The deceased does not confine himself to denying any ill conduct; he speaks of the good he has done in his lifetime. “I have made to the gods the offerings that were their due. I have given food to the hungry, drink to the thirsty, and clothes to the naked.” We may well on reading these passages be astounded at this high morality, superior to that of all other ancient people, that the Egyptians had been able to build up on such a foundation as their religion. Without doubt it was this clear insight into truth, this tenderness of conscience, which obtained for the Egyptians the reputation for wisdom, echoed even by Holy Scripture. Besides these general precepts, the apology acquaints us with some police regulations for public order, raised by common interest in Egypt to the rank of conscientious duties. Thus the deceased denies ever having intercepted the irrigating canals, or having prevented the distribution of the waters of the river over the country; he declares that he has never damaged the stones for mooring vessels on the river. Crimes against religion are also mentioned; some seem very strange to us, especially when we find them classed with really moral faults. The deceased has never altered the prayers or interpolated them. He has never touched any of the sacred property, such as flocks and herds, or fished for the sacred fish in the lakes of the temples; he has not stolen offerings from the altar, nor defiled the sacred waters of the Nile. The Osiris is now fully satisfied; his heart has been weighed in the balance with truth, and not been found wanting; the forty-two assessors have pronounced that he possesses the necessary knowledge. The great Osiris pronounces his sentence, and Thoth, as recorder to the tribunal, having inscribed it in his book, the deceased at last enters into bliss. Here commences the third part of the Ritual, more mystical and obscure than the others. We see the Osiris, henceforth identified with the sun, traversing with him, and as him, the various houses of heaven, and the lake of fire, the source of all light. Afterwards the Ritual rises to a higher poetical flight, even contemplating the identification of the deceased with a symbolical figure comprising all the attributes of the deities of the Egyptian Pantheon. This representation ends the work. EGYPTIAN WORSHIP. The gods of Egypt were worshiped in temples and tombs. Every town had at least one temple. The services were conducted by the priests, and on special occasions the king and scribes joined. The common people had but little to do with the worship. The most important worship took place in the innermost chambers, where only the priests were at all permitted to go. [Illustration: AVENUE OF SPHINXES LEADING TO A TEMPLE.] [Illustration: GATEWAY OF THE ANCIENT EGYPTIAN TEMPLE OF KARNAK.]