as of
old; they had invented a system of secondary meanings, by which they
explained away the coarse religion of their statues and sacred animals.

They had two religions, one for the many and one for the few; one,
material and visible, for the crowds in the outer courtyards, in which
the hero was made a god and every attribute of deity was made a person;
and another, spiritual and intellectual, for the learned in the schools
and sacred colleges. Even if we were not told, we could have no doubt
but the main point of secret knowledge among the learned was a disbelief
in those very doctrines which they were teaching to the vulgar, and
which they now explained among themselves by saying that they had a
second meaning. This, perhaps, was part of the great secret of the
goddess Isis, the secret of Abydos, the betrayer of which was more
guilty than he who should try to stop the _baris_ or sacred barge in the
procession on the Nile. The worship of gods, before whose statues the
nation had bowed with unchanging devotion for at least two thousand
years was now drawing to a close. Hitherto the priests had been able to
resist all new opinions.

[Illustration: 131.jpg SHRINE]

The name of Amon-Ra had at one time been cut out from the Theban
monuments to make way for a god from Lower Egypt; but it had been cut in
again when the storm passed by. The Jewish monotheism had left the
crowd of gods unlessened. The Persian efforts had overthrown statues and
broken open temples, but had not been able to introduce their worship of
the sun. The Greek conquerors had yielded to the Egyptian mind without
a struggle; and Alexander had humbly begged at the door of the temple
to be acknowledged as a son of Amon. But in the fulness of time
these opinions, which seemed as firmly based as the monuments which
represented them, sunk before a religion which set up no new statues,
and could command no force to break open temples.

The Egyptian priests, who had been proud of the superiority of their own
doctrines over the paganism of their neighbours, mourned the overthrow
of their national religion. "Our land," says the author of Hermes
Trismegistus, "is the temple of the world; but, as wise men should
foresee all things, you should know that a time is coming when it will
seem that the Egyptians have by an unfailing piety served God in
vain. For when strangers shall possess this kingdom religion will
be neglected, and laws made against piety and divi