Human Origins

and Polytheism-Egyptian Ideas of Future Life and Judgment-Egyptian Genesis-Divine Emanations-Plurality of Gods and Animal Worship-Sun Wors

onomy and Astrology-Accadian Trinities-Anu, Mull-il, Ea-Twelve great Gods-Bel-Ishtar-M

eir religion had developed into a stage of subtle and profound metaphysical speculations. If this would be true in the hypothetical case of England, it is equally true in the actual case of Egypt. In its sacred book, the Todtenbuch, or Book of the Dead, which we meet with at the earliest periods of Egyptian history, we find conceptions of the Great First Cause of the Universe, which are in many respects i

d early date; and in addition to these, there are ethical treatises, ascribed to kings of the oldest dynasties, as well as works on medicine, geometry, mensuration, and arithmetic. Education was very general, as is proved by the fact that the workmen at the mines of Wady Magarah could scrawl hieroglyphic inscriptions on the walls of their tunnels, and on their blocks of dressed stone. Birch, in his Ancient History of Egypt from the Monuments, which I prefer to quote from as, being published by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, it cannot be suspected of any bias to discredit orthodoxy, says that, "In their moral law the Egyptians followed the same precepts as the Decalogue (ascribed to Moses 2500 years later), and enumerated treason, murder, adultery, theft, and the practice of magic as crimes of

on the soil. There are no traces in the oldest traditions of any foreign importation, such as we find in the early traditions of other countries. There is no fish-man who comes up out of the Persian Gulf and teaches the Chald?ans the first elements of civilization; no

rought up by borings through thick deposits of Nile mud, or the still older pal?olithic savages, whose rude implements were found by General Pitt-Rivers and other explorers in quaternary gravels near Thebes of geolog

f two elements, a body and a spirit, or shadowy self, which wanders forth in sleep, meets with strange adventures, and returns when the body awakes. In the longer sleep of death, this shadowy self becomes a ghost which haunts its old abodes and former associates, mostly with an evil intent, and which has to be deceived or propitiated, to prevent it from doing mischie

es in contact with him, and affects his existence. Animals, and even stocks and stones, are supposed to have souls, and who knows that these may not be the soul

ure for meditation; ideas are transmitted from generation to generation; and the vague and primitive Nature worship passes into the phase of philosophical and scientific religion. The popular rites and superstitions linger on with the mass of the population, but an inner circle of hereditary priests refines and elevates them, and begins to ask for a solution of the great problems of the universe; what it means, and how

ll, foreknowle

like

, in wanderin

orm a calendar, predict the seasons, and regulate the holding of religious rites at the proper times. Hence the course of the heavens was carefully watched, the stars were mapped out into constellations, through which the progress of the sun and planets was recorded; and myths sprang into existence based on the sun's daily rising and setting, and its annual journey through the seasons and the signs of the zodiac. Mixed u

lier times. It was a long road from the jealous and savage local god of the Hebrew tribes, who smelt the sweet savour of burnt sacrifices and was pleased, and who commanded the extermination of enemies, and the slaughter of women and children, to the Supreme Jehovah, who loved justice and mercy better

ht of pure and lofty conception they cease to advance, branch out into fanciful fables accompanied by cruel and immoral rites, and finally

changes, giving

often, for a time, the course of humanity seems to be retrograde. But as the flowing tide rises, though the successive waves on the shore advance and recede, evolutio

ght, became first conservatives, and then obscurantists. Pantheistic conceptions, and personifications of divine attributes, lead to polytheism. As religions become popula

d a national religion which has already passed from the primitive into the metaphysical stage, and which embodies abstract ideas, astronomical observations, and a high and pure code of

their life and conduct. Piety to the gods, loyalty to the throne, obedience to superiors, justice and mercy to inferiors, and observance of all the principal moral laws, and especially that of truthfulness, were enforced by the conviction that no sooner had the breath departed from the body, and it had been deposited as a mummy, with its Ka or second shadowy self, in the tomb, than the soul w

