CHAPTER VII.

THE FUTURE STATE.

AMONG a certain class of divines it was once a matter of considerable doubt whether the doctrine of the immortality of the soul was known to the patriarchs; or even whether it was at all revealed under the Old Testament dispensation. As for the strong arguments in favour of this truth to be found in the Greek authors, they were inclined to regard them as surmises, not as deductions from any traditive knowledge which might have reached them. The only effective disclosure to man on this momentous point was, according to their doctrine, to be ascribed to the more perfect revelation of Christianity. Such, however, was not the fact. The more accurate knowledge which the researches of the last fifty years in the antiquities of early nations have elicited, corroborates the strong evidence that already existed on this subject. The inhabitants of Egypt were familiar with the doctrine that the soul of man was immortal; and that endless misery awaited the wicked, and eternal rewards the righteous, in a future state. These truths formed an essential part of their religious system in the times of Abraham; and we cannot suppose that he who "was called the friend of God" would be left in greater

ignorance of truths so precious and important than those who had grievously departed from and perverted the doctrine which had been delivered to them.

The system of metaphors, by which the fact of the separate existence of the soul was set forth, was, like every other part of the Egyptian mythology, coarse and earthy, though expressive and significant. The separate spirit was denoted in hieroglyphics by a hawk having a human head.

See Horapollo, i. 7. That such is its meaning the group with which it is always combined shows very evidently. It reads B, which, according to Horapollo in the same passage, is the Egyptian for soul. It is also evident in one of the decorations of the long papyrus, which represents the deceased, for whose benefit it had been transcribed in the article of death. His soul flies away under this form, bearing in its claws the symbols of divine life and transmigration.

Hieroglyphic of the separate spirit.

The long papyrus is a collection of devotional services, written on behalf of the deceased person, and deposited in his tomb. It is entitled, "The Book of manifestations to light."

The prayers of which it consists are intended to benefit the soul of the deceased in the various situations and adventures, both with gods and monsters, through which they supposed it had to pass after death before it reached the invisible world.

These adventures are detailed in the text, and are also graphically depicted in the illuminations which appear in the more carefully written copies. Before describing them, it will be needful to notice another peculiarity of this mythic system. The gross manner in which God and man are confounded in it has already been noticed. With a corresponding coarseness of conception the Egyptians also confused heaven and earth, (or rather Egypt,) and hades.

The heaven described was merely a celestial Egypt, illu

minated by a celestial sun, Har-hat,

by a celestial Nile,

fertilized

Oт Nen-moou, divided

into the same nomes, each of which was the dwelling-place and demesne of the god that was worshipped in the corresponding nome of Egypt. They had also the same notion regarding the place of separate spirits, which they supposed to be towards the west quarter of the world, and on that

account named Amenti,

(from EUENT, west,)

Their hades had also a sun, a Nile, and nomes, the reflections

of those of the material Egypt. So gross was their state of moral darkness that to this extent was every article of their belief sensualized.

The "Book of manifestations" commences with the death of the deceased; and the ceremonies and prayers which accompanied the various processes of embalming and swathing the body, and transporting it to the tomb.

It first represents Osiris, the king of Amenti, surnamed Onnofre, that is, "the revealer of blessings," seated on a throne, in a shrine richly decorated, and receiving the abundant offerings of the deceased and his immediate relatives. This seems to represent an act preparatory to death, and intended to propitiate the stern inexorable judge before whose judgment-seat he who made the offering was shortly to appear. It is the only scene which takes place before the death of the deceased. That event follows immediately; and then a long series of figures and groups depict the solemnities observed at his embalmment and funeral. The body is often accompanied to the grave by a train of females, weeping and lamenting, and by his relatives, attired in mourning habits. The mummy, stretched upon a bier, is placed on a sacred bark; which, in some copies, is rowed along the Nile, in others is drawn on a sledge by four oxen. Another boat follows, drawn or carried by four men, and having in it the funeral urns, (see Chapter v. p. 112,) wherein the viscera of the deceased were embalmed separately. At the head and feet of the deceased stand the sister goddesses, Isis and Nepthys, the daughters of the sun; and, according to Plutarch, the symbols of the two principles which are then contending for the body, Perpetuity and Corruption. The god Anubis, with the head of a dog, takes

Anubis.

possession of the coffin, and Osiris accompanies the procession. It is not very certain whether by these divinities we are to understand the gods themselves, or a mere masquerade of priests, attired with their insignia. The last scene on earth, and of the first part of the ritual, represents the tomb, in which the mummy is deposited after the friends and relatives of the deceased have once more lamented over, and taken their final leave of it. The adventures of the soul commence with the second part. Resuming its earthly form in some transcriptions, in others retaining that of a soul, the disembodied spirit enters the regions beneath the earth, to which, in the popular belief, the tomb is the actual entrance, and is represented making offerings and prayers to the various divinities, sacred animals, and monsters through whose territories in the infernal world it must pass in its progress to the judgment-seat of Osiris, in the palace of Amenti. These divinities differ somewhat in different transcriptions. They were probably the tutelary gods of