The following pages are intended to place before the reader in a handyform an account of the principal ideas and beliefs held by the ancientEgyptians concerning the resurrection and the future life, which isderived wholly from native religious works. The literature of Egyptwhich deals with these subjects is large and, as was to be expected, theproduct of different periods which, taken together, cover severalthousands of years; and it is exceedingly difficult at times toreconcile the statements and beliefs of a writer of one period withthose of a writer of another. Up to the present no systematic account ofthe doctrine of the resurrection and of the future life has beendiscovered, and there is no reason for hoping that such a thing willever be found, for the Egyptians do not appear to have thought that itwas necessary to write a work of the kind. The inherent difficulty ofthe subject, and the natural impossibility that different men living indifferent places and at different times should think alike on matters