials actually in existence illustrative of the reli- 
 gion of ancient Egypt, is more extensive than the 
 corresponding materials extant for the religions of 
 Palestine, Greece or Eome. Neither Eomans nor 
 Greeks have left any sacred books. They have left 
 poetry of the highest order, but no psalms or hymns, 
 litanies or prayers, as the Egyptians have so largely 
 done. No people certainly were more remote than 
 the Eg^q^tians from the idea that religion could exist 
 without outward forms of worship. In studying their 
 religion, we have to deal, not with a mere sentiment, 
 but with a vast and complicated system of beliefs and 
 institutions, resulting from their view of man's rela- 
 tions to the unseen world. 
 
 Most of the Texts are of a Religious Nature. 
 
 Of the many thousands of texts which have been 
 rescued from destruction and made accessible to us, 
 there are extremely few which do not bear directly 
 npon the subject of the present Lectures. There are 
 two reasons for this. The first is to be found in the 
 fact that the Egyptians were among the most religious 
 of the ancient nations. Eeligion in some form or other 
 was dominant in every relation of their lives. One of 
 
ANCIENT EGYPTIAN KELIGION. 27 
 
 tlie most extensive Egyptian works which has been 
 recovered is the great medical papyrus published by 
 Dr. Ebers. That work, however, though a medical 
 one, and descending to minute details about cosmetics 
 and even to receipts against vermin, is essentially a 
 religious book. The medical prescriptions are subor- 
 dinate to the prayers or religious observances which 
 give them their efficacy. If we wish to keep clear of 
 religion in studying Egyptian literature, we shall have 
 to confine ourselves to mathematics. There is on the 
 staircase of the British Museum a papyrus treating of 
 various kinds of mathematical problems, and I confess 
 that in studying it I was surprised to find it of so 
 purely secular a character as it really is. It is only at 
 the very end that we meet at last with a mention of 
 prayers for fine weather and a high IS'ile. 
 
 Eut the principal reason why most of the documents 
 which have come down to us are of a religious charac- 
 ter is, that all the ancient monuments of Egypt have 
 perished except some which were necessarily of a reli- 
 gious nature — the temples and the tombs. The palaces 
 of kings and nobles have utterly disappeared. Our 
 knowledge of Egyptian civil architecture is derived 
 fi'om paintings in the tombs. Many texts of historical 
 interest have been preserved, but their original inten- 
 tion Avas not historical, but religious. For us, the 
 royal texts of Karnak, Abydos and Saqara, are of his- 
 torical value ; but they have a purely religious mean- 
 
28 LECTUEE I. 
 
 iug on the walls wliere they were found. We should 
 in all probability never have recovered the Annals of 
 Tehutimes III. except for the splendid donations to the 
 god of Thebes which they commemorate. All the 
 objects in our museums and other collections which 
 seem to belong to civil or domestic life, have only been 
 preserved by being buried in the tombs. On examin- 
 ing what appears to be a mere trinket, you will often 
 find a prayer for the departed. And this is the case 
 with the papyri, all of which would infallibly have 
 perished had they not been deposited in tombs, and by 
 the deep dry sand of the desert been rendered inacces- 
 sible to external influences. It is only accidentally 
 that documents of a purely secular character have been 
 preserved, and fragments of Greek and Coptic litera- 
 ture have in like manner been recovered from tombs. 
 The information which we possess about Egyptian 
 history is entirely derived from the public inscriptions 
 on the walls of the temples, and accidental details 
 contained in the funereal inscriptions of private indi- 
 viduals. 
 
 The first step to be taken in the endeavour to obtain 
 light out of these materials is classification, and the 
 most essential kind of classification at starting, is that 
 of the order of succession. We shall never understand 
 the development of the Egyptian, or of any other reli- 
 gion, if our ideas are uncertain as to the order in 
 which the phenomena which represent it stand towards 
 
ANCIENT EGYPTIAN RELIGION. 29 
 
 each otlier in reference to time. The speculations of 
 the ablest men are sure to fail if their chronology is 
 fatally wrong. I remember the time when men talked 
 gravely and learnedly of reminiscences of primeval 
 revelation respecting the Trinity and other Christian 
 doctrines, as having been preserved, though in a very 
 corrupt state, in the Hindu traditions about Trimurti. 
 Some, on the other hand, perhaps suspected that the 
 Christian doctrine might have been derived through 
 some unknown channel from a Ilindu source. It is 
 now acknowledged by all scholars that the Ilindu doc- 
 trine in question is extremely modern ; the first traces 
 of it are to be sought more than fourteen hundred 
 years, not before, but after, the Christian era. The 
 work upon India of P. Yon Bohlcn used to be con- 
 sidered a decisive authority respecting the influence of 
 Indian upon Egyptian culture. No such influence can 
 any longer be admitted. Many of you have probably 
 read Mr. McLennan's articles on the Worship of Ani- 
 mals and Plants. In order to show that the ancient 
 nations passed through what he calls the Totem stage, 
 which he says must have been in pre-historic times, he 
 appeals to the signs of the Zodiac. "The Zodiacal 
 constellations figured on the porticos of Dendera and 
 Esne in Egypt are/' he says, "of great antiquity." 
 The authority for this statement is a passage from 
 Chambers' Encyclopaedia, to the effect that "Dupuis, 
 in his Origine des Cultes^ has, from a careful invcsti- 
 
30 LECTURE I. 
 
 gation of tlie position of these signs, and calculating 
 precession at the usual rate, arrived at a conclusion 
 that the earliest of them date from 4000 B.C. M. 
 Fourier, in his ^Recherches siir la Science,^ makes the 
 representation of Esne 1800 years older than M. 
 Dupuis." Mr. McLennan is here more than half a 
 century behind his age. Every tourist on the Nile in 
 possession of Murray's Handbook, knows that both 
 Dupuis and Fourier were ludicrously mistaken.^ The 
 Zodiacal representations in question, far from being of 
 great antiquity, belong to the very latest period of 
 Egyptian workmanship ; they are not anterior to the 
 Christian era or the Eoman domination; they were 
 borrowed from the Greeks, and were entirely unknown 
 to the ancient Egyptians. 
 
 It is not sufficient to be in possession of trustworthy 
 witnesses ; it is also necessary to know the limit within 
 which alone their evidence is really available. I am 
 obliged, therefore, to say something about Egyptian 
 chi'onology, especially as the current opinions on the 
 subject are very vague and inaccurate. I shall not, 
 however, detain you by entering into any of the ques- 
 tions which are still at issue between learned men who 
 have given their attention to them, but will simply 
 explain to you the nature of the undisputed evidence 
 
 ^ All Mr. McLennan's statements about the ancient nations are 
 based on equally worthless authorities. He goes for his facts to 
 Bryant and to Lempriere's Dictionary. 
 
ANCIENT EGYPTIAN RELIGION. 31 
 
 upon wliicli we assign relative dates to the various 
 periods of Egyptian civilization, and wliicli imperatively 
 demand that a very early date indeed should be assigned 
 to the origin of that civilization. 
 
ANTIQUITY AND CHARACTERISTICS 
 
 OF 
 
 EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION, 
 
 Egyptian Chronology depends upon Monuments 
 recording Contemporary Facts. 
 
 I PROMISED to explain the kind of evidence which 
 compels us to assign a very remote antiquity to Egyp- 
 tian civilization — so remote indeed as to appear simply 
 fabulous to men whose studies of ancient history have 
 been confined to Grreece and Eome, and who know how 
 very soon historical evidence fails at the distance of a 
 few centuries from the Christian era. Such men are 
 not unnaturally inclined to suspect us of uncritically 
 attaching importance to exaggerated or even fictitious 
 numbers handed down by untrustworthy authorities. 
 Such a suspicion is entirely without foundation. There 
 is not a single Egyptian monument known which in 
 its bearings upon chronology is liable to the charge of 
 numerical exaggeration. The monuments, as a rule, 
 
EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION. 33 
 
 never speak except of contemporary events. There are 
 a few instances in which a temple built by an ancient 
 sovereign is said to have been repaired or rebuilt by 
 another, but the interval between the two sovereigns 
 is unfortunately never stated. 
 
 Monuraents mentioning' the Year of a Reign« 
 
 Although Mena is the first of the Egyptian kings, 
 and is repeatedly named, dates are never reckoned 
 from his or from any other era, but are given by the 
 year of the reigning king. This is never so high as to 
 justify a doubt. We can certainly conceive the case 
 of a forged inscription on a tombstone, saying that 
 John Smith died on the 9th September, 1876, or (were 
 such the custom of the country) in the 39th year of 
 Queen Victoria ; but unless good reasons for rejecting 
 such a statement are produced, the law of historical 
 evidence compels us to admit it. Most of the docu- 
 ments upon which we rely for Egyptian chronology arc 
 of this simple nature, and no one who has seen the 
 tombs or buildings from which they have been taken, 
 can dream for an instant that these inscriptions are less 
 trustworthy than those in an English churchyard. 
 
 The manifest defect for chronological purposes of 
 such inscriptions is, that the last monumental year 
 which happens to be preserved to us of a king is not 
 necessarily the last of his reign. An error of several 
 
 D 
 
34 LECTURE II. 
 
 (perhaps of many) years is possible in each reign when 
 there is no direct evidence to the contrary. Bnt the 
 error is at all events not on the side of exaggerated 
 numbers. 
 
 Monuments furnishing Evidence of a Succession of 
 Reigns. 
 
 Still more important than the monuments which 
 mention the year of the king, are those in which two or 
 more sovereigns of the same period are mentioned, 
 especially if their succession or other precise data are 
 given. Such is the treaty made in the twenty-first of 
 his reign between Eameses II. and the king of the 
 Cheta, wherein Eameses II. calls himself the son of 
 Seti I., who in his turn is called the son of Ea- 
 meses I.^ There is a very large number of inscriptions 
 belonging to personages who have been born in one 
 reign and died in another, or who have served several 
 kings in succession. And the inscriptions of the same 
 period naturally confirm one another, or supply details 
 which were missing. 
 
 Thus, to take the case of the eighteenth dynasty, the 
 sepulchral inscriptions of Aalimes, the son of Abana,^ 
 gives the account of a naval ofiicer who served three sove- 
 reigns one after the other, — Aahmes I., Amenhotep I. 
 and Tehutimes I. (commonly called Thothmes or Thoth- 
 
 1 a 
 
 Kecords of the Past," Vol. IV. p. 25. f xbid. Vol. VI. p. 5. 
 
EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION. 35 
 
 mosis). His father, the same inscription tells us, served 
 the king Sekenen-Ea. Another well-known inscription, 
 now in the Louvre at Paris, ^ begins the tale of its hero 
 in the reign of Aahmes I., and ends it in that of Tehu- 
 times III. The tablet of Nebuaiu, now in the Museum 
 at Bulaq, gives thanks to Tehutimes III. and his son 
 Amenhotep II., who had honoured Nebuaiu. King 
 Amenhotep II. himself, on a tablet at Amada, speaks 
 of Tehutimes III. as his father. And a third and inde- 
 pendent witness, Amenemheb,^ tells us that Tehutimes 
 III., in whose service he was, died on the last day of 
 the month Phamenoth, in the 54th year of his reign, 
 and that he was succeeded by his son Amenhotep II. 
 The entire succession of the dynasty is established on 
 a large mass of evidence of the same kind, as may be 
 seen at length in an excellent dissertation of Dr. Wie- 
 demann.^ And the chronology of other periods has 
 been established in like manner. 
 
 The most remarkable series of inscriptions which hns 
 been utilized for chronological purposes consists of the 
 inscriptions relating to the Apis bulls, whose wonderful 
 tombs were discovered by M. Mariette. One of these 
 sacred animals was born in the twenty-eighth year of 
 king Sheshonk III., lived twenty years, and died in 
 
 1 "Records of the Past," Vol. IV. p. 7. ^ ji^ij^ yoj u p^ 59, 
 3 " Geschichte der acLtzelinten agyptisclien Dynastie bis zum Tode 
 
 Tutmes III.," in the Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenldndischen 
 
 Geaellschaffy Bd. xxxi. 
 
 D 2 
 
36 LECTURE II. 
 
 the second year of king Pamai. Another Apis was 
 born in the twenty-sixth year of Taharqa, and died in 
 the twentieth year of Psammitichus I. A hundred and 
 sixty-eight tablets in honour of this one Apis have 
 been found, fifty-three of which are dated. Another 
 Apis, born on the nineteenth day of the month Mechir, 
 in the fifty-third year of Psammitichus I., lived sixteen 
 years, seven months and seventeen days, and died on 
 the sixth Paophi of the sixteenth year of Necho II. 
 This bull was succeeded by another, born on the seventh 
 Paophi of the sixteenth year of Necho II., lived seven- 
 teen years, six months and five days, and died on the 
 twelfth day of the month Pharmuti, of the twelfth 
 year of king Apries. 
 
 As documents of this kind bring us down past the 
 time of Cambyses and even into the Ptolemaic period, 
 that is, into a period of well-ascertained chronology, 
 we are able, by means of the Apis inscriptions alone, to 
 go back from Cambyses to the first year of Taharqa, 
 about seven hundred years before Chiist, the limit of 
 possible error being two or three years at the utmost. 
 And with Taharqa (the Tirhaka of Scripture), Avho was 
 the last king of the twenty-fifth dynasty, begins, as 
 Bragsch observes, the latest period of the history of 
 the Pharaohs. 
 
EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION. 37 
 
 Royal Lists and their Verification by the Monuments. 
 
 The first kind of monuments which I have described 
 is useful as furnishing the highest ascertainable monu- 
 mental year of a reign; the second kind enables us 
 besides to determine the order of succession of reigns. 
 Both these kinds of monuments are contemporaneous 
 with the persons and events mentioned upon them. 
 But besides these, there are monuments giving long 
 lists of sovereigns, all of whom cannot have been con- 
 temporaneous. Such are the famous tablets of Abydos, 
 that of Saqara,^ the chamber of Karnak, and some 
 others. The royal hieratic canon of Turin (which is 
 unfortunately in so mutilated a condition as practically 
 to be of little use, and which enumerates many kings 
 and gives the lengths of their reigns) is a document of 
 the same historical character, at least from the point of 
 view from which I am now looking at the matter.^ In 
 the chamber of Karnak, Tehutimes III. is represented 
 as making an offering to sixty-one of his royal prede- 
 
 1 ]\rariette, "La table de Saqqarali," in the Revue ArcJiroIogiq^ie, 
 18G4, II. 169. 
 
 2 It differs from the rest in being a professedly historical docu- 
 ment. The others may rather be compared to lists of saints in 
 Catholic litanies. That royal names should occur in this way in 
 the prayers of private persons, as in tlio. tablet of Saqara, is not 
 wonderful, when we learn from the Book of the Dead (ch. 136, 
 1. 14) that the pious dead are in the company of the kings of the 
 North and of the South. 
 
38 LECTURE II. 
 
 cessors, whose names are given. At Abydos, Seti I., 
 together with his son Eameses, then heir-apparent, 
 offers incense to no less than seventy-six kings.^ 
 
 Royal List of Abydos. 
 
 You will at once understand the importance of such 
 a monument, if it can be relied upon, when I remind 
 you that the Israelites in bondage are said to have 
 been employed in building the treasure cities (as the 
 Hebrew meschenoth is commonly translated), or rather 
 sanctuaries, of Pithom and Eameses. It may be con- 
 sidered absolutely certain that no place in Egypt ever 
 had the name of Eameses till the appearance of the 
 celebrated hero of the name, who is actually repre- 
 sented on this monument as the son and heir-apparent 
 of Seti I. The name of the place is as significant as 
 the names of Alexandria, Antioch, Ptolemais, Seleucia, 
 "Washington or Napoleonville. The name of Eameses 
 is a very peculiar one, the latter part of it consisting 
 of the reduplicated form of the verb mes^ not of the 
 simple form, like the names Eames, Aahmes, Tehu- 
 times, Chonsumes, and I do not believe any instance 
 
 1 Diimichen, " Die iSethostafel von Abydos (mit Abbildung)," in 
 the Zeitschrift filr dgyptische Sprache und Altertliumskiinde, 1864, 
 p. 81. Dcveria, "La nouvelle table d'Abydos, comparee aux autres 
 listes royales de Tancienne Egypte, redigee sous les Ramessides ou 
 ant^rieurement," in ih.QRev. Archeologique, 1865, 1. 50, and Mariette, 
 "La nouvelle table d'xibydos," Mcv. Arch. 18G6, L 73. 
 
EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION. 39 
 
 of it will ever be found more ancient than that of 
 Eameses I., the grandfather of the great conqueror. 
 Now if this tablet of Abydos is correct, seventy-six 
 kings, that is, very many more kings than can be 
 counted in English history, must have reigned over 
 Egypt before the first books of the Bible were written. 
 But if we go back in English history to Ethelred II. 
 in 976, we shall find that not more than forty-four 
 sovereigns have reigned during a thousand years, and 
 the average length of an Egyptian king's reign cannot 
 be shown to be shorter than that of an English sove- 
 reign. 
 
 Evidence of the Reality of Sovereigns named. 
 
 But are the names on the tablet of Abydos names of 
 real personages, or are they (or at least some of them) 
 as imaginary as the kings of Britain, beginning with 
 Brutus, as reported by Geof^'ey of Monmouth, or the 
 kings of Scotland, beginning with Fergus I., whose 
 portraits adorn the walls of Holyrood ? There is but 
 one way of settling the question, and that is by looking 
 out for evidence which will confirm or contradict that 
 given by these royal lists. As far as the test of veri- 
 fication has been applied to these lists, there is no 
 reason whatever for distrusting them. Instead of ad- 
 mitting sovereigns who have never lived, they have 
 for certain reasons omitted many, the existence of whom 
 
40 LECTURE II. 
 
 is quite certain. The intention of the tablets was not 
 historical or chronological, but simply devotional, and 
 the selection and arrangement of names consequently 
 vary, though the most considerable names are the same 
 in all. 
 
 M. de Eoug^ has carefully studied all the monuments 
 which belong to the first six dynasties. ^ The earliest 
 monuments that can be found belong to king Seneferu, 
 the 20th on the list of Abydos ; and from this king till 
 the 38th on the list, the evidence is complete, and the 
 order of succession thoroughly established by indepen- 
 dent inscriptions contemporaneous with the sovereigns 
 of whom they speak. There is, for instance, the tomb 
 at Gizeh of a queen who graced the courts of king 
 Seneferu and the two kings who followed him. Two 
 officers have left inscriptions which say that they had 
 served the kings Unas and Teta. The great inscrip- 
 tion of Una 2 begins by saying that this officer served 
 Teta, and ends with his services under Merenra. This 
 king was succeeded by his brother JSTeferkara (No. 38 
 of the list). The tomb of the mother of these royal 
 brothers still exists. She was the wife of Pepi-Merira 
 (No. 36), several monuments of whom are known ; one 
 of them, in Wadi Magharah in the peninsula of Mount 
 
 1 "Recherches sur les monuments qu'on pent attribuer aux six 
 premieres dynasties de Manethon:" Paris, 1866. 
 
 2 "Eecords of the Past," Vol. II. p. 1. 
 
EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION. 41 
 
 Sinai, is dated in the eighteenth year of his reign. 
 No period in any history that can be named is better 
 authenticated by contemporary monuments. 
 
 The same truth may be asserted of the twelfth 
 dynasty, which in the tablet of Abydos is represented 
 by I^os. 59 to 65. The number of monuments accu- 
 rately dated belonging to this period is very consider- 
 able. They are all perfectly consistent with one another, 
 and leave no doubt as to the length of each reign and 
 of the whole dynasty. It is to this dynasty that the 
 splendid tomb of Nahre-se-Chnumhotep at Benihassan 
 belongs. His inscription mentions the first four sove- 
 reigns as having honoured three successive generations 
 of his family. 
 
 Omissions of this List. 
 
 Let me now speak of the omissions of this tablet, 
 which I have selected in preference to others in conse- 
 quence of its being the longest and the most intelligible 
 as to its aiTangement. 
 
 The most beautiful monuments of the eighteenth 
 dynasty were raised by the powerful queen Ilatsh'epsu, 
 daughter of Tehutimes I., who associated her with him. 
 She reigned for some years either alone or in conjunc- 
 tion with her brothers Tehutimes II. and Tehutimes III. 
 successively ; but her name and memoiy were perse- 
 cuted by the latter, who resented her dominion over 
 
42 LECTURE II. 
 
 him during the years of his minority. Her name does 
 not appear on the tablet of Abydos. There is also an 
 interval between the reigns of Amenhotep III. and 
 Hor-em-heb, which chronologically is filled up by the 
 period of the sun-disk worshippers. Amenhotep III. 
 was followed by a king, the fourth of the same name, 
 who dropped it when he assumed that of Chut-en-Aten, 
 as the founder of a new religion, which had but a very 
 partial and short-lived success. His attempts at refor- 
 mation led to his exclusion from the lists of the legiti- 
 mate kings. There is monumental evidence of one or 
 two reigns of short duration before that of Hor-em-heb, 
 who broke up the monuments of Chut-en-Aten, and 
 used them in the construction of his own. It is not 
 out of place to mention the fact that the first informa- 
 tion we obtained about this abortive attemj^t at the 
 transformation of the Egyptian religion, was derived 
 from blocks of one of the propyla of Karnak, which 
 Mohammed Ali had brutally pulled down, that the 
 stones might be broken up and roasted to quick-lime, 
 in order to furnish stucco for his saltpetre works. Mr. 
 Perring, an English architect, who was there, was sur- 
 prised to find that the faces of the stones, which had 
 been placed inwards and covered with cement, were 
 sculptured with hieroglyphics of the same perfect exe- 
 cution as those which had been engraved on them after 
 their arrangement in the new building. This apjDro- 
 priation, of which there are many instances, by one 
 
EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION. 43 
 
 sovereign of materials bearing the name and inscrip- 
 tions of one of his predecessors, is always of value as 
 determining the question of priority in time. 
 
 The omission of the heretical sovereigns is easily 
 accounted for, and Seti may have shared the dislike 
 of Tehutimes for queen Hatshepsu. But no satisfactory 
 explanation has yet been given of the omission of a large 
 number of names between the end of the twelfth and 
 the beginning of the eighteenth dynasty. The imme- 
 diate passage on the tablet from one of these dynasties 
 to the other, cannot mean that the king numbered 
 Q5 was followed by the king numbered Q6, who is 
 Aahmes I. The important inscription of the naval 
 officer Aahmes, son of Abana, which has already been 
 quoted, mentions king Sekenen-Ea as the predecessor 
 of Aahmes I. Sekenen-Ea is as thoroughly historical a 
 personage as any one of our own sovereigns. There 
 were even three kings of the name, and their tombs 
 have actually been found at Thebes. On the other hand, 
 the tablet of Ameni-senb, now in the Louvre, belongs 
 to the reign of a king anterior to the eighteenth djmasty, 
 but later than the twelfth, as it records the restora- 
 tion of a temple at Abydos founded by Usertsen I.^ 
 The interval between the twelfth and the eighteenth 
 
 1 Commonly called Usertesen, or still more erroneously Usirtasen. 
 Usert is a feminine noun, and se?i is a pronominal suffix, in allusion 
 to the child's parents, like ef, es and dri. 
 
44 LECTURE II. 
 
 dynasty must have been very considerable. The time 
 immediately preceding the eighteenth dynasty was the 
 period of the foreign domination generally kno\vn 
 as that of the Hyksos, or the Shepherd kings. So 
 much is certain, but it is absolutely impossible to 
 ascertain from Egyptian records when this period 
 began, and hoAV long it lasted. The 511 years which 
 are ascribed to it by Manetho, as quoted by Josephus, 
 are neither to be simply accepted nor rejected, but must 
 remain subject to future verification. The only evi- 
 dence from Egyptian sources which bears upon the 
 subject is a monument of Eameses II., dated from the 
 four hundredth year of one of these kings of foreign 
 origin. But a considerable number of native kings 
 must have reigned between the last king of the twelfth 
 dynasty and the beginning of the foreign invasion. 
 There are numerous inscriptions which prove that sove- 
 reigns powerful in the north of Egypt had extended 
 their dominion to the very heart of Nubia. The 
 monuments of Thebes, southern Egypt and Nubia, 
 might be consistent with the hypothesis of a Hyksos 
 kingdom in the north, but the presence of equally 
 important monuments of the Sebekhoteps at Bubastis 
 and Tanis, kings whose names occupy an important 
 place in the chamber of Karnak, would alone be suffi- 
 cient to overthrow this hypothesis. There is in the 
 Louvre a magnificent colossal statue in red granite of 
 Sebekhotep III., with reference to which M. de Kougd 
 
EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION. 45 
 
 says : ^^ A single statue of this excellence and of such 
 a material shows clearly that the king who had it 
 executed for the decoration of his temples or palaces 
 had not yet suffered from the invasion of the Shep- 
 herds. It is evident that under his reign Egypt was 
 still a great power, peacefully cultivating the arts.'' 
 Perhaps the most interesting monument of this period 
 is the colossal statue of the king Semench-ka-Ea (the 
 eighteenth king of the thirteenth dynasty, according to 
 the royal Turin papyrus), on the right shoulder of 
 which one of the foreign kings has had his name 
 engraved in hieroglyphic characters. 
 
 Of the kings of the eleventh dynasty, only two 
 (Xos. 57 and 58) appear on the tablet of Abydos. 
 Very interesting inscriptions belonging to their reigns 
 are still extant ; but other kings bearing the name of 
 Antuf and Mcntuhotep are known to us, not only by 
 inscriptions, but by their coffins in our museums. Of 
 Mentuhotep III., dates have been found as high as his 
 forty-third year. And a tablet has been found repre- 
 senting him as being worshipped by his successor, 
 Antuf lY. There is a very interesting fact connected 
 with one of the monuments of this dynasty. Many 
 years ago,i Dr. Eirch translated a papyrus, now in the 
 
 1 In the Rcvuc Arch oologi que of 1859. Sec Pr. r»irch's paper 
 "On the Tablet of Antefaa," in the Transaciiuns of tht Society of 
 Biblical Archacohnjij, Vol. IV. p. 17'J. 
 
46 
 
 LECTURE II. 
 
 British Museum, describing a judicial inquiry concern- 
 ing robberies committed in the royal tombs at Thebes. 
 The tombs of the kings are described as having been 
 inspected. In one of these tombs the king Antuf-aa is 
 reported to be represented on a tablet accompanied by 
 his hound Behkaa. This tomb has quite recently been 
 discovered by M. Mariette at Drah-abu'lneggah, with 
 the picture of the king, and the dog's name Behkaa 
 written over the picture of the animal. The inscription 
 on the tablet is dated from the fiftieth year of the king. 
 Evidence like this proves that there is no exaggera- 
 tion in the list of Abydos. It does not aim at present- 
 ing a complete list of kings. It only mentions those 
 for whom Seti had a special devotion. The disappear- 
 ance of Memphis and other great cities is quite sufficient 
 to account for the absence of monumental evidence for 
 some of the reigns. It is very probable that the ear- 
 liest kings left no monuments. But for nearly every 
 king on the tablet who is unrepresented by monumental 
 evidence, we can produce another king omitted by the 
 tablet, but whose reign is proved by unimpeachable 
 evidence. 
 
 Genealogies. 
 
 The evidence of such genealogies as are found in the 
 tombs leads to chronological results very similar to 
 those derived from the succession of the kings. These 
 genealogies have nothing fabulous about them, like 
 
EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION, 47 
 
 those against which Mr. Grote cautions his readers ; 
 they are as completely matter of fact as any recorded 
 on the tombstones of our own churchyards.^ 
 
 Manetho. 
 
 A great many writers who have treated of Egyptian 
 chronology have endeavoured to utilize the names and 
 numbers given in the fragments of Manetho. There 
 is not the slightest reason for questioning the fact that 
 Manetho had access to authentic historical records; 
 and if his work were still extant, it would be of inva- 
 luable service to us. As it is, we are indebted to him 
 for the notion of the division into dynasties with local 
 origins, all of which have been accurately verified. 
 Eut his work has unfortunately been lost, and the few 
 fragments of it which remain, and which give but an 
 imperfect notion of the whole, have been preserved by 
 writers who do not appear to have observed strict 
 accuracy in their quotations, and they have clearly in 
 some instances quoted him at second-hand. The late 
 Dr. Hincks, who had given great attention to the 
 
 1 The funereal tablets often mention the name of the father and 
 mother and some other near relatives of the departed. One tablet 
 seldom goes back three or more generations. And the longest 
 genealogy which has been recovered appears to be defective rather 
 than otherwise. Dr. Lieblein's " Dictionnaire des noms hierogly- 
 phiques" contains an invaluable collection of these family records 
 arranged in chronological order. 
 
48 LECTURE II. 
 
 subject, has pointed out a series of deliberate falsifica- 
 tions of Manetlio's lists made by the early Christian 
 and perhaps by Jewish chronologers for the purpose 
 of bringing these lists into harmony with the Old 
 Testament, or rather with fanciful interpretations of 
 the Old Testament. He does not attribute these falsi- 
 fications to dishonest motives, but to '' mistakes or 
 injudicious attempts to correct mistakes." 
 
 Absolute Dates. 
 
 It was once generally supposed (and I have myself 
 written in favour of the supposition^) that absolute dates 
 might be detected on the monuments. The heliacal 
 risings of certain stars were calculated by M. Biot as 
 fixing the reign of one king in 1300 B.C., and of 
 another king in the year 1444. But I no longer 
 believe that the Egyptian texts really bear out the 
 interpretation which furnishes the data of these cal- 
 
 1 On "The Earliest Epochs of Authentic Chronology," hi Home 
 and Foreign Review, 1862, p. 420. M. Biot, in his "Memoire siir 
 qiielques dates absohies," and after him M. Eomieu and Dr. Gensler, 
 have dealt with the Egyptian calendars as if they recorded the 
 risings of certain stars. But the text of the calendars distinctly 
 speaks of the transits of the stars, and never of their risings. I have 
 discussed this question in the Clironicle, 25 Jan. 1868, and in the 
 Transactions of the Society for Biblical Ai'd/aeolog?/, Vol. III. 
 M. E. de Rouge has a very important " Xote sur quelcjues conditions 
 preUminaires des calculs qu'on peut tenter sur le calendrier et les 
 dates egyptiennes," in the Bcvue Arclieologiqiie, 1864, Vol. II. p. 81. 
 
EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION. 49 
 
 culations. Dr. Diimichen,^ Dr. Lautli^ and other scho- 
 lars have written in favour of other fixed dates which 
 they believe can be determined astronomically. But 
 whether these dates are right or wrong (and I am un- 
 willing to express an opinion on questions which I have 
 not personally investigated), matters but little for our 
 present purpose. The essential point upon which I 
 wish to insist is, that the Egyptian monarchy, according 
 to the most moderate calculation, must have already 
 been in existence fifteen hundred years at the very 
 least, but probably more than two thousand years, 
 before the book of Exodus was written. 
 
 Egyptian Monarchy anterior to 3000 B.C. 
 
 The composition of the book of Exodus, however, 
 cannot unfortunately be considered a fixed date. The 
 opinion which used to be universally received, that 
 Moses is the author of the Pentateuch, must assuredly 
 be abandoned. I am quite ready to admit that the 
 
 ^ " Die erste bis jetzt aufgefundene sichere Angabe iiber die Regie- 
 rungszeit eines agyptischen Konigs aus dem alten Reich, welche uns 
 durch dem medicinischen Papyrus Ebers tiberliefert wird : " Leipzig, 
 1874. 
 
 2 " Aegyptische Chronologie, basirt auf die vollstandige Reihe der 
 Epochen seit Bytes-Menes bis Hadrian- Anton in durch drei Sothis- 
 perioden = 4380 Jahre." See also a paper of M. Chabas, " D(^termi- 
 nation d'une date cortaine dans le regne d'un roi de I'ancien empire 
 en Egypte," in the Memoires presentcs a V Academic des inscriptions 
 et belles left res, 1877. 
 
 E 
 
50 LECTURE II. 
 
 co-existence in the Pentateuch of the documents called 
 Elohistic and Jehovistic is in itself no argument against 
 the authorship of Moses. But the fact that these docu- 
 ments continue to run through the book of Joshua 
 furnishes an argument which admits of no reply. The 
 book of Joshua and the book of Exodus are parts of 
 one and the same work, and the historical allusions 
 in the book of Joshua have compelled some of the 
 commentators who pride themselves most upon their 
 orthodoxy (Matthew Henry, for instance), to refer the 
 authorship of it to times subsequent to the foundation 
 of the Hebrew monarchy. 
 
 But though the book of Exodus as a whole may 
 not be the work of a contemporary, there is really 
 no reason for doubting the accuracy of the statement 
 about Pithom and Eameses. Egyptian history renders 
 it most probable that Moses was a contemporary of the 
 great Eameses. The exodus of the Israelites cannot 
 with any probability be brought lower down than 1310 
 years before Christ, and it is about 2050 before this 
 that I would place the lowest limit for estimating the 
 beginning of the historical Egyptian monarchy. The 
 date of the Great Pyramid cannot be more recent than 
 3000 B.C. 
 
 Pre-historic Antiquity of Human Race in Egypt. 
 
 This is undoubtedly a great and venerable antiquity, 
 but it is after all very inferior to the antiquity of the 
 
EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION. 51 
 
 human race in Egypt, as demonstrated by the opera- 
 tions suggested by Mr. Leonard Horner to the Eoyal 
 Society, and carried out at first at its expense, and 
 finally at the cost of Abbas Pacha, between the years 
 1851 and 1854. Ninety-five pits were sunk at dif- 
 ferent spots into the alluvial soil of the Nile valley. 
 *' Although," Professor Ansted tells us,i ^' it cannot be 
 regarded as a matter about which there is no dispute, 
 all the evidence that exists seems to point to ^yb inches 
 per century as fully representing the average amount 
 of elevation given by the Nile mud to the bed of the 
 Nile and the surrounding country covered by the 
 annual inundation." ^' The average can hardly under 
 any calculations have exceeded five inches per cen- 
 tury during the last several centuries, whilst from the 
 mere efi'ects of long-continued pressure the beds must 
 become compact at some depth below than they are near 
 the surface, and the rate of thickness ought to become 
 gradually less the deeper we penetrate." In the course 
 of the operations, remains showing the handiwork of 
 man were brought uj) from considerable depths : sculp- 
 tured granite, architecturally carved limestone, human 
 and animal figures, coloured mosaic, vases, jars, a 
 copper knife, and at very great depths — fifty, sixty, 
 or even seventy-two feet — bricks and fragments of pot- 
 tery. At thirty-three feet and a half, a tablet with 
 
 ^ "Geological Gossip," p. 190. 
 
 e2 
 
52 LECTURE II. 
 
 inscriptions was found. There is not a single geologist 
 who does not at once infer from these facts an enormous 
 lapse of time during which the human race must have 
 inhabited Egypt. Geologists are not more deficient in 
 common sense than other men, and they are quite ready 
 to allow that accidental circumstances may have con- 
 tributed to bury some articles deeper than others ; and 
 their conclusions are not drawn from this or that expe- 
 riment, but from the cumulative evidence derived from 
 nearly a hundred experiments made over a very exten- 
 sive area of land. 
 
 In reply to the objection that the artificial objects 
 might have fallen into old wells which had afterwards 
 been filled up, Sir Charles Lyell says: ^ '^Of the ninety- 
 five shafts and borings, seventy or more were made far 
 from the sites of towns or villages ; and allowing that 
 every field may have had its well, there would be small 
 chance of the borings striking upon the site even of a 
 small number of them in seventy experiments." 
 
 I remember being once asked about these operations, 
 and when I had described them, one of my friends 
 came up to me and said in a voice of solemn warning 
 and protest, ^'If what you have been saying is true, 
 Christianity is a mere fable." I could only reply, 
 ^' No ; it only shows that your conception of Christian- 
 ity involves something fabulous." Whatever claim a 
 
 1 a 
 
 Antiquity of Man," p. 38, 1873. 
 
EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION. 53 
 
 religion may have to a divine authority, that claim 
 cannot be extended to its theology, which is nothing 
 else but a system of reasoning ujdou two sets of data, 
 namely, those furnished by the religion itself, and 
 those furnished by the science of the day. Biblical 
 chronology as understood by Usher, Petavius or other 
 learned men, depends not upon the Bible only, but also 
 upon the data of profane chronology as understood in 
 their days, and the latter chronology was built in great 
 part upon statements of Greek and Latin writers which 
 at the present day are known to be absolutely worthless. 
 
 Egyptian Ethnology. 
 
 The boring instruments which had to be employed 
 at great depths in the operations of which I have been 
 speaking, necessarily brought up everything in frag- 
 ments. There is therefore no proof that the Egyptians 
 known to us from history were descended from the 
 pre-historic men whose existence was first brought to 
 light by these operations. But the very proximate 
 probability of such a descent might have suggested 
 itself to ethnologists, who have persisted in looking for 
 the ancestors of the Egyptians among races the very 
 existence of which cannot be traced very far back. At 
 all events, the view is now entirely abandoned accor- 
 ding to which the Egyptians came down the Nile from 
 
54 LECTURE II. 
 
 the more southern regions of Africa. It has been most 
 conclusively proved that they gradually advanced from 
 north to south, and the earliest Ethiopian civilization 
 is demonstrably the child, not the parent, of the Egyp- 
 tian. Most scholars now point to the interior of Asia 
 as the cradle of the Egyptian people. I will only say 
 that the farther back we go into antiquity, the more 
 closely does the Egyptian type approach the European. 
 This is the opinion of Mariette Bey and of Dr. Birch, 
 and the same opinion was most powerfully expressed 
 by Professor Owen at the Oriental Congress held in 
 London in 1874. In reference to one specimen, Pro- 
 fessor Owen said: ''With English costume and com- 
 plexion, this Egyptian of the Ancient Empire would 
 pass for a well-to-do sensible British citizen and rate- 
 payer." And of another he said : '' The general cha- 
 racter of the face recalls that of the northern German ; 
 he might be the countryman of Bismarck.'' In refer- 
 ence to another hypothesis which had been proposed, 
 he observed : '' Unknown and scarce conceivable as are 
 the conditions which could bring about the conversion 
 of the Australian into the Egyptian type of skull, the 
 influence of civilization and admixture would be still 
 more impotent in blotting out the dental characteristics 
 of the lower race. The size of crown and multiplica- 
 tion of fangs are reduced in the ancient Egyptian to 
 the standard of Indo-European or so-called highly civi- 
 
EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION. 55 
 
 lized races. The last molar has the same inferiority 
 of size."^ 
 
 Language. 
 
 It is in vain, I believe, that the testimony of phi- 
 lology has been invoked in evidence of the origin of 
 the Egyptians. The language which has been recovered 
 belongs to a very early stage of speech, and is not, 
 or at least cannot be shown to be, allied to any other 
 known language than its descendant the Coptic. It is 
 certainly not akin to any of the known dialects either 
 of North or of South Africa, and the attempts which 
 have hitherto been made towards establishing such a 
 kindred must be considered as absolute failures. A 
 certain number of Egyptian words, such as z, "go," 
 td^ " give, place," have the same meaning as the cor- 
 responding Indo-European roots. And a few other 
 Egyptian words sound very like Semitic words of the 
 same meaning. But the total number of words in the 
 Eg}^3tian vocabulary which have the appearance of 
 relationship either with the Aryan or with the Semitic 
 stock turns out, after passing through the necessary 
 process of sifting, to be extremely small. A consider- 
 
 ^ Transactions of the Second Session of the International Congress 
 of Orientalists, held in London, 1874, p. 355 and following. Pro- 
 fessor Owen here discusses the doctrine put forth by Professor 
 Huxley upon " the Geographical Distribution of the chief Modifica- 
 tions of iSIankind," in the Journal of the Ethnological Society of 
 London, Jan. 1871. 
 
56 LECTURE II. 
 
 able number of words have certainly passed from one 
 language into another, but all these have to be de- 
 ducted. Those who talk of Egyptian having its root 
 in Semitic, or say that its grammar is Semitic, must 
 mean something quite different from what these words 
 imply in the mouth of some one well versed in the 
 science of Language. I once heard a learned Jew com- 
 pare Hebrew with Portuguese. All that he meant to 
 say was, that it preferred the letter m where the kindred 
 languages took w, as the Portuguese language often 
 does in contrast with its sister languages, the Spanish, 
 French and Italian. And those who speak of Egyptian 
 grammar as being Semitic are clearly thinking of some 
 peculiarities- of it, in forgetfulness of very much more 
 important ones. It would be quite easy, under such 
 conditions, to discover Finnish or Polynesian affinities. 
 The Egyptian and the Semitic languages belong to 
 quite different stages of language, the former to what 
 Professor Max Mliller calls the second or Terminational, 
 the latter to the third or Inflexional stage. In the 
 Terminational stage, two or more roots may coalesce to 
 form a word, the one retaining its radical independence, 
 the other sinking down to a mere termination. The 
 languages belonging to this stage have generally been 
 called agglutinative. !N'ow the Egyptian language has 
 indeed reached this stage as regards the pronominal 
 and one or two other suffixes. But in all other respects 
 it most nearly resembles the languages of the first or 
 
EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION. 57 
 
 Eadical stage, in which there is no formal distinction 
 between a root and a word. The agglutination between 
 an Egyptian word and its pronominal suffix is of the 
 lightest possible kind ; a particle may, and often does, 
 intervene between them. An English critic reviewing 
 Eossi's Grammar a few weeks ago, preferred that of 
 Brugsch's to it in consequence of the paradigms of 
 verbs which are to be found in the latter. He might 
 with equal wisdom have found fault with both for 
 omitting the declensions. My own criticism would 
 have been very different. There is, I believe, too much 
 paradigm in Eossi's Grammar. There are no paradigms 
 at all in Egyptian ; and those who have inserted such 
 things into their Grammars (I say it with the utmost 
 deference to such admirable scholars as E. de Eoug^ 
 and Brugsch) have been led astray by their efforts to 
 find in Egyptian what exists in other languages. But 
 each kind of language has its own processes. Hebrew 
 and Arabic verbs can as little be thrown into moods 
 and tenses corresponding to the Greek or Latin verbs, 
 as you can find Pual or Hithpahel forms in French or 
 English. Personal endings are indispensable to the 
 Indo-European and to the Semitic verbs. The Egyptian 
 verb is unchangeable, and has no personal ending pro- 
 perly speaking. The suffix which is sometimes added 
 to it is not really a personal ending. It is put instead 
 of a subject; and when the subject is expressed, the 
 pronominal suffix is and must be omitted. It would 
 
58 LECTURE II. 
 
 be as impossible in Hebrew, or in any other Semitic 
 language, to suppress the personal ending, which is an 
 essential part of the word in which it occurs. 
 
