The Myth Of Ra (the Supreme Sun God Of Egypt)

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The Myth of Ra is William Ricketts Cooper’s 1877 historical book about Ra, the sun god of ancient Egypt. Readers searching for a book about ancient Ra or the myth of Ra can consult the archival text below rather than a modern retelling. This edition preserves the original scan-derived wording, including possible OCR errors; its nineteenth-century interpretations should be read in their historical context.

Source and rights: Internet Archive historical scan, published 1877. The source text below is imported without translation or rewriting.

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THE MYTH OF RA

(THE SUPREME SUN-GOD OF EGYPT)

WITH

COPIOUS CITATIONS FROM THE SOLAR AND PANTHEISTIC

LITANIES.

BY

W. R. COOPER, F.R.A.S. M.R.A.S.

HON. SEC. BIBLICAL ARCHAOLOGY.

BEING A PAPER READ BEFORE THE VICTORIA INSTITUTE, OR PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OF GREAT BRITAIN.

TO WHICH IS ADDED

THE DISCUSSION THEREON.

LONDON: (Bublished for the Institute)

HARDWICKE & BOGUE, 192, PICCADILLY, W.

EDINBURGH: McLAREN & McNIVEN. DUBLIN: W. RIDINGS. PARIS: GALIGNANI & CO. 1877.

&

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

LONDON : WYMAN AND SONS, PRINTERS, GREAT QUEEN STREET, LINCOLN’S INN FIELDS, W.C.

THE MYTH OF RA,

NE of the most certain results from the present advances

of the science of comparative mythology is the dis- covery of peculiar points of contact, of parallels and analogies, in the earlier forms of all the religions of the world. Starting, as we are naturally willing as Christians to believe they did, from a basis of primeval revelation, these very soon diverged from the simplicity of a faith which rested on the Divine Word alone and originated a theology dependent upon second causes, and sustained by a philosophical theory, in which hypothesis upon hypothesis took the place of reason and induction. In theology, quite as much so as in every science, the tendency of the human mind is to exalt subordinate corollaries into the place of demonstrated first principles, to substitute second causes for original motors, and to rest satisfied with so doing, or, if at last any obvious inconsistencies arose from this process, then by a remarkable system of inverted argument to merge both primary and secondary causes into one, with still a preference to the latter as the more manifest evidence or indication of the former. It was thus that Sabaism was perverted out of and took the place of Monotheism, that Anthropomorphism led to Polytheism, and that both in turn by gradual descent became lost in Pantheism, which, when mingled with philosophy by which its inferences were found fallacious and its dogmas untenable, caused faith to decay away at last into Atheism and Nihilism. The his- tory of religions proves to us that nearly all existing faiths, and certainly all the extinct ones, have passed through their several phases of thought; some have been for a long time arrested at one period of their development and some at another; a

| | A

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powerful genius or an original thinker has written treatises or composed formularies which for many generations fixed the religion of his country at a particular point; at various times, roused, doubtless, by some monition of that divine instinct which never wholly leaves the heart of man, some fervid reformer, bold in his zeal and confident of his truth, has by his energy and teaching given prominence to certain special doctrines of his religion, and so to a great extent modified or explained away the errors or the difficulties of his creed; but still the religion, being simply a human, and so far a natural* one, retrograded in its simplicity, and gradually sank into decay. More and more distinctive teaching, and more rigid dogmas, were intro- duced to retain within the orthodox Church the hearts of men whose faith was waxing cold, and an excess of ritual and cere- mony not unfrequently burst forth at the moment of inanition when wearied by doctrines that could not profit, and ceremonies which had no regenerating power, the people, as a body, sank into animalism as the only practical good ; and the wiser few of higher intellect, but unconvinced judgment, turned with sorrow- ing scorn to the barren consolations of philosophy, and pain- fully asked themselves, as Pliny did, ‘‘ Is there a God ?”’+ and the fool made answer in his heart, “ Thereis no God.” { There is probably nothing more painful to a Christian than to note with what sublime theories the ancient sages were endued, and yet to see to what contemptible depths of atheism and bestial folly their teaching gave rise ; between the recorded sayings of Sakya Munyi and St. Paul, between the discourses of Milinda§ and many an earnest preacher of the present day, there is osten- sibly but little to choose, yet the one has for its ultimatum the infinite Nihilism of Nirvana, and the other finds its climax in the rapture of Corinthians xv. and the chastened confidence of the Epistle to Timothy. The maxims of Confucius and of Solomon are in strong parallelism, but the one concludes with the admonition, “Respect the gods, || and keep out of their way” ;

• Natural ; that is, of course, only in the sense of an uzrevealed doctrine.

¢ Pliny, Nat. Hist., lib. I. cap. v., “of God.” Bohn’s Ed.

t Psa. lii. 1.

§ See Hardy’s Manual of Buddhism for further particulars.

|| See Martin, The San Kiau, or the Three Religions of China, in Dickenson’s Theological Quarterly, No. 7, p. 371. _

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while the other inculcates the fear of God, and the obedience of his commandments as the whole (duty) of man. It would not be easy to find a more detailed code of moral observances than the Institutes of Manu (unless, indeed, the Talmudic regulations of the Sephardim Jews may be supposed to afford a parallel), but the result of such a religious system is the gross licentiousness of modern Sivaism. The proverbs of Pthah-hotep, the oldest proverbs in the world,* (having been written before the call of Abraham), express the highest reverence for sacred things, and the language of the Ritual ofthe Deadt+ has no equal except in the Psalms of David. Yet who will not glory in the life of the upright men, many of such as whom Christianity has pro- duced and is producing, rather than in the remote practical morality which was the outcome of the Egyptian faith? And, finally, for it is simply as a prelude to this issue that these reflections have been introduced, scarcely any human phrase- ology could be found to convey a nobler idea of deity than the vocative addresses of the Myth of Ra, echoing, as they almost do, the tones of the harp of the Hebrew prophets in a lower octave ; and yet, as we proceed to examine the logic of that myth in detail, we shall find its most glowing epithets to convey merely abstract ideas, and the issue of its divine ascriptions to be a metaphysical Pantheism, without life, and. without the power to become vivified, or even to save itself from that religious decrepitude which ends in practical atheism.

2. The Myra or Ra is, perhaps, one of the oldest component parts of the national mythology of the Egyptians, since some of the earliest events in the mythical history of the country are connected with it. It commences and permeates the whole of the theology of the Ritual of the Dead, and it was one of the last principles of the ancient faith which became lost in the Grecian and Perso-Grecian philosophies. The deity Ra was himself a hero and a god. As a hero he was a monarch of Egypt, and reigned for a thousand years ;{ while as a god he was the father of the deities Shu and Tefnu,§ and, by personal hypostasis, of

• Chabas, Le plus Ancien Livre du Monde. Etude sur le Papyrus Prisse, Revue Archéologique, 1857.

• Especially that section or book which is called The Egyptian Faith extending from caps. xvii. to xx. { Birch, Guide to the Egyptian Vestibule, Brit. Mus., p. 7. Pierret, Dictionnaire Archéologique, in loco.

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Horus Ra, his only begotten son.* He was self-existing, and self- produced, and, according to his various manifestations, he became (1) Amen Ra, as the spiritual supreme being par ewcel- lence ; (2) Har Machu, as the mid-day sun; (8) Tum, as the sun in the under- world, in which form he is more especially venerated in the formulz of the Ritual ; and (4) Aten Ra, as the deity of the solar disk. The deity Pthah, of Memphis, as the demi- urgus, derived his power from him; and Osiris, the god and judge of the dead, was in some mysterious manner identified with this god also. He was, as the sun, the author both of life and death; and by parity of reasoning, the greater always including the latter, of good and evil alike. While yet a male deity, he was, like Brahma, endued with the feminine principle as well, and thus he became an Androgyne. Since the visible luminary, the sun, his symbol, and in some mysterious manner his body also, rose and set, the god, in a manner, thus passed through infancy, maturity, and decay; and as he was the soul of the Kosmos itself, and thereby identical with Knuphis and Khneph, so he was also the author of the being of, and the source of the power of, all the other eight great gods,} and was merged in them, and their personality in turn lost in his.

8. Since Ra played so important a part in the celestial hierarchy it naturally followed that he was one of the chief deities whose statues and representations have come down to our day. The sarcophagi and papyri abound with representations of the god Ra in his heavenly boat canopied by the great serpent Mehen traversing the hours of day and night, and attended by the deities of the underworld.t Sometimes, inasmuch as the god Pthah was considered to be his father, Pthah being the deity of Material Fire; he was conjoined with that god also, and some- times, like his children Shu and Tefnu, he was figured with the head of a lion. The most general representation of the god was, however, that of a man with the head of a hawk, choosing,

• See the previous paper by the author on the Myth of Horus, and the references there cited.

t These eight deities beingin Memphis ; 1, Pthah ; 2, Shu; 3, Tefnu; 4, Seb; 5, Nut; 6, Osiris; 7, Nis and Horus; 8, Athor; while in Thebes the order was: 1, Amen Ra; 2, Mentu; 3, Atum; 4, Shu and Lefnu; 5, Seb; 6, Osiris; 7, Set and Nepthys ; 8, Horus and Athor.

{ See especially the sarcophagus of Seti I. at the Soane Museum, and the two basalt sarcophagi, that of Nebseni and the so-called Tomb of Alexander, in the Eyyptian Gallery of the British Museum.

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according to Horapollo,* that bird on account of his “ being prolific and long-lived, or perhaps rather because it seems to be an image of the sun, being capable of looking more intently towards his rays than all other winged creatures.” In every case the solar disk and urzeus formed his head-dress, and the cucufa sceptre was in his left hand, the right holding, in common with all the Egyptian deities, the handled cross or symbolof life.t Another but a less distinctive form of representing Ra was simply by the figure of the solar disc without ureei or wings, thus distin- guishing him from Har-hut,t but with the scarabeus of the god Kheper, the creator, in the centre, and pendant from the edge, the handled cross and cucufa; this would more properly apply to Ra as the midday sun god. When figured as Tum, the solar disk was placed in the hollow of the western mountains, and in the place of scarabeus 8 small sitting figure of the deity proper occupied the centre of the disk. This latter symbol was generally wrought in carnelian or yellow jasper, and worn by the Egyptian children as an amulet, in which case it was supposed to preserve the vital warmth of the soul.

4, The oldest mythological work in which the worship of Ra is distinctly formulated is, of course, the Ritual of the Dead, the earliest portions of which are found in the coffin of Queen Mentu-hotep of the XIth dynasty, with a_ self-contained reference in the text itself to an earlier edition of one of the chapters, the LXIV., to the period of King Menkeres, the founder of the third Pyramid, and one of the chief monarchs of the Vth dynasty.§ This toa certain extent fixes the great anti- quity of the doctrine, which we have generally to examine, and the great Ritual itself may be regarded as dedicated to the sun, as Ra or Tum, Amen Ra, and many of the better known divini- ties of later times receiving far less notice than is devoted to the various attitudes of Ra. The Ritual almost commences with an address to Ra as Tum of the under-world :—||“O Tum, O Tum, coming forth from the great place within the celestial abyss,

• Horapollo, by Cory, book 1, sec. vi.

• A form of Horus as the good spirit, or Agathodemon of the Greco- Egyptians. Wilkinson, Materia Hieroglyphica, pl. iv. : Bunsen, Egypt’s Place, vol. v., p. 127. Introduction to the Book of the Dead. || The chapter of coming forth as the sun, and living after death, cap. iii.

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lighted by the lion gods.*¥ The blessed Osirian (the deceased) have come from their corner doing all thy words ordered. Oh! workmen of the sun, by day and by night, the Osirian lives after he dies like the sun daily; for as the sun died, and was born yesterday, so the Osirian is born, every god rejoices with life, the Osirian rejoices, as they rejoice, with life.” This simile is of great value, because it proves that the cardinal doctrine of a resurrection of the soul and body was the chief cause of the Egyptian adoration of the sun as the visible creator and resusci- tator of the inanimate world. Nor was this adoration paid to the solar deity simply by virtue of his vivific force, for the Ritual goes on to declare, “ Hail, O Sun, Creator, Self-created! perfect is thy light in the horizon, illuminating the world with thy rays, all the gods rejoice when they see the King of the Heaven. I have reached the Land of the Age where thou hast ordered every god, O Sun.” + The remainder of the chapter, from which this extract is taken, describes the glories of the youthful god Horus-Nets, the destruction of the evil serpent Apophis,{ and the identification of the Osirian by virtue of his faith and religious performances with the various divinities whom he adores. The next chief section of the Ritual, the “ Egyptian Faith,” is also devoted to the glorification of Ra; a few extracts from this will, however, suffice.§

“T am Tum, the only being in Nu.|| I am the Sun when he rises. His rule commences when he has done, and let him explain it.¢ The Sun is

• Shu and Tefnu.

• Cap. xv., section “ The Manifestation to Light.”

{¢ The enemy of the sun, and a form of the evil being Set or Typhon. The contests between the gods and Apophis form the chief subject of the mystical papyrus, called the ‘“ Book of the Under-world,” and they have been tolerably examined in a paper by the author, ‘The Serpent Myths of Ancient Egypt,” Trans. Vict. Inst., vol. vi.

Uap. xvii. The chapter of conducting the spirit, of coming in and going from the Hades, and being among the servants of the Osiris, fed with the food of Osiris, the good being, the justified, coming forth from the day, making all the transformations he has wished to transform him- self into, ploughing with a plough (P), being seated in the hall a living soul, as the blessed, by the great gods of the west after he has been laid to rest. The glory of doing it on earth is for mortals to declare.

|| The heavenly firmament personified as 8 deity.

This phrase, which is of frequent occurrence in this chapter, appears to be a rubric to the worshi per which has crept into the text. There are many such in the Ritual and Hermetic Books.

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in his rising when the rule which he has made begins, rising in Suten Khen.*

I am the Great God creating himself. It is water, or Nu, who is the father of the Gods. Let him explain it. The Sun is the creator of his body, the engenderer of the gods, who are the successors of the Sun.

I am (the one) never stopped by the gods. Let himexplainit. Tum, or the Sun, in his disk, when he shines from the eastern horizon of heaven.t O Creator, dwelling in bis bark, forming his own body, or forming his body eternally, save thou the Osirian from those who are the guardians and judges placed by the Lord of Spirits as he wishes to guard his enemies. Khepera in his boat is the Sun himself, the gods, guardians and judges are the Apes, Isis, and Nepthys.”’t

The whole of the long section from which these extracts are taken is full of obscurities; much of it is written in a precatory style, interrupted with many rubrics and interrogations, to which not a few of the sentences are designed as a reply. Obscure, however, as the whole is, still there is no uncertainty in the general import of the paragraphs which are addressed to Ra.

5. Passing over many intermediate chapters, in two of which the Osirian entreats the god to give him “ the delicious breath of his nostrils,” § a petition which strongly reminds one of the time when the Supreme Being breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul,|| we come next to that magnificent address to the midnight sun in Hades, which has been often quoted, and which forms the CXXXth chapter of the Ritual, and is supposed to belong to the period when the soul of the deceased, justified by Horus the Deliverer from all his sins, is prepared to commence its passage to the Sun, and to take its place among the gods of the orbit.

• A name of the city of Bubastes, or Buto, in Lower Egypt.

t In this figure the sun is supposed to shine over the entrance of Hell, which was situated in the east, as the Ker-Neter, or land of the gods, was in the west.

t The goddesses of the upper and lower firmament respectively, and the sacred apes or cynocephali, the avenging ministers of Thoth, the recorder of the deeds of the dead.

a oe lvi., the chapter of ‘‘ Receiving the Breath in Hades.” mn. li. e “The Passage to the Sun. The book of vivifying the soul for ever ; of letting it go to the Boat of the sun, to pass the crowds at the gate. Done on the Day of the Birth of the Osiris.” This birth is the resurrec- tion of the soul to a new and purified life, a spiritual post-mortal regeneration. —

-)

“The Heaven is open, the earth opens, the south opens, the north opens, the west opens, the east opens, the southern zenith opens, the northern Nachi opens, the valves of the door open, the gateway of the Sun opens. He proceeds from the horizon, he has unclosed the doors of the

‘The Osirian serves the Sun. He has received his due reward at his shrine. Like Horus he goes to the recesses of (his dwelling) place, to the sanctuary of his chest.*………

‘Glory to the Sun, Lord of the Horizon ; Osiris, Lord of the West.

‘Hail thou who purifiest mankind, who soundest the heaven at the great place, making the boatmen to go along.f………

“‘ He has prepared millions; he has passed his billions………

‘‘ The circle of the ministers of the Sun is before him. His blessings are after him. Come.

“Truth exclaims, She approaches her Lord; Glory is given to the Universal Lord.”

The Rubric to this chapter declares that, this chapter having been duly recited, the soul lives for ever. His word is true against his enemies, and his food is off the altar of the Sun to the end of every day.

In Chapter CXXXIII. we are told that t{ ‘“ The Sun rises from his horizon, his gods are behind him. When he comes forth from the Amenti, the despisers fall down in the eastern horizon of the heaven at the words of Isis.§ She has prepared the path of the Sun, the great chief.’’ This is one of the more mystical chapters, which the Rubric prescribes is to be seen (that is, the vignette to it) by no one but the man for whom it was prepared. ‘Do not let any one see it except thyself, or thy father, or thy son. Having kept it well, prepare the dead, the delight of the Sun. It makes him prevail as the gods, for the gods look upon him as one of themselves; the dead fall on their faces when they see him. He is seen in Hades as the boatman of the Sun.”

• Or innermost shrine, analogous to the holy of holies of the Jews.

t+ Or in less idiomatic phraseology, ‘‘ Who measures the depths of Heaven at the source of its great river, and makest the rowers of thy bark to po forth in triumph.”

t “The Book of instructing the Dead to béin the Heart of the Sun, made on a Day of the Month.”

