106 MAN. 
Le Page Renouf expresses his entire agreement with 
the “matured judgment” of Emmanuel Rouge: “The 
first characteristic of the Egyptian religion is the Unity 
of God most energetically expressed: God, One, Sole 
and Only—no others with Him... . the Only Being 
.... The belief in the Unity of the Supreme God and 
in His attributes as Creator and Lawgiver of man, whom 
He has endowed with an immortal soul, . . . . these are 
the primitive notions, enchased in the midst of mytholo- 
gical superfetations accumulated in the centuries.” 
Franz Lenormant reached the same conclusion. Else- 
where, Renouf says: “It is incontestably true, that the 
sublimer portions of the Egyptian religions are not the 
comparatively late result of a process of development. 
The sublimer portions are demonstrably ancient; and the 
last stage of the Egyptian religion . . . . was by far the 
grossest and most corrupt.” (“Religion of Ancient 
Egypt,” p. 95.) This opinion is supported by the testi- 
mony of the Egyptian inscriptions. In the very oldest 
inscriptions reference is had to a Supreme God and Lord 
of all, to whom no shrines were raised, whose abode was 
unknown, who was not graven in stone, while the Egypt- 
ian of a later day adored the crocodile, the ichneumon, 
serpents, bulls, cats, and tbises. 
The history of Hindu belief presents testimony of a 
still more startling nature. In the Vedas we find state- 
ments and prayers which are clear proof of an early 
Monotheism. Thus the IX book of the Rig Veda con- 
tains the following prayer. ‘Who is the God to whom 
we shall offer our sacrifice? The one-born Lord of all 
that is; he established the heaven and sky; he is the one 
king of the breathing and awakening world; he through 
whom the heaven was established; he who measured out 
the light in the air—he who alone is God above all gods.” 
Here the belief in one Supreme Being is clearly set 