 One of the chief differences between the Egyptian 
 language on the one hand and the Indo-European 
 and Semitic on the other, is, that the distinctions 
 between roots, stems and words, can hardly be said to 
 exist at all in the former. The bare root, which in 
 the languages of the third stage lies, as it were, below 
 the sui'face, and is only revealed by its developments 
 to scientific inquiry, is almost invariably identical in 
 Egyptian with the word in actual use. From one 
 Aryan or Semitic root, which is itself no part of speech 
 and has but an abstract existence, verbs, nouns, adjec- 
 tives, adverbs and other parts of speech, are derived. 
 The actual Egyptian word, taken by itself, is in very 
 many instances no part of speech, but within the limits 
 of the notion which it represents is potentially noun, 
 verb, adjective, adverb, &c. The notion expressed by 
 an Egyptian word is only determined, as that of a 
 verb in the strict sense (verbum finitum), by the pre- 
 sence of a subject. When no subject (that is, noun or 
 pronoun) is expressed, we may indeed have a '^ verbum 
 infinitum," but this is grammatically a noun or an 
 adjective. How can a language of this description be 
 called Semitic in its grammar ? 
 
 There are three different ways in which a verb may 
 be connected with its subject, but these are wholly 
 
EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION. 59 
 
 irrespective of time or mood, so that grammarians who 
 have introduced these forms into their paradigms call 
 them "Present -Past -Future," first, second or third. 
 They might add, "Indicative-Potential-Conjunctive," 
 and so forth. The Egyptian verb is often accompanied 
 by an auxiliary, and is grammatically subordinate to it ; 
 and the combinations formed by these auxiliary words 
 with the verbal notion enable the language to express 
 meanings equivalent to those expressed by our Indo- 
 European tenses and moods. But this is very different 
 from what is meant by paradigm. 
 
 I have just spoken of the grammatical subordination 
 of a verb to its auxiliary. This is almost the only kind 
 of grammatical subordination which exists in the lan- 
 guage, and the consequence of it is fatal to anything 
 like beauty of construction in the form of the sentences. 
 It seems unfair to judge of the capabilities of a language 
 of which almost the entire literature has perished. 
 How could we judge of the capabilities of the Greek 
 language had all its poetry and oratory been lost, and 
 nothing remained but its inscriptions? Yet enough 
 remains to show what the structure of the Egyptian 
 sentences must necessarily have been ; we possess seve- 
 ral narratives of considerable length and of different 
 dates, a great many hymns, and the heroic poem of 
 Pentaur, which was considered sufficiently important 
 to be engraved on the walls of at least four temples — 
 Abvdos, Luqsor, Karnak and Ipsambul — at one of the 
 
60 LECTURE II. 
 
 periods of the greatest glory of Egypt. It is evident 
 that prose sentences like those of Plato, Demosthenes, 
 Cicero or Burke, or poetical ones like those of Sopho- 
 cles, Euripides or Horace (not to mention any other 
 names), are as impossible in Egyptian as they are in 
 Hebrew or Arabic. Whatever beauty there is in Egyp- 
 tian composition (and there often is considerable beauty) 
 is derived either from the thought itself or from the 
 simplicity of the expression, not from the artistic vari- 
 ety or structure of its periods. M. Eenan^ has made 
 very similar remarks upon the structure of the Semitic 
 sentence (which, however, admits of much greater 
 variety than the Egyptian, and does not suffer in nar- 
 ratives from the perpetual repetition of the same auxi- 
 liary verb), and he has inferred from it the inferiority 
 of the Semitic mind to the European with reference to 
 certain branches of intellectual development. I have 
 little doubt that M. Eenan is right to this extent, that 
 certain languages as vehicles of thought are inferior to 
 others, and that as long as men are confined to the 
 inferior vehicle of thought, they are unable to raise 
 themselves to the level of others who enjoy a more 
 efficient instrument. It is difficult to conceive the 
 Egyptians as otherwise than incapacitated by their 
 language from profound philosophy. It is hardly pos- 
 
 ^ " Histoire Generale et systeme compare des langues Semitiques," 
 livre i. eliap. i. p. 21. The whole chapter is to the point. 
 
EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION. 61 
 
 sible to read a page written in an Indo-European 
 language, from Sanskrit to Keltic, without coming 
 across some kind of dialectic process of which I do not 
 remember a single trace in an Egyptian text. 
 
 Art. 
 
 Eut if the Egyptian mind must be considered as 
 inferior in some branches of intellectual development, 
 the world of Art, not indeed in its full extent, but in 
 many aspects, ranging from mere elegance and pretti- 
 ness to real beauty and sublimity, was revealed to it 
 at a very early period indeed. Those who knoAV 
 Egyptian art only through our northern museums can 
 have no adequate conception of what it really is or was. 
 Almost all the objects in our museums have suffered 
 by frequent locomotion, atmospheric influences, or other 
 deleterious causes. You should see the freshness of 
 the articles contained in the museum at Bulaq, which 
 seem to have just come from the hand of the artist, or 
 inspect some of the tombs which have not yet suffered 
 from the vandalism of the moderns, or see the mag- 
 nificent temples whose ruins have as yet escaped 
 destruction. But, even on the spot, imagination must 
 come to our aid if the past has to be realized. 
 
 Many of us have seen the Pyramids, and, as Dean 
 Stanley says, '^One is inclined to imagine that the 
 Pyramids are immutable, and that such as you see them 
 
62 LECTURE II. 
 
 now, such they were always. Of distant views this is 
 true; but taking them near at hand, it is more easy 
 from the existing ruins to conceive Karnac as it was 
 than it is to conceive the Pyramidal platform as it was. 
 The smooth casing of part of the top of the second 
 Pyramid, and the magnificent granite blocks which 
 form the lower stages of the third, serve to show what 
 they must have been all from top to bottom ; the first 
 and second, brilliant white or yellow limestone, smooth 
 from top to bottom, instead of those rude disjointed 
 masses which their stripped sides now present; the 
 third, all glowing with the red granite from the first 
 cataract. As it is, they have the barbarous look of 
 Stonehenge ; but then they must have shone with the 
 polish of an age already rich with civilization, and that 
 the more remarkable when it is remembered that these 
 granite blocks which furnish the outside of the third 
 and inside of the first must have come all the way from 
 the first cataract. It also seems, from Herodotus and 
 others, that these smooth outsides were covered with 
 sculptures. Then you must build up or uncover the 
 massive tombs, now broken or choked up with sand, 
 so as to restore the aspect of vast streets of tombs like 
 those on the Appian Way, out of which the Great 
 Pyramid would rise like a cathedral above smaller 
 churches. Lastly, you must enclose two other Pyra- 
 mids with stone precincts and gigantic gateways ; and, 
 above all, you must restore the Sphinx as he (for it 
 
EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION. 63 
 
 must never be forgotten that a female Sphinx was 
 ahnost unknown) was in the days of his glory." ^ 
 
 1 may perhaps appear open to the suspicion of over- 
 estimating the arts of ancient Egypt. I therefore 
 cannot do better than refer you to the mature judgment 
 of one who has written the History of Architecture ^ 
 with consummate knowledge, ability and taste. 
 
 "Xo one can possibly examine the interior of the Great 
 Pyramid," says Mr. Fergusson, "without being struck with 
 astonishment at the wonderful mechanical skill displayed in 
 its construction. The immense blocks of granite brought from 
 Syene — a distance of 500 miles — polished like glass, and so 
 fitted that the joints can hardly be detected. Nothing can be 
 more wonderful than the extraordinary amount of knowledge 
 displayed in the construction of the discharging chambers 
 over the roof of the principal apartment, in the alignment of 
 the sloping galleries, in the provision of ventilating shafts, 
 and in all the wonderful contrivances of the structure. All 
 these, too, are carried out with such precision that, notwith- 
 standing the immense superincumbent weight, no settlement 
 in any part can be detected to the extent of an appreciable 
 fraction of an inch. Nothing more perfect, mechanically, has 
 ever been erected since that time, and we ask ourselves in 
 vain, how long it must have taken before men acquired such 
 experience and such skill, or were so perfectly organized, as 
 to contemplate and complete such undertakings." 
 
 The walls of the most ancient tombs are decorated 
 
 with pictures. 
 
 ^ " Sinai and Palestine," p. Ivii. 
 
 2 See also the whole fifth book of Mr. Fergusson's " Illustrated 
 Handbook of Architecture." 
 
64 LECTURE II. 
 
 " In all these pictures tlie men are represented with an 
 ethnic and artistic truth that enables us easily to recognize 
 their race and station. The animals are not only distinguish- 
 able, but the characteristic peculiarities of each species are 
 seized with a power of generalization seldom, if ever, surpassed." 
 
 "More striking than even the paintings are the portrait 
 statues which have recently been discovered in the secret 
 recesses of these tombs ; nothing more wonderfully truthful 
 and realistic has been done since that time till the invention of 
 photography, and even that can hardly represent a man with 
 such unflattering truthfulness as these old coloured terra-cotta 
 portraits of the sleek rich men of the Pyramid period." 
 
 I now turn to the pages describing the buildings at 
 Thebes. 
 
 " Though the Rhamession is so grand from i^ dimensions, 
 and so beautiful from its design, it is far surpassed in every 
 respect by the palace temple at Karnac, which is perhaps the 
 noblest effort of architectural magnificence ever produced by 
 the hand of man. 
 
 "Its principal dimensions are 1200 feet in length, by about 
 360 in width, and it covers therefore about 430,000 square 
 feet, or nearly twice the area of St. Peter's at Rome, and more 
 than four times that of any medic^eval cathedral existing. 
 This, however, is not a fair way of estimating its dimensions, 
 for our churches are buildings entirely under one roof; but at 
 Karnac a considerable portion of the area was uncovered by 
 any buildings, so that no such comparison is just. The great 
 hypostile hall, however, is internally 340 feet by 170, and 
 with its two pylons it covers more than 88,000 square feet, a 
 greater area than the cathedral of Cologne, the largest of all 
 our northern cathedrals ; and when we consider that this is 
 only a part of a great whole, we may fairly assert that the 
 
EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION. 65 
 
 entire structure is among the largest, as it undoubtedly is one 
 of the most beautiful, buildings in the world. 
 
 "We have thus in this one temple a complete history of 
 the style during the whole of its most ilourisliing period ; and 
 either for interest or for beauty it forms sucli a series as no 
 other country and no other age can produce. Besides those 
 buildings mentioned above, there are other temples to the 
 North, to the East, and more especially to the South, and 
 pylons connecting them, and avenues of sphinxes extending 
 for miles, and enclosing walls and tanks and embankments — 
 making up such a group as no city ever possessed before or 
 since. St. Peter with its colonnades and the Vatican make 
 up an immense mass, but as insignificant in extent as in style 
 wdien compared with this glory of ancient Thebes and its 
 surrounding temples. 
 
 "The culminating point and climax of all this group of 
 buildings is the hypostile hall of Manephthah. ... No language 
 can convey an idea of its beauty, and no artist has yet been 
 able to reproduce its form so as to convey to those who have 
 not seen it an idea of its grandeur. The mass of its central 
 piers, illumined by a flood of light from the clerestory, and the 
 smaller pillars of the wings gradually fading into obscurity, are 
 so arranged and lighted as to convey an idea of infinite space ; 
 at the same time, the beauty and massiveness of the forms, 
 and the brilliancy of their coloured decorations, all combine 
 to stamp this as the greatest of man's architectural works, but 
 such a one as it would be impossible to reproduce except in 
 such a climate and in that individual style in which and for 
 which it was created." 
 
 There is one more quotation from which I am unable 
 to refrain. 
 
 "In all the conveniences and elegances of building they seem 
 to have anticipated all that has been in those countries down 
 
 F 
 
QQ LECTURE II. 
 
 to the present day. Indeed, in all probability, the ancient 
 Egyptians surpassed the modern in those respects as much as 
 they did in the more important forms of architecture." 
 
 True artistic power may display itself in a gem as 
 •well as in the design of a cathedral. The precious 
 materials of Avhich Egyptian jewellery was composed 
 have naturally contributed to their destruction in for- 
 mer times, but there are still extant trinkets of mar- 
 vellous beauty. A few years ago some peasants near 
 Thebes dug up the cofhn of the queen Aahhotep, wife 
 of king Kames. This king's name is one of those which 
 does not occur in the tablet of Abydos, but he is known 
 from different records, and his picture is found at 
 Qurnah in a tomb of the eighteenth dynasty. Queen 
 Aahhotep was the ancestress of this dynasty. Her 
 coffin contained treasures of jcAvellery, which were 
 brought to Paris at the last General Exhibition, and 
 are now objects of wonder and admiration to all who 
 visit the Museum at Bulaq. Between the linen cover- 
 ings, precious weapons and ornaments were found, 
 daggers, a golden axe, a chain with three large golden 
 bees and a breastplate, and on the body itself a golden 
 chain, with a scarabaeus, armlets, a fillet for the brow 
 and other objects. Two little barks in gold and silver, 
 bronze axes bearing the name of her husband Kames, 
 and great bangles for the ankles, lay immediately upon 
 the wood of the coffin. The jewellers of Paris could 
 not have produced more exquisite workmanship. 
 
EGYPTIAX CIVILIZATIOX. 67 
 
 I must not omit to tell you that, to the practised eye 
 of an archaeologist, every object of Egyptian art bears 
 upon it as well defined a date as a mediaeval church 
 window or porch. The astonishing identity which is 
 visible through all the periods of Egyptian art is con- 
 sistent with an immense amount of change, which must 
 exist wherever there is life. There are periods of 
 splendour, progress and deterioration, and every age 
 has its peculiar character. Birch, Lepsius or Mariette, 
 would at once tell you the age of a statue, inscription 
 or manuscript, without looking at the text which actu- 
 ally mentions the exact date. 
 
 Painting, as understood in these later centuries, was 
 entirely unknown to the Egyptians, though they had 
 coloured pictures; but the harmony of colours was 
 thoroughly understood by them, and their employment 
 of colour in architecture or generally in decoration puts 
 our modern efforts to shame. ^'They were aware" (as 
 Sir Gardner Wilkinson says) " that for decorative pur- 
 poses the primary colours should predominate, and that 
 secondary hues should be secondary in quantity and in 
 position ; their most usual combinations were therefore 
 blue, red and green; and a fillet of white or yellow 
 was introduced between them to obviate that false 
 effect which is apt to convert red and blue into purple 
 when placed together in immediate contact. When 
 yellow was introduced, a due proportion of black was 
 added to balance it, and for each colour was sought its 
 
 f2 
 
68 LECTtmE II. 
 
 suitable companion ; or if certain colours occasionally 
 predominated in a part of the wall, the balance was 
 restored by a greater quantity of others elsewhere, so 
 that the due proportions of all were kept up, and the 
 general eifect was a perfect concord." 
 
 The earliest monuments show the use of a great 
 variety of musical instruments — flutes, pipes, harps, 
 guitars, lyres and tamburines — and they give repre- 
 sentations of concerts in which human voices are com- 
 bined with the sounds of several instruments.^ My 
 learned friend Dr. Diimichen, himself an admirable 
 musician, in noticing the presence not only of a monkey, 
 but of hounds, at a concert in the tomb of Ptahhotep, 
 is very much tempted to doubt the musical taste of 
 that great dignitary of the fifth dynasty, and to sup- 
 pose that he preferred the accompaniments of his canine 
 friends. There is, however, I believe, reason to sup- 
 pose that the picture is intended to represent dogs from 
 the spirit-land, whose ears are no doubt attuned to the 
 harmony of sweet sounds. 
 
 The Egyptians were not, as used on very insuflicient 
 evidence to be suj^posed, a sad or morose people. Their 
 religion at least does not appear to have been '' designed 
 to make their pleasures less." The description of their 
 
 1 Sec Wilkinson, ''Ancient Egyptians," Vol. I. p. 431; Carl 
 Engel, "Music of the Most Ancient Nations," p. 180; and Lauth, 
 *'Ueber altiigyptische Musik," in the Sitzungsherichte of the Munich 
 Academy, 3rd July, 1869. 
 
EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION. 69 
 
 festivals given by classical writers is fully corroborated 
 by authentic testimony, and the national tendency, at 
 least in the prosperous times of the monarchy, was 
 towards excess in the exercise of conviviality. Great 
 quantities of wine, both native and foreign, were con- 
 sumed ; and beer-houses, if we may judge by the fre- 
 quency with which they are inveighed against in the 
 papyri, must have been as serious a pest in the time of 
 the great Eameses as they are in the England of the 
 nineteenth century. The point of the story which 
 Ilerodotos tells about the representation of a dead body 
 in a coffin being carried round and shown to the guests 
 at entertainments, lies in the final words uttered by the 
 bearer : " Cast your eyes on this figure ; after death, 
 you yourself will resemble it; drink then, and he happy y 
 I think it would be easy to quote English, French or 
 German drinking-songs containing the same moral. 
 The element of mournfulness is introduced merely for 
 the purpose of bringing out the convivial sentiment 
 into stronger relief. It is possible that Herodotos 
 makes allusion to a song of which several copies or 
 fragments of copies have reached us. It is called 
 th£i Song of King Antuf — a monarch of the eleventh 
 dynasty, whom I have already mentioned — and it 
 says : ^ 
 
 '^ Fulfil thy desire while thou livest. Put oils upon 
 
 Records of the Past," Vol. IV. p. 117 
 
70 LECTURE II. 
 
 thy head, clothe thyself with fine linen adoi'necl with 
 precious metals .... yield to thy desire — fulfil thy 
 desire with thy good things whilst thou art uj^on earth, 
 according to the dictation of thy heart. The day will 
 come to thee when one hears not the voice, — when 
 the one who is at rest hears not their voices. Feast 
 in tranquillity; seeing that there is no one who carries 
 his goods with him." 
 
 Another poem which has been j)reserved, '^The Lay 
 of the Harper," is very similar in its tone : ^^ Let 
 odours and oils stand before thy nostril. Let song 
 and music be before thy face, and leave behind thee 
 all evil cares. Mind thee of joy till cometh the day 
 of pilgrimage, when we draw near the land which 
 loveth silence."^ 
 
 It is impossible to read these scraps of poetry with- 
 out being reminded of a passage in the book of Eccle- 
 siastes, written, in the person of Solomon, by some 
 one living in the last century of the Persian domina- 
 tion in Palestine. It begins : ''Go thy way ; eat thy 
 bread with joy, and drink thy wine with a merry 
 heart, for God accepteth thy works. Let thy garments 
 be always white ; and let thy hand lack no ointment." 
 And it ends — ''for there is no work, no device, nor 
 knowledge, nor wisdom in the grave, whither thou 
 goest."2 
 
 Records of the Past," Vol. Yl. p. 129. ^ Eccles. ix. 7, 8, 0. 
 
EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION. t 1 
 
 And if it be true that the Preacher in another por- 
 tion of his work reminds the young man to whom he 
 is addressing himself that for all these things God 
 will bring him into judgment, not less true is it that 
 the Egyptian harper also sang : 
 
 ^^Mind thee of the day when thou too slialt start 
 for the land to which one goeth to return not thence. 
 Good for thee will have been a good life ; therefore be 
 just and hate iniquity; for he who loveth what is Eight 
 shall triumph." 
 
 Moral Code. 
 
 The triumph of Eight over Wrong, of Eight in 
 speech and in action (for the same word signifies both 
 Truth and Justice) is the burden of nine-tenths of the 
 Egyptian texts which have come down to us. Eight ^ 
 is represented as a goddess ruling as mistress over 
 heaven and earth and the world beyond the grave. 
 The gods are said to live by it. Although funereal 
 inscriptions are less to be depended upon when they 
 describe the virtues of the deceased than when they 
 give the dates of his birth and death, they may at 
 least be quoted in evidence of the rule of conduct by 
 which actions were estimated. We are not obliged to 
 believe that this or that man possessed all the virtues 
 
 1 The primitive notion implied by the word madt seems to be the 
 geometrical one ''right," as in "riglit line," as o])posed to x'^^ "bent," 
 "perverse." Madf as a noun is tbe "straight rule," "canon." 
 
72 LECTURE II. 
 
 which are ascribed to him, but we cannot resist the 
 conviction that the recognized Egyptian code of moral- 
 ity was a very noble and refined one. ^' None of the 
 Christian virtues," M. Chabas says, ^'is forgotten in 
 it; piety, charity, gentleness, self-command in word 
 and action, chastity, the protection of the weak, bene- 
 volence towards the humble, deference to superiors, 
 respect for property in its minutest details, ... all is 
 expressed there, and in extremely good language." 
 In confirmation of this, I will add that the translators 
 of the Bible and of the early Christian literature, who 
 were so often compelled to retain Greek words for 
 which they could discover no Egyptian equivalent, 
 found the native vocabulary amply sufiicient for the 
 expression of the most delicate notions of Christian 
 ethics. 
 
 The following are specimens of the praises which 
 are put into the mouth of departed worthies : 
 
 ^'Not a little child did I injure. Not a widow did 
 I oppress. Not a herdsman did I ill-treat. There was 
 no beggar in my days ; no one starved in my time. 
 And when the years of famine came, I ploughed all 
 the lands of the province to its northern and southern 
 boundaries, feeding its inhabitants and providing their 
 food. There was no starving person in it, and I made 
 the widow to be as though she possessed a husband. "^ 
 
 1 Inscriptions of Ameni, Denlcm. ii. ])1. 121. 
 
EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION. 73 
 
 Of another great personage it is said that, in admi- 
 nistering justice, ^^ he made no distinction between a 
 stranger and those known to him. He was the father 
 of the weak, the support of him who had no mother. 
 Feared by the ill-doer, he protected the poor ; he was 
 the avenger of those whom a more powerful one had 
 deprived of property. He was the husband of the 
 widow, the refuge of the orphan."^ 
 
 It is said of another ^ that he was '^the protector of 
 the humble, a palm of abundance to the destitute, 
 food to the hungry and the poor, largeness of hand 
 to the Aveak ;" and another passage implies that his 
 wisdom was at the service of those who were ignorant. 
 
 The tablet of Beka,^ now at Turin, thus describes 
 the deceased : 
 
 '^ I was just and true without malice, placing God 
 in my heart and quick in discerning his will. I have 
 come to the city of those who dwell in eternity. I 
 have done good upon earth ; I have done no wrong ; I 
 have done no crime ; I have approved of nothing base 
 or evil, but have taken pleasure in speaking the truth, 
 
 ^ Tablet of Antuf, Louvre, c. 26. I quote Irom ^M. cle Eouge's 
 Notice des Monuments, p. 88. 
 
 2 British ISIuseum, 581. This text, of which a copy is f^iven in 
 Sharpe, " Egyptian Inscriptions," Voh II. p. 83, is a difficult one, 
 and would repay a careful study. 
 
 ^ Published, with a translation and commentary by M. Chabas, 
 in the Transactions of the Society of Biblical Archaeolof/r/, Vol. Y. 
 p. 459. 
 
74 LECTURE II. 
 
 for I well know the glory there is in doing this upon 
 earth from the first action (of life) even to the tomb. . . . 
 I am a Sahu who took pleasure in righteousness, con- 
 formably with the laws [hapu) of the tribunal of the 
 two-fold Eight. There is no lowly person whom I 
 have oppressed ; I have done no injury to men who 
 honoured their gods. The sincerity and goodness 
 which were in the heart of my father and ray mother, 
 my love [paid back] to them. Never have I outraged 
 it in my mode of action towards them from the begin- 
 ning of the time of my youth. Though great, I have 
 acted as if I had been a little one. I have not disabled 
 any one worthier than myself. My mouth has always 
 been opened to utter true things, not to foment quar- 
 rels. I have repeated what I have heard just as it 
 was told to me." 
 
 Great stress is always in these inscriptions laid upon 
 the strictest form of veracity ; as, for instance, " I have 
 not altered a story in the telling of it." The works of 
 charity are commonly spoken of in terms which are 
 principally derived from the Book of the Dead. 
 
 "Doing that which is Eight and hating that which 
 is Wrong, I was bread to the hungry, water to the 
 thirsty, clothes to the naked, a refuge to him that was 
 in want ; that which I did to him, the great God hath 
 done to me."^ 
 
 ^ Diimichen, Kcdenderinscliriften^ xlvi. 
 
EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION. 75 
 
 '' I was one who did that which was pleasing to his 
 father and his mother; the joy of his brethren, the 
 friend of his companions, noble-hearted to all those of 
 his city. I gave bread to the hungry ; . . . I received 
 [travellers ?] on the road ; my doors were open to those 
 who came from without, and I gave them wherewith 
 to refresh themselves. And God hath inclined his 
 countenance to me for what I have done ; he hath 
 given me old age upon earth, in long and pleasant 
 duration, with many children at my feet, and sons in 
 face of his own son."^ 
 
 God's reward for well-doing is again mentioned in 
 the great inscription now at Miramar^ in honour of a 
 lady who had been charitable to persons of her own 
 sex, whether girls, wives or widows. 
 
 '^My heart inclined me to the Eight when I was 
 yet a child not yet instructed as to the Eight and 
 Good. And what my heart dictated I failed not to 
 perform. And God rewarded me for this, rejoicing 
 me with the happiness w^hich he has granted me for 
 walking after his way." 
 
 We are acquainted with several collections of Pre- 
 cepts and Maxims on the conduct of life. Such are 
 the Maxims of Ptahhotep contained in the Prisse 
 Papyrus, the Instructions of Amenemhat, and the 
 
 1 Bergmann, Hiewf/Jypfiische Tnschriften, pi. vi, 1. 8. 
 - Ibid. pi. viii, ix. 
 
76 LECTURE II. 
 
 Maxims of Ani; and fragments of other important 
 works are preserved in the Museums of Paris, Leyden 
 and St. Petersburg. The most venerable of them is 
 the work of Ptahhotep, which dates from the age of 
 the Pyramids, and yet appeals to the authority of the 
 ancients. It is undoubtedly, as M. Chabas called it,^ in 
 the title of the memorable essay in which its contents 
 Avere first made known, '^The most Ancient Book of 
 the "World." The manuscript at Paris which contains 
 it was written centuries before the Hebrew lawgiver 
 was born, but the author of the work lived as far back 
 as the reign of king Assa Tatkara of the fifth dynasty. 
 This most precious and venerable relic of antiquity is 
 as yet very imperfectly understood. Its general import 
 is clear enough, and some of the sections are perfectly 
 intelligible ; but the philological difficulties with which 
 it abounds will for many years, I fear, resist the efforts 
 of the most accomplished interpreters.^ These books 
 are very similar in character and tone to the book of 
 Proverbs in our Bible. They inculcate the study of 
 wisdom, the duty to parents and superiors, respect for 
 property, the advantages of charitableness, peaceable- 
 
 1 " I.e plus ancien livre dii monde," in the Revue Archeologique 
 of 1857. 
 
 2 M. Chabas has fully explained the nature of these difficulties in 
 the Zeits. f. dgijpt Sjir. 1870, p. 84 fol. Dr. Lauth's essay in the 
 Sitzungsherichte of the Academy of Munich, 1869 and 1870, is very 
 valuable, and I confess myself to be greatly indebted to it ; but even 
 the best portions of it can only be accepted provisionally. 
 
EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION. 77 
 
 ness and content, of liberality, humility, chastity and 
 sobriety, of truthfulness and justice ; and they show 
 the wickedness and folly of disobedience, strife, arro- 
 gance and pride, of slothfulness, intemj)erance, unchas- 
 tity and other vices. It is only through a lamentable 
 misunderstanding of the text that some scholars have 
 discovered anti-religious, epicurean or sceptical ex- 
 pressions.^ 
 
 The same morality is taught in the romantic litera- 
 ture which sprung up at a very early period and con- 
 tinued to flourish down to the latest times. It is an 
 interesting question, but one which cannot as yet be 
 answered with certainty, whether or no the moralizing 
 fables about animals attributed to ^sop are really of 
 Egyptian origin? The Egyptian text of at least one 
 of these fables is contained in a papyrus of the Leyden 
 collection, but it is in ^'demotic," not in the early 
 language of the country. 
 
 I have laid before you some of the characteristic 
 
 ^ " Let thy face be white (i. e. enjo}' thyself) whilst thou livest ; 
 has there issued from the coffin {riid-)^era chest) one who has entered 
 therein ]" This hasty translation by Mr. Goodwin {Zeitschr. 1867, 
 p. 95) does not deserve the success it has enjoyed, and I do not 
 believe the author of it would have published it, had his attention 
 been called in time to such difficulties as these : 1, the Egyptian 
 preposition en cannot stand at the end of a sentence ; 2, it never 
 means " therein ;" 3, the word ma^era is never found in the sense of 
 *' coffin," but in that of "chest of provisions ;" 4, the sentiment in 
 question is absurdly out of place in the context where the words 
 
78 LECTURE II. 
 
 features of Egyptian civilization, and I ouglit not to 
 
 conclude without alluding to two errors, one of which 
 
 may be considered as entirely obsolete among scholars, 
 
 whilst the other may claim the sanction of very high 
 
 authority. 
 
 Castes. 
 
 As long as our information depended upon the clas- 
 sical Greek authors, the existence of castes among the 
 Egyptians was admitted as certain. The error was 
 detected as soon as the sense of the inscriptions could 
 be made out. A very slight knowledge of the language 
 was sufficient to demonstrate the truth to the late 
 M. Ampere. 1 Among ourselves, many men may be 
 found whose ancestors have for several generations 
 followed the same calling, either the army or the 
 church, or some branch of industry or trade. The 
 Egyptians were no doubt even more conservative than 
 ourselves in this respect. But there was no impassable 
 barrier between two professions. The son or the bro- 
 ther of a warrior might be a priest. It was perhaps 
 more difficult to rise in the world than it is with us ; 
 but a man of education, a scribe, was eligible to any 
 office, civil, military or sacerdotal, to which his talents 
 or the chances of fortune might lead him, and nothing 
 prevented his marriage with the daughter of a man of 
 a different profession. 
 
 ^ " Des Castes dans I'ancienne Egypte," in the Revue des Deux 
 Mondes, Sept. 1848. 
 
EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION. 79 
 
 Monogamy. 
 The liigli position occupied in ancient Egypt by the 
 mother of the family, the ^^ mistress of the house," is 
 absolutely irreconcilable with the existence either of 
 polygamy as a general practice, or of such an institu- 
 tion as the harwi. The plurality of wives does not 
 appear to have been contrary to law, but it certainly 
 was unusual. A few of the Egyptian kings had a large 
 number of wives, but they appear in this respect to 
 have followed foreign rather than native custom. The 
 use of the word harem in the translation of hieroglyphic 
 texts tends to produce an entirely erroneous conception 
 of ancient Egyptian society. The word itself is harm- 
 less ; but (to say the least) it confounds Egyptian with 
 utterly foreign ideas, Arabian or Tm^kish ; and when 
 it is used to signify an establishment of concubines, 
 I believe the translator has entirely misunderstood the 
 Egyptian text.^ 
 
 ^ Many excellent scholars have used "harem" as the translation 
 of the Egyptian ^vord ^'^nt. The most important passage which 
 would justify this rendering is on the tablet of Pa-shere-en-Ptah. 
 It is thus translated in Brugsch's Hieroglyphic Lexicon, p. 1093 : 
 "Es waren mir schone Weiber, doch war ich bereits 43 Jahr alt 
 ohne dass mir ein mannliches Kind geboren war." I believe the 
 passage is better understood if taken in connection with the corre- 
 sponding passage on the tablet of the vife of Pa-shere-en-Ptah 
 (Sharpe, "Egyptian Inscriptions," Vol. I. pi. 4). This lady says of 
 her husband : "I had not borne to him a male child, but daughters 
 only." He therefore means to say : "I had handsome girls, but I 
 was already forty -three years old before a hoy was born to me." 
 The German "Erauenzimruer," if put into hieroglyphic orthography, 
 would admit of the very determinative sign which leads to the 
 notion of "shutting up." 
 
THE GODS OF EGYPT. 
 
 Identity of the Religious Institutions from First to Last. 
 
 It was quite unnecessary for the purpose of these 
 Lectures that the sketch of Egyptian civilization which 
 I laid before you in the last Lecture should be com- 
 pleted or filled up in detail. But in studying the 
 phenomena which a religion presents, it is indispen- 
 sable that we should understand certain conditions 
 accompanying those phenomena. Men's thoughts are 
 forced into certain channels and assume definite forms 
 according to the nature of their occupations. It is not 
 a matter of indifference whether we have to do with 
 people in what is called the hunting stage, nomadic 
 populations, agriculturalists or merchants; with men 
 of hot or of cold climates ; with savages or with men 
 in the most advanced stages of culture. The religions 
 and mythologies of such peoples differ very widely. 
 Even among those professing the same religion, great 
 differences must necessarily be found between men of 
 highly educated and cultivated minds, and unpolished 
 
THE GODS OF EGYPT. 81 
 
 men insensible to art or poetry of a high order. N^ow 
 it is certain that at least three thousand years before 
 Christ there was in Egypt a powerful and elaborately 
 organized monarchy, enjoying a material civilization 
 in many respects not inferior to that of Europe in the 
 last century. Centuries must have elapsed before such 
 a civilization became possible. Of a state of barbarism 
 or even of patriarchal life anterior to the monumental 
 period, there is no historical vestige. The earliest 
 monuments which have been discovered present to us 
 the very same fully developed civilization and the same 
 religion as the later monuments. The blocks of the 
 Pyramids bear quarry marks exhibiting the decimal 
 notation, and are dated by the months of the calendar 
 which was in use down to the latest times. You must 
 remember that the calendars of other nations (Hebrews, 
 Greeks and Eomans) show great ignorance of the real 
 length of the year. It was only after the conquest of 
 Alexandria that the Eoman calendar was reformed by 
 Julius Caesar. The political division into nomes (pro- 
 vinces, each of which had its principal deity) is as old 
 as the age of the Pyramids. The gods whose names 
 appear in the oldest tombs were worshipped down to 
 the Christian times. The same kinds of priesthoods 
 which are mentioned in the tablets of Canopus and 
 Eosetta in the Ptolemaic period are as ancient as the 
 Pyramids, and more ancient than any Pyramid of which 
 we know the date. There is in the Ashmolean Museum 
 
 G 
 
82 LECTURE III. 
 
 at Oxford the monnmeiit of a man whose priestly office 
 had been endowed by a king of the second dynasty. 
 Excellent scholars like Dr. Hincks and Mr. Goodwin 
 have ascribed the monument to this early date, and 
 have considered it the most ancient of all dated monu- 
 ments. This indeed cannot be proved; but there is 
 no doubt whatever that it is the most ancient authentic 
 monument recording a religious endowment. 
 
 Temples. 
 
 'No temples of the ancient empire are extant at pre- 
 sent, except perhaps the monument discovered some 
 years ago in the neighbourhood of the great Sphinx ; 
 but no one can say whether this is a temple or a tomb. 
 But this want of early temples is certainly owing to 
 the destruction of the most ancient cities, like Memphis 
 and Heliopolis. There is no reason for doubting the 
 inscription first published by M. de Eoug^, which says 
 that Chufu or Cheops built his pyramid near a temple 
 of Isis, and that he built or endowed a temple to 
 Hathor ; or the inscriptions at Dendera, which ascribe 
 the restoration of its ancient temple to Tehutimes III., 
 ^' according to the plan found in ancient writings of 
 the time of king Chufu." There is every reason for 
 believing that in the ancient empire great and splendid 
 temples were built. But we must not take for granted 
 that temples at this early period were places of worship 
 in our modern sense of the term. At no period of the 
 
THE GODS OF EGYPT. 83 
 
 Egyptian religion were the public admitted to the 
 temples as worshippers. All the temples we know 
 were royal offerings made to the divinity of the local- 
 ity, and none but the priestly personages attached to 
 the temple itself had free access to its precincts. But 
 the image of the god and those of the divinities asso- 
 ciated with him were often brought out in solemn pro- 
 cessions, in which the entire population took part. 
 
 Triads and Bnneads. 
 
 In the principal temple of each province, the chief 
 deity was associated with other gods ; hence the ex- 
 pression Oeoi a-vvvaoL of the Greek inscriptions ; hence 
 from an early period triads (consisting of the principal 
 god, a female deity and their offspring), or enneads, 
 consisting of nine gods. Thus at Thebes the triad con- 
 sisted of Amon, Mut and Chonsu ; at Abydos, of Osiris, 
 Isis and Horus. l^o special importance was attached 
 by the Egyptians to the number three, and it is a mis- 
 take to look for triads everywhere, for the number of 
 gods varied according to the place ; the number 7iine 
 was much more frequent, and this is often nothing 
 more than a round number, signifying either the gods 
 of a locality or the entire Pantheon. 
 
 Local Character of Egyptian Worship. 
 
 As each deity was connected with some locality, his 
 name was generally followed by a phrase indicating 
 
 G 2 
 
84 LECTURE III. 
 
 this relationship. A deity was said to be Lord of 
 ALydos, mistress of Senem, presiding in Thebes, inha- 
 biting Hermopolis ; sometimes a particle was interposed 
 between the name of the god and that of the town, as 
 '^ Anubis from Sechem," ^'I^eith of Sais;" sometimes 
 one or more epithets were added, as ''the mighty," 
 ''the beneficent," "the august;" sometimes the name 
 of an animal which was the recognized symbol of the 
 god, a bull, a ram or a lion. Special titles were given 
 to divinities according to the place in which they were 
 worshipped: Osiris, for instance, was called che, "the 
 child," at Thebes; he -was iira^ "the great one," at 
 Heliopolis; ati^ "the sovereign," at Memphis. It 
 happened frequently that in the same town one god 
 was Avorshipped under different aspects, or as proceed- 
 ing from different localities, and treated as though 
 there were different divine persons of the same name. 
 Chonsu in Thebes, under the name nefer-hotep^ is 
 entreated to lend his miraculous power to Chonsu in 
 Thebes under the name ari secJier. We read of Set 
 the god of Senu, Set of Uau, Set of Un and Set of 
 Meru. Other forms of Set are well known, but those 
 I have cited are brought together in one inscription as 
 children of the god Tmu. I find invocations in a very 
 early inscription addressed to the Anubis of six dif- 
 ferent localities. Apis is the son of Ptah, of Tmu, of 
 Osiris and of Sokari. Are all these fathers of Apis 
 one person? Horus is the son of the goddess Isis, 
 
THE GODS OF EGYPT. 85 
 
 but he is also the son of the goddess Hathor. Isis 
 must then be the same as Hathor, unless mythology is 
 proof against logic. Let us admit this, and also that 
 Seb, the father of Isis, is identical with Ea, the father 
 of Hathor ; but what shall we say on being told that 
 Horns was born in Tattu (the Mendes of the Greeks), 
 and also that he was born in Cheb? Geographical 
 localities do not so easily lend themselves to identi- 
 fication. In a well-known text. Horns is called the 
 son of Isis and Osiris, but shortly afterwards Seb is 
 named as his father. Students of mythology will not 
 be astonished or scandalized if they discover that Osiris 
 is at once the father, brother, husband and son of Isis, 
 and also the son of their child Horns. They will read 
 a text on the alabaster sarcophagus of Seti I., now in 
 the Soane Museum, which speaks of ^' the son who 
 proceeds from the father, and the father who proceeds 
 from his son," and if their studies are rightly con- 
 ducted, the mystery will not be hard to understand. 
 
 The Deities Innumerable. 
 
 The Egyptian deities are innumerable. There were 
 countless gods in heaven and below the earth. Every 
 town and village had its local patrons. Ever}^ month 
 of the year, every day of the month, every hour of the 
 day and of the night, had its presiding divinity, and 
 all these gods had to be propitiated by offerings. I 
 
86 LECTURE III. 
 
 several times made the attempt to draw up an index 
 of the divine names occurring in the texts, but found 
 it necessary to abandon the enterprize. What can all 
 these gods mean ? 
 
 Mean Notions concerning- these Deities. 
 
 Nothing can be more clear than that under the name 
 of God the Egyptians did not understand, as we do, a 
 being without body, parts or passions. The bodies of 
 the gods are spoken of as well as their souls, and they 
 have both parts and passions ; they are described as 
 suffering from hunger and thirst, old age, disease, fear 
 and sorrow. They perspire, their limbs quake, their 
 head aches, their teeth chatter, their eyes weep, their 
 nose bleeds, ^'poison takes possession of their flesh, even 
 as the Nile takes possession of the land." They may 
 be stung by reptiles and burnt by fire. They shriek 
 and howl with pain and grief. All the great gods 
 require protection. Osiris is helpless against his ene- 
 mies, and his remains are protected by his wife and 
 sister. Hathor extends her wings as a protection over 
 the victorious Horus, or, as one form of the legend 
 expresses it, ^'she protects him with her body as a 
 divine cow ;" yet Hathor in her turn needs protection, 
 and even the sun-god Ea, though invested with the pre- 
 dicates of supreme divinity, requires the aid of the god- 
 dess Isis. All the gods arc liable to be forced to grant 
 
THE GODS OF EGYPT. 87 
 
 the prayers of men, through fear of threats which it is 
 inconceivable to us that any intelligence but that of 
 idiots should have believed. There are many aspects 
 of this religion, and some of them are extremely 
 ridiculous. The very impulse, however, which prompts 
 us to laugh at the religion of our fellow-men, ought to 
 suggest a doubt whether we have really caught their 
 
 meaning. 
 
 Simplification of the List. 
 
 We are tempted, in our bewilderment at the number 
 of the gods, to ask whether the process of reduction is 
 not applicable to them as well as that of multiplica- 
 tion. And we discover to our relief that such a process 
 is actually suggested to us by documents of indisputa- 
 ble authority, which show that the same god is often 
 known under many names. In the Litanies of the god 
 Ea, which are inscribed on the walls of the royal tombs 
 at Biban-el-moluk, the god is invoked under seventy- 
 five different names. A monument published in Bur- 
 ton's Excerpta Hieroghjphica gives the names, or rather 
 a selection of the names, of Ptah, the principal god 
 of Memphis. The Book of the Dead has a chapter 
 entirely consisting of the names of Osiris. The inscrip- 
 tions of the temple of Dendera give a long list of the 
 names of the goddess Hathor. She is identified not 
 only with Isis, but with Sechet at Memphis, Neith at 
 Sais, Saosis at Heliopolis, IS^ehcmauit at Ilermopolis, 
 
88 LECTUEE III. 
 
 Bast at Bubastis, Sotliis at Elephantine, and many 
 other goddesses. These authorities alone are sufficient, 
 almost at a glance, to convince us that not only are 
 some inferior deities mere aspects of the greater gods, 
 but that several at least of the greater gods themselves 
 are but different aspects of one and the same. 
 
