FROM WHICH EXTRACTS HAVE BEEN MADE.

For accurate references see Notes, pp. 685-715.

THOUGHTS AND ASPIRATIONS OF THE AGES.

RELIGION OF EGYPT.

I.

THE JUDGMENT AFTER DEATH.

The Chapter of the entering into the HALL of TRUTH and of the separating of the man from his sins in order that he may behold the face of the Gods.

HOMAGE to you, Masters of Truth, homage to thee, great God, Master of Truth.

I have come to thee, my Lord, I present myself to contemplate thy splendour.

I know thee, I know thy name, I know the name of those forty-two Gods who are with thee in the Hall of Truth, warders of sinners, nourishing themselves with their blood till the day of the great account before Him who is the Good.

( twofold soul, whose name is Mistress of Verity! O Masters of Truth! ye know that I bring you the truth, and harbour no ill.

I have never perfidiously done evil to any man. I have not rendered my neighbour miserable. I have not committed villainies in the dwelling of truth. I have had no acquaintance with evil. I have not done evil. I have not overtasked the labourer, though I have ascended the bark of lordship, and have attained to dignities, to affluence, and command.

Through my deed no one has been made fearful, or poor, or suffering, or wretched. I have not done what the Gods detest. I have not allowed the slave to be maltreated by his master. I have not made him be a-hungry. I have not caused him to weep. I have not murdered. I have not given orders to slay treacherously. I have uttered falsehood to no man. I have not stripped the temples of their stores. I have not diminished the substance consecrated to the Gods. I have not carried off the cakes and the bandages of mummies. I have not committed fornication. I have not

committed an act of shame with a priest of my parish. I have not over-priced or diminished the supplies. I have not exerted pressure on the weights of the balance. I have not cheated in respect of the weights themselves of the balance. I have not removed the milk from the mouth of the nursling. I have not laid violent hands on the cattle in their pastures. I have not ensnared the birds of the Gods. I have not angled for fish no longer living.

I have not driven back the water at the time of its rising. I have not turned aside a watercourse. I have not extinguished the flame at its hour. I have not driven away the beasts of divine ownership. I have not opposed an obstacle to a God in his exodus. I am pure, pure, pure. I am pure with the purity of the great Phoenix that is at Heracleopolis, for I am the nostril of the Master of the Winds, who gives life to intelligences on the day of account of the great Judgment in An,* the 30th of the second month of the season of sowing, in presence of the Lord of the Earth.

I see that I have passed the judgment in An. No ill will be alleged against me in this land of truth, since I know the names of those Gods who are with Thee in the Hall of Truth. Therefore, Ideliver me from them.

THE PSYCHOSTASY.

At the entrance of the Hall the defunct is introduced by Truth. He saith: I present myself before this lord of Eternity. There is no evil in me. Nobody accuses me, being guiltless. What I have done, men proclaim it, the Gods rejoice thereat. Hail to Thee, Dweller in Amenti, God who art the Lord, lord of Abydos! Grant me to traverse the way of shades, that I may join thy servants in the Twilight realm, that I may enter through the sacred portal into the Hall of Truth and pass into Ammah, where the divine alone has

entrance.

Truth, regent of Amenti, grant that the personality of the deceased. be in his dwelling, and re-enter the abode of eternity.

Thereupon Horus and Anubis proceed to the weighing in a balance of the man's heart which must precisely counter-weigh the image of Truth. Anubis announces that:

The heart is in equilibrium, and the required condition is satisfied.

Then Thoth, lord of Heracleopolis, lord of the divine words, great God dwelling at Hesert, registers this sentence, and adds:

Let the heart be replaced in the person of this present Osiris.

* Heliopolis.

Who manifesteth thyself over this land,
and comest to give life to Egypt!

Mysterious is thy issuing forth from the darkness,
on this day whereon it is celebrated!
Watering the orchards created by Ra

to cause all the cattle to live,

thou givest the earth to drink, inexhaustible one!

Path that descendest from the sky,

loving the bread of Seb and the first fruits of Nepera, thou causest the workshops of Ptah to prosper!

2.

Lord of the fish, during the inundation,

no bird alights on the crops.

Thou createst the corn, thou bringest forth the barley,

assuring perpetuity to the temples.

If thou ceasest thy toil and thy work,

then all that exists is in anguish.

If the gods suffer in heaven

then the faces of men waste away.

3.

Then he torments the flocks of Egypt,

and great and small are in agony.

But all is changed for mankind when he comes;

he is endowed with the qualities of Num.