from one, with different gradations to the many, which are 
again held to be under the supreme government of the One.”* 
4. Diodorus Siculus, a Greek historian of the first century 
B.C., describes the current Egyptian cosmogony of his own day 
as follows : — “ The Egyptians suppose that at the original con- 
stitution of all things, heaven and earth possessed one uniform 
appearance, their respective natures being mixed up together. 
But after this, the material substances separating from each 
other, the earth took the entire constitution which it now has, 
and the air acquired the art of perpetual motion. In conse- 
quence of the heat acting upon this earth, it gradually received 
consolidation ; and, subsequently, fermentation taking place 
on the surface, in consequence of the heat, some of the moist 
matter swelled up into bubbles in many places; and these 
moist spots became, by means of the heat, impregnated with 
animal life. At last these embryos, having acquired their full 
growth, and the membranes which enveloped them having 
burst, all the various forms were produced. Those which had 
partaken of the greatest heat soared away to the higher regions 
and became birds; those which retained the earthly constitutions 
were reckoned the occupants of earth; those which had gotten 
the greater abundance of moist nature fell into the sea and 
became nsH.” f 
5. The monuments of Egypt afford some indication of the 
cosmological notions entertained by the Egyptians towards the 
close of their history. Thus, on a monument of the time of 
Apries, of the 26th dynasty, the Pharaoh-hophra of Jeremiah 
(xliv. 30), who reigned B.C. 570, Khnum is said to be the 
begetter of gods, and the creator of men. In a later monu- 
ment he is described as -the great Potter, father of fathers, of 
gods and goddesses, the self- existent maker of heaven and 
earth, the firmament, the waters, and the hills. J And in 
the mystic chamber of the Temple of Philae, which belongs to 
the Ptolemaic epoch, there is to be seen a representation of 
the god Khnum turning a potter’s wheel, moulding the mortal 
* Jamblicus, sect. viii. c. 2, § 3. 
f Diodorus Siculus, lib. i. c. 7.- — Diodorus is said to have taken thirty 
years in epitomizing all the known libraries of Asia and Europe in order 
to produce the forty entire books of his own history. But he appears to have 
made a curious jumble, according to Justin Martyr, respecting the Egyptian 
lawgivers, mistaking Menes for Moses, and making the following anachro- 
nism in the order of the Egyptian lawgivers. Sesonchosis, a king of the 12th 
dynasty, who reigned circa 2000 B.C., is succeeded by Bocchoris, of the 24th 
dynasty, who in his turn is succeeded by Amasis, of the 18th dynasty, and 
the same who is mentioned in Scripture as the new “ king over Egypt which 
knew not Joseph.” See Justin’s Hortatory Address to the Greets, c. ix. 
J Eosellini, Mi E., clxix. 
