the host, repeating the summons of the Divine Leader, and pointing to the receding foe. It will be strange, indeed, if these stirring appeals produce no effect. There may not appear anything like a visible sensation through the Christian lines, but if there exists a true spirit of loyalty, wherever there is a spark of really Christian courage, these volumes will assuredly call it forth into some kind of action tributary to the common cause. Ministers who are anxious for success in their arduous calling, cannot do better than study the volume addressed to themselves, and publicly recommend that designed for the people. So far as our influence may extend, we cordially and earnestly commend both volumes to the attention of our readers, as among the most useful productions of our times. There can be no doubt that their usefulness will extend throughout the whole evangelical church, and beyond the age and the events which have called them forth.

ART. V.-1. Das Todtenbuch der Agypter (The Book of the Dead, according to the Egyptians). Now edited, for the first time, from the Hieroglyphic Papyrus at Turin. With a Preface. By Dr. R. Lepsius, Professor Extraordinary at Berlin. Leipsic George Wigand. 1842.

2. Auswahl der Wichtigsten Urkunden. Selection of the most important Records of Egyptian Antiquity. Revised from the original Monuments, and in part for the first time published. By Dr. Richard Lepsius, Professor Extraordinary in the University of Berlin. Plates. Leipsic Wigand. 1842.

3. Egypt's Place in Universal History: an Historical Investigation. In Five Books. By Christian C. J. Bunsen, D. Ph. & D.C.L. Translated from the German. By Charles H. Cottrell, Esq., M.A. 8vo. Vol. I. London: Longman and Co.

FOR a large portion of our least uncertain knowledge respecting the ancient Egyptians, we are indebted to the religious care with which they discharged their canonically recognized duties toward the dead; and, if we were now intending the direct discussion of that subject, the first of these publications would supply us with a pregnant text. The more important particulars, the groundwork and great lines of the system, are here before us; chapter and verse are literally and graphically inscribed on the open page; and that which we can at present

but imperfectly decipher in the sacred medium, may be plausibly, perhaps satisfactorily, inferred from the lively and expressive sketches ranging along the upper margin, but sometimes intersecting, with more ambitious delineations, the page itself. It was a strange affair, the making up of these formularies. They were kept regularly 'in stock,' the work of the sacerdotal scribes, measured in quantity, compressed or expanded, like the mortuary masses of the Trentine Church,' by the anxious liberality of the moribund, or the pious sympathy of surviving friends. They were obviously considered as a sort of passport, ensuring to the defunct a favourable reception at the many portals of the celestial region. By far the larger portion of the existing papyri belong to this class; and the tomb, that rich treasure-chamber, which has almost exclusively preserved to us the remains of Egyptian life,' is thus made, in every way, the history and the moral of existence. Not that we obtain from these documents anything approaching to biography; the names of the departed, with those of his immediate ancestors, seem to have been a sufficient heading for the regulated catalogue of virtues that entitled him to manifestation in the light of Osiris,' after solemn trial and acquittal in the 'Hall of twofold Justice.'

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This strange and stimulating relic of high antiquity is not now made generally accessible for the first time, although it has never before been given in so complete a state. It would, at the date of its earliest publication, (1805), be little more than an unresolvable enigma, a mere affair of curiosity and speculation it was reserved for a much later period to extract something like a meaning from its mystic characters. Champollion, while exploring the rich collection of Egyptian antiquities in the Turin Museum, among other remains of still greater importance, laid his hand upon this invaluable papyrus, including, apparently, an almost unbroken series of the various forms connected with the funeral observances of that singular people, whose superstitions are extensively illustrated, both in the hieroglyphic text and in the illustrative designs. These are carried forward through the entire extent of the Roll, and exhibit a nearly complete Pantheon of the 'brutish gods of Nile' in their various forms, from the sublime Osiris, as the final justiciary, to the unaccountable Beetle, who figures after sundry marvellous fashions, both in his own ugly person and as an adjunct of human limbs. A regular explanation of these pictures and vignettes would, we believe, carry us nearly through the entire system of that strange idolatry. The precise connexion between the decorative and scriptural portions, we do not undertake to determine. It is evident, and, indeed, fairly admitted, that

there can, in the present state of Egyptian philology, be nothing approaching to a regular interpretation of the papyri. We are assured, on no less an authority than that of the Chevalier Bunsen, that 'the man does not exist who can fairly read and explain a single section of the Todtenbuch.' To a considerable extent, however, the designs are self-interpreting; and the text affords occasional suggestions, of which Lepsius has not failed to avail himself with characteristic acuteness and learning.

