Page:The Religion of Ancient Egypt.djvu/249

 born from her. &hellip; He travels in the cloud to separate heaven and earth, and again to re-unite them, permanently abiding in all things, the Living One in whom all things live everlastingly."

But the Litanies of Rā which M. Naville copied from the royal tombs of the 19th dynasty are already pantheistic. All things are represented as mere emanations from Rā. The learned editor of these Litanies has not failed to remark that the pantheistic influence of the doctrine has told upon the ethical system, which can hardly be said to exist at all; whereas the notions of right and wrong, iniquity and sin, are perpetually occurring in the Book of the Dead and in all the ancient inscriptions. It is only out of condescension to popular language that pantheistic systems can recognize these notions. If everything really emanates from God, there can be no such thing as sin. And the ablest philosophers who have been led to pantheistic views have vainly endeavoured to harmonize these views with what we understand by the notion of sin or moral evil. The great systematic work of Spinoza is entitled "Ethica," but for real ethics we might as profitably consult the Elements of Euclid.