this contest, as you know, all that otherwise would be falsehood, treachery, and cunning, puts on the bright aspect of light and truth.  As the physician needs the knife and fire to heal the sick, we must do fearful things to save the community when it is in danger.  Now you will see me fight with every weapon, for if we remain idle, we shall soon cease to be the leaders of the state, and become the slaves of the king.”

Gagabu nodded assent, but Ameni went on with increasing warmth, and in that rhythmical accent in which, when he came out of the holy of holies, he was accustomed to declare the will of the Divinity, “You were my teacher, and I value you, and so you now shall be told everything that stirred my soul, and made me first resolve upon this fearful struggle.  I was, as you know, brought up in this temple with Rameses—­and it was very wise of Seti to let his son grow up here with other boys.  At work and at play the heir to the throne and I won every prize.  He was quite my superior in swift apprehension—­in keen perception—­but I had greater caution, and deeper purpose.  Often he laughed at my laborious efforts, but his brilliant powers appeared to me a vain delusion.  I became one of the initiated, he ruled the state in partnership with his father, and, when Seti died, by himself.  We both grew older, but the foundation of our characters remained the same.  He rushed to splendid victories, overthrew nations, and raised the glory of the Egyptian name to a giddy height, though stained with the blood of his people; I passed my life in industry and labor, in teaching the young, and in guarding the laws which regulate the intercourse of men and bind the people to the Divinity.  I compared the present with the past:  What were the priests?  How had they come to be what they are?  What would Egypt be without them?  There is not an art, not a science, not a faculty that is not thought out, constructed, and practised by us.  We crown the kings, we named the Gods, and taught the people to honor them as divine—­for the crowd needs a hand to lead it, and under which it shall tremble as under the mighty hand of Fate.  We are the willing ministers of the divine representative of Ra on the throne, so long as he rules in accordance with our institutions—­as the One God reigns, subject to eternal laws.  He used to choose his counsellors from among us; we told him what would benefit the country, he heard us willingly, and executed our plans.  The old kings were the hands, but we, the priests, were the head.  And now, my father, what has become of us?  We are made use of to keep the people in the faith, for if they cease to honor the Gods how will they submit to kings?  Seti ventured much, his son risks still more, and therefore both have required much succor from the Immortals.  Rameses is pious, he sacrifices frequently, and loves prayer:  we are necessary to him, to waft incense, to slaughter hecatombs, to offer prayers, and to interpret dreams—­but we are no longer his advisers.  My father, now in Osiris, a worthier high-priest than I, was charged by the Prophets to entreat his father to give up the guilty project of connecting the north sea by a navigable channel with the unclean waters of the Red Sea.