ROYAL SOCIETY OF LITERATURE.

[Agreeably to our notification in the last Literary Gazette, we now give insertion to Mr. Osburn's valuable paper on Egyptian funereal papyri.]

THE great Ritual, or book of the dead, is a roll of papyrus, containing a formula or directory of the adventures of the soul after death, according to the notions of the ancient Egyptians. Copies of the ritual are not unfrequently found in the tombs and mummy-pits of Egypt. Numbers of them have been brought to Europe, and the collection of them in the Museum is a very extensive one.

Referring to a copy of one of these singular but hitherto well-nigh unknown documents in his hand, Mr. O. explained it to consist of three great divisions, all of which are very seldom found in the same copy. The first, which is divided into four chapters, represents in vignette the funeral procession with the offerings made to Phre the rising, and Athom the setting, sun. The second part contains the adventures of the soul in the world underground until its reunion with the embalmed body, and the judgment of the whole man in the hall of the two Themes, or truths, before the bar of Athom, or Osiris. The third part relates the remaining adventures of the dead before the manifestation to light, or, in other words, the resuscitation on the return to life and the upper world, which is the grand aim of their psychology. Some general remarks upon the second part of this formulary, serving to make its contents and meaning in some degree intelligible, were nearly as follows.

new moon (an expression which the zodiac at Ombos makes perfectly intelligible). I am the great god, firm for ever on the waters of the new moon. I am the father of the gods, otherwise called PH, whose name is in that of all the gods. I am the sun in his three dominions. I am Athom in his disc shining from between the two mountains eastward in heaven." The new moon is the celestial Nile; or, in other words, the course of the sun in the visible heavens, which the Egyptians supposed to be a huge abyss, or river of water, along which the sun passed in twelve barks, corresponding to the twelve hours of the day. It is said in another part of the ritual, that in the new moon there are no fishes, but many long snakes. These were the enemies with which Athom contended there, as we find from the Ombite zodiac. The word PH, the sun, concludes the hieroglyphic names of all the principal gods, as Amoun-re, and a number of others. This explains the phrase "whose name," &c. The sun in his three dominions alludes to the triple division of the entire circle of his diurnal course. The four hours immediately before and the four hours immediately after sunset belonged to Athom, the eight hours of night to Osiris, and the eight hours of morning and noon to Phre, the divine hawk, i. e. the rising sun. The expression denotes that three constitute a triple manifestation of one and the same being. The soul responds to this gracious assurance, "I conquer through my father Phre: the arm of the gods hath fought."

"The divine lord of destruction falls upon the apes.

He who is the president of this region hath given them battle."

While Osiris hath refreshed me, he is the west wherein the souls feast

Whom Osiris, the lord of the gifts of the west, inviteth."

In all the best copies this part of the ritual is introduced by four vignettes, placed the one under the other, and occupying the entire breadth of the papyrus. The uppermost of these vignettes represents a boat with divinities. On reference to the square zodiac at Ombos, we find this to be the bark of the sun in the twelfth hour of the day. On board this bark is the soul of the deceased person kneeling to Athom, the setting The expressions in the latter verses are made sun. The succeeding picture represents the intelligible by the vignettes which accompany disc of the sun having just sunk below the sym- them. In these the soul is represented seated bol of the visible heaven, when two goddesses, in two houses, called the habitations of the two probably Isis and Nephthys, open the right and western mountains; in both of which it partakes left portals of the west to receive him. It was of bread, wine, and milk. This is the viaticum plainly designed to indicate by this, that the of the soul preparatory to its perilous journey soul went into the nether world in the bark of in the nether world,-a notion which doubtless the sun at sunset. In the third vignette, Sol passed from hence into the Greek and Roman (accompanied, of course, by the soul) is receiv-mythologies. The effect of this viaticum was to ed into the arms of Athom, the god of the set- render the soul instinct with, or rather one with, ting sun, and of Heliopolis. On each side of the soul of Osiris in the land of Tuhon, or firmthe god are four apes, or zerozigakot, who in ness. Thus prepared for its terrible adventure, every part of the ritual represent the ministers the deceased approached the bark of the first of vengeance. They are accusing the deceased hour of the night, and commenced its voyage of the crimes he had committed while on earth; along the Mehmoon, or infernal abyss, or, in but he is protected from them by the god Athom, other words, the nocturnal path of the sun having secured his patronage by the rich obla- through the heavens beneath, which, like his tions, the representation of which, and the pray- diurnal path, they supposed to be a vast river or er which accompanied them, formed the conclu- abyss, along which the sun navigated in twelve ding chapter of the preceding part of the ritual. barks or boats. The hieroglyphic text here, as almost every- It appears evidently from hence, that accordwhere else in this part of the ritual, is a dialogue.ing to the mythic notions of the ancient Egyp The deceased, at the termination of the preced- tians, the soul descended into the nostar with ing part, had asked for the god's protection. the setting sun, and it was in the bark of the The god replies to him, granting it; he also de- nocturnal sun that it sailed along to its trial beclares to the deceased certain of his titles; as-fore Osiris in the judgment-hall. This very "I am Athom, the slayer of mine enemies in the singular notion, which the tenor of the ritual

