158 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book 11. 



for they believed, as much as any people ever did, in a prefent 

 diet)' ; and may be faid to have lived with their Gods. 



In one refped the Egyptian religion differed from any other that 

 we read of. In other countries their Gods predided events, and in 

 that way governed the councils of the kings and rulers: But in 

 Egypt their Gods, in very aniient times, were theii kings : And 

 there were three races of them, as Herodotus tells us ; the firft, 

 confifting of eight Gods ; the fecond, of twelve ; and the third, and 

 laft, of three ; and after them came their human Kings, of whom 

 the fiift was Menes. And this leads to a curious inquiry, what 

 kind of beings thefe God-kings, as they called them, were. 



And, in \.\-\e frjl place, it is certain, that they had bodies, fuch as 

 we have, and were not immortal, but died as we do, though their 

 life was much longer. Secondly^ As they died, fo they were born, 

 and were produced in the ordinary way by generation ; but they 

 mixed in that way only with one another : From the firft race 

 therefore proceeded the fecond ; and from the fecond the third, in 

 the common way of generation. They did not therefore mix with 

 the women of the country, and beget Heroes, as the Greek Gods 

 did; for Heroes were not known among the Egyptians; and Herodo- 

 tus tells us, that they did not live wiih the men of the country, but 

 among themfelves. Thirdly^ Though they were neither Gods nor 

 immortal, they were much fuperior to men in council and intelli- 

 p-ence. And, IcjUy, they were not all of them good and virtu- 

 (His beings, but one of them was a murderer and a villain, he 

 who was called Typhon. 



To what clafs of beings then fliall we fay they belonged, and 

 v\hai name {liall we give them? And I think Plutarch has very 

 rrcrcrly defcribed and named them, when he fays, that they were 



not 



