On this point, Kurtz has said, forcefully: “A comparison of the religious symbols of the Old Testament with those of ancient heathendom, shows that the ground and the starting point of those forms of religion which found their appropriate expressions in symbols, was the same in all cases; while the history of civilization proves that on this point, priority cannot be claimed by the Israelites. But when instituting such an inquiry, we shall also find that the symbols which were transferred from the religions of nature to that of the spirit, first passed through the fire of divine purification, from which they issued as the distinctive theology of the Jews; the dross of a pantheistic deification of nature having been consumed.”[423] And as to even the grosser errors, and the more pitiable perversions of the right, in the use of these world-wide religious symbolisms, Kurtz says, again: “Every error, however dangerous, is based on some truth misunderstood, and ... every aberration, however grievous, has started from a desire after real good, which had not attained its goal, because the latter was sought neither in the right way, nor by right means.”[424] To recognize these truths concerning the outside religions of the world, gives us an added fitness for the comparison of the symbolisms we have just been considering, with the teachings of the sacred pages of revelation, on the specific truths involved. Proofs of the existence of this rite of blood-covenanting, have been found among primitive peoples of all quarters of the globe; and its antiquity is carried back to a date long prior to the days of Abraham. All this, outside of any indications of the rite in the text of Bible itself. And now we are in a position to turn intelligently to that text for fuller light on the subject. FOOTNOTES: [190] _Egypt’s Place_, V. 188. [191] This is illustrated by Ebers, in his romance of “Uarda;” where the surgeon, Nebsecht, finds such difficulty in obtaining a human heart, in order to its anatomical study. See, also, Birch’s statement, in _Egypt’s Place_, V., 135, and Pierret’s _Dict. d’Arch. Égypt._, s. v. “Cœur.” [192] _Anc. Egypt._, III., 472, note 6. [193] _Ibid._, III., 466, note 3. [194] In the Book of the Dead, Chapter xxxvi. tells “How a Person has his Heart made (or given) to him in the Hades.” And in preparing the mummy, a scarabæus,--a symbol of the creative or life-giving god--was put in the place of the heart. (See Rubric, chapter xxx., Book of the Dead; _Anc. Egypt._, III., 346, 486; also, note in _Uarda_, I., 305 f.). [195] _Egypt’s Place_, V., 14. [196] _Ibid._, V., 283. [197] _Anc. Egypt._, II., 27, note. [198] Prov. 4 : 23. [199] _Anc. Egypt._, II., 27, 31; III., 409. [200] _Ibid._, II., 32, Plate No. 300. [201] _Ibid._, II., 27 note 1. [202] Comp. _Ibid._, III., 409, 416 f. [203] See _Egypt’s Place_, V., 254. [204] _Rec. of Past_, II., 137-152. [205] See Lynd’s _Hist. of Dakotas_, p. 73.