§ Or the evil are thrust into hell by Isis at the rising of the Sun, when the goddess prepares to make his paths straight.

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6. The last section of the Ritual which we shall cite is that called “ The Orientation.” It, together, with Chapter CLXIIL., is written in astill more ambiguous style than the preceding, and it practically concludes the Ritual. In the Orientation the god Thoth is described as opening the gates of the four winds of heaven to the deceased and of each of them it is written, “The Sun lives; the Tortoise, or the evil one, dies’; and the nature of the abodes of the deity is an unknown and an unutterable mystery, which is not known to rustics or the uneducated, and is to be rigidly kept as a secret from every living soul.

7. The chief work, however, in which the esoteric authors of the Myth of Ra is contained is that great litany which is called the Litany of the Sun, which ascribes to that divinity the paramount superiority over all the gods, and which, next to the Ritual of the Dead, is the longest of the sacred writings of the Egyptians. Unlike the Ritual, the Litany of Ra is not found complete on any one papyrus or on any one mural in- scription, while as a composition the date of its compilation must be ascribed to that of the XVIIIth dynasty, or 1,700 years B.C.* Although litanies on papyri exist yet, the chief copies now extant are those which are engraved on the walls of the tombs of Ramesside kings of the XIXth dynasty in the Beban el Moluk. These extensive catacombs, which take their rank among the most stupendous monuments ever executed in honour of the dead, are, in many of the chambers and along the corridors and staircases leading to the final vault where the royal sarcophagus was deposited, completely covered with chapters from the Litany of Ra, illustrated by a variety of symbolic vignettes containing many figures of the deities, often of life size, and richly adorned with coloured and incised decor- ation. The royal tombs which are more especially thus em- bellished are those of Rameses III., IV., VI., and IX., of Seti [. and IT., and of Menepthah I. of the XXth dynasty. Of these the texts in the tomb of Seti I. are the most complete, and have been taken as a standard copy, while the tomb itself, commonly called Belzoni’s Tomb, after the name of its energetic discoverer,t 1s perhaps the most splendid, as it is certainly the best preserved, of all the funeral excavations in the royal valley.

• Lenormant, Histoire Ancienne des Peuples de lV Orient.

• It was discovered by Giovanni Belzoni on the 16th October, 1815, and B

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The text of Seti I., therefore, is that which we shall now cite, using the translation by M. Edouard Naville which has just appeared in the Records of the Past,* and referring occasionally to the more elaborate edition of the same work, which stands as a monument of erudition, research, and candid criticism.t

8. The Litany of Ra consists of four chapters—the first and third being litanies properly so-called ; the second and fourth, on the contrary, being mystical prayers and invocations, having, as will be seen, a strong affinity to certain chapters in the Ritual of the Dead. Chapter I., it will be seen, enumerates the seventy-nine phases or manifestations of Ra.

CHAPTER I.

Title. The beginning of the book of the worship of Ra in the Ament of the worship of Tempr {¢ in the Ament. When any one reads this book, the porcelain § figures are placed upon the ground, at the hour of the setting of the Sun, that is of the triumph of Ra over his enemies in the Ament. Whoso is intelligent upon the earth, he is intelligent also after his death.

1 Homage to thee, Ra! Supreme Power, the master of the hidden spheres who causes the principles to arise, who‘dwells in darkness, who is born || as the all-surrounding universe.

2 Homage to thee, Ra! Supreme Power, the beetle that folds his wings J that rests in the empyrean, that is born as his own son.**

3 Homage to thee, Ra! Supreme Power, Tonen tt who produces his members,{{ who fashions what is in him, who is born within his sphere.

a facsimile of one of the chambers, that then known as the Chamber of Beauty, was exhibited at the Egyptian Hall, Piccadilly, in 1821. See Belzoni, Narrative of Discoveries in Egypt and Nubia, 1822.

• Vol. viii. t Naville, Za Lntanie du Soleil, 1875. Leipzig. Or the Universal Being. The Shabti mummy figures, whose use is described in the Ritual of the Dead, cap. vi. Or, ‘“‘ under the form of.” | The sacred Scarabeus. The simile is that of Deity resting after creation as a beetle closes its wings after its eggs are laid. ** Horus Ra. From a similar idea the early Gnostic Christians oriwinated the Patripassian heresy. tt The material earth. TY His members, i.¢., the gods.

1l

4, Homage to thee, Ra! Supreme Power, he who discloses the earth and lights the Ament, he whose principle has (become) his manifestation, and who is born under the form of the god with the large disk.*

5 Homage to thee, Ra! Supreme Power, the soul that speaks, that rests upon her high place, that creates the hidden intellects which are developed in her.t

6 Homage to thee, Ra! Supreme Power, the Only One, the courageous one, who fashions his body, he who calls his gods (to life) when he arrives in his hidden sphere.

7 Homage to thee, Ra! Supreme Power, he who addresses his eye, and who speaks to his head, he who imparts the breath of life to the souls (that are) in their place; they receive it and develope.§

8 Homage to thee, Ra! Supreme Power, the spirit that walks, that destroys its enemies, that sends pain to the rebels.||

9 Homage to thee, Ra! Supreme Power, he who shines when he is in his sphere, who sends his darkness into his sphere, and who hides what it contains.

10 Homage to thee, Ra! Supreme Power, he who lights the bodies which are On the horizon, he who enters his sphere.

11 Homage to thee, Ra! Supreme Power, he who descends into the spheres of Ament, his form is that of Tum.]

12 Homage to thee, Ra! Supreme Power, he who descends into the mysteries of ANusiIs, his form is that of CHEPRA.**

13 Homage to thee, Ra! Supreme Power, he whose body is so large that it hides his shape,tf{ his form is that of Suv.

14 Homage to thee, Ra! Supreme Power, he who leads Ra into his members, his form is that of Ternurt.

15 Homage to thee, Ra! Supreme Power, he who sends furth the plants in their season, his form is that of Szs.tt

16 Homage to thee, Ra! Supreme Power, the great one who rules what is in him, his form is that of Nct.§§

• Aten Ra.

t Again a Gnostic theory, all the heavenly intelligences being simplv emanations from the Divine soul. See Mansell, Guostic Heresies, and King, The Gnostics and their Remains. :

{ Idiom; “he who speaks to himself aloue,” 7.e., having no equal to consult with.

The creator of the pre-existent souls of mankind. — . “For thine incorruptible spirit is in all things.” —Wisdom xii. 1.

G The god of the naiderwortd ** Atmu.

tt According to Brugsch Bey, Ra was also the god of the air, the analogue of the Anu of the Assyrian theology. See the Au’hor’s Archaic Dictionary. .

tt The most primeval of the Egyptian deities. He was the analogue of the Chronos of the Greeks, and was represented with the head of 8 crocodile. '

§§ The heavens personified in a feminine form.

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17 Homage to thee, Ra! Supreme Power, he who goes always towards him who precedes him, his form is that of Is1s.*

18 Homage to thee, Ra! Supreme Power, he whose head shines more than he who is before him, his form is that of Nreuruys.f

19 Homage to thee, Ra! Supreme Power, the urn f of the creatures, the only one, that unites the generative substances, its form is that of Horvs.

20 Homage to thee, Ra! Supreme Power, the brilliant one who shines in the waters of the inundation, his form is that of Nun.§

21 Homage to thee, Ra! Supreme Power, be who creates the water which comes from within him, bis form is that of Reat.||

22 Homage to thee, Ra! Supreme Power, the two vipers4 that bear their two feathers, their form is that of the impure one.

23 Homage to thee, Ra! Supreme Power, he who enters and comes forth continually from his highly mysterious cavern, his form is that of Ar.**

24 Homage to thee, Ra! Supreme Power, the spirit that causes his disappearance, his form is that of Nerget.tf

25 Homage to thee, Ra! Supreme Power, the spirit that sets up (those whom he has created), that creates{{ his descendants, his form is that of Nrurt.§§

26 Homage to thee, Ra! Supreme Power, he who raised his head and who lifts his forehead, the Ram, the greatest of the creatures.||||

27 Homage to thee, Ra! Supreme Power, the light that is in the inferna} regions, its form is that of Ament.

28 Homage to thee, Ra! Supreme Power, the penetrating ‘spirit who is in the Ament, his form is that of Kerti.¢ 4

29 Homage to thee, Ra! Supreme Power, the timid one who sheds tears,*** his form is that of the afflicted.

30 Homage to thee, Ra! Supreme Power, he who raises his hand and who glorifies his eye,ttf his form is that of the god with the hidden body.

• Or the Moon.

• The sister of Isis and the goddess of the lower firmament. t Crater, the receptacle of all life. ’ The Heavenly waters personified as a male deity. i The weeper, a title of Isis. @ The sacred urei of Harhut.

• A fish, most likely the phagros, the appearing of which is connected with the inundation. tt The divine eye of Osiris. tf Vivifies. The meaning of this name is doubtful. ||| The Ram was the emblem of the god Kneph, the spirit of the heaven and of the soul of the world. : @ The god of the spheres. #% The god whose appearance causes the dew. tft Glorifies himself.

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31 Homage to,thee, Ra! Supreme Power, the spirit who is raised upon the two mysterious horizons, his form is that of CoantT aMENT.*

32 Homage to thee, Ra! Supreme Power, the god with the numerous shapes in the sacred dwelling, his form is that of the beetle.f

33 Homage to thee, Ra! Supreme Power, he who puts his enemies into their prison, his furm is that of the lion.f

34 Homage to thee, Ra! Supreme Power, the ray of light in his sarco- phagus,§,its form is that of the progenitor.

35 Homage to thee, Ra! Supreme Power, the covering of the body, which developes the lungs, its form is that of Txs-at71.||

36 Homage to thee, Ra ! Supreme Power, he who calls the bodies into the empyrean, and they develop, who destroys their venom, his form is that of the transformer.

37 Homage to thee, Ra! Supreme Power, the being with the mysterious face,{] who makes the Divine Eye move, his form is that of Samat.

38 Homage to thee, Ra! Supreme Power, the supremely great one who embraces the empyrean, his form is that of the spirit who embraces (space).

39 Homage to thee, Ra! Supreme Power, he who hides his body within himeelf, his form is that of the god with the hidden body.

40 Homuge to thee, Ra! Supreme Power, he who is more courageous than those who surround him, who sends fire into the place of destruction, his form is that of the burning one.**

41 Homage to thee, Ra! Supreme Power, he who sends destruction, and who causes the development of his body, in the empyrean, his form is that of the inhabitant of the empyrean.

42 Homage to thee, Ra! Supreme Power, the wonderful one who dwells in his eye,tt who lights the sarcophagus, his form is that of SHrr1.ff

43 Homage to thee, Ra! Supreme Power, he who unites the substances, who founds§§ Amro, his form is that of one who joins substances. ||||

44, Homage to thee, Ra! Supreme Power, he who invents { secret things, and who begets bodies, his form is that of the invisible (progenitor).

• A title of Osiris, literally, “‘ He who resides in the West.”

• Kheper Ra. t~ The god of Force or the god Peh. The Shekinah of the tomb.

|| The covering of Ati, the air (P).

“| This is the same idea as that of Job iv. 16: “ A spirit passed before my face ; it stood still, but I could not discern the form thereof.”

** “Our god is a consuming fire’ (Heb. xii. 29 ; Deut. iv. 24; ix. 3).

+t The solar disk. tt The splendid one. Gives a body to.

{||| .Who unites all things with himself. {4 Creates.

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45 Homage to thee, Ra! Supreme Power, he who furnishes the inha- bitants of the empyrean with funeral things, when he enters the hidden spheres, his form is that of APERTO.*

46 Homage to thee, Ra! Supreme Power, his members rejoice when they see his body, the blessed spirit who enters into him, his form is that of the joyful one.

47 Homage to thee, Ra! Supreme Power, the adult who dilates his eyeball, and who fills his eye,t his form is that of the adult.

48 Homage to thee, Ra! Supreme Power, he who makes the roads in the empyrean, and who opens pathways in the sarcophagus, his form is that of the god who makes the roads.§

49 Homage to thee, Ra! Supreme Power, the moving spirit who makes his legs stir, his form is that of the moving one.||

50 Homage to thee, Ra! Supreme Power, he who sends forth the stars and who makes the night light, in the sphere of the hidden essences, his form is that of the shining one.

51 Homage to thee, Ra! Supreme Power, he who makes the spheres and who creates bodies; from thy person emanating from itself alone, thou hast sent forth, Ra, those who are and those who are not, the dead, the gods, the intellects ; his form is that of creator of bodies.

52 Homage to thee, Ra! Supreme Power, the mysterious, the hidden one, he whom the spirits follow as he conducts them, he gives the step to those surrounding him, his form is that of AMENT.

53 Homage to thee, Ra! Supreme Power, the horn, the pillar of the Ament,** the lock of hair that shines in …… +t its form is that of the horn.

54 Homage to thee, Ra! Supreme Power, the Eternal Essence who penetrates the empyrean, who praises the spirits in their spheres, his form is that of the Eternal Essence.

• Perhaps Anubis. + The solar disk.

{ Or the old one, t.e., the perfect man ; or, perhaps, the Adam Kadmon of the Gnostics.

§ This is in more ambiguous terms the idea of Jacob’s ladder as applied to the Son of Man (John i. 51); or the god Ra makes a pathway from earth to Heaven for his adorers to ascend thereby. A similarity of ideas will often beget a similarity of expression, but it must be strictly borne in mind that the converse does not apply, and that a similarity of i aac does not convey always, or even oftentimes, a similarity of ideas.

|| Is the spirit which broods over the universe to hatch it into life.

The region of the purest spirits, or the beaven of the pure essences. See Iamblicus and Porphyry, by Taylor. This was a theory which the Platonists borrowed from the Egyptians.

*# The glory and the support of the heavens or Amenti. +f Lacuna.

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55 Homage to thee, Ra! Supreme Power, when he arrives in the good Ament, the spirits of the empyrean rejoice at sight of him, his form is that of the old man.*

56 Homage to thee, Ra! Supreme Power, the great lion that creates the gods, that weighs words, the chief of the powers inhabiting the holy sphere, his form is that of the great lion.f

57 Homage to thee, Ra! Supreme Power, when he speaks to his eye and when he addresses his eyeball, the bodies shed tears; his form is that of the being who speaks to his eye.f

58 Homage to thee, Ra! Supreme Power, he who raises his soul, and who hides his body, he shines and he sees his mysteries, his form 1s that of Hersa,§

59 Homage to thee, Ra! Supreme Power, the high spirit who hunts his enemies, who sends fire upon the rebels, his form ia that of Kasa.||

60 Homage to thee, Ra! Supreme Power, the substance which hides the intestines and which possesses the mind and the limbs, its form is that of Avar.q )

61 Homage to thee, Ra! Supreme Power, the great eldest one who dwells in the empyrean, CuEpEr who becomes two children, his form is that of the two children.**

62 Homage to thee, Ra! Supreme Power, the great walker who goes over the same course, the spirit who anoints the body, SenexuHEs, his form is that of SENEKHER.TT |

63 Homage to thee, Ra! Supreme Power, he who creates his body and who detaches his members by the sacred flame of Amto, his form is that of the flame of Amto.tt

64 Homage to thee, Ra ! Supreme Power, the master of §§ the hooks (who struggles) against his enemies, the only one, the master of the Aynocephaili,|||| his form is that of ANTETI.9 7

65 Homage to thee, Ra! Supreme Power, he who sends the flames into his furnaces, he who cuts off the head of those who are in the infernal regions, his form is that of the god of the furnace.***

• The Ancient of vey

• The Gnostic idea of the Dynamic Theurgos.

Who speaks to himself. He who raises his soul. || The high spirit. { Flesh, or substance. Shu and Tefnut. tf Literally, the shining face.

He who is on the ground. Cf. “I will put my hook into thy nose and my bridle into thy mouth” (Isa. xxxvii. 29). Uy) The sacred monkeys of the god Thoth. Ff Doubtful meaning. The Lord paramount even of Hell. See Ritual of the Dead, caps. exlvi. and cl., ‘the Mystical Abodes.”

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66 Homage to thee, Ra! Supreme Power, the parent who destroys his children, the only one who names* the earth by his intelligence, his form is that of TonENn.

67 Homage to thee, Ra! Supreme Power, he who sets up the urshit themselves upon their foundations, no one sees their mysteries, his form is that of the wrshi.

68 Homage to thee, Ra! Supreme Power, the vessel of heaven, the door of the empyrean,t he who makes the mummy come forth, his form is that of Brsr.

69 Homage to thee, Ra! Supreme Power, the monkey …… the being in his nature, his form is that of the Ape of the empyrean.

70 Homage to thee, Ra! Supreme Power, he who opens the earth, and who shows the interior of it, the speaking spirit who names his members, his form is that of Smarto.§

71 Homage to thee, Ra! Supreme Power, he who is armed with teeth, who consumes his enemies, the flame that lights the wick, his form is that of Neut.||

72 Homage to thee, Ra! Supreme Power, the walker, the moving luminary, who makes darkness come after his light, his form is that of the Walker.

73 Homage to thee, Ra! Supreme Power, the master of souls who is in his obelisk, the chief of the confined gods, his form is that of the master of souls.

74, Homage to thee, Ra! Supreme Power, the double luminary, the double obelisk,** the great god who raises his two eyes, his form is that of the double luminary.tt

75 Homage to thee, Ra; Supreme Power, the master of the light, who reveals hidden things, the spirit who speaks to the gods in their spheres, his form is that of the Master of the Light.

• Creates, fashions. + The genii of the watches of the night. Again a Christian parallel, ‘Iam the door of the sheep ” (John x. 9). He who opens the earth.

He who is armed with teeth. The active spirit which superintends all things in space.

