359 
Amenti” (which means the Hades) “it is the land of heavy slumber and of 
darkness, an abode of sorrow for those who dwell there. They sleep in their 
forms ; they wake not any more to see their brethren ; they recognise not their 
father and their mother; their heart is indifferent to their wife and 
children. Every one [on earth] enjoys the water of life, but thirst is by 
me. The water cometh to him who remaineth on earth, but I thirst for the 
water which is by me For as to the god who is here, 1 Death- 
Absolute * is his name. He calleth on all, and all men come to obey him, 
trembling with fear before him. With him there is no respect for gods or 
men ; by him great ones are little ones. One feareth to pray to him, for he 
listeneth not." So that, you see, in the last ages of Egypt, the religion of 
the people had come to this : true belief had died out, and there was nothing 
in its place but “ Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die.” It is very 
gratifying to find that so accomplished an authority in the great field of 
Egyptology finds the same results as those who have been directing their 
inquiries into the Aryan branch of the human race. In the two cases we 
find similar myths about day and night, the sun and the dawn, the crocodile 
of night being said to devour the sun, and so forth; and then, when the 
original world may be said to have passed away, when the ancient states 
had given up belief in the old religion, just at the moment when every- 
thing seemed to be dying, the splendour of Christianity broke upon tho 
world and restored it. (Applause.) 
The meeting was then adjourned. 
x 
