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what a, re the ideas of the soul ; whether immortality was regarded as more or 
less involving a personal existence ? 
Mr. Cooper.— First of all, the Supreme Deity of the Egyptians was 
Ammon-Ea, the spiritual author of all existence, physical, moral, and every- 
thing else. But that was too abstract an idea for the people to grasp, 
especially those of Lower Egypt. Therefore the priests typified all the 
attributes of deity, and thus came near to the Persian system ; but for all 
this they never lost sight of one Supreme Being, while the people invariably 
did, and that is the great distinction between them. As would naturally 
follow from such a system, they were not distinct about their deities ; one 
man would worship a god under the form of Sate, while another would 
worship the same god under the name of Isis, and another under that of 
Nepthys. They had triads of gods, — a male, female, and a child ; but they 
were not all the same triads, though all were more or less symbolized or 
crowned by serpents. All the goddesses were serpents ; there is no evidence 
to suppose that the Supreme Being was ever lost sight of by those who knew 
the esoteric meaning of the Egyptian faith. As to the soul, it was a distinct 
personality, separate from the body, emanating from the Supreme Being ; it 
had to answer for its misdoings, and if, at the death of the body, it was not 
good enough, it had to come back to earth to be purged. But if it were good, 
it would go in a condition of extreme happiness into the presence of 
Cod, and assume the character of one or other of the inferior divinities for 
an ceon ; but then it would come back to earth, lose all its consciousness of 
existence, and become the soul of somebody else. But it could not inhabit 
any other body without the permission of the Supreme Being, and if it 
found its original body all crumbled to pieces, or if another spirit had by 
some evil means possessed it, the unhappy soul would have to float about like 
the disembodied ghosts in Yirgil. For this reason people were very anxious 
for the preservation of their bodies after death. But it was believed that in 
some rare instances, where the _ original body was completely destroyed, 
the Supreme Being gave the soul permission to inhabit some other body. 
In the time of the Ptolemies it was thought to be possible that the soul and 
body might mistake each other at the resurrection to life, and hence arises 
much of the beautiful Platonic* myths of Eros and Psyche. The resurrection 
of all men was not held by them as by us : they believed that all men would 
be judged, but not all at the same time. 
Mr. Row.— How far is the pantheon of Egypt allied to the pantheon of 
India ? 
Mr. Cooper. — At present nobody can definitely tell us that. We have 
some material as to the ancient religion of hither India in the pre- 
Bhuddist period, and there is a great similarity between that and the 
Egyptian, but we cannot dogmatize on the subject. The Egyptian my- 
thology was perfect ' at least 4,000 years before Christ, and all we can say 
is that everything in the Indian mythology meets its analogue in the Egyptian 
mythology. When the Semitic people came across with Rameses from India 