 Lepsius, in his Dissertation on the gods of the first 
 order, has published several lists of these divinities 
 taken from monuments of diiferent periods, the most 
 ancient list being taken from an altar of the sixth 
 dynasty. On comparing these lists together, it is 
 again plain that Mentu and Tmu, two of the great 
 gods of Thebes, are merely aspects of the sun-god Ea. 
 The entire list of the gods of the first order is easily 
 reduced to two groups ; the first representing the sun- 
 god Ea and his family, and the second Osiris and his 
 family. It is most probable that neither Ptah nor 
 Amon were originally at the head of lists, but obtained 
 their places as being chief divinities of the capitals 
 Memphis and Thebes. Both these gods are identified 
 with the sun-god Ea, and so indeed are all the chief 
 local divinities. The whole mythology of Egypt may 
 be said to turn upon the histories of Ea and Osiris, 
 and these histories run into each other, sometimes in 
 inextricable confusion, which ceases to be wonderful 
 when texts are discovered which simply identify Osiris 
 and Ea. And, finally, other texts are known wherein 
 Ea, Osiris, Amon and all the other gods disappear, 
 
THE GODS OF EGYPT. 89 
 
 except as simple names ^ and the unity of God is asserted 
 in the noblest language of monotheistic religion. There 
 are many very eminent scholars who, with full know- 
 ledge of all that can be said to the contrary, maintain 
 that the Egyptian religion is essentially monotheistic, 
 and that the multiplicity of gods is only due to the 
 personification of '^the attributes, characters and offices 
 of the supreme God.'' 
 
 Is the Religion really Monotheistic? 
 
 No scholar is better entitled to be heard on this 
 subject than the late M. Emmanuel de Eougd, whose 
 matured judgment is as follows : ^ 
 
 "No one has called in question the fundamental 
 meaning of the principal passages by the help of which 
 we are able to establish what ancient Egypt has taught 
 concerning God, the world and man. I said God^ not 
 the gods. The first characteristic of the religion is the 
 Unity [of God] most energetically expressed : God, 
 One, Sole and Only ; no others with Him. — He is the 
 Only Being — living in truth. — Thou art One, and 
 millions of beings proceed from thee. — He has made 
 everything, and he alone has not been made. The 
 clearest, the simplest, the most precise conception. 
 
 1 " Conference sur la religion des anciens Egyptiens, prononc«^e au 
 Cercle Catholiqne, 14 avril, 1869," published in the Annales de la 
 Phllvt<ophie Chretienney tome XX. p. 327. 
 
^0 LECTURE III. 
 
 '^ But how reconcile the Unity of God with Egyp- 
 tian Polytheism ? History and geography will perhaps 
 elucidate the matter. The Egyptian religion compre- 
 hends a quantity of local worships. The Egypt which 
 Menes brought together entire under his sceptre was 
 divided into nomes, each having a capital town ; each 
 of these regions has its principal god designed by a 
 special name ; but it is always the same doctrine which 
 re-appears under different names. One idea predomi- 
 nates, that of a single and primeval God ; everywhere 
 and always it is One Substance, self- existent, and an 
 unapproachable God." 
 
 M. de Eoug^ then says that from, or rather before^ 
 the beginning of the historical period, the pure mono- 
 theistic religion passed through the phase of Sabeism ; 
 the Sun, instead of being considered as the symbol of 
 life, was taken as the manifestation of God Himself. 
 The second characteristic of the religion was ^^ a mys- 
 tery which does honour to the theological intellect of 
 the Egyptians. God is self-existent ; he is the only 
 being who has not been begotten ; hence the idea of 
 considering God under two aspects, the Father and the 
 Son. In most of the hymns we come across this idea 
 of the Double Being who -engendereth Himself, the 
 Soul in two Twins — to signify two Persons never to 
 be separated. A hymn of the Leyden Museum .... 
 calls him ^ the One of One.' 
 
 ^^ Are these noble doctrines then the result of cen- 
 
THE GODS OF EGYPT. 91 
 
 turies ? Certainly not ; for tliey were in existence 
 more than two thousand years before the Christian era. 
 On the other hand, Polytheism, the sources of which 
 we have pointed out, developes itself and progresses 
 Avithout interruption until the time of the Ptolemies. 
 It is, therefore, more than five thousand years since, 
 in the valley of the Nile, the hymn began to the Unity 
 of God and the immortality of the soul, and we find 
 Egypt in the last ages arrived at the most unbridled 
 Polytheism. The belief in the Unity of the Supreme 
 God and in his attributes as Creator and Lawgiver of 
 man, whom he has endoAved with an immortal soul — 
 these are the primitive notions, enchased, like inde- 
 structible diamonds, in the midst of the mythological 
 superfetations accumulated in the centuries which have 
 passed over that ancient civilization." 
 
 Although some of the texts here alluded to have 
 most probably a somewhat different meaning from that 
 which M. de Eoug^ ascribes to them, the facts upon 
 which he relies are in the main unassailable. It is 
 incontestably true that the sublimer portions of the 
 Egyptian religion are not the comparatively late result 
 of a process of development or elimination from the 
 grosser. The sublimer portions are demonstrably an- 
 cient ; and the last stage of the Egyptian religion, that 
 known to the Greek and Latin writers, heathen or 
 Christian, was by far the grossest and most corrupt. 
 M. de Koug^ is no doubt correct in his assertion that 
 
92 LECTURE III. 
 
 ill the several local worships one and the same doctrine 
 re-appears under di:fferent names and symbols. But he 
 does not venture to assert that at any time within the 
 historical period the worship of one God was anywhere 
 practised to the exclusion of a plurality of gods. He 
 only infers from the course of history that, as polytheism 
 was constantly on the increase, the monotheistic doc- 
 trines must have preceded it. Another conclusion, 
 however, is suggested by the Egyptian texts to which 
 he refers. The polytheistic and the so-called mono- 
 theistic doctrines constantly appear together in one 
 context ; not only in the sacred writings handed down 
 by tradition, and subjected to interpolations and cor- 
 ruptions of every kind, but even more frequently in 
 literary compositions of a private nature, where no one 
 would dream of suspecting interpolation. Throughout 
 the whole range of Egyptian literature, no facts appear 
 to be more certainly proved than these: (1) that the 
 doctrine of one God and that of many gods were taught 
 by the same men; (2) that no inconsistency between 
 the two doctrines was thought of. Nothing, of course, 
 can be more absurd if the Egyptians attached the same 
 meaning to the word God that we do. But there may 
 perhaps be a sense of the word which admits of its use 
 for many as well as for one. We cannot do better at 
 starting than endeavour to ascertain what the Egyp- 
 tians really meant when they used the word nutar^ 
 which we translate ^^god." 
 
THE GODS OF EGYPT. 93 
 
 Evidence as to the Meaning- of the word Nutar. 
 
 At first sight, the Egyptian language is less likely to 
 throw light upon the subject than might be expected 
 if it really belonged to the same stage of speech as 
 either the Indo-European or the Semitic languages. In 
 these languages almost every word is closely allied to 
 several others connected together by derivation from 
 a common root, and the primitive notion conveyed by 
 the word in question can be illustrated by the signifi- 
 cation of the kindred words and their root. Generally 
 speaking, however, in Egyptian every word is isolated. 
 There is no distinction between word, stem and root. 
 The same Egyptian word may sometimes have dif- 
 ferent significations ; but this, as a rule, only means 
 that the one notion which is expressed by a word in 
 Egyptian has no single word corresponding to it in 
 English, French or German. It seldom happens that 
 we can advance a step beyond such a fact as that the 
 word mda7' is rightly translated ^'god." I am glad, 
 however, to be able to affirm with certainty that in 
 this particular case we can accurately determine the 
 primitive notion attached to the word. IS'one of the 
 explanations hitherto given of it can be considered 
 satisfactory. That which I am about to propose will, 
 I believe, be generally accepted by scholars, because it 
 is arrived at as the result of a special study of all the 
 published passages in which the word occurs. Such a 
 
94 LECTURE III. 
 
 study, as far as I am aware, has not yet been made, 
 but if made by any other person it must necessarily 
 lead to the same result. 
 
 The old Egyptian word nutar had already in the 
 popular pronunciation suffered from phonetic decay, 
 and lost its final consonant as early as the nineteenth 
 dynasty, as we see by the inscriptions in the royal 
 tombs at Biban-el-molrik,^ and it appears in Coptic 
 under the forms nuti^ nute. It is remarkable that the 
 translators of the Bible into Coptic, who generally 
 abstained fi'om the use of old Egyptian words connected 
 with religion, and used Greek words instead, neverthe- 
 less adopted this one as expressive of their notion of 
 God. 
 
 There is another word, nutra^ very frequently used 
 either as verb or adjective, which is closely allied to 
 nutar. The sense of ^^ renovation" was first attached 
 to it by M. E. de Eoug^, on the strength of its final 
 sign, which he considered as a determinative of signi- 
 fication. But this conjecture, which has been very gene- 
 rally accepted, is really without any solid foundation ; 
 the sign in question is here expressive of nothing more 
 than the sound ^ra, and it will be found appended to all 
 
 ^ Zeitschr. f. Aegypt Spr. 1874, p. 105, and M. Maspero's article 
 in the Melanges d'Archeologle, 1874, p. 140. The orthography of 
 these popular forms is philologically of the highest importance. The 
 form nuntar I reserved for a future study ; ^I. Maspero published 
 it with the rest, but no one appears to have noticed it. 
 
THE GODS OF EGYPT. 95 
 
 words so ending, whatever be their meaning ; as hetra^ 
 whether signifying ^'join," "horse," or "tribute;" 
 petra^ " behold ;" tra^ " season." Another more obvious 
 sense, "sacred," "divine," may be justified by the 
 Greek text of the tablet of Canopus, where nutra is 
 translated te/^os, as applied to the sacred animals. But 
 this meaning, though a certain one, occurs but seldom 
 in the Egyptian texts, and when it so occurs is, after 
 all, only a derived meaning, as is in fact the case with 
 the Greek ^epo?, the first sense of which is "strong," 
 "vigorous."^ The notion expressed by nutar as a 
 noun, and nuira as an adjective and verb, must be 
 sought in the Coptic nomti^ which in the translation 
 of the Bible corresponds to the Greek words Svva/^ts, 
 iVx^s, l(Txvpo<5, l(rxvp6(i}, " power," " force," " strong," 
 "fortify," "protect." 2 
 
 The reason why the identification of the old form 
 nutar with the more recent no?7iii as well as nuti has 
 
 1 'lepog corresponds to the Sanskrit ish-ira-s, vigorous, from ish^ 
 juice, strength. See Curtiiis, Zeitschr. filr vergleichende Spmchfor- 
 schung, III. 154, and his " Griechische Etymologie," p. 372. Plu- 
 tarch (Mor. 981 D) mentions this original physical sense of the 
 word as maintained by certain persons, and the oarovv lepov, "os 
 sacrum," is given as an example. 'lepa voaog, also called /ueyaXr], is 
 another striking instance. In the Homeric poems, this physical 
 sense gives the true force to such expressions as TpoiTjg lepuv TrroX/c- 
 6pov, iepi)v tvoXlv 'Her/wj'Of, hpio evl cic^pu), hpov piivoQ 'AXkivoolo, hpy) 
 Ig Ti]\efua-)(piO. 
 
 2 The Alexandrians invented the barbarous word hwafxaio, which 
 can always be used as a translation of the verb nutra. 
 
96 LECTURE III. 
 
 hitherto escaped observation is, that the connecting 
 link nuntar has either been unknown to scholars or 
 disregarded by them. In nuntar^ a process as well 
 known to Egyptian as to Indo-European scholars has 
 taken place.^ The vowel of the first syllable has been 
 strengthened by the addition of a nasal consonant. 
 The old Egyptian word helmet (beer) has by this pro- 
 cess become henke in the Thebaic, and liemhi in the 
 Memphitic dialect. 
 
 The following examples will illustrate the usage of 
 the word. 
 
 Large stones are often said to be nutru. This does 
 not mean that they grow or that they are divine^ but 
 that they are mighty. In one of those paraphrases 
 which are so common on the walls of Dendera, the 
 unequivocal word uru^ '^ great, mighty," is substituted 
 for nutru P' Saiiit nutrit is a '^ strong wall." A crypt 
 is aat nutrit^ a ^^ strong-hold." Three of the chambers 
 
 ^ The change of n into m before t, as though the latter were pre- 
 ceded by a labial consonant, is not usual, but it is not without a 
 parallel in other languages. Cf. xP^fnrTU) from root xPh the Latin 
 tempto and the Lithuanian temptyva, both the latter from root ta, 
 nasalized tan. The observations of Curtius, " Gr. Et.," pp. 46 and 
 481, on the m in yaiitiv and the Lithuanian gim-ti, appear to me to 
 justify the form tempto, which Corssen rejects, though it occurs in 
 the best manuscripts as well as inscriptions. 
 
 2 Mariette, Dendera, L pi. 67. So in the royal titles of the 
 eighteenth dynasty, nutra sutenit of Tehutimes 11. corresponds to 
 the uah sutenit of Tehatimes IIL and to the simpler ur sutenit of 
 Chut en Aten. 
 
THE GODS OF EGYPT. 97' 
 
 of the temple of Dendera arc said to be nutru. ^' Qu'est 
 ce qii'ime salle divine?" very pertinently asks M. 
 Mariette. Sat nutrit is a ^^ potent talisman." Seti I. 
 in his titles is the '^potent image," se\em nutra^ of 
 Chepera. Nutra is constantly brought mio parallelism 
 with words implying ^' might." ^' Great {ura) is the 
 Eye of Horns, Mighty (^7^/) is the Eye of Horns, Strong 
 (fiiitra) is the Eye of Horns, the Giver of Strength 
 {senutra) is the Eye of Horns." ^ "A mighty wall to 
 Egypt, protecting their limbs; his force {pehti) is like 
 Ptah in prostrating the barbarians, a child of might 
 {si f nutra) in his coming forth like Harmachis."^ ^' He 
 is strong {ten-re) in pei-forming his duties to Amon-Ea, 
 he is vigorous {nutra) in performing his duties to the 
 sovereign, his lord." In the demotic text of the 
 tablet of Canopus, nutra is translated by x?^ which 
 signifies, ''strengthen, fortify, protect, invigorate." 
 It has constantly this meaning in the hieroglyphic 
 texts. ''Thy body is fortified {nutri-ta\ protected 
 {xu-ta\ restored {seput'ta)^^ '' Thy limbs are fortified 
 {nutri'ta) by the Power {sexeni) which is in heaven."* 
 JVutra men ma pet ^ ''strong and durable as heaven." 
 Nittra-f nut-ek er neken^ "He fortifies thy city against 
 destruction." Nutr a- f Nutrit er nefu^ " He strengthens 
 
 1 Sharpe, " Egyptian Inscriptions," Vol. II. p. 28. 
 
 2 Duemichen, Hlstorische Inschr. Vol. II. pp. 4G, 12. 
 
 3 j^ Je Rouge, Inscriptions^ Vol. I. pi. 25. 
 
 4 Sliarpe, Vol. II. p. 92. 
 
 H 
 
98 LECTURE III. 
 
 ISTutrit against harm.''^ Nutrit^ the name of a town 
 (in this place equivalent to Dendera), has exactly the 
 same meaning as Samaria, Ashdod, Gaza, Yalentia, and 
 many other names significant of strength. Eeligious 
 purifications were supposed to give strength, and the 
 verb 7mtra is therefore often found in parallelism with 
 ah and ttcr^ both of which have the sense of religious 
 purification. 
 
 I will add one more illustration, which by itself 
 might not be of much weight, but is really important 
 when taken in conjunction with other evidence. The 
 goddess Isis is distinguished among other divinities by 
 the frequent epithet nidrit "When the inscriptions in 
 her honour are written in Greek, she is most frequently 
 
 called fieydX-T] or /xeyto-ry?. 
 
 There is yet another Egyptian word cognate to those 
 we have been studying. Nutrif signifies ^^ eye-ball." 
 The notion here is of something fortified, protected, 
 guarded. ^^Custodi me ut pupillam oculi:" ^^Keep 
 me as the apple of the eye." The Arabic word hadaqatj 
 which means the same thing, has an exactly similar 
 etymology. And several other parallel instances might 
 be cited. 
 
 The Egyptian nutar^ I argue therefore, means Power, 
 which is also the meaning of the Hebrew El. The 
 
 ^ Many of the examples occur in Mariette's Dendera, Vol. I. 
 pi. 6, 46. 
 
THE GODS OF EGYPT. 99 
 
 extremely common Egyptian expression nutar nutra^ 
 exactly corresponds in sense to the Hebrew ElShaddai\ 
 the very title by which God tells Moses that He was 
 known to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. '' And God 
 spake unto Moses, and said unto him, ' I am Jahve : 
 and I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac and unto 
 Jacob by the name of El Shaddai, but by my name 
 Jahve was I not known to them.'" Nutar niitra amtu 
 heret is ^' the Almighty Power which is in heaven." 
 
 It is very remarkable that ^'Brahman in Sanskrit 
 meant originally Power, the same as El. It resisted 
 for a long time the mythological contagion, but at last 
 it yielded like all other names of God, and became the 
 name of one God."^ But the Egyptian nutar never 
 became a proper name. It was indeed restricted in 
 its use, as far back as our knowledge of the language 
 enables us to trace it, but it never ceased to be a 
 common noun, and was applied indifferently to each of 
 the powers which the Egyptian imagination conceived 
 as active in the universe, and to the Power from which 
 all powers proceed. Horus and Ea and Osiris and Set 
 are names of individual finite powers, but a Power 
 
 ^ M. de Rouge, Chre^tomathie, Fasc. iii. p. 25, translates this, 
 *' dieu devenant dieu," and says in a note, " On ne sait pas au juste 
 le sens du verba 7iufer, qui forme le radical du mot miter, 'dieu.' 
 C'est une idee analogue a ' devenir,' ou ' se renouveler,' car nuteri est 
 appliquee a Tame resuscitce qui revet sa forme immortelle." 
 
 2 M. Muller, " Chips," Vol. I. p. 363. 
 
 h2 
 
100 LECTURE III. 
 
 without a name or any mythological characteristic is 
 constantly referred to in the singular number, and can 
 only be regarded as the object of that '^ sensus numi- 
 nis," or immediate perception of the Infinite, which, 
 like my learned predecessor Professor Max Miiller, I 
 consider ''not the result of reasoning or generalizing, 
 but an intuition as irresistible as the impressions of our 
 senses." 1 The following instances are taken from the 
 moral writings of which I spoke in the last Lecture. 
 
 The Power. 
 
 1. The Maxims of Ptahhotep. 
 
 They speak of ''God forbidding" and "God com- 
 manding." 
 
 " The field which the great God hath given thee to 
 till." 
 
 "If any one beareth himself proudly, he will be 
 humbled by God, who maketh his strength." 
 
 "If thou art a wise man, bring up thy son in the 
 love of God." 
 
 "The magnanimous man is the object of God's 
 regard, but he who listens to his belly is scorned by 
 his own wife." 
 
 " Thy treasure has grown to thee through the gift 
 of God." 
 
 1 " Science of Language," Second SeiieS; p. 479, 7th ed. 
 
THE GODS OF EGYPT. 101 
 
 '^ God loveth the obedient and hatetli tlie disobe- 
 dient.'' 
 
 A good son is spoken of as '' the gift of God." 
 
 2. A papyrus of Ley den. ^ 
 
 ^* Happy is the man who eateth his own bread. 
 . Possess what thou hast in the joy of thy heart. What 
 thou hast not, obtain it by work. It is profitable for 
 a man to eat his own bread ; God grants this to who- 
 soever honours Him." 
 
 3. A papyrus at St. Petersburg.^ 
 '^Praised be God for all His gifts." 
 
 ^^God knows the wicked; He smites the wicked, 
 even to blood." 
 
 4. The Maxims of Ani.^ 
 
 .^^ Whoso acts, God will raise his name above the 
 sensual man." 
 
 ^'The sanctuary of God abhors [noisy manifesta- 
 
 ^ Published in Leeraans' Monuments Egyptiens clu Musee de 
 Leide, Pap, i. p. 344, i. — vi. An account of it is given in Dr. 
 Lautli's *' Altagjq^tische Lehrspriiche," in the Transact ions of the 
 Academy of Munich^ July, 1872. 
 
 2 This is described by Dr. Golenischeff in Lepsius' Zeitschrft, 
 1876, p. 107. 
 
 3 This very interesting book, published with the other papyri of 
 Sulaq by M. Mariette, has been described by Brugsch-Bey in the 
 Zeifschrift, 1872, and has been translated by M. E. de Rouge and 
 ^I. Chabas. The version of the latter scholar is the most careful and 
 exact, all the difficulties of the text being minutely considered and 
 discussed. It occupies the greater part of the scientific journal 
 VEyyptologie, entirely written Ijy M. Chabas. 
 
102 LECTURE III. 
 
 tions?]. Pray humbly with a loving heart all the 
 words of which are uttered in secret. He will protect 
 thee in thine affairs ; He will listen to thy words ; He 
 will accept thine offerings." 
 
 ^'In making thine oblation to God, beware of what 
 He abhors Exaggerate not the liturgical pre- 
 scriptions ; it is forbidden to give more than what is 
 prescribed. Let thine eyes consider the acts of His 
 wrath. Thou shalt make adorations in His name. It 
 is He who granteth genius with endless aptitudes ; 
 who magnifieth him who becometh great. The God 
 of the world is in the light above the firmament ; His 
 emblems are upon earth ; it is to them that worship is 
 rendered daily." 
 
 Another section is upon maternal affection. It de- 
 scribes the self-sacrifice of an affectionate mother from 
 the earliest moments of the child's existence, and con- 
 tinues as follows : '' Thou wast put to school, and 
 whilst thou wast being taught letters she came punc- 
 tually to thy master, bringing thee the bread and the 
 drink of her house. Thou art now come to man's 
 estate ; thou art married and hast a house ; but never 
 do thou forget the painful labour which thy mother 
 endured, nor all the salutary care which she has taken 
 of thee. Take heed lest she have cause to complain of 
 thee, for fear that she should raise her hands to God 
 and He should listen to her prayer." 
 
 " Give thyself to God, keep thyself continually for 
 
THE GODS OF EGYPT. 103 
 
 God, and let to-morrow be like to-day. Let thine 
 eyes consider the acts of God ; it is He who smiteth 
 him that is smitten." 
 
 5. The author of the Maxims contained in the 
 demotic papyrus of the Louvre. 
 
 '' Curse not thy master before God." 
 
 It was in this style that in all periods of their his- 
 tory, in the earliest not less confidently than in the 
 latest, the Egyptians spoke of the Nutar in the sin- 
 gular number. There can, I trust, be no doubt who 
 that Power is which, in our translations, we do not 
 hesitate to call God. It is unquestionably the true 
 and only God, who ^' is not far from any one of us, for 
 in Him we live and move and have our being," whose 
 ^' eternal power and Godhead" and government of the 
 world were made known through "that Light which 
 enlighteneth every man that cometli into the world." 
 In the extracts which I have quoted, and in many 
 similar passages, we recognize the elements of true 
 religion, free from all admixture of mythology. But 
 if such be the Power, what are the " powers" [mitrm\ 
 and what are their relations to it ? 
 
 The Powers. 
 
 In the formation of a theory of the universe, the 
 notion of Power productive of results may, according 
 as it is defined, lead to very different consequences. 
 It may be conceived very much in the same sense as a 
 
104 LECTURE III. 
 
 Cause, and lead, as the notion of Cause will always 
 lead reflecting men, in spite of the protests of critical 
 philosophers, to the admission of One First Cause or 
 Power from w^hicli all others are derived. But, as we 
 know equally well from the history of speculation, the 
 notions of Power and Substance may be identified, and 
 it is easy to imagine one universal Force in nature, 
 in itself eternal and unchangeable, but manifesting 
 itself in the most different forms. In both cases the 
 result is Unity ; Theistic in the first case. Pantheistic 
 in the second. I shall have occasion to speak of the 
 complete and final triumph of the latter of these con- 
 ceptions. But the triumph did not take place till a 
 comparatively late period, and till then the Egyptian 
 religion may be considered as susceptible of either a 
 Theistic or a Pantheistic interpretation. In either case 
 the gods of the mythology represent the real or imagi- 
 nary powers of the universe ; and what these powers 
 w^ere in the most primitive conception entertained of 
 them by the Egyptians, can only be discovered by the 
 same scientific process wdiich has been applied with 
 such success to the mythology of the Indo-European 
 
 races. 
 
 Myth and Legend. 
 
 The most common opinion held by the best scholars 
 only a few years ago was, that however many gods the 
 Egyptians might have, they had no mythology properly 
 speaking. The only myth they were supposed to 
 
THE GODS OF EGYPT. 105 
 
 possess was that about Osiris, anci even this was 
 imagined to have been brought into shape through 
 Hellenic influences. This opinion is altogether an 
 erroneous one : it confuses the notion of myth with 
 that of mythological tale or legend ; and whilst the 
 Egyptians really had an abundance of legendary tales, 
 their myths are simply innumerable. The tale of 
 Osiris is as old as Egyptian civilization itself; that 
 is, very much more than two thousand years before 
 Hellenic influences came into operation. 
 
 Several mythological tales of considerable extent 
 are now well known to us. The legend of the revolt 
 of the first men against the god Ea and his destruction 
 of them was discovered by M, Naville in one of the 
 tombs at Biban-el-moluk. A long narrative of the 
 victories of Horns was copied by the same accomplished 
 scholar from the walls of the temple at Edfu. It is 
 TSTitten in the style of the heroic annals of the kings 
 of Egypt, and accounts for the names of geographical 
 localities by the exploits of the divine wanior. The 
 tale of Osiris, as told in the Greek work attributed 
 to Plutarch, is made up out of several genuine Egyptian 
 legends, and the wanderings of the -v^ddowed Isis formed 
 the subject of many legendary narratives. But the 
 religious texts are literally crowded with allusions to 
 mythological legends, and these allusions, though they 
 are necessarily obscure to us, must have been familiar 
 to the Egyptians. 
 
106 LECTURE III. 
 
 The mythological legend grew out of the myth, but 
 must not be confounded with it. The myth was in 
 Egypt, what it was everywhere else, a mere phrase, 
 often consisting of not more than a single word, descrip- 
 tive of some natural phenomenon, such as the rising 
 or setting of the sun, the struggle between light and 
 darkness, and the alternate victory of the one or the 
 other. The science of Language has established the 
 fact that all names were general terms ; and one of the 
 most eminent masters of the science^ begins a work on 
 '^ Proper Names" by laying it down as a first principle 
 that for the etymologist there are no such things as 
 ^' proper names," but only '' appellatives." These 
 appellatives, when applied to natural phenomena, are 
 either such predicates as the most prosaic observer 
 might use at the present day, or they are metaphorical. 
 An early stage of language is always highly meta- 
 phorical, its terms being derived from sensuous percep- 
 tion, and being ill adapted to express abstract ideas. 
 Many roots were required to express the different 
 stages or determinations of a single notion. Even in 
 reference to so simple a notion as that expressed by 
 the verb to see, the Greeks had recourse to no less than 
 three roots (in opaw, oxpofxat, eT8ov^^ according as the action 
 was considered as continued, completed or momentary. 
 We ourselves saj I ^o, but I tvent; je vais, nous aliens, 
 
 ^ Pott, "Die Personennamen." 
 
THE GODS OF EGYPT. 107 
 
 j'irai. As the motives for applying an appellative to 
 a phenomenon are many, it is evident that many 
 myths may refer to the same phenomenon under 
 different names. And every myth which involves a 
 metaphor naturally suggests a legend, which in its 
 turn is susceptible of an indefinite amount of develop- 
 ment in the hands of poets or other mythographers, 
 long after the primitive meaning of the myth has been 
 forgotten. 
 
 It is therefore only through a radical misconception 
 of the nature of a myth that attempts can be made to 
 discover a consistent system in the mythology of any 
 country. One myth was originally quite independent 
 of every other. 
 
 Another serious mistake is to suppose that all the 
 details of a mythological legend are of equal importance. 
 The Psalmist speaks of a tabernacle in the heavens set 
 for the sun, whom he compares to '^ a bridegroom com- 
 ing out of his chamber, and rejoicing as a strong man 
 to run a race." Call the sun the Bridegroom or the 
 Eacer (and he is so named in several mythologies), 
 and a series of images will at once be suggested cor' 
 relative to each of these names, and adventures will be 
 invented to suit them. But these details are no real 
 part of the myth, and frequently conceal its true mean- 
 ing. One of the chief difficulties in dealing with a 
 myth lies in distinguishing the essential from the non- 
 essential portions of the legend to which it has given 
 rise. 
 
108 LECTURE III. 
 
 On the other hand, the moment we understand the 
 nature of a myth, all impossibilities, contradictions and 
 immoralities disappear. If a mythical personage really 
 be nothing more than a name of the sun, his birth may 
 be derived from ever so many different mothers. He 
 may be the son of the Sky or of the Dawn or of the 
 Sea or of Night. He may be identical with other 
 mythical personages which are also names of the sun^ 
 and yet be absolutely different from them, as the mid- 
 day sun differs from the rising and from the setting 
 sun, or the sun of to-day from that of yesterday. He 
 may be the husband of his own mother without the 
 guilt or stain of incest. All myths are strictly true, 
 but they can only be harmonized when translated into 
 the language of physical reality. 
 
 All phenomena which attracted sufficient attention 
 furnished matter for myths. It had been remarked, 
 for instance, that certain stars never set, whereas all 
 others, after performing their course, sink below the 
 horizon. The Egyptians expressed this by the myth 
 of the Crocodile of the West which fed upon the 
 Achmu Uretu (the setting stars).^ Thunder and light- 
 ning, storm and wind and cloud and rain, were no 
 doubt duly personified, but they occupy a very small 
 part of the mythology, which is almost exclusively 
 
 ^ Todt, 32, 2. The translation oi a-^^iyiu uretu by "restless" is 
 ■inadmissible. See M. Chabas, " Papyrus Magique," p. 84. "VVe 
 have nothing here to do with planets and fixed stars. 
 
THE GODS OF EGYrx. 109 
 
 concerned with the regularly and perpetually recurring 
 phenomena. Whatever may be the case in other 
 mythologies, '^ I look upon the sunrise and sunset, on 
 the daily return of day and night, on the battle between 
 light and darkness, on the whole solar drama in all its 
 details, that is acted every day, every month, every 
 year, in heaven and in earth, as the principal subject"^ 
 of Egyptian mythology. 
 
 Ra and his Family. 
 There can be no controversy about the meaning of 
 Ea. Ea is not only the name of the sun-god, it is the 
 usual word for sun. In other mythologies the sun-god 
 is borne on a chariot or on horseback ; in Egypt, his 
 course across the sky is made in a boat. The sky (Nu) 
 is accordingly conceived as an expanse of water, of 
 which the Nile is the earthly representative. Ea is 
 said to proceed from ^^Nu, the father of the gods.""^ 
 His adversary is Apepi, who is represented as a serpent 
 pierced with the weapons of the god. The conflict is 
 not between good and evil, but the purely physical one 
 between light and darkness. Shu and Tefnut are the 
 children of Ea ; Shu is Air, and Tefnut is some form of 
 moisture, probably Dew.'^ 
 
 1 Max Miiller, "Science of Language," Second Series, p. 565. 
 
 2 In the legend of the Destruction of Mankind, Ra calls beforo 
 him Shu, Tefnut, Seb, Xut, and the fathers and mothers who were 
 with him when he was still in Xu. 
 
 ^ See Preface. 
 
110 LECTURE III. 
 
 Osiris and his Family. 
 
 The myth of Osiris, though much more elaborate, 
 has the same meaning. Osiris is the eldest of the five 
 children of Seb and Nut. ^^He is greater than his 
 father, and more powerful than his mother." He 
 wedded his sister Isis whilst they were yet in their 
 mother's womb, and their ofi'spring was the elder 
 Horus. Set and Nephthys, another wedded pair, are 
 their brother and sister. . In this myth the antagonist 
 of Osiris is Set, by whom he is slain, but he is avenged 
 by his son Horus, and he reigns in the nether world, 
 like the Indian Yama, and judges the dead from his 
 throne in the hall of the Two-fold Eight. And this 
 he does daily. 
 
 The explanation of this myth exercised the imagi- 
 nations of the ancients. The priests and poets of the 
 eighteenth and nineteenth dynasties already identified 
 Osiris with the highest of all Powers. In later times, 
 as we see from the treatise ascribed to Plutarch, he 
 was identified with various abstract ^'principles." By 
 the help of the light which comparative mythology 
 supplies, we are enabled to arrive at a truer sense of 
 the myth. 
 
 The parents of Osiris are Seb and Nut, and about 
 these there can be no mistake. Seb is the Earth, and 
 Nut is Heaven. Seb is identified with the Earth in 
 the older texts, and in the later ones 'Hhe back of 
 
THE GODS OF EGYPT. Ill 
 
 Seb" is a familiar term for the earth. Seb is also the 
 Egyptian name for a certain species of goose, and in 
 accordance with the homonymous tendency of the myth- 
 ological period of all nations, the god and the bird 
 were identified; Seb was called ^Hhe great cackler," 
 and there are traces of the myth of a '' mundane ^^^^'^ 
 which he "divided" or hatched. Nut is the name of 
 a female goddess/ frequently used synonymously with 
 the other names of the sky, and she is as frequently 
 pictured with her arms and legs extended over the 
 earth, with the stars spread over her body. The mar- 
 riage of Heaven and Earth is extremely common in 
 mythologies; what is peculiar to the Egyptian myth 
 is that Earth is not represented as the Mother of all 
 things, Oecov iJ^T^T-qp, aXox Ovpavov d(TT€p6evTo<s, but the Eathcr,'' 
 and Heaven is here the Mother ; though, as we have 
 seen in speaking of Ea, Heaven was also conceived as 
 a male power, like the Indian Yaruna and the Greek 
 Uranos. From the union of Seb and Nut sprung the 
 mild Osiris, the Sun, and Isis, the Dawn, wedded 
 before they were born, and the fruit of their marriage 
 
 ^ In the legend of the Destruction of Mankind, Nu and Nut 
 address each other as father and daughter. But in the Book of the 
 Dead, 42, 20, Unbu (one of the names of Osiris) issues from Nu, 
 his mother being Nut. 
 
 2 There is indeed a passage (Dueraichen, Hist. Inschr. 11. 44 e) 
 in which Seb seems to be called the motlier of Osiris. But as the 
 words are immediately followed by " whom Nut brought forth,"' 1 
 suspect an error in the text. 
 
112 LECTURE Iir. 
 
 was Horus, the Sun in his full strength. Set the 
 destroyer is also the son of Seb and Nut, but his 
 triumph is in the west ; he is Darkness, and his spouse 
 ]N"ephthys, a deity of mixed character, is the Sunset. 
 There are the traces of a legend according to which 
 Osiius mistook Nephthys for his wife Isis. Nephthys, 
 who loved him, encouraged the illusion, and from their 
 embraces Anpu (Anubis) was born. Anubis, like his 
 mother, is a deity of a mixed character, partly belong- 
 ing to the diurnal, partly to the nocturnal powers. It 
 is said of him that ^'he swallowed his father Osiris." 
 I believe that he represents the Twilight or Dusk 
 immediately following the disappearance of the sun. 
 
 I am quite aware that texts may be quoted to prove 
 that Osiris is the Moon, but these texts belong to a 
 pantheistic period in which the god was recognized 
 under all forms. ^ It might rather be doubted whether 
 the story of Osiris had not reference to the annual 
 rather than to the daily sun. His death might be 
 supposed to represent the reign of winter. Some of 
 the Egyptian usages in commemoration of his death 
 and resurrection, such as the sowing of plants and 
 watching their growth, might be cited in support of 
 this view. But the closer we look at these matters of 
 
 ^ A hymn at Dendera says : " Hail to thee, Osiris, lord of eter- 
 nity ! When thou art in heaven thou appeaiest as the sun, and 
 thou renewest thy form as the moon." Mariette, Dendera, Vol. lY. 
 44 a. 
 
THE GODS OF EGYPT. 113 
 
 detail, the less will they disturb our conviction that 
 the victory of Set over Osiris is that of ]N'ight over Day, 
 and the resurrection of Osiris is the rising of the Sun. 
 And I do not think Osiris will be spoken of as dead 
 throughout an Egy2:>tian winter by any one who has 
 had any experience of that delightful season. 
 
 There is a passage in the Book of the Dead^ which 
 says that '' Osiris came to Tattu (Mendes) and found 
 the soul of Ea there; each embraced the other, and 
 became as one soul in two souls." This may be a 
 mythological way of saying that two legends which 
 had previously been independent of each other were 
 henceforth inextricably mixed up. This, at all events, 
 is the historical fact. In the words of a sacred text, 
 ^^Ea is the soul of Osiris, and Osiris the soul of Ea." 
 
 Horus.' 
 
 But Horus also is one of the names of the Sun, and 
 had his myths quite independently of Ea or Osiris. 
 The most prominent ones in comparatively later times 
 
 1 Ch. xvii. 1. 42, 43. 
 
 2 M. Lofebure has published several important essays illustrative 
 of the myths of Osiris and Ilorus. I should be glad to find real 
 evidence of allusions to lunar eclipses, but it is impossible to recon- 
 cile'the lunar hypothesis about these myths with the most elementary 
 astronomy. How can a lunar eclipse, for instance, regularly coincide 
 M'ith a fixed day in a month of thirty days? The syni)dical month 
 is nearly of this length, but the eclipses depend upon the nodes. 
 
114 LECTURE III. 
 
 described his victories over Set or the monster Tebha 
 (the Typhon of the Greeks). But the victory of Dark- 
 ness over Light was appropriately represented by the 
 myth of the Blind Horus. An ancient text speaks of 
 him as '' sitting solitary in the darkness and blindness." 
 He is introduced in the royal Eitual at Abydos, saying, 
 *^ I am Horus, and I come to search for mine eyes." 
 According to the 64th chapter of the Book of the Dead, 
 '' his eye is restored to him at the dawn of day." A 
 legend contained in the 112th chapter of the same 
 Book describes Horus as wounded in the eye by Set in 
 the form of a black boar. Anubis fomented the wound, 
 of which Horus appears at first to have thought him 
 the author,^ and according to another legend, Isis 
 stanched the blood which flowed from the wound. 
 But according to another account, Set swallowed the 
 eye, and was compelled to vomit it from the prison in 
 which he was confined, with a chain of steel fastened 
 about his neck. The Eye of Horus is constantly spoken 
 of as a distinct deity, terrible to the enemies of light. 
 The conflict of Light and Darkness is represented in 
 many other mythical forms. The great Cat in the 
 alley of Persea trees at Heliopolis, which is Ea, crushes 
 the serpent. In most parts of Egypt the sun sets 
 behind a mountain-range ; it is only in the north that 
 
 ^ And he said, "Behold, my eye is as though Anubis had made 
 an incision in my eye." — Todt. 112. Although Anubis in the sequel 
 restores the eye, the allusion is clearly to his nocturnal power. 
 
THE GODS OF EGYPT. 115 
 
 the body of Osiris is said to have been plunged into 
 the waters. According to another legend, the crocodile 
 Maka, the son of Set, devoured the arm of Osiris. 
 Other disastrous mutilations are described as befalling 
 Osiris, Ea, Horus and Set, in their turn. Set and the 
 other powers of darkness assumed the forms of fishes. 
 Horus pursued them, and Set was caught in a net.^ 
 Horus, on the other hand, was changed into a fish, and 
 was saved by his mother Isis. 
 
 Set. 
 
 Set, though the antagonist of Light in the myths of 
 Ea, Osiris and Horus, is not a god of evil. He repre- 
 sents a physical reality, a constant and everlasting law 
 of nature, and is as true a god as his opponents. His 
 worship is as ancient as any. The kings of Egypt 
 were devoted to Set as to Horus, and derived from 
 them the sovereignty over north and south. On some 
 monuments, one god is represented with two heads, 
 one being that of Horus, the other that of Set. The 
 name of the great conqueror Seti signifies, ^'he that is 
 devoted to Set." It was not till the decline of the 
 empire that this deity came to be regarded as an evil 
 demon, that his name was effaced from monuments, and 
 other names substituted for his in the Eitual. 
 
 1 Indra used a net as well as other weapons against his foes. 
 
 i2 
 
116 LECTURE III. 
 
 Thoth. 
 
 The Egyptian god Tehuti is known to the readers of 
 Plato under the name of Thoyth. He is the Egyptian 
 Hermes, and the name of Hermes Trismegistos is 
 translated from the corresponding Egyptian epithet 
 which is often added to the name of Tehuti. He 
 represents the Moon, which he wears upon his head, 
 either as crescent or as full disk ; and as our word moon 
 is derived from the root md^ to measure, and ^' was 
 originally called by the farmer the measurer, the ruler 
 of days and weeks and seasons, the regulator of the 
 tides, the lord of their festivals, and the herald of their 
 public assemblies. "1 we shall not be surprised if we 
 find a very similar account of the etymology and 
 attributes of Tehuti. There is no such known Egyptian 
 word as tehu^ but there is texu^ which is a dialectic 
 variety, and is actually used as a name of the god. 
 This form supplies us with the reason why the god is 
 represented as an ibis. As Seb is the name both of a 
 goose and of the Earth-god, so is Techu the name of 
 an ibis and of the Moon-god. Tehuti probably signifies, 
 as M. Naville has suggested, the '4bis-headed." But 
 it means something besides. Techu is the name of the 
 instrument^ which corresponds to the needle of the 
 
 ^ Max Miiller, " Science of Language," I. p. 7. 
 2 The instrument itself is a vase, and the primitive meaning of 
 the word tex^f' is to be "full;" hence the sense of drunkenness 
 
THE GODS OF EGYPT. 117 
 
 balance for measuring weights. The ancient Egyptian 
 cubit is called the cubit of Techu. He is called 'Hhe 
 measurer of this earth.'' He is said to have '' calcu- 
 lated the heaven and counted the stars," to have " cal- 
 culated the earth and counted the things which are in 
 it."^ He is ^^the distributor of time," the inventor of 
 letters and learning (particularly of geometry), and of 
 the fine arts. Whatever is without him is as though it 
 were not. All this is because the Moon is the measurer. 
 It is impossible, after this rapid, but, I trust, not 
 deceptive glance at the myths of some of the chief 
 Egyptian gods, to withstand the conviction that this 
 mythology is very similar indeed to that of the Indo- 
 European races. It is the very same drama which is 
 being acted under different names and disguises. The 
 god slays the dragon, or a monster blinds, maims or 
 devours the god. What bright god is born from the 
 embrace of Heaven and Earth, and who is his twin 
 sister and spouse ? Who are his two wives ? Who is 
 the '^husband of his own mother"? Who is the 
 divine youth who emerges from the lotus - flower ? 
 And what is the lotus ? Which is the god who, having 
 performed his course from east to west, is worshipped 
 as the king and judge of the departed? Sanskrit 
 
 Avhich it sometimes has. Dr. Duemichen has thoroughly illustrate<i 
 the use of the word in his " Bauurkunde v. Dendera,'' and in tho 
 Zeitschrift, 1872, p. 39. 
 
