"the mount of God."[16]

A new era then commenced. As men dispersed {19} themselves over the earth,
the original belief in the one true God (Monotheism) was lost, and people
fell into the worship of many deities (Polytheism), adoring the visible
works of creation, more particularly the sun and the stars of heaven, or
else reverencing the operative powers of nature as divine beings. Faith in
the one Great JEHOVAH was preserved by the children of Israel alone. Idols
were erected within gorgeous temples. With the Chaldean, Phoenician, and
Assyrian, Moloch began the dreadful cruelty of human sacrifices, chiefly of
children. If, at first, the image of the idol was only a visible symbol of
a spiritual conception, or of an invisible power, this higher meaning was
lost in progress of time in the minds of most nations, and they came at
length to pay worship to the lifeless image itself. The priests alone were
acquainted with any deeper meaning, but refused to share it with the
people; they reserved it under the veil of esoteric (secret) doctrines, as
the peculiar appanage of their own class. They invented endless fables
which gave rise to Mythology. They ruled the people by the might of
superstition, and acquired wealth, honor, and power, for themselves.[17] We
arrive then at nearly the culminating point of Egyptian priestcraft, the
days of "wise men," "sorcerers," and "magicians."[18] Such men ever {20}
have, and we presume ever will employ secrecy as the chief element of their
clever jugglery. Mankind love to be deceived. Let an Adrian, Blitz, or
Alexander--while they tell you, and you well know it, that their tricks are
a deception--put forth notices of an exhibition, and they will attract
crowds, where an Arago, or a Faraday, would not be listened to. Maelzel's
automata, or Vaucanson's duck, will attract the world, when Bacon's, or
Newton's, or Laplace's works may remain in dust on the book-shelves. Human
nature is always the same, and thus it was in the days of Moses and
Pharaoh. The wise men, sorcerers, and magicians, held undisputed sway, not
only over the superstitions of the people, but over their educated monarchs
and princes. Egypt possessed, at an inconceivably early period, numberless
towns and villages, and a high amount of civilization. Arts, sciences, and
civil professions, were cherished there, so that the Nile-land has
generally been regarded as the mysterious cradle of human culture; but the
system of castes ch