a theatre at Athens that the chorus of a tragedy sang, more than two
thousand years ago: "May destiny aid me to preserve unsullied the purity
of my words and of all my actions, according to those sublime laws
which, brought forth in the celestial heights, have Heaven alone for
their father, to which the race of mortal men did not give birth, and
which oblivion shall never entomb. In them is a supreme God, and one who
waxes not old."[7] It would be easy to multiply quotations of this
order, and to show you in the documents of Grecian and Roman
civilization numerous traces of the knowledge of the only and holy God.
Listen now to a voice which has come forth actually from the recesses of
the sepulchre: it reaches us from ancient Egypt.

In Egypt, as you know, the degradation of the religious idea was in
popular practice complete. But, under the confused accents of
superstition, the science of our age is succeeding in catching from afar
the vibrations of a sublime utterance. In the coffins of a large number
of mummies have been discovered rolls of papyrus containing a sacred
text which is called the _Book of the Dead_. Here is the translation of
some fragments which appear to date from a very remote epoch. It is God
who speaks: "I am the Most Holy, the Creator of all that replenishes the
earth, and of the earth itself, the habitation of mortals. I am the
Prince of the infinite ages. I am the great and mighty God, the Most
High, shining in the midst of the careering stars and of the armies
which praise me above thy head.... It is I who chastise and who judge
the evil-doers, and the persecutors of godly men. I discover and
confound the liars.... I am the all-seeing Judge and Avenger ... the
guardian of my laws in the land of righteousness."[8]

These words are found mingled, in the text from which I extract them,
with allusions to inferior deities; and it must be acknowledged that the
translation of the ancient documents of Egypt is still uncertain enough.
Still this uncertainty does not appear to extend to the general sense
and bearing of the recent discoveries of our savants. Myself a simple
learner from the masters of the science, I can only point out to you the
result of their studies. Now, this is what the masters tell us as to the
actual state of mythological studies. Traces are found almost
everywhere, in the midst of idolatrous superstitions, of a religion
comparatively pure, and often stamped with a lofty morality. P