 1 See Brugsch, Zeitschrift^ 1872, p. 9. 
 
118 LECTURE III. 
 
 scholars who do not know a word of Egyptian, and 
 Egyptologists who do not know a word of Sanskrit, 
 will give di:fferent names to these personages. But 
 the comparative mythologist will hardly hesitate about 
 assigning his real name to each of them, whether Aryan 
 or Egyptian. One of the most curious instances of 
 the identification of myths is to be seen in a bas-relief 
 at the Louvre, wherein the legend of our own St. George 
 and the Dragon, which is at bottom the same as that 
 of Indra and Yritra, is represented by Horus spearing 
 a crocodile.^ 
 
 The Lectures on the Science of Language delivered 
 nearly twenty years ago by Professor Max Mliller, 
 have, I trust, made us fully understand how, among 
 the Indo-European races, the names of the sun, of sun- 
 rise and sunset, and of other such phenomena, came to 
 be talked of and considered as personages of whom 
 wondrous legends are told. Egyptian mythology not 
 merely admits, but imperatively demands, the same 
 explanation. And this becomes the more evident when 
 we consider the question how these mythical person- 
 ages came to be invested with the attributes of divinity 
 by men who, like the Egyptians, as we have seen, had 
 so lively a sense of the divine. Here we are at once 
 brought into contact with the notion of the reign of Law. 
 
 ^ " Horus et St. George d'apres un bas-relief inedit du Louvre," 
 "by M. Clermont Ganneau, in the Rev. Arch. 1876, September and 
 December. 
 
THE GODS OF EGYPT. 119 
 
 The Reign of Law. 
 
 M. de Eoug^, in the extract which I have read frcmi 
 his Lecture, quotes the Egyptian expression, "the 
 Only Being, living in truth," "le seul Etre, vivant en 
 V(^rit(^." But the original words, mix em madt^ mean 
 very much more than *' living in truth." A more 
 grammatically exact translation would be, " who lives 
 by truth," or " whose existence depends upon truth ;" 
 but " truth" is not the exact meaning of 7nadt. When 
 speaking of the moral code recognized b}^ the Egyp- 
 tians, I used the word "Eight" as including both 
 Truth and Justice. But it now becomes necessary to 
 define the term more precisely. 
 
 MaCit as a noun signifies a perfectly straight and 
 inflexible rw/e. It is evidently, I believe, derived from 
 the root md^ "to stretch out," or "hold out straight 
 before one," "protendere," as in the act of presenting 
 an offering, md hotep} "I have stretched out (md-na) 
 my hand, as the master of the crown," says the Osiris 
 in the Book of the Dead.^ " Tehuti has extended to 
 her (md-nes) his hand," is said in one of the texts at 
 Dendera.^ With this notion of stretching out are con- 
 
 ^ Sharpe and Bonomi, " Sarcophagus," pi. 8, lines 5 and 8. 
 
 2 Todt. 40, 2, comp. with 12, 2. 
 
 ^ Other words connected with the same root are ?naaf, an offering, 
 TTpodiaig, md signifying that part of the forehead from which the 
 horns project in cattle, md a fair wind, and md an extent of water. 
 
120 LECTURE III. 
 
 nected, in the Egy23tian as well as in the Indo- 
 European and the Semitic languages, the notions of 
 ^'straight, right, righteous, true, rule, row, order.'' 
 Our own word rule^ like the Latin regula and rectus, 
 is derived from the Aryan root ary, from which we 
 have in Sanskrit ringe, I stretch myself (like the 
 Greek o/jeyo/xai)^ rigus, straight, right, righteous ; ra^is, 
 a line, a row ; in Zend, erezu, straight, right, true, and 
 as a substantive, finger.^ In Gothic we have rak-ja 
 (uf-rak-ja, stretch out), rach-ts, right, straight.^ The 
 Egyptian madt is not only Truth and Justice, but 
 Order and Law, in the physical as well as in the 
 moral world. It is in allusion to the fixed and un- 
 alterable laws of nature (which of course were very 
 imperfectly known to them) that the Egyptians used 
 the expression dnx em macit^ ^' living or existing by or 
 upon rule," which, if not actually a term equivalent 
 to divinity, is at least with them the attribute most 
 constantly connected with it. It was in consequence 
 of the persistent recurrence of the same physical phe- 
 nomena in an order which never varied and was never 
 violated, that the Sun and Moon and other powers, 
 
 ^ A finger is sometimes in Egyptian found as a "determinative" 
 of ma. 
 
 2 Curtius, "Gr. Et." p. 184. Compare Gesenius on the Hebrew 
 "n*^? — ''ordines. ad lineam disposuit, struxii, nostr. reUien, richten, 
 gr. raaaut, thttu) (vie. '^1^ recta protendit, extendit, et in lingiiis 
 indo-germ. Reihe [Reige, Riege] reihen intens. reclien; rego [non pro 
 reago ut nonnulli volunt] re^/iila, rectus. '' " ^^:V, . . . ordo, strues:' 
 
THE GODS OF EGYPT. 121 
 
 even the days of the month and the twenty-four hours 
 of day and night, became the great and everlasting 
 gods. 
 
 There is another Egyptian expression extremely 
 frequent in the religious texts, the accurate meaning 
 of which has never been recognized. Em shes en madt 
 is now generally allowed to mean ^ lightly," ^^per- 
 fectly." But shes is the measuring line used by 
 builders, and em shes signifies ^^ad amussim," ^^nach 
 der Schnur," ^^au cordeau," '' according to the line;" 
 hence, ^'with the strictest accuracy." The whole 
 expression therefore means, ^^ according to the strict 
 accuracy of Law," to which is constantly added, hehu 
 en sep^ '' millions of times." Madt is Law,^ not in the 
 forensic sense of a command issued either by a human 
 sovereign authority or by a divine legislator, like the 
 Law of the Hebrews, but in the sense of that unerring 
 order which governs the universe, whether in its phy- 
 sical or in its moral aspect. This is surely a great and 
 noble conception. 
 
 You will not be surprised to learn that Maat is 
 spoken of as a mythical personage. She is called mis- 
 tress of heaven, ruler of earth and president of the 
 nether world, which indeed is recognized as her special 
 domain. She is called the daughter of Ea, but she 
 
 ^ The opposite notion to Madt, considered as Law, is asfet, law- 
 lessness, disorder, iniquity. 
 
122 LECTURE III. 
 
 might as truly have been called his mother."^ Each of 
 the great gods is said to be neh maat^ literally, ^4ord 
 or master of Maat;" but it is equally said that ''she 
 knows no lord or master." If she is brought into 
 closer connection with Thoth than with other gods, this 
 is because Thoth is essentially the '' Measurer ;" and 
 if certain texts speak of the winds as proceeding from 
 either Thoth or Maat, it is not because these personages 
 are wind-gods, but because the cardinal points from 
 which the winds come are naturally the domain of the 
 god who has measured and mapped out the universe, 
 and because the winds themselves are obedient to Law. 
 Such were the gods of Egypt. They were not the 
 ghosts of ancestors or other dead men, or represen- 
 tatives of abstract principles, as ancient and modern 
 philosophers have supposed, nor were they impure 
 spirits or foul demons, as an uncritical though not un- 
 natural interpretation of their Scriptures led the early 
 Christian missionaries to imagine. '' All the gods of the 
 nations are nought," says the Psalmist ; but the Greek 
 and Latin translators used the word '' daemonia," which 
 in Christian times never meant anything but '' devils." 
 The gods of the Egyptian, as well as those of the Indian, 
 Greek or Teutonic mythologies, were the ''powers" of 
 nature, the "strong ones," whose might was seen and 
 felt to be irresistible, yet so constant, unchanging and 
 
 ^ She is so called in the inscriptions of Chut-en-Aten. 
 
THE GODS OF EGYPT. 123 
 
 orderly in its operations, as to leave no doubt as to the 
 presence of an ever living and active Intelligence.^ 
 
 1 Much in this Lecture will be new, and perhaps appear doubtful, 
 to ray learned colleagues in Egyptology, especially to those whose 
 studies have not led them into the field of Indo-European philology. 
 From the time of Champollion, the Egyptian language and literature 
 have been almost exclusively illustrated from Semitic, not to say 
 purely Hebrew, sources. This is a fatal mistake, though perhaps 
 inevitable at first. I have for years been humbly endeavouring to 
 bring the Science of Language to bear upon Egyptian philology, 
 and I trust this Lecture will at least induce some eminent scholars 
 to study the Egyptian by the light of other mythologies* M. 
 Lefebure has already done most valuable work in this direction. 
 M. Grebaut, though confining himself entirely to Egyptian mytho- 
 logy, has, in his " Hymne a Ammon-Ea," published in the Bihlio- 
 theque de Vecole des hautes etudes^ and in an article of the Melanges 
 d'ArcheoIogie, tome IL p. 247, demonstrated several important 
 truths, and he has very nearly approached the true conception 
 of Maat. As regards the identification of certain deities, I have- 
 very nearly been anticipated by M. Naville, who in his admi- 
 rable work on the "Litany of the Sun," p. 38, is inclined to 
 consider Isis and Nephthys "comme personnifiant des etres dont 
 chacun caracterisait plus particulierement I'un des horizons ; peut 
 etre I'etoile du matin et celle du soir, ou encore le crepuscide du 
 matin et celui du soir ; les deux formides de la litanie se compren- 
 draient alors facilement." But he puts Isis at the west, and 
 Nephthys at the east. [See Preface.] 
 
COMMUNION WITH THE UNSEEN 
 WORLD. 
 
 Sepiilchral Rites. 
 
 A BELIEF in the persistence of life after death, and 
 the observation of religious practices founded upon this 
 belief, may be discovered in every part of the world, 
 in every age, and among men representing every 
 degree and variety of culture. Classical scholars are 
 familiar with the terms of Inferiae and Parentalia, 
 names given by the Eomans to the propitiatory offer- 
 ings which they presented to the manes of their de- 
 parted ancestors. The Greeks had their ivayto-fxara. The 
 worship of the Fravashis by the Iranians, and that of 
 the Pitris by the Hindu, are evidences of the antiquity 
 in the Indo-European family of this form of religion, 
 many traces of which remain to this day in the practices 
 of European nations. And the celebration of rites in 
 honour of their ancestors is perhaps the most ancient 
 institution of the oldest civilization now in existence, 
 that of China. 
 
COMMUNION WITH THE UNSEEN WORLD. 125 
 
 The habits of savages without a history are not 
 in themselves evidence which can in any way be 
 depended upon. To take for granted that what the 
 savages now are, perhaps after millenniums of degrada- 
 tion, all other people must have been, and that modes 
 of thought through which they are now passing have 
 been passed through by others, is a most unscientific 
 assumption, and you will seldom meet with it in any 
 essay or book without also finding proof that the writer 
 did not know how to deal with historical evidence. 
 Authorities are sure to be quoted which the historian 
 knows to be worthless, and evidence in itself irreproach- 
 able will be completely misunderstood. The universality 
 of a belief or practice, even among savages, would of 
 course, if proved, be a very weighty fact, tending to 
 prove that the belief or practice in question had its 
 origin either in reason or in tradition. It is, how- 
 ever, impossible to exaggerate the value of Sir Henry 
 Maine's protest against " the very slippery testimony 
 concerning savages which is gathered from travellers' 
 tales." '^Much," he says, ''which I have personally 
 heard in India bears out the caution which I gave as 
 to the reserve with which all speculations on the anti- 
 quity of human usage should be received. Practices 
 represented as of immemorial antiquity and universally 
 characteristic of the infancy of mankind, have been 
 described to me as having been for the first time 
 
126 LECTURE IV. 
 
 resorted to in our days through the mere pressure of 
 external circumstances or novel temptations." ^ 
 
 Far more important than any single instance from 
 the descriptions of modern savages is the ancient tomb 
 of Aurignac. " If the fossil memorials," says Sir 
 Charles Lyell, ^'have been correctly interpreted — if 
 we have before us at the northern base of the Pyrenees 
 a sepulchral vault, with skeletons of human beings 
 consigned by friends and relatives to their last resting- 
 place — if we have also at the portal of the tomb the 
 relics of funeral feasts, and within it indications of 
 viands destined for the use of the departed on their 
 way to a land of spirits, while among the funeral gifts 
 are weapons wherewith in other fields to chase the 
 gigantic deer, the cave lion, the cave bear and woolly 
 rhinoceros — we have at last succeeded in tracing back 
 the sacred rites of burial, and, more interesting still, a 
 belief in a future state, to times long anterior to those 
 of history or tradition." ^ 
 
 But if from pre-historic we pass to historic times, we 
 at once meet on Egyptian ground with an entire system 
 
 1 "Village Communities," p. 17. 
 
 2 "Antiquity of Man," p. 193, 1863. I leave the words of the 
 above passage as they were delivered. I was not aware at the time 
 that the evidence of M. Lartet had been contested, and that Sir 
 Charles Lyell had in his last edition admitted this evidence to be 
 doubtful. See the article of Mr. W. B. Dawkins, on " The Date 
 of the Interment in the Aurignac Cave," in Nature, Vol. IV. p. 208. 
 
COMMUNION WITH THE UNSEEN WORLD. 127 
 
 of notions wonderfully (indeed, almost incredibly) simi- 
 lar to those entertained by our Indo-European ancestors. 
 There is, however, no confirmation of Mr. Herbert 
 Spencer's hypothesis, that the rudimentary form of all 
 religion is the propitiation of dead ancestors. If the 
 Egyptians passed through such a rudimentary form of 
 religion, they had already got beyond it in the age 
 of the Pyramids, for their most ancient propitiation of 
 ancestors is made through prayer to Anubis, Osiiis, or 
 some other gods. The deceased is already described 
 in the funereal inscription as "faithful to the great 
 God." And in no case can it be proved that the pro- 
 pitiation of departed ancestors preceded a belief in 
 divinity of some other kind. 
 
 The Tombs and their Inscriptions. 
 ^^The Egyptians," we are told by Diodoros, "call 
 their houses hostelries, on account of the short time 
 during which they inhabit them, but the tombs they 
 call eternal dwelling-places." The latter part of this 
 is strictly and literally true; ])a Veta^ "eternal dwell- 
 ing-place," is an expression which is met with at every 
 instant in the inscriptions of the earliest period, de- 
 scriptive of the tomb. The word dnchiu^ which lite- 
 rally signifies the "living," is in innumerable places 
 used emphatically for the " departed," who are enjoy- 
 ing everlasting life. The notion of everlasting life, 
 anch Veta^ is among the few words written upon the 
 
128 LECTURE IV. 
 
 wooden coffin, now in the British Musenm, of king 
 Mykerinos, of the third pyramid. Neh dnch^ " Lord of 
 life," is one of the names given to the sarcophagus. 
 In the very ancient inscription of Una, the coffin is 
 called hen en anchiu^ ^Hhe chest of the living." It is 
 only evil spirits who are spoken of in the sacred writ- 
 ings of the Egyptians as ''the dead." 
 
 The ancient Egyptian tomb^ consisted of three essen- 
 tial parts : (1) a chamber above ground, entered by a 
 door, which appears to have always remained open ; 
 (2) a corridor, now commonly known as the serdah^ in 
 the interior of the masonry, containing statues of the 
 deceased ; and (3) a pit, sunk to a considerable depth 
 through the rock, and communicating with the sepul- 
 chral vault hollowed in the rock, and containing the 
 sarcophagus of the dead. The chamber (which some- 
 times consisted of several rooms) was the only part 
 accessible to human foot. Its walls were often covered 
 with pictures, but the most essential portion of it was 
 a tablet invariably facing the east. At the foot of this, 
 
 1 The most complete account of early Egyptian tombs is found 
 in M. Mariette's article, " Sur les tombes de I'ancien empire qu'on 
 trouve a Saqqarah," in the Revue Archeologique, 1869, Vol. I. 
 pp. 7 — 22, 81 — 89, much of which is repeated in his admirable 
 description of the Museum of Bulaq. iSee also Duemichen, "Ueber 
 die Tempel und Graber im alten Aegypten," the very interesting 
 text of his Pliotugrapkische ResuUate^ and Brugsch, " Die Aegyp- 
 tische Graberwelt." The Journal Asiatique of 1880 contains a very 
 important "Etude sur quelques peintures et sur quelques textes 
 r^latifs aux funerailles" by M. Maspero. 
 
COMMUNION AVITH THE UNSEEN WORLD. 129 
 
 lying on the ground and made of granite limestone or 
 alabaster, was a table for the offerings. The serdah^ 
 or corridor, was only accessible through a small aper- 
 ture, through which the smoke of incense might be 
 conveyed from the chamber to the statues which the 
 solid walls concealed from sight. The representations 
 upon the walls of the chamber reproduce the entire 
 domestic and social life of the period. It is from these 
 pictures that Sir Gardner Wilkinson has drawn up his 
 admirable work on the Manners and Customs of the 
 Ancient Egyptians, and described the Egyptian house, 
 with its furniture, its gardens, its farm-yards, its vine- 
 yards — the occupations of its owner and the amuse- 
 ments of his guests — the games Avithin and out of doors, 
 the hunting and fishing, the agricultural operations, 
 the numerous arts, manufactures and trades — all of 
 which are represented to the life. Short inscriptions 
 accompany the pictures; the names of men, animals 
 and other objects are written over them; descriptive 
 titles are constantly given, such as '^ploughing," 
 ** mowing,'' ^4he slaughter of a young bull;" some- 
 times scraps of dialogue occur, generally of a very 
 trivial character. "Hold hard," a master says to his 
 servant ; and the lad replies, Ari heset-ek^ " Thy will be 
 done." One man says, "This donkey is wild;" and 
 another replies, "I will tame him." A peasant is 
 engaged in combing flax, and he says to another who 
 brings him a fresh supply of stalks, " If you bring me 
 
 K 
 
130 LECTURE IV. 
 
 eleven tliousand and nine, I will comb them." The 
 other man rather rudely replies, '^ Make haste, and 
 none of 5^onr chatter, you prince of clodhoppers !" 
 The tomb in which this dialogue occurs is rich in texts 
 of the same kind. It was here that ChampoUion found 
 the " Song of the Oxen." But all these representations 
 are really subordinate to one end, and that is the wor- 
 ship of the departed. The slaughter of the ox or the 
 antelope is not introduced for its own sake, but really 
 as a sacrifice ; and the pictures of men bearing joints 
 are on the point, as they are sometimes actually repre- 
 sented, of ofiering them to the image of the deceased. 
 An endowment was always intended to provide for the 
 celebration of these propitiatory services, as well as for 
 keeping the tomb in perpetual repair. 
 
 The usual form of inscription over the lintel of the 
 tomb, and which is often repeated within the chamber, 
 is as follows : 
 
 ^'A royal table of propitiation grant Anubis, who 
 dwells within the divine house. May sepulture be 
 granted in the nether world, in the land of the divine 
 Menti,^ the ancient, the good, the great, to him [the 
 
 ^ In later times this name was written Amenti, and was supposed 
 to be derived from the word amen, "conceal." This meaning is 
 implied in the royal tombs at Biban-el-moluk. But in the oldest 
 tombs the name is distinctly written Menti, and the name of the 
 presiding divinity ^e??^ menti. See Denkmdler, ii. pi. 45, 48, 
 101. 
 
COMMUNION WITH THE UNSEEN WORLD. 131 
 
 departed] who is faithful to the great God. May he 
 advance upon the blissful paths upon which those 
 advance who are faithful to the great God. May the 
 funereal oblations be paid to him at the beginning of 
 the year, on the feast of Tehuti, on the first day of the 
 year, on the feast of Uaka, on the feasts of the Great 
 and of the Small Heat, on the apparition of Sechem, at 
 the feast of JJdh-deh^ at the feasts of each month and 
 the half -month and every day." 
 
 Such is the ordinary formula, which however admits 
 of variations and additions, especially in the later in- 
 scriptions. I will mention one or two not more recent 
 than the sixth dynasty. One of them consists in the 
 repetition of the words em hotep^ ^^in peace," like the 
 obirn of the Hebrew and the In pace of the Christian 
 funereal inscriptions. It is extremely frequent in 
 Egyptian texts, and may really be the origin of the 
 Jewish and Christian form of petition for the departed, 
 though the primitive signification has been altered. 
 
 There is also a petition that the departed may '^ tra- 
 verse the firmament," "in company with the perfect 
 spirits of the nether world." The word ha^ which I 
 translate firmament, properly signifies " steel." ^ The 
 notions of blue and of steel seem to have been associated 
 in the Egyptian mind, and the colour of the sky sug- 
 
 1 Cf. the Homeric aih'ipeov ovpavov, Od. xv. 329, xvii. 565. We 
 have already met with another conception of heaven, namely, as an 
 ocean upon which the sun travels in his hark. 
 
 k2 
 
132 LECTURE IV. 
 
 gested the notion of a metallic firmament. The word 
 spirit is given as the translation of the Egyptian chu^ 
 but this name for the dead signifies ^' glorified one.'' 
 
 A third petition is, that the deceased should be pro- 
 claimed glorified, or, as we should say, canonized 
 {sechut\ by the ministers of religion, the cher-heh or 
 the smer^ priestly officials who are frequently named 
 in the inscriptions, especially in connection with the 
 rites of the dead. A considerable number of priests 
 bearing these and other titles, representing various 
 functions, took part in these ceremonies, but the pre- 
 sence of a priest was not always indispensable. The 
 offerings might be made, or rather had to be made, by 
 the sons and daughters and other members of the 
 family of the deceased. The pictui^es in which no 
 minister of religion is SQcn (and they are perhaps the 
 most numerous), all either directly represent religious 
 rites or preparations for them. The very games and 
 dances are religious ceremonies. In the tomb of Te- 
 bahen, the statue of the deceased is represented as 
 standing within a slirine, before which a table of pro- 
 pitiatory off'erings is laid. Men are advancing up the 
 inclined plane which leads to it, bearing foAvls and legs 
 of oxen. On one side, other men are kneeling, with 
 sacrificial cakes or vases of water in their hands ; 
 whilst on the other side, women are performing a 
 solemn dance, also in presence of a table of offerings. 
 In the great tomb of JSTahre-se-Chnumhotep at Beni- 
 
COMMIJNIOX WITH THE UNSEEN WORLD. 133 
 
 hassan, women are tumbling in presence of a solemn 
 religious service, in which libations are being poured 
 by the " /r«-minister.'^ The words written over the 
 scene are part of a prayer which is supposed to be 
 recited, " Let the gates of heaven be opened that the 
 god may enter !" 
 
 The later form of the sepulchral inscriptions, as 
 found on the tablets of our museums, is, more or less 
 fully, as follows : 
 
 ''A royal table of propitiation grant Osiris, dwell- 
 ing in Amenti, Lord of Abydos [or of Tattu]:" other 
 divinities are often added. " May he [or they] grant 
 the funereal oblations, bread, beer, oxen, geese, wine, 
 milk, oil, incense, wrappings, all gifts of vegetation, 
 whatever heaven gives or earth produces, to enjoy the 
 !N'ile, to come forth as a living soul, to come in and go 
 out at the Eistat, that the soul may not be repulsed at 
 the gates of the nether world, to be glorified among 
 the favoured ones in presence of Un-nefer, to receive 
 the aliments on the altars of the great God, to breathe 
 the delicious breezes of the north wind, and to drink 
 from the depth of the river." Then follows the name 
 of the person, generally accompanied by that of his 
 mother; but on almost all tablets after the time of 
 Amenemhat L, these celestial gifts are said to be given 
 not to the person, but to the ka of the person, — an 
 important expression which has been misunderstood 
 till quite lately. 
 
134 LECTURE IV. 
 
 This prayer is called the Suten-hotep'td^ from its first 
 words ; and as we speak of saying an " Our Father," 
 the Egyptian texts speak of ^^a son making a Suten- 
 hotep'ta:'' The great tablet of Abydos has for title, 
 '' The making of a Suten-Jiotep-td^''^ &c., to the kings 
 of Egypt by king Seti. 
 
 The greatest importance was attached to the perma- 
 nence of the tomb, to the continuance of the religious 
 ceremonies, and to the prayers of passers-by. We 
 constantly find men praised for having made to live 
 again the names of their father and mother or of their 
 " fathers." There is a very common formula stating 
 that the person who raised the tablet ^^made it as a 
 memorial to his fathers who are in the nether world, 
 that he built up what he found imperfect, and renewed 
 what was found out of repair." In the great inscrip- 
 tion at Benihassan, Chnumhotep says, " I made to 
 flourish the name of my father, and I built the chapels 
 for his ka, I caused my statues to be conveyed to the 
 holy dwelling, and distributed to them their offerings 
 in pure gifts. I instituted the officiating priest, to 
 whom I gave donations in lands and peasants. I 
 ordered funeral offerings for all the feasts of the nether 
 world, at the feast of the ISTew Year, at the beginning 
 of the year, at the feast of the Little Year, at the feast 
 of the Great Year, at the feast of the great joyful feast, 
 at the feast of the Great Heat, at the feast of the Little 
 Heat, at the feast of the five supplementary days of the 
 
COMMUNION WITH THE UNSEEN WORLD. 135 
 
 year, at the feast of Shetat, at the feast of the Sand, at 
 the twelve monthly feasts, at the twelve half-monthly 
 feasts, at all the feasts of the plain and the mountain. 
 If it happens that the priest or any other cease to do 
 this, then may he not exist, and may his son not sit in 
 his seatP 
 
 The great inscription of Eameses II. at Abydos 
 minutely relates the provision made by that sovereign 
 for the worship of his father, Seti I. 
 
 ^' The most beautiful thing to behold," says Eameses, 
 '^the best thing to hear, is a child with a thankful 
 breast, whose heart beats for his father. Wherefore 
 my heart urges me to do what is good for Mineptah. 
 I will cause them to talk for ever and eternally of bis 
 son who has awakened his name to life. My father 
 Osiris will reward me for this with a long existence, 
 like his son Horus. Let me do what he did, let me 
 be excellent as he was excellent, for my parent, I, who 
 am a scion of the sun-god Ea." . . . . 
 
 ^^ Awake," he says to his father, '^ raise thy face to 
 heaven, behold the sun, my father Mineptah, thou who 
 art like God. Here am I who make thy name to live. 
 I am thy guardian, and my care is directed to thy 
 temple and thy altars which are raised up again. . ". . . 
 I set apart revenues for thee for thy worship daily, to 
 
 be just towards thee I appoint for thee the priests 
 
 of the vessel of holy water, provided with everytliing 
 for sprinkling the water on the ground I dcdi- 
 
136 LECTURE IV. 
 
 cated to thee the lands of the south for the services of 
 thy temple, and the lands of the north they bring to 
 thee their gifts before thy beautiful countenance. I 
 gathered together the people of thy service one and 
 
 all, assigning them to the prophet of thy temple 
 
 I dedicated to thee ships with their freight on the 
 
 great sea I fixed for thee the number of the fields 
 
 .... great is their number according to their valuation 
 in acres. I provided thee with land-surveyors and 
 husbandmen, to deliver the corn for thy revenues." 
 
 He proceeds to enumerate the barks with their crews, 
 labourers for the felling of wood, herds of all kind of 
 cattle, tributes of birds, fishermen. The temple is 
 provided with all kinds of guilds of handicraftsmen, 
 men-servants and women -servants working in the fields. 
 
 "But I obtain by my prayers the breath of life at 
 
 thy awaking So long as I stay on earth, I will 
 
 ofi'er a sacrifice to thee. My hands shall bring the 
 libations for thy name to thy [remembrance] in all thy 
 abodes."^ 
 
 It is only natural to suppose that the religious 
 endowments here mentioned must in the course of 
 years come to an end. There is, however, in the 
 Louvre a monument which shows the astonishing 
 length of time during which institutions continued 
 
 1 Brugsch Bey, " History of Egypt," Vol. II. pp. 36, iO, English 
 transl. 
 
COMMUNION WITH THE UNSEEN WORLD. 137 
 
 to be respected. The kings who built the Pyramids 
 endowed a priestly office for the purpose of celebrating 
 the periodical rites in their behalf. The same priest 
 often officiated for several departed kings. The tablet 
 of the Louvre shows that Psamtik, son of Ut'ahor, who 
 lived in the time of the twenty-sixth dynasty, was 
 priest of Chufu or Cheops of the great Pyramid, and 
 of two other sovereigns of the same period, who cer- 
 tainly had lived and endowed his office more than two 
 thousand years before his time. We have actually the 
 tombs of some of his predecessors who filled the office 
 almost immediately after the death of the sovereign. 
 
 Innumerable inscriptions call upon the passers-by 
 to invoke the gods in behalf of the departed. '^0 all 
 ye who are living upon earth," '^ who love life and hate 
 death," ^'you who are in the service of Osiris or of 
 Anubis," " priest, prophet, scribe, spondist, ministrant, 
 male or female, every man and every woman passing 
 by this tomb, statue, tablet or shrine, whether you be 
 passing north^vards or southwards — as you desire to 
 enjoy the favour of the king — or as you desire your 
 names to remain upon earth, or to transmit your dig- 
 nities to your children — or as you love and obey the 
 gods of Egypt, or as you wish to be blest by the gods 
 of yom* cities, or by your wish to possess a part of the 
 divine abode of Osiris who dwells in Amenti — or to be 
 faithful to the great God — or as you wish to flourish 
 upon earth and pass on to the blessed — say a Suten- 
 
138 LECTURE IV. 
 
 hotep'ta^''^ the entire formula being repeated, or merely 
 (as an abbreviation) ^^ thousands of oxen, geese, bread, 
 beer," &c. 
 
 Such is the burden of all these funereal tablets. No 
 one tablet contains all that I have quoted, and no two 
 tablets are exactly alike, but all are made upon the 
 same model and contain some portions of the whole. 
 Many centuries after the construction of a tomb, Egyp- 
 tian travellers have left a record upon its walls of the 
 splendour of the sacred abode, of the abundance of the 
 materials which they found provided for the fulfilment 
 of the rites for the departed, and of their own repeti- 
 tion of the funereal formula.^ The Suten-hotep-td was 
 supposed to have been delivered by divine revelation. 
 An ancient text speaks of a ''' Suten-hotep-td exactly 
 corresponding to the texts of sacrificial ofi'erings handed 
 down by the ancients as proceeding from the mouth of 
 God." 2 
 
 It was most important that a man should have a son 
 established in his seat after him, who should perform 
 the due rites and see that they were performed by 
 others ; that he should, as it is expressed, ^' flourish in 
 the children of his children." The duty of performing 
 these rites comes immediately after that of worshipping 
 the gods, in the enumeration of virtuous actions. It 
 
 1 ChampoUion, Notices, Vol. II. pp.. 423— 425. 
 
 2 Denkm. iii. pi, 13. 
 
COMMUNION WITH THE UNSEEN WORLD. 139 
 
 is enforced in the moral writings as well as in the 
 theology of ancient Egypt. 
 
 ^^ Give the water of the funereal sacrifice to thy father 
 and mother who repose in the tomb ; renew the water 
 
 of the divine oblations Neglect not to do it, even 
 
 when thou art away from thy dwelling. Thy son will 
 do it for thee in like manner.'''^ 
 
 These words are taken from the Maxims of Ani. 
 
 We find the following among the good wishes made 
 for a person : '' Mayst thou receive the lustral water 
 from the hands of thy son each tenth day. . . . \ May 
 every heir who offers the libation to his own father, 
 contribute his offering of water to thy ha ; and as he 
 propitiates his father or buries his mother, may thy 
 name be uttered together with his own father.' '^ 
 
 On the other hand, the wish that a man may not 
 have a son after him is the most terrible of impreca- 
 tions. 
 
 " Whoever shall preserve this inscription," we read, 
 ^'in the temple of Amon Ea, the Lord of Senneferet, 
 he shall be favoui'ed by Amon Ea, and his son shall be 
 established in his place ; but whosoever shall remove 
 this inscription from the temple of Amon Ea, Amon Ea 
 will curse him, and his son shall not be established in 
 his place." 2 
 
 1 Louvre, Inv. 908. 
 
 2 Zeitschrift f. arjy_pt. S2)rachc, 1871, p. 60. 
 
140 LECTURE IV. 
 
 Another text says : 
 
 ^' "Whoso destroys this inscription, Bast, the great 
 goddess of Bubastis, will annihilate him for ever ; he 
 will never have a son after him."^ 
 
 The trustees of a religious foundation are threatened 
 with the most tremendous penalties in case of their 
 not carrying out the intentions of the founder ; they 
 are to " be delivered over to Sutech in the day of his 
 wrath, whose serpent diadem will spit out flames of 
 fire upon their heads, annihilating their limbs and con- 
 suming their bodies. May they not receive the reward 
 of righteousness ; may they not partake of the feast of 
 the blessed ; may the water from the spring of the river 
 not refresh them ; may it not come to pass that their 
 posterity should sit in their place." But to faithful 
 trustees the most splendid prospects are held out, one 
 of which is, '' Son of son, heir of heir, will be born 
 to him." ^'May your bodies," they are finally told, 
 ^'rest in the nether world of Amenti after a course of 
 a hundred and ten years, and may the sacrificial gifts 
 likewise be multiplied to you." 
 
 The inscription of Ptolemy, the son of Lagos, in the 
 fourth century before Christ, ends as follows : ^ 
 
 ^'Tlie land of Buto, whoever tries to plan the removal 
 of any part thereof, may he incur the ban of those 
 gods who are in Pe, may he be accursed by those who 
 
 1 Zeitschriftf. dgypt. Sprache, 1871, p. 60. 2 /^^ p_ g. 
 
COMMUNION WITH THE UNSEEN WORLD. 141 
 
 are in Tep, may he be in the flame of Aptaui in the 
 day of her terrible wrath, may he have no son or 
 daughter to give him the lustral water." 
 
 One of the most recent of the Ptolemaic tablets 
 records the fulfilment of a promise made in a dream 
 by the god I-em-hotep to Pasherenptah with reference 
 to the birth of a son, and it contains the invocation, 
 ^'Oh, all ye gods and goddesses who are unnamed, let 
 a child remain in my place for ever and ever .... 
 keeping alive the name of my house." 
 
 The lustral water offered upon earth to the dead 
 had its counterpart in the other world. The most 
 usual representation of this is the picture in which the 
 goddess Nut pours out the water of life to the deceased, 
 from the interior of a sycamore-tree. In a picture 
 published by M. Chabas,^ the deceased kneels before 
 Osiris, and receives from him the water of life from a 
 vessel under which is written cinch ha^ '^that the soul 
 may live." The picture is taken from the mummy of 
 a priest who lived twelve hundred years before Christ. 
 But the same idea occurs in a Greek inscription found 
 at Saqara by Mr. C. Wescher. ^' She lived twenty-five 
 years," the inscription says, ''and Osiris beneath the 
 earth gave her the refreshing water." ^ 
 
 IN'ow let me remind you that the oblation of cakes 
 
 1 Revue Arch. 1862, Vol. I. p. 370. 
 
 2 lb. 1864, Vol. II. p. 222. 
 
142 LECTURE IV. 
 
 and water is one of the five great ceremonies of the 
 Hindus, and, as Professor Max Miiller told you last 
 year, that '^ without a son to perform the funeral rites, 
 a Brahman believed that he could not enter into 
 heaven." Here is undoubtedly a most remarkable 
 coincidence between two religions which never came 
 into contact. Nor can any even indirect influence of 
 one upon the other be considered admissible. It is 
 the logical process which has taken the same direction 
 in both, and it can be traced in other branches of the 
 Indo-European family. 
 
 Eeaders of ecclesiastical history will remember the 
 fierce persecutions to which the first converts to Chris- 
 tianity were subjected in Persia, chiefly in consequence 
 of the doctrines they held on the subject of virginity 
 and celibacy, so much at variance with a religion 
 which considered children as ^'a bridge leading to 
 heaven ;" but as this religion has special grounds of its 
 own for condemning celibacy, over and above those 
 which it derives from the Indo-European traditions, it 
 is instructive to read Dr. Hearne's remarks on the 
 traditions of Greece and Eome. 
 
 *^ The personal motives which led to marriage were 
 in the early world very strong. The popular senti- 
 ment is emphatically expressed by Isaios when he says, 
 ^ No man who knows he must die can have so little 
 regard for himself as to leave his family without de- 
 scendants, for then there would be no one to render 
 
COMMUNION WITH THE UNSEEN WORLD. 143 
 
 him the worship due to the dead.' A remarkable 
 illustration of this sentiment occurs on a memorable 
 occasion in Grecian history. When Leonidas arrived 
 at the scene of his desperate defence of Thermopylae, 
 he was accompanied, says the historian, ^by the 300 
 men which the law assigned him, whom he had himself 
 chosen from among the citizens, and who were all of 
 them fathers with sons living.' According to modern 
 notions, a forlorn hope would naturally be composed 
 of men who had not given hostages to fortune. Such, 
 however, was not the light in which the latter pre- 
 sented itself to the Greek mind. The human plant 
 had flowered. The continuance of the house was 
 secure. It was therefore comparatively of little moment 
 what befel the man whose duty to his ancestors had 
 been fulfilled. In the aspect of the case now before us, 
 the fact that a man married or that he remained single, 
 was not a matter which affected himself alone. The 
 condition of his ancestors, the permanence of his house- 
 hold, depended upon his conduct. We cannot, there- 
 fore, doubt that celibacy was regarded as a deadly sin. 
 Even the State, although it was slow to interfere in 
 matters m.Qve\j privati juris ^ lent its aid to enforce this 
 primary duty. Solon prohibited celibacy. The laws 
 of the Dorians, the most conservative of the Ilellenes, 
 contained similar provisions. Criminal proceedings 
 might be taken, both at Athens and at Sparta, against 
 those who married beneath them, and against those 
 
144 LECTURE IV. 
 
 who did not marry at all. There is evidence that a 
 prohibition to the same effect existed in early Eome."^ 
 
 I have thought it well to insist upon this feature of 
 the Egyptian religion, in consequence of the importance 
 attached to the celibate life in later times in four dif- 
 ferent religions: first, in the great system of Buddhism; 
 secondly, in Judaism; thirdly, in Christianity; and 
 fourthly, in Manicheism. Christian monasticism, as is 
 well known, first grew up in Egypt, and was intro- 
 duced into Europe through Christians from Egypt. 
 But the monastic life and the word monastery already 
 existed before Christianity among the Jewish ascetics, 
 whose mode of life is described by the Alexandrian 
 Philo.2 It certainly was not from the Egyptian reli- 
 gion that monastic institutions were derived.^ 
 
 It is no doubt extremely natural, when phenomena 
 are discovered which bear close resemblance to each 
 other, to look out for some historical connection be- 
 
 1 " The Aryan Household : an Introduction to Comparative Juris- 
 prudence," p. 71. 
 
 2 Tom. II. p. 475, 15. 'Ej/ haffTrj ^e olKiq. kariv oUrj/Aa, lepor, o 
 KoXelraL aejjivtiov koX fjiovaaTyipiop, kv J fxovovfxzvoL rix rov (^iov ffsfivov 
 fivcTTripLa TiXovvrai. [Grave doubts have, quite recently, been raised 
 against the genuineness of this treatise. Far graver doubts may be 
 raised against the hypothesis that it was written by a Christian of 
 the third century.] 
 
 3 The Greek papyri speak of a class of persons called ol kv /carox^, 
 o\ Karexofieyoi, who led a cloistered life; that is to sa}^, they were 
 restricted to the precincts of the temple to which they were attached. 
 But they were not ascetics or necessarily celibates. 
 
COMMUNION WITH THE UNSEEN WORLD. 145 
 
 tweeii them. But in the history of human thought, 
 the supposition of such a connection frequently proves 
 to be an illusion. No historical connection can possibly 
 be admitted between the Egyptian and the Indo-Euro- 
 pean doctrines of the necessity of marriage, and all the 
 doctrines in favour of religious celibacy may very pro- 
 bably turn out to be historically independent of each 
 other. The late Professor Baur, of Tubingen, wrote 
 an exceedingly able work, in which he endeavoured to 
 trace the Manichean system to Buddhism.^ His argu- 
 ments were admitted by Neander and many other 
 learned men ; among others, by Dr. Pusey in this 
 country. Admirable, however, as Baur's analysis of 
 the Manichean system must be confessed to be, his 
 conception of Buddhism was radically false. This is 
 not to be wondered at, for the book was written before 
 any authentic information on the subject of Buddhism 
 was yet accessible, and the principles which in the 
 Gnostic and Manichean systems were wrongly ascribed 
 to Buddhism were taken from the Platonic, Neo- Pytha- 
 gorean or some other Hellenic pliilosophy. And all 
 attempts to discover Buddhist influences in Jewish or 
 Christian theologies will, I am sure, prove equally 
 abortive. What they have in common is human 
 reason, working according to the same natural laws. 
 
 ^ I have discussed this question at length in an article on 
 *' Orientalism and Ancient Christianity,'' in the Home and Foreign 
 Review^ July, 1863, p. 151. 
 
