The Egyptian began to speculate upon
many strange problems that confronted him. Where did the
stars come from? Who made the noise of the thunder which
frightened him so terribly? Who made the River Nile rise
with such regularity that it was possible to base the calendar
upon the appearance and the disappearance of the annual
floods? Who was he, himself, a strange little creature surrounded
on all sides by death and sickness and yet happy and
full of laughter?
He asked these many questions and certain people obligingly
stepped forward to answer these inquiries to the best of
their ability. The Egyptians called them ``priests'' and they
became the guardians of his thoughts and gained great respect
in the community. They were highly learned men who were
entrusted with the sacred task of keeping the written records.
They understood that it is not good for man to think only of
his immediate advantage in this world and they drew his attention
to the days of the future when his soul would dwell
beyond the mountains of the west and must give an account
of his deeds to Osiris, the mighty God who was the Ruler of
the Living and the Dead and who judged the acts of men
according to their merits. Indeed, the priests made so much
of that future day in the realm of Isis and Osiris that the
Egyptians began to regard life merely as a short preparation
for the Hereafter and turned the teeming valley of the Nile
into a land devoted to the Dead.
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