174 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XII. 



as between the active wind and the passive mist, 

 or inert atmosphere ; between sea and fresh 

 water ; between fire which burns, and light which 

 shines ; between stone and rock, as part of earth, 

 and as cultivable land ; the former of all these being 

 masculine, the latter feminine.* 



Different people have devised various modes of 

 representing the personages connected with their 

 religion. The Egyptians adopted a distinguishing 

 mark for their Gods, by giving them the heads of 

 animals, or a peculiar dress and form, which gene- 

 rally, even without the hieroglyphic legends, suf- 

 ficed to particularise them ; but they had not 

 arrived at that refinement in sculptiu'e which 

 enabled the Greeks to assign a peculiar face and 

 character to each Deity. This was an effort of art 

 to which none but the most consummate masters 

 could attain : and even the Greeks sometimes de- 

 viated from these conventional forms; the Apollo, 

 or the Bacchus, of one age, differing from those of 

 another; and the lion skin, the dolphin, the crescent, 

 or the eagle, were generally required to identify the 

 figures of a Hercules, a Venus, a Diana, or a Jove. 

 Indeed, in so extensive a Pantheon as that of Egypt, 

 it would be impossible to maintain the peculiarities 

 of features, even if adopted for the principal Gods ; 

 and the Christians have found k necessary to dis- 



* Vide Senec. Nat. Quaest. iii. l-t. p. 870. " ^Egyptii quatuor ele- 

 menta fecere : deinde ex singulis bina, marem et foeminara. Aerem 

 mareni judicant, qua ventus est, foeminam qua nebulosus et iners. 

 Aquam virilem vocant mare, muliebrem omnem aliam. Ignem vocant 

 masculam qua ardet flamma, et foeminam qua lucet innoxius tactu. 

 Terram fortiorcm marem vocant, saxa cautesque ; foeminae nomen assig- 

 nant huic tractabili ad culturam." 



