The Egyptian Book Of The Dead.

alike come from the same source , and thus the moral value of good is greatly weakened ; in the Litany moral responsibility disappears . This doctrine does not admit of personality ; there is nothing in which Ra is not . The local divinities vanish . Man , his creation and his destiny , never once appear . It is strange that with such liberty of speculation the doctrine should be conveyed in the stiff hieratic form of Egyptian teaching ; but this was inevitable in every

expression of this strange nation . These general conclusions are supported by the theory which is developed in the text . Ra is the universe . From all eternity he abides in a sphere . He is double , and has a double sphere , for he must develope himself . He produces or creates seventy-five forms , each with its sphere . Essences arise and creation proceeds . The universal being who rested in darkness produces the elements

of the universe b y perpetual reproduction . Yet the earth is also his manifestation , and thus is eternal , and is not material . By the voice of Ra , creation is animated , bodies are endowed with life . All that opposes creative energy is evil , and hence a perpetual combat in which Ra is ever victorious , yet evil is his work , for he is the universal source , and thus he is even called in one manifestation "the impure . " Yet there is a trace of the contrast of moral good and evil

left in the story of the war of Raand his enemies , the meaning of which could not be reasoned away . By this theory the inliarmonious elements of the Egyptian religion are reconciled . The low nature worship is explained by the sacredness of all created things ; the hig h nature worship of the astronomical cycle of gods is necessary . In fact , it is the absolute contact of the Litany of Ra with these last divinities , who are at the same time the chief Egyptian objects of reverence , wliich made it acceptable to the native priesthood .

The mythological link with the Book of the Dead is clear enough in the importance of Ra and the mention of the double sphere , but the theory of good and evil marks a new departure , and unless the two systems were kept apart , one reserved for the king and it may be a few of the higher priests , the other for the people , a conflict must have inevitably arisen . Yet the doctrine supposed to be the older , maintained itself b y the side of the pantheistic system in

its very sanctuaries , for in one of the Tombs of the Kings a whole side of the chief hall bears the famous negative confession of the Book of the Dead . The ethical link is the conflict of Ra and his opponents , which could not wholly lose its moral significance . This shows how careful we should be to avoid sweeping generalizations in dealing with the delicate changeful subject of Egyptian religious thought , especially when philosophy and morals are in conflict . 7

Historically , the Litany of Ra has an immense value . from its middle place between the Book of the Dead and the so-called Neo-Platonism of Alexandria . In its idea of divine speech as creative power there is a positive advance in this direction . Its comparative value is not less . We are the farthest here from the idea of personality . The Book of tho Dead , while denying the personality of the First Cause , admits that of its divine

creations ; but the Litany of Ra , by the diffusion of the First Cause , loses all possible personalit y in an all-pervading soul . Thus in these different phases of Egyptian monotheism we observe the absence of the idea of a personal God . They are the efforts of philosophers to see unity in place of the confused plurality of the Pantheon , and they have the abstract character of all such attempts or rather protests .

We thus gain from Mr . Poole ' s abridged lecture the fact of an " initiatory process and reception , " and this is a very important point to note and remember , especially at this critical period of Masonic investigation . For in any history of Masonry we cannot afford to forget the reality of initiation into the mysteries as probably the means of the preservation of any " truth in the world , and as the remains , though overawed by the accretion or corruption of primaeval religion . In the Stile of Tritsen , who was a great artist , probably a writer on