ts he meets, how he is to get the gates opened for
him,--such are the subjects of various chapters; and the soul's
success in its passage depends on its knowledge of these. The words
they contain are not merely information, they have magic power to
smooth away obstacles and to open doors. Hence it is important for a
man to have learned them when alive, and, to assist his memory, a few
chapters are written on papyrus or linen, and the rolls placed with
the mummy in its case, or they are written on the walls of the tomb.
No other Egyptian work, in consequence, has been preserved in so many
copies, but one roll or set of inscriptions contains one set of
chapters and another another set.

Does the fate of the individual after death depend then entirely on
magic; is it a question of how many of these formulae he is able to
remember, or how many his relatives have got written out for him? Do
no doubts intrude on his mind lest, even if he has all the requisite
knowledge at command, he himself should be found unworthy to live
with the immortals? For the most part the _Book of the Dead_ stands
on the earlier position at which man never thinks of doubting the
favour of his god, and trusts to overcome what is hostile by having
his magic ready, not by having his heart pure. But in several
chapters a deeper tone is heard. There is a form for having the stain
rubbed away from the heart of the Osiris, and if there are abundant
directions for outward purification, there are also directions for
having his sins forgiven. In the great 125th chapter the deceased
enters the Hall of the two Truths, and is separated from his sins
after he has seen the faces of the gods. Here he stands before
forty-two judges (compare the number of the nomes of Egypt) styled
Lords of Truth, each of whom is there to judge of a particular sin,
and to each he has to profess that he did not when on earth commit
that sin. I have not stolen, he has to say; I have not played the
hypocrite, I have not stolen the things of the gods, I have not made
conspiracies, I have not blasphemed, I have not clipped the skins of
the sacred beasts, I have not injured the gods, I have not
calumniated the slave to his master; and so on. The line is not yet
clearly drawn between moral and ritual or conventional offences; and
moral duty is expressed in a negative form, and appears as a shackle,
not as an inspiration. Yet the very great advance has been made here,
that divine law watche