CHAP. XIV. WHY TECULIAR ANIMALS CHOSEN. 109 



\vc may believe that tlie ox, cow, sheep, dog, 

 cat, vulture, hawk, Ibis, and some others, were 

 chosen from their utility to man. We may aiso 

 see sufficient reasons for making some others 

 sacred, in order to prevent their being killed for 

 food, because their flesh was unwholesome, as was 

 the case with certain fish of the Nile, — a precau- 

 tion which extended to some of the vegetables of 

 the country. But this will not account for the 

 choice they made in many instances ; for why 

 should not the camel and horse have been selected 

 for the first, and many other common animals and 

 reptiles for the last-mentioned reason ? There 

 was, as Porphyry observes, some other hidden 

 motive, independent of these ; and whether it was, 

 as Plutarch supposes, founded on rational grounds, 

 (with a view to promote the welfare of the com- 

 munity,) on accidental or imaginary analogy, or on 

 mere caprice, it is equally difficult to discover it, 

 or satisfactorily to account for the selection of 

 certain animals as the exclusive types of particular 

 Deities. 



Porphyry gives another reason for the worship 

 of animals, which is consistent with the speculative 

 notions of the Egyptians ; but still it offers no 

 elucidation of the question respecting the pre- 

 ference shown to some before others, nor does it 

 account for one or other being chosen to represent 

 a particular attribute of the Deity. 



*' The Egyptian priests," says that writer*, 

 *' profiting by their diligent study of philosophy, 



* Porphyr. de Abstin. iv. c. 9. 



