176 EEV. J. N. FRADENBURGH, PB..D., D.D,, LL.D., 



case, A single illustration -will suffice. A divine legend 

 relates that once upon a time in the history of the gods a fire 

 broke out upon a mountain, and the goddess Isis called her 

 son Horus to extinguish the flames, using these words : " My 

 son Horus, it burns on the mountain, no water is there, I am 

 not there, fetch water from the bank of the river to put out 

 the fire." Horus responded and the fire was extinguished. 

 Now it was believed that the same Avords repeated by the 

 magician over a wound would stop its burning or would 

 drive away the raging fever. The magician might possess 

 himself of the magical power of a divinity by using the name 

 of that divinity as his own. If he could but learn that secret 

 name known only to the god himself, he Avould possess when 

 he uttered it all the power of that god, who, on his part, 

 would become weak and helpless. In one magic formula the 

 magician threatened to pronounce the secret name of the 

 god Shu, and by so doing he would unhinge the world. 

 This threat is found in an incantation against crocodiles. 

 The incantation is poetic in form, which may partially 

 explain its Avonderful power; for we have met with some 

 modern poetry which, we are persuaded, would prove too 

 much even for a crocodile. Certain objects could be invested 

 with permanent magical virtue by reciting over them magic 

 formulas. If the crocodile incantation were recited over an 

 egg, and if the pilot of a boat but held this egg in his hand, 

 every crocodile which raised his head out of the water would 

 immediately sink again. This explains the power of amulets 

 and images of wax, or other substance, so widely used by 

 the superstitious. The written magic formulas were invested 

 with the same efiicacy as the spoken, and hence the exten- 

 sive use of holy texts. The use of these formulas accom- 

 panied the preparation of medicine and the application of 

 remedies in all cases of disease. The old receipts of 

 Egyptian medical practice, in the number and disgusting- 

 character of their ingredients, were certainly enough to raise 

 to highest ecstasy the heart of the most heroic old school 

 allopathic physician. What Avould be thought, for instance, 

 of a medicine formed by the mixture of twenty or thirty 

 substances of such a cliaracter that sweat from the ear of a 

 hog, the toe of a lizard, and the oil of a toad, would change 

 the composition into sweetmeats and delicacies ? The 

 witches' broth of Shakespeare would be ambrosia and 

 nectar in the comparison. We must not, however, deny 

 to the ancient Egyptians a knowledge of the healing 



