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

VIIJ The Guardians of Universal Truth. 231

heaven, are seated four divine spirits having
the assemblance of an ape, the form nearest
akin to humanity. To those four universal
guardians and heralds of truth, the justified
prays, that he may be purified yet further from
his transgressions. " 0 ye," he says, " who
send forth truth to the universal Lord, nur-
tured without fraud, who abominate wicked-
ness, extract all the evil from me. Obliterate
my faults and annihilate my sins." "Thou
mayest go," is the gracious reply of the four
heavenly teachers; '' we obliterate all thy faults,
we annihilate all thy sins." In this manner,
as the Eitual declares, is separation of his sins
effected " after he has seen the faces of the
Gods." From henceforth death has no more
power over him, and in rapture he returns
thanksgiving to the supreme judges, the Gods
of the Orbit, towards whom he now advances,
and to Osiris on his throne (cxxvii., cxxviii.).

As he stands at the entrance of the upper
chamber, where the slight projection of the