MYSTERIES.

Religion, in its "original form, was simple and intelligible. It was intended for the instruction and education of all ranks of men, and of consequence its doctrines were on a level with vulgar capacities. The Jewish dispensation was openly practised; nothing was performed in secret; every article was plain, open, and accessible. The divine Author of the Christian economy commanded his disciples to preach his doctrine in the most public manner: “What ye have heard in secret,” says he, “preach openly; and what I have taught you in private, teach ye publicly; and proclaim it on the house-tops.” Such are the charms of truth, and such the character of that religion which came down from heaven, that they, as it were, “delight, and lift up their voice in the streets, and cry in the chief places of concourse.”

But such is the depravity of the nature of man, that the noblest institutions degenerate in his hands. Religion itself, originally pure, simple, and amiable, under his management has often been transformed into pollution, perplexity, and deformity. The ministers of religion, whose province it was to guard the sacred deposit, and to secure it from foreign and spurious intermixtures, have generally been the first innovators, and the first and most industrious agents in corrupting its integrity and tarnishing its beauty. Avarice and ambition prompted that class of men to deviate from the original plainness and simplicity of religious institutions, and to introduce articles, rites, and usages, which might furnish them with opportunities of gratifying these unhallowed and insatiable passions. Hence distinctions unknown to pure and undefiled religion were fabricated, and that heavenly institution, heretofore one, simple, indivisible, was divided into two partitions; the one popular and public; the other dark, secret, and mysterious. The latter of these we intend as the subject of this article.

The English word mystery is derived from the Greek μυσ- τηζιον; and, in its modern acceptation, imports something above human intelligence, something awfully obscure and enigmatical; any thing artfully made difficult; the secret of any business or profession. The word is often used by the founder of the Christian religion, and more frequently by his apostles, especially St Paul. In these cases, it generally signifies those doctrines of Christianity which the Jews, prior to the advent of the Messiah, either did not or could not understand. The Trinity in Unity and the Unity in Trinity, the incarnation of the Son of God, the union of two natures in one and the same person, &c. we generally call mysteries, because they are infinitely above human comprehension. All these significations are out of [7:15:658]the question at present. Our intention in this article is to lay before our readers the fullest and fairest account we have been able to collect, of those αιroponra, or secret rites, of the Pagan superstition, which were carefully concealed from the knowledge of the vulgar, and which are universally known under the denomination of mysteries.

The word μυστηpον is evidently deduced from μυστη% ; but the origin of this last term is not altogether so obvious. The etymologies of it exhibited by the learned are various; some of them absurd and inconsistent, others foolish and futile. Instead of fatiguing our readers with a detail of these, which would be equally unentertaining and uninteresting, we shall only produce one, which to us appears to come nearest the truth. The mysteries under consideration at present were certainly imported into Greece from the East. In those regions, then, we ought of course to look for the etymology of the word. Mistor or mistier, in Hebrew,signifies “any place or thing hidden or concealed.” As this word implies a kind of definition of the nature of the thing intended, and as it is one of the excellencies of original languages to apply vocables with this propriety, we find ourselves strongly inclined to assign the word mis-tur as the root of the term μυστηξ, myster.

We have already observed, that the avarice and ambition of the Pagan priesthood probably gave birth to the institution of the mysteries. To this observation we may now add, that the ministers of that superstition might possibly imagine, that some articles of their ritual were too profound to be comprehended by the vulgar; others, ;too sacred to be communicated to a description of men whom the institutions of civil society had placed in a situation not only subordinate, but even contemptible. It was imagined, that things sacred and venerable would have contracted a taint and pollution by an intercourse with sordid and untutored souls. These appear to us the most probable motives for making that odious and pernicious distinction between the popular religion and that contained in the sacred and mysterious ritual.

