Adams, Walter M.: The house of the hidden places: a clue to the creed of early Egypt from Egyptian sources (London, 1895)

x Preface.

or that a determination of that early creed
can have no greater value than to satisfy an
idle curiosity. Very far from it. If there be
a fact in the general development of nations
which historical research has clearly demon-
strated, it is the extreme tenacity of antique
belief, and its enduring influence on the
organization of society; since religion, far
more than convention, appears to have been
the basis of ancient law. Each generation,
as it passes, modifies no doubt, but only to
a very slight extent, the form of the social
bond; and that not for itself, but for the
generation which succeeds. If therefore we
would trace more clearly the relation of man
in his complex individuality to the yet more
complex organism of human society, wherein
each individual has his particular function,
we cannot do better than examine thoroughly
the creed of the earliest civilization on record.
And the side-lights which such an investiga-
tion will be found to throw on the political