Scarabs - The History, Manufacture and Religious Symbolism of the Scarabaeus in Ancient Egypt, Phoenicia, Sardinia, Etruria, etc.
by Issac Myer, LL.B.
1894

Excerpt from Introduction:

I am convinced that at the period when we first meet with the symbol of the scarabaeus in Egypt, it was already the symbol and tangible expression of an elevated religious idea, embracing that of a future life of the human soul, a resurrection of it from the dead, and most likely, of a reward or punishment to it in the future lilfe, based on its conduct when in the terrestrial life.