Bishop Warburton^[1. Divine Legation of Moses Demonstrated. ] is positive that the mysteries of the Pagan religion were the invention of legislators and other great personages, whom fortune or their own merit had placed at the head of those civil sociétés which were formed in the earliest ages in different parts of the world. It is with reluctance, and indeed with diffidence, that we presume to differ in our sentiments from such respectable authority. Whatever hypothesis this prelate had once adopted, so extensive was his reading, and so exuberant his intellectual resources, that he found little difficulty in defending it by an appearance of plausibility, if not of rational argumentation. The large quotations he has adduced from Plato and Cicero do indeed prove that the sages and legislators of antiquity sometimes availed themselves of the influence derived from the doctrines of the mysteries, and from the authority they acquired by the opinion of their having been initiated in them; but that those men were the inventors and fabricators of them, is a position for which his quotations do not furnish the most slender presumption. At the same time we think it not altogether certain that the doctrine of a divine Providence, and a future state of rewards and punishments, were revealed in the mysteries with all the clearness and cogency which is pretended by his lordship.

But, granting that the fabric was raised by the hands of sages and legislators, we imagine it would be rather difficult to discover what emolument that description of men could propose to derive from the enterprise. The institution was evidently, and indeed confessedly, devised to conceal from the million those very doctrines and maxims which, had they known and embraced them, would have contributed most effectually to dispose them to submit to those wise regulations which their governors and legislators wished most ardently to establish. Experience has taught that nothing has a more commanding influence on the minds of the vulgar than those very dogmas which, according to the bishop, were communicated to the initiated. A conviction of the unity of the deity, of his wisdom, power, goodness, omnipresence, &c. the steady belief of the immortality of the human soul, and of a future state of rewards and punishments, have in all ages and in all countries proved the firmest supports of legal authority. The very same doctrines, in the dawn of Christianity, contributed, of all other methods, the most effectually to tame and civilize the savage inhabitants of the northern regions of Europe.^[2. The Germans, Russians, and Scandinavians, who were never thoroughly civilized till the gospel was preached among them. ] Supposing those principles to have been inculcated by the mysteries, the most prudent plan legislators could have adopted would have been to publish them to all mankind. They ought to have sent forth apostles to preach them to the savages whom they had undertaken to civilize. According to the learned prelate, they pursued the opposite course, and deprived themselves of those very arms by which they might have encountered and overthrown all the armies of savagism.

Of all the legislators of antiquity, the Cretan alone was prudent enough to foresee and adopt this rational plan. Diodorus the Sicilian informs us that the mysteries of Eleusis, Samothracia, and other places, which were elsewhere buried in profound darkness, were amongst the Cretans taught publicly, and communicated to all the world. Minos, however, was a successful legislator, and his intercourse with Jupiter Idaeus extended his influence and established his authority. He was not under the necessity of calling in the mysteries to his assistance: on the contrary, it is highly probable that the universal knowledge of the doctrines of the mysteries among his countrymen contributed in a considerable degree to facilitate his labour and ensure his success.

The divine Author of the Christian economy, viewed in the light of a human legislator, saw the propriety of this procedure. Nothing was concealed in his institutions; nothing was veiled with mystery, or buried in darkness. The success was answerable to the wisdom of the plan. The million flocked to the evangelical standard; the gospel was preached to the poor, to the illiterate, and the vulgar; and the meanest of mankind eagerly embraced its maxims. Wherever it prevailed it produced civilization, morality, sobriety, loyalty, and every other private and social virtue. Upon the supposition that the mysteries had contained and inculcated the principles and practices which the prelate supposes they did, the civilizers of mankind, legislators, magistrates, and princes, ought to have combined to make them public for the sake of their own tranquillity, and the more effectual support of their authority and influence.

Upon the whole, we are inclined to believe that the mysteries were the offspring of Egyptian priestcraft. They were instituted with a view to aggrandize that order of men, to extend their influence, and enlarge their revenues. To accomplish these selfish projects, they applied every engine towards besotting the multitude with superstition and enthusiasm. They taught them to believe that themselves were the distinguished favourites of heaven; and that celestial doctrines had been revealed to them, too holy to be communicated to the profane rabble, and too sublime to be comprehended by vulgar capacities. It is, [7:15:659] we confess, exceedingly probable, that after the mysteries were instituted, and had acquired an exalted reputation in the world, legislators, magistrates, judges, and potentates, joined in the imposture, with the same views and from the same principles. Princes and legislators, who found their advantage in overawing and humbling the multitude, readily adopted a plan which they found so artfully fabricated to answer these very purposes. They had interest enough with the sacerdotal mystagogues,^[3. The mystagogues were the ministers who acted the chief part in celebrating the mysteries. ] to induce them to allow them to participate in those venerable rites which had already established the authority of that description of men in whose hands they were deposited. The views of both parties were exactly congenial. The respect, the admiration, and dependence on the million, were the ultimate objects of their ambition respectively. Priests and princes were actuated by the very same spirit. The combination was advantageous, and of consequence harmonious. For these reasons we have taken the liberty of differing from his lordship of Gloucester with respect to the persons who first instituted the secret mysteries of the Pagan religion.

