372 
supposed that some danger might arise to Christian truth from 
I know not what misinterpretation of the whole matter. 
I have already touched upon the solar aspect of the story of 
Horus ; that is to say, of the Good one suffering for a season 
under the power of the Evil one, and in the end, overcoming all 
his enemies. 
I suppose that this primitive portion of Divinely communicated 
knowledge is to be found in Genesis iii. 15 : “ it shall bruise 
thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.” 
This thought is embodied in various aspects in the above 
myths, as well as in other legends of the early world. 
The Horus Khem Myth seems quite an illustration of this. 
We have Osiris and Isis as the Nile and Egypt, and the notion 
seems very pretty and poetical. 
An eyewitness * says, “ Perhaps there is not in Nature a more 
exhilarating sight, or one more strongly exciting to confidence 
in God, than the rise of the Nile. Day by day and night by 
night, its turbid tide sweeps onward majestically over the parched 
sands of the waste howling wilderness. There are few impressions 
I ever received, upon the remembrance of which I dwell with 
more pleasure, than that of seeing the first burst of the Nile 
into one of the great channels of the annual overflow. All 
Nature shouts for joy ! The men, the children, the buffaloes 
gambol in its refreshing waters ; the broad waves sparkle with 
shoals of fish, and fowl of every wing flutter over them in 
clouds. Nor is this jubilee of Nature confined to the higher 
orders of creation. The moment the sand becomes moistened 
by the approach of the fertilizing waters, it is literally alive with 
insects innumerable. It is impossible to stand by the side of 
one of these noble streams, to see it every moment sweeping 
away some obstruction to its majestic course, and widening as it 
flows, without feeling the heart expand with love and joy, 
and confidence in the great Author of this annual miracle of 
mercy.” 
Now Horus Khem must surely have been the beautiful spring 
of vegetation arising from the bosom of Isis, or the earth after 
the withdrawal of the Nile, or the Osirian fertilizer of Egypt. 
“ Khem symbolise la vegetation en memo temps que la gene- 
ration, car les plantes elancees sont toujours figurees derriere 
lui. Une fete .... par laquclle on semblc avoir celebre les 
hienfaits de la germination, etait en Phonneur du Dieu.” Ilis 
t/reen dress is said to be symbolical of resurrection. 
* Osburn, Mon. Hut., vol. i. p. 13. 