146 LECTURE IV. 
 
 The question, however, is one which should be decided 
 upon strictly historical evidence, inde]3endently of all 
 dogmatic prejudice. Not a trace of the philosophic 
 theories peculiar to the Buddhist canon has yet been 
 discovered in any of the philosophic or religious sys- 
 tems of the Western world, and why should we be 
 alarmed if it could be proved that the sublime pre- 
 cepts of humanity, purity, charity and unworldliness, 
 inculcated by the moral code . of Sakya Muni had his- 
 torically paved the way for Christianity ? ^ 
 
 1 " Le bouddhisme reforme, etabli au Thibet sous la supreme direc- 
 tion dn grand lama, a vivement excite la curiosite des Eiiropeens. 
 Les premiers missionaires qui en eurent connaissance au dix-septieme 
 siecle, ne furent pas pen surpris de retrouver au centre de I'Asie des 
 monasteres nombreux, des processions solennelles, des pelerinages, 
 des fetes religieuses, une cour pontificale, des colleges des lamas 
 superieurs, elisant leur chef souverain ecclesiastique et pere spirituel 
 des Thibetains et des Tartares en un mot une organisation assez sem- 
 blable a celle de I'eglise romaine." Hue, "Le Christianisme en 
 Chine en Tartaric et au Thibet," tome II. p. 9. The French phi- 
 losophers of the last century inferred from this that Christianity- 
 was derived from Buddhism, and "que le culte catholique avait ete 
 caique sur les pratiques lamaiques." But M. Hue shows that the 
 most striking points of resemblance are owing to changes in the 
 Tibetan worship since the time of Kubla Khan, in the thirteenth 
 century, who had had frequent relations with Christian missionaries, 
 and may have wished to imitate their institutions. The intercourse 
 between the Mongolian conquerors and Western Christendom was 
 very active at this period. Mongolian envoys repeatedly visited 
 Rome, and some were present at the great Council of Lyons. Some 
 points of resemblance are certainly more ancient, but it is worthy of 
 notice that the resemblances are much more numerous as regards 
 the Latin tlian as regards the Eastern churches. This would not be 
 the case if Buddhism were the fountain-head. On matters such 
 
COMMUNION WITH THE UNSEEN WORLD. 147 
 
 I now come to auother very remarkable point of 
 coincidence between the Egyptian and the Indo-Euro- 
 pean religions. 
 
 The Ka or Genius. 
 
 When we speak of a man of genius, of a genius for 
 poetry or for warfare, or of being inspired by the genius 
 of the place, we are often forgetful of the original use 
 of the ^ordi genius. The genius was a god, ^^sanctus 
 et sanctissimus deus," as Servius calls him, in the 
 religion of the Eomans, worshipped with libations, 
 incense and garlands of flowers. Every man had his 
 own genius, which was to be propitiated by sacrificial 
 offerings, and so had every god and even every locality. 
 The genius was a sort of spiritual double of each indi- 
 vidual. Men swore by their own genius, by the genius 
 of Eome, of the gods, or of the emperor. Very similar 
 facts are to be found in the Greek and in the Persian 
 religions. The Fravashis in the religion of Zoroaster 
 were heavenly types of created things, whether gods, 
 men, mountains, streams or other objects, and formed 
 a divine society, the guardian angels, as it were, of the 
 good creation. Each individual thing was furnished 
 with its Fravashi. On the Persian monuments, espe- 
 cially those of Persepolis, the king's Fravashi is repre- 
 
 as spiritual direction, both religions have developed very similar 
 methods quite independently one of the other. In regard to the 
 subject of the development of dogma, no history is more instructive 
 than that of Buddhism. 
 
 l2 
 
148 LECTURE IV. • 
 
 sented standing close to the king, just as the royal Im 
 is represented on Egyptian monuments down to the 
 times of Vespasian. The notion was deeply rooted in 
 all the branches of the India-European family, and has 
 been preserved in many of the superstitions still cur- 
 rent among us. You remember how in the novel of 
 Waverley the Highland chieftain saw his own wraith. 
 The water-wraith would in classical language be called 
 the genius of the stream or of the billows, and this not 
 in mere poetical phraseology, but in the severe prose 
 of every- day life. The belief itself is not limited to 
 the Egyptian and Indo-European families, but is nearly 
 universal. '^ Everywhere," as Mr. Herbert Spencer 
 tells us,^ '' we find expressed or implied the belief that 
 each person is double ; and that when he dies, his other 
 self, whether remaining near at hand or gone far away, 
 may return, and continues capable of injuring his ene- 
 mies and aiding his friends." But the development 
 of this belief among the Egyptians is in many of its 
 details surprisingly similar to the corresponding process 
 among Indo-Europeans. 
 
 The Egyptian word corresponding to the Latin genius 
 is lea. Its original signification, as I have recently 
 endeavoured to show, in a paper read before the Society 
 of Biblical Literature,^ is image. The use of the Greek 
 
 1 Fortnightly Review, May 1, 1870, p. 537. 
 
 2 Transactions, Vol. YI. pp. 494—508. 
 
COMMUNION WITH THE UNSEEN WORLD. 149 
 
 €i8oj\ov and the Latin ma(jo in the sense of ghost is well 
 known. ^ The oblations which in the funereal formulge 
 are made to the ka of the departed are really made to 
 his image. It is quite true that, as Dr. Hincks pointed 
 out many years ago, the word ka was not introduced 
 into the Suten-hotep-td till the twelfth dynasty ; but 
 the word itself in its religious signification is as old as 
 the language, as far back as we can trace it, and it 
 enters with that signification into a large number of 
 proper names of the earliest times f so that at all 
 events no new doctrine or practice was introduced 
 when idolatry in the strictest sense of the term, namely, 
 the worship of idola, was in so many words made part 
 of the religious prayers of the Egyptians. 
 
 It is not to be supposed that so intelligent a people 
 as the Egyptians were ignorant of the absurdity of 
 
 ^ TfjXi {JLE eipyovffL i^v)(at, eidojXa KafjiovTwy. 
 
 Iliad, xxiii. 72. 
 
 E'idojXov "Apyov yr^yEvovg. -^sch. Prom. 568. 
 
 Infclix simulacrum atque ipsius umbra Creusae 
 
 Visa mihi ante oculos, et nota major imago. 
 
 ^n. ii. 772. 
 Et nunc magna mei sub terras ibit imago. 
 
 lb. vi. 464. 
 
 2 The hen ka, or minister of the ka, is represented on the oldest 
 monuments. In Denkindler, ii. pi. 23, he occurs three times pre- 
 senting offerings. In pi. 25 he is at the head of a procession of 
 persons, each bearing offerings ; he himself is pouring lustral water. 
 Elsewhere he is represented offering incense ; in pi. 58 he is doing 
 so to statues of the departed. 
 
150 LECTURE IV. 
 
 propitiating the wooden or stone images of tlieir ances- 
 tors or of themselves. It is the living image which is 
 said to be worshipped, and was supposed to reside in 
 the wood or stone. There is an ancient text^ which, 
 in reference to Ptah, the chief divinity of Memphis, 
 whom the Greeks identified with Hephaestos as the 
 inventor of the arts, distinctly speaks of the gods as 
 being made through his agency to enter into their 
 bodies, namely, tlieir images of wood or stone. 
 
 When enumerating the experiences which tend to 
 generate the belief in a double personality, Mr. Herbert 
 Spencer speaks of the shadow which, following a savage 
 everywhere and moving as he moves, suggests to him 
 the idea of his duality, the shadow being perhaps con- 
 sidered as a specific something which forms part of 
 him ; and he adds : 
 
 ^' A much more decided suggestion of the same kind 
 is likely to result from the reflection of his face and 
 figure in water, imitating him as it does in his form, 
 colours, motions, grimaces. When we remember that 
 not unfrequently a savage objects to have his portrait 
 taken, because he thinks whoever carries away a repre- 
 sentation of him carries away some part of his being, 
 we see how probable it is that he thinks his double in 
 the water is a reality in some way belonging to him." 
 
 I quote these words in order to suggest to you the 
 
 1 Sharpe, " Egyptian Tnycriptions," Vol. I. pi, 30. 
 
COMMUNION WITH THE UNSEEN WORLD. 151 
 
 kind of impressiou made upon a people who must have 
 worked through a long course of years before they 
 produced such marvels of life-like reality as some of 
 the portrait sculptures of the age of the Pyramids. 
 The art of sculpture was intimately connected with 
 their religion, and its merits and demerits arise from 
 this connection. It is not true, as is commonly sup- 
 posed, that the Egyptians were not able, like the 
 Greeks, to represent in sculpture motion and activity. 
 They did this, and they did it wonderfully well, as 
 small statues in the museum at Bulaq abundantly 
 show ; but most of the statues of this description have 
 perished, like the private houses to which they belonged. 
 But the statues of the gods and ancestors were intended 
 to represent, not the concrete activity of a single mo- 
 ment, but the abstraction and repose of eternity. 
 
 As the Iranian Fravashi is represented accompanying 
 the Persian king, so is the Egyptian ha^ or royal living 
 image or genius, depicted in numberless representa- 
 tions. As the Eoman swore by the genius of the 
 emperor, so did the Egyptian by the ka of his king. 
 As the Eoman appeased his genius, so is the Egyptian 
 king frequently sculptured in the act of propitiating 
 his own ka. Votive tablets are addressed to the royal 
 ka in company with Ptali or other gods. Each of the 
 gods had his ka or genius. And as the Persians, 
 Greeks and Eomans, had their local genius, so had the 
 Egyptians. The kau^ like Xk^genii^ manes and lares (who 
 
152 LECTURE IV. 
 
 are radically identical), formed a whole class of divine 
 beings, who are mentioned in thousands of inscriptions 
 as ^Hhe Jcau who live everlastingly." A well-known 
 and interesting tablet contains the prayer, ^'May I 
 journey upon the everlasting road in company with the 
 Jcau and glorified ones."^ 
 
 Not the least curious coincidence between Egyptian 
 and European thought is the use of the words genius 
 and hi to express mental gifts. " Genius" is not used 
 in this way in classical Latin, but by being made 
 synonymous with spirit^ and spirit being used as in 
 the eleventh chapter of Isaiah (''the spirit of wisdom 
 and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the 
 spirit of knowledge, of the fear of the Lord"), genius 
 has come to signify a divine gift. IN'ow the Egyptian 
 word ka had certainly acquired this secondary signi- 
 fication as early as the time of Eameses 11.,^ and I have 
 but little doubt, though the proof is not absolute, that 
 this signification already existed in the earliest times 
 known to us. 
 
 Souls, Shadows, Apparitions, 
 
 The anthropology of the Egyptians was very different 
 from that recognized in our modern systems of philo- 
 sophy. We are in the habit of speaking of man as 
 consisting of body and soul, the soul being considered 
 
 1 Den-km. iii. 114. ^ ii,_ iii. 194. 
 
COMMUNION WITH THE UNSEEN WOULD. 153 
 
 the immaterial part of man. We should be astonished 
 at a person calling himself a Christian and yet denying 
 the immateriality of the soul. Yet this belief was not 
 always recognized by the defenders of Christianity as 
 a true one. M. Guizot shows, in his sixth Lecture on 
 the History of Civilization in France, that the earliest 
 doctors of the Church were strongly impressed with 
 the conviction of the material nature of the soul, and 
 that it was only by slow degrees that the opposite 
 opinion prevailed. God alone was thought to be im- 
 material by nature, and it was only as relative to gross 
 matter that angels, spirits and souls were allowed to 
 be called immaterial or incorporeal.^ 
 
 The disembodied personality of each individual was 
 therefore supposed by the Egyptians to be provided 
 with a material-form and substance. The soul had a 
 body of its own, and could eat and drink. We are 
 unfortunately prevented, through want of materials, 
 from accurately determining the relation between a 
 man's soul and his ka. His shadow was also considered 
 an important part of his personality, and was restored 
 to him in the second life. The Book of the Dead treats 
 the shadoivs as something substantial. 
 
 We shall not be surprised to find the belief in appa- 
 ritions of the dead. There is a letter in one of the 
 papyri of the Museum of Leyden in which a man com- 
 
 1 Compare Petavius, De Augelis, I. iii. 12. 
 
154 LECTURE IV. 
 
 plains bitterly of the persistent annoyance caused to 
 him by his deceased wife.^ 
 
 Possession. 
 
 The most terrific form, however, of annoyance is 
 that caused by what we commonly call possession. 
 We are accustomed to hear of possession by evil spi- 
 rits only, but this is because from a Christian point of 
 view possession by spirits is necessarily incompatible 
 with the goodness of the spirits ; but the Greek 5ai>wv 
 was not necessarily an evil spirit, nor was the Egyp- 
 tian chut. There is an interesting inscription now 
 preserved in the Biblioth^que Rationale at Paris, the 
 translation of which was first given by Dr. Birch. ^ It 
 records the possession by a spirit of the princess of 
 Bechten, an Asiatic country which has not yet been 
 satisfactorily identified. She was connected by mar- 
 riage with the court of Egypt. Her sister had been 
 married to one of the kings of the twentieth dynasty. 
 She had fallen ill, and an Egyptian practitioner who^ 
 at her father's request, had been summoned to see her, 
 
 ^ " L'eponx se plaint des mauvais precedes de I'epouse defunte 
 dont a ce qu'il parait la mort ne I'a pas suffisamment debarasse." 
 M. Chabas, in his Introduction to the Papyri of Ley den, p. 71. 
 [The letter has been translated by M. Maspero, Journal Asiatique, 
 1880, p. 371.] 
 
 2 The inscription has been repeatedly translated, [Dr. Eiman 
 has recently demonstrated the lateness of its date and its unhistorical 
 character. Bnt its value as a witness of the religious belief is not 
 affected by this.] 
 
COMMUNION WITH THE UNSEEN WOELD. 155 
 
 declared that she was possessed by a spirit {chut) with 
 which he was himself unable to cope. The image of 
 the god Chonsu,^ one of the divine triad of Thebes, was 
 solemnly sent in his ark, accompanied by a talisman 
 of the same god under a different title, for the purpose 
 of exorcising the princess, and the spirit yielded at 
 once to the superior divinity of such a god, who, 
 speaking through his prophet, ordered that a sacrifice 
 should be offered to propitiate the spirit. The inscrip- 
 tion assures us that during the time that the god and 
 the spirit were in presence of each other, the king of 
 Bechten and all his army were in a state of excessive 
 terror. The result, however, was so satisfactory, that 
 he kept the Theban god by him for upwards of three 
 years, and would probably never have allowed him to 
 return, had he not been terrified by a dream ; in con- 
 sequence of which the god was sent back to Egypt 
 with presents of great value. 
 
 Dreams. 
 
 The belief in dreams, as revelations from a world 
 
 quite as real as that which we see about us whilst 
 
 waking, was shared by the ancient Egyptians. The 
 
 great tablet which is buried in the sand before the 
 
 1 Chonsu is the moon, and one of liis attributes is liesh dim, the 
 reckoner of time. [Etymologically, his name signifies " the hunter," 
 and is applicable to the sun as well as to the moon ; and I am 
 inclined to the belief that Chonsu was originally a name of the sun. 
 Some texts identify him with Ames, the ithyphallic liorus.] 
 
156 LECTURE IV. 
 
 great Sphinx at Gizeh, records a dream in which the 
 god appeared to Tehutimes lY. whilst yet a prince, 
 spoke to him as a father to a son, and promised him 
 the kingdom, the white and the red crown, with the 
 throne of Seb, and the earth in its length and breadth. 
 This promise was made on the condition that Tehutimes 
 should clear away the sand which then as now encum- 
 bered the mighty image of the god. King Mer-en- 
 Prah II. was encouraged by the god Ptah in a dream, 
 and directed in his warfare against the northern in- 
 vaders of Egypt. 
 
 One of the many valuable tablets found by Mariette 
 Pey at Gebel Barkal is well known under the name of 
 Stele du Songe. It belongs to the Ethiopian period, 
 and records an event which happened in the first year 
 of a king (N"ut) of the seventh century before Christ. 
 ^' His Majesty had a dream in the night. He saw two 
 serpents, one at his right hand and the other at his left. 
 And when he awoke he found them not. Then he said, 
 < Let these things be explained to me at once.' And 
 they explained them, saying, ' The land of the South is 
 thine, and thou shalt seize the land of the :N'orth, and 
 the two crowns shall be set upon thy head. The earth 
 is given to thee in all its length and its breadth.'" 
 The tablet proceeds to describe the accomplishment of 
 the dream, and the king's gratitude as testified by his 
 splendid donations. 
 
 I have already quoted the Ptolemaic tablet which 
 
COMMUNION WITH THE UNSEEN WORLD. 157 
 
 speaks of the fiilfilment of a dream in which the god 
 I-ein-hotep promised a son to Pasherenptah. 
 
 Oaths. 
 
 The Eg}^tians invoked their deceased fathers and 
 the gods in attestation of the truth of their assertions. 
 Oaths were resorted to in legal investigations. The 
 primitive sense of the word drq% which signifies to 
 swear, is ^^ bind." To '' clear one's-self by an oath," is 
 a recognized form of speech,^ and it was no empty form, 
 for the presence of the gods was strongly impressed 
 upon the Egyptian mind. Even when the original 
 meaning of a myth had not been entirely lost, the god 
 was no longer identified with the physical phenomenon, 
 but was supposed to be a living personal power con- 
 nected with it. The absence of the sun was compati- 
 ble with the presence of the sun-god Ea. 
 
 Presence of the Gods. 
 
 The presence of the gods is everywhere taken for 
 granted, but the calendar of lucky and unlucky days 
 contained in the Fourth Sallier papyrus, and translated 
 by M. Chabas, supplies a large amount of evidence as 
 to the popular belief in the immediate intervention of 
 the gods in human affairs. The days of the year are 
 marked as lucky or unlucky according as they com- 
 
 1 See Brugsch, Zeitschrift, 1868, p. 73. 
 
158 LECTURE IV. 
 
 memorate events in the legendary history of the war 
 between the powers of Light and those of Darkness. 
 But there are incessant cautions about leaving the 
 house or looking at certain objects on days when certain 
 gods are visiting the earth. Whatever was seen on 
 some days was sure to be of prosperous omen ; on 
 other days, the sight of a flame or of a rat, the touch 
 of a woman or the getting into a boat, might prove 
 fatal. '' Do not go out of thine house at eventide," on 
 the 15th Paophi; ^'the serpent that comes forth at 
 even, whoever sees him, his eye is injured on the spot." 
 On the 23rd of the month Choiak, a man is blinded if 
 the eyes of certain deities fall upon him. On the 28th 
 day of the same month it is unsafe to eat fish, because 
 on this day the gods of Tattu assume the form of a fish. 
 On the 11th Tybi, ^^ Approach not any flame on this 
 day; Ea is there for the purpose of destroying the 
 wicked." On the 9th Pharmuti, ^^ Do not go out by 
 night; Ea is coming forth on his way to Hai-ren-sen." 
 On the 24th Pharmuti, '^Do not pronounce the name 
 of Set aloud." The superstition of the Evil Eye natu- 
 rally arose from a doctrine which led to such prescrip- 
 tions. The Egyptian proper names bear distinct witness 
 to the existence of this superstition. 
 
 Ang'els. 
 
 Our word angel is derived from the Greek ayyeAo§, 
 which is the literal rendering of the Hebrew maldcJi. a 
 
COMMUNION WITH THE UNSEEN WORLD. 159 
 
 messenger or envoy. Tliis latter word is nsed in the 
 Bible not only for human envoys, either of private 
 individuals or of the king, but of supernatural beings 
 sent by God to accomplish His purposes. The Egyp- 
 tian language has a word [aput) which is used exactly 
 in the same manner. It occurs repeatedly in the Book 
 of the Dead, particularly in the sense of messenger of 
 divine vengeance. The Maxims of Ani speak of the 
 Angel of Death. 
 
 Destiny. 
 
 The notion of Destiny, which plays so important a 
 part in Greek mythology, does not appear to have been 
 foreign to Egyptian thought. In two of the romantic 
 tales which have reached us, the Hathors appear in the 
 character of the Fates of classical mythology, or the 
 Fairies of our own folk-lore. In the tale of the Two 
 Brothers, they foretel a violent death to the newly- 
 fashioned spouse of Bata. In the tale of the Doomed 
 Prince, ^' when the Hathors came to greet him at his 
 birth, they said that he would either die by a crocodile, 
 a serpent or a dog." Hathor, in the more recent theo- 
 logy of the texts of Dendera, is not only the Sun him- 
 self with feminine attributes, but the universal God of 
 Pantheism. Mythologically, however, she is, even in 
 these very texts, the daughter of Ea and mother of 
 Horus. Like Isis, she is in fact the Dawn, which from 
 
160 ' LECTURE IV. 
 
 different points of view may be considered either as the 
 daughter or mother, sister or spouse, of the Sun. The 
 Hathors, as represented in the pictures, have the ap- 
 pearance of fair and benevolent maidens ; they are not 
 the daughters of Night, like the Erinyes, but they are 
 names of one and the same physical phenomenon, and 
 are spoken of in very much the same relation to human 
 destiny. 
 
 The Homeric poems constantly speak of the i^oipai 
 together with the rjcpocfiOLris Ipivvs. The Greek Moira 
 has its counterpart in the Egyptian Shai. In the pic- 
 tures of the Psychostasia which occur in many copies 
 of the Book of the Dead, two personages are seated 
 together ; the male is called Shaij the female Renenet. 
 They clearly preside over the meschen^ or, as we should 
 say, the cradle, of the infant. Several important texts, 
 which he has quoted in his recent translation of the 
 tale of the Doomed Prince, have induced M. Maspero 
 to translate 81iai fate, and Renenet fortune. I believe 
 that the word sha means '^ divide, portion out;" hence 
 shai^ "the divider," and intransitively "the division, 
 part, lot, fate." Renenet^ as quoted by M. Maspero, 
 may fairly be translated "fortune," but it has several 
 other well-known meanings. It is used in the sense 
 of " young" and " maiden;" and Eenenet is the name 
 of the goddess of the eighth month and of harvest. 
 All these meanings can be harmonized if we think of 
 the Greek w/aa, w/saios. Hora is the time fixed hy natural 
 
COMMUNION WITH THE UNSEEN WORLD. 161 
 
 latvs,^ the fitting time; it is also used in the sense of 
 the spring or prime of life ; ^ wpaia is the season of corn 
 and fruit-ripening. The name Eenenet is surely well 
 chosen for a goddess presiding over birth. But she is 
 also represented as suckling the infant Horus. And 
 in whose lap can the Sun be nursed more fitly than in 
 that of the Dawn ? 
 
 The King's Divinity. 
 
 I must not quit this part of my subject without a 
 reference to the belief that the ruling sovereign of 
 Egypt was the living image and vicegerent of the sun- 
 god. He was invested with the attributes of divinity, 
 and that in the earliest times of which we possess 
 monumental evidence. We have no means of ascer- 
 taining the steps by which the belief came to be esta- 
 blished as an official dogma. It was believed in later 
 times that the gods formerly ruled in Egypt ; the 
 mortal kings before Mena were called the "successors 
 
 ^ Compare the Hebrew HV " tempus .... spec. (1) de anni tempore 
 (gr. ojpa) . . . . (2) de tempore vitip. humance, max. (\.q javenili aetate 
 puellae . . . . Cf. '*"Ty. juventus .... (3) tempus justum, ut gr. Katpoz 
 
 .... (4) tempus alicujus, i.e. dies alio i.e. tempus sui)remum 
 
 fatale alio., interitus ejus." Gesenius. One of the kindred words 
 is TP^ " indicavit, definivit, constityit^'^ and the corresponding 
 Arabic verb u'ada, " praesignificavit aliquid, pec. boni, sed passim 
 etiam minatus est aliquid mali." 
 
 M 
 
162 LECTURE IV. 
 
 of Horus." But the kings who built the Pyramids 
 and all the kings after them took the title of the 
 ^' golden Horus ;" Chafra and all after him were called 
 ^' son of Ea" and nutar aa, ^' great god." The sun in 
 his course from east to west divides the earth and sky 
 into two regions, the north and the south. The king 
 of Egypt, as son and heir of the Sun, assumed the title 
 of King of the North and of the South ; not, as has 
 generally been thought, with reference to Egypt, but, 
 as Letronne contended and as M. Grebaut has convinc- 
 ingly shown, with reference to the universe. 
 
 The sovereign of Egypt is always said to be seated 
 upon the throne of Horus, and he claimed authority 
 over all nations of the world. He was the '' emana- 
 tion" of the sun-god, his ^'living image upon earth." 
 *' All nations are subject to me," says queen Hatshepsu 
 on her great obelisk at Karnak. " The god hath ex- 
 tended my frontiers to the extremities of heaven;" 
 " the whole circuit of the sun he hath handed over 
 (ind-nef) to her who is with him." ^' I have ordained 
 for thee," says the god to Tehutimes III., ^'that the 
 whole world in its length and in its breadth, the east 
 and the west, should be thy mansion." Amenophis II. 
 is the '^ victorious Horus, who has all nations subject 
 to him, a god good like Ea, the sacred emanation of 
 Amon, the son whom he begot ; he it is who placed 
 thee in Thebes as sovereign of the living, to represent 
 him." The king himself says, '^It is my father Ea 
 
COMMUNION WITH THE UNSEEN WORLD. 163 
 
 who has ordained all these things He has ordained 
 
 for me all that belonged to him, the light of the eye 
 which shines upon his diadem. All lands, all nations, 
 the entire compass of the great circuit [of the sun], 
 come to me as my subjects." ^'He made me lord of 
 
 the living when I was yet a child in the nest He 
 
 hath given me the whole world with all its domains." 
 The royal inscriptions are full of similar language, and 
 in the temples all the gods are represented as confer- 
 ring upon the kings whatever gifts they have to bestow. 
 There is a long inscription which appears first in honour 
 of Eameses II. at Ipsambul, and is again found else- 
 where, but set up to glorify Eameses III. The god 
 says to the king, '' I am thy father ; by me are begot- 
 ten all thy members as divine; I have formed thy 
 shape like the Mendesian god ; I have begotten thee, 
 
 impregnating thy venerable mother Around thy 
 
 royal body the glorious and mighty assemble festively, 
 the high goddesses, the great ones from Memphis and 
 the Hathors from Pithom; their hearts rejoice and 
 their hands hold the tambourine and hymns of homage 
 when they see thy glorious form. Thou art lord like 
 the majesty of the sun-god Ea ; the gods and goddesses 
 are praising thy benefits, adoring and sacrificing before 
 thine image." '^ I give to thee the sky and what is in 
 it ; I lend the earth to thee and all that is upon it." 
 ^' Every creature that walks upon two or upon four legs, 
 all that fly or flutter, the whole world I charge to off'er 
 
164 LECTURE IV. 
 
 her productions to thee."^ The same texts assign to 
 the king the fourteen kas of Ea. I have already ex- 
 plained the meaning of ka^ which corresponds in this 
 place to our word '' spirit." But Ea was said to pos- 
 sess seven souls (bam) and fourteen kas.'^ This explains 
 the true meaning of the expression, ^^ the souls of the 
 king," which has puzzled many scholars. It is very 
 frequently found and at a very early period. The 
 king had the seven souls of Ea.^ 
 
 That the sovereign in his official utterances should 
 proclaim his divinity, is less to be wondered at than 
 that private individuals should speak of him in the 
 same style. But the doctrine was universally received. 
 '^ Thou art," says an ode translated by M. Chabas and 
 Mr. Goodwin, ^^as it were the image of thy father the 
 Sun, who rises in heaven. Thy beams penetrate the 
 cavern. 'No place is without thy goodness. Thy say- 
 ings are the law of every land. When thou reposest 
 in thy palace, thou hearest the words of all the lands. 
 Thou hast miMions of ears. Bright is thy eye above 
 
 ^ I quote, with slight alteration, the excellent English version 
 given in Madame Diiemichen's translation of the "Flotte einer 
 agyptischen Konigin." 
 
 2 Transactions of the Society of Biblical Archaeology, Vol. VI. 
 p. 501. 
 
 ^ It is quite true, as M. Grebaut says. Melanges d'Arch. Vol. III. 
 p. 60, " que le singulier [Ixi] variait avec la forme \haiu\ pour I'ex- 
 pression de la meme idee et dans les niemes formules." This is also 
 the case with ka and the plural kau. 
 
COMMUNION WITH THE UNSEEN WORLD. 165 
 
 the stars of heaven, able to gaze at the solar orb. If 
 anything be spoken by the mouth in the cavern, it 
 ascends into tliine ears. Whatsoever is done in secret, 
 thy eye seeth it. Baenra Meriamen, merciful Lord, 
 creator of breath." Mr. Goodwin, whose version I 
 have been quoting, judiciously observes : ^ '^ This is not 
 the language of a courtier. It seems to be a genuine 
 expression of the belief that the king was the living 
 representative of Deity, and from this point of view is 
 much more interesting and remarkable than if treated 
 as a mere outpouring of empty flattery." 
 
 It must not be forgotten that the kings are frequently 
 represented in the humblest postures of adoration before 
 the gods. And they are also represented as worship- 
 ping and propitiating their own '^genius." 
 
 The doctrine of the king's divinity was proclaimed 
 by works of art even more eloquently than by words. 
 Dean Stanley writes as follows : ^ 
 
 '' What spires are to a modern city — what the towers 
 of a cathedral are to its nave and choir — that the 
 statues of the Pharaohs were to the streets and' temples 
 of Thebes. The ground is strewn with their fragments ; 
 there were avenues of them towering high above plain 
 and houses. Three of gigantic size still remain. One 
 was the o;ranite statue of Eameses himself, who sat on 
 
 1 "Records of the Past," Vol. IV. p. 102. 
 
 2 " Sinai and Palestine," p. xxxv. 
 
166 LECTURE IV. 
 
 the right side of the entrance to his palace. By some 
 extraordinary catastrophe, the statue has been thrown 
 down, and the Arabs have scooped their millstones out 
 of his face ; but you can still see what he was — the 
 largest statue in the world. Far and wide that enor- 
 mous head must have been seen, eyes, mouth and ears. 
 Far and wide you must have seen his vast hands rest- 
 ing on his elephantine knees. You sit on his breast 
 and look at the Osiride statues which support the por- 
 tico of the temple, and which anywhere else would put 
 to shame even the statues of the cherubs in St. Peter's 
 — and they seem pigmies before him. His arm is 
 thicker than their whole bodies. The only part of the 
 temple or palace at all in proportion to him must have 
 been the gateway, which rose in pyramidal towers, 
 now broken down, and rolling in a wide ruin down to 
 the plain. 
 
 ^'Nothing which now exists in the world can give 
 any notion of what the effect must have been when he 
 was erect. .... No one who entered that building, 
 whether it were temple or palace, could have thought 
 of anything else but that stupendous being who thus 
 had raised himself up above the whole world of gods 
 and men. 
 
 ^^ And when from the statue you descend to the palace, 
 
 the same impression is kept up Everywhere the 
 
 king is conquering, worshipping, ruling. The palace 
 is the Temple, the king is Priest. But everywhere the 
 
COMMUNION WITH THE UNSEEN WORLD. 167 
 
 same colossal proportions are preserved. He and his 
 horses are ten times the size of the rest of the army. 
 Alike in battle and in worship, he is of the same stature 
 as the gods themselves. Most striking is the familiar 
 gentleness with which — one on each side — they take 
 him by each hand, as one of their own order, and then 
 in the next compartment introduce him to Amnion and 
 the lion-headed goddess. Every distinction, except 
 of degree, between divinity and royalty, is entirely 
 levelled, and the royal majesty is always represented 
 by making the king, not like Saul or Agamemnon, 
 from the head and shoulders, but from the foot and 
 ankle upwards, higher than the rest of the people. 
 
 ^' It carries one back to the days ^ when there were 
 giants on the earth.' It shows how the king, in that 
 first monarchy, was the visible God upon earth, ^o 
 pure Monotheism could for a moment have been com- 
 patible with such an intense exaltation of the conquer- 
 ing king." 
 
THE RELIGIOUS BOOKS OF EGYPT. 
 
 The hopes and fears of the Egyptians with reference 
 to the world beyond the grave are revealed to us in 
 various books or collections of writings which have 
 been preserved to us by the tombs. 
 
 Most of the evidence upon which the preceding Lec- 
 tures are based has been taken from inscriptions sculp- 
 tured or painted upon monuments of stone. But from 
 the very earliest times to which it is possible to go 
 back, the Egyptians were acquainted with the use of 
 the pen and of papyrus as a material for writing upon. 
 Leather skins are also recorded to have been used for 
 certain documents, and some of these have actually 
 been preserved. But the durability and other qualities 
 of the papyrus recommended it for ordinary use beyond 
 all other writing materials. The age of some of the 
 papyri now in our museums must necessarily seem 
 fabulous to those whose experience has been limited to 
 Greek or Latin manuscripts, which are considered as 
 of most venerable antiquity if they were written in the 
 
THE RELIGIOUS BOOKS OF EGYPT. 169 
 
 fourth or fifth century after Christ, and, unless like the 
 rolls of Herculaneum they can plead special reasons, 
 are justly liable to suspicion if they lay claim to higher 
 antiquity. There is probably not a Hebrew manuscript 
 of the Old Testament which is a thousand years old. 
 The oldest existing Sanskrit manuscripts were written 
 only a few centuries ago. Some of our Egyptian papyri 
 are not less than four thousand years old. You must 
 bear in mind the difference of the conditions under 
 w^hich the oldest manuscripts of each country have 
 been preserved. The climate and the insects of India 
 are absolutely destructive of all organic substances. 
 The Hebrew Biblical manuscripts of olden times have 
 been intentionally destroyed, either out of reverence 
 for a roll which was no longer in a condition suitable 
 for use, or because the text of it, as being at variance 
 with the Masoretic recension, was considered to be 
 erroneous. The causes which have led to the destruc- 
 tion of Greek and Latin manuscripts, especially of the 
 classical literature, are so obvious, that we can only 
 wonder and be thankful that so much has been pre- 
 served. But the Egj^Dtian manuscripts which we 
 now possess — very few, alas ! in comparison with the 
 myriads which have perished — have been preserved by 
 being kept from the air and damp in a perfectly dry 
 climate, hermetically sealed in earthen or wooden 
 vessels or under mummy coverings, sometimes at the 
 depth of ninety feet within the living rock, and still 
 
170 LECTUEE V. 
 
 further protected by a thick covering of the pure, dry 
 sands of the desert. 
 
 The literature which has thus been preserved and 
 recovered is naturally for the most part of a religious 
 character. 
 
 It is perhaps necessary that I should apologize for 
 using the term literature in speaking of compositions 
 written in the hieroglyphic character. It is, I know, 
 hard to make strangers to the writing understand that 
 signs representing birds or beasts may be and are as 
 purely alphabetic letters as our A, B, C. Such, how- 
 ever, is the fact, and every simple sound in the language, 
 whether vowel or consonant, had its corresponding 
 letter.^ The language had no medial sounds, so that 
 if a y or a d had to be transcribed from a foreign lan- 
 guage, a A^ or a ^ had to be substituted. But it was 
 from the alphabetic signs of the Egyptians that the 
 Phoenicians derived their own, and from the Phoenician 
 alphabet all those of Europe and Asia were derived : 
 Greek, Etruscan, Eoman, Hebrew, Syriac, Arabic, 
 Sanskrit and Zend. The Egyptian writing, it is true, 
 was not confined to alphabetic characters. Some signs 
 are syllabic, but these might at will be exchanged for 
 
 ^ This is the case with the most ancient hieroglyphic writing 
 known to us. If some scholars, like Dr. Hincks, have maintained 
 that all the alphabetic signs were formerly syllabic, this is pure 
 speculation, and may be true or false without interfei'ing with the 
 fact stated in the text. 
 
THE RELIGIOUS BOOKS OF EGYPT. 171 
 
 the equivalent combination of alphabetic ones, just as 
 the Greek abbreviations which are so puzzling to some 
 persons, either in the manuscripts or in the Aldine and 
 other old editions of the classics, give place at the 
 present day to the simple letters. And just as some 
 persons saw considerable advantage in the use of Greek 
 abbreviations, every Egyptologist will tell you that, 
 each syllabic character being necessarily confined to 
 a limited number of words, he is able to detect at a 
 glance over a page the presence of a word he is looking 
 for. But syllabic signs were not used, any more than 
 Greek abbreviations, in consequence of a want of signs 
 to express purely alphabetic values. In this matter 
 Egyptian orthography differs essentially from Chinese 
 or Assyrian. It may, however, be objected that Egyp- 
 tian writing admits a certain number of ideographic 
 signs commonly called determinatives, which are not 
 pronounced ; a sign, for instance, representing two legs 
 is placed after words signifying motion. But if we 
 compare our own writing either with Sanskrit or with 
 ancient Greek or Latin manuscripts, we shall find 
 plenty of ideographic signs in it. What else are notes 
 of exclamation or of interrogation ? What are inverted 
 commas and vacant spaces between the words ? Capital 
 letters are to this day determinatives of proper names 
 in English and French, and of substantives in German 
 orthography. Our ideography is undoubtedly much 
 simpler than the Egyptian, but it is quite as real. An 
 
172 LECTURE V. 
 
 Englisli or French sentence written without it would 
 be simply unintelligible to the ordinary English or 
 French reader. I cannot therefore see what there is 
 in the system of Egyptian writing which is to prevent 
 the Maxims of Ptahhotep, written in the age of the 
 Pyramids, or the tales in the Berlin papyri, written 
 more than two thousand years before Christ, from being 
 considered literature as truly as they would be if they 
 were now written in English, French or Italian. 
 
 The Book of the Dead. 
 
 The majority of the manuscripts which have been 
 recovered from the tombs contain chapters of the col- 
 lection generally known under the title of the Book of 
 the Dead. These chapters, though apparently handed 
 down at first by tradition, were committed to writing 
 at a very early period. The vignettes which are found 
 on so many copies, and which represent the burial 
 procession, suggested to Champollion the name of the 
 ^' Funeral Eitual." Lepsius, however, pointed out the 
 fact that the chapters are supposed to be recited by the 
 deceased person himself in the nether world. M. de 
 Eoug^, though not objecting to the title " Book of the 
 Dead," proposed by Lepsius as more appropriate, never- 
 theless defended the use of the term ^'Eitual" on the 
 ground that many chapters contain prescriptions for 
 parts of the funeral, and certain prayers are formally 
 
THE RELIGIOUS BOOKS OF EGYPT. 173 
 
 mentioned as intended to be recited during the burial. 
 Although the prayers are as a rule put into the mouth 
 of the departed, they were certainly recited for him by 
 those present. On the first vignette of the book, a 
 priest is seen reading the formulary out of a book 
 which he holds in his hands. And rubrics at the end 
 of several chapters attach important advantages in the 
 next world to the accomplishment of what has been 
 prescribed in the foregoing text. 
 
 It is not only in papyrus rolls that the Book of the 
 Dead has been preserved. Many of the chapters are 
 inscribed upon coffins, mummies, sepulchral wrappings, 
 statues and the walls of tombs. Tombs of the time of 
 the twenty-sixth dynasty, like those of Bekenrenef or 
 Petamonemapt, may be said to contain entire recen- 
 sions of the book. The chambers of the latter of these 
 tombs occupy together nearly an acre and a quarter of 
 ground excavated in the rock, and every square inch 
 of their high walls is covered with beautifully sculp- 
 tured inscriptions from the Book of the Dead and other 
 religious texts. 
 
 The Egyptian title of the work is, ^'Book of the 
 joeri em hru^^'' three very simple words, perfectly unam- 
 biguous when taken singly, but by no means easy of 
 explanation when taken together without a context. 
 Feri signifies " coming forth," hru is day, and em is 
 the preposition signifying ^^from," but susceptible, 
 like the same preposition in many other languages, of 
 
174 LECTURE V. 
 
 a great variety of uses. I will not take up your time 
 with a discussion of the matter, but will simply tell 
 you that peri em hru most probably means '' coming 
 forth by day," and that the sense of this expression 
 can only be gathered from a study of the contents of 
 the book so entitled. 
 
 It is a very curious fact that, out of the many manu- 
 scripts which are extant, no two contain exactly the 
 same chapters or follow exactly the same arrangement. 
 The papyrus of Turin, the facsimile of which is pub- 
 lished by Lepsius, contains 165 chapters; and it is 
 the longest known. A very considerable number of 
 chapters, however, which are found in other manu- 
 scripts, are not included in it. None of the copies 
 therefore contains the entire collection of chapters. 
 The date of the Turin papyrus is not known, but it 
 certainly is not anterior to the twenty- sixth dynasty. 
 The more ancient manuscripts contain much fewer 
 chapters, and their order is quite different. The anti- 
 quity of the chapters in the long recensions is not at 
 all inferior to that of those in the shortest recensions, 
 and the chapters omitted by the Turin manuscript are 
 as old as any. The oldest chapters of all are omitted. 
 There is a great uniformity in the style and the gram- 
 matical forms of the language as compared with other 
 productions of Egyptian literature, especially those 
 more recent than the twelfth dynasty. Nothing can 
 exceed the simplicity and the brevity of the sentences. 
 
THE RELIGIOUS BOOKS OF EGYPT. 175 
 
 And yet the difficulties which a translator has to over- 
 come are very great. 
 
 In the first place, the text is extremely corrupt. 
 This unsatisfactory condition of the text is owing to 
 different causes. The reasons which writers on Hebrew, 
 Greek or Latin palaeography have enumerated for the 
 purpose of accounting for mistakes in manuscripts, 
 apply with much greater force to the funereal manu- 
 scripts of the Egyptians ; for as these were not intended 
 to be seen by any mortal eye, but to remain for ever 
 undisturbed in the tomb, the unconscientious scribe 
 had no such check upon his carelessness as if his work 
 were liable to be subjected to the constant inspection 
 of the living. But the most conscientious scribe might 
 easily admit numerous errors. Many of our finest 
 manuscripts in hieroglyphic characters are evidently 
 copied from texts written in the cursive or, as it is 
 called, the hieratic character. Many of the errors of 
 the manuscripts are to be traced to a confusion between 
 signs which resemble each other in hieratic but not in 
 hieroglyphic writing. 
 
 Besides the errors of copyists, there are different 
 readings, the origin of which is to be traced to the 
 period during which the chapters were handed down 
 by word of mouth only. There are copies which bear 
 evidence that a critical choice has been made between 
 the different readings of a passage; but the common 
 practice was to admit the inconsistent readings into 
 
176 . LECTURE V. 
 
 the text itself, tlie first being followed by the words 
 hi fet^ ^'otherwise said." This practice is of the most 
 remote antiquity. The different readings of the seven- 
 teenth chapter according to the Turin text are already 
 found in the text of that chapter which Sir Gardner 
 Wilkinson copied from the sarcophagus of a queen of 
 the eleventh dynasty. 
 
