arge donations, no one had bestowed so much on
public objects as Sir Jamsetjee Jeejeeboy, who had given to hospitals,
schools, and charities, some years since, a million and a half of dollars.
During our Rebellion, some of the Parsis sent gifts to the Sanitary
Commission, out of sympathy with the cause of freedom and Union.

Who can estimate the power of a single life? Of Zoroaster we do not know
the true name, nor when he lived, nor where he lived, nor exactly what he
taught. But the current from that fountain has flowed on for thousands of
years, fertilizing the souls of men out of its hidden sources, and helping
on, by the decree of Divine Providence, the ultimate triumph of good over
evil, right over wrong.

Chapter VI.

The Gods of Egypt.

Sec. 1. Antiquity and Extent of Egyptian Civilization.
Sec. 2. Religious Character of the Egyptians. Their Ritual.
Sec. 3. Theology of Egypt. Sources of our Knowledge concerning it.
Sec. 4. Central Idea of Egyptian Theology and Religion. Animal Worship.
Sec. 5. Sources of Egyptian Theology. Age of the Empire and Affinities of
the Race.
Sec. 6. The Three Orders of Gods.
Sec. 7. Influence of Egypt upon Judaism and Christianity.

Sec. 1. Antiquity and Extent of Egyptian Civilization.

The ancient Egyptians have been the object of interest to the civilized
world in all ages; for Egypt was the favorite home of civilization,
science, and religion. It was a little country, the gift of the river
Nile; a little strip of land not more than seven miles wide, but
containing innumerable cities and towns, and in ancient times supporting
seven millions of inhabitants. Renowned for its discoveries in art and
science, it was the world's university; where Moses and Pythagoras,
Herodotus and Plato, all philosophers and lawgivers, went to school. The
Egyptians knew the length of the year and the form of the earth; they
could calculate eclipses of the sun and moon; were partially acquainted
with geometry, music, chemistry, the arts of design, medicine, anatomy,
architecture, agriculture, and mining. In architecture, in the qualities
of grandeur and massive proportions, they are yet to be surpassed. The
largest buildings elsewhere erected by man are smaller than their
pyramids; which are also the oldest human works still remaining, the
beauty of whose masonry, says Wilkinson, has not been surpassed in any
subsequent age. An obelisk of a single stone now st