292 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIII. 



of the former opinion ; and the connection of a 



star with an attitude of prayer 

 y( may tend to confirm it. Some 



r^^ ^ may even be disposed to see 

 ■ ^ the union of the two systems 

 M in the name of Amun-re. 



LV^ But if, in former times, 



12 

 No. 449. Figures prayingaccomi.anied thc Egyptians rCally adoptcd 



a Sabsean mode of worship, 

 and if the worship of Re, and of Thoth in one 

 of his characters as the Moon, appear to confirm 

 this opinion, there is sufficient evidence to show 

 that their religion, at the time we know it, — 

 consequently long before the age of any writer 

 with whose name we are acquainted, — had already 

 assumed a very different character. The existence 

 of an early Saba^an worship in Egypt is merely 

 possible ; while the metaphysical nature of their 

 religion is proved by abundant evidence, both of 

 ancient writers and the monuments; and we are 

 therefore bound to consider it as it presents itself 

 to us, rather than to be led away by conjecture. 

 And, however much I respect the valuable opinion 

 of many writers, especially the learned Dr. Prichard, 

 who maintains that " the principal objects of 

 Egyptian worship were those physical agents, 

 whose operative energy is the most conspicuous 

 in the phaenomena of nature*," I must, from the 

 evidence before me, deny that physical agents 

 constituted the principal Deities of the Egyptians. 

 If their metaphysical doctrines, divulged alone to 



* Prichard, Egypt. My thol. p. 27. Vide supra, p. 2\8. 



