Lecture VIII. The Sacred Books. 179
to lxiii. of the Book of the Dead, and is ascribed to the god
Thoth. In anticipation of the apocalyptic literature of the Jews,
the writer describes the condition of the soul in the next world,
following closely the indications of the old ritual, and declaring
how the“Respirations”it contains were first“made by Isis for
her brother Osiris to give life to his soul, to give life to his body,
to rejuvenate all his members anew.”The soul of the Osirian
is said to“live”by means of the book that is thus provided for
him, for he“has received the Book of Respirations, that he may
breathe with his soul ... that he may make any transformation
at his will ... that his soul may go wherever it desireth.”^160 We
are reminded in these words of the last chapter of the Book of
Revelation (xxii. 7, 18, 19).
The Book of the Dead was the oldest of the sacred books of
Egypt. It was also in universal use. Whatever other articles of [195]
belief he may have held, the Egyptian of the historical age was
before all things else a follower of Osiris. It was as an Osirian
that he hoped to traverse the regions that lay beyond the tomb,
and whose geography and inhabitants were revealed to him in
the Osirian ritual. From this point of view, accordingly, the Book
of the Dead may be termed the Bible of the Egyptians. But it
was not without rivals. We have seen that even in the Book of
the Dead the heaven of Osiris is not the only heaven to which
the dead may look forward. Osiris has a rival in the sun-god,
and a place in the solar bark seems almost as much coveted as
a place in the fields of Alu. The solar cult of Heliopolis had
indeed to yield to the more popular cult of Osiris, but it was on
condition that the cult of Osiris recognised and admitted it. To be
a follower of Osiris did not prevent the believing Egyptian from
being also a follower of the god Ra.
In the latter part of the Theban period the solar cult received
a fresh impulse and developed a new life. The attempt of Khu-
(^160) Translated by P. J. de Horrack.