CHAP. XIV. EMANATIONS. Ill 



But the difficulty is not solved by this statement, 

 nor by that of Plutarch*, who says, *' Many sup- 

 pose the soul of Typho to have been divided 

 amongst those animals, — signifying that the ir- 

 rational and brutal nature proceeds from the evil 

 principle ; and, consequently, all the reverence 

 paid to these creatures, is with a design to pacify 

 him." 



Plutarch t and Porphyry attach great importance 

 to the doctrine of emanation, as the source of animal 

 worship ; and the statements of those two writers 

 tend to show the principle which guided the Egyp- 

 tians, in their speculations respecting the connec- 

 tion between the Creator and his creatures. The 

 doctrine of emanations from one great soul, to 

 which all returned again, after having been suffi- 

 ciently purified from the contaminations to which 

 each soul was subject during its earthly career, 

 formed a principal feature of their religion ; and 

 not only was man, or the human soul, considered 

 an emanation from the same great and universal 

 source, but every animated creature was supposed 

 to partake of its divine essence. This idea ex- 

 tended ev^en to " herbs and stones," which were 

 thought to " have within them the natural pro- 

 perty of the Divinity." t 



I have already had occasion to observe §, that 

 the idea of the human soul, which was an ema- 

 nation from the great soul that governed and 



* Plut. de Is. s. 73. 



+ Pint, de Is. s. 77. Vide supra. Vol. I. (2d series) p. .318. 



J Mercur. Trismeg., Dialogue with Asclepius. ' 



^ Vide sitpi'd, loc. cit. 



