cathedral aisles, and look for superstition in every recess, and idolatry in every chapel; who, lighting upon some carved fox and goose or grinning mask, should go home and declare that Christianity was made up of what was idolatrous, unideal, and grotesque ? If he is aware that in our Christianity there is much that will not appear on our Cathedrals 5,000 years hence, let him only remember that there may be much that is ideal and holy in other faiths which we have not had the opportunity of appreciating."" What might an Ancient Egyptian, suddenly called into life in our own period, think of the worships in Christendom; of the clouds of incense, the purification and sprinkling by blessed water, and the pious intonation of the service by the priests; of the hymns, psalms and litanies, given with the accompaniment of musical instruments and the strains of organ pipes; of the dazzling lights, candles, gas, or electricity, blazing upon the altar; of the use of blessed bread and water and wine; of the appearance of monks and celibates with tonsured heads; of the procession of the Virgin; the gold and silver embroidered dresses and the gems of the hierarchy, and the gold, silver and precious stones used in the decoration of the altar, and the figures of the Christ, the Virgin and the Saints; of the jeweled naos or ark in which the blessed Host reposes; and of the sacred bones and holy relics of the dead, like those preserved of Osiris at Abydos, and those in other parts of Ancient Egypt. The male and female celibates and choristers. The virgin nuns attached to the convents. The Latin cross suspended from the neck, emblem of the resurrection and eternal "Second birth" of the spiritual of the 1 Eastern Life, Present and Past, by Harriet Martineau-London. (1875), p. 90. dead, as were the pectoral and the scarabæus with the pious of his race. The doctrine of the "Sacred Heart" and many others we will not repeat. The ceremonies on the anniversaries of the apparent return of the newly born sun at the time of the winter solstice, the celebrations at the time of the happenings of the vernal equinox, of the summer solstice, and of the autumnal equinox, to say nothing of the celebrations of All-Souls, Candle-mas and other days. The prayers at the beginning and end of the twelve hours of the night and the twelve hours of the day, six hours between each similar to the change of the watches; at sunrise, Prime; at the meridian, Sext; at sunset, Vespers; and in the middle of the night, Matins, and Lauds, to Prime again; to say nothing of many other ideas relating to the resurrection from the dead, the triad and the spiritual bodies. What would such an Ancient Egyptian, suddenly brought to life, and made one of us to-day, think of these forms of our Christian rituals, many of them like those in vogue during his own life on earth? We will not in this General Introduction go into any further remarks applying to the following writings, they have special introductions of their own, to which we refer the reader, and which render a repetition of them unnecessary. The first three are translations of very old writings, but many of the Books of the Dead have an original much older than these. Together, they show elevated and refined ethical ideas, not equalled by those of any other people of the same antiquity, and in many of their assertions, are fully in accord with the most elevated ethical ideas of Christianity. All historical dates, from the beginning of Egyp tian history to the end of the reign of Hor-em-heb, fourteenth king of the XVIIIth dynasty, 1328 B. C., have been based on those given by Professor Petrie in his, History of Egypt, etc., Vols. I. and II.; those subsequent to this date, on those given by Dr. Henry Brugsch-Bey and Dr. E. A. Wallis Budge. Dr. Brugsch bases his calculations on the assumption that the average duration of a generation is thirty-three years, they are, therefore, only approximately correct. We have generally used the nomen or family names of the father and son. We ask the indulgence of the reader as to the spelling of many of the names in this work. Egyptology is not yet an exact science, and different savants in different countries, and even in the same country, have differing ways in spelling the name of the same person, country, city, etc. This is both extremely puzzling and distressing, and some uniformity should be adopted. TABLE OF CONTENTS. THE BOOK OF KAQEMNA. A TREATISE ON GOOD MANNERS. Composed in the Period of the Kings Huni and Seneferu, of THE PRECEPTS OF THE PREFECT, THE FEUDAL LORD, PTAH- hotep Living under the Majesty of the King of the South |