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supposed intervention of a masculo-feminine principle, to which 
was assigned the development of the embryo world in the way 
of incubation. For the doctrine w r as that when the first chaotic 
mass had been produced in the form of an egg , by a self- 
dependent and eternal Being, it required the mysterious func- 
tions of this masculo-feminine demiurgus to reduce the com- 
ponent elements into organized forms. Thus, e.g., we find 
such passages as these in the Ritual : — “ I am the Great God, 
creating Himself. It is water, or Nu, who is the father of 
the Gods. Let him explain it. The Sun is the creator of his 
body, the engendered of the Gods who are the successors of 
the Sun ” (ch. xvii.). Again it is written, “ I am the Egg 
of the Great Cackler Seb. I have watched this great egg 
which Seb prepared for the earth. I grow, it grows in turn ; 
I live, it lives ; I breathe air, it breathes air, in Hades 55 
(ch. liv.).* 
3. The Hermetic books, according to Jamblicus, teach as 
follows : — “ Before all things there is one God, who is the 
Father of Himself, self-begotten, and truly good. He is the 
fountain of all things, and the root of all primary intelligible 
existing forms. Out of this one the self-ruling God caused 
Himself to shine forth. He is the monad from the one ; before 
essence, yet the first principle of essence, for from Him is being 
and essence ; wherefore He is celebrated as the Chief of the 
Intelligibles. He is the first Intellect, and the first Intelligible. 
Besides these, other rulers are supposed to exist, such as the 
demiurgic Intellect, which properly presides over truth and 
wisdom. There is, also, another certain principle, presiding 
over all the elements in a state of generation, and over the 
powers inherent in them, four of which are male and four 
female; and this principle they attribute to the Sun. Hence 
the doctrine of the Egyptians inculcates the origin of all things 
* The egg of the Cackler, i.c. the goose, as the emblem of Seb, is men- 
tioned on an old coffin in the British Museum, of an unknown date. It 
occurs also on a statue in the Berlin Museum of the age of Thothmes III., 
the contemporary of Moses, which would fix its date to the sixteenth cen- 
tury B.C. Dr. Birch considers that the earliest appearance of Rituals is in 
the 11th dynasty, as the 17th, 18th, and other chapters are found on 
the coffin of Queen Mentuhetp, of that dynasty, and the approximate con- 
temporary of Abraham. The 64th chapter is supposed to be the oldest of 
all, as it belongs to the epoch of King Menkeres, of the 4th dynasty, 
i.e. the 22nd century B.C. There is much that is very interesting in these 
Rituals, which contain the esoteric explanation of fhe faith of the Egyptians, 
the Crown of Justification, and the doctrine of the Resurrection, though of 
course, to our ideas, held in a modified form ; and it is a matter of surprise 
that this remarkable book has not been more regarded by Christians at the 
present day, as proving the measure of light and knowledge to which the 
ancient Egyptians had attained in their search after truth. 
