Page:The Religion of Ancient Egypt.djvu/250

 I believe, therefore, that, after closely approaching the point at which polytheism might have turned into monotheism, the religious thought of Egypt turned aside into a wrong track. And this was followed by a decided and hopeless course of retrogression. Those elements of the Egyptian religion which the Greeks and the Jewish and Christian writers looked upon with such disgust, had existed from the first, but in a very subordinate position; they now became nearly predominant.

There can be no doubt that, from the earliest days, symbolism had played a great part in the religion of Egypt. We are ourselves so familiar with certain symbols in Hebrew or Christian writings, or with the poetic figures which classical literature has brought home to us, that when we meet with symbols of another kind, we are far more shocked than we really have a right to be. We think it natural enough to speak of a hero we venerate as a lion or an eagle, while quite other associations are connected with a fox or a dog. Christians have other associations with the lamb or the dove. But the Egyptians, as far back as we know them, seem to have studied the animal creation with a minute accuracy which only the natural history of our own times can rival. Their symbolism is not necessarily the same as ours. Certain characteristics of animals have in the course of ages fixed themselves in our minds, but in this we are simply following a tradition.