makes perfectly obvious, has, it is believed, hitherto entirely escaped observation.

One other point, also, of general interest to the comprehension of the scope and tenor of the entire ritual, was further noticed.

A passage in the prayer, or imprecation, to be said on entering the bark of the first hour of the night, gives us the geography of the vast river upon the navigation of which the soul was just entering. It reads thus:

this account, which is, nevertheless, evidently the notion embodied in this passage of the ritual.

Let us now (said Mr. O.) give the rationale of this strange absurdity. The most ancient city of Egypt, according to all the Greek authors, was Heliopolis, at the apex of the Delta. It was deserted in the times of Strabo and Diodorus, and all the obelisks at Rome were brought from the ruins of its temples and palaces. It will be observed that Heliopolis stands exactly in the

"This is the ancient source of the abyss, oth-place where settlers from the north-east would erwise called the pool of Natron.

When he seeks to be manifested between the two mountains of the east."

To explain this passage, it was shown that the hieroglyphic as well as the Coptic name of the city of Abydos signifies the east, or the place of sun-rising.

be likely to find the first patch of cultivable land. These first settlers brought with them from Babel the worship of the setting sun, which they established in their new city. The view westward from Heliopolis would at that time be bounded to the verge of the horizon by the interminable swamps which the labors of the first kings, by means of moles and ditches, converted afterwards into the Delta and the valley of the Natron Lakes. The knowledge of physical geography of these first immigrants must necessarily have been very limited. It is not improbable that they were ignorant of the fact, that the Euphrates ran into the sea. Of the universal law by which all rivers ultimately terminate there, they would of course know nothing. The vast morass in which the river then terminated would also present very formidable difficulties to adventurers so ill supplied with the aids necessary for exploring it as the first settlers. It is, therefore, very supposable that years and even generations would elapse after the founding of Heliopolis, ere any thing like an exact knowledge of the termination of the river

The pool of Natron, mentioned in this passage, can be no other than the well-known valley of the Natron Lakes, which many modern travellers conjecture to have been at some time the principal debouchure of the Nile. Herodotus expressly states that originally this was the case, and that the course of the river was divert-was acquired by them. It was probably in this ed by Menes. The framers of the ritual, which, it must be recollected, dates from the very commencement of the history of Egypt, evidently supposed that the celestial Nile, which the sun navigates in the daytime, and the terrestrial Nile united their streams in the valley of the Natron Lakes, where they both sank together into the abyss to form the infernal Nile, or course of the sun at night. This again rose out of the earth at Abydos, where it once more di verged; the one branch ascended into heaven with the sun, the other flowed along the earth and formed the Nile of Egypt.

intermediate period of ignorance that the second part of the ritual (which is evidently the most ancient) was framed. The Heliopolitan sages saw the sun disappear nightly in the same swamp in which the river also disappeared. Both went down in the same place, and they knew nothing of what became of either the one or the other. They also observed that the sun reappeared every morning; the waters of the river also reappeared. The valley of the Nile must at this time have been explored as far as Abydos. Now, as the sun and river both seemed to go down together, they inferred from This bizarrerie was evidently not unknown hence that they remained together after their to Herodotus; he alludes to it in several places. disappearance. It was also the same sun that In one place he tells us that Homer called the set in the west and reappeared in the east: Nile avós, because it was generally believed they concluded that the identical water which that it began in an ocean as well as ended in disappeared with the sun reappeared in the opone. In another place he laughs at the geo-posite direction. They assumed in a word graphical notions entertained by a priest of (which was so common in the early state of soNuth at Sais in the Delta. This venerable ad-ciety), that phenomena were realities, and that mirer of the wisdom of his ancestors gravely informed him that the Nile arose out of a vast abyss between two mountains, called Koop and Moq, which were situated between Syene and Elephantine in the Thebaid. King Psammetichus had tried for the depth of this abyss, but found it unfathomable. Such was the enormous quantity of water which it disgorged, that it sent forth one river to the north, which was the Nile, and another to the south, which ran through Ethiopia. As Herodotus had been himself further up the Nile than either Syene or Elephantine, he was of course much amused with

