Page:The Religion of Ancient Egypt.djvu/237

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LECTURE VI.

Chepera in the morning, Rā at noon, Tmu in the evening."

Another text says, "I am yesterday, I am to-day, I am to-morrow."

"Hail to thee, Ptah-tanen, great god who concealeth his form, … thou art watching when at rest; the father of all fathers and of all gods. … Watcher, who traversest the endless ages of eternity. The heaven was yet uncreated, uncreated was the earth, the water flowed not; thou hast put together the earth, thou hast united thy limbs, thou hast reckoned thy members; what thou hast found apart, thou hast put into its place; God, architect of the world, thou art without a father, begotten by thine own becoming; thou art without a mother, being born through repetition of thyself. Thou drivest away the darkness by the beams of thine eyes. Thou ascendest into the zenith of heaven, and thou comest down even as thou hast risen. When thou art a dweller in the infernal world, thy knees are above the earth, and thine head is in the upper sky. Thou sustainest the substances which thou hast made. It is by thine own strength that thou movest; thou art raised up by the might of thine own arms. Thou weighest upon thyself, kept firm by the mystery which is in thee. The roaring of thy voice is in the cloud; thy breath is on the mountain-tops; the waters of the inundation cover the lofty trees of every region. … Heaven and earth obey the commands which thou hast