CHAP. XIII. OFFICE OF OSIRIS. 315 



to eternal felicity.* Seated on his throne, ac- 

 companied by Isis and Nephthys, with the four 

 Genii of Amenti, who stand on a lotus growing 

 from the waters, in the centre of the divine 

 abode, he receives the account of the actions of 

 the deceased, recorded by Thoth. Horus, his 

 son, introduces the deceased into his presence, 

 bringing with him tlie tablet of Thoth, after his 

 actions have been weighed in the scales of Truth. 

 To Anubis, who is styled the "director of the 

 weight," belongs this duty; and, assisted by Horus, 

 he places in one scale the feather or the figure of 

 Thmei, the Goddess of Truth, and in the other 

 a vase emblematic of the virtuous actions of the 

 judged. A Cynocephalus, the emblem of the 

 Ibis-headed God, sits on the upper part of the 

 balance ; and Cerberus, the guardian of the palace 

 of Osiris, is present. Sometimes also Harpocrates, 

 the symbol of resuscitation and a new birth, is 

 seated on a crook of Osiris, before the God of 

 letters, — expressive of the idea entertained by 

 the Egyptians and other philosophers t, that no- 

 thing created was ever annihilated ; and that to 

 cease to be, was only to assume another form, 

 — dissolution being merely the passage to repro- 

 duction. 



Some of the figures of the dead are represented 

 wearing round their necks the same emblem which 

 appears in the scales, after they have passed their 

 ordeal, and are deemed worthy of admission into 



* Conf. Pliit. de Is. s. 79. 



f Vide siqjid, p. 218., " conclusion and renovation." 