 Some of these variants have unquestionably arisen 
 from the difficulty of understanding the ancient texts. 
 I have no doubt whatever that some of the chapters of 
 the Book of the Dead were as obscure to Egyptians 
 living under the eleventh dynasty as they are to our- 
 selves. The Book of the Dead is mythological through- 
 out, and the true sense of a mythology dies away with 
 the stage of culture which has produced it. A critical 
 collation of a sufficient number of copies of each chapter 
 will in time restore the text to as accurate a standard 
 as could be attained in the most flourishing days of the 
 Egyptian empire. This revision of the text, which, 
 for want of the requisite leisure, I was sorrowfully 
 compelled to decline when it was proposed to me by 
 Dr. Lepsius at the Congress of Orientalists in 1874, is 
 now being actively conducted by a most competent 
 scholar, M. Naville, of Geneva. The most accurate 
 knowledge of the Egyptian vocabulary and grammar 
 will, however, not suffice to pierce the obscurity aris- 
 ing from what M. de Eoug^ called symbols or allegories, 
 which are in fact sim^^ly mythological allusions. The 
 
THE RELIGIOUS BOOKS OF EGYPT. 177 
 
 difficulty is not in literally translating the text, bnt in 
 understanding the meaning which lies concealed be- 
 neath familiar words. Dr. Birch's translation,^ though 
 made about thirty years ago, before some of the most 
 important discoveries of the full meanings of words, 
 may still be considered extremely exact as a rendering 
 of the corrupt Turin text, and to an Englishman gives 
 nearly as correct an impression of the original as the 
 text itself would do to an Egyptian who had not been 
 carefully taught the mysteries of his religion. Many 
 parts of this translation, however, when most faithful 
 to the original, must, in consequence of that very fide- 
 lity, be utterly unintelligible to an English reader. 
 
 The Eook of the Dead, I repeat, is essentially mytho- 
 logical, and, like all other Egyptian books of the kind, 
 it assumes the reader's thorough knowledge of the 
 myths and legends. It is perhaps hopeless to expect 
 that the legends will be recovered; the allusions to 
 them will no doubt always remain obscure. But the 
 mythical personages who are constantly mentioned are 
 the very gods about whom I spoke in the last Lecture : 
 Ea and his family and the dragon Apap, Seb and his 
 ftnnily, IS'ut, Osiris, Isis, Horus, Set and ]N"ephthys. 
 Thoth is one of the most important names which occur. 
 If the explanation which I gave of these personages is 
 
 1 Published in the fifth vohime of Bunsen's " Egypt's Place in 
 Universal History." 
 
 N 
 
178 LECTURE y. 
 
 borne in mind, one great difficulty in the interpretation 
 of the Book of the Dead will be overcome. The sub- 
 ject always is the contest between Darkness and Light. 
 Ptah, "the Opener," or ^^the Artist,"^ and Chnemu, 
 ^Hhe Builder,"^ are only names of the Sun. Tmu,^ 
 "the Closer/' whose name occurs more frequently, is 
 also one of the principal designations of the Sun. The 
 fifteenth chapter gives an instance of the very different 
 mythological treatment which the same physical phe- 
 nomenon may receive, according as it is looked at from 
 different points of view. Osiris, Horus, and even Ea, 
 suffer death or dismemberment ; but Tmu is daily 
 received into the arms of his mother Nut as he sinks 
 into the west, and the arms of his father Tanen close 
 
 ^ The Egyptian Ptali, like the Hebrew n^^ [(aperuit^ and in the 
 Pihel terrain aperuit aratro, aravit et (quod huic simile est) sculpsit, 
 inscalpsit turn ligno, tunc gemmis, etiam de ornandis lapidibus ad 
 aedificandum. Gesenius], combines the sense of opening, or rather 
 laying open, with that of artistic work. The primitive meaning is 
 opening, and there are well-known instances of it in old Egyptian, 
 but it no longer exists in Coptic, which has only retained the sense 
 of sculpere. It was because the Sun was the Oj)ener that he was 
 considered the Artist, especially in Memphis, the seat of the arts, of 
 which he was the chief divinity. 
 
 ^ The word is used as a common noun, and as the name of a pro- 
 fession. See Brugsch, " Bau u. Maasse des Tempels von Edfu," in 
 the Zeitschr. 1872, p. 5. 
 
 ^ Otherwise written Atmu, the prosthetic vowel being prefixed as 
 a support to the two consonants at the beginning of a word. Eor 
 the meaning "shut," "close," of the word tmu^ see Brugsch's 
 Lexicon. It is preserved in Coptic. 
 
THE RELIGIOUS BOOKS OF EGYPT. 179 
 
 over him. 'Neith., the great goddess of Sais, is rarely 
 mentioned. She was the mother of the sun-god Ea, 
 and is commonly supposed to represent Heaven ; but 
 some expressions 1 which are hardly applicable to Hea- 
 ven render it more probable that she is one of the 
 many names of the Dawn. The goddess Sechet is the 
 raging heat of the Sun.^ 
 
 The gods of Thebes are conspicuous by their absence 
 from the Book of the Dead, or at least from almost 
 every chapter. Amon, the great god of Thebes, is 
 named once only, and that in a chapter where the text 
 is extremely doubtful. Chonsu, the moon-god, is only 
 once named. But even the fi-equent occurrence of 
 these gods would not introduce a different series of 
 conceptions. 
 
 Beatification of the Dead. 
 
 The Beatification of the Dead is, however, the main 
 subject of every chapter. The everlasting life promised 
 to the faithful may be considered in three of its 
 aspects. 
 
 ^ For instance, the verb ube7i, expressive of an act of Neith 
 (Todt. 114, 1, 2), is inapplicable to Heaven, and is never used 
 except for the sunrise. 
 
 2 [So it was generally thought. But I am now quite certain that 
 Sechet also is one of the names of the Dawn.] 
 
 n2 
 
180 LECTURE V. 
 
 The renewed Existence "as upon Earth." 
 
 1. The blessed is represented as enjoying an exist- 
 ence similar to that which he had led upon earth. He 
 has the use of all his limbs, he eats and drinks, and 
 satisfies every one of his physical wants, exactly as in 
 his former life. His bread is made of the corn of Pe, 
 a famous town of Egypt, and the beer he drinks is 
 made from the red corn of the Nile. The flesh of 
 cattle and fowl is given to him, and refreshing waters 
 are poured out to him under the boughs of sycamores 
 which shade him from the heat. The cool breezes of 
 the north wind breathe upon him. The gods them- 
 sel e? provide him with food : he eats from the table 
 of Osiris at Eistat, and from the tables of the sun-god 
 Ea. He is given to drink out of vessels of milk or 
 wine ; cakes and flesh are provided for him from the 
 divine abode of Anubis. The gods of Heliopolis them- 
 selves bring the divine ofierings. He eats the bread 
 which the goddess Tait herself has cooked, and he 
 breathes the sweet odour of flowers. He washes his 
 feet in silver basins which the god Ptah of Memphis, 
 the inventor of all arts, has himself sculptured. Fields 
 also are allotted to him in the lands of Aarru and Hotep, 
 and he cultivates them. It is characteristic of an 
 industrious and agricultural population that part of the 
 bliss of a future state should consist in such operations 
 
THE RELIGIOUS BOOKS OF EGYPT. 181 
 
 as plougMng and hoeing, sowing and reaping, rowing 
 on the canals and collecting the harvests daily. War- 
 riors and kings who in the course of ages had risen 
 to the head of a mighty empire, still looked forward 
 towards these delights with the same religious faith 
 which inspired them when, on the great panegyrical 
 festival of the ithyphallic Amon, they received the iron 
 sickle from the hands of a priestly ministrant, cut the 
 ears of corn, and presented them as an offering to the 
 god presiding over vegetation and increase.^ We are 
 told that the height of the corn in the fields of Aarru 
 is seven cubits, and that that of the ears is two (in 
 some readings, four) cubits. This blissful place is sur- 
 rounded by a wall of steel, and it is from its gate that 
 the sun comes forth in the eastern sky. 
 
 Transformation. 
 
 2. But the happy dead is not confined to this local- 
 ity, or to the human form, or to an earthly mode of 
 existence. He has the range of the entire universe in 
 every shape and form that he desires. This is repeat- 
 edly stated in the Book of the Dead, and twelve of 
 the chapters consist of formulas through which certain 
 transformations are operated. The forms assumed, 
 according to these chapters, are the turtle-dove, the 
 
 ^ There are two representations of this, one at the Memnonium 
 {Denkm, iii. pi. 1G3, 1G4), and another at ^ledinet Abu (DcnJcm. 
 iii. pi. 212, 213). 
 
182 LECTURE V. 
 
 serpent Sata,^ the bird called Bennu (which has gene- 
 rally, but, I think, upon insufficient grounds, been 
 thought to have given rise to the story of the Phoenix), 
 the crocodile Sebek, the god Ptah, a golden hawk, the 
 chief of the principal gods, a soul, a lotus-flower and a 
 heron. Brugsch has found a monument according to 
 which these transformations correspond to the twelve 
 successive hours of the day. There is, however, no 
 evidence as to the date at which such a correspondence 
 was first imagined, or of the general recognition of this 
 correspondence. And the transformations to which 
 these chapters refer are far from exhausting the list of 
 possible ones. No limit whatever is imposed on the 
 will of the departed. 
 
 The subject has often been misunderstood through a 
 confusion between Egyptian notions and either Pytha- 
 gorean or Hindu notions. The Pythagoreans held the 
 notion of the metempsychosis, and the legendary 
 history of their founder represented him as having 
 travelled in the East, and as having been initiated by 
 Egyptian priests into their mysteries. The Pythago- 
 rean doctrines about the destinies of the human soul 
 have, in consequence of this unauthenticated history, 
 
 1 The later texts show that Sata is Horns Sam-taui, who comes 
 out of the lotus-flower in the middle of the solar bark. See picture 
 in Mariette, Dendera, II. pi. 48, 49. In one of the crypts of 
 Dendera he is called "the living soul of Atmu." Elsewhere, 
 Dendera, III. pi. 45, he is called " the soul rising out of the lotus 
 in the Ma at,'' the morning boat of the sun. 
 
THE RELIGIOUS BOOKS OF EGYPT. 183 
 
 been transferred to the Egyptians, even by scholars 
 who might have known better. There is really no 
 connection, either doctrinally or historically, between 
 the two systems, l^othing in the Pythagorean system 
 is foreign to previously existing Hellenic modes of 
 thought, or which requires in any way to be accounted 
 fur by foreign influence, and its metempsychosis is 
 essentially based upon the notions of expiation and 
 purification. Men were supposed to be punished in 
 various forms of a renewed life upon earth, for sins 
 committed in a previous state of existence. There is 
 not a trace of any such conception to be found in any 
 Egyptian text which has yet been brought to light. 
 The only transformations after death depend, we are 
 expressly told, simply on the pleasure of the deceased 
 or of his ^^ genius." 
 
 Nor is there any trace to be found of the notion of 
 an intermediate state of purification between death and 
 final bliss. Certain operations have to be performed, 
 certain regions have to be traversed, certain prayers to 
 be recited, but there is no indication of anything of an 
 expiatorial nature. If the judgment in the Hall of 
 Law is favourable, the departed comes forth triumph- 
 antly as a god whom nothing can harm ; he is identified 
 with Osiris and with every other divinity. The nether 
 world, and indeed the universe at large, is full of ter- 
 rible and hostile forces ; but through his identification 
 with the great gods and his uttering words of power 
 
184 LECTURE V. 
 
 in their name, he passes unhurt in any direction that 
 he pleases. 
 
 Identification with Osiris and other Gods. 
 
 3. The identification of the departed with Osiris is 
 first found explicitly asserted on the wooden coffin 
 (now in the British Museum) of king Menkaura of the 
 third pyramid. The inscription, which, with different 
 names and other variations, occurs on a good many 
 < coffins, is as follows : " Osiris, king Men-kau-Ea, living 
 V eternally, born of Heaven, issue of the goddess Nut, 
 ^ heir of Seb ! She stretches herself out, thy mother 
 Kut, above thee in her name of Heavenly Mystery. 
 She hath granted that thou shouldest become a god 
 without an opponent, king Men-kau-Ea, living eter- 
 nally vy 
 
 On two royal coffins of the eleventh dynasty, the 
 goddesses Isis and Nephthys are quoted as addressing 
 their brother Osiris. ^ 
 
 The rituals of this early period do not actually insert 
 the name of Osiris before the name of the departed, 
 but all later rituals do so, except in the more recent 
 periods, when women were called Hathor instead of 
 Osiris. And throughout the Book of the Dead in the 
 earliest forms known to us, the identification with 
 Osiris or assimilation to him is taken for granted, and 
 
 1 See Birch, " On the Formulas of Three Royal Coffins," in the 
 Zeiisckr. 1869, p. 49. 
 
THE RELIGIOUS BOOKS OF EGYPT. 185 
 
 all the deities of the family of Osiris, or whose acts 
 have relation to Osiris, are supposed to perform for the 
 deceased whatever the legend records as having been 
 done for Osiris^ 
 
 Thus in the eighteenth chapter (which, if we may 
 judge from the innumerable copies of it, must have 
 been considered one of the most important of all) the 
 deceased is brought before a series of divinities in 
 succession, the gods of Heliopolis, Abydos, Tattu and 
 other localities, and at each station the litany begins : 
 " Tehuti, who causest Osiris to triumph against his 
 opponents, cause the Osiris (such a one) to triumph 
 against his opponents, even as thou hast made Osiris 
 to triumph against his opponents." He then repeats 
 the names of the divinities of the place, generally in 
 conjimction with some allusion to the legendary his- 
 tory of Osiris. In the next chapter, which is another 
 recension of the eighteenth, and is entitled the " Crown 
 of Triumph," the deceased is declared triumphant for 
 ever and ever, and all the gods in heaven and earth 
 repeat this '' in presence of Osiris, presiding in Amenti, 
 TJnnefer, the son of Nut, on the day that he triumphed 
 over Set and his associates, before the great gods of 
 Heliopolis on the night of the battle in which the 
 rebels were overthrown, before the great gods of Aby- 
 dos on the night wherein Osiris triumphed over his 
 opponents, before the great gods of the western horizon 
 on the day of the festival of ' Come thou to me.'" It 
 
186 LECTURE y. 
 
 ends : ^^ Horus has repeated this declaration four times, 
 and all his enemies fall prostrate before him annihilated. 
 Horus, the son of Isis, repeats it millions of times, and 
 all his enemies fall annihilated. They are carried off 
 to the place of execution in the East ; their heads are 
 cut off, their necks are broken, their thighs are severed, 
 and delivered up to the great destroyer who dwells in 
 Aati ; they shall not come forth from the custody of 
 Seb for ever." 
 
 The term mad-^eru is always added to the name of 
 the faithful departed, and used to be translated '^the 
 justified." The sense of 'S^^ridique," truthful of speech, 
 veracious, has been defended by some French scholars ; 
 but the real sense is ^'triumphant;" literally, ''one 
 whose word is law," not merely truth. ^ 
 
 But, as I have said, it is not only to Osiris that the 
 deceased is assimilated. In the forty-second chapter 
 every limb is assimilated to a different deity : the hair 
 to Nu, the face to Ea, the eyes to Hathor, the ears to 
 Apuat, the nose to the god of Sechem, the lips to Anubis, 
 the teeth to Selket, and so on, the catalogue ending with 
 the words, " There is not a limb in him without a god, 
 and Tehuti is a safeguard to all his members." Later 
 on, it is said, " Not men, nor gods, not the ghosts of 
 
 ^ The sense " triumphant" is manifest from a multitude of pas- 
 sages, and is not denied ; but it cannot be etymologically derived 
 when madt is taken for Truth, and the whole compound icj trans- 
 lated " veridique." 
 
THE RELIGIOUS BOOKS OF EGYPT. 187 
 
 the departed, nor the damned, not past, present or future 
 men, whoever they be, can do him hurt. He it is who 
 Cometh forth in safety ; ' Whom men know not' is his 
 name. The 'Yesterday which sees endless years' is 
 his name, passing in triumph by the roads of heaven. 
 The deceased is the Lord of eternity ; he is reckoned 
 even as Chepera ; he is the master of the kingly 
 crown." And as Osiris himself is identified with 
 many other gods, so the deceased person is perpetually 
 introduced speaking of himself in the person of Ea, 
 Turn, Chnemu, Seb, Horus and many others. The 
 allusions are often simple enough, as when it is said, 
 *' I am Horus, and I am come to see my father Osiris ;" 
 or even, '^ I am he who resides in the middle of the 
 eye;" for in all mythologies the Sun is spoken of as 
 the eye, either of heaven ^ or of some deity. But a 
 
 1 " Heaven's eye " is a frequent expression in Shakespeare, and 
 the Friar in " Eomeo and Juliet" says : 
 
 "■ Now ere the Sun advance his burning eye." 
 Tlie following expressions of the Greek poets will be familiar to all: 
 Tov -KavoTVTYiv kvkXov i)\iov. ^sch. Prom. 92. 
 "a xpi'^^cac afjiipag fiXtcpapoy. Soph. An tig. 103. 
 
 "AXlOV, "AXlOV aiTW TOVTO . . . 
 
 (J KpaTiarevwv Kar 6/.ifxa. Trach. 96. 
 
 'AXXa av yap ^rj ndcrav iwl x'^^^"- 'f«' '^"^" novToy 
 
 aldipoQ Ik ^ltjq KaradepKeai aKriveoffi. 
 
 Homer, Hymn, in Dem. 69. 
 
 From the Latin poets I will only quote Ovid's 
 
 Omnia qui video, per quern videt omnia tellus, 
 Muudi oculus. Met. iv. 227. 
 
.188 LECTURE Y. 
 
 god is sometimes named who is never mentioned else- 
 where, and whose name was so little familiar to the 
 copyists of the book that they write it in very dif- 
 ferent ways. Our ignorance here is of very trifling 
 importance. 
 
 The preliminaries to the beatification of the dead 
 consisted in the removal of all physical or moral 
 obstacles originating either in himself or in others. 
 Those things of which death had deprived him are 
 restored to him. His soul, his ha and his shadow are 
 given back to him. There is a chapter, with a vignette, 
 representing the soul uniting itself to the body, and 
 the text promises that they shall never again be sepa- 
 rated. The use of his mouth, hands and other limbs 
 is given to him. There is a series of chapters relat- 
 ing to the restoration and protection of the heart, two 
 forms of which, the ab and the lidti^ are distinctly and 
 repeatedly mentioned. The next eleven chapters have 
 reference to combats which the deceased has to en- 
 counter with strange animals — crocodiles, serpents, 
 tortoises — and to the sacred words in virtue of which 
 he may confidently rely upon success. The chapter 
 for repelling all reptiles is a short one. " serpent 
 Eerek ! advance not ! the gods Seb and Shu are my 
 protection ; stop ! thou who hast eaten the rat which 
 the sun-god abhors, and hast chewed the bones of a 
 rotten cat." 
 
 Another series of eleven chapters is intended to 
 
THE RELIGIOUS BOOKS OF EGYPT. 189 
 
 secure the Osiris against other dangers in the nether 
 world, such as having his head cut of!, dying the 
 second death, suft'ering corruption, being turned away 
 from one's house, going to the Nemmat, an infernal 
 block for the execution of the wicked, going headlong 
 in the cherti-nutar^ eating or diinking filth. The next 
 series of chapters in the Turin manuscript gives the 
 deceased power over air and water, and some chapters 
 are but different recensions of one text, the well-known 
 vignette of which represents the Osiris receiving the 
 water poured out to him by a hand coming out of a tree. 
 The chapter begins, ^^ sycamore of the goddess Nut ! 
 let there be given to me the water that is in thee." 
 
 The 149th chapter gives an account of the terrible 
 nature of certain divinities and localities which the 
 deceased must encounter — gigantic and venomous 
 serpents, gods with names significant of death and 
 destruction, waters and atmospheres of flames. But 
 none of these prevail over the Osiris ; he passes through 
 all things without harm ; unhurt he breathes the fiery 
 atmosphere and drinks the waters of flame; and he 
 lives in peace with the fearful gods who preside over 
 these abodes. Some of these gods remind one of the 
 demons in the Inferno of Dante. But though ministers 
 or angels of divine justice, their nature is not evil. 
 Some of the invocations contained in the seventeenth 
 chapter will give some idea of the terrors of the 
 Egyptian nether world. 
 
190 LECTURE V. 
 
 ^'0 Ea, in thine egg, radiant in thy disk shining 
 forth from the horizon, swimming over the steel firma- 
 ment, sailing oyer the pillars of Shu, thou who hast no 
 second among the gods, who producest the winds by 
 the flameg of thy mouth, and who enlightenest the worlds 
 with thy splendours, save the departed from that god 
 whose nature is a mystery and whose eyebrows are as 
 the arms of the balance on the night when Aauit was 
 weighed." 
 
 '' Lord of the great dwelling,^ supreme king of the 
 gods, save the Osiris from that god who has the face 
 of a hound and the eyebrows of a man, who feeds upon 
 the accursed." 
 
 " Lord of victory in the two worlds, . . . save the 
 Osiris from that god who seizes upon souls, devours 
 hearts and feeds upon carcases." 
 
 ^^ Scarabaeus god in thy bark, whose substance is 
 self-originated, save the Osiris from those watchers to 
 whom the Lord of spirits has entrusted the observation 
 of his enemies, and from whose observation none can 
 escape. Let me not fall under their swords nor go to 
 their block of execution, let me not remain in their 
 abodes, let me not rest upon their beds [of torment], 
 let me not fall into their nets. Let nought befal me 
 which the gods abhor." 
 
 ^ "The great dwelling" is the universe, as the Hall (usexet) of 
 Seb is the earth, the Hall of Xut is the heaven, and the Hall of 
 the two-fold Maat is the nether world. 
 
THE RELIGIOUS BOOKS OF EGYPT. 191 
 
 These trials which the departed undergo, and which 
 are triumphantly overcome by the Osiris, sufficiently 
 show the fate which the wicked must expect. This 
 fate is called ^^ the second death." 
 
 The faithful dead expect to be protected from the 
 dangers of their new existence, partly indeed by the 
 virtue of amulets and talismans to which the gods have 
 given power, partly also by the knowledge of religious 
 formulas (such as the chapters of the Book of the Dead) 
 or of divine names, but chiefly by the conformity of 
 their conduct with the standard of law by which they 
 are judged by Osiris in the Amenti. 
 
 Amulets. 
 
 The use of amulets was certainly carried to the most 
 extravagant excess, and the Book of the Dead even in 
 its earliest form shows the importance attached to such 
 things. In the thirty - second chapter, the deceased 
 drives off the infernal crocodiles by pointing to the 
 potent talismans upon his person. ^' Back ! Crocodile 
 of the West !" he says, ^^ who livest upon the Achemu 
 who are at rest ; what thou abhorrest is upon me ; I 
 have eaten the head of Osiris ; I am Set. Back ! Cro- 
 codile of the West ! there is an asp upon me ; I shall 
 not be given to thee; dart not thy flame upon me. 
 Back ! Crocodile of the East ! who feedest upon im- 
 purities ; what thou abhorrest is upon me ; I have 
 
192 LECTURE V. 
 
 passed ; I am Osiris ; " and so on. Directions are given 
 in the rubrics of certain chapters for the construction 
 of these talismans, such as the Tat of gold (ch. 155), 
 emblematic of the yertibrse of Osiris ; the buckle of red 
 quartz (ch. 156), which the text connects with the 
 blood of Isis and the magic words of Osiris ; and the 
 golden vulture (ch. 157), which has reference to some 
 parts of the history of Isis and Horus. The most 
 important probably of these talismans was the scara- 
 baeus which had the thirtieth chapter inscribed upon 
 it. The rubric directs it to be placed upon the heart 
 of the deceased person. An immense number of these 
 scarabaei have been found with the chapter inscribed 
 upon them ; there is probably no chapter of which the 
 text can be restored with greater difficidty. Its anti- 
 quity is extreme, and the different readings already 
 abounded at the time of the eleventh dynasty. 
 
 Words of Power, 
 
 The belief in the magic power of sacred words, 
 whether religious formulas or the names of gods, was 
 also acknowledged, and was the source of a frightful 
 amount of superstition. The rubric at the end of the 
 first chapter is a specimen of what occurs in others. 
 * ^ If this chapter be known upon earth, or if it be writ- 
 ten upon his coffin, he will come forth every day that 
 he pleases, and enter his house without being prevented; 
 
THE RELIGIOUS BOOKS OF EGYPT. 193 
 
 there shall be given to him bread and beer, and flesh 
 upon the tables of Ea ; he will work in the fields of 
 Aarru, and there shall be given to him the wheat and 
 barley which are there, for he shall flourish as though 
 he were upon earth." Another rubric says : ^' If this 
 chapter be recited over him, he will go forth over the 
 earth, and he will pass through every kind of fire, no 
 evil thing being able to hurt him," 
 
 The power of the book of Tehuti (that is, of the Book 
 of the Dead), it is said in one place, is the cause of the 
 triumph of Osiris over his ghostly enemies. And in 
 very many places the Osiris bases his claims on the 
 simple fact of knowing the names of the gods whom he 
 addresses, or of the localities in the divine world which 
 he inhabits. 
 
 The superstitious repetition of names (many of 
 which perhaps never had any meaning at all) is parti- 
 cularly conspicuous in numerous documents much more 
 recent than the Book of the Dead ; from the time, in 
 fact, of the eighteenth dynasty down to Christian times. 
 But the last chapters of the Turin copy of the Book of 
 the Dead, which, though really no portion of it, are 
 probably very ancient, already indulge in this gross 
 superstition. ^^ Iruka is thy name, Markata is thy 
 name, Euta is thy name, Nasakaba is thy name, Tanasa- 
 tanasa is thy name, Sharusatakata is thy name." 
 
194 LECTURE V. 
 
 Moral Doctrine. 
 
 From rubbish like this, which is only worthy of the 
 spells of vulgar conjurors, it is pleasant to pass to the 
 moral doctrines of the Book of the Dead, which are 
 the same which were recognized in the earliest times. 
 ISTo one could pass to the blissful dwellings of the dead 
 who had failed at the judgment passed in presence of 
 Osiris. No portion of the Book of the Dead is so 
 generally known as the picture which represents the 
 deceased person standing in the presence of the goddess 
 Maat, who is distinguished by the ostrich-feather upon 
 her head; she holds a sceptre in one hand and the 
 symbol of life^ in the other. The man's heart, which 
 represents his entire moral nature, is being weighed in 
 the balance in presence of Osiris, seated upon his throne 
 as judge of the dead. The second scale contains the 
 image of Maat. Horus is watching the indicator of 
 the balance, and Tehuti, the god of letters, is writing 
 down the result. Eorty-two divinities are represented 
 in a line above the balance. These gods correspond 
 to the same number of sins which it is their office to 
 punish. It is with reference to these sins and the 
 
 1 Let me protest in this place against the stupid and utterly- 
 unfounded identification of this symbol of life with phallic emblems. 
 "When the E^^yptians meant to represent anything phallic, they did 
 so in such a way as to leave no doubt as to their meaning. 
 
THE RELIGIOUS BOOKS OF EGYPT. 195 
 
 virtues to which they are opposed that the examination 
 of the deceased chiefly consists. 
 
 The hundred and twenty-fifth chapter is entitled, 
 ^^ Book of entering into the Hall of the Two-fold Maat :^ 
 the person parts from his sins that he may see the 
 divine faces.'' The deceased begins: ^'Hail to you, 
 ye lords of the Two-fold Maat, and hail to thee, great 
 god, lord of the Two-fold Maat ! I have come to thee, 
 my lord, I have brought myself to see thy glories. . . . 
 I know thy name, and I know the names of thy forty- 
 two gods who are with thee in the Hall of the Two-fold 
 Maat, who live by the punishment of the wicked, and 
 devour their blood on that day of weighing the words 
 in presence of Unnefer, the triumphant." A good deal 
 which follows in the Turin copy is not contained in all 
 the manuscripts. But the following extracts deserve 
 mention. '' I have brought you Law,^ and subdued for 
 you iniquity. I am not a doer of fraud and iniquity 
 against men. I am not a doer of that which is crooked 
 
 1 Mcud is here and elsewhere put in the dual. The reason of 
 this is not quite clear. The word used to be translated "the two 
 Truths;" according to M. de Rouge, "la double Justice." Dr. 
 Ludwig Stern argues from the analogy of other Eastern expressions 
 that the dual form here signifies " Right and Wrong." I rather 
 adhere to M. Grebaut's view, that the realm of Maat, being traversed 
 by the sun, is thereby divided, like heaven and earth, into two 
 
 " The kings of Egypt are constantly represented with the image 
 or emblem of Maat in their hands as a religious ofiering. 
 
 o2 
 
196 LECTURE V. 
 
 in place of that whicli is right. I am not cognizant of 
 iniquity ; I am not a doer of evil. I do not force a 
 labouring man to do more than his daily task. ... I do 
 not calumniate a servant to his master ; I do not cause 
 hunger; I do not cause weeping ; I am not a murderer; 
 I do not give order to murder privily ; I am not guilty 
 of fraud against any one ; I am not a falsifier of the 
 
 measures in the temples I do not add to the 
 
 weight of the scale ; I do not falsify the indicator of 
 the balance ; I do not withhold milk from the mouth 
 of the suckling." The catalogue of the forty-two sins, 
 each of which has an avenging deity, includes some of 
 those I have quoted and omits others. The sins are 
 not catalogued according to any scientific arrangement. 
 Besides the crimes of violence and theft, different sins 
 against chastity are mentioned ; not only evil-speakiDg 
 and lying, but exaggeration, chattering and idle words 
 are condemned ; he who reviles the king, his father or 
 his god, the evil listener and he who turns a deaf 
 ear to the words of truth or justice, he who causes 
 pain of mind to another, or who in his heart thinks 
 meanly of God — all these fail to satisfy the condi- 
 tions of admission into the ranks of the triumphant 
 dead. 
 
 The 125th chapter of the Book of the Dead certainly 
 contains the oldest known code of private and public 
 morality. The fifteenth chapter, which is a hymn to 
 the rising and to the setting Sun, is the most ancient 
 
THE RELIGIOUS BOOXS OF EGYPT. 197 
 
 piece of poetry in the literature of the world. ^ The 
 seventeenth chapter is not less remarkable. It con- 
 sists, as Bunsen says,^ -^ of short and obscure ejacula- 
 tions, and of glosses and commentaries upon this text ; " 
 ^'of an original sacred hymn, interspersed with such 
 glosses or scholia as must have been collected by a 
 vast number of interpreters. This is identical with 
 saying that the record was at that time no longer 
 intelligible. Yet the text of the whole chapter is 
 written, not only in the Turin papyrus, but on the 
 coffin of the eleventh dynasty. Add to this that the 
 text thus confounded in every verse with its glosses is 
 written so confusedly, both on the coffin and in the 
 papyrus, that the scholia are jumbled into wrong 
 
 spaces Suppose a psalm of the Hebrew text to 
 
 have been copied on a royal monument with a whole 
 catena of commentaries and glossaries, but copied uno 
 tenore^ without distinction of text and notes. Such 
 exactly is the state of the Egyptian record." Since 
 Eunsen wrote, considerable light has been thrown upon 
 the chapter. M. de Eoug^ has translated the chapter, 
 after having carefully collated all the manuscripts 
 accessible to him, and has learnedly commented upon 
 both the original texts and the glosses.^ Lepsius has 
 
 1 M. Lefebure has published a critical edition, with a translation 
 and commentary. 
 
 2 " Egypt's Place in Universal History," Vol. V. pp. 89, 90. 
 Etudes sur la Rituel Faneraire des anciens Egyptiens," 1860. 
 
 3 a 
 
198 LECTURE V. 
 
 greatly added to our knowledge by publishing two 
 texts of the chapter copied from coffins of the ancient 
 empire, with his learned annotations.^ The whole of 
 the chapter is important, but the most interesting por- 
 tion is the beginning of it, which may be thus trans- 
 lated: ''I am Tmu, who have made heaven, and have 
 created all the things which are ; and I exist alone, 
 rising out of Nu. I am Ea with his diadem, when he 
 began the kingdom which he made." The gloss asks, 
 *^What is this?" and the answer is, that '^Ea began 
 to exercise his sovereignty when as yet there was no 
 firmament, and when he was on the height of Am- 
 chemun, for then he established the children of inert- 
 ness^ upon the height of Am-chemun." The meaning 
 of this is, that there was a time of chaos when no dis- 
 tinction as yet existed between earth and sky. But 
 the kingdom of Ea was already established, and in his 
 reign the firmament was raised, and certain personages, 
 called the children of inertness, were established (as 
 gods, according to one reading) on the height of 
 Am-chemun, where Ea himself had resided before. 
 
 1 " Aelteste Texte des Todtenbuchs," 1867. 
 
 2 " Fils de la revolte," according to M. de Eouge. There are two 
 words which are sometimes confounded, even in Egyptian texts, 
 heshet and hetesh. They may be etymologically connected by meta- 
 thesis (the first is even sometimes written shebet), for both mean 
 " stretch out ;" the former, however, in active opposition, the second 
 in helplessness. Betesh has some of the meanings of the Hebrew 
 ro.W, cessavit, desiit ; hence dcsidia, interpellatio operis. 
 
THE RELIGIOUS BOOKS OF EGYPT. 199 
 
 Chemun is the Egyptian name of Hermopolis, but it 
 also signifies the number Eight. The '' children of 
 inertness" are the elementary forces of nature, which 
 according to Egyptian ideas were eight in number. 
 These elements, born out of chaos or inertness, hence- 
 forth became active, and were made to rule the world 
 under Ea as the demiurgus.^ 
 
 The text proceeds — "I am the great God, self- 
 existent;" but a longer recension adds, ^^that is to 
 say the Water, that is to say Nu, the father of the 
 gods." According to a gloss, the self-existent god is 
 Ea Nu, the father of the gods, and other glosses speak 
 of Ea as ^^ creating his name as lord of all the gods, or 
 as producing his limbs, which become the gods who 
 are in his company." Besides this cosmology, the 
 chapter contains a number of interesting details on the 
 mythology and on the symbolism which is connected 
 with it; as, for instance, that the ithyphallic god Amesi 
 is Horus, the avenger of his father, and that the two 
 feathers upon his head are the twin sisters Isis and 
 ^Nephthys.^ 
 
 The sixty-fourth chapter is scarcely less interesting ; 
 but in spite of the excellent labours of M. Guyesse, 
 who has carefully edited and translated several recen- 
 sions of it, much remains to be done before it can be 
 
 1 See the excellent article of M. Xaville in the Zeitschriff, 1874, 
 p. 57. 
 
 2 There are other glosses at variance with tliis interpretation. 
 
200 LECTURE V. 
 
 made tlioronghly intelligible, not only to the public at 
 large, but to jirofessional scholars. Tradition, as repre- 
 sented by the rubrics of the chapter, assigned the dis- 
 covery of this document either to the time of king 
 Menkaura, according to some manuscripts, or to that of 
 king Septi of the first dynasty. The chapter is twice 
 copied on the sarcophagus of the queen of the eleventh 
 dynasty, and in one of the copies king Septi' s name is 
 given ; the other copy follows the tradition in favour 
 of king Menkaura, though the scribe has blundered 
 about the name, and inserted that of Mentuhotep, 
 which is the royal name to which the cofiin itself 
 belongs. The 130th chapter is also said to have been 
 found in the palace of king Septi. It is very doubtful 
 whether these traditions rest upon any authentic basis. 
 
 Other Sacred Books. 
 
 As the Book of the Dead is the most ancient, so it 
 is undoubtedly the most important of the sacred books 
 of the Egyptians. Other works are interesting to the 
 archaeologist, and require to be studied by those who 
 desire to have minute and accurate knowledge of the 
 entire mythology, but they are extremely wearisome 
 and repulsive to all whose aim extends beyond mere 
 erudition. I am not now referring to hymns and other 
 private compositions (found in papyri or on the walls 
 of tombs and temples), some of which I shall have 
 
THE RELIGIOUS BOOKS OF EGYPT. 201 
 
 occasion to speak of in the next Lecture, but to the 
 books which were evidently recognized as having 
 public and, if I may say so, canonical authority. 
 Those which are best known have reference to the 
 passage of the sun through the twelve hours of the 
 night. That part of the world which is below the 
 earth and visited by the sun after his setting, is called 
 the Tuat. The bark of the sun is represented as pro- 
 ceeding over a river called the Uranes, through fields 
 cultivated by the departed. The whole space is divided 
 into twelve parts, separated by gates. The ^^Book of 
 that which is in the Tuat^' contains a short description 
 of these twelve divisions, their names, the names of the 
 hours of the night, of the gates and of the gods belong- 
 ing to each locality, and it states the advantages to be 
 derived from a knowledge of these names, and also 
 from the due observance upon earth by the living of 
 the rites due to the departed. It is said, for instance, 
 that if these rites are conducted em shes madt^ "with 
 the strict accuracy of Law," the honoui^s paid to him 
 on earth are transmitted to him in the lower world. 
 If he knows the names of the gods he encounters, no 
 harm will come to him. The papyri which contain 
 this composition are always illustrated ; the text is 
 indeed in great part simply descriptive of the picture 
 to which it refers. 
 
 Yery similar in its nature is the composition which 
 covers the beautiful alabaster sarcophagus of Seti I. 
 
202 LECTURE V. 
 
 now in the Soane Museum. Other copies of it are 
 known to us. Perhaps the most interesting part of 
 this text is the scene which recognizes men of foreign 
 and hostile races, the Tamehu, the Aamu, and the 
 Negroes, men of the Eed land [Tesheret) as well as 
 those of the Black land [Kmnit^ Egypt), as created 
 and protected by the gods of Egypt. M. L^f^bure 
 has translated this text, and part of his translation has 
 already appeared in the ^'Eecords of the Past."^ 
 
 ^ See also his paper on " Les qiiatre races au Jugement Dernier," 
 in the fourth volume of the Transactions of the Society of Biblical 
 Literature, 
 
RELIGIOUS BOOKS AND HYMNS : 
 
 HENOTHEISM, PANTHEISM AND MATEPJALISM, 
 
 Lamentations of Isis and Nephthys. 
 
 The Lamentations of Isis and Nephthys are a poeti- 
 cal composition supposed to be recited by the two 
 sisters of Osiris for the purpose of effecting his resur- 
 rection, but intended to be repeated by two priestly 
 personages over the dead. It has been completely 
 translated for the first time by M. de Horrack. The 
 first section begins with the cries of Isis : 
 
 ^' Come to thine abode, come to thine abode ! God 
 An, come to thine abode ! Thine enemies are no more. 
 gracious Sovereign, come to thine abode! Look 
 at me: I am thy sister who loveth thee. Do not 
 remain far from me, beautiful youth! Come to 
 thine abode, quickly ! quickly ! I see thee no more. 
 My heart is full of sorrow because of thee. Mine eyes 
 seek after thee. I seek to behold thee : will it be long 
 ere I see thee ? will it be long ere I see thee ? Be- 
 
204 LECTURE VI. 
 
 holding thee is happiness (Ms) ; god An, beholding 
 thee is happiness. Unnefer the triumphant; come to 
 thy sister, come to thy wife (bis). thou whose heart 
 is motionless, come to thy spouse. I am thy sister by 
 thy mother ; do not separate from me. Gods and men 
 turn their faces towards thee, weeping together for 
 thee, whenever they behold me. I call thee in my 
 lamentations even to the heights of heaven, and thou 
 hearest not my voice. I am thy sister who loveth thee 
 •upon earth ; no one else hath loved thee more than I^ 
 thy sister, thy sister !" 
 
 Then l^ephthys takes up the strain : 
 
 ^' gracious Sovereign, come to thine abode ! Ee- 
 joice; all thine enemies are annihilated. Thy two 
 sisters are near thee, protecting thy funeral bed ; call- 
 ing thee in weeping, thee who art prostrate on thy 
 funeral bed. Speak to us, supreme Euler, our Lord. 
 Chase all the anguish which is in our hearts," &e. 
 
 In the invocations of which this book chiefly con- 
 sists, protection is said to be afforded to the body of 
 Osiiis, that is, of the deceased person, by various gods 
 in succession : by Isis, Nephthys, Tehuti, Neith, the 
 divine mother of Osiris, and the children of Horus. 
 
 The last invocation is as follows : ^' Come and behold 
 thy son Horus as supreme ruler of gods and men. He 
 hath taken possession of the cities and the districts by 
 the greatness of the respect he inspires. Heaven and 
 earth are in awe of him ; the barbarians are in fear of 
 
RELIGIOUS BOOKS AND HYMNS. 205 
 
 him. Thy companions who are gods and men have 
 become his. . . . Thy two sisters are near to thee, offer- 
 ing libations to thy ka; thy son Horus accomplished 
 for thee the funeral offering of bread, of beverages, of 
 oxen and of geese. Tehuti chanteth thy festival songs, 
 invoking thee by his beneficial formulae. The children 
 of Horus are the protection of thy members, benefiting 
 thy soul each day. Thy son Horus saluteth thy name 
 in thy mysterious abode ; the gods hold vases in their ■ 
 hands to make libations to thee. Come to thy com- 
 panions, supreme Euler, our Lord ! Do not separate 
 thyself from them." 
 
 The rubric prescribes that whilst this is recited, two 
 beautiful women are to sit upon the ground, with the 
 names Isis and Nephthys inscribed upon their shoulders. 
 Crystal vases of water are to be placed in their right 
 hands, and loaves of bread made in Memphis in their 
 left hands. 
 
 Book of glorifying Osiris. 
 
 Very similar to these Lamentations is the " Book of 
 glorifying Osiris in Aqerti," contained in a papyrus of 
 the Louvre, which has been published and translated by 
 M. Pierrot. It is also supposed to be recited by Isis 
 and IS'ephthys, and it begins : 
 
 '^Come to thine abode, come to thine abode, god 
 An, come to thine abode ; good bull, the Lord of all 
 men who love thee and all women ; god of the beauti- 
 
206 LECTURE VI. ^ 
 
 ful countenance, who residest in Aqerti. Ancient one 
 among those of the sacred West. Are not all hearts 
 swelling with love of thee, Unnefer ! . . . . Gods and 
 men raise their hands in search of thee, as a son seek- 
 eth his mother. Come to them whose hearts are sick, 
 grant to them to come forth in gladness, that the 
 bands of Horns may exult, and the abodes of Set may 
 fall in fear of thee. Ho ! Osiris, who dwellest among 
 those in Amenti ; I am thy sister Isis ; neither god 
 nor goddess hath done what I have done for thee. I 
 who am a female have done a man's part to give life 
 to thy name upon earth. Thy potent seed within 
 my womb I have set down upon the earth to avenge 
 
 ihee Set yields to his wounds, the partizans of 
 
 Set rejoin him, but the throne of Seb is for thee who 
 art his beloved son." The book continues to speak 
 of the war energetically conducted with the aid of 
 Nephthys and Horus against all the enemies of Osiris. 
 
