ABSTRACT
The most striking thing at Thebes is perhaps the evidence on every hand of the importance to the old Egyptian mind of the state of the dead. To the philosopher there is nothing surprising in this; for he knows that it must be so to an infant race, inexperienced in the history of man, and unlearned as to the powers of the human mind, and the relative value of its aims. When the Pharaohs built their palaces and temples, they had more aims than one to fulfil. They blazoned their own deeds upon them; but they glorified the deeds of their fathers, even more carefully than their own. To the old Egyptians, as to all who are heedless of the unborn human race in interest for those who have lived, the true congregation of the human race must always have been looked for beyond the grave.