the then existing limits of their knowledge were the limits of all possible knowledge. In the valley of the Natron Lakes, therefore, was the world's end. There the river and the sun sank together into an imaginary abyss, and after traversing the world of spirits, rose again at the other end of the visible world. This they decided to take place at the extreme point of their existing knowledge of the river; and therefore they named that point Abydos, i. e. Eßr, the east, theplace of rising. Geographical theories scarcely less absurd were gravely taught and devoutly believed throughout the high schools of Europe not 500 years ago.

'slept upon the guillotine for twenty-five years.' His conversation was very animated and interesting, but it related chiefly to events in which he had been an actor, and his inordinate vanity induced him to say: 'I am not a king, but I am more illustrious than any of them.' His statements did not deserve implicit credence, and I may mention as an instance his bold denial that during the whole course of his long administration as Minister of Police, any letter had ever been opened at the post-office."

"I formed his acquaintance at Dresden, where he arrived about November, 1815, as French Minister, but in a sort of honorable exile; and he told me that the Duke of Wel- "Amongst a great number of anecdotes lington had advised him not to accept that which he related to me, there were two that mission, saying, 'You will get into a hole exhibited in a very striking manner the ferwhich you will never be able to leave.' He tility of his resources when he acted on his afterwards expressed to me his regret at not own theatre, though, as I shall afterwards having followed that advice, and his opinion show, he appeared utterly helpless amidst the that the anticipation was realized by the difficulties which he encountered at Dresden. event. From an exaggerated opinion, both While he was on a mission to the newly-esof his own importance and of the malice of tablished Cisalpine Republic, he received his enemies, he had left Paris in disguise, orders from the French Directory to require and was so apprehensive of being recognized, the removal of some functionaries who were that when he met his wife on the road he obnoxious to the Austrian government. He would not acknowledge her. He had re- refused to comply, and stated in his answer mained some weeks at Brussels, and carried that those functionaries were attached to on a correspondence with the Duke of Wel- France; that the ill-will with which they lington and others, but, after receiving from were viewed by the Austrian government was the French government a peremptory order not a reason for the French government to to repair to his post, he continued his jour- demand their dismissal; that, according to ney under the name of M. Durand, marchand intelligence which had reached him, Austrian de vin, till he came to Leipzig, where he re- troops were advancing, and that the war sumed his own name. He was accompanied would be renewed. The orders were reiteby his wife, who was of the family of Castel- rated without effect, and one morning he was lane, and related, as he said, to the Bourbons, informed that an agent of the Directory was with four children by his former marriage, by arrived at his house, and was accompanied an eldest son who appeared to be of weak in- by some gens-d'armes. Fouché desired that tellect, and who became remarkable for his the agent might be admitted, and that a mesavarice, by two other sons who, even in their sage might be sent to his friend General Jouchildhood, exhibited a strong disposition to bert, who commanded some French troops cruelty, by a daughter, and by a very intrigu- then stationed in the same town, requesting ing governess, Malle. Ribaud. He had been him to come immediately, and to bring with early in life a professor in the Oratoire, and him a troop of cavalry. The agent delivered it was said very truly at Dresden that he had to Fouché letters of recall, and showed to 'le visage d'un moine, et la voix d'un mort,' him afterwards an order to arrest him and to and, as he was for some time the only foreign conduct him to Paris. Fouché made some minister at that court, that he appeared like observations to justify himself till the arrival the ghost of the departed corps diploma- of Joubert with the cavalry was announced, tique.' His countenance showed great in- when he altered his tone, and told the agent : telligence, and did not indicate the cunning You talk of arresting me, and it is in my by which he was eminently distinguished; power to arrest you.' Joubert said, on enhis manner was calm and dignified, and he tering the room,' Me voilà avec mes drahad, either from nature or from long habit, gons, mon cher ami; que puis-je faire à votre much power of self-possession. When I an- service?' and Fouché replied: 'Ce drôlenounced to him the execution of Marshallà veut m'arrêter.' Comment!' exclaimed Ney, of which by some accident I had re- Joubert, dans ce cas-là je le taillerai en ceived the earliest information, his counte-mille pièces.' The agent excused himself nance never changed. He appeared to be as being obliged to execute the orders which nearly sixty years of age, and his hair had he had received, and was dismissed by Fouché become as white as snow, in consequence of with the remark, Vous êtes un sot; allez his having, according to his own expression, tranquillement à votre hôtel.' When he had

