heir theogonies, and however degraded the forms of
worship assumed,--of men, or animals, or plants,--it was heat or light
(the sun as the visible promoter of blessings) which was regarded as the
_animus mundi_, to be worshipped as the highest manifestation of divine
power and goodness. The sun, among all the ancient polytheists, was
worshipped under various names, and was one of the supremest deities.
The priestly city of On, a sort of university town, was consecrated to
the worship of Ra, the sun. Baal was the sun-god among the polytheistic
Canaanites, as Bel was among the Assyrians.

The Egyptian Pantheon, except perhaps that of Rome, was the most
extensive among the ancient nations, and the most degraded, although
that people were the most religious as well as superstitious of ancient
pagans. The worship of the Deity, in some form, was as devout as it was
universal, however degrading were the rites; and no expense was spared
in sacrifices to propitiate the favor of the peculiar deity who presided
over each of the various cities, for almost every city had a different
deity. Notwithstanding the degrading fetichism--the lowest kind of
Nature-worship, including the worship of animals--which formed the basis
of the Egyptian religion, there were traces in it of pure monotheism, as
in that of Babylonia and of ancient India. The distinguishing
peculiarity of the Egyptian religion was the adoration of sacred
animals as emblems of the gods, the chief of which were the bull, the
cat, and the beetle.

The gods of the Egyptian Pantheon were almost innumerable, since they
represented every form and power of Nature, and all the passions which
move the human soul; but the most remarkable of the popular deities was
Osiris, who was regarded as the personification of good. Isis, the
consort of Osiris, who with him presided at the judgment of the dead,
was scarcely less venerated. Set, or Typhon, the brother of Osiris, was
the personification of evil. Between Osiris and Set, therefore, was
perpetual antagonism. This belief, divested of names and titles and
technicalities and fables, seems to have resembled, in this respect, the
religion of the Persians,--the eternal conflict between good and evil.
The esoteric doctrines of the priests initiated into the higher
mysteries probably were the primeval truths, too abstract for the
ignorant and sensual people to comprehend, and which were represented to
them in visible forms that appealed to