IX. SUMMARY


To sum up, the essential idea of the Egyptian conception of
immortality was that the ghost or spirit of the man preserved the
personality and the form of the man in the existence after death;
that this spirit had the same desires, the same pleasures, the
same necessities, and the same fears as on earth. Life after
death was a duplicate of life on earth. On earth life depended on
work, on getting food from the fields and the herds, on forming
stone and metal, hide and vegetable fibre, into useful objects.
In other words, life depended on human power over the natural
materials of the earth. At the same time there were many things
which could not be controlled by power over the earth and its
elements,--the sting of the scorpion, the bite of the adder,
the rise of the Nile, sickness, the sudden onslaught of the
enemy, the straying of cattle, the disfavor of the god. For these
evils man's only hope was magic,--the set words spoken in the
proper manner which have power over all unseen influence. So in
the case of life after death, all which human strength can
provide of stores of grain and drink and garments must be secured
for his use; but he must also be provided with the magic words to
meet the chance evils of the future life.

It is not surprising that the unknown future presented to the
imagination many evils unknown on earth. The spirit might forget
its name, it might lose its heart, it might be bound fast by evil
powers in the grave and unable to come forth by day. The mummy
might decay; the spirit might forget its form. So, as time went
on, the use of magic words became of greater and greater