Page:The Mythology of All Races Vol 12 (Egyptian and Indo-Chinese).djvu/36

10 more complicated hypothetical development, J. Lieblein also stressed an alleged degeneration from original simplicity; and certain similar theories, holding that Egyptian polytheism was partially (or even largely) developed from monotheism or henotheism by local differentiation, or evincing an erroneous tendency to discover a cosmic origin for all gods, continue to influence more than one of the most modern writers. But, we repeat, even if some elements of higher thought may be gleaned from the texts, these scattered traces did not touch the earliest form of Egyptian belief as it can now be read from texts anterior to 3000, nor did they affect the religion of the masses even during the latest periods of history. The further back we go, the more primitive are the ideas which we find, with absolutely no trace of monotheism; and those rude concepts always predominated in the religion of the people to such an extent that they represented the real Egyptian creed.

The first step toward an understanding of the fundamental crudity of the Egyptian religion was in 1878, when R. Pietschmann proposed to regard its beginnings as precisely parallel to the pure animism and fetishism of Central Africa, showing at the same time that such a religion must everywhere assume in large part a magic character. The effect of this step has been very great; and although it encountered much opposition and is still denied by some prejudiced scholars and many laymen, it has done much to develop the theory on this subject which now prevails among students of religion. The writer who has been most energetic in the promulgation of this theory has been G. Maspero, whose numerous essays have been the chief factors in establishing a fuller knowledge and understanding of Egyptian religion, although he never wrote an exhaustive presentation of these beliefs.

The stereotyped objection against such a low view of Egyptian religion is its extreme contrast to the whole civilization of the Egyptian nation. Can it be possible that, as Maspero