extremely common Egyptian expression nutar nutra1 exactly corresponds in sense to the Hebrew El Shaddai, 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 nutra 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 Ra and Osiris and Set are names of individual finite powers, but a Power

1 M. de Rougé, Chrestomathie, Fasc. iii. p. 25, translates this, "dieu devenant dieu," and says in a note, "On ne sait pas au juste le sens du verbe nuter, qui forme le radical du mot nuter, 'dieu.' C'est une idée analogue à devenir' ou 'se renouveler,' car nuteri est appliquée à l'âme resuscitée qui revet sa forme immortelle."

2 M. Müller, "Chips," Vol. I. p. 363.

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 numinis," or immediate perception of the Infinite, which, like my learned predecessor Professor Max Müller, 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 commanding."

"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 Series, p. 479, 7th ed.

"God loveth the obedient and hateth the disobe

dient."

A good son is spoken of as "the gift of God."

2. A papyrus of Leyden.1

"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 whosoever honours Him."

3. A papyrus at St. Petersburg.2

"Praised be God for all His gifts."

"God knows the wicked; He smites the wicked, even to blood."

4. The Maxims of Ani.3

"Whoso acts, God will raise his name above the sensual man."

"The sanctuary of God abhors [noisy manifesta

1. Published in Leemans's Monuments Egyptiens du Musée de Leide, Pap. i. p. 344, i.—vi. An account of it is given in Dr. Lauth's "Altägyptische Lehrsprüche," in the Transactions of the Academy of Munich, July, 1872.

2 This is described by Dr. Golenischeff in Lepsius' Zeitschrift, 1876, p. 107.

3 This very interesting book, published with the other papyri of Bulaq by M. Mariette, has been described by Brugsch-Bey in the Zeitschrift, 1872, and has been translated by M. E. de Rougé and M. 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. l'Egyptologie, entirely written by M. Chabas.

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 prescriptions; 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 describes the self-sacrifice of an affectionate mother from the earliest moments of the child's existence, and continues as follows: "Thou wast put to school, and whilst thou wast being taught letters she came punctually 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

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 history, in the earliest not less confidently than in the latest, the Egyptians spoke of the Nutar in the singular 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 cometh 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" (nutriu), 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