"What is your opinion, Sesostris?" "There is," I answered, "a close resemblance between the rites which relate to the death and revival of Adonis at Byblos, and of your divinity Osiris in Egypt. Indeed the priests at Byblos claim to have the sepulchre of Osiris among them, and maintain that all the rites which are commonly referred to Adonis properly relate to Osiris." "Then Egypt derives Osiris from Phœnicia?" remarked Remeses, with a slight movement of the brows, and a smile. "Without doubt," I replied. "In Tyre we call Egypt the daughter of Phœnicia." "The daughter has out-grown the mother, dear Sesostris. We are proud of our parentage. We bow to Phœnicia as the mistress of letters and queen of the merchants of the earth. But what think the priests of Baalbec of Osiris and Isis?" "It is the tradition of those haughty priests that they are distinct persons," I replied. "The ceremonies and rites with which they worship these deities are truly magnificent, and are invested with every form of the beautiful and gorgeous. Ours, as I have said, in some points resemble your Egyptian rites in honoring Osiris and Isis; but while you Egyptians, Remeses, adore only an abstract attribute of the deity, _we_ adore the hero and the heroic woman--Adonis and Astarte. We rise not beyond them. We elevate them to the heavens and to the moon, and call them our gods. Truly, in the presence of the sublimer, purer myth which is the element of your faith, O Remeses, I feel that I am not far above the Barbara kings of Southern Africa, who deify each his predecessor. The priests of Isis, when they were in Phœnicia, attempted to elevate our worship; but we are still idolaters, that is, mere men-worshippers. Or, where we do not pay them divine honors, we offer them to the sun, and moon, and stars. I must be initiated, O Remeses, into the profounder intellectual mysteries of your spiritual myth, now that I am in Egypt." "You shall have your wish gratified. The high priest of On shall receive orders to open to you (what is closed to all strangers) the sacred and mystic rites of our faith."