Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Voices From Dead Nations. By Kenneth R. H. Mackenzie, F.S.A., Ph.D.
VOICES EEOM DEAD NATIONS . BY KENNETH R . H . MACKENZIE , F . S . A ., Ph . D .
THE DAWN . " rb Zrjrovfjtevov ^ Xojtop ' kfccpevyecderafjiexov ^ evoi ^ . " ^ Sophocles , Old . Tvp , v . 110 , 111 , The name of Plutarch was advisedly omitted in speaking of the reliable authorities upon Egypt . His brilliant essay on Isis and
CHAPTER II .
Osiris contains the whole system of the Egyptian religion according to the Greeks only . When the tenets which it upholds had concreted themselves into a system and age which lent them authority , Plutarch wrote—wrote with conviction and with feeling . Truth does not necessarily rest upon belief only . The whole plan of the book is to explain , upon a peculiar theory , the meaning of that of which the key
i 11 1 i Tl .. * i _ 1 _ ~ 4 K-.-. „^ J , „ -. / - > -.-. * - » ,-v «/ -x 4- l-. f-.-i- 4-l- > y -v / rinri r * c \ vr' It < ~ \ ac \ had been lost . It was in the Alexandrian age that the critics , whose imaginations outran their information , began to arrange and vitalize the few remaining traditions of Egyptian religion in accordance with the religious traditions of their own country . The Greeks went to Egypt to discover their own gods there , not to acquire a new
belief , and full of faith in the creed of Hellas they soon proved their own case . To pare off a redundancy , to imagine a mystery , to add a circumstance , would be with them not only a work of ingenuity but of merit ; humanity is ever humanity , and they wanted to prove themselves right just as much as the moderns w ant to prove themselves so .
Hence the inventions of cycles for chronological computation . The progress of astronomical discovery placed enlarged means at the disposal of the Alexandrian school . There were two aims in the astronomy of those days ; the one was to discover the future places of the planets , to watch the rising and setting of the stars , in order to turn the information so obtained to useful purposes in navigation , an art then making great strides ; the second was more fanciful , and was called astrology . f
Auguste Comte has very lucidly defined the aim and possible scope of the astronomy of the time of Ptolemy , the geographer : % — - "The aim of astronomical researches was to establish what would be the state of the sky at some future time ; and no accumulation of facts could effect this , till the facts were made the basis of reasonings .
* " The thing that ' s sought is to be found ; But what ' s left unregarded Hies unknown . " t Of the verity of astrology , as a science , I have formed no opinion that can be called certain . and definite . i- Comte ' s Positive Philosophy , translated by H . Murtme ; ui , vol . i . p . 141 .
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Voices From Dead Nations. By Kenneth R. H. Mackenzie, F.S.A., Ph.D.
VOICES EEOM DEAD NATIONS . BY KENNETH R . H . MACKENZIE , F . S . A ., Ph . D .
THE DAWN . " rb Zrjrovfjtevov ^ Xojtop ' kfccpevyecderafjiexov ^ evoi ^ . " ^ Sophocles , Old . Tvp , v . 110 , 111 , The name of Plutarch was advisedly omitted in speaking of the reliable authorities upon Egypt . His brilliant essay on Isis and
CHAPTER II .
Osiris contains the whole system of the Egyptian religion according to the Greeks only . When the tenets which it upholds had concreted themselves into a system and age which lent them authority , Plutarch wrote—wrote with conviction and with feeling . Truth does not necessarily rest upon belief only . The whole plan of the book is to explain , upon a peculiar theory , the meaning of that of which the key
i 11 1 i Tl .. * i _ 1 _ ~ 4 K-.-. „^ J , „ -. / - > -.-. * - » ,-v «/ -x 4- l-. f-.-i- 4-l- > y -v / rinri r * c \ vr' It < ~ \ ac \ had been lost . It was in the Alexandrian age that the critics , whose imaginations outran their information , began to arrange and vitalize the few remaining traditions of Egyptian religion in accordance with the religious traditions of their own country . The Greeks went to Egypt to discover their own gods there , not to acquire a new
belief , and full of faith in the creed of Hellas they soon proved their own case . To pare off a redundancy , to imagine a mystery , to add a circumstance , would be with them not only a work of ingenuity but of merit ; humanity is ever humanity , and they wanted to prove themselves right just as much as the moderns w ant to prove themselves so .
Hence the inventions of cycles for chronological computation . The progress of astronomical discovery placed enlarged means at the disposal of the Alexandrian school . There were two aims in the astronomy of those days ; the one was to discover the future places of the planets , to watch the rising and setting of the stars , in order to turn the information so obtained to useful purposes in navigation , an art then making great strides ; the second was more fanciful , and was called astrology . f
Auguste Comte has very lucidly defined the aim and possible scope of the astronomy of the time of Ptolemy , the geographer : % — - "The aim of astronomical researches was to establish what would be the state of the sky at some future time ; and no accumulation of facts could effect this , till the facts were made the basis of reasonings .
* " The thing that ' s sought is to be found ; But what ' s left unregarded Hies unknown . " t Of the verity of astrology , as a science , I have formed no opinion that can be called certain . and definite . i- Comte ' s Positive Philosophy , translated by H . Murtme ; ui , vol . i . p . 141 .