*# The obelisk was specially devoted to Ra, as the pyramid appears to have been to Tum. There are no pyramids to the east of the Nile, and no obelisks to the west of the same river. Pierret, in his Dict. Archéologie Egyptienne, has shown that the obelisk was honoured with divine honours, but it is more than doubtful if, as is often asserted, it was ever regarded as a phallicemblem. The illustrations given by Inman in his Christian and Pagan Symbolism, are misleading, as they represent the obelisk with a conical apex and a curved outline,

Tf Or the sun and moon combined (?P).

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76 Homage to thee, Ra! Supreme power, O Ra of the sphere, O Ra who speakest to the spheres, O Ra who art in thy sphere, homage to thee, Ra Krscut, four times.* They sing praises to the spirit Kescuti,f the spheres honour his spirit, they glorify thy body which is in thee, saying, Homage to thee, great Krsoar! four times. They sing praises in thy honour, spirit Kescar in thy 75 forms which are in thy 75 spheres. The royal Ostr1an knows them by their names, he knows what is in their bodies, all their hidden essences.{ The royal OsrR1an speaks to them in their forms, they open to the royal OsrR1an, they display the hidden doors to his spirit which is like thy spirit, thou createst them, thou createst the royal OsrR1aNn, the development of his body is like thine because the royal OsrRrian is one of thy companions, who are in their spheres, and who speak in their caverns, those who are blessed through thy creation and who transform themselves when thou commandestit. The royal Osrr14n is like one of those who speak in their hidden spheres. Hail, he has arrived, he advances in the train of the spirit of Ra. Hail! he has completed the journey from Chepri.§ Hail! he has arrived. The royal Ostr1an knows all that concerns the hidden beings.|| Hail! he has arrived in the midst of you; homage to his spirit Kuscur ! four times.

77 Oh! Ra of the Ament, who hast created the earth, who lightest the gods of the empyrean, Ra who art in thy disk, guide him on the road to the Ament, that he may reach the hidden spirits; guide him on the road which belongs to him, guide him on the Western road ; that he may traverse the sphere of Ament, guide him on the road to the Ament, that the king may worship those who are in the hidden dwelling, guide him on the road to the Ament, make him descend to the sphere of Nun. Hail, Ra! the royal Osreran is Nun. Hail, Ra! the royal Ostrran is thyself and reciprocally. Hail, Ra! thy spirit is that of Osiris, thy course is his in the empyrean. Hail, Ra! he dwells in the empyrean, he traverses the good Ament. Such as thou art, such is the royal Osiz1s.q Thy intellect, Ra, is his. Usrkis worships the hidden gods, he praises their spirits, these latter

• The plural of Honour, a common Egyptian phrase. ¢ Doubtful meaning. { This refers to the king in whose tomb the inscription was written, in this case Seti I. j Ra under the form of a scarabeus. Ritual, cap. cxlvii., ‘The commencement of the gates of the House of Osiris in the Fields of the Aahlu,” said by the deceasea. This phrase occurs frequently also on the coffin of Seti I.; see aa Sarcophagus of Oimenephthah I., 4to. 1862. Lond.

C

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say to one another that thy course (Ra !) is that of Osrris, that thy way is his, great god who dwellest in the empyrean. Hail! god of

‘the disk with the brilliant rays, praise be to the spirit Kzscur! four times.

78 Hail to thee, universal covering, who createst thy soul and who makest thy body grow; the King traverses the most secret sphere, he explores the mysteries contained in it. The King speaks to thee like Ra, he praises thee with his intelligence, the King is like the god* and reciprocally. He moves by himself, he moves by himself. The all surrounding universe says: Ah, guide him into the interior of my sphere ; four times.

79 This chapter is said to the most mysterious god, these words are written like those upon the two sides of the door of the empyrean ee ree this book is read every day, when he has retired in life, according to custom, perfectly.t

9. Thus far run the first seventy-nine clauses, or the first chapter of the Ritual of Ra; each of them commences with the same formula of devotion, and contains an inscription to the deity of his personal identification with the other divinities, and even with the more abstract deities of Heaven, water, air, and space. That this sublime conception was very different from the vulgar idea of the god is self-evident, and the votive stéle and hymns to Anubis, Horus, Isis, Osiris, and Amen, which exist in abundance, prove that to the bulk of the people the State creed was a mystery, and the national religion was a polytheism, full of the most irreconcileable contradictions. They did not appear to have regarded their deities, how- ever, as having antagonistic prejudices to each other, but rather as being eponymous to particular districts, or, as the essential local deities of the different towns, taking their rank according to the commercial or political grade of the place where they were adored, and rising or sinking in importance as that town fluctuated in the political scale. Hence, therefore, like the Roman, the national religion became sufficiently eclectic to admit any other well - established divinity into its hierarchy, when the exigencies of the case

• This was one of the earliest of the Egyptian theories, the adoration of the deceased monarchs dating from the 1Vth dynasty. Chofo and Teti were thus adored, and were interred in pyramids which had a service of priesthood attached to it, analagous in idea to the chantry chapels for the souls of the deceased which abounded in our English cathedrals, and which only ceased at the Reformation.

¥ This chapter is evidently a rubric interpolated into the text.

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demanded it. The conquests of Thothmes ITI. and Rameses II. added Anaitis, Reseph, and many Syrian deities to the Pantheon,* others, such as Malooli and his consort, were introduced from Nubia. The Persians, a modification of sun worship; the Greeks, Canopus and Serapis; and the Romans Antinous, who was adored as a god at Antinopolis. Not that the name Serapis, or the dead Apis, was unknown before, but that, like Canopus and Harpocrates, his worship was deve- loped into such a new form that it found its graphic symbolism — in the erection of a figure which soon became to be regarded as a distinct divinity.t| The same theory which originated the deification of a Pharaoh, admitted the deification of that Pharaoh’s favourite likewise, as in the case of Antinous, the companion of Hadrian, in whose honour the town and temple of Antinoopolis was founded.t As the male sovereigns were assimilated while living to Ra and when dead to Osiris, so the queens were adored as Isis while living, and as Hathor when deceased, till, in later times, every woman was called an Hathorian in her funereal papyri.§6 In the Litany of Ra, while the germs of all these deviations from the more ancient Faith are traceable, still the whole composition is infused more with the idea of Eternal Essence than with that of an Eternal Personality, and while the grosser forms of idolatry were tolerated, and indeed excused, by the teaching of such a litany, the more philosophical mind would try to believe that— ‘‘ All are but parts of one stupendous whole, Whose body Nature is and God the soul.”’||

A very sublime idea for a Pagan, but a most unworthy one for a Christian poet, and one that it is inconceivable should be selected in our schools, together with other Pantheistic passages from the poems of the same author, for the religious education of our youth.

10. The second chapter of the Litany of Ra does not present much to engage our attention. It is chiefly a series of addresses to Ra on behalf of the Osirian king when he enters heaven te take his place as one of the spheric gods—the gods of the orbit of the Ritual of the Dead .¢ Ra is intreated to “ give eyes to the royal Osirian ; to give a heart and divine eye-balls to him ;” to command him, by virtue of his word, to be like the various

• Birch, Rede Lecture, ¢ Lenormant, vol. i. p. 326. Sharpe, History of Egypt, vol. ii. _§ See many instances of this in De Rooge’s Cat. des Manuserits Eegyptiens du Musée du Louvre. | fs Pope, Essay on Man, book i., sec.9. 4 Caps. oxxvi. to cxxix.

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blessed spirits which inhabit Elysium; and even to be “like the destructive spirit which comes from the place of destruction.” He is intreated to deliver the Osirian from “ the crocodiles of Hades,* from the gods armed with swords, the avenging Cabereii in the abodes of Osiris,” + “from the agile demons furnished with legs, from the cruel gods who pluck out hearts and who throw them into their furnaces,” because the Royal Osirian is Ra himself, and “ his soul is in the disk of the sun; the soul of Ra shines in his shape (and) his body rests amid the invocations which are addressed to him.” The gods of the stars are entreated to receive him with acclamations; the two heavenly sisters, Isis and Nepthys, are besought to place the crown of justification upon his head,t as “that of a spirit worthy of adornment; and the chapter concludes with this petition :—

17 Oh, Ra, place the royal Ostnraw in thy train; he is the divine key which opens his haunts, he knows admirable means of obtaining the great victory over his enemies ; OsrRts is powerful through thy two eyes ; walking god,§ the course of Osrris is thy course. Ra, the journeys of OsrRIs are thy journeys, OsikIs makes thee rule over thy enemies, thou makest the Osir1an rule over his enemies, by means of the great splendour which is the splendourof Ra in the empyrean, they cry to him: Bull of the country of the dead, thou art Ra, thy body rests in peace, thou art blessed in thy mysteries.

11. Chapter ITT. is a short one, and consists of fifteen invoca- tions beseeching Ra to come to the Royal deceased in truth or completely. The addresses are almost identical with those which, in the Ritual and mythological hymns, are addressed to Tum, Osiris, Amen, and Horus. The last mvocation declares that the supplicant has already, by the favour of Ra, become one of the nine gods.||

CHAPTER III. 1 Oh, Ra, come to the King! truly. Highly glorious Tes Tent, 2 Oh, Ra, come to the King! truly. Thou makest thy soul young again and thou givest birth to thy body.

• Cf. Ritual, cap. xxxit., the chapter of stopping the crocodiles coming to take the mind of a spirit from him in Hades.

• Ritual, cap. exlvii.

{ Cf. Retual, cap. xix., “ The Crown of Justification. ’

Id:om ; the deity who is never resting, but is in teri progress —

through his creation.

|| Either as an extra deity be ond the eight great gods, or because nine was the Egyptian perfect slaral, especially as applied to things divine.

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3 Oh, Ra, come to the King! truly. Lead him into the holy dwerling 4 Oh, Ra, come to the King! truly. Guide him on the good ways. 5 Oh, Ra, come to the King! truly. Guide him on the roads of Nun. 6 Oh, Ra, come to the King! truly. Guide him on the roads of Nur. 7 Oh, Ra, come to the King! truly. He restores the body of Oszzris. 8 Oh, Ra, come to the King! truly. He places the corpse upon its foundation, in its place that no one knows. | 9 Oh, Ra, come to the King! truly. He calls his body Osraris. 10 Oh, Ra, come to the King! truly. He sees him who it is in the sarcophagus. ; 11 Oh, Ra, come to the King! truly. The rays of Aten * are upon hia person. 12 Oh, Ra, come to the King! traly. He has taken the good ways. 13 Oh, Ra, come to the King! truly. He worships thy soul upon the horizon. 14 Ob, Ra, come to the King! truly. Thou speakest to him as to the god who is upon the ground. | 15 Oh, Ra, come to the King! truly. He is one of thy nine gods.

12. Chapter IV., which is a long one, also, like Chapter IT., possesses little special interest, having more a personal appli- cation to the deceased; it is chiefly to be read in connection with our present subject as attesting the perfect union of attri- butes and characteristics of Ra and Osiris, especially as Osiris Rhotamenti, or the judge of the dead in Hades. The opening verses of the chapter, which is all that will here be quoted, imply the eternal pre-existence of the soul of the king as a portion of the eternal Essence of the gods. This seems to have been more especially a tenet of the Ramesside dynasty, since there is evidence that previously the royal soul was supposed to have become divine at the moment of accession, as in the older dynasties it was so after death. The change which made the soul of the monarch from all time a divinity by eternal gene- ration was perfectly a political one, introduced as a state mea- sure to secure the continuance of the reigning dynasty after the interruptions which destroyed the peace, and partly the religion, of Egypt at the death of Amenhotep IV. and the Aten-Ra kings of the X VIIIth dynasty.

SECTION I.

I Thou art what he is, Ra, thou givest birth to the royal Osrrran, thou ‘makest him exist like thyself, god of the two horizons; the birth of the Osrgian is the birth of Ra in the Ament, and reciprocally ; the

• The solar disk.

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birth of the Ostr1an in the heavens is the birth of the soul of Ra in the heavens, and reciprocally ; the life of the Ostr1an is the life of Ra, and reciprocally ; the development of his body is the develop- ment of Ra’s body. Ra conceived, Tum gave birth to the Osirian ; it is the young Cagpra; Nut brings the Osrr1an into the world, she nourishes the Osre1an like Ra’s soul which issued from her.

2 Oh, Ra, who art in the Ament….. .* who art in the empyrean, deliver the Osrr1an from thy conductors who separate souls from their bodies, the agile beings who move quickly in thy places of torment. ‘May they never seize the Osrgian, may they never take him, may they never quicken their steps towards him, may they never put him in their places of torture, may they never cast their toils round him, may they never place hin upon their altars, may he never tremble in the land of the condemned, may he never be lost in the Ament. He walks as the god of the horizon walks, he takes steps as Ra, he worships the god who is on the earth, he honours the mysterious bodies….. * they say to the Ostr1ay ; Hv and Sa; they call him this, because he is like the spirit of Hv and Saf in his creations, he makes the sacred tree grow, he is not ignorant of it. There are cries of joy in the mysterious region, for Ra sets under the form of the Osrkian, and reciprocally. Rejoice, you the dead, render praises to Ra, and Ra renders praises to you. Ra comes forth from the cow Mruovr,f he sets in Netur;§ the Ostr1an comes forth from Meuvez like the sun, he sets in Nutur like Teut. The name of the King is the name of Ra, AMMEHOUR,|| the setting of the Os1R1an, it is his setting, AMNETUR.Y

3 The gods of the empyrean bless him, the hidden gods rejoice over him ; they say to him: Thy person is the god of the country of the dead, thy form is Tes Trmr. The hidden gods speak to the royal Osrr1an, they rejoice on seeing him; (they say to him:) Hail, blessed and perfect one, who comest forth from Tongn, the god who destroys the forms; it is greut, thy essence, spirit, shadow that no one destroys, that lives where you live. He knows the essences of the primitive beings, he knows the mysterious flames of the empyrean, for he attains to holy and mysterious things.

4 The two gods speak to the royal Ostrrran, they rejoice on seeing him, this blessed, perfect spirit; (they say to him:) This is one of us. The gods speak to the royal Osrrr1an, they rejoice when they see him,

• Lacuna. + Hau, the creative life: Sa, the intelligence. t The water of the East. § The water of the West. if He who comes forth from Mehur. | He who is in Netur.

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the splendour of Ra, the splendour of the two goddesses that appear in Heszt,* the supplicant Hszr addresses the guardians who watch over the doors, who devour souls and who swallow the shades of the dead ; when they approach them, they are led by them to the place of destruction: Oh, guardians who watch over your doors, who swallow souls and devour the shades of the dead; when they approach you, you lead them to the place of destruction: Oh! allow this blessed, this most holy spirit, to be in the dwelling of the Akher ;¢ it is a spirit like Ra, glorious like Osir1s. This is what Heset the supplicant says before the royal OsrzRis.

5 O Heset, make him come, O Huszt, guide the oyal Osrzis, O Hegsst, open to him the empyrean, give him the lot of the god of the empyrean; he puts the veil xems{ upon his head at the bottom of the dwelling of the Ament. Hail to thee, he has reached thee ; Hest, guide him on the good way, he speaks to thee, he glorifies thee by his invocations, and thou rejoicest on seeing his spirit; Heset, the supplicant, opens the doors which are in the empyrean, opens his spheres to him, for the club is in the hand of Osrzis, and he grasps his lance; his club strikes the enemies, and his lance destroys the rebels ; his dwelling is that of the god of the two horizons ; his throne is Ra’s throue; for he is the Horus of two horizons.§ He is beautiful, this spirit, he is perfect, he is powerful in both his hands.

13. After further similar adorations to Ra, in which his identification with Osiris is still more strongly asserted, comes a passage which is almost a transcript of one of the chapters of the Ritual of the Dead, in which the various members of the royal Osirian are likened to those of different deities who had them under their especial protection. According to the Egyptian theology “there is not a limb of him without his god,” a conception from which the theory of planetary influences on the human body, which was so essentially characteristic of the medicine of the Middle Ages, was derived.

8 The royal OsrRran is one of you, for his diadem is a vulture ; his face is a sparrow-hawk, his head is Ra; nis eyes are the Reutt, the two sisters; his nose is Horus of the empyrean ; his mouth is the King

• One of the halls of the empyrean, which is here considered as a goddess.

t The region of the underworld.

{ The striped headdress generally worn on the statues of the kings. iy this fully described in a paper by S. Sharpe, in Trans. Soc. Bib. Arch., vol. iv.

§ Horus as the planet Mars.

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of the Ament; his lungs are Nun’; his two hands are the god SgecueEnt ;* his fingers are the gods who seize him; his body is Cuepra; his heart is Horvs, the creator; his chest is the goddess of life; his spleen is the god Frwt1;f his lungs are the goddess

_ Herr; his stomach (?) is Apu; his intestines, the god with the mysterious names ;{ his back is the corpse-god ; his elbows are Maxatt; the nape of his neck, Horus THots; his lips, Meuur ; his phallusisTonen;§ ….. the goddess of CHER; ….. the two hidden gods; his sitting posture, the two goddesses ;|| his legs, ‘the who traverses the hidden places”; his shin-bones are a areus.** His members are gods, he is throughout a god, no one of his members is without a god, the gods are of hia substance.tt The royal Osr1k1s is an intelligent essence, his members guide him, his flesh opens the way to him, those who are born of him create him, they rest when they have given birth to him. The royal OstRis is he who gives them birth, it is he who begets them, it is he who makes them exist ; his birth is that of Ra in the Ament, Ra gives birth to the royal Osrris, he causes his own birth.

14, Still continuing in the same strain, the Litany alter- nately invokes all the various deities of the Elysium, and declares them subordinate to the royal Osirian by virtue of his identi- fication with Ra, the Supreme God, and then all the deities are again thus supplicated :—

9 Oh, ye gods! oh, ye blessed! who precede Ra and who escort his spirit! do to the royal Os1zran as to Ra, tow him with you in the same way that you conduct Ra and the two navigating gods in the heavens ;{ft the royal Osrr1an is Ra himeelf, and Ra is himself reciprocally ; he is the Chief of his worshippers, who gives life to the forms.

