and I value you, and so you now shall be told everything that
stirred my soul, and made me first resolve upon this fearful struggle.
I was, as you know, brought up in this temple with Rameses--and it was
very wise of Seti to let his son grow up here with other boys. At work
and at play the heir to the throne and I won every prize. He was quite
my superior in swift apprehension--in keen perception--but I had greater
caution, and deeper purpose. Often he laughed at my laborious efforts,
but his brilliant powers appeared to me a vain delusion. I became one of
the initiated, he ruled the state in partnership with his father, and,
when Seti died, by himself. We both grew older, but the foundation
of our characters remained the same. He rushed to splendid victories,
overthrew nations, and raised the glory of the Egyptian name to a giddy
height, though stained with the blood of his people; I passed my life
in industry and labor, in teaching the young, and in guarding the
laws which regulate the intercourse of men and bind the people to the
Divinity. I compared the present with the past: What were the priests?
How had they come to be what they are? What would Egypt be without them?
There is not an art, not a science, not a faculty that is not thought
out, constructed, and practised by us. We crown the kings, we named the
Gods, and taught the people to honor them as divine--for the crowd needs
a hand to lead it, and under which it shall tremble as under the mighty
hand of Fate. We are the willing ministers of the divine representative
of Ra on the throne, so long as he rules in accordance with our
institutions--as the One God reigns, subject to eternal laws. He used to
choose his counsellors from among us; we told him what would benefit the
country, he heard us willingly, and executed our plans. The old kings
were the hands, but we, the priests, were the head. And now, my father,
what has become of us? We are made use of to keep the people in the
faith, for if they cease to honor the Gods how will they submit to
kings? Seti ventured much, his son risks still more, and therefore
both have required much succor from the Immortals. Rameses is pious,
he sacrifices frequently, and loves prayer: we are necessary to him, to
waft incense, to slaughter hecatombs, to offer prayers, and to interpret
dreams--but we are no longer his advisers. My father, now in Osiris, a
worthier high-priest than I, was charged by the Prophets to entreat his
fa