Your modern nations owe their greatness to Egypt--Egypt her greatness to her priests.

Rapt in themselves, coveting a sway over the nobler part of man, his soul and his belief, those ancient ministers of God were inspired with the grandest thought that ever exalted mortals.

From the revolutions of the stars, from the seasons of the earth, from the round and unvarying circle of human destinies, they devised an august allegory; they made it gross and palpable to the vulgar by the signs of gods and goddesses, and that which in reality was Government they named Religion.

Isis is a fable--start not!--that for which Isis is a type is a reality, an immortal being; Isis is nothing.

Nature, which she represents, is the mother of all things--dark, ancient, inscrutable, save to the gifted few.