Another writer of considerable reputation in the republic of letters is of opinion that the mysteries were entirely commemorative; that they were instituted with a view to preserve the remembrance of heroes and great men, who had been deified in consideration of their martial exploits, useful inventions, public virtues, and especially in consequence of the benefits by them conferred on their contemporaries. According to him,^[4. Principio hoc ego quidem controversia vacare, arbitror, mysteria quae vocantur, ritus fuisse idcirco institutos ne memoria periret veterum beneficiorum, inventorum, fatorum, rerum gestarum quibus primi populorum conditores, aut alii praeclari homines, decus nomen, et famam, inter suos sibi comparaverant. Neque baec cuiquam sententia mirabilis videri poterit. (Cud. Syst. Intellect, ed. Moshemii, p. 329.) ] the mysteries of Mithras were established for this very purpose. It would be no difficult matter to prove that the Persian deity of that name was the sun, and that his name and insignia jointly ascertain the truth of this assertion. The same writer extends this observation to the mysteries of the Egyptians, Phoenicians, Greeks, Hetruscans, and, in a word, to all the institutions of that species throughout the world. In opposition to this singular opinion, it may be argued, we think with some show of reason, that the method of preserving the memory of great and illustrious men generally adopted, was the establishing festivals, celebrating games, offering sacrifices, singing hymns, dances, &c. We can recollect no secret mysteries instituted for that purpose, at least in their original intention. If any usage of the commemorative kind was admitted, it was superinduced at some period posterior to the primary institution. At the same time, upon the supposition that the orgia of Bacchus were the same with those of the Egyptian Osiris, and that the mysteries of Ceres exhibited at Eleusis were copied from those of the Egyptian Isis, and allowing that the former was the sun, and the latter the moon, it will be difficult to find out the human persons whose exploits, adventures, inventions, &c. were intended to be immortalized by those institutions. Upon the whole, the mysteries were performed in secret; they were intended to be communicated only to a few; of course, had they been instituted with a view to immortalize the memory of heroes and great men, the authors would have acted the most foolish and inconsistent part imaginable. Instead of transmitting the fame of their heroes with eclat to posterity, they would by this procedure have consigned it to eternal oblivion.

We must then recur to our first position. The mysteries were the offspring of bigotry and priestcraft; they originated in Egypt, the native land of idolatry. In that country the priesthood ruled predominant. The kings were engrafted into their body before they could ascend the throne. They were possessed of a third part of all the land of Egypt.^[5. Diodorus Siculus, lib. i. ] The sacerdotal function was confined to one tribe, and was transmitted unalienably from father to son. All the orientals, but more especially the Egyptians, delighted in mysterious and allegorical doctrines. Every maxim of morality, every tenet of theology, every dogma of philosophy, was wrapt up in a veil of allegory and mysticism. This propensity no doubt conspired with avarice and ambition to dispose them to a dark and mysterious system of religion. Besides, the Egyptians were a gloomy race of men;^[6. Plutarch, de Iside et Osiride. ] they delighted in darkness and solitude. Their sacred rites were generally celebrated with melancholy airs, weeping, and lamentation. This gloomy and unsocial bias of mind must have stimulated them to a congenial mode of worship. In Egypt, then, we are to search for the origin of the mysteries. Both the nature of the institution and the genius of the people confirm this position; and historians, both ancient and modern, are agreed in admitting the certainty of the fact.