S.-WEIGHING GOOD AND BAD DEED

and much of it was certainly in existence before the time of Menes. We know it from the multiplied copies which were frequently deposited in tombs, and from the innumerable extra

eable in his infinite perfection, present in all time, past and future, everywhere and yet nowhere." But although one in essence, God is not one in person. He exists as Father, but reproduces himself under another aspect as Mother, and under a third as Son. This Trinity is three and yet one, and has a

can be made more comprehensible by personifying his various qualities and manifestations, there is no reason why we should stop at three. If we admit a Trinity of Father, Mother, and Son, why not admit a daughter and other descendants; or if you personify the Power to make a universe, the Knowledge how t

ame to be considered as separate beings; to have a female principle or wives added to them, and to be worshipped as the patron gods of separate temples and provinces. Finally, the pantheistic idea became so prevalent, and that of separate personifications of the Deity was carried so far, that portions of the Divine essence were supposed to be incarnated in the sun and heavenly bodies, in the Pharaoh and his family, and even in bulls, cats, and other sacred animals. In the latter case it may be a questio

had the pre-eminence; the title of Pharaoh, or Pi-ra, was that given to kings, who were assumed to be semi-divine beings descended from the Sun. The Osiris myth which was the basis of the national belief in a future life and day of judgment was clearly solar. Egyptian astronomy, like that of the Chaldees and all early nations, assumed that the sky was a crystal dome or firmament which separated the waters of the upper world from the earth and waters below, and corresponded with a similar nether world of darkness below the earth. The Sun was born or rose into the upper world e

ied astronomy; they had watched the stars, traced the annual course of the sun, divided the year into months and the circle into 360°, and constructed calendars for bringing the civil into correspondence with the sidereal year. They not only had intercalated the five supplemental days, bringing the duration of the year from 360

y in it, only coming out to eat, drink, and repeat the acts of its former life, but incapable of existing without a physical basis in the old body or some likeness of it. The same doctrine of the Double was applied to all animated and even to inanimate objects, so that the shadowy man could come out of his mummy, live in his own shadowy house, feed on shadowy food, be surrounded by shadowy geese, oxen, and other objects of his former possessions. Hence arose the extraordinary care in providing a fitting tomb and preserving the mummy, or, failing the mummy, which in course of time might decay, providing a portrait-statue or painted likeness, which might give a point d'appui for the Ka, and a receptacle for the occasional visits of the soul. While these were preserved, conscious personal life was continued beyond the grave, and the good man who went to heaven was immortal. But if these were destroyed and the physical basis perished, the Ka and soul were left without a home, and either perished also, or were left to flit like g

other tribes of Red Indians have precisely the same belief. It seems probable that as we find it in the earliest Egyptian records, it was a development, evolved through ages of growing civilization by a succession of learned priests, from the primitive fetichism and fear of ghosts of rude ancestors; and in the animal worship and other superstitions of later times we find traces of these primitive beliefs still surviving among the

at an enormous capital must have been expended in pyramids, tombs, and mummies; what a large proportion of his income must every Egyptian of the upper classes ha

r. How many centuries did it take before the crude and ferocious ideas of the Hebrew tribes wandering in the desert or warring with the Canaanites, were transformed into the lofty and humane conceptions of the later prophets, of Hillel and of Jesus! And yet we find all the best maxims of this later morality

d no one to weep; committed no murder; stolen no offerings to the dead; made no fraudulent gains; seized no lands wrongfully; not tampered with weights and measures; not taken the milk from su

ure, I

th of an internal civilization, must be removed by an enormous time from the cannibal fea

f any importation from a foreign source, such as may be seen in the Chald?an legend of Oannes and other religions of antiquity. On the contrary, all

od. The symbols are taken from Egypt and not from foreign objects, and are essentially different from those of the Chald?an cuneiform, which is the only other form of writing which might possibly compare in

y into ideographs and phonetics; but in the case of Egyptian, when we first get sight of it in the earliest dynasties, it is already fully formed, and undergoes no essential ch

influences of Semitic and other foreign conquests and intercourse left few traces, and the only serious attempt at a radical religious revolution by the heretic king who endeavoured to dethrone the old Egyptian gods, and substitute a system more nearly monotheistic under the emblem of the winged solar-disc, produced no permanent effect, and disappeared in one or two generations. But in Chald?a, Semitic influences prevailed from a very early period,

ts, who know magical rites and formulas which can baffle their malevolent designs. These incantations, and the interpretation of omens and auguries, occupy a great part of the oldest sacred books, and more than 100 tablets have been already recovered from the great work on Astronomy and Astrology, compiled from them by the priests of Agade, for the royal library of Sargon I. They are for the most part of the most absurd and puerile character; as,

