Egyptian belief and modern thought / by James Bonwick.

  • James Bonwick
Date:
1878
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Egyptian belief and modern thought / by James Bonwick. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    thrust into the well of the sphinx temple, one of these disturbing agencies was doubtless at work. Another con- vulsion took place at the close of the thirteenth dynasty. The irruption of the Hycsos, or Shepherd Kings, form- ing the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth dynasties, was another serious intemiption. The Sun Disk worship was an important revolution under part of the eighteenth dynasty, as it was a royal attack upon the gods and images of Egypt. Other changes came in the twenty- second dynasty. A dreary, dreamy pantheism ultimately followed, dulling the national conscience, enfeebling the national character, and preparing the grave of national glory. What the religion was during the Pyramid days, B.C. 4000, may be ascertained in this work ; but the anxious enquiry of many will be,—how came that development of opinion } Some seek an explanation from the Vedas of India. But the Bible of Egypt, the Ritual of the Dead, is, in part at least, a couple of thousand years older. Yet both imply a long period of anterior development. One school of thought is satisfied with the doctrine of Degradation ; that is, a primitive revelation, and a subsequent departure from light. The Progressionists, on the contrary, trace religion from the dim dawn of human intelligence. Both Vedas and Ritual declare themselves inspired by the gods. One writer says,— “ When a voice entered into me, I gave it birth.” Religious difficulties led the Roman Catholic Dr. New- man to affirm, “To act you must assume, and that assump- tion is faith.” But, as Leslie Stephen adds, “To assume the doctrine may be the best or only way of testing its truth. But, while this is perfectly true of belief, it is not