373 
^. ie ^oyP.^ an Philosophy Horus symbolizes the existence 
Winch is to begin again, the new life, that which will be to-morrow 
?! V' UVe f a " d thus becomes the type of the succeeding King— as 
the deadSo-^ 8 ^ typG ° f the rei § nin S Kin ^ aad Osiris of 
If any one wishes to know what this pretty and poetical 
lehgion did for Egypt, let them read the 2nd Book of Herodotus 
and they will not wish me to present a translation : or let them 
learn what effect kindred rites have among the Nature-wor- 
s lipping natives of India but as to any conceivable connection 
with Christianity, I must say the notion fills me with wonder ! 
And yet there are not wanting verbal resemblances which may 
be insisted on by those to whom the utter contrast of the things 
themselves is objectionable; since the Messiah is prophesied of 
by Jeremiah, and again by Zechariah, as the Man whose name 
is the branch or equally the Sun-rising ; and if Horus Nets be 
spoken of it might be looked upon as a striking coincidence 
that the Christ should thus be foretold, and that He should 
glow up at Nazareth and be called a Nazarene ! But the words 
are quite different. 
State of Morality. 
In lefeience to their state of morality it is not my intention 
to say much. It is now, however, generallv understood that 
they had a very high code of morality, and very refined ideas 
of what was becoming in different relationships of life, and this 
co-existing with the exact reverse too often exhibited in prac- 
tice. Their religion tended directly and only to their debase- 
ment ; and the license of their festivals, as depicted by 
Heiodotus, was certainly somewhat in excess of what is stiil 
prevalent in Christendom. On the other hand we find, in the 
page of Scripture, the recoi’d of a greater regard to moral rec- 
titude in Pharaoh than seems to have at that period guided the 
conduct of the Father of the Faithful. Egypt was from the 
beginning a country of internal oppression. The lower class 
were ruled by the stick* {pat) ; and whilst there seem to have 
been good and beneficent rulers, there were also despots of the 
first water. Their pride seems, as we find in Scripture, to have 
been their ruin. Every Pharaoh was a Horus : a rising sun — 
“ I n those remote ages the idea of government was indissolubly linked 
with that of coercion by personal chastisement.” (Osburn, Mon. Hist, of 
Mpjpt, vol. i. p. 246.) It was not the pat of a lady’s fan, but the terrible 
-araocw of the Greeks that was in question. 
2 
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