absolutely but God; that the human soul is an emanation from His
essence, and will ultimately be restored to Him, and that the
supreme object of life should be a daily approach to the eternal
spirit, so as to form as perfect a union with the divine nature
as possible. How nearly this belief approaches the Christian
doctrine, will be easily seen.

Persian poetry is nearly all in the form of love stories, of
which the "Misfortunes of Mejnoun and Leila" represent the
Eastern Romeo and Juliet, and may have been known to Shakespeare
in the writing of his own drama.


EGYPTIAN.

Egypt shared with ancient Babylon and Assyria in the civilization
of its primitive literature. It is from five of its Pyramids,
opened in 1881, that valuable writings have been brought to light
that carry us back one thousand years before the time of Moses.

Their famous "Book of the Dead,"of which many copies are found in
our museums of antiquities, is one instance of their older
civilization. These copies of the original, in the form of
scrolls, are some of them over a hundred feet long, and are
decorated with elaborate pictures and ornamentation. The book
gives conclusive proof of the teaching of the Egyptians of a life
beyond this. Their belief in the journey of the soul after death
to the Underworld, before it is admitted to the Hall of Osiris,
or the abode of light, is akin to the Catholic doctrine of
Purgatory and Heaven. The Egyptian literature is painted or