CHAP. XII. GODS KEPT DISTINCT FROM MEN. IJS 



tinguisli the Apostles and saints by various accoin- 

 jianying devices, as the eagle, the lion, a wheel, or 

 other symbols. 



Though the priests were aware of the nature of 

 their Gods, and all those who understood the mys- 

 teries of the religion looked upon the Divinity as 

 a sole and undivided Being, the people, as I have 

 already observed, not admitted to a participation 

 of those important secrets, were left in perfect 

 ignorance respecting the objects they were taught 

 to adore ; and every one was not only permitted, 

 but encouraged, to believe the real sanctity of 

 the idol, and the actual existence of tlie God 

 whose figure he beheld. The bull Apis was by 

 them deemed as sacred and as worthy of actual 

 worship as the Divinity of which it was the type ; 

 and in like manner were other emblems substituted 

 for the Deities they represented- But, however the 

 ignorance of the uninstructed may have misinter- 

 preted the nature of the Gods, they did not commit 

 the same gross error as the Greeks, who brought 

 down the character of the creative power, the de- 

 miurge who made the world, to the level of a black- 

 smith ; this abstract idea of the Egyptians being 

 to the Greeks the working Vulcan, with the ham- 

 mer, anvil, and other implements of an ordinary 

 forge. 



The Egyptians may have committed great ab- 

 surdities in their admission of emblems in lieu of 

 the Gods ; they were guilty of the folly of figuring 

 the Deities under the forms of animals ; but tliey did 

 not put them on an equality with earthly beings, by 



