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theologian even attempted; and when we find the list of them
given in full, it is doubtless to secure that no component part of
the individual should be omitted, the name of which had been
handed down from the generations of old.
There were, however, certain component parts which were
clearly defined, and which occupied an important place in the
religious ideas of Egypt. Foremost amongst these was theKa
or“Double.”Underneath the conception of the Ka lay a crude
philosophy of the universe. The Ka corresponded with the
shadow in the visible world. Like the shadow which cannot
be detached from the object, so, too, the Ka or Double is the
reflection of the object as it is conceived of in the mind. But the
Egyptian did not realise that it was only a product of the mind.
For him it was as real and material as the shadow itself; indeed,
it was much more material, for it had an independent existence
of its own. It could be separated from the object of which it
was the facsimile and presentment, and represent it elsewhere.
Nay, more than this, it was what gave life and form to the object
of which it was the image; it constituted, in fact, its essence
and personality. Hence it was sometimes interchanged with the
“Name”which, in the eyes of the Egyptian, was the essence of [049]
the thing itself, without which the thing could not exist. In a
sense the Ka was the spiritual reflection of an object, but it was
a spiritual reflection which had a concrete form.
The“ideas”of Plato were the last development of the Egyptian
doctrine of the Ka. They were the archetypes after which all
things have been made, and they are archetypes which are at once
abstract and concrete. Modern philosophers have transformed
them into the thoughts of God, which realise themselves in
concrete shape. But to the ancient Egyptian the concrete side of
his conception was alone apparent. That the Ka was a creation
of his own mind never once occurred to him. It had a real and
substantial existence in the world of gods and men, even though
it was not visible to the outward senses. Everything that he knew