Reprint Of Scarce, Or Curious, Books On Freemasonry. "The Life Of Sethos."

of it in public for forty days , by appearing with their garments rent , and m private by their austere fastings . But this last loss , the consequence of which every one was apprehensive of in his private concerns , filled each heart with inexpressible grief , insomuch that the priests who , upon the like occasions , were wont to countenance the public affliction , to do bonour to the memory of their deceased kings , found themselves obliged , in the present incidentto calm the minds and hearts of the peoplein order to preserve

, , that decorum which was , as they said , becoming a civilized nation , and to render to the manes of the deceased queen an homage more agreeable to her virtues . They declared that she died in peace , and that the oracles had removed her apprehensions for the destin } r of her son and people . They alleged the state of rest and felicity into which they had so much , reason to hope the gods would admit her at her approaching obsequies . They

endeavoured , in short , by all manner of consolatory advices , to assuage the pain of that wound which time alone could heal , and which they , however , feared time might render more sensible . Preparations were in the meantime making for the funeral pomp . No people ever came up to the Egyptians in this particular . Then - authors , and even ours , say * that they wore the first who had any notion of the immortality of the soul . Andindeedit appears bthe simplicity of their palaces

, , y , in comparison with the magnificence of their tombs , that they were more solicitous for the eternal mansions of a future life than for the transitory abodes of this . We must , however , allow that their doctrine on this head was not very consistent . For , not to mention the Metempsychosis which Pythagoras was for establishing among them , and which made the souls of men , when freed from the body , pass from one animal to another till after

the space of three thousand years they again entered into human bodies ; the wisest men allowed of a place of torment in hell for the souls of the wicked , and delightful fields for those of the good ; so that either opinion , or a mixture , such as it was , of both , left nothing in those costly tombs but a dead corpse , which , was very far from being eternal , but which , however , by the art they had of embalming , was more durable than the tombs themselves .

Those who were appointed to perform this last function had already taken charge of the queen ' s corpse . f They were officers of the second rank , very much respected in Egypt for the knowledge they had of the secrets of the priesthood , though they were no other than domestics of the priests . The operation was thirty days in performing . Having , by means of a lateral incision in the bodytaken out all the intestinesexcepting the heart and

, , reins , they anointed it both outwardly and inwardly with a certain gum composed of cedar , myrrh , cinnamon , and other perfumes , which not only preserved it for several ages , but caused it to diffuse an agreeable odour . They had , besides , the secret of giving a corpse 'its pristine form , insomuch that the deceased seemed to have retained the air of his countenance and the port of his person . The hairs , not only of his head but of bis

eyebrows and ej ^ elids , were distinctly preserved ; and what is yet more surprising , they restored to him an appearance of plumpness and a colour and freshness as natural as in the healthiest part of his life . Some private persons chose rather to preserve the bodies of then- relations , thus embalmed , in closets made for that purpose , than to deposit them in sepulchres already made , or to erect new ones for them ; and it was a singular satisfaction to them to behold their ancestors with the same physiognomies and in the same attitudes as when living .