206 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XII. 



legorical, some moral, some physical, some histo- 

 rical, and some again are mere metaphysical spe- 

 culations. This, however, seems only in part to 

 apply to the theogony of the Egyptians, whose 

 religion was founded on a different basis, or who, 

 at all events, made the physical and historical por- 

 tions subservient to, rather than a part of, their 

 system ; and if they had even in early tunes inter- 

 woven any events of history in their religion, they 

 expunged them at a subsequent period, and gave 

 to their religion a metaphysical character, totally 

 unconnected with the tales of their origin, or the 

 colonisation of their country. Indeed, history 

 seems so entirely excluded from their mythological 

 system, and so completely a thing apart from it, 

 that we may doubt if it was admitted into it even at 

 the earliest periods ; and if, in the chronicles of 

 Egypt, mention is made of the reign of certain Gods 

 upon earth, we may be persuaded that these are 

 merely an allegorical mode of stating facts which 

 really happened, and are totally unconnected with 

 the tenets of their religion. For, independent of 

 the positive assurances of the Egyptians themselves 

 that no Deity ever lived on earth, we are relieved 

 from the difficulty this appears to present, by the 

 simple suggestion* that the rule of the Gods refers 

 to that of the different colleges of priests of those 

 Deities, which successively held the sovereign 

 power, when Egypt was ruled by a Hierarchy, pre- 

 vious to the election of a King. 



* This was also the opinion of the learned Larcher. 



