t have understood him; yet he was
adored not only by the adepts but by the majority of those who had
obtained high positions in civil or military life-whether they were
servants of the divinity or not--and Hosea, the initiated and the
stranger, knew him also. Everybody understood when allusion was made to
"the God," the "Sum of All," the "Creator of Himself," and the "Great
One." Hymns extolled him, inscriptions on the monuments, which all could
read, spoke of him, the one God, who manifested himself to the world,
pervaded the universe, and existed throughout creation not alone as
the vital spark animates the human organism, but as himself the sum
of creation, the world with its perpetual growth, decay, and renewal,
obeying the laws he had himself ordained. His spirit, existing in every
form of nature, dwelt also in man, and wherever a mortal gazed he could
discern the rule of the "One." Nothing could be imagined without him,
therefore he was one like the God of Israel. Nothing could be created
nor happen on earth apart from him, therefore, like Jehovah, he was
omnipotent. Hosea had long regarded both as alike in spirit, varying
only in name. Whoever adored one was a servant of the other, so
the warrior could have entered his father's presence with a clear
conscience, and told him that although in the service of the king he had
remained loyal to the God of his nation.

Another thought had made his heart pulse faster and more joyously as he
saw in the distance the pylons and obelisks of Tanis; for on countless
marches through the silent wilderness and in many a lonely camp he had
beheld in imagination a virgin of his own race, whom he had known as a
singular child, stirred by marvellous thoughts, and whom, just before
leading his troops to the Libyan war, he had again met, now a dignified
maiden of stern and unapproachable beauty. She had journeyed from
Succoth to Tanis to attend his mother's funeral, and her image had been
deeply imprinted on his heart, as his--he ventured to hope--on hers. She
had since become a prophetess, who heard the voice of her God. While the
other maidens of his people were kept in strict seclusion, she was free
to come and go at will, even among men, and spite of her hate of the
Egyptians and of Hosea's rank among them, she did not deny that it was
grief to part and that she would never cease thinking of him. His future
wife must be as strong, as earnest, as himself. Miriam was both, and
quite