354 THE EVOLUTION OF THEOLOGY VIII 



" Book of Redemption " is chiefly occupied by the 

 so-called " negative confession " made to the 

 forty-two Divine Judges, in which the soul of the 

 dead denies that he has committed faults of 

 various kinds. It is, therefore, obvious that the 

 Egyptians conceived that their gods commanded 

 them not to do the deeds which are here denied. 

 The " Book of Redemption," in fact, implies the 

 existence in the mind of the Egyptians, if not in 

 a formal writing, of a series of ordinances, couched, 

 like the majority of the ten commandments, in 

 negative terms. And it is easy to prove the 

 implied existence of a series which nearly answers 

 to the " ten words." Of course a polytheistic and 

 image-worshipping people, who observed a great 

 many holy days, but no Sabbaths, could have 

 nothing analogous to the first or the second and 

 the fourth commandments of the Decalogue ; but 

 answering to the third, is " I have not blasphemed ; " 

 to the fifth, " I have not reviled the face of the 

 king or my father;" to the sixth, "I have not 

 murdered ; " to the seventh, " I have not committed 

 adultery ; " to the eighth, " I have not stolen," " I 

 have not done fraud to man ; " to the ninth, " I 

 have not told falsehoods in the tribunal of truth," 

 and, further, " I have not calumniated the slave to 

 his master." I find nothing exactly similar to the 

 tenth commandment ; but that the inward dispo- 

 sition of mind was held to be of no less importance 

 than the outward act is to be gathered from the 



