h of the
fields of Ialu--The judgment of the soul, the negative confession--The
privileges and duties of Osirian souls--Confusion between Osirian and
Solar ideas as to the state of the dead: the dead in the hark of the
Sun--The going forth by day--The campaigns of Harmakhis against Sit.

Thot, the inventor: he reveals all sciences to men--Astronomy, stellar
tables; the year, its subdivisions, its defects, influence of
the heavenly bodies and the days upon human destiny--Magic arts;
incantations, amulets---Medicine: the vitalizing spirits, diagnosis,
treatment--Writing: ideographic, syllabic, alphabetic.

The history of Egypt as handed down by tradition: Manetho, the royal
lists, main divisions of Egyptian history--The beginnings of its early
history vague and uncertain: Menes, and the legend of Memphis--The first
three human dynasties, the two Thimie and the Memphite--Character and,
origin of the legends concerning them--The famine stela--The earliest
monuments: the step pyramid of Saqgdrah._

[Illustration: 221.jpg PAGE IMAGE]

THE LEGENDARY HISTORY OF EGYPT

_The divine dynasties: Ra, Shu, Osiris, Sit, Horus--Thot, and the
invention of sciences and writing--Menes, and the three first human
dynasties._

The building up and diffusion of the doctrine of the Ennead, like the
formation of the land of Egypt, demanded centuries of sustained effort,
centuries of which the inhabitants themselves knew neither the number
nor the authentic history. When questioned as to the remote past of
their race, they proclaimed themselves the most ancient of mankind, in
comparison with whom all other races were but a mob of young children;
and they looked upon nations which denied their pretensions with such
indulgence and pity as we feel for those who doubt a well-known truth.
Their forefathers had appeared upon the banks of the Nile even before
the creator had completed his work, so eager were the gods to behold
their birth. No Egyptian disputed the reality of this right of the
firstborn, which ennobled the whole race; but if they were asked the
name of their divine father, then the harmony was broken, and each
advanced the claims of a different personage.[*] Phtah had modelled man
with his own hands;[**] Khnumu had formed him on a potter's table.[***]

* We know the words which Plato puts into the mouth of an
Egyptian priest: "O Solon, Solon, you Greeks are always
children, and there is no old man who is a Greek