319 
developments of his character. Thus, as to his birth, he is 
self-created (cap. i., 1. 51) ; he is an eternal essence (cap. i., 
1. 54) ; he is the supreme power (cap. i., each section) ; he is 
the original (cap. i., 1. 6) ; he creates his own members (cap. i., 
1. 3) ; he is the spirit of space filling all things (cap. i., 1. 38) ; 
he dwells in thick darkness (cap. i., 1. 1)* ; he is the invisible 
(cap. i., 1. 52) ; he is both light and darkness (cap. i., 1. 9) ; 
he is the creator of all souls (cap. i., 1. 7) ; he created 
the heavens and the stars (cap. i., 1. 50, 51) ; he creates the 
gods (cap. i., 1. 56) ; he is the active life of all things (cap. i., 
1. 49); he has no equal to consult with (cap. i., 1. 57) ; he is 
the destroyer of spiritual evil (cap. i., 1. 59) ; he is the creator 
of the earth (cap. i., 1. 66) ; he is the father of the eternal son 
(cap. i,, 1. 19) ; he creates the plants in their seasons (cap. i., 
1. 15) ; he gives breath to all souls (cap. i., 1. 7) ; he is the 
greatest of all creatures (cap. i., 1. 26) ; he rules alike in Heaven 
and Hell (cap. i., 1. 27) ; he is the revealer of secrets (cap. i., 
1. 75) ; he is the cause of all his actions (cap. i., 1. 78) ; he is the 
most mysterious god (cap. i., 1. 79) ; and finally, all the deities 
and all "things that exist, both corporeal and incorporeal, are but 
manifestations of himself. Although considered as one of the 
greater gods only, he was the son of Pthab, the God of Fire; 
vet, in another fire was but a principle which derived existence 
from him. He was both the creator, and the life, of the Cosmos. 
Philosophical errors are of great antiquity, and the heresy of 
modern scientists, who would derive all life from the sun, are 
but a resuscitation of the old Egyptian dogma of Ra whose 
visible emblem was the sun, being the life and light of the world. 
The metaphysical distinction of the middle ages of nominalism 
and realism gave no trouble to the minds of the Pharaohnic 
clergy. They were too wise in their generation to people the 
universe with a multitude of distinct and often antagonistic 
deities, and they had too religious a conception of the fatherhood 
of God to assume, with the more selfish Greek philosophers, that 
the Supreme Being, having called the spheres into existence, 
left them to the irrevocable operation of immutable natural 
laws; who regarded neither men nor angels alike, but, calm, 
untroubled, and impassive, surveyed the whole of creation 
with apathy and contempt. Equally removed also were their 
religious ideas from those of the ancient Chaldeans, who 
filled the earth and heavens with innumerable spiritual beings, 
* Cf. 1 Kings viii. 12. 
