Page:The Religion of Ancient Egypt.djvu/258

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RELIGIOUS BOOKS AND HYMNS.
243

not.[1] No one comes to invoke him, for he is not kind to those who adore him; he has no respect to any offering which is made to him." There is something of this undoubtedly in the song of King Antuf and in the Lay of the Harper, but the moral which the harper taught has utterly disappeared: "Mind thee of the day when thou too shalt start for that land." There is no allusion to the necessity of a good life; no recommendation to be just and hate iniquity; no assurance that he who loveth what is just shall triumph. The tablet on which this strange inscription is found has upon it the figures of several of the Egyptian gods, in whom it professes faith, but the religion must have been already at its end when such a text could be inscribed on a funereal tablet.


Influence of Egyptian upon Foreign Thought.

The short time which is now left will not allow me to enter at length into a discussion of certain questions which have naturally arisen as to the influence of Egyptian upon foreign thought, as, for instance, on the Hebrew or Greek religions and philosophies. It may be confidently asserted that neither Hebrews nor Greeks

  1. La Mort a des rigueurs à nulle autre pareilles,
         On a beau la prier;
    La cruelle qu'elle est se bouche les oreilles,
         Et nous laisse crier.