15. The last section of the Litany of Ra concludes with a mysterious invocation to the material Heavens themselves, in

• He who embraces. ¢ The god of the nose. Each part of the body of the deceased becomes a god. The same is found in the funereal texts, and especially in the Ritual of the Dead, cap. xlii. Osiris. The god Osiris was a hermaphrodite being. Isis and Nepthys. @ The god Atum. The sacred serpent of eternal life. Tf Or, are of like substance with him. All these subtleties remind one of the homoosian controversies of the early church. tt That is, the deceased monarch was hereafter to share the glories of the god Ra, to sit on his throne, and to sail with him, as himeelf, through the regions of the upper and under worlds as the visible sun.

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that respect also being analogous to the final chapters of the Ritual of the Dead.* This section attests the tendency which a Pantheistic religion always manifests to develop into mate- rialism, since the Ament or Heavens invoked in it possess less a spiritual than a tangible essence.

SECTION III.

O Ament,t O Ament, O good, O good, O strong, O strong, O powerful, O powerfal, O protecting, O protecting, O mysterious, O mysterious (Ament), the royal Ostr1an knows thee, he knows thy form, he knows the name of thy companions. Ament, hide my corpse, good Ament, hide my body. O resting-place, let me rest in thee; O strong one, may the royal Osrris be strong with thy strength, O

, powerful one, may he be powerful with thy power! O Ament, open thy arms to him; O protectress, cover his body ; O mysterious being, stretch out thy hand to him! Hail, holy Ament of Osrr1s with the mysterious names, the most holy of the gods, thou who art the most hidden of all mysteries! Hail! the royal Ostr1an worships thee ; he addresses the great god who is within thee. Hail! he worships thee ; open thy mysterious doors to him. Hail! he worships thee; (open to him) thy hidden spheres, for he has his dwelling in the heavens like Ra, and his throne is upon the earth like Szs; he is seated upon the throne of Sz, upon the seats of Horchuti; his spirit soars into the heavens, it rests there; his body descends to the earth in the midst of the gods. He walks with Ra, he follows Tum, he is like Cupra, he lives as thou livest in truth.

16. The customary Rubric, with its usual monitions, imposing secrecy on its reader, terminates this long and, in many respects, most magnificent Litany.

2 When this book is read he who reads it purifies himself at the hour when Ra sets, who rests in the Ament of the Ament, when Ra is in the midst of hidden things, completely.

17. Before comparing this text with that contained in other solar addresses, and especially with a hymn to the Deity under his form of Ra Harmachis, it would be as well to recapitulate con-

• Cap. clxvi. The chapter of the Boat. Not letting it to make the body flow, and to swallow their waters.

• Amen-t, ‘‘The Hidden,” from the name of the god Amen, the “t” being simply the feminine article. The heavens were always represented under a feminine figure in the Egyptian sculptures, as notably in the Zodiacs of Kene and Denderah.

D

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cisely the principal attributes ascribed to Ra, and the chief developments of his character. Thus, as to his birth, he is self-created (cap. i., 1.51); he is an eternal essence (cap. 1., 1, 54); he is the supreme power (cap. i., each section) ; he is the original (cap. i., 1. 6) ; he creates his own members (cap. i., 1, 3); he is the spirit of space filling all things (cap. i., 1. 38) ; he dwells in thick darkness (cap. i., 1]. 1.)*; he is the invisible (cap. i., 1.52); he is both light and darkness (cap. i., 1. 9) ; he is the creator of all souls (cap. i, 1. 7); he created the heavens and the stars (cap. i1., 1. 50, 51); he creates the gods (cap. 1., 1. 56); he is the active life of all things (cap. 1., 1.49); he has no equal to consult with (cap. i., 1. 57); he is the destroyer of spiritual evil (cap. i., 1. 59); he is the creator of the earth (cap. 1., 1. 66); he is the father of the eternal son (cap. 1.,1. 19); he creates the plants in their seasons (cap. 1., 1.15); he gives breath to all souls (cap. i.,1. 7); he is the greatest of all creatures (cap.i., 1. 26) ; he rules alike in Heaven and Hell (cap. 1., 1. 27); he is the revealer of secrets (cap. i.,

1. 75. ; he is the cause of all his actions (cap. i., 1. 78); he is the most mysterious god (cap. i., 1. 79); and finally, all the deities and all things that exist, both corporeal and incorporeal, are but manifestations of himself. Although considered as one of the greater gods only, he was the son of Pthah, the God of Fire; yet, in another fire was but a principle which derived existence from him. He was both the creator, and the life, of the Cosmos. Philosophical errors are of great antiquity, and the heresy of modern scientists, who would derive all life from the sun, are but a resuscitation of the old Egyptian dogma of Ra whose visible emblem was the sun, being the life and light of the world. The metaphysical distinction of the middle ages of nominalism and realism gave no trouble to the minds of the Pharaohnic clergy. They were too wise in their generation to people the universe with a multitude of distinct and often antagonistic deities, and they had too religious a conception of the fatherhood of God to assume, with the more selfish Greek philosophers, that the Supreme Being, having called the spheres into existence, left them to the irrevocable operation of immutable natural laws; who regarded neither men nor angels alike, but, calm, untroubled, and impassive, surveyed the whole of creation with apathy and contempt. Equally removed also were their religious ideas from those of the ancient Chaldeans, who filled the earth and heavens with innumerable spiritual beings,

• Cf. 1 Kings viii. 12.

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good, bad, and passive, called the Zi, of every object of creation animate and inanimate, petty spirits,* or genii, which inter- meddled with the affairs of mankind, or were alternately masters of or subservient to him. The favourite theories of the Cabbalists had again no place in the Egyptian theogony. The sublimity of the god Ra disdained to co-operate, or even to control, such discordant and minor agencies. His glory might be manifested in another deity, but it could not be shared by another. While it was true the hierarchical laws declared the king to be an hypostasis of Ra while living, and Osiris when dead, yet anthropomorphism, so to speak, was foreign to the Egyptian sacred books. The actions of the gods of the Classic nations, Greek or Roman, or even the barbarian Teutonic, were in their nature as repugnant to them as tous. A Jupiter, who was a murderer, a whoremonger and a tyrant, a parricide, and a liar, who by turns threatened and cajoled ; who was seduced by one goddess into injustice, and terrified by another into indiscri- minate revenge ; who was fond (not to put too fine a point on it) of beautiful boys; who loved to take the forms of other men, the better to violate their wives; who was frequently drunk, and often revelled in obscene amusements, such an anthro- pomorphic deity as that was revolting to the purer conceptions of the Egyptian theology. Amen Ra, Ra, and Atin Ra stand at an immeasurable height of purity as distinct from such a deity. Much has been said of the analogy between the Grecian Apollo and the Egyptian Horus Ra, the Redeemer; but how far does the resemblance extend, and to what few points are the parallels confined? The bitterest enemies of the Egyptian faith were never able, till the Roman period, to accuse it of an immoral tendency, or to prove that its tenets could be logically worked to an obscene conclusion; but, on the other hand, the ancient mysteries of Cybele in Greece, of the Bona Dea in Campagna, and of the Saturnalia in Rome, were essentially impure. The gross invectives of Juvenal and the Atheistical parodies of Lucian, in the Dialogues of the dead, were but the legitimate outcome of the tenets of their respective religions, when witnessed by a mind not wholly depraved; and while the so-called religious elements of the classic writers renders much of their best productions unsuitable for general or for youthful reading, there is scarcely a sentence in the whole of the Egyptian mythological or sacred texts which might not be read

• See Lenormant, La Magic chez les Chaldéans, cap. iv.

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alike in the school playground, the historian’s study, or the devotee’s cell, and no story which is open to a more serious censure or ridicule than the apparently trivial incident of Pthah Nefuka playing at draughts in Hades, which has furnished the only example yet known of an Egyptian caricature.*

18. This is, however, somewhat of a digression, for the subject of the Myth of Ra is by no means exhausted yet ; but the remarks already made will with equal force apply to our ‘further examina- tion of the sacred texts. Hitherto we have cited only adorations, or proscyneme, addressed directly to Ra himself, and in the first person; we shall now proceed to quote certain hymns less . immediately applied to Ra, but yet at the same time equally adoring him under his personified attribute of Ra Harmachis, or Ra on the Horizon,—a title which was also given to Horus, who was considered both the son of Ra and also as Ra himself. The text in question was first published by Lepsius,t and a French translation of it was given last year by Professor Maspero,{ and an English version has just been published by Professor Lushington in the Records of the Past.4 The chief point of interest to us is the complete identification of Amen with Ra, and the antithetical contrasts between the condition | of Ra victorious and his foes Apophis and his conquered coadjutors.

1 Aporation to Ra-Harmacuis at the front of the morning. ||

2 Say: Thou wakest beauteous AMEN-Ra-HarMacuis, thou watchest in triumph, Amgen-Ra, Lord of the horizon.

3 O blessed one beaming in splendour (?) towed by thy mariners who are of the unresting gods, sped by thy mariners of the unmoving gods.

4 Thou comest forth, thou ascendest, thou towerest in beauty, thy barge divine careers wherein thou speedest, blest by thy mother Nur each day, beaven embraces thee, thy foes fall as thou turnest thy face to the West of heaven.

5 Counted are thy bones, collected thy limbs, living thy flesh, thy members blossom, thy soul blossoms, glorified is thy august form, advanced thy state on the road to darkness.

• See Sharpe, Egyptian Monuments in the British Museum, page 161. t Denkméaler, A Wi ii vi., bd. 12. Histoire Ancienne des Peuples de l’ Orient, cap. 1., p. 32. Vol. viii. *‘ At the front of the morning.” Some prefer rendering the words ‘every morning.”

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6 Thou listenest to the call of thy attendant gods behind thy chamber ; in gladness are the mariners of thy bark, their heart delighted, Lord of heaven who hast brought joys to the divine Chiefs, the lower sky rejoices, gods and men exult applauding Ra on his standard, blest by his mother Not; their heart is glad. |

7 Ra hath quelled his impious foes, heaven rejoices, earth is in delight, gods and goddesses are in festival to make adoration to Ra-Hor, as they see him rise in his bark.

8 He fells the wicked in his season, the abode is inviolate, the diadem Mehen* is in its place, the Ureus hath smitten the wicked.

9 O let thy mother Nur embrace thee,t Lord Ra, those who are with her tell thy glories.

10 Ostz1s and Nepursys have uplifted thee at thy coming forth from the womb of thy mother Nut.f

11 O shine Ra-Harmacuis shine in thy morning as thy noonday bright- ness, thy cause upheld over thy enemies, thou makest thy cabin spread wide, thou hast repelled the false one in the hour of his annihilation: he has no rest in the hour when thou breakest the strength of the wicked enemies of Ra, to cast him into the fire of Nehaher,§ encircling in its hour the children of the profane.

12 No strength have they, Ra prevails over his insensate foes, yea, putting them to the sword thou makest the false one cast up what he devoured.

13 Arise O Ra from within thy chamber.

14 Strong is Ra, weak the foes. ;

16 Lofty is Ra, down-stricken the foes.

16 Ra is living, his foes dead.

17 Ra is full of meat and drink, his foes a-hungered and athirst.

18 Ra is bright, his foes engulfed.

19 Ra is good, his foes evil.

• The serpent Mehen here described as being worn as a diadem by Ra. Usually it forms a canopy over the deity.

t+ Perhaps “Approach thou thy mother Nut,” Neb Ra, “Lord Ra,” seems clearly the reading of the text given in Lepsius, unless the scribe has twice put the hierdtic character for nuter instead of the usual form of h; Neb heh, “lord of eternity,” as Maspero renders it, is what might . rather have been expected. In the following “ Isisand Nephthys” is the version of M. Maspero; the text appears to me to give Osiris.— Lushington’s Note.

{ The same idea, as in Psalm: “The dew of thy birth is of the womb of the morning.”

§ Nehaher, “ ghastly-faced,” an infernal demon, sometimes represented as @ serpent. Compare 7. B. 125, 18 Bon., 11 and 31, 32; Pierret, Et. Eyg., 2. 114.

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20 Ra is mighty, bis foes puny.

21 Ra hath despoiled Arar.

22 O Ra thou givest all life* to the King, thou givest food for his mouth,

drink for his throat, sweet oil for his hair.

23 O blessed Ra-Hagmaouis thou careerest by him in triumph, those in thy bark exult to quell and overthrow the wicked.

24 Cries of joy in the great seat, the divine cabin is in gladness, accla- mation in the bark of millions of years.

25 The sailors of Ra are charmed at heart to see Ra hailed as supreme of the order of great gods, they gain delight in doing adoration to the bark, homage in the mysterious chamber.

26 O shine Amen-Ra-Harmacuis self-sprung, thy sister-goddesses stand in Bech,t they

27 receive thee, they uplift thee into thy bark, which is perfect in delights before Lord Ra, thou begettest blessings.

28 Come Ra, self-created, thou lettest PHaRzaon receive plenty in his battlemented house, on the altar of the god whose name is hidden.

29 Glory to thee, Prince coming forth in thy season, Lord of many faces, diadem producing rays, scattering darkness, all lands are filled with thy splendours, apes make to thee salutations with their arms, they praise thee, they cry aloud to thee, they tell thy glories, their lips exalt thee, in heaven, in earth they conduct thee in splendid array, they open or drive back the gate of the Western horizon of heaven, they let Ra be embraced in peace and joy by his mother Nvz, thy soul is approved by the tenants of the lower heaven, the divine spirits rejoice at the twofold season of brightness : thou turnest gloom into repose ;} !

30 Thou sweetenest the pain of OsrEis, thou givest breezes in the valley, illuminest earth in darkness, sweetenest the pain of Osrzts.

31 All beings taste the breath, they make to thee acclamations in thy changes, thou who art Lord of changes, they |give adoration to thy might in thy forms of beauty in the morn.

32 Gods hold their arms to thee, those whom thy mother Nort bore.

33 Come to the King, O Ra, stablish his glories in heaven, his might on earth.

34 O Ra, heaven rejoices to thee; O Ra, earth trembles at thee; O blessed Ra-Harmacuis, thou hast raised heaven to elevate thy soul, the lower sky has hidden thee in thy enwrapt forms.

• Or more properly, perhaps, in the imperative, “ give thou life.”

t Bech, the Eastern hill of sunrise. See Brugsch, Z.A., 1864, p. 73, &c. Its opposite height was called Manu.

¢ Or, perhaps, “thou makest the adversary prostrate.” —Lushington.

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35 Thou hast uplifted heaven to the expanse of thine outstretched arma, thou hast spread out earth to the width of thy astride.

36 Heaven rejoices to thee at thy greatness of soul, thy terror fills earth at thy figure, pricely hawk of glittering plame, many coloured frame, mighty sailor god, self-existing, traversing paths in the divine vessel, thou roarest in smiting thy foes, making thy great bark sweep on, men hail thee, gods fear thee, thou hast felled thy foes before it.

37 Courier of heaven outetript by none, to illumine earth for his children, uplifted above gods and men, shining upon us we know not thy form when thou lookest upon our faces, thy greatness passes our know- ledge.

38 O blessed Ra-Hamacuis, thou penetratest….. * Bull at night,

’ Chieftain by day, beauteous orb of mafek,t King of heaven, Sovran of

earth, great image in the horizon of heaven.

39 Ra who hast made beings, ToTaneEN giving life to mankind, Paaraon | son of Raf has adored thee in thy glories, he has worshipped at thy gracious rising brightness on the

40 Eastern horizon, he makes tranquil thy path, he beats down thy foes before thee in his turning back all thy adversaries, he assigned to thee the Uta§ on her seat, he makes them… .|| he assigned to thee honours… . || he cleared the way for thee, he established thy rites in Abydos ; he opens to thee roads in Rusta,q he beats down evil.

19. This beautiful hymn presents us rather with the devotional than with the theological aspect of the Myth of Ra: it resembles more those sublime outpourings of adora- tion of which in sacred literature Psalm civ. is so charac- teristic a type. The beneficent nature of Ra; his sweetening or assuaging the pains of his worshippers ; his giving the breath of summer in the valley; his giving breath and peace to all creatures; his causing the sun to shine for the use of his children; his holding the heavens in his outstretched arms; his power and greatness surpassing knowledge ;—all these are almost inspired phrases, and are peculiar to this hymn alone. The similes are almost Hebraic in their elegance, and the idea

• Lacune.

• Query Mafka. The Egyptian bronze or native copper, a fitting simile to describe the colour of the setting sun. t One of the Ramesside Pharaohs, name unknown, for whom this hymn was originally transcribed. The mystic eye of the deity. Lacun

One of the abodes of Osiris.

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that even when the god is most visible to mankind by his merciful dispensation, yet his form and likeness are wholly unknown, is worthy of an Old Testament prophet or a New Testament saint; between the gods rejoicing in the triumphs of Ra Harmachis, and the sons of God shouting for joy at the creation of the world, according to the exqui- site passage in Job, there is much in unison. Especially deserving of notice is the circumstance that this hymn dwells with reiterating fondness on the theme of the love of the deity, and applies, if the translation of Lushington is to be wholly trusted, the epithet of “ blessed ” to Ra, an epithet that would be ridiculously blasphemous if applied to Zeus, Diespiter, or Wodin. It was due to this exquisitely human sentiment in the worship of Ra that, together with the belief in Horus- Nets, ’ the deliverer and redeemer, it survived nearly all those dynastic changes of Egyptian history which were so fatal to the worship of the local and Triadic divinities. The contest between good and evil, the apparent success of sin, the uncertainty attending the results of a life of virtue, were problems patent to all, and which defied the utmost energies of an uninspired philosophy to explain them away or to reconcile their existence with the government of an overruling and omnipotent spirit of good. As in many cases their premises were mere hypothetical assumptions, it followed that the arguments and expedients to which the priests had resource to explain these mysteries were in them- selves illogical, and they were confuted by the more analytical reasoning of the infidel philosophers of Greece and Rome. But the yearning after a god, and still more a personal god, is ineradicable, and like a belief in the future state and the im- mortality of the soul, it is almost a psychical principle in the constitution of men. Judged as a whole, even to the eye of an assisted reason, the works of God are great, perfect, and beautiful, and He doeth them that men may fear Him, for “The generations of the world were healthful, and there is no poison of destruction in them, nor the kingdom of death upon the earth, for righteousness is immortal.”* The idea of an eternal, self-created, incircumscribable + Being, without body, parts, or passions, { was too abstract a conception for mankind to grapple with; but a god who was our father, and

• Wisdom i. 14-15.

t It need hardly be remarked that this is the real meaning of the term incomprehensible in the ninth verse of the Athanasian Creed.

ft 1st Article, C. of E.

