Introduction.

traces of Egyptian origin. This is not the place to prove this at length; however, whoever takes the trouble to compare what we know of the Egyptian worship original: "Gottesdienst," referring to the formal religious rites and service to the deity. with the Jewish one will find nothing daring in this assertion. Egyptians and Jews, Persians and Greeks, and the oldest peoples known to us believed in miracles and secret powers. The priests everywhere were in exclusive possession of this doctrine; and since they had earned great prestige among the common masses original: "bey dem allgemeinen Haufen," literally "among the general heap," a term often used in historical texts to describe the uneducated public. as servants of God and as men of wonderful knowledge: it is easy to understand that they were more intent on increasing their reputation and presenting themselves to the people as men of extraordinary gifts and knowledge, than they were on making their science known. Had they done the latter, more enlightenment regarding the whole would indeed have been spread, but at the same time a great part of their prestige would have vanished as soon as it was realized that it was possible for people other than the priests to attain this alleged spiritual height original: "Geisteshöhe," meaning an elevated state of intellectual or spiritual development.. Thus arose, bit by bit,