138 ANCIENT EGYPT. 



naturally desire some more visible sign than that required by 

 the initiated, indeed, there is every reason to believe that the 

 Egyptian priests fired the imagination of the masses by 

 meretricious manifestations, which were popularly regarded 

 as miraculous. To the ignorant and illiterate Egyptians the 

 system was a pantheism, and to them the universe itself was 

 God, natural objects, such as the sun on the horizon, being 

 each represented by a special incarnation or deity ; while to 

 the initiated, who enjoyed " the wisdom of the Egyptians," it 

 presented a unity of godhead, or a triad, a trinity in unity, 

 with ministers and intercessors, all bowing to one great con- 

 trolling power. 



The principle of eternity is established in the triad myth ; 

 the god being, at one and the same time, father and son. 

 The supreme being, maker of heaven and earth, was wor- 

 shipped under many names and aspects, all of which had a 

 local origin, but meaning the same creative and controlling 

 deity. Judgment by Osiris in Amenti, punishment for wrong- 

 doing, but not eternal, justification by works, and a glorious 

 immortality, are all principles clearly defined. The phrase 

 "justified by Osiris" occurs on some of the mummy-cases. 



There are several Egyptian triads or trinities, a foreshadow- 

 ing of the great Christian dogma; for example, Ammon, 

 Maut, and Khonsu, at Thebes; Horus, Tasentnefert, and 

 their son Pinebtati at Ombos ; and Isis, Osiris, and Horus at 

 Abydos ; each triad having a local origin. But the spirit of the 

 dogma is the same in all, namely, a controlling first cause, as 

 typified by the sun under various names and aspects, repre- 

 senting creative force and initiative government ; Pasht or 

 Bast, Sekket, Isis or Hathor, Maut, typifying maternity, 

 fecundity, as the earth bringing forth ; whilst the son, under 

 various names, is an incarnation of the principles of off"spring 

 and continuity. The father is the author of his own being, at 

 once his own father and his own son, thus conveying the idea 

 of neither beginning nor end, eternity, and immortality. An 

 immaculate conception is claimed for Horus, as for Krishna 

 and Buddha and many other deities ; all having possibly the 



