CHAP. XIII. TRANSMIGRATION OF THE SOUL. SI7 



Pythagoras, with many other opinions he acquired 

 during Iiis stay in Egypt. The idea of the return 

 of tlie Spirit to the Deity seems also to have been 

 admitted by the Jews, in the time of Solomon ; 

 since we find in Ecclesiastes*, "Then shall the 

 dust return to the Earth as it was ; and the Spirit 

 shall return unto God who gave it.*' 



The characters of Osiris were numeroust, as 

 were those of Isis, who was thence called Myrio- 

 nymus, or '* with 10,000 names." He was that 

 attribute of the Deity which signified the divine 

 Goodness t ; and in his most mysterious and sacred 

 office, as an avatar, or manifestation of the Divinity 

 on earth, he was superior to any even of the eight 

 great Gods. And though, as Herodotus informs 

 us§, all the Egyptians did not worship the same 

 Gods witli equal reverence, the adoration paid to 

 Osiris and Isis was universal, and he considers Isis 

 the greatest of all the Divinities of Egypt. || 



Of the manner in which the Egyptians supposed 

 this manifestation of the Deity in a human form to 

 have taken place, I will not pretend to decide. 

 This was always a profound secret, revealed only to 

 some of those who were initiated into the higher 

 order of mysteries. Suffice it to say, that Osiris 

 was not believed by them to have been a human 

 being, vv'ho after death was translated into the order 

 of Demigods ; for, as I have already observed, no 



* Eccles. xii. 7. 



-j- Hence confounded with other Deities. Vide Diodor. i. 25. 



X Vide supra, p. 189. 217. § Herodot. ii. 42. 



II nerodot. ii. 40. 



