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ofit for the priesthood. They bore nce a year in procession; setting at a certain place, and lamenting

It was taken up at another place, s that the god was found again. It sued by the great evil serpent Tybut in time was triumphant over ion to the going of Noah into the en by the great power of waters he returned to land, and peopled

-f transmigration, Herodotus tells ntrymen, whom he could name but eaning, however, Pythagoras and ce into Greece. The Egyptians, Greek, believe that, on the dissothe soul immediately enters into and that, after using as vehicles restrial, aquatic, and winged creaers a second time into a human that it undergoes all these changes e thousand years.

the doctrine of the Hindoos, and have already noticed; and hence essive veneration of the people for imal; fearing to hurt or destroy ald dislodge the soul of a relative

e noticed their fury about a cat: dogs was equally extreme till after edition of Cambyses, the Persian, of his country against all images n their idols, and slew their sacred logs devoured, and thereby became ce to the Egyptians.

= Herodotus, compel them to cherrtain number of men and women s office, which is esteemed so hon

ends in succession from father to ce of these animals the inhabitants

of the cities perform
selves as supplicants
to be represented
they are. They th
sometimes the who
a third. This they
of silver. As soon
give it to the won
capital offence to
stroy one accidenta
the priests; but he
ever involuntarily, c
Whenever a cat di
family; and every
brows: but when a
and every part of t
of Cambyses, wou
The cats, when d
salted, and afterw
Female dogs are

they happen to di
and hawks are buri
they die. Otters
tion. The crocod
part of the kingd
Where it was rev
of attendants, and
mus Tyrius says
and the Egyptia
the nurse of a de
used to play with
turned fierce,
counted the chil
been the victim
melancholy stup
the human mind
1 shall not pu
further, but ref
Diodorus, and P
except to state

an

cities perform their vows. They address themas supplicants to the divinity which is supposed represented by the animal in whose presence

re.

er.

To de

They then cut off their childrens' hair; mes the whole, sometimes the half, at others This they weigh in a balance against a piece As soon as the silver preponderates, they to the woman who keeps the beast. It is a offence to kill one of these animals. ne accidentally is punishable by a fine paid to ests; but he who kills an ibis or a hawk, howvoluntarily, cannot by any means escape death. ver a cat dies there is universal mourning in a ; and every member of it cuts off his eyebut when a dog dies, they shave their heads ery part of their bodies. This, after the days mbyses, would, of course, be somewhat altered. ts, when dead, are carried to sacred buildings, and afterward buried in the city of Bubastes. e dogs are buried in sacred chests, wherever appen to die, as are ichneumons; shrew-mice wks are buried at Butos; bears and wolves where ie. Otters and eels also excited great veneraThe crocodile was held to be divine by one f the kingdom; by another it was execrated. it was reverenced, it had temples, a large train ndants, and, after death, was embalmed. Maxi'yrius says, a woman reared a young crocodile, e Egyptians esteemed her highly fortunate as rse of a deity. The woman had a child which o play with the crocodile, till the animal one day 1 fierce, and ate it up; the woman exulted, and ed the child's fate blessed in the extreme, to have the victim of her domestic god. Such is the choly stupidity into which priestcraft can plunge iman mind!

hall not pursue the superstitions of this people r, but refer my readers to Herodotus, Plutarch, rus, and Porphyrius, for all further particulars; t to state that the Egyptians, were we to credit

singular in one respect-having no save, perhaps, in the very earliest ages. so remarkable an exception to the e system, that we find it difficult of rning to Strabo, we are assured that rificed to the Nile a noble virgin; a ed by the Arabian writer Murtadi, they arrayed her in rich robes, and the stream. Diodorus affirms, that d-haired men at the tomb of Osiris, 1 enemy, Typhon, was of that colour. Thracians to appease the angry men were daily sacrificed to Lucina at ad of which Amasis afterward hud waxen images.

- practised these horrors, but the their loathsomeness; and ingrafted cent character on the national managated the abominations of Priapis, lian and Saturnalian orgies, among e priests had so fast bound the people onds-knowledge in their own order, the multitude,-in puerile forms and he serpent-folds of sensuality, that ed themselves in the most absolute oulders. amples.

