But Ptolemy's political genius went
beyond such merely material and Warburtonian care for the conservation
of body and goods of his subjects. He effected with complete success a
feat which has been attempted, before and since, by very many princes
and potentates, but has always, except in Ptolemy's case, proved
somewhat of a failure, namely, the making a new deity. Mythology in
general was in a rusty state. The old Egyptian gods had grown in his
dominions very unfashionable, under the summary iconoclasm to which they
had been subjected by the Monotheist Persians--the Puritans of the old
world, as they have been well called. Indeed, all the dolls, and the
treasure of the dolls' temples too, had been carried off by Cambyses to
Babylon. And as for the Greek gods, philosophers had sublimed them away
sadly during the last century: not to mention that Alexander's
Macedonians, during their wanderings over the world, had probably become
rather remiss in their religious exercises, and had possibly given up
mentioning the Unseen world, except for those hortatory purposes for
which it used to be employed by Nelson's veterans. But, as Ptolemy
felt, people (women especially) must have something wherein to believe.
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