passage which refers to the place in the eastern part of heaven “where the gods give birth unto themselves, where that to which they give birth is born, and where they renew their youth,” it is said of this king, “Teta standeth up in the form of the star...he weigheth words (or trieth deeds), and behold God hearkeneth unto that which he saith.”  Elsewhere [Footnote:  Ed. Maspero, Pyramides da Saqqarah, p. 111.] in the same text we read, “Behold, Teta hath arrived in the height of heaven, and the henmemet beings have seen him; the Semketet [Footnote:  The morning boat of the sun.] boat knoweth him, and it is Teta who saileth it, and the M[=a]ntchet [Footnote:  The evening boat of the sun.] boat calleth unto him, and it is Teta who bringeth it to a standstill.  Teta hath seen his body in the Semketet boat, he knoweth the uraeus which is in the M[=a]ntchet boat, and God hath called him in his name...and hath taken him in to R[=a].”  And again [Footnote:  Ibid., p. 150.] we have:  “Thou hast received the form (or attribute) of God, and thou hast become great therewith before the gods”; and of Pepi I., who reigned about B.C. 3000, it is said, “This Pepi is God, the son of God.” [Footnote:  Ibid., p. 222.] Now in these passages the allusion is to the supreme Being in the next world, the Being who has the power to invoke and to obtain a favourable reception for the deceased king by R[=a], the Sun-god, the type and symbol of God.  It may, of course, be urged that the word neter here refers to Osiris, but it is not customary to speak of this god in such a way in the texts; and even if we admit that it does, it only shows that the powers of God have been attributed to Osiris, and that he was believed to occupy the position in respect of R[=a] and the deceased which the supreme Being himself occupied.  In the last two extracts given above we might read “a god” instead of “God,” but there is no object in the king receiving the form or attribute of a nameless god; and unless Pepi becomes the son of God; the honour which the writer of that text intends to ascribe to the king becomes little and even ridiculous.

Passing from religious texts to works containing moral precepts, we find much light thrown upon the idea of God by the writings of the early sages of Egypt.  First and foremost among these are the “Precepts of Kaqemna” and the “Precepts of Ptah-hetep,” works which were composed as far back as B.C. 3000.  The oldest copy of them which we possess is, unfortunately, not older than B.C. 2500, but this fact in no way affects our argument.  These “precepts” are intended to form a work of direction and guidance for a young man in the performance of his duty towards the society in which he lived and towards his God.  It is only fair to say that the reader will look in vain in them for the advice which is found in writings of a similar character composed at a later period; but as a work intended to demonstrate the “whole duty of man” to the youth of the time when the Great Pyramid was still a new building, these “precepts” are very remarkable.  The idea of God held by Ptah-hetep is illustrated by the following passages:—­