ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS. 13 



Pass with me, in imagination, to the two great rival cities of 

 Egypt — Memphis and Thebes — the hundred-gated Thebes men- 

 tioned by Homer. 1 Both cities were presided over by their tutelary 

 gods, Ptah Ra and Ammon, Amen, Amun or Ammon-Ra ; and 

 while Memphis had surrendered on the triumphal entry of 

 Alexander the Great into Egypt, the Greek conqueror, for political 

 reasons, had offered sacrifice to these deities in order to win over 

 public opinion ; but the greater amongst the gods was Ammon, 

 whose temple was at Thebes, and whose celebrated shrine lay at 

 some distance across the Nitrian desert at the Oasis of Ammon. 

 This place was, in the eyes of the Egyptians, the holy of holies; 

 for here, and here only, could the Pharoah become the anointed 

 King of Egypt, the chosen of Ka, the beloved of Ammon, victor 

 of the world, ruler supreme, and dispenser of immortality. Such 

 a consummation of royal prerogatives was devoutly wished for by 

 the great Alexander, who nothing lacking, proceeded forthwith to 

 the oracle of Ammon where he was welcomed by the high priests, 

 put through the rite and ceremonies of Ammon, endowed with the 

 immortal token, the only formula which could stamp him as the 

 chosen of Ra, the beloved of Ammon, the king divine of all Egypt. 

 Unusual interest is, I think, attached to this regal formula and 

 ceremonial, this famous dictum, 'chosen of Ra, beloved of Ammon'; 

 inasmuch as two species of matter, one an element, the other a 

 compound, take us back to very ancient stages of the historic 

 period : I here refer to the element copper and the more complex 

 nucleus ammonia. I believe the name copper is comparatively 

 of modern origin, the Roman derivation being, as is well known, 

 from the island of Cyprus, while the older xaA/cos, may have come 

 to the Greeks after having filtered its way, and therefore becoming 

 corrupted, through the Phoenician and Etruscan languages. I hold 

 it to be probable that the original word, signifying the well known 

 red metal, is derived from the sun-god Ra, (?}eAios.) 



The weapons and implements of primitive man in the land of 

 the Nile were, of course, the chipped flints ; many examples of 



1 Iliad, ix., 381. 



