176 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XII. 



giving them the ordinary offices of men : they al- 

 lowed tliem still to be Gods ; and their fault was 

 rather the elevation of animals and emblems to the 

 rank of Deities, than the bringing down of the Gods 

 to the level of mankind. 



In noticing the religion of the Egyptians, it is 

 not my intention to enter into a detailed account 

 of the offices and attributes of the numerous Gods 

 who composed their Pantheon, nor, indeed, have we 

 as yet sufficient data to enable us to penetrate into 

 all the intricacies of this curious question ; I shall 

 therefore confine mvself to the o'eneral forms and 

 characters of the Deities, and endeavour to explain 

 the principle on which the superstructure of their 

 Theogony was based. 



In the early ages of mankind, the existence of a 

 sole and omnipotent Deity, who created all things, 

 seems to have been the universal belief; and tra- 

 dition taught men the same notions on this subject, 

 which in later times have been ado})ted by all ci- 

 vilised people. Whether the Egyptians arrived at 

 this conclusion from mere tradition, or from the 

 conviction resulting from a carefid consideration of 

 the question, I will not pretend to decide ; suffice 

 it to know that such was their belief, and the same 

 which was entertained by many philosophers of 

 other nations of antiquity. Some of the Greeks, 

 in early times, had the same notions respecting 

 their theogony, as we learn from a very old author, 

 "if it be true," as the Abbe Banier * observes, 



* Mytholog. vol. i. lib. 2. c. 5. 