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therefore like unto ourselves, who was beneficent as He was great, and wise as He was both, came home to every heart and satisfied the desires of every living soul at a time when no clearer revelation had been revealed to man, since, let it not be forgotten, these hymns and proscynema to Ra cannot be later than the nineteenth dynasty, and that period in turn cannot well be brought lower than the fifteenth century before Christ,* an era when, if it be admitted that some of the Old Testament Scriptures had been revealed to the patriarchs, yet it is nevertheless certain that very little if any part of them had been committed to writing ; or if even that be conceded, then that such writings had reached the wonderful land of Upper Egypt, where these rituals and addresses had been composed, would have been impossible. Hence to us as Christians the “‘immense” importance of a right understanding of the Myth of Ra, and the necessity for examining, even at a tedious length, whatever authentic materials may yet exist for its better reconstruction and analysis.

20. The last hymn which it is our intention to cite is one of the very latest of hieroglyphic texts, being a long inscription in honour of Ra Amen or Amen Ra, in the famous temple of Amen, which exists in the oasis of E] Khargeh, and which was a chief centre of pilgrimage during the period of the Greek and Persian domination of Egypt.¢ According to Dr. Birch, who has only recently translated it,t this hymn “is the most Pan- theistic of those yet found, and the nearest approach to the idea of the monotheism of one deity manifested by different types in the chief cities of Egypt, the ultimate or leading first mani- festations being that of the god Amen. It is, therefore, no wonder that the Persians accepted his worship and honoured his fame; the more so as the attempt to reach the oasis by their armies under Cambyses had signally failed.” This was the temple also which was visited by Alexander the Great, when, fascinated by the splendour of the Egyptian myths, and willing to establish his authority over the people by a recog- nition according to their theology, he caused himself to be declared the son of Ammon, as the Greeks pronounced the name of Amen Ra;§ although to his own personal friends and

• According to Lenormant, 1462, B.C. t See Edmondson Journey to the Oasis of El Kharzeh for an account of the present condition of the ruins of this and the adjoining temples. Trans. Soc. Bib. Ant., vol. v., p. 291. Very probably the Ra, being a determinative suffix, was not sounded. E

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Macedonian followers, who were too well acquainted with his weaknesses to be deceived, he made a joke of the honours paid to his divinity. Allusions occur in the hymn to the sacred fountain, which was supposed to restore the bathers in it to health, if not to youth,—a fallacy fondly repeated in the Middle Ages, and the belief in which led to the discovery of the Bahama Isles by Juan Ponce de Leon.* This fountain was probably a mineral spring in the oasis; but it seems to have dried up, and the temple of Amen also itself to have fallen into comparative neglect before the time of Darius and Alexander, who invokes the protection of the god against his enemies. The inscription occurs on the south-western wall of the second chamber of the temple, and is preceded by a represen- tation of the spirits of the four elements arranged as male and female couples,+ snake-headed and frog-headed alternately, hold- ing up their hands in adoration to Amen Ra. After this the hymn commences as follows :—

1 Said by the adorers in praying to their father Amen Ra, Lord of Hab,f great god, powerful with the scimitar,§

5 in his typeof Raj|to….. _+ » self-produced,@ his bones of silver, his skin of gold, his head of real lapis, his joints of turquoise, a perfect god, making his body, giving birth to

6 it. He has not come out of a womb, he has come out ** of cycles ; he has given light to the world tt [and] the circle of the gods is adoring before him ; they proclaim him to the height of heaven, [they] adore the one giving birth to his birth. He has passed

• See Zhe Companions of Columbus, by Washington Irving. t They are as follow :— |

Nu … Water, male. Nut … water, female. Hehu fire, male. Hehu t . fire, female Kakiu . earth, male Kakiut … earth, fé

The Khopesh, or curved sword, which was given by Amen Ra to Rameses IT. as‘a symbol of his victory over the Hittites. The Sun. Grebaut, Hymne 2 Ammon, p. xiii., “ self-transformed.” 6* Or, “Thou art from everlasting.” tf This is not contradictory to the phrase in the preceding hymns, as it simply means no physical generation produced the god.

h sate ;

Karht … air, female.

The Oasis.

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7 the secret places, they rejoice at him under their divine types, they are careful to make their adorations to the bull. We pray to him in [our abodes], we worship his words in their [places]. We adore him

8 in the form of hands. They acknowledge his majesty as their lord, for the greatness of his type is the greatest of all of them. He has. had a title of ….. [heaven] earth and waters, Amen the firm ® In all things, that noble

9 god, the earth came from his devices, regulating each for the gods, old. age and youth, procession, age, mystical were the causes,f acute the eae } extended his favours, his limbs in the air of heaven upon his youthful head, the water under his

10 head, a child the water under his feet,§ the plumes of a hawk on his. head, he confines the winds under the boat of Manu|] when he goes to the unknown region of the morning. The apes of Thoth adore, saying, Oh,

11 the god in the disk concealing himself in his body, the soul gleaming from his two symbolic mortal eyes, the type of types, the honoured, not falling to his enemies, giving light to his transformation, he supports them by the light of his two mystical eyes, unknown is

12 his…….. Hail to thee in the bosom of the heaven, ordering thy divine births, the god Thmei ** is united to thy mystical throne. Honoured has been thy image by thy lovers, thou hast shone, distributing the light

13 in the morning, thou hast circled the two lands in thy gleaming. Thou hast touched at the hill of the land of Akar,tf the types in it adore, the light of the body producing thy beams, has been illumined ff the bosom of the jackals hauling thy boat in the hidden gap

14 of the land ‘of Sesen,§§ and the Spirits of the West, adoring thee, they tremble at thee at the light of thy disk. The spirits of the land of Pa |||] salute thee at the appearance of thy light. Thou shinest in their faces, thou traversest

15 thy two heavens; annihilated are thy opponents. They open the house of thy majesty ; tame are the crocodiles, quiet are the herons in the waters of thy boat; thou hast…….. the fish. Horus has pierced Set, his arrow is in him. He has conquered heaven and earth

16 In his destruction, and his pursuit. Prevailing by overthrowing his opponent, he……….4- a sword…….. … Akar

• This is the same title as the Jupiter Stator of the Romans.

. + Heads. { Lacune. § Uncertain phrase. || Ovean. J Sesenu. #* The deity of Truth. tf A region of Hades. [f Or received. §§ Hermopolis. {||| Buto, or the North.

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saves him, he makes his companion hidden, he……. . him; his eye

17 gives them light from him, it feeds off flame of fire. Thou hast passed the turns of the river, thou navigatest with a fair wind the city of Mer.

t eur ewes atrest…… 2 which

18 they…… aa * | - eee ¢ those never at rest and incorruptible constellations, thou perambulatest the earth justified. Thou joinest to a new skin, thy mother has been embraced….. .

19 thy reception adored by all beings. Thou art at rest in the abode Tuaut f during the hours of darkness, thou awakest Osiris by thy beams, thou shinest over the heads of those who are in their cells, thou hast traversed

20 their hidden buildings on purpose. Thou hast been typified by thought, thou hast made to be illumined thy own disk, thou hast set up the…… in their places. Thou hast gone against the chambers

21 in the darkness, thy left eye is in the disk at night, thou shinest in the morning out of the east of the heaven, thou hast been woven in thy disk in Ansapt.§ Thy right eye is in the essence, thou hast made the passage, thy secret

22 is the depths of thy secret waters and unknown. Thou hast come on the road, thou hast given light in the path, thou hast prevailed over difficulties like the mysterious forms, thy type than every god

23 Exalted and magnified by the divine circles. Each god has assumed thy skin, without shape is their type compared to thy form. Thou art the majesty || ….. which is, thou hast ruled, lord; heaven and earth, under thy plumes, the gods

24 under thy hands, men under thy legs; where is a god like theeP Thou art the Sun over the gods,|crowned sweet and delightful, O soul, strongin….. by terrors

25 of the disk, thy Urei are tall, thy horns are pointed, twisted are the horns,** lamps are the light of the two symbolic eyes, gold and crystal are the decorations, turquoise the face,

26 gilded are the limbs.ff Thou hast placed thy throne wherever thou

• Lacuna. + Lacuna. The morning. An abode of Tum in the underworld. t Lacuna. | These are the symbolical horns of the heavenly cow, Isis.

** These are the horizontal twisted horns of Khneph, the ram-headed spirit deity.

tf A common simile as applied to angelic beings in the Old Testament. Cf. Dan. ii. 32; Cant. v. 15., &e.

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delightest to multiply thy name, places and districts carrying thy beauty. Corn has never failed to be tall under thy form.* Thy place is arranged, in the time of a division

27 of an hour thou traversest the earth from the Manu. Thou risest from the waters as the hidden egg, the female Amen is in thy company.t

21. In a similar strain the hymn proceeds through several more series too tautologous to repeat, as we have met with their import in the texts previously cited. Verses 40 to the middle of verse 46, where the direct invocation in honour of Darius is introduced, are noteworthy, as they again prove the identity of Ra with the other deities, one of them especially being his pseudo-father Pthah.

39 Thou hast placed thy throne in the life of the two countries as Amen Ra. Thy soul is the ark and four pillars of the two heavens.

40 Thy form emanated at first while thou shinest as Amen Ra and Ptab. Thy heart is at rest in thy city of Uas.~ Thy two urei, thy eyes, thy sceptre, thy whip § opens the doors of the heaven in

41 Thebes ; Shu, Tefnu, Mut, and Khons are thy form, dwelling in thy shrine under the types of the god Khem, raising his tall plumes, king of the gods, lifting the hand, lord of the crown,

42 powerful by it, all fear emanates from the fear of him the Kamutf who resides in his fields, horned in all his beauty, engendering the depths. Black and crystal the {faces of those attached to him, the two mystical eyes, the decorations of

43 Hor-ti || dwelling in the nome Pef over his strong house. Tum the great lord of created beings. He is the hawk ** created at first, Mentu Ra in Uas.tf The powerful bull, he is the arm striking.

44 the cowards of Nahi, Ptah in Uas,t{ the luminous body ever golden for an age and ever. Thou art Sekar, thy transformations are in to the Nile, the person-greater than the other gods. Thou art youthful water and old water.{t

45 They repose in the merits of thee. Thou givest life to the earth by thy stream. Thou art heaven, thou art earth, thou art fire, thou art

• For form read “presence,” the idea being the same.

• The same as the Ament with the feminine article. See note on p. 26. The district of Thebes. The flabellum of Amen Khem, the god of generation. | The Coptites’ nome. {J Buto. ** yeprr, same as the “scarabeus.” ’ +t Thebaid. tt Or the Hannu or Ether.

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water, thou art air in the midst of them. Thou hast hailed at things to be done of him who is indefatigable, the orderer of the visible and invisible.*

46 Thou givest life them as thou increasest them, thy soul prepares them under thy type of Amen Ra, lord of all existences.

22. The text concludes by declaring, in the usual metaphorical language of the Egyptian religious texts, that the god Amen Ra has given to his son Darius victory over all his enemies, and implanted the fear of him in the breasts of the people of all the countries near and far.+

23. Independently of the Solar Litanies there is another reli- gious document, the text of which occurs in the so-called chamber of the Cow in the tomb of Seti—which presents another feature of the character of the god Ra in a new light.t This document, now unfortunately very imperfect, and the style of which is mystical in the highest degree, has yet a peculiar significance to Biblical students, for it describes the destruction of mankind by the supreme deity Ra, aided by his children and coadjutors, Shu and Tefnut. The text, for the publication and translation of which we are indebted to the labours of M. Edouard Naville,§ represents a transaction so wholly at variance to the general nature of the god, that it is difficult to understand at what period of mythical history the event took place, or what precise purpose was served by its occurrence; and it has in consequence been even conjectured to have served the purpose of a mytho- logical or allegorical account of some real battle undertaken by Seti—which may have been accompanied with circumstances of cruelty requiring extenuation. There are, as will be seen, several very strange incidents in the narrative,—the disobe- dience of mankind; the wrath of Ra; the resolution to destroy the sinners; the agency selected for their punishment, the goddess Hathor being commissioned to destroy all mankind ; the council of Nun and the other gods who advise the massacre ; the extent of the destruction; the torrents of blood, reaching

• Existent and non-existent.

• It is not known what king of the name of Darius set up this inscrip- tion, as the second or personal cartouche of the royal name is wanting ; but it was most probably Darius Hystaspes, who held the sovereignty of Egypt with greater vigour than any of his successors of the same name, and who is known to have paid special honour to the shrines of the Egyptian gods.

See Trans. Soc. Bb. Arch., vol. iv. p. 1. In Records of the Past, vol. vi. p. 1038.

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as far as to Heracleopolis; the gathering-up of the fruits of the earth, together with the blood of the slain to a sufficient quan- tity to fill seven thousand pitchers; the horrible liquid thus obtained being offered by the king of Upper and Lower Egypt* to the god Ra, who drinks it, and is refreshed and sated thereby ; the oath of the deity that from henceforth he would slay no more men; the pouring out of the remainder of the liquid upon the plains of Egypt, which are fertilized thereby ; the rise of an inundation of water, restoring plenty to Egypt; the satisfaction of the goddess Sechet, who drinks thereof; the apparent re-creation of mankind again; and the institution of a festival to the goddess Hathor—all these circumstances are totally foreign to the spirit of Egyptian mythology, and seem to partake more of the nature of an Asiatic legend interwoven into the texture of the Hamitic solar myth than a legitimate outcome from its principles. The remainder of the text, which relates to the worship and duties of the god Thoth, considered as a lunar deity, is not less curious, and seems to point to an identification of the god Ra with Thoth, as the god Aah,} who was also called the good Saviour,§ ona statue in the museum at Boulag. What renders the text of the destruction of mankind by Ra still more difficult to comprehend is the circumstance that a monarch of the XIXth dynasty, Seti, figures in it repeatedly ; and hence the conjecture it may possibly even be an inflated and allegorical account of a local massacre undertaken by the priests of Ra or Sechet, at his orders, under the guise of a religious war. Without these prefatory remarks, the sequence of the text itself, which must now in part be cited, would not be understood. |

24. 6 When those gods came. … . .|| those gods in his place, they bowed down

25. before His Majesty himeelf,q who spake in the presence of his father, of the elder gods, of the creators of men, and of wise beings,** and they spake in his presence |

• Apparently Seti I.

• Records of the Past, vol. vi..pp. 110-11.

{ Ash was the lunar deity properly so called. He was represented as

a man kneeling on one knee and holding the lunar disk above his head.

The ancient Egyptian royal names, Aah mes (born of Ash) and Aah hotep

(peace of Aah) were derived from his. See Mariette, Catalogue du Musée de Boulag. . |} Lacune. | Soti I. Pp

This almost implies the Persian doctrine of the creation of the

40

8 (saying) Speak to us that we may hear it. Said by Ra to Nun: Thou firstborn of the gods whoee issue I am, and you ancient gods, behold the men

9 who are born of myself; they utter words against me;* speak tome . what you will do in this occurrence; behold, I have waited, and I have not destroyed them, until I shall have heard

10 what you have to say. Said by the Majesty of Nun: My son Ra, thou, .god greater than he who is his father, and who created him; I remain….. (fall of)

11 great fear before thee ; let thyself consider in thy heart (what we have todo). Said by the Majesty of Ra: Behold, they are running away over the whole land, and their hearts are afraid. … .

12 Said by the gods in the presence of His Majesty: May thy face allow us to go, and we shall smite those who plot evil things, thy enemies, and let none (remain among them). ….

13 go as HatHor. The goddess started, and she smote the men over the whole land. Said by the Majesty of the god: Come in peace, Harnor, thou hast done (what I had prescribed).

14 Said by the goddess: I am living, that I have prevailed over men, and my heart is pleased. Said by the Majesty: I shall prevail over them (and I shall complete)

15 their ruin. And during several nights there was Srcuet trampling the blood under her feet as far as Heracleopolis. Said by (the Majesty of Ra)

16 I call before me my Messéngers ; let them hasten, andrun, and hurry to the utmost of their strength, and the Messengers (came)

17 immediately. Said by the Majesty of the god: Let them begin with Elephantine, and bring to me fruits in quantity. And when the fruits had been brought, they were given ……

18 the Sekti of Heliopolis was grinding the fruits while the priestesses poured the juice into vases; and those fruits were put in vessels (with the)

19 blood of men; and there were made seven thousand pitchers of drink. And there came the Majesty of the King of Upper and Lower Egypt, with the gods to see the drink after he had ordered

20 to the goddess to destroy the men, in three days of navigation. Said by the Majesty of Ra: It is well done, all this. I shall now protect

21 men on account of this. Said by Ra: I raise now my hand that I

Amshaspands, beings superior to men and angels, but lower and distinct from the gods.

