the “Lords of Truth” and judges of the dead.  Anubis, “the director of the weight,” brought forth a pair of scales, and, placing in one scale a figure or emblem of Truth, set in the other a vase containing the good actions of the deceased; Thoth standing by the while, with a tablet in his hand, whereon to record the result.  According to the side on which the balance inclined, Osiris, the president, delivered sentence.  If the good deeds preponderated, the blessed soul was allowed to enter the “boat of the Sun,” and was led by good spirits to Aahlu (Elysium), to the “pools of peace” and the dwelling-place of Osiris.  If, on the contrary, the good deeds were insufficient, if the ordeal was not passed, then the unhappy soul was sentenced, according to its deserts, to begin a round of transmigrations into the bodies of more or less unclean animals, the number, nature, and duration of the transmigrations depending on the degree of the deceased’s demerits, and the consequent length and severity of the punishment which he deserved or the purification which he needed.  Ultimately, if after many trials purity was not attained, then the wicked and incurable soul underwent a final sentence at the hands of Osiris, Judge of the Dead, and being condemned to annihilation, was destroyed upon the steps of heaven by Shu, the Lord of Light.  The good soul, having first been completely cleansed of its impurities by passing through the basin of purgatorial fire guarded by the four ape-faced genii, was made the companion of Osiris for a period of three thousand years; after which it returned from Amenti, re-entered its former body, and lived once more a human life upon the earth.  The process was repeated till a mystic number of years had gone by, when, finally, the blessed attained the crowning joy of union with God, being absorbed into the Divine Essence, from which they had emanated, and thus attaining the true end and full perfection of their being.

Such a belief as this, if earnest and thorough, should be productive of a high standard of moral action; and undoubtedly the Egyptians had a code of morality that will compare favourably with that of most ancient nations.  It has been said to have contained “three cardinal requirements—­love of God, love of virtue, and love of man.”  The hymns sufficiently indicate the first; the second may be allowed, if by “virtue” we understand justice and truth; the third is testified by the constant claim of men, in their epitaphs, to have been benefactors of their species.  “I was not an idler,” says one; “I was no listener to the counsels of sloth; my name was not heard in the place of reproof ... all men respected me; I gave water to the thirsty; I set the wanderer on his path; I took away the oppressor, and put a stop to violence.”  “I myself was just and true,” writes another:  “without malice, having put God in my heart, and being quick to discern His will.  I have done good upon earth; I have harboured no prejudice; I have not been wicked;