108 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIV. 



this must imperceptibly engender a hostile feeling 

 amongst them, and prevent their plotting against 

 the government." These were, of course, merely 

 the fanciful notions of the uninstructed, as Dio- 

 dorus j ustly observes. 



Many of the animals were worshipped, not 

 from a particular respect paid to them, nor on 

 account of any qualities they possessed, but solely 

 because they liad been chosen as emblems of 

 certain Deities ; and their selection for this pur- 

 pose is a separate and independent question. Tliat 

 the reasons for it were often as capricious and 

 ridiculous, as those stated by the historian, is 

 very probable ; and what could be more arbi- 

 trary than the adoption of the Ibis to represent 

 the God Thoth, or the spotted Cow to be the 

 emblem of Athor ? For, if tliey looked upon the 

 Ibis with a feeling of gratitude on account of its 

 utility in destroying serpents, the reason for its 

 being chosen as the peculiar type of the Egyptian 

 Hermes could not originate there ; nor does a 

 Cow, however useful to mankind, appear to be n 

 suitable representative of the Goddess Venus. 



It is, therefore, evident, that neither the benefits 

 derived by man from the habits of certain animals, 

 nor the reputed reasons for their peculiar choice 

 as emblems of the Gods, were sufficient to account 

 for the reverence paid to man}^ of those they held 

 sacred. Some, no doubt, may have been indebted 

 to the first mentioned cause ; and, however little 

 connection appears to subsist between those 

 animals and the Gods of whom they were the types. 



