CHAP. XII. RELIGION UNCHANGED. 213 



ation which took place in the name of Amun, and 

 the introduction of the worsliij) of the Sun witli 

 rays, represented at Tel-el- Amarna, and some other 

 places, about the time of the 18th Dynasty, cannot 

 be looked upon as changes in the religion ; and 

 Sarapis, of foreign introduction, was obliged to 

 conform to the customs of the Pantheon, to which 

 he was rather attached, than admitted, by the 

 caprice of a foreign monarch. 



Unfortunately, an impenetrable veil, concealing 

 from our view the earliest periods of Egyptian his- 

 tory, forbids us to ascertain the original character 

 of the religion ; we are introduced to it as to the 

 civilisation of that people, when already fully per- 

 fected ; and we can only speculate on its previous 

 condition, before metaphysical theories had mo- 

 delled it into the form in which we now behold it 

 in the sculptures of the existing monuments. 



Before we proceed to inquire into the nature 

 and attributes of the Gods, it may not be improper 

 to examine the opinions of Greek writers, re- 

 specting the Thcogony of Egypt. Diodorus *, who 

 seems to borrow his ideas respecting the creation 

 of the world from the Egyptians, says, that in 

 the beginning the heavens and earth had only one 

 form, being united in their nature ; but having 

 become separated afterwards, the world took the 

 character we now behold. By the movement of the 

 atmosphere, the igneous parts rose, which gave to 

 the Sun and other heavenly bodies their rotatory 

 movement ; and a solid matter was precipitated to 



* Diodor. ii. 7. 



p 3 