same as that of Egypt, and of most of the great religions of the East, viz. Pantheism. The great underlying First Cause, or Spirit of the universe, was considered as identical with his manifestations. The subtle metaphysical conceptions which still survive in the Creed of St. Athanasius, were invoked to make the incomprehensible comprehensible, by emanations, incarnations, and personified attributes. The

ng different aspects of natural phenomena, and taken for the most part from astronomical myths of the sun, moon, planets, and seasons. For the religion of the Chaldees was, even more than that of the Egyptians, based on astronomy and astrology, as may be see

rd of the Deep," and personifies the wise and beneficent side of the Divine Intelligence, the maintainer of order and harmony, the friend of man. Very early with the introduction of Semitic influences Mull-il dropped out of his place in the Trinity, and was superseded by Bel, who was conceived as being the son of Ea, the personification of the active and combative energy which carries out the wise designs of Ea by reducing the chaos to order, cre

Nergal, Nebo, Marduk, Ishtar, and Nindar. The number of gods was further increased by introducing the primary polarity of sex, and assigning a wife to each male deity. Thus Belit, or "the Lady," was the wife of Bel, he representing the masculine element of Nature, strength and courage; she the feminine principle of tenderness and maternity. So also Nana the earth was the wife of Anu, the god

while the other deities were local gods attached to separate cities where their temples stood, and where they occupied a position not unlike that of the patron saints and holy relics of which almost every considerable town and cathedral boasted in medi?val Christianity. Thus they rose and fell in rank with the ascendancy or decline of their respective cities, just as Pthah and Ammon did in Egypt according as the seat of empire was at Memphis or Thebes. In one instance only in later times, in Assyria, which had become exclusively Semitic, do we find the idea of one supreme god, who was national and not local, and who overshadowed all other gods, as Jahve in the later days of the Jewish monarchy, and in the conception of the Hebrew prophets, did the gods of the surrounding nations. Assur, the local god of the city of Assur, the first capital of Assyria, became, with the growth of the Assyrian Empire, the one supreme god, in whose name wars were undertaken, cities destroyed, and captives massacred or mutilated. In fact the resemblance is very close between Assur and the ferocious and vindictive Jahve of the Israelites during the rude times of

ents, personifications of Divine attributes, are all there, and also the subtle metaphysical theories by which the human intellect, striving to penetrate the mysteries o

se s

far more deep

is the light

ocean and th

sky, and in t

d a spirit

ngs, all objects

through al

ted in the East through their successors, Brahmanism and Buddhism-the idea of Pantheism, or of an universe which

of personal piety occupying a place which contrasts wonderfully with the childish and superstitious idea of evil spirits, magical spells, and omens. We read in the same collections of tablets, of mares bringing forth dogs and women lions; and psalms, which in their elevation of moral tone and intensity of personal devotion might readily be mistaken for t

wrath, and drink th

ressions are very grea

ath has overwhelmed

. I am silent and in tears, and none takes me by th

] be merciful to me. My Goddess, wh

of the stormy waters take me by the hand; my

lines, to which the priest adds two, supporting his prayer. The whole is in precisely the same style as the similar penitential

supplication thou acceptest. If thou lookest on a man with pity, that man liveth. Ruler of

wroth with him he calls on thee. Thy coun

such sentiments could have grown up from the rude beginnings of savage or semi-civilized superstitions. The two oldest religions of the world, those of Egypt and Chald?a, tell the same story; that of the immense interval which must have elapsed prior to the historical date of 5000 b.c. when wri

tion of the human race from barbarism to civilization, and have appeared in substantially the same forms in so many ages and countries. And surely, in these days, when faith in direct inspiration has been so rudely shaken, it must be consoling to many enlightened Christians to find that the fundamenta

unt is correctly reported, but on the evolution of the natural instincts of the human mind. All advanced and civilized communities have had their Decalogues and Sermons on the Mount, and it is impossible for any dispassionate observer to read them without feeling tha

ance, the virtue of diligence, and the injunction not to be idle, in the Egyptian and Zoroastrian creeds contrast favourably with the "take no thought for the morrow," and "trust to be fed like the sparrows,"

ehood of

he same concrete case of conduct had been submitted to an Egyptian, a Babylonian or Zoroastrian priest, and to the late Bishop of Peterborough, their verdicts would not have been different. Such a wide extension does the maxim take, "One touch of Na