The Osiris of Egypt, every body knows, was the original Bacchus, as the Isis of the same country was the Ceres of the Greeks. The rites of Osiris were performed with loud shrieks and lamentations when he was put into the coffin, and with the most extravagant mirth when he was in a manner raised from the dead, or supposed to be found again. Their hymns were, upon the whole, always composed in melancholy, affecting strains, and consisted of lamentations for the loss of Osiris, the mystic flight of Bacchus, the wanderings of Isis, and the sufferings of the gods.^[7. Macrob. Saturnalia, ] The Canaanites, who were a kindred tribe of the Mizraim or Egyptians, imitated them in their sacred rites. At Byblus, Berytus, Sidon, and afterwards at Tyre, they used particularly mournful dirges for the death of Adonis or Tammuz, who was the same with the Egyptian Osiris, i. e. the sun.^[8. Plutarch. ]

The Egyptians, then, naturally inclined to gloom and secrecy, instituted a mode of worship congenial with their natural disposition of mind. The recess of the sun towards the southern hemisphere was the death^[9. Ezek. chap. viii.; and Nonni Dionys. ] of Osiris; the wanderings of Isis in search of her husband and brother, allegorically imported the longing of the earth^[10. Plutarch, de Iside et Osiride. ] for the return of the fructifying influence of the solar heat.

When that luminary returned towards the summer solstice, and grain, trees, fruits, herbs, and flowers adorned the face of nature, another festival was celebrated of a very different complexion from that of the former. In this season all Egypt was dissolved in the most extravagant mirth and jollity. During the celebration of those festivals, the priests formed allegorical representations of the sun and the earth.^[11. Isis, among the Egyptians, sometimes signifies the moon, and sometimes the earth. ] They personified the one and the other, and allegorized their motions, aspects, relations, sympathies, accesses, recesses, &c. into real adventures, peregrinations, sufferings, contests, battles, victories, defeats, and so forth. These, in process of time, were held up to the vulgar as real occurrences; and these in a few ages became the most essential articles of the popular creed. From this source were derived the conquests of Dionysius or Bacchus, so beautifully exhibited by Nonnus in his Dionysiacs; the wanderings of Io, wonderfully [7:15:660]adorned by Aeschylus; and the labours of Hercules, afterwards usurped by the Greeks.

Whether the Egyptians deified mortal men in the earliest ages, has been much controverted. Jablonski^[12. Ρantheon Egyptiorum. ] has taken much pains to prove the negative. Diodorus^[13. Lib. i. ] assures us that they paid their monarchs a kind of divine adoration, even in their lifetime. Plutarch tells us plainly,^[14. Osiride. ] that some were of opinion that Isis, Osiris, Horus, Anubis, and Typhon, were once mortal persons, who were exalted into demons after their death. The Sicilian, in his history of Isis and Osiris, Pan, Hermes, &c. plainly represents them as human personages; and informs us, that the Egyptians imagined that after their decease they transmigrated into particular stars. From these authorities, we are inclined to believe that the Egyptians, as well as the other Pagans, did actually deify persons who had distinguished themselves in their days of nature by prowess, wisdom, useful arts and inventions. This was a constant practice among the Greeks, who probably learned it from the people in question.

The exploits of these heroes had been disguised by allegorical traditions and hieroglyphical representations. They had been magnified beyond all dimensions, in order to astonish and intimidate the vulgar. They had been interlarded with the most extravagant fables, in order to gratify their propensity towards the marvellous. All these secrets were developed in the mysteries. The catechumens^[15. Catechumens were pupils who were learning the elements of any science. ] were informed of every particular relating to the birth, the life, the exploits, the adventures, the misfortunes, and decease of those heroic personages, and when, and by what means, they had attained to the high rank of divinities. At the same time we think it highly probable that those demigods were represented in their state of exaltation and heavenly splendour. The magicians of Egypt were abundantly qualified for exhibiting angels in machines. The souls of virtuous men who had not been eminent enough to merit the honour of deification, were shown in all the perfection of Elysian felicity; and perhaps the souls of tyrants, and of the children of Typhon,^[16. Typhon was the evil genius, or devil, of the Egyptians. ] were shown in Tartarus, suffering all the extremes of infernal punishment. From these exhibitions the mystagogues might naturally enough take occasion to read their pupils suitable lectures on the happy tendency of a virtuous conduct, and the dishonour and misery consequent upon a contrary course. They might set before them immortal renown, deification, and Elysium, on the one hand, and eternal infamy and misery on the other. This will probably be deemed the chief advantage accruing from this institution.

