142 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XII. 



markable for all that human ingenuity could devise, 

 to render them splendid and imposing. They 

 prided themselves on being the nation in whom 

 had originated most of the sacred institutions after- 

 wards common to other people, who were believed 

 to have adopted them from Egypt ; and the mys- 

 terious nature and attributes of the Deity, though 

 presented under a different form, were recognised 

 by the Egyptians as a direct emanation from the 

 metaphysical philosophy of their priesthood. They 

 claimed the merit of being tlie hrst, who had con- 

 secrated each month and day * to a particular deity ; 

 — a method of forming the calendar which has been 

 imitated, and preserved to the present day ; the 

 Egyptian Gods having yielded their place to those 

 of another Pantheon, which have in turn been 

 supplanted by the saints of a Christian era ; — and 

 they also considered themselves the first! to sug- 

 gest the idea of foretelhng from the natal hour 

 the future fortunes of each new-born infant, the 

 life he was destined to lead, or the death he was 

 fated to die, whicli were boldly settled by astrolo- 

 gical prediction, t 



"The Greeks," says Herodotus §, " borrowed the 

 science of astrology from the Egyptians, but that 

 people have invented more prodigies than all the 

 rest of mankind. They observe and note down 

 every occurrence, as well as whatever follows it; 



* Herodot. ii. 82. f Herodot. ibid. 



J Conf. lauiblich. de Myster. viii. 6. " According to many of the 

 Egy|>tians, that which is in our power depends on the motion of the 

 stars." 



^ Herodot. ii. 8-2. 



