Egypt. They claimed the merit of being the first who had consecrated each animal and day to a particular deity. The inspection of the entrails of victims, the study of omens, and all those superstitious customs which the religions of antiquity so scrupulously observed, were deemed highly important among the Egyptians. Omens were frequently drawn from the merest incidents as tokens of good or bad luck; and thus the circumstance of the chief engineer sighing while he superintended the transport of a monolithic shrine from Elephantine to Sais, was sufficient to stop its further progress. Sacrifices and meat offerings, libations and incense, were of the earliest date in their temples. Herodotus himself admits that the names of almost all the gods came from Egypt into Greece; and the Greek oracles, especially that of Dodona, he also states were brought over from Egypt. The Greek mysteries of Eleusis were, in all probability taken from those of the Egyptian goddess Isis, and the story of the wanderings of Ceres in pursuit of Proserpine, was manifestly borrowed from those of Isis in search of the body of Osiris. There were more festivals in Egypt than among any other ancient people-even than among the Greeks, and religion penetrated so deeply into the habits of the land that it became almost a part of the intellectual and physical organization of its inhabitants. Unaltered by the dominion of the Persians, the Ptolemies, and Romans, it was of all polytheisms the most obstinate in its resistance to Christianity, and retained its devotees down to the sixth century of our era. After this necessarily long preamble we now turn our attention first to the religion that was thus intimately connected with this ancient and long-enduring civilization, and may proceed to specify the deities whom the Egyptians worshipped, and next, all that is known of their sacred books.

I.

Viewed collectively, the Egyptian theology, or doctrine of the gods, was of two kinds,-an interior theology for the initiated, and an exterior theology for the uninitiated. The priesthood possessed a creed peculiar to themselves, while the people were left in utter ignorance of the fundamental doctrines of their own religion. It is probable that in earlier times the office of the gods was more simply defined, their numbers smaller, their attributes less complicated; but the weakness of men's minds, when untutored on religious subjects,

soon paved the way for idle superstition; the belief in genii and spirits pervading the universe led to the adoration of fanciful beings; and perverted notions respecting the deity, obliterating every trace of the simple religion, prevented the uninitiated from suspecting the real nature of the religion they professed. Then, again, the animals chosen as emblems of the gods, or as substitutes for the divine rulers of the world, were frequently calculated to give a very low opinion of the exalted personages of whom they were thought to be the proper representative. And this substitution of an emblem, such as an animal or any other object, for the deity, was not the only corruption which took place in the religion of the Egyptians. Many of the deities themselves were mere emblematic representations of attributes of the one and sole God; for the priests who were initiated into and who understood the mysteries of their own religion believed in one deity alone; and in performing their adoration to any particular member of their pantheon addressed themselves directly to the sole Ruler of the universe through that particular form; which form, by whatever name it might be called, was in reality one of His attributes. Hence arose the distinction between the great gods and those of an inferior grade, which were physical objects, as the sun and moon, or abstract notions of various kinds, such as valour, strength, intellectual gifts. The two main principles, therefore, on which the religion of Egypt was based appear to be the existence of an Omnipotent Being, whose various attributes, being divided, formed a series of divinities, each worshipped under its own peculiar form, and supposed to possess its particular office; and the deification of the sun and moon, from which it might appear that a sort of Sabaan worship had once formed part of the Egyptian creed. It appears that the divinity himself was not represented in the Egyptian sculptures, and that the figures of the gods were, as we have said, deified attributes indicative of the intellect, power, goodness, might, and other qualities of the Eternal Being. Those which belonged to the Divinity himself were considered the great gods of the Egyptian pantheon; the next class of deities were emanations from the same source; and the minor divinities of various grades were the representations of inferior powers, of physical objects connected with the Creator, and of different abstract ideas, their relative rank depending on the near or distant connection they were deemed to possess with the divine origin. The Egyptians divided their gods into

three different classes or grades, and adopted a distinguishing mark for each one of them, by giving them the heads of animals, or a peculiar dress and form, which generally, even without the hieroglyphic legends, sufficed to particularize them. The first class of deities comprised the eight following (adopting Sir J. G. Wilkinson's order) :-1, Chnumis; 2, Amen ; 3, Ptah ; 4, Khem; 5, Sati; 6, Mut (or perhaps Buto); 7, Bubastis; and 8, Neith. The first of these, Chnumis (Num, Nu, Kneph, or Chnubis), is supposed to represent the idea of the spirit of the Deity. The asp, the type of dominion, was sacred to Chnumis. He is represented under the form of a ram, or, occasionally, a man with two or four rams' heads. Amen( Amen-ra, Amn, or Ammon), the "concealed god" of Thebes, was represented as a man with a head-dress, surmounted with two feathers, the colour of his body being a light blue, to denote his peculiarly exalted and heavenly nature. Ptah, the god of Memphis, was the creator of the world, sprung from the mouth of Chnumis through the mundane egg. He was the demiurgos, or creative power of the Deity. The scarabæus, or beetle, was particularly sacred to him, and signified the world, or all creation. The frog was another symbol, as being the representative of man in embryo. The form of this deity is generally a mummy, holding in his hands the emblems of life and stability. He was the father of the gods, and the hymns describe the gods as coming out of his eye, and man out of his mouth.