 The departed, considered as Osiris, is directly identi- 
 fied with the first cause of all things. 
 
 '' Osiris .... thou art the Youth at the horizon 
 of heaven daily, and thine old age is the beginning of 
 all seasons. The Nile cometh at the bidding of thy 
 mouth, giving life to men by the emanations which 
 proceed from thy limbs, who by thy coming causest all 
 
 plants to grow up Osiris, thou art the Lord 
 
 of millions, raising up all wild animals and all cattle ; 
 the creation of all that is proceedeth from thee. To 
 
RELIGIOUS BOOKS AND HYMNS. 207 
 
 thee belongeth all that is upon earth ; to thee all that 
 is in heaven ; to thee all that is in the waters ; to thee 
 belongeth all that is in life or in death; to thee all 
 that is male or female. Thou art the sovereign king 
 of the gods, the prince amid the company of the gods." 
 The text concludes with enumerating a multitude 
 of localities in which Osiris is adored, and is more 
 interesting from a geographical than from a religious 
 point of view. In this composition (the manuscript of 
 which belongs to the time of the twenty- sixth dynasty) 
 the only passages which imply any ethical sympathy 
 are these: ^^Thou art the lord of Maat (here signify- 
 ing Eighteousness), hating iniquity The goddess 
 
 Maat is with thee, and the whole day she never with- 
 draweth herself from thee. Iniquity approacheth thee 
 not wherever thou art." 
 
 Book of the Breaths of Life. 
 
 In the later periods, instead of the Book of the 
 Dead, another work, more systematically composed and 
 partly abridged from it, was buried with the dead and 
 placed under the left arm near the heart. This book 
 was called the Shait en sensen, ^^Book of the Breaths 
 of Life, made by Isis for her brother Osiris, for giving 
 new life to his soul and body and renewing all his 
 limbs, that he may reach the horizon with his father 
 the Sun, that his soul may rise to heaven in the disk 
 
208 LECTURE VI. 
 
 of the Moon, that his body may shine in the stars of 
 the constellation Orion, on the bosom of Nut." It 
 might be called a Breviary of the Book of the Dead, 
 all the ideas in it being borrowed from that older col- 
 lection, but the obscurities both in form and in matter 
 are studiously avoided. 
 
 It was first published in the plates to the Travels of 
 Yivant-Denon ; then Brugseh, in an early publication 
 of his, translated it into Latin, calling it the Book of 
 the Metempsychosis of the Ancient Egyptians ; and 
 finally, a critical edition has been given of it, with a 
 French translation, by M. de Horrack. 
 
 Of the many other compendiums, paraphrases and 
 imitations of the Book of the Dead, I shall only men- 
 tion one, and that for the sake of a sort of definition 
 which it gives of the gods. The English language is 
 less suited than Greek or German for the translation 
 of cheper chenti chep diet neb em-chet cheper-seii^ which 
 is literally, ^Hhe Becoming which is in the Becoming 
 of all things when they become." Under this play of 
 words the writer wishes to describe 'Hhe cause of 
 change in everything that changes," and he adds: 
 ^'the mighty ones, the powerful ones, the beneficent, 
 the 7mtrm^ who test by their level the words of men, 
 the Lords of Law (Maat), Hail to you, ye gods, ye 
 associate gods, who are tuithout hody^ who rule that 
 which is born from the earth and that which is pro- 
 duced in the house of your cradles [in heaven] 
 
RELIGIOUS BOOKS AND HYMNS. 209 
 
 Ye prototypes of the image of all that exists, ye 
 fathers and mothers of the solar orb, ye forms, ye 
 great ones (uru\ ye mighty ones (dam)j ye strong ones 
 (nufriu), first company of the gods of Atmu, who 
 generated men and shaped the form of every form, ye 
 lords of all things : hail to you, ye lords of eternity 
 and everlasting !'' 
 
 The author of this composition, the text of which 
 has only been published quite recently,^ and was quite 
 unknown to me when I delivered my third Lecture, 
 has evidently the same conception of the gods of Egypt 
 as that which I inferred from the scattered utterances 
 we come across in the course of the national literature. 
 The gods of Egypt are the " mighty ones," the forces 
 acting throughout the universe, in heaven and on 
 earth, according to fixed and unchangeable law, for ever 
 and ever. 
 
 Rhind Papyri. 
 
 A still more recent book is one which was disco- 
 vered by Mr. Ehind at Thebes. The papyri are of 
 the Eoman period, and they are bilingual. The upper 
 portion of each page is in the ancient language, 
 written in hieratic characters; the lower contains a 
 
 1 Wiedemann, Hieratische Texte aus den Museen zu Berlin und 
 Paris; Leipzig, 1879, Taf. 1. This text is from the Louvre papyrus 
 3283, of which a notice is found in Deveria's ** Catalogue des Manu- 
 scrits Egyptiens," p. 1 43. 
 
 P 
 
210^ LECTUEE YI. 
 
 translation into the vernacular language of Egypt in 
 tlie time of Augustus, and this is written in demotic 
 characters. The form of this work is quite unlike that 
 of the Book of the Dead, but the ideas remain unchanged. 
 The same view of the world beyond the grave, and of 
 the gods who influence the destiny of the departed, 
 prevails to the last. The actual deification of the de- 
 parted is not perpetually dwelt upon, but it is distinctly 
 recognized. ^'Thou art the eldest brother among the 
 five gods to whom thou art going" (Osiris is called in 
 the Book of the Dead the eldest of the ^ve gods of the 
 family of Seb). '' thou august child of the gods 
 and goddesses, thou king of the gods and men, who 
 art king of the Tuat," that is, of the nether world. 
 And there is the same disregard of consistency as in 
 the older times, for the departed is spoken of, almost in 
 the same sentence, as one of those who are in the service 
 of Osiris, whom he addresses, ^^ my lord and father 
 Osiris!" 
 
 Mag-ical Literature.^ 
 
 One of the chief differences between the earlier and 
 the more recent formularies is, that the latter are simply 
 
 1 The authorities to be consulted on this subject are : 
 Chabas, " Papyrus Magique Harris." 
 
 Birch, "Egyptian Magical Text," in "Eecords of the Past," Vol. 
 YI. p. 113. 
 
 Pleyte, "Etudes Egyptologiques," and "Papyrus de Turin." 
 
RELIGIOUS BOOKS AND HYMNS. 211 
 
 said over the deceased, instead of being intended to be 
 said by him. Hence the absence of the constant per- 
 sonification of the gods by the dead, and the utterance 
 in their names of words of power. This assimilation 
 to divinity, which appears to be the most potent means 
 of overcoming all dangers and disasters after death, was 
 equally resorted to for the purpose of triumphing over 
 all the dangers and disasters of the present life. The 
 metaphysical axiom, that every effect has its cause, 
 the Egyptians conceived in another way ; namely, that 
 everything that happened was owing to the action of 
 some divinity. They believed therefore in the incessant 
 intervention of the gods ; and their magical literature 
 is based on the notion of frightening one god by the 
 terrors of a more powerful divinity, either by prayer 
 placing a person under the protection of this divinity, 
 or by the person actually assuming its name and autho- 
 rity. Disease and pain being caused by the interven- 
 tion of some god, the efficacy of the medicines which 
 are taken is owing chiefly to the prayers or incantations 
 
 Ebers, " Papyros Ebers, das Hermetische Buch iiber die Arznei- 
 mittel der alten Aegypten." 
 
 Goodwin, " Graeco-Egyptian Fragment on Magic," in the Publi- 
 cations of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society. 
 
 A good many extracts from magical works will be found in 
 Brugsch's " Grammaire Demotique," and some entire compositions 
 are translated by M. Maspero in his " Etudes Demotiques," pub- 
 lished in the Recueil de travaux relatifs a la phihAo'jie et a Varche- 
 ologie egyptiennes et assyrienncs. 
 
 p2 
 
212 LECTURE VI. 
 
 which are said over them. Isis is the great enchantress, 
 and she delivers the sick and suffering from the gods 
 and goddesses who afflict them, even as she delivered 
 her son Horus from his wounds received in his battle 
 with Set. The sun-god Ea had himself been ill, and 
 the gods Shu, Tefnut, Seb, ISTut and Isis, had prepared 
 medicine for him. Even when no medicines are taken, 
 palm-sprigs may serve as a charm, if a formula be 
 pronounced relative to the palm-branch with which 
 Horus defended himself against Set, and if Isis, the 
 mother of Horus, be invoked. But sometimes the 
 speaker boldly says, '^I am Anubis, the son of IN'eph- 
 thys ; I am Anubis, the son of Ea ; I am Horus, I am 
 Amon, I am Mentu, I am Set." Sometimes threats are 
 uttered. The person using the spell relies upon his 
 knowledge, and consequently on his power of revealing 
 mysterious secrets. " JN"., son of IS"., is the messenger 
 of Ea. . . . He is the messenger of every god and every 
 goddess, and he utters the proclamation of Tehuti. 
 IN"., son of N., knows the mysterious chest which is in 
 Heliopolis, and all the hidden things of Heliopolis." 
 ^' If he who is in the waters opens his mouth, ... I will 
 cause the earth to fall into the sea, the south to be 
 changed into the north, and the whole world to be over- 
 turned." There is a terrible spell in behaK of a lady 
 in childbirth. The lady is first identified with Isis, 
 and the gods are invoked to prepare a place for her 
 delivery. They are told that, in case of their not doing 
 
RELIGIOUS BOOKS AND HYMNS. 213 
 
 SO, "You shall be undone, you cycle of the gods; 
 there shall no longer be any earth; there shall no 
 longer be the five supplementary days of the year; 
 there shall be no more any offerings to the gods, lords 
 of Ileliopolis. There shall be a smking of the southern 
 sky, and disasters shall come from the sky of the north ; 
 there shall be cries from the tomb ; the midday sun 
 shall no longer shine; the ISTile shall not furnish its 
 waters at its wonted time. It is not I who say this ; 
 it is not I who repeat it ; it is Isis who speaketh ; she 
 it is who repeateth it." 
 
 The very same kind of threats are spoken of by 
 Porphyry, about 270 A.D., as mentioned by Chaere- 
 mon, a sacerdotal scribe in the first century, and affirmed 
 by him to be of potent efficacy. " What a height of 
 madness," says Porphyry, '^does it not imj^ly in the 
 man who thus threatens what he neither understands 
 nor is able to perform, and what baseness does it not 
 attribute to the beings who are supposed to be fright- 
 ened by these vain bugbears and figments, lil^e silly 
 children!" An Egyptian priest of the name of Ab- 
 ammon is introduced in the work of Jamblichos as 
 replying to the objections of Porphyry. He distin- 
 guishes between the gods, properly speaking, and the 
 5ai/xoi/€9, who are subordinate ministers, and he says that 
 it is to the latter alone that threats are used. And the 
 authority of the theurgist he derives fi'om identification 
 with the divinity. But the days of the Egyptian reli- 
 
214 LECTURE VI. 
 
 gion were already numbered when the book of Jambli- 
 chos was written. Constantine was reigning, and the 
 gods of Egypt were ah^eady being deserted by their 
 worshippers, who transferred their deyotion to Chris- 
 tianity in one of its austerest forms. A very few years 
 after the work of Jamblichos was written, the emperor 
 Yalens issued an edict against the monks of Egypt, 
 and a detachment of cavalry and infantry, consisting of 
 three thousand men, was sent into the desert of Nitria 
 to compel the able-bodied ascetics who had retired 
 thither to enlist in the imperial armies. In the next 
 generation. Gibbon tells us, " The stately and popular 
 city of Oxyrinchus, the seat of Christian orthodoxy, 
 had devoted the temples, the public edifices and even 
 the ramparts, to pious and charitable uses; and the 
 bishop who might preach in twelve churches computed 
 10,000 females and 20,000 males of the monastic pro- 
 fession. The Egyptians, who gloried in this marvellous 
 revolution, were disposed to hope and to believe that 
 the number of monks was equal to the remainder of 
 the people. '^ 
 
 We have unfortunately no history of the gradual 
 conversion of the Egyptians to Christianity. But when 
 we compare the notions of the Divinity as contained in 
 the authorized books of Egyptian theology with those 
 which we ourselves hold, we cannot but ask whether 
 so intelligent a people never came nearer to the truth 
 than their most recent books would appear to show. 
 
RELIGIOUS BOOKS AND HYMNS. 215 
 
 What, then, do we mean by God ? I will not venture 
 to use my own words, but will use those of one of the 
 greatest masters of the English language. 
 
 True Notion of God. 
 
 ^^I mean, then, by the Supreme Being, one who is 
 simply self-dependent, and the only Being who is such ; 
 moreover, that he is without beginning, or eternal; 
 that in consequence he has lived a whole eternity by 
 himself; and hence that he is all-sufficient, sufficient 
 for his own blessedness, and all-blessed, and ever- 
 blessed. Further, I mean a Being who, having these 
 prerogatives, has the supreme Good, or rather is the 
 supreme Good, or has all the attributes of Good in infi- 
 nite intenseness ; all wisdom, all truth, all justice, all 
 love, all holiness, all beautif ulness ; who is omnipotent, 
 omniscient, omnipresent; ineffably one, absolutely per- 
 fect ; and such that what we do not know, and cannot even 
 imagine of him, is far more wonderful than what we do 
 and can. I mean, moreover, that he created all things 
 out of nothing, and preserves them every moment, and 
 could destroy them as easily as he made them; and 
 that in consequence he is separated from them by an 
 abyss, and is incommunicable in all his attributes. And 
 farther, he has stamped upon all things, in the hour of 
 their creation, their respective nature, and has given 
 them their work and mission, and their length of days, 
 
216 LECTURE VI. 
 
 greater or less, in their appointed place. I mean, too, 
 that he is ever present with his works, one by one, 
 and confronts everything he has made by his particular 
 and most loving Providence, and manifests himself to 
 each according to its needs ; and has on rational beings 
 imprinted the moral law, and given them power to 
 obey it, imposing on them the duty of worship and 
 service, searching and scanning them through and 
 through with his omniscient eye, and putting before 
 them a present trial and a judgment to come." 
 
 Now, as I carefully examine each paragraph of this 
 beautiful passage (in which many will at once recognize 
 the language of John Henry Newman),^ I am obliged 
 to acknowledge that single parallel passages to match 
 can be quoted from Egyptian far more easily than 
 either from Greek or from Eoman religious literature. 
 I am not speaking of philosophy, which both in Greece 
 and Eome was generally subversive of the popular 
 religion. Where shall we find a heathen Greek or 
 Latin saying like that of a papyrus on the staircase of 
 the British Museum : " The great God, Lord of heaven 
 and of -earth, who made all things which are"? Or 
 where shall we find such a prayer in heathen Greek or 
 Eoman times as this : ''0 my God and Lord, who 
 hast made me, and formed me, give me an eye to see 
 and an ear to hear thy glories"? On the other hand, 
 
 ^ "Idea of a Univt'iyity," p. 60 and luUowiiig. 
 
 i 
 
RELIGIOUS BOOKS AND HYMNS. 217 
 
 passages like these are constantly accompanied by 
 others in which the old polytheistic language is used 
 without hesitation. Some phrases, again, are ambi- 
 guous, and if their true sense be a good one, the 
 popular interpretation may be a bad one. ^N'o words 
 can more distinctly express the notion of '^self-existent 
 Eeing" than chepera cheper fesef^ words which very 
 frequently occur in Egy]3tian religious texts. Eut the 
 word chepera signifies scarahaeus as well as heingj and 
 the scarabaeus was in fact an object of worship, as a 
 symbol of divinity. How many Egyptians accepted 
 the words in a sense which we ourselves should adaiit 
 to be correct? Was there really, as is frequently 
 asserted, an esoteric doctrine known to the scribes and 
 priests alone, as distinct from the popular belief? !N'o 
 evidence has yet been produced in favour of this 
 hypothesis. 
 
 Henotheism. 
 
 The nature of Henotheism as distinct from Mono- 
 theism was explained in last year's Lectures as a phase 
 of religious thought in which the individual gods 
 invoked are not conceived as limited by the power of 
 others. '*Each god is to the mind of the suppliant 
 as good as all the gods. He is felt at the time as a 
 real divinity, as supreme and absolute, in spite of the 
 necessary limitations which to our mind a plurality 
 of gods must entail on every single god. All the rest 
 
218 LECTURE VI. 
 
 disappear from the vision, .... and he only who is to 
 fulfil their desires stands in full light before the eyes 
 of the worshippers.'' 1 
 
 This phase of religious thought is chiefly presented 
 to us in a large number of hymns, beginning with the 
 earliest days of the eighteenth dynasty. It is certainly 
 much more ancient, but the literature, properly speak- 
 ing, of the older period is very small. J^one of the 
 hymns of that time have come down to us. 
 
 One of the most interesting hymns to Osiris is en- 
 graved on a funereal tablet now in the Biblioth^que 
 Rationale in Paris, and was published and translated 
 in 1857 by M. Chabas. The ancient date of it is 
 marked by the hammering out of it of the name Amon, 
 during the period of the sun- disk worshippers. It 
 probably belongs to the time of Tehutimes III. 
 
 Osiris is called ^'Lord of eternity, king of the gods, 
 of many names, of holy transformations, of mysterious 
 
 forms in the temples He is the substance of the 
 
 world, Atmu, feeder of beings among the gods, bene- 
 ficent spirit in the abode of spirits. From him the 
 (celestial ocean) Nu derives its waters, from him comes 
 the wind, and respirable air is in his nostrils for his 
 satisfaction and the taste of his heart. For him the 
 ground brings forth its abundance; in obedience to 
 
 ^ Max Miiller, " Lectures on the Origin and Growth of Religion, 
 as illustrated by the Eeligions of India," p. 285. 
 
RELIGIOUS BOOKS AND HYMNS. 219 
 
 him is the tipper heaven and its stars, and he opens 
 the great gates. He is the master of invocations in 
 the southern heavens, and of adorations in the northern 
 heavens; the ever-moving stars are under obedience 
 
 to him, and so are the stars which set He is the 
 
 excellent master of the gods, fair and beloved by all 
 
 who see him He is the eldest, the first of his 
 
 brothers, the chief of the gods ; he it is who maintains 
 law in the universe, and places the son in the seat of 
 
 his father He has made this world with his hands ; 
 
 its waters, its atmosphere, its vegetation, all its flocks, 
 all its flying things, all its flsh, all its reptiles and 
 quadrupeds. . . . His diadem predominates at the zenith 
 of heaven and accompanies the stars ; he is the guide 
 of all the gods. He is beneficent in will and words ; 
 he is the praise of the great gods, and the love of the 
 inferior gods." 
 
 What follows is textually applied to Horus, but it 
 is to Horus considered as Osiris born again, and as the 
 son of the widowed Isis. 
 
 " The gods recognize the universal Lord He 
 
 takes the royalty of the double world ; the crown of 
 the south is fixed upon his head. He judges the world 
 according to his will; heaven and earth are in subjec- 
 tion to him ; he giveth his commands to men, to the 
 generations present, past and futm^e, to Egyptians and 
 to sti-angers. The circuit of the solar orb is under 
 his direction ; the winds, the waters, the wood of the 
 
220 LECTURE VI. 
 
 plants and all vegetables. A god of seeds, Le givetli 
 all herbs and the abundance of the soil. He affordeth 
 plentifulness, and giveth it to all the earth. All men 
 are in ecstacy, all hearts in sweetness, all bosoms in 
 joy, every one in adoration. Every one glorifieth his 
 goodness ; his tenderness encircles our hearts ; great is 
 his love in all bosoms.''' ^ 
 
 An ancient text now in the British Museum is in 
 so mutilated a condition that it is in many places quite 
 illegible. There is one passage in it which refers either 
 to Tehuti or to Ptah. Of this god it is said that " he 
 gave birth to the gods, he made towns and organized 
 provinces. . . . All things proceed from him. The divine 
 word is made for those who love and for those who 
 hate it; it gives life to the righteous, and it gives 
 death to the unjust. To him is due the work of the 
 hands, the walking of the feet, the sight of the eyes, 
 the hearing of the ears, the breathing of the nostrils, 
 the fortitude of heart, the vigour of hand, activity in 
 body and in mouth of all the gods and men and of all 
 living animals, intelligence and speech ; whatever is in 
 the heart and whatever is on the tongue." 
 
 ^'Ilail to thee, Tehuti," says the tablet of Hor-em- 
 
 ^ The "Kecords of the Past" give the translation of this hymn, 
 and of some of the others which are here quoted. I have in these 
 Lectures availed myself freely of the existing translations, but have 
 not scrupled to introduce important alterations, for which no one but 
 myself is responsible. 
 
RELIGIOUS BOOKS AND HYMNS. 221 
 
 heb in the British Museum, ^^Lord of Hermopolis, 
 self-existent, without birth, sole God, who regulatcst 
 the nether world and givest laws to those who are in 
 the Amenti, and to those who are in the service of Ea." 
 
 ^^Hail to thee," we read in another hymn, '^Ea- 
 Tmu-Horus of the double horizon, the one God, living 
 by Maat, who makest all things which are, who createst 
 all that exists of beasts and men proceeding from thine 
 eyes. Lord of heaven. Lord of earth, who makest 
 those who are below and those who are above. Lord of 
 
 all King of heaven. Lord of all gods. supreme 
 
 King, amid the society of the gods, almighty God, 
 self-existent, two-fold substance, existing from the 
 beginning." 
 
 In a papyrus at Turin, the following words are put 
 into the mouth of ^' the almighty God, the self -existent, 
 who made heaven and earth, the waters, the breaths of 
 life, fire, the gods, men, animals, cattle, reptiles, birds, 
 fishes, kings, men and gods" [in accordance with one 
 
 single thought] ^^ I am the maker of heaven and 
 
 of the earth. I raise its mountains and the creatures 
 which are upon it ; I make the waters, and the Meh- 
 
 ura comes into being I am the maker of heaven, 
 
 and of the mysteries of the two-fold horizon. It is I 
 who have given to all the gods the soul which is 
 within them. When I open my eyes, there is light ; 
 
 when I close them, there is darkness I make 
 
 the hours, and the hours come into existence. I am 
 
222 LECTURE VI. 
 
 Chepera in the morning, Ea at noon, Tmu in the eve- 
 ning." 
 
 Another text says, ^^I am yesterday, I am to-day, 
 I am to-morrow." 
 
 "Hail to thee, Ptah-tanen, great god who con- 
 eealeth his form, .... thou art watching when at rest ; 
 
 the father of all fathers and of all gods Watcher, 
 
 who traversest the endless ages of eternity. The heaven 
 was yet uncreated, uncreated was the earth, the water 
 flowed not ; thou hast put together the earth, thou hast 
 united thy limbs, thou hast reckoned thy members; 
 what thou hast found apart, thou hast put into its 
 place ; God, architect of the world, thou art without 
 a father, begotten by thine own becoming; thou art 
 without a mother, being born through repetition of 
 thyself. Thou drivest away the darkness by the beams 
 of thine eyes. Thou ascendest into the zenith of heaven, 
 and thou comest down even as thou hast risen. When 
 thou art a dweller in the infernal world, thy knees are 
 above the earth, and thine head is in the upper sky. 
 Thou sustainest the substances which thou hast made. 
 It is by thine own strength that thou movest ; thou art 
 raised up by the might of thine own arms. Thou 
 weighest upon thyself, kept firm by the mystery which 
 is in thee. The roaring of thy voice is in the cloud ; 
 thy breath is on the mountain-tops ; the waters of the 
 
 inundation cover the lofty trees of every region 
 
 Heaven and earth obey the commands which thou hast 
 
RELIGIOUS BOOKS AND HYMNS. 223 
 
 given ; tliey travel by the road which thou hast laid 
 down for them; they transgress not the path which 
 thou hast prescribed to them, and which thou hast 
 
 opened to them Thou restest, and it is night ; 
 
 when thine eyes shine forth, we are illuminated 
 
 let us give glory to the God who hath raised up the 
 sky, and who causeth his disk to float over the bosom 
 of JSTut, who hath made the gods and men and all their 
 generations, who hath made all lands and countries, 
 and the great sea, in his name of ^Let-the-earth-be !' 
 .... The babe who is brought forth daily, the ancient 
 one who has reached the limits of time, the immovable 
 one who traverses every path, the height which cannot 
 be attained." 
 
 A beautiful hymn (written, it is expressly stated, 
 for the harp), preserved in two MSS. now in the 
 British Museum, identifies the Mle with Ea, Amon, 
 Ptah and other gods, and even with the maker and 
 creator of all things. 
 
 ^^Bringer of food! gi^eat lord of provisions, creator 
 of all good things. Lord of terrors and of chiefest 
 joys ! all are combined in him. He produceth grass 
 
 for the oxen ; providing victims for every god 
 
 He filleth the granaries, enricheth the storehouses ; he 
 careth for the state of the poor. He causeth growth 
 to fulfil all desires— he never wearies of it. He maketh 
 his might a buckler. He is not graven in marble as 
 an image bearing the double crown. He is not beheld ; 
 
224 LECTURE VI. 
 
 he hath neither ministrant nor offerings; he is not 
 adored in sanctuaries; his abode is not known; no 
 shrine [of his] is found with painted figures. There is 
 
 no building that can contain him XJnkno^vn is 
 
 his name in heaven ; he doth not manifest his forms ! 
 Vain are all representations." Yet the last of these 
 passages, which would seem to have reference to the 
 purest worship of one God, is preceded by lines which 
 speak simply of the Nile inundation and of the offerings 
 made to it, oxen slain and great festivals celebrated. 
 
 But it is chiefly in honour of Amon^ that we find 
 hymns full of expressions closely approaching the lan- 
 guage of Monotheism. This pre-eminence which Amon 
 enjoys in the literature we have recovered, arises no 
 doubt chiefly from the fact of his being the principal 
 divinity at Thebes, and consequently of the great capi- 
 tal of Egypt during its most splendid period. Amon 
 himself, according to the popular mythology, was not 
 without a beginning. His legend relates that every 
 year he left his temple at Karnak, and paid a visit to 
 the valley of the dead, and poured a libation of lustral 
 water upon a table of propitiation to his father and 
 mother. Yet he is identified with the supreme and 
 uncreated Being in hymns such as that (now in the 
 
 ^ He is called in the temple of Seti at Qurnah "the Lord of 
 lords, King of the gods, the father of fathers, the powerful of the 
 powerful, the substance which was from the beginning." Denkm. 
 iii. 150. 
 
RELIGIOUS BOOKS AND HYMNS. 225 
 
 IVIuseum at Bulaq) from which the following extracts 
 are made. 
 
 ^^Hail to thee, Amon Ea, Lord of the thrones of 
 the earth, .... the ancient of heaven, the oldest of 
 the earth. Lord of all existences, the support of things, 
 the support of all things. The One in his works, 
 single among the gods ; the beautiful bull of the cycle 
 of the gods ; chief of all the gods ; Lord of truth, 
 father of the gods ; maker of men, creator of beasts, 
 maker of herbs, feeder of cattle, good power begotten 
 of Ptah, .... to whom the gods give honour. Maker 
 of things below and above, enlightener of the earth, sail- 
 ing in heaven in tranquillity ; king Ea, triumphant one, 
 chief of the earth. Most glorious one. Lord of terror, 
 chief maker of the earth after his image, how great are 
 his thoughts above every god ! Hail to thee, Ea, Lord 
 of law, whose shrine is hidden, Lord of the gods; 
 Chepra in his boat, at whose command the gods were 
 made. Atmu, maker of men, . . . giving them life, . . . 
 listening to the poor who is in distress, gentle of heart 
 when one cries to him. Deliverer of the timid man 
 from the violent, judging the poor, the poor and the 
 oppressed. Lord of wisdom, whose precepts are wise ; 
 at whose pleasure the Nile overflows : Lord of mercy, 
 most loving, at whose coming men live : opener of 
 every eye, proceeding from the firmament, causer of 
 pleasure and light ; at whose goodness the gods rejoice ; 
 their hearts revive when they see him. Ea, adored 
 
 Q 
 
226 LECTURE VI. 
 
 in Thebes, higli crowned in the house of the obelisk 
 (Heliopolis), sovereign of life, health and strength, 
 sovereign Lord of all the gods ; who art visible in the 
 midst of the horizon, ruler of the past generations and 
 the nether world; whose name is hidden from his 
 creatures ; in his name, which is Amon 
 
 ^^The One, maker of all that is; the one, the only 
 one, the maker of existences ; from whose eyes manldnd 
 proceeded, from whose mouth are the gods ; maker of 
 grass for the cattle (oxen, goats, asses, swine and 
 sheep) ; of fruitful trees for men of future generations ; 
 causing the fish to live in the river, the birds to fill 
 the air ; giving breath to those in the egg ; feeding the 
 bird that flies ; giving food to the bird that perches, 
 to the creeping thing and the flying thing alike ; 
 providing food for the rats in their holes; feeding the 
 flying things in every tree. 
 
 ^^Hail to thee for all these things — the one, alone 
 with many hands, lying awake while all men sleep, to 
 seek out the good of his creatures, Amon, sustainer of 
 all things : Tmu and Horus of the horizon pay homage 
 to thee in all their words ; salutation to thee because 
 thou abidest in us, adoration to thee because thou hast 
 created us. 
 
 ^'Hail to thee, say all creatures: salutation to thee 
 from every land; to the height of heaven, to tte 
 breadth of the earth, to the depth of the sea; the 
 gods adore thy majesty, the spirits thou hast created 
 
RELIGTOIJS BOOKS AND HYMNS. 227 
 
 exalt thee, rejoicing before the feet of their begetter; 
 they cry out, Welcome to thee, father of the fathers of 
 all the gods, who raises the heavens, who fixes the earth. 
 IMaker of beings, creator of existences, sovereign of 
 life, health and strength, chief of the gods, we worship 
 thy spirit who alone hast made ns; we whom thou 
 hast made (thank thee) that thou hast given us birth ; 
 we give to thee praises on account of thy abiding in 
 us. 
 
 ^^Hail to thee, maker of all beings. Lord of law, 
 father of the gods; maker of men, creator of beasts; 
 Lord of grains, making food for the beast of the 
 
 field The One alone without a second King 
 
 alone, single among the gods; of many names, un- 
 known is their number." 
 
 Another hymn begins : ^^ I come to thee, Lord of 
 the gods, who hast existed from the beginning, eternal 
 God who hast made all things that are. Thy name be 
 my protection ; prolong my term of life to a good age ; 
 may my son be in my place (after me) ; may my dignity 
 remain with him (and his) for ever, as is done to the 
 righteous, who is glorious in the house of his Lord." 
 
 And it is with reference to Amon that we most fre- 
 quently find evidence of the devotion of the people. 
 Thus the prayer of Eameses II. when in danger : 
 
 ^^ Who then art thou, my father Amon? Doth a 
 father forget his son ? Surely a wretched lot awaiteth 
 him who opposes thy will; but blessed is he who 
 
 q2 
 
228 LECTURE VI. 
 
 knoweth thee, for thy deeds proceed from a heart full 
 of love. I call upon thee, my father Amon ! behold 
 me in the midst of many peoples, unknown to me ; all 
 nations are united against me, and I am alone ; no other 
 is with me. My many soldiers have abandoned me, 
 none of my horsemen hath looked towards me; and 
 when I called them, none hath listened to my voice. 
 But I believe that Amon is worth more to me than a 
 million of soldiers, than a hundred thousand horsemen 
 and ten thousands of brothers and sons, even were 
 they all gathered together. The work of many men is 
 nought ; Amon will prevail over them." 
 
 The same confidence is expressed by humbler men 
 in poems contained in papyri of the British Museum. 
 
 ^^ Oh ! Amon, lend thine ear to him who is alone 
 before the tribunal; he is poor (and not) rich. The 
 court oppresses him ; silver and gold for the clerks of 
 the books, garments for the servants. There is no 
 other Am oil, acting as a judge to deliver one from his 
 misery when the poor man is before the tribunal." 
 
 '^ I cry, the beginning of wisdom is the cry of Amon, 
 the rudder of (truth). Thou art he that giveth bread 
 to him who has none, that sustaineth the servant of 
 his house. Let no prince be my defender in all my 
 troubles. Let not my memorial be placed under the 
 
 power of any man who is in the house My Lord 
 
 is my defender. I know his power, to wit (he is) a 
 strong defender. There is none mighty except him 
 
RELIGIOUS BOOKS AND HYMNS. 229 
 
 alone. Strong is Anion, knowing how to answer^ 
 fulfilling the desire of him who cries to him." 
 
 Another hymn says: ^^Come to me, thou Sun; 
 Horus of the horizon, give me (help) ; thou art he that 
 giveth (help); there is no help without thee, except 
 
 thou givest it Let my desires be fulfilled, let my 
 
 heart be joyful, my inmost heart in gladness. Ilear 
 my vows, my humble supplications every day, my 
 
 adorations by night Horus of the horizon, there 
 
 is no other besides like him, protector of millions, 
 deliverer of hundreds of thousands, the defender of 
 
 him that calls to him Eeproach me not with my 
 
 many sins." 
 
 It is remarkable that a religious reformation at the 
 end of the 18th dynasty in behalf of one god, spent its 
 special wrath upon the name of Amon. The king, 
 whose title would under ordinary circumstances have 
 been Amenhotep TV., set up the worship of a single 
 god whose symbol was the sun-disk; he caused the 
 names of other gods, particularly that of Amon, to be 
 hammered out of inscriptions even when it only occurred 
 in proper names, as in his own, which he changed into 
 C/mt en Aten, " Glory of the Sun-disk." And as Thebes 
 was the great seat of the worship of Amon, he aban- 
 doned it and tried to set up another capital. His 
 reformation lasted but a short time, his own immediate 
 family having abandoned it after his death. All his 
 monuments were destroyed by his successors, yet 
 
230 LECTURE yi. 
 
 several hymns belonging to this short-lived phase of 
 religion have escaped destruction. One of them says : 
 
 '' The whole land of Egypt and all people repeat all 
 thy names at thy rising, to magnify thy rising in like 
 manner as thy setting. Thou, God, who in truth 
 art the living one, standest before the Two Eyes. Thou 
 art he which Greatest what never was, which formest 
 everything, which art in all things : we also have come 
 into being through the word of thy mouth." 
 
 Another says: ^^Thou living God! there is none 
 other beside thee ! Thou givest health to the eyes by 
 thy beams. Creator of all beings. Thou goest up on 
 the eastern horizon of heaven to dispense life to all that 
 thou hast created : to man, to four-footed beasts, birds, 
 and all manner of creeping things on the earth where 
 
 they live Grant to thy son who loves thee, life 
 
 in truth .... that he may live united with thee in 
 eternity.'' 
 
 The language of these hymns and prayers is exactly 
 similar to that of ordinary Egyptian orthodoxy, and 
 there is nothing heterodox in the symbol itself; the 
 heresy consisted in refusing worship to all the other 
 gods. 
 
 Pantheism. 
 
 But the magnificent predicates of the one and only 
 God, however recognized by Egyptian orthodoxy, never 
 in fact led to actual Monotheism. They stopped short 
 
RELIGIOUS BOOKS AND HYMNS. 231 
 
 in Pantheism — namely, in the doctrine that ^^all indi- 
 vidual things are nothing but modifications, affections, 
 of the One and All, the eternal and infinite God- 
 world ; that there is but one universal force in nature 
 in different forms, in itself eternal and unchangeable." 
 
 This doctrine is perhaps most clearly expressed in a 
 hymn upon the walls of the temple in the oasis of El- 
 Khargeh : 
 
 '' The gods salute his royal majesty as their Lord, 
 ■who revealeth himself in all that is, and hath names in 
 everything, from mountain to stream. That which 
 persisteth in all things is Anion. This lordly god was 
 from the very beginning. He is Ptah, the greatest of 
 
 the gods Thy secret is in the depths of the 
 
 secret waters and unknown. Thou hast come on the 
 road, thou hast given light in the path, thou hast 
 overcome all difiiculties in thy mysterious form. Each 
 god has assumed thy aspect; without shape is their 
 type compared to thy form. To thee, all things that 
 are give praise when thou returnest to the nether 
 world at even. Thou raisest up Osiris by the radiance 
 of thy beams. To thee, those give praise who lie in 
 their tombs, .... and the damned rise up in their 
 
 abodes Thou art the Kimg, thine is the kingdom 
 
 of heaven, and the earth is at thy will. The gods are 
 in thine hand, and men are at thy feet. What god is 
 like to thee? Thou hast made the double world, as 
 Ptah. Thou hast placed thy thi'one in the life of the 
 
232 LECTURE VI. 
 
 double world, as Amon. Thy soul is the pillar and the 
 ark of the two heavens. Thy form emanated at first 
 
 whilst thou shinest as Amon, Ea and Ptah Shu, 
 
 Tefnut, ]N"ut and Chonsu are thy form, dwelling in thy 
 shrine under the types of the ithyphallic god, raising 
 
 his tall plumes, king of the gods Thou art Mentu 
 
 Ea. Thou art Sekar ; thy transformations are into the 
 Nile. Thou art Youth and Age. Thou givest life to 
 the earth by thy stream. Thou art heaven, thou art 
 earth, thou art fire, thou art water, thou art air, and 
 whatever is in the midst of them." 
 
 This very remarkable hymn is put in the mouth of 
 the gods of the elements, eight in number, four male 
 and four female. "What these elements are is not 
 perfectly clear. They used to be thought peculiar to 
 the Ptolemaic period, and were then supposed to have 
 been borrowed from the four Greek elements. Earth, 
 Air, Fire and Water, but they have been recognized 
 in much earlier texts. They are, in fact, the eight 
 gods mentioned in the seventeenth chapter of the Book 
 of the Dead, and belong to the oldest cosmogonical 
 part of the religion. This chapter, as we have already 
 seen, speaks of a time when as yet there was no firma- 
 ment, and when these eight divinities were set up as 
 the gods of Hermopolis ; in other words, when chaos 
 disappeared, and the elements began to rule with fixed 
 and unchangeable laws. 
 
 Another hymn, copied by Brugsch at the same tern- 
 
RELIGIOUS BOOKS AND HYMNS. 233 
 
 pie, sings ^' the mysterious names of the God who is 
 immanent in all things (men em xet neh\ the soul of Shu 
 (breath) to all the gods. He is the body of the living 
 man, the creator of the fruit-bearing tree, the author 
 of the inundation ; without him nothing liveth within 
 the circuit of the earth, whether north or south, under 
 his name of Osiris, the giver of light : he is the Horus 
 of the living souls, the living god of the generations 
 yet to come. He is the creator of every animal under 
 his names of Eam of the sheep, god of the goats. Bull 
 
 of the cows He loves the scorpion in his hole ; 
 
 he is the god of the crocodiles who plunge in the 
 water .... he is the god of those who rest in their 
 graves. Amon is an image, Atmu is an image, Che- 
 pera is an image, Ea is an image; he alone maketh 
 himself in millions of ways. He is a great architect, 
 who was from the beginning, who fashioned his body 
 with his own hands, in all forms according to his will. 
 .... Permanent and enduring, he never passeth away. 
 Through millions upon millions of endless years he 
 traverseth the heavens, he compasseth the nether world 
 
 each day He is the moon in the night and king 
 
 of the stars, who maketh the division of seasons, months 
 and years ; he cometh living everlastingly both in his 
 rising and in his setting. There is no other like him ; 
 his voice is heard, but he remains unseen to every 
 creature that breathes. He strengthens the heart of 
 the woman in travail, and gives life to those who are 
 
234 LECTURE VI. 
 
 born from lier He travels in the cloud to sepa- 
 rate heaven and earth, and again to re-nnite them, 
 permanently abiding in all things, the Living One in 
 whom all things live everlastingly.'' 
 
 But the Litanies of Ea which M. I^aville copied 
 from the royal tombs of the 19th dynasty are already 
 pantheistic. All things are represented as mere ema- 
 nations from Ea. The learned editor of these Litanies 
 has not failed to remark that the pantheistic influence 
 of the doctrine has told upon the ethical system, which 
 can hardly be said to exist at all ; whereas the notions 
 of right and wrong, iniquity and sin, are perpetually 
 occurring in the Book of the Dead and in all the 
 ancient inscriptions.^ It is only out of condescension 
 to popular language that pantheistic systems can recog- 
 nize these notions. If everything really emanates from 
 God, there can be no such thing as sin. And the 
 ablest philosophers who have been led to pantheistic 
 views have vainly endeavoured to harmonize these 
 views with what we understand by the notion of sin or 
 moral evil. The great systematic work of Spinoza is 
 entitled '^Ethica," but for real ethics we might as 
 profitably consult the Elements of Euclid. 
 
 ^ " Puisqiie toute chose bonne ou mauvaise emane egalement du 
 Grand Tout, il est clair que la valeur morale du bien est necessaire- 
 ment fort afiaiblie. Nous ne trouvons rien dans ces textes qui 
 rappelle la morale si elevee qu'enseigne le chapitre 125 du Livre des 
 Morts, rien meme qui nous parle de la responsabilite." — La Litcmie 
 du Soleil, p. 128. 
 
RELIGIOUS BOOKS AND HYMNS. 235 
 
 I believe, therefore, that, after closely approaching 
 the point at which polytheism might have turned into 
 monotheism, the religions thought of Egypt turned 
 aside into a wrong track. And this was followed by 
 a decided and hopeless course of retrogression. Those 
 elements of the Egyptian religion which the Greeks 
 and the Jewish and Christian writers looked upon with 
 such disgust, had existed from the first, but in a very 
 subordinate position ; they now became nearly predo- 
 minant. 
 
 There can be no doubt that, from the earliest days, 
 symbolism had played a great part in the religion of 
 Egypt. We are ourselves so familiar with certain 
 symbols in Hebrew or Christian writings, or with the 
 poetic figures which classical literature has brought 
 home to us, that when we meet with symbols of another 
 kind, we are far more shocked than we really have a 
 right to be. We think it natural enough to speak of 
 a hero we venerate as a lion or an eagle, while quite 
 other associations are connected with a fox or a dog. 
 Christians have other associations with the lamb or the 
 dove. But the Egyptians, as far back as we know 
 them, seem to have studied the animal creation with a 
 minute accuracy which only the natural history of our 
 own times can rival. Their symbolism is not necessa- 
 rily the same as ours. Certain characteristics of ani- 
 mals have in the course of ages fixed themselves in our 
 minds, but in this we are simply following a tradition. 
 