• Cf. the Greek myth of the Gigantomachia.

shall not destroy men. The Majesty of the King of Upper and. Lower Egypt, Ra, ordered

22 in the midst of the night to pour out the water of the vessels, and the fields were entirely covered with water through the will of the Majesty of the god; and there came

23 the goddess at the morning, and she found the fields covered with water and she was pleased with it and she drank to her satisfaction, and she went away satisfied, and she saw no |

24 men. Said by the Majesty of Ra to this goddess: Come in peace, thou gracious goddess, and there arose the young priestess of Auu.® Said by the Majesty of Ra to the goddess:

265 I order that libations be made to her at every festival of the new year under the direction of my priestesses. Hence it comes that libations are made under the direction of priestesses at the festival of HatHor.

26 through all men since the days ofold….. t

25. These lines are all which immediately relate to the destruc- tion of mankind. After them, verses 27 to 62 are occupied chiefly with ¢ conversations between Ra, Nu, Seb, and Osiris, to whom was committed by Ra the care of. the various regions of heaven and earth. The god afterwards seems to have taken a kind of divine progress from the heavens to the earth to behold their performance of their respective duties, and the condition of the re-created sons of men. This done, Ra then again returns to heaven, and now once more sends for the god Thoth, with whom he proposes again to visit the earth. These events carry on the mystical book to verse 74, when the usual depreca- tory rubric, imposing secresy on the worshipper, commences, and which, as similar specimens have been already cited, it is not necessary again to repeat.

62 said by the Majesty of the god: I call before me THoru, and Taorn came immediately. Said

63 by the Majesty of the god to Toor : Come let us leave the sky

64 and my abode, because I wish

65 to make a luminary

66 in the inferior sky and in the deep region

• An unidentified town. The word generally implied foreigners or Asiatics, ‘‘ the detested, the impure, the vile Amu.”

• This last clause is again evidently.a rubric. ¢ Lacuna. . F

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67 where thou inscribest the inhabitants, and thou art the guardian of

68 those who do

69 evil. …..

70 the followers whom my heart hates.

71 But thou art my abode, the god of my abode; behold, thou wilt be called Tota, the abode of Ra. I shall give thee tosend…… and there arose the ibis of Taota. I shall

72 give thee to raise thy hand in the presence of the gods, greater than the…… and there arose the two wings of the ibis of THota; I shall give thee. to embrace

73 the two parts of the sky, with thy beauty and with thy rays, and there arose the moon-crescent of Tuotu. I shall give thee to turn thyself towards the Northern nations ; and there arose the cynocephalus ot Txora which is

74 in his escort. Thou art under my dominion. All eyes are open on thee, and all men worship thee as a god.

26. There are besides this text several still more mystical in their nature, belonging to the more strictly literal magical texts. One of these has also been recently published by Dr. Birch,* but, despite the care of the distinguished translator, but little information respecting the myth of Ra can be gained from it, except that when the sun weeps the first time “ it causes strength to be doubled, and flame renewed, it is the liquid spirit the sun gives to his son.t

‘“ When the sun weeps a second time and lets water fall from his eyes, it is changed into working bees. They work in the flowers of each kind, and honey and wax are produced instead of the water. When the sun becomes weak he lets fall the perspiration of his members, and this changes to a liquid.”

Here there is an unfortunate hiatus in the MSS., but from other passages in the same papyrus we learn that plants and fruit are produced from the sweat of the sun.

‘* When the sun is weak he perspires, water falls from his mouth to the earth, and changes to the plants of the papyrus.”f

® Birch, in Revue Archéologique—la Papyrus Magique du Musée Britannique, and in Records of the Past, vol. vi. p. 113. =

t Horus-Ra.

~ Hence, possibly, its sanctity. The plant, never apparently indige-

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This generation of insects and plants from the exudations of the sun god Ra is also a peculiar feature in Egyptian mythology, and somewhat reminds one of the sacred lake which Vishnu filled with the sweat of his body after playing with the Holy discus,* and which was afterwards filled with the beautiful lotus, sacred alike in the mythologies of India and Egypt, and thus forming another of the many points of contact between the religions of the two ancient nations.

27. These texts, then, are the basis of all the facts upon which the Ra, or solar myth of Egypt, rests, and upon which must be founded all the comparisons which would analogize that religious dogma with the Agni worship of the Aryans, the fire-worship of the Parsees, the Surya adoration of the Brah- mins, and the Helios cultus of the early Greeks.t The myth of Ra, as it existed in Egypt, was evidently an adoration of the sun alone; and it did not partake of that elemental form of worship which reaches its climax in the Rig Veda. The Gandharvas, or horses of the sun ;{ the Maruts, or storm-clouds ; the demon of the eclipse; the connection of the sun and the sacred intoxicant soma; § the wheel of fire, still honoured in rustic France,|| —are all foreign to the Egyptian sun-worship, which, if it originally proceeded from India, then certainly divested itself of all its naturalistic tendencies before it reached the valley of the Nile. There was to the Egyptian mind some- thing repugnant in the familiarity with which the adjacent nations regarded their deities, with their almost affectionate companionship, and nearly irreverent invitations to the gods to share their pleasures and partake of their festivities. Addresses.

nous to Northern Egypt, is now wholly extinct in Egypt proper, either Upper or Lower, and is only found in the lakes o ot eae Africa,

uleh in Palestine, and a lake in Sicily, where it was probably introduced by some of the Phenico-Egyptian colonists.

• The Chakra of the Buddhists also.

• This cultus is especially well treated in Cox’s Mythology of the Aryan Nationa, vol. ii. si See ik Curiosities of Indo-European Tradition and Folk

or é; p- 5- °

§ The Haoma of the Zendavesta, formed of the juice of either the Asclepias acida or the Sarcostemma viminale. See Dr. Muir’s Contri- butions to a Knowledge of the Vedic Theogony and Mythology in Journal R. A. §., 2nd series, vol. i., p. 186.

[| Kelly, Curiosities, pp. 54, 64.

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such as in the Vedas are repeatedly made to India * would have horrified them; and though in the Assistances of Horus the deceased presents to the god Osiris beer, wine, and oil, which he has prepared for him, and entreats him to accept thereof,t still it is evident that these offermgs were presented im a mystical sense, and were almost wholly deprived of any sensual or material tendency.

28. There yet remains to be noticed a phase of the Myth of Ra upon which lately very much has been written, but about which still considerable uncertainty prevails, and of which the explanations offered are rather plausible conjectures than de- monstrated conclusions. This phase is that of sun and serpent worship, a theme which Dr. Phené has almost made his own.{ It has been already shown that a very high place in the Ra Myth was assigned to the Ureeus of Immortality and the great feminine serpent Mehen; § and in almost every pictorial repre- sentation of the sun-god he is accompanied by one or other of these snakes, of which the Ureus was a most deadly species. Much confusion has arisen from the mention by careless theorists of the “solar asps,” the asp being not a urseus, but a cerastes, or kind of viper. The truthis that the sun had no connection with the asp, but only with the basilisk, and that chiefly because the serpent was regarded as his feminine sacta, or counterpart. Antagonism between the sun and ureus there certainly was not, but antagonism between the sun and the serpent Apophis was a cardinal doctrine of the Solar and Horus and Osirian myths; and in the end the Solar deity was ever victorious. It would be an important contribution towards a settlement of the various questions arising from the Serpent myths if some painstaking student would first determine what species of serpents were known to the Egyptians, or were re- presented on their monuments; and, that being done, would go further and prove, theories and conjectures apart, in what relationship they stood to the great beneficent solar deity. It is by no means impossible that some of the Hellenic ideas of Helios worship were in the period of the Psammetichi transferred to the current Egyptian theology, and influenced

• See R. Hunter’s History of India, p. 31.

• See Naville, Le Discours d’ Horus, in Zettechrift f. Atgypt, 1876.

¢ See Phené, ‘Sun and Serpent Worship,” in Trans. Vict. Inst., vol. viii., p. 321.

§ See Mehen, in Pierret, Dictionnaire d’ Archéologie Egyptienne.

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the myth of Ra in the same manner as, beyond all doubt, the Horus myth was afterwards influenced. ossibly, also, in a later time, a still more Pantheistic element was introduced into the subsequent Litanies of Ra, and he then became, by an apparently contradictory process of reasoning, both a personal local god and also an embodiment of the entire visible cosmos. It is not at all improbable also that the change of religion under Amenotep IV.,* which preceded the original composition of the Litany of Ra, had as much to do with the variations of doctrine existing between it and the Ritual of the Dead as the conquests of Alexander the Great had with that polytheistic development of it which is attested by the inscription of Darius at El] Khargeh. So much of the Myth of Ra as has come down to us proves it to have been founded on the basis of a pure monotheism with a tendency towards Sabzan illustrations, and, like all the doctrines of the Egyptian mythology, it was purest and grandest in its earliest stages of dogma. For dignity of belief and for simplicity of construction the myth is one of the noblest and oldest of extinct theologies, the least capable of corruption, and the nearest approach to the truth which was ever reached by the unassisted light of natural reason ; it fell, as all other myths have fallen which were not the original product of inspiration, but it never fell so low as did the Isis myths, and it never descended into obscenity and extravagance, as did the Zoolatria of Lower Egypt and the continent of India. To some extent it influ- enced the surrounding religions, and, like all the various doctrines of the land of Egypt, it infused itself into Christianity by the agency of the Gnostic heresies, when for the elucidation of truth and the reasonable sustentation of faith the origin of all those heresies was more studied by Christian students. To the classical reader the myth has a special iuterest, for it is interwoven with the abstractions of Plato and the philosophy of the Eleatics and Alexandrians. The similes of the poet and the allusions of the historian find their explanation in it, and the jargon of the Rosicrucians and the Illuminati, the ostenta- tious mystery of the alchymists and astrologers, was derived from the language of its Litanies. In conclusion, the Christian student will find in the examination of the myth much to repay his labour; he will be the better able to judge of the

• See a paper by Sir Charles Nicholson on the “ Disk Worshippers of Memphis,” in Trans. Soc. of Literature, vol. for 1868.

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‘alue of the results propounded by that newest and most dangerous and empirical of all sciences, the science of com- parative theology. He will be able to separate ideas from expressions, symbols from expositions, to differentiate between things apparently similar, and to adduce congruities from prac- tices and formule seemingly discordant. He will be able to measure the height of human metaphysical theology, if not to gauge the depth of human depravity and religious sin. He will bestow a pitying admiration on the wisdom of the wisest men of old, and feel the quickenings of an awakened sense of gratitude towards tbe Giver of all good things for the revelation of His word and doctrine. Finally, he will, if he possess the graces of bumility and industry, without which a man can never become a true student with profit to himself,—finally, he will learn to value more highly the books of the Jewish and Christian dispensations, since he will perceive that they were not cunningly-devised fables nor simply scientific reveries. Grateful for the aids now given to mankind, and wiser by the narration of the failures of other and greater men, he will go on his way rejoicing that that Supreme Being whom the heaven of heavens cannot contain, nor the powers of Nature express, can dwell in his heart by faith, and has led His people through the wilderness of Jordan from the bondage of Egyptian dhilosophy into the glorious liberty of the children of God,—to Whom be all the Glory.

The Cuarnman.—We have to offer our best thanks to Mr. Cooper for his valuable and interesting paper ; and to Mr. Gorman for having so ably read it.

Mr. Renpatu.—I only rise to ask one question. In the fourth paragraph of the paper I find this passage :—“ This simile is of great value, because it sroves that the cardinal doctrine of a resurrection of the soul and body was che chief cause of the Egyptian adoration of the sun as the visible creator and resuscitator of the inanimate world.” I wish to know how it is made out, either by the writer of the passage quoted or by any one else, that the doo- rine of a resurrection of the body was held at that time? I have never supposed that the doctrine of the resurrection of the body was held either by the Egyptians or by any other nation at that time, nor do I find how it ap- pears in the passage referred to. It has often been treated as one of the most distinctive doctrines of Christianity, and this, if I recollect rightly, was Bishop Butler’s view in his “ Analogy.” According to Herodotus, ‘‘the

47

Egyptians were the first who asserted the doctrine that the soul of man is immortal.”

Mr. Gorman.—I think there can be no doubt that the Egyptians held the doctrine of the resurrection of the body; and so clear is this, that the whole book called “ The Ritual of the Dead,” but which should be called “A Mani- festation to the Light,” is a ritual which propounds that doctrine throughout ; and one important point of such papers as this is that they show that the belief in the immortality of the soul, and the doctrine of the resurrection of the body, were held ages before Moses. It becomes a very important and curious question why Moses did not bring out that doctrine prominently. The doctrine of the resurrection is taught in the Old Testament, and is not peculiar to Christianity. In the proof which our Lord gave of the resurrection, He took His argument from the Pentateuch, which was believed by the Sad- ducees, who did not believe in the resurrection. I hold in my hand a little book which any one interested in the subject should get without delay. It is by M. Lenormant, and is entitled, A Manual of the History of the East, and gives a succinct summary of all that has been done with reference to archx- ology in Assyria and Egypt, and it is astonishing to find the many points in Old Testament history upon which it throws light. There are many who would find a great deal of light thrown on civilization, in the time of such subjects as the journey of Joseph, and the history of his father and his brethren ; and the volumes enable one to realize the state of Egypt at that time. It is also an admirable analysis of the Egyptian “ Ritual of the Dead, or Manifestation to the Light.” The drift of all these investigations is to show that the further we go back into the mists of antiquity in connection with this wonderful people, the nearer we shall come to the one primeval religion.

Rev. Dr. FisHer.—If the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead was a doctrine in the East at that time, and held by the Egyptians and the Shemite races, that is one reason why Moses did not bring it out more prominently. Our blessed Lord, speaking to the Sadducees,* says, “I am the God of Abra- ham ; not the God of the dead, but the God of the living.” I never supposed for a moment that the Old Testament writers did not believe in the resurrec- tion of the body ; indeed, I have been fully convinced that it was held at that time and previously. There are some things that Moses takes for granted, and does not attempt to prove; for instance, he says, “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” All believed that there was a God, and therefore he did not attempt to prove it ; and he acted in the same way with regard to the resurrection of the body.

Mr. Deacu.— May I call attention to one or two points in the paper? In

• See also Josephus as to the doctrine of the prpreaia of the soul, held by the Pharisees and Essenes (Antig. xviii. 1, 2 et seg.).—{Ep.]

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his first paragraph the author says : “It would not be easy to find a more de- tailed code of moral observances than the Institutes of Manu (unless, indeed, the Talmudic regulations of the Sephardian Jews may be supposed to afford a parallel).” Now the Sephardian Jews have the same Talmud—TI suppose he meant the Babylonian one—but I think it is rather hard, when Mr. Cooper compares them to the followers of Siva.* In his 17th paragraph, Mr. Cooper gives it as one of the attributes of Ra that “he dwells in thick darkness.” The word “darkness” in the original is deprivation of light, and it struck me as very similar in sound to SD" (Araphel).

The Cuarnman.—The same word, ’Araphel, is rendered “ gross darkness ” in our version of Isaiah.

Mr. Dracu.—Then Mr. Cooper says in one of his notes : “ Again a Chris- tian parallel—‘ I am the door of the sheep.’” Perhaps that is alluding to the Hebrew shepherd, who used to pass the sheep through a small door or wicket, and count them, in order to give tithe. The-word for the setting of the sun in Hebrew is 813, which means also “ to come.” ;

The Cuairnman.—Is not the same word used in Joshua, where it says: “‘ The sun hasted not to go down” ?

Mr. Dracu.—I am not sure. The word used there first is O19 (be silent) ; and it is followed by TY (the moon stayed).

Rev. Prebendary Row.—There is one passage to which I should like to call Dr. Thornton’s attention, where the author of the paper speaks of the incorporation of foreign gods into the Egyptian Pantheon, and among others, to my surprise, he mentions the introduction of Serapis by the Romans. I never heard of Serapis being mentioned as a Roman god.f In Gibbon’s his- tory there is a description of the destruction of the temple of Serapis through an outbreak in the city of Alexandria ; and there was a tradition that when the image of Serapis was destroyed the world would sink into nothing. The Chris- tians, headed by the bishop, had much difficulty in getting any one to attack it. As to the resurrection of the dead, the real question at issue is the nature of the resurrection, and whether it is a pantheistic resurrection or not. The preservation of mummies shows that the Egyptians did expect a revi- vification of some kind, but I think it was of a pantheistic character. After all, the knowledge of Egyptology is a very select affair—it is confined to very few, and we have to take a great deal upon trust—a thing which I am not much in the habit of doing. When we have brought before us a pyramid

• I never intended to compare the Jews with the Sivaites, but only to show that the same principle of excessive Ritualism was common both to the Aryan and Semetic religions.— W. R. CoopPrr.

¢ “The worship of Serapis was introduced at Rome by the Emperor An- i sag Pius, A.D. 146, and the mysteries celebrated on the 6th of May.” —Lemprere.

