Chapter 10 (part 16)

Thou art one in thine attributes among the gods, thou beautiful bull of the company of the gods, thou chief of all the gods, lord of Maat , father of the gods, creator of men, maker of beasts and cattle, lord of all that existeth, maker of the staff of life, creator of the herbs which give life to beasts and cattle . . . . . . . . Thou art the creator of things celestial and terrestrial, thou illuminest the universe . . . . . . . The gods cast themselves at thy feet when they perceive thee . . . . . Hymns of praise to thee, O father of the gods, who hast spread out the heavens and laid down the earth . . . . . thou master of eternity and of everlastingness. . . . . . . . Hail to thee, O Ra, lord of Maat , thou who -art hidden in thy shrine, lord of the gods. Thou art Khepera in thy bark, and when thou sendest forth the word the gods come into being. Thou art Tmu, the maker of beings which have reason, and, however many be their forms, thou givest them life, and thou dost distinguish the shape and stature of each from his neighbour. Thou hearest the prayer of the afflicted, and thou art gracious unto him that crieth unto thee; thou deliverest the feeble one from the oppressor, and thou judgest between the strong and the weak . . . . . The Nile riseth at thy will. . . . Thou only form, the maker of all that is, One only, the creator of all that shall be. Mankind hath come forth from thine eyes, the gods have come into being at thy word, thou makest the herbs for the use of beasts and cattle, and the staff of life for the need of man. Thou givest life to the fish of the stream and to the fowl of the air, and breath unto the germ in the egg; thou givest life unto the grasshopper, and thou makest to live the wild fowl and things that creep and things that fly and everything that belongeth thereunto. Thou providest food for the rats in the holes and for the birds that sit among the branches . . . . . . thou One, thou only One whose arms are many. All men and all creatures adore thee, and praises come unto thee from the height of heaven, from earth's widest space, and from the deepest depths of the sea . . . . . . . . thou One, thou only One who hast no second . . . . . .whose names are manifold and innumerable." We have seen above that among other titles the god Amen was called the "only One", but the addition of the words "who hast no second" is remarkable as showing that the Egyptians had already conceived the existence of a god who had no like or equal, which they hesitated not to proclaim side by side with their descriptions of his manifestations. Looking at the Egyptian words in their simple meaning, it is pretty certain that when the Egyptians declared that [1. See above, p. xcv.] their god was One and that he had no second, they had the same ideas as the Jews and Muhammadans when they proclaimed their God to be "One" and alone.