Preface.
The subject of the following Lectures was“The Conception of
the Divine among the ancient Egyptians and Babylonians,”and
in writing them I have kept this aspect of them constantly in
view. The time has not yet come for a systematic history of
Babylonian religion, whatever may be the case as regards ancient
Egypt, and, for reasons stated in the text, we must be content
with general principles and fragmentary details.
It is on this account that so little advance has been made
in grasping the real nature and characteristics of Babylonian
religion, and that a sort of natural history description of it has
been supposed to be all that is needed by the student of religion.
While reading over again my Hibbert Lectures, as well as later
works on the subject, I have been gratified at finding how
largely they have borrowed from me, even though it be without
acknowledgment. But my Hibbert Lectures were necessarily
a pioneering work, and we must now attempt to build on the
materials which were there brought together. In the present
volume, therefore, the materials are presupposed; they will be
found for the most part either in my Hibbert Lectures or in the
cuneiform texts which have since been published.
We are better off, fortunately, as regards the religion of ancient
Egypt. Thanks more especially to Professor Maspero's unrivalled
[vi] combination of learning and genius, we are beginning to learn
what the old Egyptian faith actually was, and what were the
foundations on which it rested. The development of its dogmas
can be traced, at all events to a certain extent, and we can even
watch the progress of their decay.
There are two facts which, I am bound to add, have been forced
upon me by a study of the old religions of civilised humanity.