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and known only to the priests. Another, called the epis tolary or common style, was used for social and commercial purposes, and taught only to priests and merchants. If the names of deities occurred, they were always expressed by symbolic characters, not by the letters which formed the name; it being deemed irreverent to write them like other words. Champollion says the name of their principal deity was pronounced by sounds which expressed the written symbol, and were quite different from the holy name itself.

The laws of Egypt were handed down from the earliest times, and regarded with the utmost veneration as a portion of religion. Their first legislator represented them as dictated by the gods themselves, and framed expressly for the benefit of mankind by their secretary Thoth, usually called Hermes. "An idea," says Diodorus, "adopted with success by many other lawgivers, who have thus insured respect for their institutions." By Thoth, the priests doubtless understood merely the agency of intellect in producing laws, but the people took it literally.

The Sacred Books of Hermes, containing the laws, science, and theology of Egypt, they declared to have been all composed during the reign of the gods, preceding that of their first king Menes. Allusions on very ancient monuments prove their great antiquity. There were four of them, and the subdivisions of the whole made forty-two volumes. These numbers correspond exactly to those of the Vedas, which the Pouranas of Hindostan inform us were carried into Egypt by the Yadavas. The subjects treated of were likewise extremely similar; but whether the Books of Hermes were copies of the Vedas, it is now impossible for the learning of man to discover. They were deposited in the inmost holy recesses of the temples, and none but the higher order of priests were allowed to read them. They were carried reverently in all great religious processions. The Chief Priests carried ten volumes relating to the emanations of the gods, the formation of the world, the divine annunciation of laws and rules. VOL. I.-15*

for the priesthood. The Prophets carried four, treating of astronomy and astrology. The leader of the sacred musical band carried two, containing hymns to the gods, and maxims to guide the conduct of the king; which the Chanter was required to know by heart. Such was the reputed antiquity and sanctity of these Egyptian hymns, that Plato says they were ascribed to Isis, and believed to be literally ten thousand years-old. Servitors of the temple carried ten volumes more, containing forms of prayer, and rules for burnt-offerings, sheaf-offerings, fruit-offerings, festivals and processions. The other volumes treated of philosophy and sciences, including anatomy and medicine. These books were very famous in their day, and gave rise to theories of astrology and alchemy, by which people, even on the borders of our own time, have sought to foretell destiny from the aspect of the stars, and make gold by some mysterious chemical process. The Roman emperor Severus collected all writings on their Mysteries, and buried them in the tomb of Alexander the Great; and Diocletian destroyed all their books on alchemy, lest Egypt should become too rich to remain tributary to the Roman empire. The once world-renowned Books of Hermes have been lost these fifteen hundred years. Eusebius, Bishop of Cæsarea, who flourished about three hundred years after Christ, says these volumes contained the question, "Have you not been informed that all individual souls are emanations from the One Soul of the Universe?" Jamblichus, a celebrated Platonic philosopher of nearly the same period, gives the following extract from one of these books: "Before all things that essentially exist, and before the principles of all things, there existed One God, immoveable in the solitude of his unity. He is established self-begotten, the only Father, who is truly good. He is the fountain of all things, the root of all primary intelligible existing forms. Out of this One, the self-ruling God made himself shine forth; wherefore, he is the father of himself, and self-ruling; for he is the First Principle and God of gods. This Indivisible One is venerated in si

lence." These extracts resemble portions of the Vedas, but it is doubtful whether they are authentic; for at that late period spurious books of Hermes were extant. That the doctrine of One Supreme Being was taught by the more enlightened of the ancient priests, together with other ideas far more elevated than the external worship indicated, seems not to admit of doubt. Plutarch, who wrote in the first century of our era, says: "The end of all the Egyptian rites and mysteries was the knowledge of that First God, who is the Lord of all things, to be discerned only by the mind. Their theology had two meanings; the one holy and symbolical, the other vulgar and literal; consequently, the figures of animals, which they had in their temples, and which they seemed to adore, were only so many hieroglyphics, to represent the divine attributes." Damascius, a Platonic philosopher of the fifth century, says: "The Egyptian philosophers of our time have declared as a hidden truth, found in their ancient writings, that there was One Principle of all things, praised under the name of the Unknown Darkness, and that thrice repeated." When the French army were in Egypt, they brought to light an important roll of papyrus written in hieroglyphics. It treated of the transmigration of souls, and ceremonies in honour of the dead. The soul on its long journey through the celestial gates, from sphere to sphere, is described as giving utterance to confessions, invocations, and prayers. The first fifteen chapters form a separate whole, with the general superscription, "Here begin the sections of the glorifications in the light of Osiris." This papyrus was found in the tombs of the kings of Thebes. It bears traces of having been compiled at different periods; but the learned Lepsius says the original plan unquestionably belongs to the remotest age. He dates the writing one thousand five or six hundred years before the Christian era, and says it is doubtless a fragment of the Sacred Books ascribed to Hermes.

