and judges of the dead. Anubis, "the director of the weight," brought
forth a pair of scales, and, placing in one scale a figure or emblem of
Truth, set in the other a vase containing the good actions of the
deceased; Thoth standing by the while, with a tablet in his hand,
whereon to record the result. According to the side on which the balance
inclined, Osiris, the president, delivered sentence. If the good deeds
preponderated, the blessed soul was allowed to enter the "boat of the
Sun," and was led by good spirits to Aahlu (Elysium), to the "pools of
peace" and the dwelling-place of Osiris. If, on the contrary, the good
deeds were insufficient, if the ordeal was not passed, then the unhappy
soul was sentenced, according to its deserts, to begin a round of
transmigrations into the bodies of more or less unclean animals, the
number, nature, and duration of the transmigrations depending on the
degree of the deceased's demerits, and the consequent length and
severity of the punishment which he deserved or the purification which
he needed. Ultimately, if after many trials purity was not attained,
then the wicked and incurable soul underwent a final sentence at the
hands of Osiris, Judge of the Dead, and being condemned to annihilation,
was destroyed upon the steps of heaven by Shu, the Lord of Light. The
good soul, having first been completely cleansed of its impurities by
passing through the basin of purgatorial fire guarded by the four
ape-faced genii, was made the companion of Osiris for a period of three
thousand years; after which it returned from Amenti, re-entered its
former body, and lived once more a human life upon the earth. The
process was repeated till a mystic number of years had gone by, when,
finally, the blessed attained the crowning joy of union with God, being
absorbed into the Divine Essence, from which they had emanated, and thus
attaining the true end and full perfection of their being.

Such a belief as this, if earnest and thorough, should be productive of