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of theory erected upon the smallest apex of fact, it tries our patience exceed- ingly. In reading many works of this description I find my patience very severely tried, and that is a thing which very frequently happens in regard to these ancient records. The real questions for our consideration are, what was the purity of this Egyptian religion? Was its God a personal Being ? and what was its date? When we get these questions answered we shall have arrived at matters of fact which may enable us to form some safe conclusion.*

The CHatrmMan.—There is every reason why we should not discuss this paper controversially or in a hostile spirit. Still there are many points in it upon which I should have liked to ask questions. As to the resurrection of the body, I confess I had always imagined that that was a purely Christian doctrine ; but, on consideration, I incline to Mr. Row’s view, that there are two ideas of the resurrection of the body. I want to know what was the idea held by the Egyptians ? We find on mummy-cases, those in the British Mu- seum, for instance, representations of the body, and always in the likeness of the body, but with a certain resemblance to some particular god. You have a little figure of the deceased with a sort of divine aspect.t I rather fancy that the Egyptians having got a primitive notion of life after death, distorted it into a pantheistic sense. I am rather afraid that they believed in the resurrection of the soul and body, as a sort of mixture of the two, and as being absorbed into the existence of some god ; so that they had no definite idea of the personal resurrection of each person, but imagined that the existence, after death, of each person, was brought about by his absorption into the essence of a certain god, and that personality was lost. It is remarkable that in all religions which assimilate themselves to the true revelation, we find an absence of definiteness with regard to the personality of existence after death, whether we take Buddhism or Hinduism, or any other religion.[ In Christianity the doctrine is a cardinal one, but I fancy that, in earlier times, for certain reasons, in the providence of God, the doctrine was not insisted on: I question much, for my own part, whether the Jews had a clear idea of the personal resurrec- tion of the body. Mr. Drach has given us some very interesting remarks on certain points in the paper, and one related to a point which bore apparently against the Sephardian Jews ; but I do not suppose the author meant that they had been degraded into sensualism. This is hardly the time to discuss derivations, but I am afraid I cannot quite agree with the learned hebraist in reference to the Hebrew word for darkness. Etymology is very tempting, but it will lead you into a morass if you don’t take care. With reference to Mr. Row’s point about the god Serapis, I confess I agree with him in being surprised at the passage in the paper, which grated on my ears. The word “ Romans” must be a misprint ; it is clearly a mistake. In con-

eee

• See reply I. t See reply II. + See reply ITI.

§ G

50

clusion I have only to point to Mr. Cooper’s closing words, in which he holds that Christianity is the revelation, and that all others were merely a degradation of that revelation which Christianity possesses in its purity. This is a point which we should hold most distinctly. There was a time when people imagined that Christianity was the only truth, and that all other religions were the invention of the Devil ; but that is not correct. All religions contain a certain amount of truth, except, perhaps, Mahommed- anism, which is an invention of later times, and I conceive that this truth which they contain has been derived from the primeval revelation of God to man, The revelation was kept in its purity by the Jews, and handed on by them to the Christians. The Bible, therefore, contains the truth, and all other religions approximate to that truth more or less. The view that Christianity contains some truth, but not more than Buddhism or any other religion, is a Republicanism inreligion, and a view which this Institute does, most decidedly repudiate and protest against. The meeting was then adjourned.

MR. COOPER’S REPLY.

I. Personality of the Detty—How far the Supreme Being of the Egyptian mythology possessed a personal character is a point upon which the hiero- glyphic texts throw very little light. As we know from the Ritual, the highest and oldest form, of the Deity was His manifestation under the name of Ra, of which being the sun was both an hypostasis and a type—a union of pure fire and pure spirit, something analogous to the Ahuramazda of the Zendavesta: this was especially the case in the period of the ancient empire. In the revived empire, or middle period of Egyptian history ; that is from the XVIIth to the XXIInd dynasties, the idea of a Supreme Being culminated in the nature of the god Amen Ra, a celestial rather than a purely solar god; and hence he was always represented with a blue or heavenly body. The significance of his name was “the hidden,” or “ the unseeable,’ perhaps in the same way as the Psalmist writes—“ If I go up to heaven, Thou art there; if I go down to hell, Thou art there also.” He was an all-per- vading but yet an invisible essence. This refinement of cultus led the way to an entirely pantheistic conception of the Deity in the third period of Egyptian history, viz. from the XXIInd to the XXXth dynasties, and it culminated in the identification of all the deities with Amen Ra, who was also at the same time one with Nature itself. There can be little doubt that these religious subtleties caused a development of anthropomorphic feeling in the common people, who ascribed to Ra a human personality, which was not supported, though at the same time it was not contrae

ap |

dicted, by the language of their sacred texts. Certainly the oneness of nature and feeling of God with man, which is the peculiar characteristic of the Gospel of Christ, was foreign to Egyptian thought as applied to the nature of the highest Deity itself ; but when that same Deity was identified with His “only-begotten son,” Horus Ra, as the protector of mankind, and more especially of the servants of Horus, 4.¢. of the Faith, then to a great extent human feelings and human passions were attributed to Horus also, and, by parity of reasoning, to Ra his father, of whose divine nature he was a co-partner. These apparent inconsistencies are, after all, no greater than those which arise from the utter impossibility of a human mind grasping the infinite personality, and as naturally evidence themselves, even in our own times, as is proved by comparing the vague conception of the Supreme Being as formulated in the First Article of the Church of England, with the almost human Deity of the hymn-writers of popular or revival theology.

II. Shabti or Osvride Figures.—These generally represented the deceased under the character of Osiris, and hence they all have the plicate j-shaped beard peculiar to that deity. In the Hay collection of Egyptian antiquities now at Boston, U.S.A., there were two terra-cotta statuettes, each represented as holding a human-headed dove over the breast, with its wings expanded, —a very rare illustration of the doctrine of the revivification of the body by the return of the soul (Ba) to the mummy of the deceased. These objects were both of the period of the XIXth dynasty.

III. Resurrection of the Dead.—Although it is evident that, as Herodotus asserted, the ancient Egyptians sedulously promulgated the doctrines of the immortality of the soul and of its final resurrection, yet it is by no means certain that at the earliest period of their history they believed in the resur- rection of the body ; at all events that doctrine was not distinctly asserted in the more ancient religious books, according to Pierret :—“ Les Egyptiens distinguiaient Tame, appelée ba, de intelligence, qu’ils nommaient khou. Les Grecs établissaient la méme différence entre la yuy7 et le voc. Le retour de P4me dans le corps raméne la vie pour de nouvelles existences.” * But this revivification could only take place if the body of the deceased remained not only uncorrupted, but undefiled by evil spirits or improper treatment. The ba must, however, have possessed a species of corporeality, as it underwent, as is well known, a series of bodily duties in the Ker-neter, or suffered actual physical tortures or mutilations in the Akar, if wicked, It was to prepare the body for this its ultimate glorification that the ascrip- tions in the third chapter of the Litany of Ra were uttered by the priest for the deceased king. Towards the Greek period of Egyptian history, probably at the same time as the last recension of the Ritual of the Dead was under- taken, viz., in the XX VIth dynasty, the always ambiguous distinction between @ spiritual and a corporeal resurrection underwent a new development ; and

• Dict. Arché. Egyptienne, Voyez Ame.

52

accordingly, on the triple mummy-case of Afroai,* as Mr. Sharpe prefers to call it, or Harsiesi, as it should properly be written, the latest phase of the dogma of the resurrection is represented in one of the vignettes on the outer coffin. This vignette shows three figures: one the goddess Neith, or the Heavens, in a curved attitude, resting upon her hands and feet, her face being downward, and her, body being coloured blue. Beneath is a procumbent figure of an Egyptian, apparently just fallen to the ground ; he is painted red. At his side, and touching the form of the heavenly goddess with his outstretched hands, is a third figure, also of a man, but smaller in stature and standing erect. This man is, like the goddess, coloured blue. Evidently, therefore, argues Mr. Sharpe, the subject of this vignette pictorially represents the advanced idea of the resurrection. The body of the dead man perishes ; the soul, being itself a part of the heavenly deity, rises to the skies again.t| But Mr. Sharpe does not notice what is equally obvious, that this heavenly soul was of a pan- theistic nature, since its hands are extended not to Ra, the spiritual deity, but to Neith, the goddess of the material firmament. Thus, then, there appear to have been both a development and a reaction in the Egyptian idea of the Doctrine of the Resurrection. First, that the soul only lived while the body remained intact ; secondly, that the soul existed and reinhabited the body, and ultimately lived in a reunited condition in bliss till its own ultimate absorption into deity, while—which is to be noticed—it yet preserved its own personal consciousness ;f then, lastly, the soul was supposed to be a portion of the great soul of nature, to be independent of the body, which it used only as a tenant, and after death and purification by purgatorial fires it then itself became merged into the abstract forces of nature itself. Of the Christian doctrine of the resurrection of the body in a glorified form, alike, and yet not alike, to the present conditions of the human frame, there is no certain evidence in Egyptian theology. A few advanced thinkers may have held the doctrine, or may have received it from primitive revelation. The future of the body and the soul must always have (been to their wisest philosophers what it even now is to the ablest scientists of the present day, an inscrutable mystery — a mystery which inspiration has only partially revealed, and which faith and reason alike teach us to leave with confidence in the hands of the great All-wise, All-pitiful, and All-good.

• See Bonomi and Sharpe. Triple Mummy-case of Aroert At.—This was formerly the chief treasure of the gs serps museum of the late Dr. J. Lee, of Hartwell, and it is now in the collection of Mr. Tyssen Amhurst at Did- lington Park.

. t ua also in Sharpe’s Egypt, Bible Texts, and Alexandrian Chris- vanity.

} See again Ritual of the Dead, section the Gods of the Orbit ; and also Pierret, Dogme de la Résurrection.

Che Victoria Institute,

7 Philosophical Soctety of Great Britain,

10, ADELPHI TERRACE, STRAND, LONDON, W.C.

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f Thee SOCIETY has been founded for the purpose of promoting the following Objects, which will be admitted by all to be of high importance both to Religion and Science.

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• The Society now consists of 702 Subscribing Members (NEARLY TWO-THIRDS OF WHOM ARE COUNTRY AND FOREIGN MEMBERS); including His Grace the Archbishop of Can- terbury, and other Prelates and leading Ministers of peusion, Professors of English and Foreign Universities, Literary and Scientific Men in general, and others favourable to the Objects. (The present average annual increase is upwards of a hundred.)

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Rev, Prebendary Row, M.A. D. Howarb, Esq., F.C.S.

Rev. Canon Titcoms, M.A.

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Victoria Institute.

The following are the names of some of the Members.

(Those desiring to be introduced as Members and Associates are referred to this list when filling up “‘ Form A,” page 8).

Tue Rieut Rev. Bishop ABRAHAM. THE Rt. Rev. tHe Bishop oF ADELAIDE. Hon.G, Aen, Speaker,M.L.A.,N.S.W. Wituiam 8. ALLEN, Esq., M.P.

Rev. Professor APPELBE, LL.D., Belfast. R. Daviss, Esq., M.P.

Canon Arazes, M.A,, Stamford.

Toe Hon. WiLLiam ASHLEY.

Rev. Presenpary E. Aurion, M.A. Tue Rieut Hon. A. 8. Ayrton.

H. T. Baaster, Esq.

THe Dean or Bangor. [LARAT. Tue Rient Rev. tHe BisHor or Bat- Hanpury Barcuay, Esq., Tamworth. Rev. J. Barpstey, M.A., Liverpool. Tar Hon. C. Barrer, Natal. Principal G. Bartz, D.D., Ph.D., LL.D. Rev. Dr. Batterson, Philadelphia. Tue Hon. H. M. Best.

F. A. Bevan, Esq.

R. C. L. Bevan, Esq.

Rev. Evceneé Bersiser, Paris.

Very Rev. Dean Bicxerstet#, D.D. Rev. Professor Birxs, M.A., Cambridge. J. 8S. Buackwoop, D.D., LL.D.

Rev. Sir T. E. W. BLomMerFie.p, Bart. THE VEN. ArcHD. BourFLoweEr, M.A. Professor BoutFLoweEr, Agra, E.I. Rev. W. B. Boycz, D.D., Sydney. Canon R. E. Brooke, M.A., Bath.

Rev. PREBENDARY W. Butuock, M.A. Sir W. W. Bourton, K.H.

Rev. H. M. Buruer, D.D. (Harrow.)

Isaac Braitawairts, Esq.

W. H. Bupeett, Esq., Bristol.

Capt. Boucuey Buresss, U.S. Inst.

Rev. Pres. W. Capman, M.A.

Rev. Professor CAMPBELL, Montreal. K, Cauuarp, Esq., F.G

His Grack THE ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY, F.R.S.

THE DEAN oF CANTERBURY.

Canon W. Carts, M.A., Winton.

THE Rieut Hon. STEPHEN Cave, M.P.

Rev. Professor J.CHAuLIS, F.R.S.(Camb.)

THE Rieut Rev. tHE Lorp BIsHop oF CHESTER.

Rev. A.M. W.CuristorHeEr, M.A. (Ozf.)

T. Conan, Esq., M.D., R.N.

J. P. Corry, 2q-, M.P.

Tue Rt. Rev. Bispor CorTrerity, Edin.

Lizout.-GENERAL CRAWForRD, R.A.

sir E. H. Currie.

Mays.-Gen. Sir H. C. Dauseney, K.C.B.

Rev. C. Deans, D.C.L.

Tae Rieot Hon. tHe EARL oF DartTMouTa.

BE al J. W. Dawson, LL.D., F.R.S.,

cGull College, Montreal. (Derry.

mee “Riour Rev. tHE Lorp BisHoP oF

W. W. Frrz-Witiram Dick, Esq., M.P.

A. Durr, D.D., Moderator, General Assembly.

Rev. Professor Eaton, M.A., Oxford.

Tuer Hon. J. Farrrax, Esq., N.S. Wales.

Sir J. Farrer, M.D., K.C.S.L, F.RS.

8. Finury, Esq., Canada.

Rev.*F. Garpen, M.A., Sub- Dean Chapels Royal.

SYDNEY GEDGE, Esq. [ Doncaster .

THE Hon. anp Rev. E. Carr Giyn

Rey. Sir Georae L. Gryrn, Bart.

REv.T. ee A. (Pres. Chilwell Colt,

J. N. Gorzn, Esq.

Rev. Principal F. W. Gotcx, LL.D.

Caprain H. D. Grant, R.N., H.MS.

A. Hatpaneg, Esq. [Serapis.

Canon R. H. Gray, M.A.

H. F. Hau, Esq., President Inverpool Geological Society.

Very Rev. Dean Hamitton, F.R.S., F.R.A.S., Salisbury.

G. Harris, “Esq. ,L.L.D., Vice-President Anthropological Institute.

Toe Rieut Hon. THE Harrowsy, K.G.

Rev. Principal J. Harvarp, Birmghm,

Bisset Hawkins, Esq., M.D., F.R.S.

Tae Ven. ARCHDEACON HEssEY, D.C.L.

Canon C, A. Hevurtxey, D.D., M. Pro- fessor of Divinity, Oxford.

Canon Hoare, Tunbridge Welle.

Professor C. Hopnezr, D.D., LL.D., Princetown Univ., U.S.A.

Ps J. M’N. Hoge, K.C.B., M.P. Frofessor J. M. Hoprin, D.D., Yale

Capt. W. Horton,R.N. [ College, U.S. A.

J. Houtpsworra, Esq.

Professor ALVAH Hovey, LL.D., Mas- sachussets.

Canon Wa.tsHAM How, M.A.

Davip Howarp, Esq., F.U.S.

James Howarp, Esq., Bedford,

THe Ven. Arcup. A. Huxtasie M.A.

JosEPH Incr, Esq., FL..8,. F.C.S,

PREBENDARY Irons, D.D.

THE VEN. ARCHDEACON JacosB, M.A.

EARL OF

Sir G. te G. Jacos, K.C.B

J. JARDINE, Esq., LL.D

Sir J. H. KENNAWAY, Bart., M.P.

Rev. Joon KENNEDY, M.A., D.D.

Pres. T. L. Kinessury, M.A., Burbage.

Rev. Professor J. Kirnx, Edinburgh.

Rev. J. Knapp, A.C.K., Portsea.

CANON Erskine-KNoLzys, M.A.

Lr.-Gen. Sir A. J. Lawrence, K.C.B.

Tae Rieut Rev. tHe Lorp Bisuor oF LLANDAFF.

J. W. Las, Esgq., B.A.

Professor Lzr, DD., Glasgow. Rev. Professor J. J. Tue M.A., St. David’s College. Canon Lippoyn, D.D., D.C.L, I. Professor of Exegesis, Oxford.

Sir T. D. Luoyp, Bart.

Monsieur A. LoMBARD, Geneva.

THE Rieut Hon. anp Ricut Rev. THE Lorp BisHor or Lonvon.

THe Hon. Sir R. Lusz.

Sir Francis Lyrcert.

Rev. W. Maaitu, Dean Queen’s Coll.

Rev. R. Main, M.A.,F.R.S.,V.P.RAS., Radcliffe Observer, Oxford University

Rev. M. Mareoriours, LL.D.,

His Grace THE DUKE oF Mae. BorvuGH, K.G.

Sir W. MaxweE Lu, Bart.

Mr. ALDERMAN McArrtuor, M.P.

Rev. Professor 8. McA…

Rev. A.I. McCauL, M.A., King’s College.

Canon J. B. McCatt, M.A.

Rev. J. M‘Cann, M. AL LL.D., Glasgow.

THE Rieut Rev. Bishop M‘Doveat.

THE Lorp BisHop or MELBOURNE.

Lr,-Co.. tat Hon. H. M. Moncxton.

JOSEPH Moors, Esq.

SamMurL Morey, Esq… M.P [Uniw.

Professor G.S. Morris, M.A., Michigan

Rev. H. Movts, M.A., Fordington.

Rev. W. F. Movtron, D. D., Cambridge.

Canon J. B. Mozter, D. D., Regrus Professor of Divinity, Oxford.

THE Rr. Rev. THe BisHop or NELSon, New Zealand.

Professor H. ALLEYNE NICHOLSON, M.A., M.D., Ph.D., St. Andrew’s University.

ADMIRAL Notiotn, R.N.

Tae Dean or Norwicn.

Tar Ricar Hon. tHE Lorp O’NEILL.

J.L. Paumer, Esq., F.R.C.S., F.S.A., &e.

Sin Henry W. Pees, Bart., M.P.

Tne Rieut Rev. BrsHop Perry, D.D.

Joun Penn, Esq., F.R.S.

Rev. G. T. Perks, M.A.

J. S. Paensé, Esq., LL.D., F.LS., &c.

Professor J. S. Porter, D.D.

Prof. E. bE Pressensk, B.Th., Parts.

Rev. Auprey C. Price, M. A.

Rev. W. M. PunsHon, LL.D. [ Belfast.

