For the eighth god of the first order we may take either Helios or Ra or Phra, the Sun-God; from whence came the name of the Pharaohs, or we may take Pasht, Bubastis, the equivalent of the Greek Diana.  On some accounts it would seem that Ra was the true termination of this cycle.  We should then have, proceeding from the hidden abyss of pure Spirit, first a breathing forth, or spirit in motion; then creation, by the word of truth; then generation, giving life and growth; and then the female qualities of production, wisdom, and light, completed by the Sun-God, last of the series.  Amn, or Ammon, the Concealed God, is the root, then the creative power in Kneph, then the generative power in Khem, the Demiurgic power in Ptah, the feminine creative principle of Nature in Neith, the productive principle in Mut, or perhaps the nourishing principle, and then the living stimulus of growth, which carries all forward in Ra.

But we must now remember that two races meet in Egypt,—­an Asiatic race, which brings the ideas of the East; and an Ethiopian, inhabitants of the land, who were already there.  The first race brought the spiritual ideas which were embodied in the higher order of gods.  The Africans were filled with the instinct of nature-worship.  These two tendencies were to be reconciled in the religion of Egypt.  The first order of gods was for the initiated, and taught them the unity, spirituality, and creative power of God.[190] The third order—­the circle of Isis and Osiris—­were for the people, and were representative of the forms and forces of outward nature.  Between the two come the second series,—­a transition from the one to the other,—­children of the higher gods, parents of the lower,—­neither so abstract as the one nor so concrete as the other,—­representing neither purely divine qualities on the one side, nor merely natural forces on the other, but rather the faculties and powers of man.  Most of this series were therefore adopted by the Greeks, whose religion was one essentially based on human nature, and whose gods were all, or nearly all, the ideal representations of human qualities.  Hence they found in Khunsu, child of Ammon, their Hercules, God of Strength; in Thoth, child of Kneph, they found Hermes, God of Knowledge; in Pecht, child of Pthah, they found their Artemis, or Diana, the Goddess of Birth, protector of women; in Athor, or Hathor, they found their Aphrodite, Goddess of Love.  Seb was Chronos, or Time; and Nutpe was Rhea, wife of Chronos.

The third order of gods are the children of the second series, and are manifestations of the Divine in the outward universe.  But though standing lowest in the scale, they were the most popular gods of the Pantheon; had more individuality and personal character than the others; were more universally worshipped throughout Egypt, and that from the oldest times.  “The Osiris deities,” says Herodotus, “are the only gods worshipped throughout Egypt.”  “They stand on the oldest monuments, are the