236 LECTURE VI. 
 
 Other characteristics of the same animals had impressed 
 the minds of the Egyptians, and their symbolism is 
 based on the peculiar observations made by them. Some 
 of the inscriptions enable us to understand parts of the 
 symbolism. Who of us would like to be called a cro- 
 codile, a jackal, or even a young bull ? Yet the Egyp- 
 tian poet gives these names to Tehutimes III. in a 
 song of triumph, and he at the same time enlightens 
 us as to the meaning of these words : the crocodile is 
 terrible in the waters, and not to be encountered with- 
 out disaster ; the young bull whets his horns, and is 
 not to be attacked without peril; and so on. The 
 ^' bull" is a favourite name for a king or a god. How- 
 ever foreign the symbol may be to our own poetical 
 conceptions, we can easily understand how an ancient 
 agricultural people was impressed by certain qualities 
 of the animal, his might, his courage, the terror he 
 inspires when angry, the protection he affords to the 
 herd, and his marital or paternal relations to it. The 
 rays of the sun and the moon's crescent have at all 
 times suggested the notion of horns. The cow in Egypt, 
 as well as in India, represents the Sky,^ the Dawn 
 and other powers. The hawk was among birds what 
 the bull was among quadrupeds, and they admired his 
 rapid, lofty and unerring flight, the piercing sight 
 
 ^ See Transactions of the Society of Biblical Archaeology, Vol. IV. 
 pi. 1, where the cow has the stars upon its belly. 
 
RELIGIOUS BOOKS AND HYMNS. 23? 
 
 which nothing can escape, and the irresistible grasp of 
 his talons. All this with us is mere poetry, but all 
 early language is poetry. There is nothing more cer- 
 tainly established by the science of language than '' the 
 fact that all words expressive of immaterial conceptions 
 are derived by metaphor from words expressive of 
 sensible ideas." But besides such metaphors as those 
 of which I have just been speaking, and which are 
 intelligible even when translated, there are others 
 which are necessarily peculiar to the language in which 
 they originated. The names of Seb and of Tehuti, as 
 we have seen, were to the Egyptians connected with 
 the names of the goose and the ibis. Anpu (Anubis) 
 ^4s apparently,'' as Mr. Goodwin says, ^Hhe ancient 
 Egyptian name for a jackal." Sebek, one of the names 
 of the Sun-god, is also the name of a kind of crocodile. 
 It is not improbable that the cat, in Egyptian mdu^ 
 became the symbol of the Sun-god, or Day, because 
 the word 7nclu also means light. It is, I think, quite 
 easy to see how the mythological symbolism arose 
 through these varieties of metaphorical language. And 
 this metaphorical language reacted upon thought, and, 
 as in other religions, obtained the mastery. 
 
 The triumph of the symbol over the thought is most 
 sensibly visible in the development of the worship of the 
 Apis Bull. This worship is indeed as old as the age 
 of the Pyramids, but an inspection of the tombs of the 
 bulls in the Serapeum discovered by M. Mariette under 
 
238 LECTURE VI. 
 
 the sands of Saqara, shows how immeasurably greater 
 the devotion to the sacred animals was in the later 
 times than in the former. Dean Stanley ^ has described 
 these 
 
 '^ Long galleries, hewn in the rock and opening from 
 time to time — say every fifty yards — into high-arched 
 vaults, under each of which reposes the most magnifi- 
 cent black marble sarcophagus that can be conceived 
 — a chamber rather than a coffin ^ — smooth and sculp- 
 tured within and without ; grander by far than even 
 the granite sarcophagi of the Theban king, — how much 
 grander than any human sepulchres anywhere else ! 
 And all for the successive corpses of the bull Apis ! 
 These galleries formed part of the great temple of 
 Serapis, in which the Apis mummies were deposited ; 
 and here they lay, not in royal, but in divine state. 
 The walls of the entrances are covered with ex- votes. 
 In one porch there is a painting at full length, black 
 and white, of the Bull himself as he was in life." 
 
 ^N'o one who has seen the tombs of these strange 
 gods can doubt the accounts given by the classical 
 writers as to the extravagant expenses incurred at a 
 single funeral. But if one of the funerals of an Apis 
 cost fifty talents, not less than a hundred talents are 
 said to have been expended by curators of other sacred 
 
 ^ " Sinai and Palestine," p. Hi. 
 
 ^ A breakfast-party has been held in one of these coffins. 
 
RELiaiOUS BOOKS AND HYMNS. 239 
 
 animals. The Apis was called ^^the second life of 
 Ptah," the god of Memphis. The sacred Earn of 
 Mendes was called ^^the life of Ea." Three other 
 sacred Eams are mentioned, " the soul of Osii-is," ^' the 
 soul of Shu," and ^^the soul of Chepra.''^ They were 
 also conceived as united in one, who is represented 
 with four heads, and bears the name of SheftJmt^ 
 Primeval Force. This name I believe to be compara- 
 tively modern, and to bear the impress of pantheistic 
 speculation rather than of mythology ; but the word 
 Bttj which means a ram, also means soul ; so that here 
 again there is every probability that the god originated, 
 like so many others, in homonymous metaphor. The 
 encouragement given to his worship by the Ptolemies 
 is circumstantially exhibited in the great tablet of 
 Mendes, published by M. Mariette,^ and translated by 
 Brugsch-Bey.^ 
 
 Materialism. 
 
 If Pantheism strongly contributed to the develop- 
 ment of this animal worship and to all the superstition 
 therewith connected, it also led to simple Materialism. 
 The hymns at Dendera in honour of the goddess Hathor 
 irresistibly remind one of the opening of the poem of 
 
 ^ Or, according to another text, '' of Seb." 
 
 2 Monuments dicers, pi. 43, 44. 
 
 3 Zeitschrift, 1875, p. 33. An English version has been pub- 
 lished in the " Records of the Past." 
 
240 LECTUKE yi. 
 
 Lucretius. Hathor, like the mother of the Aeneadae, 
 is '' sole mistress of the nature of things, and without 
 her nothing rises up into the divine borders of light, 
 nothing grows to be glad or lovely;" ^ through her 
 every kind of living thing is conceived, rises up and 
 beholds the light of the sun."^ But we know the 
 Eoman poet's apology^ for these poetical conceptions, 
 '^ however well and beautifully they may be set forth." 
 ^^ If any one thinks proper to call the sea Neptune, and 
 corn Ceres, and chooses rather to misuse the name of 
 Bacchus than to utter the term that belongs to that 
 
 ^ Per te genus omne animantum 
 Concipitur visitque exortum lumina soils; 
 Te dea, te fngiiint venti, te nubila caeli 
 Aclventumque tiium, tibi suavis daedala tellus 
 Summittit flores tibi rident aequora ponti 
 
 Placatumqiie nitet diffuse lumine caelum 
 
 Quae quoniam rerum naturam sola gubernas 
 Nee sine te quicquam dias in luminis oras 
 " Exoritur neque fit laetum neque amabile quicquam, &c. 
 
 De Rp.rum Natura, i. 4 — 9, 21 — 24 : Munro. 
 
 I do not quote these lines to prove that the hymns of Dendera 
 are atheistic or epicurean, but that they are not inconsistent with an 
 entire disbelief in religion. All these hymns are absolutely epi- 
 curean. 
 
 2 Hie siquis mare Neptunum Cereremque vocare 
 Constituit fruges et Bacchi nomine abuti 
 Mavolt quam laticis proprium proferre vocamen, 
 Concedamus ut hie terrarum dictitet orbem 
 Esse deum matrem, dum vera re tamen ij)se 
 Keligione auimum turpi contingere parcat. 
 
 lb. ii. 652—657. 
 
RELIGIOUS BOOKS AND HYMNS. 241 
 
 liquor, let us allow him to declare that the earth is 
 mother of the gods, if he only forbear in earnest to 
 stain his mind with foul religion." Man had formerly 
 been led to associate the earth and sun and sky with 
 the notion of infinite power behind those phenomena ; 
 he now retraced his steps and recognized in the universe 
 nothing but the mere phenomena. The heathen Plu- 
 tarch and the Chi'istian Origen equally give evidence 
 of this atheistical interpretation put upon the myths of 
 Osiris and Isis. Plutarch protests against the habit of 
 explaining away the very nature of the gods by resolv- 
 ing it, as it were, into mere blasts of wind, or streams 
 of rivers, and the like, such as making Dionysos to be 
 wine and Hephaistos fire. We might suppose that 
 Plutarch is simply alluding to Greek speculation, but 
 it is certain that the Egyptian texts of the late period 
 are in the habit of substituting the name of a god for 
 a physical object, such as Seb for the earth, Shu for the 
 air, and so on. Origen, as a Christian apologist, sees no 
 advantage to be gained by his adversaries in giving an 
 allegorical interpretation to Osiris and Isis, "for they 
 will nevertheless teach us to offer divine worship to 
 cold water and the earth, which is subject to men and 
 all the animal creation." 
 
 The transformation of the Egyptian religion is no- 
 where more apparent than in the view of the life 
 beyond the grave which is exhibited on a tablet which 
 has already been referred to, that of the wife of 
 
 R 
 
242 LECTURE yi. 
 
 Pasherenptah. This lady thus addresses her husband 
 from the grave : ^ 
 
 '' Oh my brother, my spouse, cease not to drink 
 and to eat, to drain the cup of joy, to enjoy the love 
 of woman, and to make holiday : follow thy desires 
 each day, and let not care enter into thy heart, as long 
 as thou livest upon earth. For as to Amenti, it is the 
 land of heavy slumber and of darkness, an abode of 
 sorrow for those who dwell there. They sleep in their 
 forms ; they wake not any more to see their brethren ; 
 they recognize not their father and their mother ; their 
 heart is indifferent to their wife and children. Every 
 one [on earth] enjoys the water of life, but thirst is 
 by me. The water cometh to him who remaineth on 
 earth, but I thirst for the water which is by me. I 
 know not where I am since I came into this spot ; I 
 weep for the water which passes by me. I weep for 
 the breeze on the brink of the stream, that tlii'ough it 
 my heart may be refreshed in its sorrow. For as to 
 the god who is here, ^ Death- Absolute ' is his name.^ 
 He calleth on all, and all men come to obey him, 
 trembling with fear before him. With him there is 
 no respect for gods or men ; by him great ones are as 
 little ones. One f eareth to pray to him, for he listeneth 
 
 ^ Sharpe, Egyptian Inscriptions^ i. pi. 4. 
 
 ^ Tor TravojXEdpoy Qebv .... 
 "Oc 01/3' kv"Aihov Tov davovr iXevdepoi. 
 
 Aesch. Suppl. 414. 
 
RELIGIOUS BOOKS AND HYMNS. 243 
 
 not.^ No one comes to invoke him, for he is not kind 
 to those who adore him; he has no respect to any 
 offering which is made to him." There is something 
 of this undoubtedly in the song of King Antuf and in 
 the Lay of the Harper, but the moral which the harper 
 taught has utterly disappeared : " Mind thee of the day 
 when thou too shalt start for that land." There is no 
 allusion to the necessity of a good life ; no recom- 
 mendation to be just and hate iniquity ; no assurance 
 that he who loveth what is just shall triumph. The 
 tablet on which this strange inscription is found has 
 upon it the figures of several of the Egyptian gods, in 
 whom it professes faith, but the religion must have 
 been already at its end when such a text could be 
 inscribed on a funereal tablet. 
 
 Influence of Egyptian upon Foreign Thought. 
 
 The short time which is now left will not allow me 
 to enter at length into a discussion of certain questions 
 which have naturally arisen as to the influence of 
 Egyptian upon foreign thought, as, for instance, on the 
 Ilebrew or Greek religions and philosophies. It may 
 be confidently asserted that neither Hebrews nor Greeks 
 borrowed any of their ideas from Egypt. It ought, I 
 
 ^ La IMort a des rigueurs a nulle autre pareilles, 
 On a beau la prier ; 
 La cruelle qu'elle est se bouche les oreilles, 
 Et nous laisse crier. 
 
 r2 
 
244 LECTURE VI. 
 
 think, to be a matter of wonder that, after a long time 
 of bondage, the Israelites left Egypt without having 
 even learnt the length of the year. The Hebrew year 
 consisted of twelve lunar months, each of them empi- 
 rically determined by actual inspection of the new 
 moon, and an entire month was intercalated whenever 
 it was found that the year ended before the natural 
 season. The most remarkable point of contact between 
 Hebrew and Egyptian religion is the identity of mean- 
 ing between '^ El ShaddaV and nutar niitra ; but the 
 notion which is expressed by these words is common 
 to all religion, and is only alluded to as characterizing 
 the religion of the patriarchs in contrast to the new 
 revelation made to Moses. But even this revelation 
 is said to have been borrowed from Egypt. I have 
 repeatedly seen it asserted that Moses borrowed his 
 concept of God, and the sublime words, ehyeh asher 
 ehyeli (''I am that I am," in the Authorized Yersion), 
 from the Egyptian nuk pu nuJc. I am afraid that some 
 Egyptologist has to bear the responsiblity of this ilhi- 
 sion. It is quite true that in several places of the 
 Book of the Dead the three words niiJc pu nuk are to 
 be found ; it is true that nuk is the pronoun I, and that 
 the demonstrative pu often serves to connect the sub- 
 ject and predicate of a sentence. But the context of 
 the words requires to be examined before we can be 
 sure that we have just an entire sentence before us, 
 especially as pu generally comes at the end of a sen- 
 
RELIGIOUS BOOKS AND HYMNS. 245 
 
 tence. Now if we look at tlic passages of tlie Book of 
 the Dead where these words occur, we shall see at once 
 that they do not contain any mysterious doctrine about 
 the Divine nature. In one of these passages^ the de- 
 ceased says, ^' It is I who know the ways of Nu." In 
 another place ^ he says, ^' I am the Ancient One in the 
 country [or fields] ; ^ it is I who am Osiris, who shut 
 up his father Seb and his mother Nut on that day of 
 the great slaughter." ^^It is I who am Osiris, the 
 Ancient One." In another recension of the same text, 
 contained in the 96th chapter, the words nuk pu nuk 
 disappear, because the narrative is in the third person. 
 ^' He is the Bull in the fields, he is Osiris who shut up 
 his father," and so forth. I have looked through a 
 number of works professing to discover Egyptian influ- 
 ences in Hebrew institutions, but have not even found 
 anything worth controverting. Purely external resem- 
 blances may no doubt be discovered in abundance, but 
 evidence of the transmission of ideas will be sought in 
 vain. I cannot find that any of the idolatries or super- 
 stitions of the Israelites are derived from Egyptian 
 sources. The golden calf has been supposed, but on 
 no sufficient grounds, to represent Apis or Mnevis. 
 
 ^ Todt. 78, 21. See an excellent article of Dr. Pietsclimann in 
 the Ztitsch. f. dgijpt. Spr. 1879, p. 67. 
 
 "^ lb. 31, 4. 
 
 ^ Two of the many names of Horns are "the Youth in Town" 
 and " the Lad in the Country." Todt. 85, *8, 9. 
 
246 LECTURE VI. 
 
 The worship of oxen, as symbols of a Divine power, is 
 not peculiar to Egypt, but is met with in all the ancient 
 religions. The chariot and horses of the sun which 
 the kings of Judah had set up ''at the entering in of 
 the house of the Lord," and which Joash burnt with 
 fire, show that the Israelites had an independent mytho- 
 logy of their own. 
 
 The existence of Egyptian elements in Hellenic 
 religion and philosophy has long since been disproved. 
 The supposed travels of Pythagoras and other ancient 
 philosophers to Eastern climes, Chaldaea, Persia, India 
 and Egypt, are fabulous inventions, the historical evi- 
 dence of which does not begin till at least two centu- 
 ries after the death of the philosopher, but continues 
 increasing after this time. Internal evidence tells the 
 same tale as the external. Every step in the history 
 of Greek philosophy can be accounted for and explained 
 from native sources, and it is not merely unnecessary, 
 but impossible (to the historian of philosophy, ridicu- 
 lously impossible), to imagine a foreign teacher, to whom 
 the Greeks would never have listened, as being the 
 author of doctrines which without his help the Greeks 
 would themselves certainly have discovered, and at the 
 very time that they did so. 
 
 The importance of Alexandria as a medium of inter- 
 change of ideas between the Eastern and Western 
 worlds must also be considered as exploded. Nothing 
 was more common, about forty or fifty years ago, than 
 
RELIGIOUS BOOKS AND HYMNS. 247 
 
 to hear learned men account for the presence of Oriental 
 ideas in Europe, by the transmission of these ideas 
 through the channel of Alexandria. Alexandria was 
 supposed to be the seat of Oriental philosophy, and 
 Philo, Origen, Porphyry, Plotinos and other great 
 names, were imagined to be the representatives of the 
 alliance between Greek and Oriental thought. All this 
 is now considered as unhistorical as the reign of Jupiter 
 in Crete. It was a mere a priori fancy, which has not 
 been verified by facts. The most accurate analysis of 
 the Alexandrian philosophy has not succeeded in dis- 
 covering a single element in it which requires to be 
 referred to an Oriental source. All attempts to refer 
 Alexandi'ian opinions to Eastern sources have proved 
 abortive. And long before the great work of Zeller 
 on Greek Philosophy had dealt with the j)roblem in 
 detail, M. Ampere had shown how extremely impro- 
 bable the received hypothesis was. Alexandria was 
 a commercial Greek town, inhabited by a population 
 which cared not the least for Eastern ideas. The 
 learned men in it were Greeks who had the utmost 
 contempt for barbarians and their opinions. Of the 
 Egyptian language and literature, they were pro- 
 foundly ignorant. ''It is incredible," he says, ''to 
 what an extent the Greeks of Alexandria remained 
 strangers to the knowledge of the Eg}7^tian language 
 and writing ; one could not understand it if there were 
 not other instances of the contemptuous aversion of the 
 
248 LECTURE VI. 
 
 Greeks and Eomans to the study of tlie barbarous lan- 
 guages." The greatest ]3art of the information they 
 give us is utterly erroneous, and even when it has 
 been derived from an authentic source, it never fails 
 to be completely hellenized in passing through a Greek 
 channel. The Oriental works, like those attributed to 
 Zoroaster, said to have been preserved in the Library 
 at Alexandria, were Greek forgeries. ''En somme," 
 M. Ampk'e says, ' ' Alexandrie . f ut tr^s grecque, assez 
 juive et presque point ^gyptienne."^ And if Alexan- 
 dria was not the means of communicating Eg}^tian 
 ideas to the Western world, still less was it the channel 
 of learning from the farther East. It is an error to 
 suppose that Alexandria was on the chief line of traffic 
 between Europe and Asia. During the whole period 
 which followed the foundation of Alexandria down to 
 the Eoman times, there was no direct communication 
 between this city and the distant East. Indian traffic 
 was in the hands of the seafaring Arabs of the Persian 
 Gulf, the Gulf of Oman, and the Gulf of Akaba. It 
 came to the shores of the Mediterranean through 
 Seleucia, Antioch and Palmyra, or through Gaza and 
 Petra, the chief town of the Nabataeans.^ 
 
 1 Revue des Deux Mondes, Sept. 1846, p. 735. Ampere refutes 
 the opinions of Matter and of Jules Simon as expressed in their 
 Histories of the Alexandrian School. 
 
 '■^ "Presque tout le temps que les Ptolemees regnerent en Egypte, 
 les navires qui partaient des c6tes egyptiennes ne depassaient pas la 
 
RELIGIOUS BOOKS AND HYMNS. 249 
 
 Conclusion. 
 
 The interest wliich the history of Egyptian religion 
 inspires must be derived solely from itself, not from 
 any hypothetical connection with other systems. 
 
 We have seen Egypt a powerful and highly civilized 
 kingdom not less than two thousand years before the 
 birth of Moses, with religious beliefs and institutions 
 at least externally identical with those which it pos- 
 sessed till the last years of its existence. 
 
 This religion, however, was not from the first that 
 mere worship of brutes which strangers imagined in 
 the days of its decline. 
 
 .The worship of the sacred animals was not a prin- 
 ciple, but a consequence ; it presupposes the rest of the 
 religion as its foundation, and it acquired its full deve- 
 lopment and extension only in the declining periods of 
 the Egyptian history. 
 
 It is based upon symbols derived from the mythology. 
 
 cote mericlionale de I'Arabie. lis relachaient soit dans iin port situe 
 en terre ferme, notamment Aden, ou bien dans qiielqu' ile, telle que, 
 Socotora. La arrivaient les navires arabes, indiens et malais, avec 
 les produits destines a roccident." — Eeinaud, " Sur le royaume de 
 la Mesene et de la Kharasene," in the Mem. de VAcad. des Inscr. 
 t. xxiv. pt. 2, p. 215. See also the chapter vi. (Du Commerce) of 
 Lumbroso, "Eecherches sur I'economie politique de I'Egypte sous 
 les Lagides." M. Rcinaud has also shown that the Periplus of the 
 Erythraean Sea, which displays an accuracy of information quite 
 unknown to Strabo, Pliny or Ptolemy, was not written before the 
 middle of the third century after Christ. 
 
250 LECTURE VI. 
 
 The mythology has exactly the same origin as the 
 mythology of our own Aryan ancestors. The early 
 language had no words to express abstract conceptions, 
 and the operations of nature were spoken of in terms 
 which would now be thought poetical or at least meta- 
 phorical, but were then the simplest expressions of 
 popular intuition. The nomina became numina. 
 
 The Egyptian mythology, as far as I can see, dealt 
 only with those phenomena of nature which are con- 
 spicuously the result of fixed law, such as the rising 
 and setting of the sun, moon and stars.^ The recog- 
 nition of law and order as existing throughout the 
 universe, underlies the whole system of Egyptian reli- 
 gion. The Egyptian macit^ derived, like the Sanslo-it 
 rita, from merely sensuous impressions, became the 
 name for moral order and righteousness. 
 
 Besides the powers recognized by the mythology, 
 the Egyptians from the very first spoke of the Power 
 by whom the whole physical and moral government of 
 the universe is directed, upon whom each individual 
 depends, and to whom he is responsible. 
 
 The moral code which they identified with the law 
 governing the universe, was a pure and noble one. 
 The summary of it as given in the Book of the Dead 
 has often been quoted : ^' He hath given bread to the 
 hungry, water to the thirsty, clothes to the naked ; he 
 
 ^ See Preface. 
 
EELIGIOUS BOOKS AND HYMNS. 251 
 
 hath given a boat to the shipwrecked ; he hath made 
 the offerings to the gods, and paid the due rites to the 
 departed." 
 
 The rites are paid to the departed, because death is 
 but the beginning of a new life, and that life will 
 never end. 
 
 A sense of the Eternal and Infinite, Holy and Good, 
 governing the world, and upon which we are dependent, 
 of Eight and Wrong, of Holiness and Virtue, of Im- 
 mortality and Eetribution — such are the elements of 
 Egyptian religion. But where are these grand elements 
 of a religion found in their simple purity ? 
 
 Mythology, we know, is the disease which springs 
 up at a peculiar stage of human culture, and is in its 
 first stage as harmless as it is inevitable. It ceases to 
 be harmless when its original meaning is forgotten, 
 when, instead of being the simple expression of man's 
 intuition of real facts, it obtains a mastery over his 
 thought, and leads him to conclusions which are not 
 involved in the original premisses. This disease of 
 thought was terribly aggravated, I believe, by the early 
 development of Art, and the forms which it assumed 
 in Egypt. That Power which the Egyptians recog- 
 nized without any mythological adjunct, to whom no 
 temple was ever raised, '^ who was not graven in stone," 
 ^' whose shrine was never found with painted figures," 
 "who had neither ministrants nor offerings," and 
 
252 LECTURE VI. 
 
 ^^ whose abode was unknown," must practically have 
 been forgotten by the worshippers at the magnificent 
 temples of Memphis, Heliopolis, Abydos, Thebes or 
 Dendera, where quite other deities received the homage 
 of prayer and praise and sacrifice. 
 
 A highly cultured and intelligent people like the 
 Egyptians, it is true, did not simply acquiesce in the 
 polytheistic view of things, and efforts are visible from 
 the very first to cling to the notion of the Unity of 
 God. The ^^self-existent" or '^ self -becoming" One, 
 the One, the One of One, " the One without a second," 
 ^^the Beginner of becoming, from the first," "who 
 made all things, but was not made," are expressions 
 which we meet constantly in the religious texts, and 
 they are applied to this or that god, each in his turn 
 being considered as the supreme God of gods, the 
 Maker and Creator of all things. But the conclusion 
 which seems to have remained was, that all gods were 
 in fact but names of the One who resided in them all. 
 But this God is no other than I^ature. Both indi- 
 viduals and entire nations may long continue to hold 
 this view, without drawing the inevitable conclusion, 
 that if there is no other God than this, the world is 
 really without a God. But when the conclusion is 
 once brought home, it is, as we have seen in our own 
 day, most eagerly accepted. But the fate of a religion 
 which involves such a conclusion, and with that con- 
 
RELIGIOUS BOOKS AND HYMN'S. 253 
 
 elusion the loss of faith in immortality, and even in 
 the distinction of Eight and "Wrong, except as far as 
 they are connected with ritual prescriptions, is inevi- 
 tably sealed.^ 
 
 ^ On looking back over these pages, I find that I have quoted 
 (p. 99) from Professor Max Miiller an etymology of the Sanskrit 
 Brahman which is at variance with his more mature judgment in 
 Hibbert Lectures,' p. 358, note. 
 
 At page 20, the name of M. Guyesse is too important to be 
 omitted from the list of French scholars. M. Kevillout, the most 
 eminent Coptic scholar now in Europe, is also highly distinguished 
 for his publication and interpretation of demotic records. To the 
 German names I should add those of Pietschmann, Erman and 
 Meyer. 
 
 And I do not think it out of place here to say, that as the thanks 
 of scholars are due to private persons like Mr. Sharpe and the late 
 Mr. Bonomi, for the publication of accurate Egyptian texts, no 
 small amount of gratitude should be felt towards booksellers like 
 Messrs. Hinrichs, of Leipzig, for the publication of so many inesti- 
 mable works by Brugsch, Diimichen and Mariette, which, however 
 indispensable to the student, have necessarily but a limited sale, 
 and cannot be immediately remunerative. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 AAHHOTEP, Queen, 66. 
 
 Abdallatif, on ruins of Memphis, 25. 
 
 Abydos, tablet of, 38, 66. 
 
 Achmu uretu, the stars which set, 108. 
 
 Akerblad, 12, 16. 
 
 Alexandria, 246. 
 
 Araenemhilt, Instructions of, 75. 
 
 Araenti, 130. 
 
 Amesi, ithyphallic form of Horus, 199. 
 
 Araon, god of Thebes, 83, 224. 
 
 — hymns to, 224. 
 
 — proscription of name, 42, 229. 
 Ampere, 78, 247. 
 Anaxandrides, 3. 
 
 Anchiic, "the living," designation of 
 
 the departed, 127. 
 Angels, 158. 
 
 — of death, 159. 
 
 Ani, Maxims of, 76, 101, 139, 159. 
 Anpu, Anubis, the Dusk, child of the 
 Sun and of Sunset, 112, 114, 237. 
 
 — " he has swallowed his own father," 
 
 112. 
 Ansted, 51. 
 Antiphanes, 3. 
 Antuf, Song of, 69. 
 Antuf-aa, 46. 
 
 Apap, the dragon, Darkness, 109, 
 Apis, 35, 84, 237, 238. 
 Apollonios of Tyana, 7. 
 Ass, supposed worship of, by Christians 
 
 and Jews, 5. 
 
 £A, steel, 131. 
 
 5a signifies "ram" and "soul," 239. 
 
 Baillet, 20. 
 
 Bechten, possessed princess of, 154. 
 
 Bergmann, 19. 
 
 Biot, 48. 
 
 Birch, 10, 14, 19, 21, 45, 54, 177, 210. 
 
 Bohlen, P. von, on India, 29. 
 
 Book of the Dead described, 172. 
 
 — of the Lamentations of Isis and Neph- 
 
 thys, 203. 
 
 — of glorifying Osiris, 205. 
 
 — of the Breaths of Life, 207. 
 Brahman, 99, 253. 
 Briicker, 9. 
 
 Brugsch, 19, 101, 121, 128, 178, 208, 
 
 211, 233, 239. 
 Buddhism, 105. 
 Bulaq Museum, 61, 66, 151. 
 Bull, symbol of kings and gods, 236. 
 Bunsen, 197. 
 
 CALENDARS, 48, 81, 157. 
 
 Canon, hieratic, of Turin, 37. 
 
 Castes, 78. 
 
 Cat, symbol of Light, 114, 237. 
 
 Celibacy, 142. 
 
 Celsus, 8. 
 
 Chabas, 19, 21, 49, 72, 73, 76, 101, 141, 
 
 154, 157, 164, 210, 218. 
 Champollion, 14. 
 Champollion-Figeac, 16. 
 
256 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Cher-heb, a priestly official, 132. 
 
 "Children of inertness," 199. 
 
 China, 124. 
 
 Chonsu, the Moon, 15.5, 179. 
 
 Chu, glorified one, the dead, 132. 
 
 Chut en Aten, 42, 229. 
 
 Clement of Alexandria, 1. 
 
 Cook, Canon, 20. 
 
 Cow signifies the Sky, the Dawn and 
 
 other powers, 236. 
 Curtius, 95, 96, 120. 
 
 DARKNESS, mythological forms of : 
 
 — Apap, 109. 
 
 — Anpu, 112. 
 
 — Set, 115. 
 
 — Maka, 115. 
 
 — Crocodile, 108. 
 Dawn, names of the : 
 
 — Isis, 111. 
 
 — Hathor, 87, 159. 
 — • Renenet, 160. 
 
 — Neith, 179. 
 "Death-absolute," 242. 
 Decimal notation, 81 . 
 Deities, 83. 
 
 Dendera, Zodiac of, 29. 
 Destiny, 159. 
 Deveria, 20, 209. 
 Diodoros, 5, 127. 
 Dreams, 155. 
 
 Dual form of all words designating space 
 
 traversed by the sun, 195. 
 Diimichen, 19, 24, 49, Q8, 117, 128, 164. 
 
 EARTH, the father of gods, 111. 
 
 — his wife, the Sky, 111. 
 Ebers, 19, 211. 
 
 Egg of Ra, 190. 
 
 — Seb, 111. 
 
 Eight elementary gods, 199, 232. 
 
 Eisenlohr, 19. 
 
 El, God, power, 98. 
 
 Em hotep = in pace, 131. 
 
 Enneads, 83. 
 
 Erman, 253. 
 
 Ethnology of Egypt, 53. 
 
 Everlasting life, 127. 
 
 Evil eye, 158. 
 
 Eye, name of the sun, 187. 
 
 FABLES of ^sop are found in Egyptian, 
 
 77. 
 Fergusson on the architecture of Egypt, 
 
 124,147. 
 Firmament of steel, 131. 
 Fravashis, 124, 147. 
 
 GENEALOGIES, 46. 
 
 Genius, 147. 
 
 Gensler, 48. 
 
 George, St., and the Dragon, 118. 
 
 Gibbon, 214. 
 
 God, true notion of, 215. 
 
 Golden calf, 245. 
 
 Golenischeff, 20, 101. 
 
 Goodwin, 19, 21, 77, 164, 211. 
 
 Goose, 111, 237. 
 
 Grebaut, 20, 123, 162, 164, 195. 
 
 Guizot, 153. 
 
 Guyesse, 199, 253. 
 
 HALL of Nut = Heaven, 190. 
 
 — Seb = Earth, 190. 
 
 — Maat = the Nether world, 190. 
 Harem, 79. 
 
 Harper, Lay of the, 70. 
 Hathor, many names of, 87. 
 
 — the Dawn, 159. 
 
 — the Fates, 159. 
 
 — name given to beatified women, 184. 
 Hatshepsu, Queen (wrongly called Ha- 
 sh op), 41, 162. 
 
 Hawk, name of the sun, 236. 
 Hearne, 142. 
 
 Heaven, the mother of gods and wife of 
 Earth. 
 
 — the Hall of Nut, 190. 
 
 Hen en d7ichiu, name of coffin, 128. 
 
 Hen ha, a priestly official, 149. 
 
 Henotheism, 217. 
 
 Henry, Matthew, 50. 
 
 Hermes Trismegistos, 116. 
 
 Herodotos, 9. 
 
 Hincks, 19, 47. 
 
 Horns, symbols of sun or moon, 236. 
 
 Horrack, 20, 203, 208. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 257 
 
 Horus, the sun in his full strength, 112. 
 
 — blindness of, 114. 
 
 — Eye of, 114. 
 
 — "the Youth in Town," 245. 
 
 — "the Lad in the Country," 245. 
 Hue, 196. 
 
 Hyksos, 44. 
 
 Hymn to Osiris, 218. 
 
 — Ptah, 222. 
 
 — the Nile, 223. 
 
 — Amon, 224, 228, 229. 
 
 — Pantheistic, 231, 233. 
 
 — to Hathor, 239. 
 
 IBIS, 116, 237. 
 
 Ideography in modern writing, 171. 
 
 Idolatry, 149. 
 
 'lipoQ, etymology of, 95. 
 
 Imago, a ghost, 149. 
 
 Inscriptions of Apis tablets, 35. 
 
 — Canopus, 21. 
 
 — obelisk of Philae, 16. 
 
 — Pasherenptah and his wife, 156. 
 
 — Ptolemy, son of Lagos, 140. 
 
 — Rosetta, 11. 
 Isaios, 142. 
 
 Isis, the Dawn, daughter of Earth and 
 Sky, sister and wife of Osiris, 112. 
 
 JABLONSKI, 9. 
 Jamblichos, 213. 
 Joshua, book of, 50. 
 
 KA, 135, 147. 
 
 Kamit, the Black land, name of Egypt, 
 
 22, 202. 
 King, the, as god, 161. 
 Kircher, 10. 
 Klaproth, 15, 16. 
 
 LAMENTATIONS of Isis and Nephthys, 
 
 203. 
 Language of Egypt, 55. 
 Lauth, 19, 49, 68, 76, 101. 
 Lefebure, 20, 113, 123, 202. 
 Legend, 105, 106. 
 Leonidas, 142. 
 Lepsius, 18, 20, 88, 172, 197. 
 
 Lieblein, 20, 47. 
 Litanies of Ra, 234. 
 Lucretius, 240. 
 Lunar eclipses, 113. 
 Lustral water, 139. 
 Lyell, 52, 126 and note. 
 
 MAAT, 71, 119. 
 
 Magical literature, 210. 
 
 Maine, Sir Henry, 125. 
 
 Maka, crocodile god, son of Set, 115. 
 
 Mauetho, 47. 
 
 Manicheism, 145. 
 
 Manuscripts, Egyptian, Greek, Latin 
 
 and Hebrew, 169. 
 Mariette, 19, 23, 35, 54, 128, 156, 237, 
 
 239. 
 Marriage, 79. 
 Maspero, 20, 94, 211. 
 Materialism, 239. 
 McLennan, 29, 30. 
 Mena, 33. 
 
 Menti, afterwards Amenti, 130. 
 Mentu, a name of the sun, 88. 
 Mentuhotep III., 45. 
 Moira, 160. 
 Monasticism, 144. 
 Monogamy, 79. 
 Monotheism, 89, 230. 
 Moon, the measurer, 116. 
 
 — names of : Tehuti, 116. Ohonsu, 155. 
 
 An, 203. 
 
 — Osiris identified with, 112, 203. 
 Moral code, 71. 
 
 Moral doctrines of the Book of the Dead, 
 
 194. 
 Moses not author of Pentateuch, 49. 
 
 — contemporary of Rameses II., 50. 
 Midler, Professor Max, 99, 100, 109, 
 
 118, 142, 218, 253. 
 Mykerinos, 128. 
 Myth, 106. 
 
 NAHRE-SE-CHNUMHOTEP, tomb of, 
 
 132, 134. 
 Names, superstitious repetition of, 193. 
 Naville, 20, 123, 199, 234. 
 1 Neb-dnch, lord of life, name of coffin, 128. 
 
 B 
 
258 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Neith, the Dawn, mother of the Sun, 
 
 goddess of Sais, 179. 
 Nemmat, infernal block, 189. 
 Nephthys, the Sunset, sister of the Sun 
 
 and of the Dawn, wedded to the 
 
 Darkness, and mother of the Dusk, 
 
 112. 
 Newman, J. H., on the notion of God, 
 
 215. 
 Nile, hymn to the, 223. 
 Nile mud, depth of, 51. 
 Nomes, 81. 
 
 Notation, decimal, 81. 
 Nu, father of the gods, the celestial 
 
 ocean, 109, 198, 199. 
 Nulc pu 7iuhf 244. 
 
 Nuntar, nasalized form of nutar, 96. 
 Nut, goddess. Heaven, 111. 
 Ntitar, its meaning, 93. 
 Nutar nutra — 'El Shaddai, 99. 
 Nutra, 95, 
 Nutrit, name of town, 98. Eye-ball, 98. 
 
 «'ONEof One," 90. 
 
 Origen, 2, 241. 
 
 Osiris, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 110, 112. 
 
 Owen, Prof., 54. 
 
 Oxyrinchus, 214. 
 
 PALIN, 10. 
 
 Pantheism, 230. 
 
 Papyri, age of, 168. 
 
 Paradigms, 57. 
 
 Pasherenptah, 141, 156, 242. 
 
 Pentaur, 59. 
 
 Perring, 42. 
 
 Persia, 142, 147, 151. 
 
 Phallic emblems, imaginary, 194. 
 
 Philo, 6. 
 
 Philostratos, 7. 
 
 Pierrot, 20, 205. 
 
 Pietschmann, 253. 
 
 Pignorius, 11. 
 
 Pithom and Rameses, 38. 
 
 Pitris, 124. 
 
 Pleyte, 19, 210. 
 
 Plutarch, 105, 241. 
 
 Polygamy, 79. 
 
 Polytheism, 85. 
 Porphyry, 8, 213. 
 Possession, 154. 
 Pott on Proper Names, 106. 
 Power, words of, 192. 
 Ptah, the Opener, the Artist, 178. 
 Ptah-hotep, Maxims of, 75, 100, 178. 
 Pyramid, date of Great, 50. 
 Pythagorean system not of Egyptian 
 origin, 183, 246. 
 
 RA, the Sun, 109. 
 Ram of Mendes, 239, 
 Rameses, name of, 38. 
 Rameses II., great inscription at Abydos, 
 135. 
 
 — prayer to Amon, 227. 
 Reinisch, 9. 
 
 Renan, 60. 
 
 Renenet, 160. 
 
 Revillout, 253. 
 
 Rhind papyri, 209. 
 
 Robiou, 20. 
 
 Rochemonteix, 20. 
 
 Romieu, 48. 
 
 Rosetta inscriptions, 11. 
 
 Rossi, 20, 57. 
 
 Rouge, E. de, 19, 21, 40, 48, 57, 89, 
 
 94, 99, 101, 119, 172, 195, 197, 
 
 198. 
 Rouge, J. de, 20. 
 Royal Lists, 27, 37. 
 
 — Abydos, 38. 
 
 — Karnak, 37. 
 
 — Saqara, 37. 
 
 SALVOLINI, 18. 
 
 Sata, 182. 
 
 Savages, habits of, worthless as evidence 
 
 of ancient belief, 125. 
 Sciaparelli, 20. 
 Szedlo, 20. 
 Seb, the Earth, husband of the Sky and 
 
 father of gods, 110. 
 
 — a goose so named, 111. 
 Sebekhotep monuments, 44. 
 Sebekhotep III., statue of, 45. 
 Sechet, raging heat of the sun, 179. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 259 
 
 Sekenen-Ra, 93. 
 Self -existence, 217. 
 Semench-ka-Ra, statue of, 45. 
 Sepulchral rites, 124. 
 Set, Darkness, 84, 110, 112, 115. 
 Seti I., father of Rameses II., his sar- 
 cophagus, 201. 
 Shadow, 150, 152. 
 Shai, the divider, Fate, 160. 
 Shu, the Air, 109. 
 Smer, a priestly official, 32. 
 Song of King Antuf, 69. 
 
 — of the Harper, 70. 
 
 — of the Oxen, 130. 
 Souls, 152. 
 
 — of Ra, 164. 
 
 Spencer, H., 64, 127, 148, 150. 
 
 Spinoza, 234. 
 
 Stanley on Apis tombs, 238. 
 
 — king's divinity, 165. 
 
 — Pyi-amids, 61. 
 Stern, 19, 195. 
 Sun, names of the : 
 
 — Ra, 111. Osiris, 107. Horus, 112. 
 
 — Ptah, Opener, Artist, 178. 
 
 — Chnemu, Builder, 178. 
 
 — Tmu, Closer, 178. 
 
 — Chepera, Scarabaeusin his bark, 190. 
 
 — Sebek, Crocodile, 237. 
 Suten-hotep-ta, 134. 
 Symbols, 135. 
 
 TAKEN, 178. 
 Tebha = Typhon, 114. 
 Techu, meaning of, 116. 
 
 Tefnut, goddess, the Dew, 109, 250. 
 
 Tehuti, Thoth, the Moon, 116, 122. 
 
 Tehutimes III., annals of, 28. 
 
 Tehutimes IV., dream of, 155. 
 
 Temples, 82. 
 
 Thoth, 116. 
 
 Thunder, roaring of a lion, 250. 
 
 — bellowing of a bull, 250. 
 
 Timokles, 3. 
 
 Tmu, or Atmu, name of the sun, 88, 
 
 198. 
 Tomb, parts of an Egyptian, 128. 
 Triads, 83. 
 Tuat, world beneath the earth, 201. 
 
 UNBU, son of Nu and Nut, name of 
 
 Osiris, 111. 
 Unnefer, name of Osiris, 204. 
 Uranes, a celestial stream in the Tuat, 
 
 201. 
 Usertsen (wrongly called Usertesen), 43. 
 
 Valens, edict against the monks of Egypt, 
 214. 
 
 Wescher, 141. 
 Wiedemann, 19, 35, 209. 
 Wilkinson, 67, 129. 
 
 Xenophanes of Colophon, 3. 
 
 Yama, 110. 
 Young, 12. 
 
 Zoega, 13. 
 Zoolatry, 1, 235. 
 
 Printed by C. Green & Son, 17S, Strand. 
 
14, Henrietta Street, Covent GARDEtr, London; 
 
 20, South Frederick Street, Edinburgh. 
 
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