294 
in the Old and New Testaments. We have here a strong protest against 
believing that the Egyptian religion is one of a number of religions of which 
Christianity and Judaism are others, and that all are to be put on the same 
level. 
The following paper was then read by the Rev. Mr. Gorman, the author 
being unavoidably absent 
THE MYTH OF RA (the Supreme Sun-God of Egypt), with 
copious Citations from the Solar and Pantheistic Litanies 
By W. R. Cooper, F.R.A.S., M.R.A.S., Sec. Soc. Bib. 
Archaeology. 
O f M em0St cert r resultsfrom the present advances 
W of the science of comparative mythology is the dis- 
covery of peculiar points of contact, of parallels and analogies 
m the earlier forms of all the religions of the world. Starting 
as we are naturally willing as Christians to believe they did' 
rom a basis of primeval revelation, these verv soon diverged 
from the simplicity of a faith which rested on the Divine Word 
alone and originated a theology dependent upon second causes 
and sustained by a philosophical theory, in which hypothesis 
upon hypothesis took the place of reason and induction In 
icology, quite as much so as in every science, the tendency of 
the human mind is to exalt subordinate corollaries into ‘the 
causes °f demonst , rated first principles, to substitute second 
causes for original motors, and to rest satisfied with so doin- 
or, it at last any obvious inconsistencies arose from this process' 
then by a remarkable system of inverted argument to merge both 
pnmai y and secondary causes into one, with still a preference to 
the latter as the more manifest evidence or indication of the 
» ™l h r US ‘hat. Sabaism was perverted ou? of and 
took the place of Monotheism, that Anthropomorphism led to 
Polytheism, and that both in turn by gradual descent became lost 
in Pantheism, which when mingled with philosophy by which its 
mferences were found fallacious and its dogmas u, tenable, caused 
faith to decay away at last into Atheism and Nihilism. The his 
tory of religions proves to us that nearly all existing faiths, and 