THE PRESIDENT OF QUEEN’S COLLEGE,

Joun Rag, Esq., LL.D., F.S.A.

CotoneL Ratcurr, F.LS., &

His Grace THE DuKE oF Rutianp, K.G.

Mr. SersEant Sarcoop, Q.C.

Pri R. Scott, D.D., Belfast.

Professor H. R. Rtynoups, D.D.

T. R. Rosrnson, D.D., F.R.S., M.R.LA., Mrector of Armagh Observatory.

Tue Rieut Rev. BisHor Ryan.

Canon Ry te, B.D.

Rev. W. Saumargz Samira, B.D., Prin- cipal of St. Atdan’s College.

ApmiraL J. H. Setwyn, R.N., Tring.

W. Diasy Sermoovr, Esq., Q.C., LL.D.

G. SHann, Esq., M.D., F.R.C.P., York.

J. SHaw, Esq., M.D., F.L.S., Boston.

THE Rieut Hon. tHe Ear or SHREWS- BURY AND TALBOT.

CuHaARLEs SmiTH, Esq., F.G.S., Barrow- an- Furness.

Rev. GervasE Smitu, M.A.

PROTHEROE SMITH, Esq.,M.D.,M.R.C.P.

P. VERNON SMITH, Esq. 9 Bar.-at-Law.

SamMurEL SMITH, Esq. .» Lnwerpool.

Watson W. Spencer, Esq., M.B., F.R.C.S.

Rev. A.W. W.Sreet, M.A. (Catus Coll.)

Marx J. Stewart, Esq., M.P.

THE Hon. P. C, SurHer.anp, Surveyor- General, Natal.

Canon C. A. Swainson, D.D., Norrisian Prof. of Divinity, Cambridge.

Tue Ricat Hon. Lorp TEIGNMOUTH.

A. Tuomson, D.D., Edinburgh.

J. P. THompson, D. D., LL.D., Berlin.

Rev. Sir W. R. T-M.-L, -TILsoN, Bart.

Rev.’ F. W. Tremuert, D.C.L., Ph.D.

Canon Tristram, M.A., F.R.S.

Rospert TROTTER, Esq.

Tae Rieut Rev. Bisnop Trower.

P. TwE.s, Esq., M.P.

SAMUEL VINCENT, Esq.

Rev. Professor H. Wace, M.A.

Joan Wa.rter, Esq., M.P.

Professor Warts, D.D., Belfast.

THE VEN. ARCHDEACON WHATELY.

J. H. Wueattey, Esq., Ph.D., Sligo.

N. Wait ey, Esq., C.E., Truro.

THe VEN. ARCHD. WICKHAM, M.A.

Rev. V. Principal Wiuis, M.A., Cud- desdon.

Professor J. Wooprow, D.D., M. D., Ph.D., Columbia, S. Carelina.

T. V. Wotiastoy, ’Esq., M.A., F.LS., &c., Tetgnmouth.

*,,” The names of those Prelates and others, who are supporters, but have not as yet joined as M-mbers, are omitted in this List.

PROGRESS OF THE INSTITUTE.

Members and Associates on lst January, 1871, 203. Joined since.—In 1871, 91;— in 1872, 109 ;—in 1873, 110 ;—in 1874, 111 ;—in 1875, 115 ;—in 1876, 107.

PUBLICATIONS.

Since the Inauguration of the Society, on the 24th of May, 1866, the following Papers have been read:—The Quarterly Parts are indicated by the numbers. es :

1966-7,

A Sketch of the Existing Relations between Soripture and Science. By the late GEORGE WARINGTON, Esq., F.C.S

. On the Difference in Scope between ‘Seripture and Science. By the late C. MoUNTFORD

Burnett, Esq., M.D., Vice-President V.I.

On Comparative Philology. By the Rev. RoBinsoN THORNTON, D.D., Vice-President V.I.

On the Various Theories of Man’s Past and Present Condition. By the late JAMES REDDIE, Esq., Hon. Seo. V.I.

On the Language of Gesticulation and Origin of Speech. By Professor J. R. Youna.

On Miracles: their Compatibility with Philosophical Principles. By the Rev. W. W. ENGLISH, M.A. :

Thoughts on Miracles. By the late E. B. Penny, Esq.

On the General Character of Geological Formations. By the late E. Hopkins, Esq., C. E.

. On the Past and Present Relations of Geological Science to the Sacred Scriptures. By the

Rev. Professor JOHN KIRK. On the Lessons taught us by Geology in relation to God. Rev. J. BRopiz, M.A. On the Mutual Helpfulness of Theology and Natural Science. By Dr. GLapstons, F.R.S. On Falling Stars and Meteorites. By the late Rev. W. MITOHELL, M.A., Vice-President V.I.

(The above Papers, with the Discussions thereon, and with “‘ Scientia Scientiarum ; being some Account of the Origin and Objects of the Victoria Institute,” with the Reports of the Provisional Proceedings, and the Inaugural Address by the late Rev. Walter Mitchell, M.A., Vice-President, form Volume I. of the ‘Journal of Transactions,’ price One Guinea.)

. {On the Terrestrial Changes and Probable Ages of the Continents, founded upor Astronomica

Data and Geological Facts. By the late Evan Hopxins, Esq., C.E., F.G.S. On the Credibility of Darwinism. By the late GzorGr WaRINGTON, Esq., F.C.S. On the Credibility of Darwinism. By the late JAMES REDDIE, Esq., Hon. Sec. V.I.

. | On Utilitarianism. By the late JAMES REDDIE, Esq., Hon. Sec. V.I.

On the Logic of Scepticism. By the Rev. RoBINson THORNTON, D.D., V.P.

Annual Address (On the Institute’s Work). By the late JaMgs REDDIE, Esq., Hon. Sec. V.1.

On the Relations of Metaphysical and Physical Science to the Christian Doctrine of Prayer. By the Rev. Professor JOHN Kink.

On Geological Chronology, and the Cogency of the Arguments by which some Scientific Doctrines are supported. (In reply to Professor Huxley’s Address delivered at Sion College on 21st Nov., 1867.) By the late J. Reppig, Esq., Hon. Sec. V.I. (1867-68).

. |On the Geometrical Isomorphism of Crystals, and the Derivation of all other Forms from

those of the Cubical System. (6 Plates.) By the late Rev. W. MITOHELL, M.A., V.P. (Forming Volume IT., price One Guinea.)

In 1867-8,

. On the Antiquity of Civilization. By the Rev. Canon Trtcoms, M.A.

On Life, with some Observations on its ae Soa By J. H. WHEATLEY, Esq., Ph.D.

Un the Unphilosophical Character of some Objections to the Divine Inspiration of Scripture. By the late Rev. WALTER MITCHELL, M.A., Vice-President V.I.

On Comparative Psychology. By E. J. MoRSHEAD, Esq., Hon. For. Sec. V.I.

On Theology asa Science. By the Rev. A. DE La Marg, M.A.

On the Immediate Derivation of Science from the Great First Cause. By R. Lamina, Faq.

On some of the Philosophical Principles contained in Mr. Buckle’s ‘‘ History of Civiliza- tion,” in reference to the Laws of the Moral and Religious Developments of Man. By the Rev. Prebendary C. A. Row, M.A.

On the Nature of Human Language, the Necessities of Scientific Phraseology, and the Application of the Principles of both to the luterpretation of Holy Scripture. By the Rev. J. Bayuge, D.D.

On the Common Origin of the American Races with those of the Old World. By the Rev. Canon, TITCOMB, M.A.

On the Simplification of First Principles in Physical Science. By C. BRUOKE, Esq. F.R.S., &

Aw sha Rihkaal Cacmacnany aciontifically considered Rv lata (4. Warmatan a ROS

ww a fat, FF 2WS WY 2944R 2421 NSD SB BY OOOO

In 1868-69.

On Ethical Philosophy. By the Rev. W. W. ENGLISH M.A. 12. Onsome Uses of Sacred Primeval History. By the late D. McCausLanD, Esq., Q.C., LL.D. On the Relation of Reason to Philosophy, Theology, and Revelation. By the Rev. Pre- bendary C. A. Rew, M.A.

(Forming Volume I1I., price One Gutnea.)

13. { Analysis of Human Responsibility. By the Rev. Prebendary Irons, D.D. (And part 16. On the Doctrine of Creation according to Darwin, Agassiz, and Moses. By Prof. KIRK.
14. |}On the Noachian Deluge. By the Rev. M. Davison. On Life—its Origin. By J. H. WHEATLEY, Esq., Ph.D. On Man’s Place in Creation. By the late Professor MACDONALD, M.D.
15. | On More than One Universal Deluge recorded in Scripture. By Rev. H. MouLs, M.A. On Certain Analogies between the Methods of Deity in Nature and Revelation. By the Rev. G. HENSLOW, M.A., F.L.S. On the Respective Provinces of the Observer and the Reasoner in Scientific Investigation. By the Rev. EDWARD GARBETT, M.A. | On the Credulity of Scepticism. By the Rev. R. THornton, D.D., V.P. |
16. |On Current Physical Astronomy. By the late J. REDDIE, Esq., Hon. Sec. V.I. Analysis of Human Responsibility. By Rev. Preb. Irons, D.D. (See part 13.) Concluded.

(Forming Volume 1V., price One Guinea.)

In 1869-70,

On the Origin of the Negro. By the Rev. Canon Titcoms, M.A. On the Testimony of Philosophy to Christianity as a Moral and Spiritual Revelation. By the Rev. Prebendary C. A. Row, M.A. On the Numerical System of the Old Testament. By the Rev. Dr. THornron, V.P. 18. On Spontaneous Generation ; or, the Problem or Life. By the Rev. Professor KIRK, A Demonstration of the Existence of God. By the Rev. J. M‘Cann, D.D. Why Man must Believe in God. By the late James REDDIE, Esq., Hon. See, V.I. 19. On Geological Proofs of Divine Action. ByS. R. Parrison, Esq., F.G.S. On True Sot repels? By W. Hircuman, Esq., M.D. On Comparative Psychology. (Second Paper.) By E. J. MoRSHEaD, Esgq., Hon. For. Sec. V.I. On the Argument from Design. By the late Rev. WALTER MITCHELL, M.A., V.P.

In 1870-71.

20. On the High Numbers in the Pentateuch. By P. H. Gossz, Eaq., F.R.S., V.P. Israel in Hey pt. By the Rev. H. Mouse, M.A.

17

(Forming Volume V., price One Guinea.)

21. | On Civilization, Moral and Material. (Also in Reply to Sir John Lubbock on “ Primitive Man.”) By the late J. REDDIE, Esq., Hon. Sec. V.I. (1869-70.) On Dr. Newman’s “Essay in Aid of a Grammar of Assent.” Bythe Rev. Preb. Row, M.A.
22. | On the Evidence of the Egyptian Monuments to the Sojourn of Israel in Egypt. By th Rev. B. W. Savite, M.A. On The Moabite Stone, by Captain F. Perrin, Hon. Sec. On Phyllotazis ; or, the Arrangement of Leaves in Accordance with Mathematical Laws. By the Rev. G. Hensitow, M.A., F.L.8. On Prehistoric Monotheism, considered in relation to Man as an Aboriginal Savage. By the Rev. Canon Titcoms, M.A. (1871-72.) 23.’| On Biblical Preumatology and Psychology. By the Rev. W. W. EN@LIsH, M.A. On Some Scriptural Aspects of Man’s Tripartite Nature. By the Rev. C. GraHaM. On Ethnic Testimonies to the Pentateuch. By the Rev. Canon Trtcoms, M.A.
23. |Onthe Darwinian Theory. By the Rev. Prebendary [Rons, D.D.

In 1871-72,

Serpent Myths of Ancient Egypt. By W. R. Cooper, Esq., Sec. Soc. Biblical Archzology. 129 Illustrations.

(Forming Volume VI., price One Guinea.)

25. On Natural Theology, considered with respect to’Modern Philosophy. By the Rev. G. Henstow, M.A., F.L.S. On Fatalism. Contributed by the Rev. J. Rossins, D.D.
26. On Darwinism Tested by Recent Researches in Language. By F. Bareman, Esq., M.D., &c. On Force and its Manifestations. By the Rev. J. M‘Cann, D.D. : On Professor Tyndall’s ‘‘ Fragments of Science for Unscientific People.’ By the Rev. Prebendary Irons, D.D. On the Origin of the Moral Sense. By the Rev. Professor Krrx. On Force and Energy. By CHARLES BROOKE, Esq., M.A., F.R.S., V.P.
27. On Darwinism and its Effects upon Religious Thought. By C. R. BREE, Esq., M.D., & Kemarks on some of the Current Principles of Historic Criticism. By Rev. Preb. Row, M.

Cc. On ‘Scientific Facts and Christian Evidence.” By J. ELioT HowarpD, Esa.. EF RS.F.TS |,

39,

41,

In 1872-73.

On the ‘‘ Law of Creation—Unity of Plan, Variety of Form.” By Rev. G. W. WELDON, M.A.

Some Remarks on the Present Aspect of Enquiries as to the Introduction of Genera and Species in Geological Time. By Principal J. W. Dawson, ILL.D., F.R.S.

(Forming Volume VII., price One Guinea.) On ‘‘ Force.” By the Rev. Professor KIRK. Oo The Paleolithic Age Examined. By N. WarTrzy, Esq. and the late W. D. MicuEtt, M.D. (Annual Address.) On the Moral and Social Anarchy of Modern Unbelief. By the Rev. Principal ‘f. P. BOULTBEE, LL.D., Vice-President. (People’s Ed.)

In 1873-74,

On the Tdentity of Reason in Science and Religion. By the Rev. R. MITCHELL.

Qn Buddhism. By the Right Rev. Bishop Pirrs C. CLaveaton, D.D., &e., with communi- cations from Professors CHANDLER and BREWER.

On the Contrast between Crystallization and Lite. By JoHN ELIOF HowarbD, Esq., F.R.S.

.\On the Brixham Cavern and its ‘Testimony to the Antiquity of Man—examined. By N.

WHITLEY, Bed. Sec. Royal Inst. of Cornwall.

On the Rules of Evidence as applicable to the Credibility of History. By W. Forsyta,

Esq., Q.C., LL.D., M.P., Vice-President. (People’s Ed.)

On the Principles of Modern Pantheistic and Atheistic Philosophy as expressed in the last work of Strauss, Mill, &c. By the Rev. Prebendary C. A. Row, M.A. Paper on the same, by Professor CHALLIS, F.R.S. (People’s Ed.)

.| On ** Prehistoric Traditions and Customs in Connection with Sun and Serpent Worship.”

By J. S. PHen&, Esq., LL.D., F.S.A., &., with Illustrations. (1872-73.) (Forming Volume VIII., price One Guinea.)

On the Varying Tactics of Scepticism. (Annual Address.) By the Rev. ROBINSON THORNTON, D.D., Vice-President. (People’s Ed.)

On the Harmony between the Chronology of Egypt and the Bible. By the Rev. B. W. Saving, M.A.

On the Ethical Condition of the Early Scandinavian Peoples. By E. W. Gossz, Esq.

On Magnitudes in Creation and their bearings on Biblical Interpretation. By the Rev. Canon TiTcoMB, M.A. Paper on the same, by Professor CHALLIS, F.R.S.; with com- munications from the Astronomer Royal’s Department, the Radcliffe Observer, and Professor Pritchard, F.R.S.

On Biblical Interpretation in connection with Science. By the Rev. A. I. McCaovt, M.A. (King’s College), wit» a communication by Principal J. W. Dawson, LL.D., F.B.S.

On the Final Cause as Principle of Cognition and Principle in Nature. By Professor G. 8. Morris, of Michigan University, U.S.

In 1874-75.

On the Bearing of certain Paleontological Facts upon the Darwinian Theory of the Origin of Species, and of Evolution in General. By Professor H. A. NICHOLSON, M.D., D.8c., F.G.8., &e.

On the Early Dawn of Civilization, considered in the Light of Scripture. By J. E. Howarp,

Esq., F.RS. On the {ndestructibility of Force. By the Rev. Professor Birks, M.A. On Mr. Mill’s Essays on Theism. By Rev. Preb. W. J. IRons, D.D.

(Forming Volume 1X., price One Guinea.)

On the Chronology of Recent Geology. By S. R. Pattison, Esq., F.G.S.

On the Nature and Character of Evidence for Scientific Purposes. By the Rev. J. M‘Cann, D.D. ;

The Relation of the Scripture Account of the Deluge to Physical Science. By Professor CHALLIS, M.A., F.R.S., F.R.A.S.

An Examination of the Belfast Address from a Scientific point of view. By J. E. Howarp, Esq., F.R.S. (People’s Ed.)

Annual Address: Modern Philosophie Scepticism examined. (People’s Ed.) By the Rev. R. Mar, F.R.8., V.P.R.A.S., The Radcliffe Observer.

On the Etruscan Language. By the Rev. Isaao Taytor, M.A.

In 1875-76,

On ‘‘ Present Day Materialism.” By the Rev. J. McDoUGALL. °

On the Sorrows of Scepticism. By Rev. R. THorNton, D.D., Vice-Pres. (see parts 6, 15, 33) On Heathen Cosmogonies, compared with the Hebrew. By Rev. B. W. SavILz, M.A.

On the Place of Science in Education. By Professor H. A. NICHOLSON, M.D.

On Egypt and the Bible. By J. E. Howarp, Esq., F.R.S.

(Forming Volume X., price One Guinea.)

The wien *f i aes ” of Brixham Cavern. By N. WHITLEY. (Photographically ilustrated.

On The Flint Agricultural Implements of America. By Dr. J. W. Dawson, F.R.S.

An Examination of ‘‘ The Unseen Universe.” By Rev. Preb. Irons, D.D.

The Uncertainties of Modern Physical Science (Annual Address). By Professor BIRKS.

The Ethics of Belief. By Professor H. Wack, M.A.

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