Page:The Religion of Ancient Egypt.djvu/159

 who did not marry at all. There is evidence that a prohibition to the same effect existed in early Rome."

I have thought it well to insist upon this feature of the Egyptian religion, in consequence of the importance attached to the celibate life in later times in four different religions; first, in the great system of Buddhism; secondly, in Judaism; thirdly, in Christianity; and fourthly, in Manicheism. Christian monasticism, as is well known, first grew up in Egypt, and was introduced into Europe through Christians from Egypt. But the monastic life and the word monastery already existed before Christianity among the Jewish ascetics, whose mode of life is described by the Alexandrian Philo. It certainly was not from the Egyptian religion that monastic institutions were derived.

It is no doubt extremely natural, when phenomena are discovered which bear close resemblance to each other, to look out for some historical connection between them. But in the history of human thought, the supposition of such a connection frequently proves