the
actual sun's disk; but Akhnaton called his god "Heat which is in Aton,"
and thus drew the eyes of his followers towards a Force far more
intangible and distant than the dazzling orb to which they bowed down.
Akhnaton's god was the force which created the sun, the something which
penetrated to this earth in the sun's heat and caused the vegetation to
grow.

Amon-Ra and the gods of Egypt were for the most part but deified
mortals, endued with monstrous, though limited, power, and still having
around them traditions of exaggerated human deeds. Others had their
origin in natural phenomena--the wind, the Nile, the sky, and so on. All
were terrific, revengeful, and able to be moved by human emotions. But
Akhnaton's god was the intangible and yet ever-present Father of
mankind, made manifest in sunshine. The youthful High Priest called upon
his followers to search for their god not in the confusion of battle or
behind the smoke of human sacrifices, but amidst the flowers and trees,
amidst the wild duck and the fishes. He preached an enlightened
nature-study; he was perhaps the first apostle of the Simple Life. He
strove to break down conventional religion, and ceaselessly urged his
people to worship in Truth, simply, without an excess of ceremonial.
While the elder gods had been manifest in natural convulsions and in the
more awful incidents of life, Akhnaton's kindly god could be seen in the
chick which broke out of its egg, in the wind which filled the sails of
the ships, in the fish which leapt from the water. Aton was the joy
which caused the young sheep "to dance upon their feet," and the birds
to "flutter in their marshes." He was the god of the simple pleasures of
life, and Truth was the watchword of his followers.

It may be understood how the boy longed for truth in all things when one
remembers the thousand exaggerated conventions of Egyptian life at this
time. Court etiquette had developed to a degree which rendered life to
the Pharaoh an endless round of unnatural poses of mind and body. In the
preaching of his doctrine of truth and simplicity, Akhnaton did not fail
to call upon his subjects to regard their Pharaoh not as a god but as a
man. It was usual for the Pharaoh to keep aloof from his people:
Akhnaton was to be found in their midst. The Court demanded that their
lord should drive in solitary state through the city: Akhnaton sat in
his chariot with his wife and children, and allowed the artist to
repr