Besides the communications above mentioned, the catechumens were taught many secrets of physiology, or the nature of the phenomena of the world. This Pharnutus^[17. De Nat. Deorum. ] everywhere affirms, especially in his last book, towards the end. Plutarch, too, informs us that many of the Greek philosophers were of opinion that most of the Egyptian fables were allegorical details of physical operations. Eusebius acquaints us,^[18. Praeparatio Evangelii. ] that the physiology, not only of the Greeks, but likewise of the barbarians, was nothing else but a kind of science of nature, a concealed and dark theology, involved in fable and fiction, whose hidden mysteries were so veiled over with enigmas and allegories, that the ignorant million were as little capable of comprehending what was said as what was suppressed in silence. This, says he, is apparent from the poems of Orpheus, and the fable of the Phrygians and Egyptians. Dionysius of Halicarnassus likewise observes,^[19. Añtiquit. Roman. ] that the fables of the Greeks detail the operations of nature by allegories. Proclus^[20. In Tιmxo. ] makes the same observation concerning the people in question. The Egyptians, says he, taught the latent operations of nature by fables.

These physiological secrets were no doubt expounded to the initiated; and that the Egyptian priests were deeply skilled in physiological science, can scarcely be questioned, if we believe that Jannes and Jambres rivalled Moses with their enchantments. The preceding detail comprehends all that was revealed to the Epoptae in the original Egyptian mysteries. What articles might have been introduced afterwards we cannot pretend to determine.

Be that as it may, one thing is certain, namely, that the vulgar were excluded from all those choice secrets, which were carefully reserved for the nobility and sacerdotal tribes. To them it was given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of darkness; but to those who were without, all was mystery and parable. While the laity fed on husks, the clergy and the quality feasted on royal dainties. The priests who had devised these allegories understood their original import, and bequeathed it as an inestimable legacy to their children. Here then we have the primary object of the mysteries, namely, to develope to the initiated the original and rational import of those allegorical and mystical doctrines which were tendered to the uninitiated, wrapt up in impenetrable allegory and obscurity. To the former these were communicated and explained; the latter were obliged to stand at an awful distance, and retire as the Procul, 0 procul, este profani, thundered in their ears.

These allegorical traditions appear to have originated in Egypt (see Mythology). It was the general bias of the oriental genius. The Egyptians, however, according to the most authentic accounts,^[21. As early as the age of Joseph, the Egyptians were skilled in the interpretations of dreams, divinations, &c., and in the age of Moses they were become wise men, magicians, &c. ] were the greatest proficients in that science. The original subjects of these institutions were, we imagine, the articles we have specified above: but in process of time, according to the natural course of things, numerous improvements were made, and many new rites, ceremonies, usages, and even doctrines, were superinduced, which were utterly unknown to the original hierophants.^[22. Hierophant imports a priest employed in explaining the doctrines, rites, &c. communicated to the initiated. ] Simplicity is, for the most part, one of the distinguishing characters of a new institution; but succeeding architects generally imagine that something is still wanting to complete the beauty, the regularity, the uniformity, the magnificence, and perhaps the conveniency, of the structure. Hence, at length, it comes to be so overloaded with adventitious drapery, that its primary elegance and symmetry are altogether defaced. This was the case with the earliest Egyptian mysteries. Their subject was at first simple and easy to be comprehended; in time it became complex, intricate, and unintelligible.

