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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    of losing all personality.” On one of the tablets is the following : “ May He (the god) grant thee sacred bread in the dwelling of Ptah-Socharis in the day when thou shalt join thyself to the gods.” Then there is the astronomical view of the question. Some authors have contended that the Egyptian priests, whatever the people supposed, knew there was no immor- tality, and that the allusions to another life were but astro- nomical delusions. De Briere made merry over Champollion’s descriptions of heaven and hell. “ He knows not,” said this critic, “that in the ancient East there was neither reward nor punish- ment after death ; that man was rewarded or punished in this world, either upon himself or his descendants, and al- ways in material interests. He knows not that Egyptian theology gave two souls to man ; one, the intelligent and powerful soul, when going from the body, joins itself to the supreme Intelligence from whom it emanated ; and that the other, the sensitive soul, re-entered by the gate of the gods, or the Capricorn, into the Amenthe, the watery heaven.” But, in spite of the materialistic school, the prevalent belief of European writers is, that the Egyptians did believe in a personal immortality. Hence arose a difficulty, with some theologians, as to the singular silence of Moses upon immortality. Mr. Heath, when noticing the Exodus Papyrus, observes: “ With re- spect to the great subject of man’s futurity, our present views in Europe are identical in principle, though not in detail, with those which were held by the actual opponents of Moses.” This is a harsh way of putting it, as the opposition was on the mere ground of wonder-working. But one Cam- bridge Christian Advocate had this extraordinary apo-