Rome and India can alone

n in all other countries, so here they ste. The nation, say the authorities oted, is divided into three castes— id people; the latter of whom are anic or rural employments, utterly owledge, advancement, and power. day, the son must succeed his fa"I know not," says Herodotus, eks have borrowed this custom from een the same thing in various parts a, Persia, and Lydia. It seems, intablished prejudice among nations, ned, to consider mechanics and their

teem those most nob soldiers and the prie which are honourab

them, receive from twelve acres, free military enjoy, in thousand are every

and receive, besid five pounds of brea wine."

Plato, Plutarch, this particular. A Egypt if he be ign must be either of th two classes being dom, the other by chosen a warrior fo

into the order of mysterious philos king; give him a them is fixed the even visit his wife return, many and obliged to consume each has a portion assigned him, bes and geese, and w What a strikin in Genesis, chap first of gathering Egypt, and then ine, to the peopl whole kingdom Pharaoh, exce of the priests b tion assigned th The priests, or even for Ph place a statue

[graphic]

3 and the priests are the only ranks in Egypt are honourably distinguished; these, each of receive from the public a portion of land of acres, free from all taxes; besides this, the y enjoy, in their turn, other advantages; one id are every year, in turn, on the king's guard, ceive, besides their land, a daily allowance of unds of bread, two of beef, and four austeres of

o, Plutarch, and Diodorus agree with him in articular. A prince, say they, cannot reign in if he be ignorant of sacred affairs. The king e either of the race of priests or soldiers; these asses being distinguished, the one by their wisthe other by their valour. When they have 1 a warrior for king, he is immediately admitted he order of priests, who instruct him in their rious philosophy. The priests may censure the give him advice; and regulate his actions. By is fixed the time when he shall walk, bathe, or isit his wife. The sacred ministers possess, in , many and great advantages. They are not d to consume any part of their domestic property; has a portion of sacred viands, ready dressed, ed him, besides a large daily allowance of beef, eese, and wine.

at a striking illustration is this of what we find nesis, chap. xlvii. 22, of the doings of Joseph, f gathering up the corn from all the land of t, and then selling it out, in the horrors of famo the people for their possessions, whereby the e kingdom became the purchased property of oh, except that of the priests-"only the land e priests bought he not, for the priests had a porassigned them of Pharaoh."

e priests, indeed, were too powerful for Joseph, en for Pharaoh himself. Darius wished only to = a statue of himself in a temple; the priests

predecessors for three hundred and and M. Larcher even supposes ere, for many ages, the sole princes ntry; a most triumphant reign of

CHAPTER VII.

GREECE.

› Greeks-Occult Theology-Effect of the is Countrymen-His noble Maxims-Priestlopt a nice policy by the free spirit of the and licentious Rites introduced, and the laved by means of Festivals, Games, Sacri, and Mysteries-The immense influence of of the Mysteries-Egyptian darkness resin's allusions to them-Priestly Avarice.

Hero

ology of this noble and celebrated I during its most enlightened ages, iliar to every mind by its literature schools, and furnishing perpetual ellishments to all writers. siod and Homer invented the theoat is, they, no doubt, methodized the of their ancestors, and organized y beautiful system, which we still become the most fabulous of fables, red creations of all other people. same origin as all other mytholorough the glorious minds of these all those characters of grace and conferred on their literature, their all the arts and embellishments as Homer has made us all with that

is writings, we are

glimpses of a more a
of their origin, whi
one, and at first puz
come, however, to t
we soon find oursel
which he at first ta
Saturn, and of his
Pluto, we discover,
of all other nations,
of the highest antiq
manner totally at va
tem. His Hercules
&c., instead of bein

dren of Jove, are fo
mous with him or

this strange discove
led into those ver
been-into Central
The tombs of the
were, therefore, bu
these men? From
were the most fam
agreed, both that of
particulars of the
the Egyptians, int
invented the names
have already seen
deities. Plutarch
nicia. And who
Ilus, or Ark-Ilus, o
the old man, On,
niatho, came out
corn and the vine
into Greece from
ancient wanderi
them the Cabiri,
been the subject
admit that they
sons of Noah,

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