112 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIV. 



pervaded the universe, returning to its divine 

 origin after certain purifications, led to the doctrine 

 of the transmigration. The evil propensities of 

 man, and the sinful actions of which he was fre- 

 quently guilty, were thought so to taint the original 

 purity of the divine nature of the soul, that, on 

 leaving the body, it was no longer in a fit state to 

 reunite itself with the immaculate source from 

 which it proceeded ; they therefore supposed that 

 it underwent a proportionate degree of purifica- 

 tion, according to the nature of the impieties each 

 individual had committed. For this purpose, it 

 was condemned to a state of purgatory, by pass- 

 ing' through the bodies of various animals.* The 

 most wicked were confined in those of the most 

 odious description, as the pig and others, which 

 for this reason they believed to be fit emblems of 

 the Evil Being t; and "those," as Plato t makes 

 Socrates say, ** who were guilty of injustice, 

 tyranny, and rapine, entered into the tribes of 

 wolves, hawks §, and kites." 



Hence it appears, that the animals they held 

 sacred, which partook more immediately of the 

 divine nature, were distinct from those into which 

 the "souls of wicked persons passed during the 

 period of their transmigration;" and that it was 

 imparted to some in a direct maimer, while others 

 only received it through tiie medium of other in- 

 fluences. 



* Vide Phit. dc Is. S.72. f Pint, tie Is. s..31. 



I Pliito, riucdo, p. 20+. Trans. Taylor. 



§ This was accord iii^'; to the i<!ca.s ol'lhc (Jrccks. 



