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.

    48/474 (page 34)
    time, heard something in Egypt, but never told it What was the difference between them ? Pythagoras came as a philosopher to learn, submitted to many years’ trial of character, passed through painful tests, and got admission to the mysteries ; but, of course, he told nothing. Herod- otus came as a traveller, hunting up news for a book. Would that order of priests who knew the secret be likely to open their hearts to such a chatterer ? Would the in- formation he got from inferior sources be reliable ? What he heard and told was this : The soul when it left the body had to pass through a series of transformations, or transmigrations, during a cycle of three thousand years. It might go into the body of an ass to be thrashed and starved, or into a dog to be kicked. At the end of the time the soul would be re-united to the body, and be, as story books say, happy ever afterwards. The Egyptians, therefore, said Herodotus, like prudent men, resolved not to let the soul loose, to wander at sweet will into ass or dog, but tied it down hard and fast by the preservation of the body for the three thousand years. That is the tale that satisfied Herodotus, and had to satisfy us until of late. It was a strong motive, strong enough, perhaps, to get an easygoing race to make mum- mies. But’did the Greek get the truth .? Was that really the story given out by the priests } An examination of the Scriptures of the Egyptians,—known and read by the people, cited on public monuments, and stamped upon their seals, as well as engraven upon funeral tablets,—will not warrant any such conclusion. Some of their holy writings were in existence, perhaps, 2,500 years before the days of Moses ; but they throw no decided light upon the question. What they tell will be read elsewhere in the present volume, and the reader can form his own judg- ment.