Page:Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion volume 2.djvu/124

 kings, that the god appears as the consecrator and the king as the son of this god; then the king himself too is found represented as Ammon. It is related of Alexander the Great that the oracle of Jupiter Ammon declared him to be the son of that god. This is quite in accordance with the Egyptian character, for the Egyptians said the very same of their kings. The priests were esteemed at one time as the priests of the gods, and then as God himself also. Many monuments and inscriptions remain even from later times, where the Ptolemaic king is always and only called the son of god, or God himself. The same thing happened in the case of the Roman Emperors.

Astonishing certainly, yet considering the mixture of the conception of substantiality with that of subjectivity, no longer inexplicable, is that Zoolatry the practice of which was carried out by the Egyptians in the most rigid manner. In various districts of Egypt special animals were worshipped, such as cats, dogs, monkeys, and so forth; and this worship was even the occasion of wars between the various districts. The life of such animals was held absolutely sacred, and to kill them was to incur severe punishment. Further, dwelling-places and estates were granted to these animals, and provisions laid up for them: indeed, it even happened in a time of famine that human beings were permitted to die rather than that those stores should be invaded. The apis was most of all held in reverence; for it was believed that this bull represented the soul of Osiris. In the coffins in some of the pyramids, apis bones were found carefully preserved. Every form of this religion and every shape taken by it is mingled with zoolatry. This worship of animals is undoubtedly connected with what is most offensive and hateful. But it has been already shown in connection with the religion of the Hindus how man could arrive at the stage in which he worships an animal. If God be not known as Spirit, but rather as power in general, then