retired, Fouché observed that the Directory ambiguous light, and he then received another was not respected either at home or abroad, message proposing to meet him at the house that it would therefore be easy to overthrow of a third party. To this proposal Fouché the Government, and that Joubert might ob- assented, on the condition that the interview tain high office if he would assist in the un- should take place in the presence of witdertaking. Joubert answered that he was nesses, two of whom should attend on each merely a soldier, and that he did not wish to side. On such an occasion any questions of meddle in politics; but he granted Fouché's etiquette must have appeared of very suborrequest of furnishing him with a military es- dinate importance, the condition was acceptcort to provide for his safety till he reached ed, and in the interview, which lasted several Paris. On the road he prepared an address hours and till long after midnight, Fouché to the Council of Five Hundred, which was was offered the appointment of Police, the calculated to be very injurious, and perhaps title of Prince, and the decoration of the St. fatal, to the government. When he arrived Esprit. Fouché replied that the advance of at Paris he called on each of the Directors, Napoleon was the natural and necessary conbut was not admitted, and he expressed to sequence of the general discontent which preme his conviction that he should have been vailed; that no human power could prevent arrested the next morning if he had not im- his arrival at Paris; that Fouché's acceptmediately insisted upon having an audience ance of office under such circumstances with Talleyrand, then Minister for Foreign might create an impression of his having beAffairs. Fouché, after defending his con- trayed a sovereign whom he ought faithfully duct, said that he considered it his duty, be- to serve; and that he was therefore obliged fore he presented his address, to show it to to reject the offers which in the course of the Talleyrand, who no sooner read it than he conversation were repeatedly pressed on his saw its dangerous tendency, and the whole acceptance. It seemed to be supposed by extent of the mischief to which it might lead. the French Government that the refusal of He told Fouché: 'I perceive that there has such offers was an indication of attachment been a misunderstanding, but every thing to Napoleon, and the next morning, when may be arranged;' and added, 'the post of Fouché was in his carriage, at a short disMinister to the Batavian Republic is now va- tance from his own house, he was stopped cant, and perhaps you would be willing to in the name of the King,' by an officer of accept it.' Fouché, who perceived that the police, attended by gens-d'armes. Fouché other was intimidated, determined to avail desired them to accompany him to his house, himself of the advantage which he had ac- when, on getting out of the carriage, he dequired, and replied that his honor and char-manded the production of the warrant by acter had been attacked, that immediate re- which he was arrested; and on its being paration was necessary, and that his credentials must be prepared in the course of the night, in order that he might the next day depart on his mission. This request having been granted, Fouché proceeded to state that his journey to Paris had been very expensive; that he had, through his abrupt departure from the Cisalpine Republic, lost several valuable presents which he would have received; and that his new mission required another outlay, for all of which he demanded an order for the immediate payment of two hundred thousand francs by the national treasury. Talleyrand gave the order without hesitation; and Fouché, who had arrived in disgrace, if not in great danger, departed the next morning as a minister plenipotentiary with a considerable sum of money. After Napoleon, on his return from Elba, had made such progress as alarmed the French government, Monsieur, afterwards Charles X., sent a message to Fouché, requesting a meeting with him in the Tuileries. Fouché declined it, saying that as the circumstances would be known, it would place his conduct in a very

shown to him, he threw it on the ground, exclaiming, 'It is a forgery; that is not the King's signature.' The officer of police, astounded by the effrontery with which Fouché spoke, allowed him to enter the house, when he made his escape through the garden, and went to the Princesse de Vaudremont, who concealed him till the return of Napoleon. Mdlle. Ribaud, the governess, sent a message to the National Guards requesting their immediate attendance, and conducted through the house the officer of police, as he told her that he had orders to take possession of Fouché's papers. His bureaus, &c. were searched, but nothing of any importance was found in them, and Mdlle. Ribaud when passing through her own room drew a trunk from beneath her bed, and, taking a key out of her pocket, offered to show her clothes to the officer of police, who said that he had no wish to give her that trouble. It was, however, in that trunk that Fouché's important papers were deposited. In the meantime the National Guards had arrived, and after they were harangued by Mdlle. Ribaud on the

merits and services of Fouché, and on the insult and injustice with which he had been treated, they drove away the gens-d'armes who attended the officer of police.

