ABSTRACT
The first requisite to a fit survey of the Holy Island and its remains is a knowledge of why the place is so holy. And in order to understand why the place is so holy, it is necessary to be informed of the history and offices of Osiris. It is merely a claim that the old Egyptians should be regarded as having a faith; a faith to which they might refer the loftiest ideas of a high order of intellect, and in which they might repose the affections of their common human heart. Different districts of the great valley assigned their higher honours to different gods: but Osiris, Isis, and their son Horus were generally held in the deepest reverence. Among the allusive names of Osiris were those of “Opener of good,” “Manifester of grace,” and “Revealer of truth:” and the description of him was, in the ancient words, “full of grace and truth.”.
