202 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIL. 



already degraded, in the Grgeco-Egyptian city of 

 Alexandria: this is highly probable; but the 

 reason of its perversion there resulted from the 

 same cause as at Rome — the misapplication by 

 foreign votaries of tenets they failed to compre- 

 hend ; for it may be doubted if such rites were 

 at any time known to the Egyptians ; and if any 

 external ceremonies carried with them an appear- 

 ance of indelicacy, they were merely emblematic 

 representations, as in the case of the phallic figures, 

 indicating the generative principle of nature. 

 Here, as usual witli the Egyptians, it was the 

 abstract idea which alone occurred to the mind 

 of those who understood the religion they pro- 

 fessed ; but the Greeks and Romans, owing to 

 the grossness of their imaginations, saw nothing 

 beyond the external form that presented itself 

 to the eye, and instead of the power, or abstract 

 cause, they merely thought of its physical cha- 

 racter. Hence the absurd worship of the mere 

 agent in lieu of a first cause, and hence, in con- 

 sequence, all those revolting scenes, by which 

 religion was degraded, and the human mind cor- 

 rupted ; the more deplorable, since mankind is 

 ever prone to commit the greatest excesses when 

 their acts are believed to have the sanction of 

 religion. Indeed, even at a time when speculative 

 doctrines.have not yet suffered any gross perversion 

 of their principles, the ignorance and credulity of 

 man frequently distort what is reasonable ; and 

 some minds are not possessed of sufficient judg- 

 ment to separate the really religious, from the su- 



