, which had not been the case since the god Ra."

The Egyptians have always been deeply impressed by the fact of human
mortality, and much of their religious belief and religious ritual is
taken up with the rites of burial, and detailed doctrines as to the
experience of the soul after parting from the body. Their elaborate
embalming of the dead springs from the desire to keep the mortal tenement
prepared for the soul's return to it. In their Book of the Dead is a full
series of prayers, songs, and incantations to be employed at funerals, and
by the individual in his journey beyond the tomb. The funeral procession
was a very noisy company; lamentations were heard through its whole
length, but the burden of the hymns was always, "To the West." This was
enlarged upon, "To the West, the dwelling of Osiris; O Chief, as thou
goest to the West, the Gods themselves lament, as thou goest to the West."

Osiris is the judge who weighs the souls, and allots them happiness or
misery, according to their deserts. "The Book of the Dead" is interesting
because it teaches how clearly and dogmatically the solemn and precise
Egyptian stated his views and held his convictions concerning the unknown
country. Four parts of man, it was said, survive after death, namely, the
soul, the spirit, the shadow, and the double. The double remains in the
tomb, and only leaves it in search of food. Sometimes it feels its
loneliness and avenges itself upon near relations who have forsaken it.
But the soul hurries to the bar of Osiris, where Thoth weighs the heart in
the scales, and the innocent are admitted into the Field of Beans, a realm
of fertility, where wheat grows seven cubits high. Immortality is spent in
feasting, singing, conversation, and games. But the whole of this
wonderful book is well worth studying. It shows how what Addison calls
"this longing after immortality" led an ancient and deeply religious
people to attempt in their burial rites to rob even the grave of its
terrors, and conjured up out of the shadows of the tomb a clear and
distinct vision of future life, wherein man in his complete individuality
survived to all eternity.

Among the most important results of recent Egyptian exploration must be
reckoned the discovery of the tablets of Tell Amarna. Tell Amarna is a
village in Upper Egypt, and in a pit at the foot of the mountain, at the
base of which it stands, were discovered hundreds of these relics, which
have since been distri