In order to celebrate those mysteries with the greater secrecy, their temples were so constructed as to favour the artifice of the priests. The fanes, in which they used to execute their sacred functions, and to perform the rites and ceremonies of their religion, were subterraneous apartments, constructed with such wonderful skill and dexterity, that every thing that appeared in them breathed an air of solemn secrecy. Their walls were covered with hieroglyphic paintings and sculpture, and the altar was situated [7:15:661]in the centre of the apartment. Modern travellers^[23. Norden, Shaw, Pococke, &c. ] have of late years discovered some vestiges of them, and bear witness to the above description of those dark abodes.^[24. See an excellent description of these subterraneous abodes,'and of the process of probation carried on there, in a French romance, of great learning and ability, written by the Abbé Terrasson, entitled the Life of Sethos. ] In those subterraneous mansions, which the priests of that ingenious nation had planned with the most consummate skill, the kings, princes, and great men of the state encountered the dangers and hardships contrived to prove their prudence, fortitude, patience, abstinence, &c. These were appointed to try their merit; and by these the hierophants were enabled to decide whether or not they were duly qualified for receiving that benefit. Upon these occasions, we may believe, abundance of those magical tricks were exhibited, for which the magicians of Egypt were so much celebrated among the ancients. The strange and astonishing sights, the alternate successions of light and darkness, the hideous spectres exposed to view, the frightful howlings re-echoed by these infernal domes, the scenes of Tartarus and Elysium, exhibited alternately and in quick succession, must have made a deep and lasting impression on the mind of the affrighted votary.^[25. Persons who had descended into Trophonius’s vault were said to have been so terrified with shocking sights, that they never laughed during the remainder of their lives. ] These scenes we shall describe more fully in the sequel.

From the scenes exhibited in celebrating the Egyptian mysteries, especially those of Isis and Osiris, the Greeks seem to have copied their ideas of the infernal regions, and the subterraneous mansions of departed souls. Many colonies of Egyptians settled in Greece. From these the αοιδοι, ^[26. These were strolling poets, like our minstrels, who frequented the houses of the great men of Greece, and entertained the company upon public occasions with singing and tales of other times. ] or most early bards of Greece, learned them imperfectly. Of course, we find Homer’s account of the infernal regions, and of the state of departed souls, lame and incoherent. Succeeding bards obtained more full and more distinct information. Euripides and Aristophanes seem to have paved the way for the prince of Roman poets. Plato^[27. Phaedo. ] and some of the other philosophers have shown, by their descriptions or allusions, that the whole apparatus of Tartarus and Elysium had become a hackneyed topic some centuries before Virgil was born. This incomparable poet borrowed his ideas from Homer, Aristophanes, Euripides, Plato, &c. These, under his plastic hand, in the sixth Aeneid, grew into a system beautiful, regular, uniform, and consistent. The materials he has employed were created to his hand; he had only to collect, polish, arrange, and connect them. The sentiments collected from the Platonic philosophy, and the inimitable episode copied from the annals of Rome, by the masterly skill which he has displayed in the application of them, form the chief excellencies of the piece. For the rest, he could well dispense with going to Eleusis:^[28. Bishop Warburton has, with much ingenuity, and a vast profusion of reading, endeavoured to prove that Virgil borrowed the whole scenery of the sixth Aeneid from the sources mentioned in the text. ] every old woman in Athens and Rome could repeat them.

Egypt was, then, the native land of mysteries as well as of idolatry. Every god and goddess respectively had their mysteries; but as those of Isis and Osiris were the most celebrated, they of course became principal objects of pursuit as well as of imitation to the neighbouring nations. These, as is generally believed, were carried into Persia by Zoroastres, or Zerdusht, by whom they were consecrated to Mithras. On these we shall make some observations in the sequel. Orpheus imported them into Thrace; Cadmus brought them into Boeotia, where they were sacred to Bacchus. Inachus established them at Argos in honour of Juno, the same with Isis;^[29. Isis was the moon, and the original Juno was the same planet. ] Cyniras in Cyprus, where they were dedicated to Venus. In Phrygia they were sacred to Cybele, the mother of the gods.

Our learned readers, who will probably reflect that the Egyptians were in ancient times inhospitable to strangers, will perhaps be surprised -that this fastidious and jealous people were so ready to communicate the arcana of their religion to foreigners. But they will please recollect, that a great part of Greece was planted with colonies from Egypt, Phoenicia, Palestine, &c. This we could easily prove, did the bounds prescribed us admit such a digression. Orpheus, if not an Egyptian, was at least of oriental extraction. Inachus, Cadmus, and Melampus, are universally allowed to have been Egyptians. Erechtheus, in whose reign the Eleusinian mysteries were established, was an Egyptian by birth, or at least sprung from Egyptian ancestors. The Egyptians, then, in those early ages, did not view the Greeks in the light of aliens, but as a people nearly related either to themselves or the Phoenicians, who were their brethren. Upon this connection we imagine it was that in later times most of the sages of Greece, especially of Athens, found so hospitable a reception among that people. They probably viewed them in the light of propagandi; apostles able and willing to disseminate their idolatrous rites. This observation, which might be supported by numberless authorities, did the nature of the present inquiry permit, will, we think, go a great way towards obviating the objection.

