remained unchanged. It is true that no two copies
that have been preserved are exactly identical in all their parts. There
are various omissions and repetitions that seem to indicate that the
book was not written by any one person or in any one epoch, but that it
was originally a set of traditions quite possibly handed down for a long
period by word of mouth before being put into writing. In this regard,
as in many others, this sacred book of the Egyptians is closely
comparable to the sacred books of other nations. It differs, however,
in one important regard from these others in that it was never
authoritatively pronounced upon and crystallised into a fixed,
unalterable shape. From first to last, apparently, the individual scribe
was at liberty to omit such portions as he chose, and even to modify
somewhat the exact form of expression in making a copy of the sacred
book. Even in this regard, however, the anomaly is not so great as might
at first sight appear, for it must be recalled that even the sacred
books of the Hebrews were not given final and authoritative shape until
a period almost exactly coeval with that in which the Egyptian "Book of
the Dead" ceased to be used at all.

A peculiar feature of "The Book of the Dead," and one that gives it
still greater interest, is the fact that from an early day it was the
custom to illustrate it with graphic pictures in colour. In fact, taken
as a whole, "The Book of the Dead" gives a very fair delineation of the
progress of Egyptian art from the fourth millennium B.C. to its climax
in the eighteenth dynasty, and throughout the period of its decline; and
this applies not merely to the pictures proper, but to the forms of the
hieroglyphic letters themselves, for it requires but the most cursory
inspection to show that these give opportunity for no small artistic
skill.

As to the ideas preserved in "The Book of the Dead," it is sufficient
here to note that they deal largely with the condition of the human
being after death, implying in the most explicit way a firm and
unwavering belief in the immortality of the soul. The Egyptian believed
most fully that by his works a man would be known and judged after
death. His religion was essentially a religion of deeds, and the code of
morals, according to which these deeds were adjudged, has been said by
Doctor Budge, the famous translator of "The Book of the Dead," to be
"the grandest and most comprehensive of those now known to ha