120 ARCHITECTURE OF EGYPT. PART II.

any of the divine attributes, it appears to intimate
their relation to man.

They not only attributed to the sun and moon,
and to other supposed agents, a participation in
the divine essence, but even stones and plants were
thought to share some portion of it,* and certain
peculiarities were often discovered in the habits,
or appearance, of animals, which were supposed to
bear a resemblance to the divine nature. When
the king is represented making offerings to himself
in the temples, it is his human doing homage to his
divine, nature; a priest in the grand ceremonies is
often figured offering incense to him, in the same
spirit; and after death, every individual who had
been judged, and pronounced " good", received re-
ligious honours, in his character of Osiris. This
was accorded to all " just men", in a future state;
but it was totally distinct from individual, or hero,
worship.

Among other remarkable theories of the Egyp-
tians was the union of certain attributes into triads;
the third member of which proceeded from the
other two ;* and in every city, one of these com-
binations was the triad of the place. The first
members were not always of the first order of
gods, nor was it necessary that they should be;

* Vide Ancient Egyptians, vol. v, pp. 110, 111, and vol.iv, p. 318.

t "Vide Ancient Egyptians, vol iv, p. 233, et alib. It is not to lie
supposed that a triad is the same as a Trinity; and no one need feel, or
affect, any alarm on this head ; though, if it were so, it ought to cause
an opposite feeling ; for the fact of a variety of religions possessing the
knowledge of a truth does not diminish it; nor is the Mexican notion of
a deluge looked upon with displeasure by the most orthodox.