The Travels of Cyrus by Chevalier Ramsay
Pharaonic antiquity . 18 Ramsay certainly made use of Oedipus Egyptiacus , but he disputed the author ’ s conclusions , to the extent that his primary sources were Plutarch , especially his Essay on Isis and Osiris , and Iamblichus . This passage in the novel gives him the opportunity to build a kind of demiurgic and metaphysical narrative , a form of religious utopia illustrating the original perfection of the world . The account , in Book III , is in fact the story of Hermes Trismegistus . Born “ Siphoas , or Hermes , the second of the name ,” 19 he was orphaned and succored by a goat when he was still a baby . His powers of observation led him to discard his animal nature and become human . As his reason developed , he acquired cosmological understanding and realized that the universe was animated by a “ First Mover ,” 20 who he longs to know but never manages to find . However :
In the midst of these perplexities , his weak reason was silent , and could make no answer . His heart spoke , and turning itself to the First Principle , said to him in that mute language which the Gods understand better than words : Life of all beings ! Shew thyself to me ; make me to know who thou art , and what I am ; come and succour me in this my solitary and miserable state .
The great Osiris loves a pure heart , and is always attentive to its desires . He ordered the first Hermes , or Mercury , to take a human form , and to go and instruct him . 21
It is possible , of course , to see some influences of the theology of Pure Love in this recurrent emphasis on access to the divine word being made possible through purity of the heart . Next comes Mercury ’ s revelation , as he describes the beginnings of humanity :
The primitive state of man was very different from what it is at present . Without , all the parts of the universe were in a perfect harmony ; within , all was in subjection to the immutable laws of reason ; every one carried his rule within his own breast , and all the nations of the earth were but one republick of sages . Mankind lived then without discord , ambition , or pomp , in a perfect peace , equality and simplicity ; [ ... ] all inclinations were subservient to the love of virtue , and all talents applied to the discovery of truth ; the beauties of nature , and the perfections of it ’ s [ sic ] author , were the entertainment and study of the first men . 22
18 It is worth noting in passing that the vogue for Egypt gave rise , in 1731 , to the rite-of-passage novel Sethos by Abbé Jean Terrasson .
19 Ramsay , The Travels of Cyrus , p . 97 . 20 Ramsay , The Travels of Cyrus , p . 98 . 21 Ramsay , The Travels of Cyrus , pp . 99-100 . 22 Ramsay , The Travels of Cyrus , pp . 100-101 .
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