ANCIENT EGYPT. I37 



Petrie, when excavating at Abydos, found that Osiris was not 

 the original dominant deity there, since the jackal god, Upuaut, 

 and then the god of the west, Khentamenti, occupied that 

 position ; but Osiris is mentioned on the sarcophagus of 

 Menkaoora, of the fourth dynasty, over a thousand years 

 earlier than the period represented in the twelfth dynasty. 



The monuments present a vast pantheon, but to quote an 

 ancient writer, Porphyry : — " All living creatures in their 

 degree partook of the divine essence, and under the semblance 

 of animals the Egyptians worshipped the universal power in 

 the various forms of living nature." Jamblichus, writing 

 towards the end of the third century, states that the Egyptians 

 believed in one God, the author of his own being, without 

 beginning or end. Eusebius was of opinion that the 

 Egyptians looked upon the universe as God, composed 

 of several deities, constituting his different attributes or 

 elements. 



The deities would appear to represent fixed principles in 

 nature, such as the heavenly bodies and their courses, light 

 and darkness ; and each forms part of a great whole. Ammon 

 of Thebes, the supreme being, for instance, represents the 

 hidden life-giving force of nature, and he is clothed with the 

 attributes of creation. It is symbolism and imagery on a 

 vast scale, and certainly far from resembles the mythologies 

 of Ancient Greece and Rome, which nations partly adopted 

 some of the Egyptian forms after the spirit had fled and been 

 forgotten. All the gods of Egypt seem to be merely modifica- 

 tions of the attributes of one great eternal being, personified 

 under positive forms. 



It is often supposed that there existed one system for the 

 initiated and another for the vulgar. To some extent, I 

 suppose, this is always so, and it may perhaps be partly 

 accounted for in the case of Egypt by the apparent, nay real 

 inconsistencies between the monumental inscriptions and the 

 other esoteric writings ; besides, foundations of belief have 

 never been rightly appreciated or understood by the un- 

 educated masses of any period or country. The vulgar 



