Daily Kennebec journal., 1913-12-29

esting personality not only of that
long line of shadowy Pharaohs, but Of
the ancient world. This great king
was Akhnaton, ''the first individual in
human history likewise the first OF
all founders of religious systems. He
ranks as the worlds first idealist, and
his religious revolution introduces the
study of advanced thought.
Akhnaton, when the reins of goveru-
ment fell to him, was barely eleven
years of age. His mother. Queen Tiy
acted as regent during his minority
He married Nefertiti, the eight-year-
old daughter of the king of Mitanni, in
Syria. The Pharaohs took to them
selves many wives; we have no record
that Akhnaton ever married but once.
That the overshadowing power OF
the priests might be diminished, his
mother early determined to oppose cult
against cult. Thus, at the very be-
ginning of his life, Akhnaton's
thoughts were directed towards the
great religious strife. He thought
much, observed closely, read widely;
and, as a consequence, rejected root
and branch the religion of his fathers
and of his subjects. He saw visions
and dreamed dreams. He tells US that
to him alone did God reveal himself:
and he always speaks of himself, and
is spoken of, as the originator and
teacher of the faith he now began
slowly but surely to unfold.
Let us review in broad outline the
salient features of his remarkable
faith; for no such theology had ever
appeared in the world before. Atom, the
sun, or rather, "the heat which is in
Atom" was the true God. He centered
the eyes of his followers upon the suns
disc, and then taught them of that
force which was the author of the
dazzling orb to which they rendered
homage, and of its energy as typified
in its lifegiving heat. Akhnaton defined
Atom as the formless essence, the
binding force which runs through all
things and doth all unite" Like
flash of binding light in the night
time, Atom stands out for a moment
amid the black Egyptian darkness, and
disappears once more-the first signal
to this world of the future religion of
the West"
OF special emphasis, both because o.
its results upon the new religion and
to Akhnaton personally, was the fact
that Atom was the Lord of peace"
utterly opposed to bloodshed and strife
In an age of military renown, when
the sword and buckler, the plumcd
helmet and shirt of mail glittered in
every street and upon every highway,
Akhnaton preached from a throne the
doctrine of the brotherhood of man
and dreamed of universal peace.
Akhnaton loved his wife and daugh-
ters with a tender, abiding affection,
and endeavored to elevate the position
of women and the sacredness of the
family. Always in public the queen
was at his side, and around his feet
his children romped and played. Con-
trary to all precedent, his wife is rep
resented in his reliefs as of the same
size as himself.
Strenuous opposition to the new re-
ligion now permeated to all classes and
ranks. What counted a creed, what
mattered all the gods when Egypt's
proud empire was breaking up? Akh-
nation saw before his eyes signs which
could only be interpreted as pointing
to his absolute undoing. The misery
of failure was his, the blackness Of
despair. around him the darkness OF
coming death. His feeble frame was
overwhelmed. and simultaneously with
the fall of his empire. Akhnaton died.
Thus" writes the historian, "disap-
peared the most remarkable figure in
early Oriental history; thus died such
a spirit as the world had never seen
before"
A few years ago Mr.. Davis of Prov
idence, R. l., the celebrated American
Egyptologist. discovered in one of the
old tomb shafts at Thebes the mu1a-
mified body of Akhnaton, which now
rests in the Egyptian Museum at