On the side of the moral requirement we must not look too closely.  There were powerful words which could compel even the great judges of the dead to return a favorable verdict.  There were magic hearts of stone which might be worn in place of the heart, and, laid in the scales by Anubis, weigh heavier than the truth.  One might by words compel Anubis to accept this stone heart instead of the real heart.

In general, one may say that the hope of immortality had little influence on the moral life of the ordinary Egyptian.  The moral code was simple and sound and not greatly different from other primitive codes,—­forbidding all those things which the body of men regard as unpleasant in others, commanding the plain virtues which were found pleasant in others.  Here, again, I think we may well look to modern Egypt for a picture of ancient Egypt.  We must not exaggerate the influence of the belief in immortality on general morality.  We must not think too well of the life of the people—­nor, on the other hand, too evil.  They had their sins and their virtues.  The common herd was driven by necessity and lived as it could.  They clung to the belief in a life in the grave.  The greater people had leisure to learn and to provide the magic necessary to secure a comfortable future life.  They loved life and hated death.

Thus it was when the priests of the Osiris-Isis religion made their bid to the classical world.  They offered immortality by initiation.  Learn the proper rites, learn the master words, and secure eternal life among the great gods.  It was a religion for the exceptional man down to the last; it required training and knowledge.  Even in its most popular form in the Ptolemaic period, a specially instructed class was required, who sold for money the benefits of their knowledge, and men took rank in their security of future life according to their means.

Not until Christianity came, offering eternal life free and without price, did the common people find at last a road open to equal immortality with the great men of the earth.