Khem (or Chemmis), the generative principle, was another of the divided attributes of the almighty Founder of the universe. Khem was considered more particularly as the generative influence of the sun. The goddess Sati (or Seti), the consort of Chnumis, was the Egyptian Juno. She is represented as a female figure wearing on her head the cap or crown of Upper Egypt, from which project the horns of a cow. The goddess Mut (or Tmau), the temple consort of Khem and Amen, was the goddess of Buto in the Delta. Her name signifies "mother," which was peculiarly applied to her, although others bear the same appellation sometimes. She wears a double crown placed on a cap, ornamented with the head, body, and wings of a vulture. The goddess Bubastis is represented with the head of a lioness or cat, and to her the latter was peculiarly sacred. She is the usual companion of Ptah, by whom she was said to be beloved. The last of this class, Neith (or Net), the Egyptian Minerva, was particularly worshipped at Saïs, in the Delta.

She was the goddess of war as well as of philosophy, and is sometimes represented as carrying a bow and arrows. Her name signifies "I came from myself."

There were twelve gods of the second order, namely,1. Khunsu or Khonsu (Hercules), the child of Amen. 2. Thoth or Tet (Hermes), the child of Chnumis. 3. Atumu, Atum, or Atmu, and (according to Baron Bunsen), 4. Pecht (Artemis), the children of Ptah. 5. Hakhar or Ather (Aphrodite). 6. Mau. 7. Ma (Truth). 8. Tefnu. 9. Muntu, Munt, or Maudulis. 10. Sebak or Sevek, the crocodile-headed god. 11. Seb (Chronos), and 12. Nupte or Nepte (Rhea); the last eight deities being all the children of Ra (Helios), whom Bunsen elevates to the rank of the first class of gods.

There were, lastly, seven gods of the third class, namely,1. Set, Nubi, or Typhon, the Egyptian Satan. The hippopotamus and crocodile were emblems of Typhon except in places where the crocodile was held sacred. 2. Hesiri or Osiris. 3. Hes or Isis. 4. Nebt-hi or Nephths, the sister of Isis, 'mistress of the house." 5. Her-Her, "Hor the elder." 6. Horus, the child of Isis and Osiris, and 7. Anubis or Anuphis. The sun, being the chief of the heavenly bodies, was considered a fit type of dominion and power. It figures both as a physical and as a metaphysical deity, and under these two characters were worshipped Ra and Amen-ra, the real sun, the ruler of the world, in the firmament, and the ideal ruler of the universe as king of the gods. The worship of Ra, the physical sun, appears to have been universal throughout Egypt. Ra is usually represented as a man with a hawk's head surmounted with a disc and snake, and more rarely under the form of a hawk. The planets also were dedicated to and called after certain deities.

Though standing lowest in the scale, the gods of the third order were the most popular in the Egyptian pantheon. They possessed more individuality and personal character than the greater gods, and were more universally worshipped throughout Egypt. The most famous of these and the most universally worshipped were Osiris and Isis; for these two deities, overlaying or eclipsing, as it were, all the rest, stand forth conspicuous, from the mouth of the Nile to Elephantine, and supplied the centre both of worship for the multitude, and speculation for the priestly order. The myth of Osiris, Isis, and Typhon is well known, and the death of Osiris at the hands of Typhon, the

Egyptian Satan, is a central fact in Egyptian mythology. This myth is supposed to have been of comparatively modern date. Osiris goes through the world, taming it by means of oratory, poetry, and music. On his return Typhon persuades him to enter into an ark or box made to fit the size of his body. No sooner is he in than Typhon fastens down the lid and throws it into the Nile. Isis, the wife of Osiris, goes wandering about in search of it, and at last finds it entangled in a tree which has grown up around it. But when she has rescued it, Typhon, hunting by moonlight, sees the ark with the body of Osiris in it, and tears it into fourteen pieces and scatters them about. After this the soul of Osiris returns out of hades to train up his son Horus, and Horus ultimately vanquishes Typhon in battle. Several explanations are given of this myth (of which the above is the barest outline). Some consider the story to have a geographical signification, and regard Osiris, Isis, and Typhon, as symbolical of the Nile, the earth, and the summer heat which dries up the Nile. Sir J. G. Wilkinson says of it: "In the fabulous history of Osiris we may trace the notion common to all nations of a god who in the early ages of their history lived on earth, and was their king, their instructor, and even the father of their race; he taught them the secrets of husbandry, the arts of civilization, and the advantages of social intercourse; and who, extending his dominion over the whole world, permitted all mankind to partake of his beneficent influence. They represent him to have been assailed by the malignant attacks of some monster or enemy of man, either as an evil principle or a type of a destructive power." Osiris was also worshipped under the form of Apis, the sacred bull of Memphis, or as a human figure with a bull's head, accompanied by the name Apis-Osiris. The Egyptians paid divine honours to this sacred bull, and considering him the living image and representative of Osiris, they consulted him as an oracle, and drew from his actions good or bad omens.

It is doubtful if the Egyptians really represented, under any form, their idea of the unity of the Deity; it is not improbable that his name was regarded with such profound respect as never to be uttered. Neither the snake, the emblem of Kneph, the hawk, nor any other emblem can be considered in any way connected with the unity of the Deity. Even Osiris himself cannot be considered as the Deity in unity, though his character as judge of the dead, and his mysterious nature as Avatar, gave