The first fifteen chapters, as Champollion perceived, form a complete whole in themselves. In the Theban texts they are called the "Chapter of going before the divine tribunal of Osiris." In the Saite period this is replaced by the more general title of "Beginning of the Chapter of _going forth from day_."(154) They describe how the soul can leave its mummy, can escape forced labour in the other world through the help of the _ushebti_, can pass in safety "over the back of the serpent Apophis, the wicked," and can acquire that "correctness of voice" which will enable it to repeat correctly the words of the ritual, and so enter or leave at will the world beyond the grave. The 15th chapter is a hymn to the Sun.
The 17th chapter begins a new section. It sums up in a condensed form all that the soul was required to know about the gods and the world to come. But it has been glossed and reglossed until its first form has become almost unrecognisable. The commentary attached to the original passages became in time itself so obscure as to need explanation, and the chapter now consists of three strata of religious thought and exposition piled one on the top of the other. As it now stands it unites in a common goal the aspirations of the followers of Osiris and of those of the solar cult; the dead man is identified with the gods, and so wends his way to the divine land in which they dwell, whether that be the fields of Alu or the bark of the Sun.
The chapters which follow are intended to restore voice, memory, and name to the dead man. With the restoration of his name comes the restoration of his individuality, for that which has no name has no individuality. Then follows (in chapters xxvi.-xxx.) the restoration of his heart, which is regarded first as a mere organ of the body, and then in the Osirian sense as the equivalent of the conscience. As an organ, the figure of a heart placed in the tomb was sufficient to ensure its return; as the living conscience and principle of life, something of a more mysterious and symbolic nature was needed. This was found in the scarab or beetle, whose name _kheper_ happened to coincide in sound with the word that signified "to become."(155)