Page:Littell's Living Age - Volume 140.pdf/43

34 the time of the Exodus, and is the work of Enna, the well-known author of the "Romance of the Two Brothers" and other works. The hymn was translated some years ago by Maspero. A translation has also been offered by Canon Cook in "Records of the Past." I select portions which express the unity of the Godhead:—

On this hymn Canon Cook makes the note, sufficiently remarkable as coming from the editor of the "Speaker's Commentary:" "The whole of this passage is of extreme importance, showing that, apart from all objects of idolatrous worship, the old Egyptian recognized the existence of a supreme God, unknown and inconceivable; the true source of all power and goodness."

This one God is moreover the creator: "He has made the world with his hand, its waters, its atmosphere, its vegetation, all its flocks, and birds, and fish, and reptiles, and beasts of the field." "He made all the world contains, and hath given it light when there was as yet no sun." "Glory to thee who hast begotten all that exists, who hast made man, and made the gods also, and all the beasts of the field. Thou makest men to live. Thou hast no being second to thee. Thou givest the breath of life. Thou art the light of this world."

But although God be the creator, yet he is "self-created:" "His commencement is from the beginning. He is the God who has existed from old time. There is no God without him. No mother bore him, no father hath begotten him. God-goddess created from himself. All gods came into existence when he began."

Many of the hymns speak the mystery of his name: "Unknown is his name in heaven:" "Whose name is hidden from his creatures: in his name which is Amen" (hidden, secret). Therefore the Egyptians never spoke the Unknown Name, but used a phrase which expressed the self-existence of the Eternal: "I am One Being, I am One." The expression is found in the "Ritual of the Dead," where Lepsius translates it: "Ich bin Tum, em Wesen das ich eines bin;" and he refers to the similarly constructed sentence: "I and my Father are one." E. Deutsch renders it, "I am He who I am." The original is Nuk-pu-Nuk. Plutarch tells us of the veil which overhung the temple of Neith at Sais: "I am that was, and is, and is to be; and my veil no mortal hath yet drawn aside." The name Neith means "I came from myself." In one of the magical texts there is a chapter entitled: "To open the Place of the Shrine of the Seat of Neith." "I am the seat of Neith, hidden in the hidden, concealed in the concealed, shut up in the shut up, unknown I am knowledge."

At the town of Pilhom, God was worshipped under the name of "the Living God," which Brugsch considers to correspond with the meaning of the name Jehovah; and the serpent of brass, called kerch (the polished), was there regarded as the living symbol of God.

These passages are sufficient to establish the fact stated in the letter of Jamblichus to Porphyry that the Egyptians "affirm that all things which exist were created, and that he who gave them being is their first Father and Creator."

The Egyptians felt that which we all