Page:The Religion of Ancient Egypt.djvu/238

 given; they travel by the road which thou hast laid down for them; they transgress not the path which thou hast prescribed to them, and which thou hast opened to them. &hellip; Thou restest, and it is night; when thine eyes shine forth, we are illuminated. &hellip; O let us give glory to the God who hath raised up the sky, and who causeth his disk to float over the bosom of Nut, who hath made the gods and men and all their generations, who hath made all lands and countries, and the great sea, in his name of 'Let-the-earth-be!' &hellip; The babe who is brought forth daily, the ancient one who has reached the limits of time, the immovable one who traverses every path, the height which cannot be attained."

A beautiful hymn (written, it is expressly stated, for the harp), preserved in two MSS. now in the British Museum, identifies the Nile with Rā, Amon, Ptah and other gods, and even with the maker and creator of all things.

"Bringer of food! great lord of provisions, creator of all good things. Lord of terrors and of chiefest joys! all are combined in him. He produceth grass for the oxen; providing victims for every god. &hellip; He filleth the granaries, enricheth the storehouses; he careth for the state of the poor. He causeth growth to fulfil all desires—he never wearies of it. He maketh his might a buckler. He is not graven in marble as an image bearing the double crown. He is not beheld;