Although, as has been observed, every particular deity had his own peculiar mysterious sacred rites, yet, of all others, those of Mithras, Bacchus,^[30. Bacchus was the Osiris of the Egyptians, and Ceres was the Isis of the same people. ] and Ceres, were deemed the most august, and were most universally and most religiously celebrated. To these, therefore, we shall in a’good measure confine ourselves upon this occasion. If our readers shall become intimately acquainted with these, they may readily dispense with the knowledge of the rest, which are, indeed, no more than streams and emanations from these sources. We shall, then, in the first place, present to our readers a brief sketch of the mysteries of Mithras.

Mithras, or, according to the Persian, Mihr, was one of the great gods of the Asiatics. His worship was for many ages confined to Persia. Afterwards, however, it was propagated so far and wide that some have imagined they had discovered vestiges of it even in Gaul. Mihr, according to Dr Hyde,^[31. Religio Ve't. Persarum. ] signifies love, and likewise the sun. If we might presume to differ from so respectable an authority, we should conjecture that it is a cognate of the Hebrew word muthir, “excellentia,praestantia.” Thatthere was an analogy between the Hebrew and old Persian, is generally admitted by the learned. Be that as it may, Mithras was the sun^[32. Mosheim, in his note on Cudworth’s Intellectual System, p. 330, has taken much pains to prove that Mithras was a deified mortal; but we cannot agree with that learned man in this-point. ] amongst the Persians; and in honour of that luminary this institution was established. Mithras, according to Plutarch,^[33. Isis and Osiris, p. 369, line 20 from the bottom. This philosopher makes Zoroaster, according to some, 5000 years prior to the Trojan war. This date is certainly extravagant. We cannot, however, agree with some moderns, who make him contemporary with Darius Hystaspes, the immediate successor of Cambyses, because it contradicts all antiquity. ] was the middle god between Oramaz and [7:15:662]Ariman, the two supreme divinities of Persia. But the fact is, the solar planet was the visible emblem of Oramaz, the good genius of the Persian tribes, and the same with the Osiris of the Egyptians. From these people, some have imagined that Zoroastres,^[34. Μ. Silohwette (Disser. v. p. 17) asserts that Zoroaster was initiated amongst the Egyptians. ] or Zerdusht, borrowed his mysteries of Mithras. To this opinion we cannot give our assent, because the probationary trials to be undergone by the candidates among the former were much more savage and sanguinary than among the latter. Both, however, were instituted in honour of the same deity; and probably the scenes exhibited and the information communicated in both were analogous, a circumstance which perhaps gave birth to the opinion above mentioned.

The grand festival of Mithras was celebrated six days, in the middle of the month of Mihr.^[35. The month Mihr began September 30, and ended October 30. ] Upon these days, it was lawful for the kings of Persia to get drunk and dance. On this festival, we imagine, the candidates for initiation, having duly proved their vocation, were solemnly admitted to the participation of the mysteries.

Zoroastres^[36. See Dr Hyde de Rel. Vet. Pers. p. 16, 17∙ Mr Bryant’s Anal. vol. i. p. 232. Porphyr, de Antrο. Nymph. p. 254. This philosopher often mentions the cave of Mithras, and always attributes the institution of his rites to Zoroaster. ] worshipped Mithras, or the Sun, in a certain natural cave, which he formed into a temple, and fitted up in a manner exactly mathematical. There Mithras was represented as presiding over the lower world, with all the pomp of royal magnificence. In it, too, were seen the symbols of Mithras and of the world, philosophically and mathematically exhibited, to be contemplated and worshipped. This deity was sometimes represented as mounted on a bull, which he is breaking, and which he kills with a sword. On some bas-reliefs still existing, he appears as a young man with his tiara turned upward, after the manner of the Persian kings. He is clothed with a short tunic and breeches, after the Persian fashion. Sometimes he wears a small cloak. By his sides are seen other human figures, with tiaras of the same fashion on their heads, but without cloaks. One of these figures commonly holds in the one hand a torch lifted up; in the other, one turned downward. Sometimes over the cave are seen the chariots of the sun and moon, and divers constellations, such as cancer, scorpio, &c.

