A pilgrimage to the temples and tombs of Egypt, Nubia, and ...

286 EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY.
of idols under such revolting forms. Whatever
may have been the philosophy hidden under these
emblems, the outward shapes it assumed—which
is all of it that has been revealed to us— pos-
sessed not the poetry of the Grecian mythology
(so well calculated to enthrall the imagination,
although it could not elevate the soul,) to redeem
it from the grosser tendencies of a worship whose
deities are represented as indulging in all the
passions, and committing all the crimes that
debase sinful human nature. We can look upon
the all but divine image of Olympian Jove, and
forget, in the contemplation of his god-like form,
the long catalogue of his human frailties ; we can
understand that men might bow down before the
imposing majesty of that marble brow, and adore,
even while they knew it to be the w^ork of
mortal hands. And thus it is with all the
sculptured gods of Greece, into w^hich the spirit
of beauty was so artfully infused as to render
them fit emblems of a divine essence. But who
can gaze upon the absurd semblance of Ammon
Ra, the ram-headed divinity, with any feeling
save that of repugnance ? what sentiment does
his sheepish face inspire beyond one of derision?
and can any persons, in their sober senses, glance
over the horrid hybrids of the Egyptian Pan-