to engage, would have granted the guarantee which was required; that he should have been obliged to abdicate; and that a Republic would have been established in which "Fouché, who after the return of Napo- Fouché hoped and expected to acquire more leon was re-appointed Minister of Police, was power than he had yet possessed. Napoleon asked by him whether it was not very desira- had on a former occasion removed Fouché ble to obtain the services of Talleyrand, who from office, and reproached him with his inwas then one of the French ambassadors at satiable ambition, saying, 'You might always Vienna. Certainly, replied Fouché; and have been minister, but you aspired to be Napoleon then said, 'What do you think of more, and I will not suffer you to become a sending to him a handsome snuff-box? Cardinal Richelieu.' The Memoirs which Fouche was aware of the extreme absurdity after Fouché's death were published under of endeavoring to bribe a minister, who was his name do not appear to be authentic, and supposed to be rapacious, by a present which, the statements contained in them differ in as a matter of course, he had received on the many respects from those which I received conclusion of every treaty, and observed, if a from him, but neither the one nor the other snuff-box were sent to Talleyrand, he should may have been founded in truth. He read to open it to see what it contained. 'What do me occasionally some detached passages, you mean?' inquired Napoleon. It is idle,' which he composed without any reference to replied Fouché, to talk of sending to him a chronological order, but as the circumstances snuff-box. Let an order for two millions of occurred to his mind, and according to his francs be sent to him, and let one half of the original plan, which he communicated to me sum be payable on his return to France.' in a letter. He intended to divide his narra'No,' said Napoleon, ' that is too expensive, tive into the following parts :- La 1o exand I shall not think of it.' When Napoleon plique la révolution qui a fait passer la France determined to hold the Assembly of the de l'antique monarchie à la république; la 2o Champ de Mai, he convened his Council of celle qui a fait passer la France de la répubState, and read to them the speech which he lique à l'Empire de Bonaparte; la 3 celle intended to deliver on that occasion. Some qui a fait passer la France de cet Empire à of the members expressed their entire and un-la Royauté des Bourbons; la 4 partie dira qualified approbation, and others suggested a la situation de la France et de l'Europe.'" few verbal alterations; but Fouché, when it "In another letter he states:-' Je travaille came to his turn, said that he disapproved of huit heures par jour à mon mémoire. Ceux it both in its form and in its substance, and qui croyent que ce sont les hommes qui font he then strung together some of the commonplace phrases with which his ordinary conversation so much abounded, that 'truth must be heard,' that illusions could no longer prevail,' &c. One of the Councillors having remarked that a written document would be very desirable for the discussion, Fouché produced the speech which he had prepared. It stated that the Allied Powers had declared war not against France but against Napoleon; that if they were sincere in their professions, they would guarantee to France her independence, and the free choice of her own government, and that he would in that case abdicate the throne; but that if such a guarantee were refused, it would be a proof that they were insincere, and that he would then ask permission to place himself at the head of the French armies in order to defend the honor of the country. Napoleon made no observation; but, calling the Councillors to him in succession, and whispering a few words to each of them, they rejected the proposal. He must have perceived that the Allies, who viewed with anxiety and mistrust the mighty conflict in which they were about

les révolutions seront étonnés de voir leur origine. J'ai déjà peint le premier tableau des évènemens d'où sont sorties nos tempêtes passées. Le pendant de ce tableau sera un assez gros image d'où partira la foudre qui menace notre avenir.' His participation in the atrocities of the Revolution inspired horror at Dresden, where he formed very few acquaintances, and received hardly any visits except from Count Salmur, a Piedmontois, who had known him at Paris, and from General Gaudi, who had been sent by the Prussian Government to negotiate with respect to the line of demarcation of the Saxon provinces which were ceded, and who had received instructions from Prince Hardenburg to see Fouché frequently, and to watch his proceedings. Fouché said to me very often, J'ai une folle envie d'écrire, et il faut que j'aille à la campagne;' and I knew that he was not disturbed by many visitors, but I observed to him that he might give directions not to admit them. He replied, 'Ne voyezvous pas que j'ai une jeune femme, et quand je me pousse en force, je la perds d'une autre manière.' I told him that he might very