connected with the soul), the custom might appear rather owing to a sanitary regulation for the benefit of the living, or be attributable to a feeling of respect for the dead, - an affectionate family being anxious to preserve that body, or outward form, by which one they loved had been long known to them.

*

We are therefore still in uncertainty respecting the actual intentions of the Egyptians, in thus preserving the body, and ornamenting their sepulchres at so great an expense; nor is there any decided proof that the resurrection of the body was a tenet of their religion. It is, however, highly probable that such was their belief, since no other satisfactory reason can be given for the great care of the body after death. And if many a one, on returning to his tomb, might be expected to feel great disappointment in finding it occupied by another, and execrate in no very measured terms the proprietor who had re-sold it after his death, the offending party would feel secure against any injury from his displeasure, since his return to earth would occur at a different period. For sufficient time always elapsed between the death of two occupants of the same tomb, the 3000 years dating from the demise of each, and not from any fixed epoch.

The doctrine of transmigration was also admitted by the Pharisees; their belief, according to Josephus †, being" that all souls were incorruptible; but that those of good men were only removed into

* Vide also suprà, p. 393. 395. and 397.

† Joseph. Bell. Jud. ii. 8. 14.

other bodies, and that those of the bad were subject to eternal punishment." The Buddhist and other religions have admitted the same notion of the soul of man passing into the bodies of animals: and even the Druids believed in the migration of the soul, though they confined it to human bodies.*

FUTURE JUDGMENT.

The judgment scenes, found in the tombs and on the papyri, sometimes represent the deceased conducted by Horus alone, or accompanied by his wife, to the region of Amenti. Cerberus is present as the guardian of the gates, near which the scales of Justice are erected; and Anubis, "the director of the weight," having placed a vase representing the good actions † of the deceased in one scale, and the figure or emblem of Truth in the other ‡, proceeds to ascertain his claims for admission. If on being "weighed" he is "found wanting §," he is rejected; and Osiris, the judge of the dead, inclining his sceptre in token of condemnation, pronounces judgment upon him, and condemns his

* Cæs. Bell. Gall. lib. vi. " (Druides, in Galliâ) hoc volunt persuadere, non interire animas, sed ab aliis post mortem transire ad alios, atque hoc maxime ad virtutem excitari putant, metu mortis neglecto."

This symbol is supposed by Champollion to be a human heart. It appears to be a vase containing perhaps the brains and heart, represented within it.

Of the principle of these scales, vide Vol. III. p. 240., and II. 10. The same kind of balance is represented in a Greek subject in the Archæologia of Rome of 1833, Plate 47.; where the ape is seated above, and a figure in the attitude of Osiris sits on a throne holding a barred sceptre, similar to the emblem of Stability in the hand of the judge of Amenti.

Conf. Daniel, v. 27.; and Job, xxxi. 6.

soul to return to earth under the form of a pig, or some other unclean animal.* Placed in a boat, it is removed, under the charge of two monkeys, from the precincts of Amenti, all communication with which is figuratively cut off by a man who hews away the earth with an axe after its passage; and the commencement of a new term of life is indicated by those monkeys, the emblems of Thoth. But if, when the sum of his deeds are recorded by Thoth, his virtues so far predominate as to entitle him to admission to the mansions of the blessed, Horus, taking in his hand the tablet of Thoth, introduces him to the presence of Osiris ; who, in his palace, attended by Isis and Nepthys, sits on his throne in the midst of the waters, from which rises the lotus, bearing upon its expanded flower the four Genii of Amenti.†

Other representations of this subject differ in some of the details; and in the judgment scene of the royal scribe, whose funeral procession has been described §, the deceased advances alone in an attitude of prayer to receive judgment. On one side of the scales stands Thoth, holding a tablet in his hand; on the other the Goddess of Justice; and Horus, in lieu of Anubis, performs the office of director of the balance, on the top of which sits a Cynocephalus, the emblem of Thoth. Osiris, seated as usual on his throne, holding his crook

* Vide Plate 87.

+ Vide Plate 88. Vide suprà, Vol. I. (2d Series) p. 315. Suprà, p. 410. Conf. Lucian's description of "Minos on a high throne, with the punishments, avenging spirits, and furies standing near him." Necro

and flagellum, awaits the report from the hands of his son Horus. Before the door of his palace are the four Genii of Amenti, and near them three Deities, who either represent the assessors, or may be the three assistant judges, who gave rise to the Minos, acus, and Rhadamanthus * of Greek fable.t

Another, figured in the side adytum of the Ptolemaic temple of Dayr el Medeeneh, at Thebes, represents the deceased approaching in a similarly submissive attitude, between two figures of Truth or Justice; whose emblem, the ostrich feather, he holds in his hand. The two figures show the double capacity of that Goddess, corresponding, as already shown, to the Thummim, or two Truths, and according well with the statement of Diodorus respecting her position "at the gates of Truth." ‡ Horus and Anubis superintend the balance, and weigh the actions of the judged; whilst Thoth inscribes an account of them on his tablet, which he prepares for presentation to Osiris, who, seated on his throne, pronounces the final judgment, permitting the virtuous soul to enjoy the blessings of eternal felicity. Before him four Genii of Amenti stand upon a lotus flower; and a figure of Harpocrates, seated on a crook of Osiris between the scales and the entrance of the divine abode, which is guarded by Cerberus, is intended to show * Virg. Æn. vi. 566. :

"Gnosius hæc Rhadamanthus habet durissima regna,

Castigatque auditque dolos; subigitque fateri.'

+ Vide suprà, Vol. I. (2d Series) p. 326. Vide Diodor. i. 97., on the Punishment of the dead.

Suprà, p. 28. and 433.

that the deceased on admission to that pure state must be born again, and commence a new life, cleansed from all the impurities* of his earthly career. It also represents the idea common to the Egyptians and other philosophers, that to die was only to assume a new form, that nothing was annihilated, and that dissolution was merely the forerunner of reproduction.† Above, in two lines, sit the forty-two assessors, the complete number mentioned by Diodorus; whose office, as I have already observed, was to assist in judging the dead, and whose various forms have been given among the other Deities of the Egyptian Pantheon.‡

Many similar subjects occur on funereal monuments, few of which present any new features. One, however, is singular, from the Goddess of Justice being herself engaged in weighing the deceased, in the presence of Thoth, who is represented under the form of a Cynocephalus, having the horns and globe of the Moon upon its head, and a tablet in its hand. Instead of the usual vase, the figure of the deceased himself is placed in one of the scales, opposed to that of the Goddess; and close to the balance sits Cerberus with open mouth, as though prepared to vent his savage fury on the judged§, if pro* Vide suprà, Vol. I. (2d Series) p. 316. Conf. Virgil, Æn. vi. 739,

745.

+ Vide suprà, Vol. I. (2d Series) p. 315. 407. 439. etc.

Suprà, p. 76. It might be suggested that they represented the different forms through which a soul migrated; but I think this not probable.

§ Cerberus, according to Hesiod, welcomed those who came in, and devoured those who endeavoured to go out of the gates of Hades, Hesiod. Theogon. 770.