The Pantheistic idea that a portion of God is in every

creature, and belief in the transmigration of human souls into animals, produced effects similar to those in Hindostan. Egyptian priests had a great horror of blood. They never shed it except in sacrifices to the gods, and that only upon very important occasions. Herodotus says: "The Egyptians put no cattle to death;" and he informs us that vessels were kept to convey away the bones of those that died, and bury them in an island appropriated to that purpose. Why some animals were worshipped, and others not, and why some of the favoured ones should have been the least sagacious or agreeable of beasts, was perhaps known to themselves and the Hindoos, but is likely to remain an unsolved riddle for us. In their complicated system of an eternal relation between all things in the universe, each deity had certain stars, plants and animals, mysteriously allied to him, and under his peculiar protection. Thus the Cow and the Lotus were sacred to Isis; the Bull and the fragrant blossom of the Golden Bean were sacred to Osiris. Each of the genii presiding over the signs of the zodiac had some plants or animals under his especial care. If we understood their system, we might perhaps discover why constellations are represented in the shape of animals, and why the Ram of Amun, the Bull of Osiris, and the Goat of Kham, mark successive signs in the zodiac. In some such way, animals were first introduced into the temple as emblems; and afterward when mystical worship degenerated into lifeless superstition, they adored the emblems as deities. Some of these animals were universally worshipped, others only in particular districts; and some were more sumptuously provided for than others. Public buildings and parks, warm baths, carpets, rich furniture, and beautiful female companions of their own species, were procured for them. They were perfumed with fragrant oils and fed on dainties. To kill or maltreat them was the greatest crime, and when they died, they were embalmed and magnificently buried. Men and women were set apart to take charge of them. The office was hereditary, and considered extremely honourable. When these func

tionaries passed through villages, with the sacred banners of the animals they served, people bowed to the ground before them. When children recovered from sickness, parents shaved their hair, and gave the weight of it in gold or silver for the support of those animals. Even in time of famine, when driven to eat human flesh, the popu lace refrained from destroying any of these consecrated creatures. If they accidentally found one dead, they stood lamenting, and proclaiming with a loud voice that they found it so. When Cambyses, the Persian, invaded Egypt, he took advantage of their customs, and protected his army by a vanguard of sacred animals.

Of all creatures the cow was held in the greatest veneration throughout Egypt. On great occasions, they sacrificed unblemished bulls or bullocks to the gods, but never heifers. Whoever killed one, even involuntarily, was punished with instant death.

A Bull called Apis, supposed by some to represent the celestial bull of the zodiac, was inaugurated with many ceremonies, and worshipped by the people as a God. Opposite the temple of Phtha, at Memphis, was a magnificent edifice where he was kept when publicly exhibited. The walls were richly sculptured, and the roof supported by colossal statues. He was generally seen only through the windows, but on some occasions he was led out into the vestibule, where his sacred mother was fed. He had extensive parks for exercise, and the most beautiful cows for companions. His food was carefully regulated, and he drank from a clear fountain, because the water of the Nile was deemed too fattening. He had access to two stables. If he entered one it was a good omen; if the other, it was an evil sign. If he ate readily, it was deemed fortunate for him who offered the food; but if he rejected it, they foreboded calamity. Those who wished to consult his oracle, deposited a coin on his altar, with certain ceremonies; and the first exclamation they heard afterward was deemed a voice from heaven for their guidance. They paid particular attention to the exclamations of little chil

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