The designs arrange themselves into distinct portions, indicating as many divisions of the Roll itself, and each leading to some special event in the extra-mundane history of the defunct. The first series is the most simple and intelligible, containing little more than indications of the funeral solemnities and their result. The long line of procession, with its halting points and changes of circumstance, lies drawn out before us with instructive but altogether unscientific precision. There is no grouping, no muscular expression, no discrimination of character except by common-places, no shading nor cross-hatching; but the osteological proportions of the figure are fairly enough observed, and though the arms and lower limbs are marked only by single lines, the usual positions and action of the human frame are rendered with facility and sufficient accuracy. First appear the mourners and friends, in attitudes of grief and sympathy, following the mummy, which lies under a canopy in the Baris, something between a barge and a raft, that is to convey it over the Sacred Lake to its final destination. The vessel itself, placed on a moveable platform, is preceded by the usual circumstantials of funeral celebration. Emblematic standards and consecrated offerings are borne by numerous attendants, and this pompous journey to the grave terminates with the customary symbols of sepulture and commemoration, the obelisk, the stelé, and the pyramid. The most significant feature of the exhibition presents itself at the close. Just as the train reaches the tomb, while the priest pours out the last libation, and the nearest relative takes the final leave with gestures of grief and veneration, Anubis lays a gentle hand upon the corpse, as its guide through the dark avenues of Amenti. Nor is the event left in uncertainty, for beyond the grave the deceased reappears, having cast off his mummy-trappings, kneeling in adoration before the sungod, Ra. Connected with this panoramic exhibition, but differently arranged and on a larger scale, are three distinct designs, which indicate, in varied forms, the admission of the absolved and beatified Osirian' into the presence and abode of the radiant god. In the last of these mystic personations, the nearest surviving descendant of the deceased appears in the act of offering to his memory, in compliance with invariable

custom, the sacrifice of the dead. A running margin, of about four feet in length, with an inch and quarter depth, gives sufficient space for these delineations, of which the larger portion is simply expressive of actual circumstances, and it is not till we reach the close, that we overtake the unreal and mythological.

The succeeding scenes are of a different character, higher in pretension and covering a much more extensive and varying surface. It would carry our explanations far beyond all average limit and all reasonable edification, were we to attempt a systematic survey of these wild yet remarkable instances of an ineffectual striving with the deep things' of the invisible world. Yet even in this strange and fearful masque, there are incidents which speak of a nobler faith, of the 'law written in the heart,' of an original revelation, obscured but not obliterated, in the memory and conscience of mankind. Amid wretched and degrading idolatries, there is an appeal to virtue, veneration, and a judgment to come.

In the first and most distinct series, then, we have found the clear representation of the funeral movements, followed by unmistakeable intimations that the exemplary person, who had thus identified his own future felicity with the present profit of sacrificers and papyrus-scribes, was enjoying the reward of his piety, in the region of light. Into that and other departments of the celestial world, we have now to follow his 'strange, eventful history,' through a series of rather whimsical illustrations. Lightly and briefly, however, we shall trace this mysterious journey through scenes peopled by forms monstrous and grotesque. The earlier passages have, apparently, some slight connexion with the preceding division; but they quickly assume an independent character. The defunct presents himself as a suppliant, before gods variously grouped, but without much personal variation. Then succeeds a series of combats between the deceased and sundry Typhonic animals,' crocodiles, serpents, scorpions, over which he appears to gain an easy victory. Invention seems to have failed the designer after this, for there is much mere repetition, and a monotonous character prevails. The 110th chapter, however, breaks in upon us with a grand representation of the heavenly world, on a large scale, but with most unartist-like exposition. Egypt and the Nile suggested, of course, the leading features of the draught, and it sets forth with sufficient completeness, the Egyptian equivalent for the Elysian fields, or the Islands of the Blessed. A quadrangular space is bounded and intersected by what is meant to represent water; and within these limits, the deceased appears in the full exercise of the very terrestrial occupations of boating, ploughing, sowing, reaping, thrashing, and offering to the

gods the first-fruits of his harvest. A little further on is the representation, still larger in dimensions, of the Hall of Judgment, to which we have already referred, and which has been too often both repeated and described, to require from us, at present, anything beyond a general reference to Sir Gardner Wilkinson and other accessible sources, though we do not remember to have seen it elsewhere so complete in all its details. There sits the inexorable arbiter, and before him are the unerring balance, the heavenly scribe, the stern assessors of Osiris, and the anxious expectant of the final award.

The section of text connected with this representation is evidently of the most important character, and there is much reason for regret that it can only be imperfectly explained. It bears an altered and more emphatic title. While the preceding forms are distinguished by a hieroglyphic sign which is rendered by the word 'chapter,' we have in this instance another, obviously denoting Roll' or 'book.' It seems, in fact, to be the most indispensible portion of this long and multifarious document, standing, in some instances, alone; and in others, with but slender accompaniment. There is one portion of it in particular, which may be so far interpreted as to show that, if the whole could be read off, we should probably obtain something like a complete exposition of one of the most curious questions in Egyptian theology-the precise character and office of the forty-two 'Assessors of Osiris' in their two-fold character, as earthly compurgators, and, in the heavenly court, as a sort of jury, whose verdict was irreversible. In the same number of columns, each containing the hieroglyphic figure of a divinity, these gods or demigods are separately addressed; and in the midst of appeals and deprecations, now but imperfectly apprehended, a clearer insight might give us a satisfactory definition of the prerogatives and powers of this terrible tribunal. To each was assigned the guardianship of a single ordinance, and if the verdict of these many-headed justicers were favourable to the deceased, he passed unscathed from this dangerous ordeal to his ultimate absolution at the throne of Osiris.

Our readers will by this time have formed to themselves a tolerably distinct idea of the shape and bearing of the 'Todtenbuch,' and a cursory reference to the remaining sections may be sufficient to complete the outline. Having in the previous division offered his devotions to the favouring gods, and defeated the personified malignities that opposed his progress, the hero of this wild and wondrous tale' seems now, protected by Osiris and in some mysterious way participant of the divine essence, to have set forth on a more distinct survey of the celestial localities, typified in part by a series of gates or doorways, some