[190] “There is a profound consolation hidden in the old Egyptian inscribed rocks.  They show us that the weird figures, half man and half beast, which we find carved and painted there, were not the true gods of Egypt, but politico-religious masks, concealing the true godhead.  These rocks teach that the real object of worship was the one undivided Being, existing from the Beginning, Creator of all things, revealing himself to the illuminated soul as the Mosaic “I AM THE I AM.”  It is true that this pure doctrine was taught only to the initiated, and the stones forbid it to be published.  ’This is a hidden mystery; tell it to no one; let it be seen by no eye, heard by no ear:  only thou and thy teacher shall possess this knowledge.’” Brugsch, Aus dem Orient, p. 69.

May not one reason for concealing this doctrine of the unity and spirituality of God have been the stress of the African mind to variety and bodily form?  The priests feared to encounter this great current of sentiment in the people, and so outwardly conformed to it.

[191] So says Wilkinson.

[192] The finger on the mouth symbolizes, not silence, but childhood.

[193] The name “Mut” was also given to Neith, Pacht, and Isis.

[194] Brugsch, Aus dem Orient, p. 48.

[195] See Merivale, Conversion of the Northern Nations, p. 187, note, where he gives examples of “the inveterate lingering of Pagan usages among the nominally converted.”  But many of these were sanctioned by the Catholic Church.

[196] Kenrick, I. 372 (American edition).

[197] See for proofs, Egyptian Mythology and Egyptian Christianity, by Samuel Sharpe, 1863.

[198] Sharpe, Egyptian Mythology and Egyptian Christianity.

[199] Sharpe, as above.

[200] The earliest form of the Christian doctrine of the atonement was that the Devil killed Jesus in ignorance of his divine nature.  The Devil was thus deceived into doing what he had no right to do, consequently he was obliged to pay for this by giving up the souls of sinners to which he had a right.  The Osiris myth of the death of a god, which deeply colored the mysteries of Adonis and Eleusis, took its last form im this peculiar doctrine of atonement.

[201] Hase, Kirchengeschichte, Sec. 87.

[202] Which continues in Christianity, in spite of Paul’s plain statement, “Thou sowest not the body which shall be.”

[203] Serapis was not a god of the Pharaonic times, but came into Egypt under the Ptolemies.  But lately M. Mariette has shown that Serapis was the dead bull Apis = Osiris-Apis. ([Greek:  Osorapis].)

[204] Mr. Grote (Vol.  II. p. 222, American edition) refers to Strabo’s remark on the great superiority of Europe over Asia and Africa in regard to the intersection and interpenetration of the land by the sea.  He also quotes Cicero, who says that all Greece is in close contact to the sea, and only two or three tribes separated from it, while the Greek islands swim among the waves with their customs and institutions.  He says that the ancients remarked the greater activity, mutability, and variety in the life of maritime nations.