DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.7416#0139
129
(the symbols of that fire to which they were consigned) whose
excessive strength and solidity were well calculated to secure them
as long as the earth, upon which.,they stood, should be able to
support them. The . great pyramid, the only one that has been
opened, was closed up with such extreme care and ingenuity, that
it required years of labor and enormous expense to. gratify the
curiosity or disappoint the avarice of the Mohammedan prince
who first laid open the central chamber where the body lay.1
The rest are still impenetrable, and will probably remain so, ac-
cording to the intention of the builders, to the last sylluble of re-
corded time.
lGS. The soul, that was to be finally emancipated by fire, was
the divine emanation, the vital spark of heavenly flame, the prin-
ciple of reason and perception, which was personified into thi.
familiar daemon or genius, supposed to have the direction of each
individual, and to dispose him to good or evil, wisdom or folly,
with all their respective consequences of prosperity or adversity.1
Hence proceeded the notion, that all human actions depended im-
mediately upon the gods ; which forms the fundamental principle
of morality both in the elegant and finished compositions of the
most ancient Greek poets,* and in the rude strains of the northern
5 Savary sur l'Efypte.
2 'O vovs yap finoiv i Beos. Menand. apud Plutarch. Qu. Platon.
'AiravTl Saip-uv avZpi <piyjnapiGTatai^
fvOvs ywotisvui uuffrayoryos tov fiiov
ayaBos' KaKov yap Sai/xov' ov vofwrreov
etvai, rov fSwv fiKairrovra XflTicrrov' Traiva yap
Set ayaBov uvai tov Btov. Menandr. Fragm. incerta. No. 205.
Plutarch, according to his own system, gives two genii to each individual,
and quotes the authority of Empedocles against this passage of Menander;
which seems, however, to contain the most ancient and orthodox opinion.
Auttj tov airqs Saiuov' ara/ra\ov//en;. Sophocl. Trachin. 910.
Est deus in nobis ; agitante calescimus iilo:
Impetus hie sacra; sumina mentis habet. Ovid. Fast. lib. vi. 5.
Scit genius, natale comes qui temperat astrum,
Nature deus humanae, uioi talts in unum-
Quodqtie caput; vufta nmtabilis, albus et ater.
Horat. lib. ii. ep. ii. \8T.
3 Ovti fioi atTLr] evert, Beot vv fxot amor tiffin
Ol jioi KpapiXTiacu/ no\t/iov iroXvoaKpvv Axatw—
I
(the symbols of that fire to which they were consigned) whose
excessive strength and solidity were well calculated to secure them
as long as the earth, upon which.,they stood, should be able to
support them. The . great pyramid, the only one that has been
opened, was closed up with such extreme care and ingenuity, that
it required years of labor and enormous expense to. gratify the
curiosity or disappoint the avarice of the Mohammedan prince
who first laid open the central chamber where the body lay.1
The rest are still impenetrable, and will probably remain so, ac-
cording to the intention of the builders, to the last sylluble of re-
corded time.
lGS. The soul, that was to be finally emancipated by fire, was
the divine emanation, the vital spark of heavenly flame, the prin-
ciple of reason and perception, which was personified into thi.
familiar daemon or genius, supposed to have the direction of each
individual, and to dispose him to good or evil, wisdom or folly,
with all their respective consequences of prosperity or adversity.1
Hence proceeded the notion, that all human actions depended im-
mediately upon the gods ; which forms the fundamental principle
of morality both in the elegant and finished compositions of the
most ancient Greek poets,* and in the rude strains of the northern
5 Savary sur l'Efypte.
2 'O vovs yap finoiv i Beos. Menand. apud Plutarch. Qu. Platon.
'AiravTl Saip-uv avZpi <piyjnapiGTatai^
fvOvs ywotisvui uuffrayoryos tov fiiov
ayaBos' KaKov yap Sai/xov' ov vofwrreov
etvai, rov fSwv fiKairrovra XflTicrrov' Traiva yap
Set ayaBov uvai tov Btov. Menandr. Fragm. incerta. No. 205.
Plutarch, according to his own system, gives two genii to each individual,
and quotes the authority of Empedocles against this passage of Menander;
which seems, however, to contain the most ancient and orthodox opinion.
Auttj tov airqs Saiuov' ara/ra\ov//en;. Sophocl. Trachin. 910.
Est deus in nobis ; agitante calescimus iilo:
Impetus hie sacra; sumina mentis habet. Ovid. Fast. lib. vi. 5.
Scit genius, natale comes qui temperat astrum,
Nature deus humanae, uioi talts in unum-
Quodqtie caput; vufta nmtabilis, albus et ater.
Horat. lib. ii. ep. ii. \8T.
3 Ovti fioi atTLr] evert, Beot vv fxot amor tiffin
Ol jioi KpapiXTiacu/ no\t/iov iroXvoaKpvv Axatw—
I