t they be not oppressed, and that unnecessary tears be
spared them. If this does not amount to the love of our neighbour as our
religions preach it, at least it represents the careful solicitude due
from a good lord to his vassals. His pity extends to slaves; not only
does he command that no one should ill-treat them himself, but he
forbids that their masters should be led to ill-treat them. This
profession of faith, one of the noblest bequeathed us by the old world,
is of very ancient origin. It may be read in scattered fragments upon
the monuments of the first dynasties, and the way in which its ideas are
treated by the compilers of these inscriptions proves that it was not
then regarded as new, but as a text so old and so well known that its
formulas were current in all mouths, and had their prescribed places
in epitaphs.[*] Was it composed in Mendes, the god's own home, or in
Heliopolis, when the theologians of that city appropriated the god of
Mendes and incorporated him in their Ennead? In conception it certainly
belongs to the Osirian priesthood, but it can only have been diffused
over the whole of Egypt after the general adoption of the Heliopolitan
Ennead throughout the cities.

As soon as he was judged, the dead man entered into the possession of
his rights as a pure soul. On high he received from the Universal
Lord all that kings and princes here below bestowed upon their
followers--rations of food,[**] and a house, gardens, and fields to be
held subject to the usual conditions of tenure in Egypt, i.e. taxation,
military service, and the corvee.

* For instance, one of the formulas found in Memphite tombs
states that the deceased had been the friend of his father,
the beloved of his mother, sweet to those who lived with
him, gracious to his brethren, loved of his servants, and
that he had never sought wrongful quarrel with any man;
briefly, that he spoke and did that which is right here
below.

** The formula of the pyramid times is: "Thy thousand of
oxen, thy thousand of geese, of roast and boiled joints from
the larder of the gods, of bread, and plenty of the good
things presented in the hall of Osiris."

If the island was attacked by the partisans of Sit, the Osirian doubles
hastened in a body to repulse them, and fought bravely in its defence.
Of the revenues sent to him by his kindred on certain days and by means
of sacrifices, each gave tithe