forget its form. So, as time went
on, the use of magic words became of greater and greater
importance, until, to modern eyes, it seemed to overshadow all
else in the Egyptian conception of life after death.

As a part of the magical provisions of the dead, the Osiris myth,
probably built up in explanation of old rites, was drawn into the
belief in a future life, and apparently at the beginning _solely
for the benefit of the king_, for the benefit of those who
claimed a certain divinity on earth. The earth-god Osiris, god of
the living, had died and had been brought to life as god of the
dead. So, also, the earth-king, the Horus, the son of Ra, must
die, but he also would live again in the other world and share
the throne of Osiris. More than this even, he became Osiris. He
was admitted to the life of the gods. Of course the ideas of the
existence of the gods were never clear and consistent. They lived
in secret places, their whole life was mysterious as well as
powerful. These are the field of knowledge which the Egyptian
mind could not oversee with any satisfaction to itself. The most
it could do was to formulate the magic words, invoking the names
of the gods and conjuring them by the events in the Osiris myth
to accept this king as Osiris. The exceptional man, the
super-man, must have an exceptional future life; but to obtain
it, he must have the knowledge of the names and words necessary
to force the powers of the other world.

Thus the idea of an exceptional future life, a heaven, was
brought into the Egyptian conception of life after death.
Admission to it depended on the exceptional position on earth of
those admitted. As even this exceptional position was only of
avail when combined with the knowledge of certain formulas, it is
not difficult to see how the knowledge of these formulas might be
considered sufficient to obtain the better future life, even for
others than the king. When in the depression that followed the
extravagance of the pyramid age the central monarchy lost its
power, Egypt broke up into a series of tribal baronies (nomes).
In each was a ruler almost independent of the king, a man who
might presume with the proper knowledge to claim a glorified
future life similar to that of the king. And, indeed, we find
from the burial inscriptions of the Middle Empire that such was
the result. Feudalism extended the possibilities of heaven to the
great nobles. In the New Empire, the royal