In one of these caves the ceremonies of initiation were performed; but before the candidate could be admitted, he was forced to undergo a course of probationary exercises, so numerous and so rigorous that very few had courage and fortitude enough to go through them. He was obliged to live a life of virtue and abstinence for the space of seven years previous to the period of his initiation. Some months before it, he was obliged to submit to a long and austere fast, which continued fifty days. He was to retire several days to a deep and dark dungeon, where he was successively exposed to all the extremes of heat and cold. Meantime he frequently underwent the bastinado, which the priests applied without mercy. Some say this fustigation continued two whole days, and was repeated no less than fifteen times. In the course of these probationary exercises, the candidate was generally reduced to a skeleton; and we are told, that there have been several instances of persons who have perished in the attempt.

Upon the eve of the initiation, the aspirant was obliged to brace on his armour,^[37. Jul. Firmicus. ] in order to encounter giants and savage monsters. In those spacious subterraneous mansions a mock hunting was exhibited. The priests and all the subordinate officers of the temple, transformed into lions, tigers, leopards, boars, wolves, and other savage creatures, assailed him with loud howlings, roaring, and yelling, and every instance of ferine fury. In those mock combats, the hero was often in danger of being really worried, and always came off with bruises and wounds. Lampridius informs us, that when the Emperor Commodus was initiated, he actually carried the joke too far, and butchered one of the priests, who attacked him in the figure of a wild beast. The Persians worshipped Mithras or the Sun by a perpetual fire; hence the votary was obliged to undergo a fiery trial; that is, to pass seven times through the sacred fire, and each time to plunge himself into cold water. Some have made these probationary penances amount to eighty; others have thought that they were in all only eight. As we find no good authority for either of these numbers, we think ourselves at liberty to hazard the following conjecture. The number seven was deemed sacred over all the East. The Mithriac penances, we imagine, were either seven, or, if they exceeded it, were regulated by seven repetitions of that number. The candidate having undergone all these torturing trials with becoming patience and fortitude, was declared a proper subject for initiation. But before his admission he was obliged to bind himself by the most solemn oath, with horrible imprecations annexed, never to divulge any single article of all that should be communicated to him in the course of his initiation.

What ακοppnτα or ineffable secrets were imparted to the initiated, it is impossible at this distance of time to discover with any tolerable degree of certainty. We may, however, rest assured, that the most authentic tradition concerning the origin of the universe; the nature, attributes, perfections, and operations of Oromasd; the baleful influences of Ariman; and the benign effects of the government of Mithras, were unfolded and inculcated. The secret phenomena of nature, as far as they had been discovered by the Magi, were likewise exhibited; and the application of their effects, to astonish and delude the vulgar, were taught both in theory and practice. The exercise of public and private virtues was warmly recommended; and vice represented in the most odious and frightful colours. Both these injunctions were, we may suppose, enforced by a display of the pleasures of Elysium and the pains of Tartarus, as has been observed above in describing the mysteries of the Egyptians.

Those initiations are mentioned by Lampridius in the life of Commodus, and likewise by Justin^[38. Dial, cum Tryphone. ] and Tertullian,^[39. De Proescrípt. adver. Hoeret. ] who both flourished in the second century. The last of these two speaks of a kind of baptism, which washed from the souls of the initiated all the stains which they had contracted during the course of their lives prior to their initiation. He at the same time mentions a particular mark which was imprinted upon them,^[40. In allusion to this practice of imprinting a sacred mark, probably on the forehead of the initiated, we find the injunction to the angel, Ezek. chap. ix. ver. 4, and the Revelation passim. ] of an offering of bread, and an emblem of the resurrection; which particulars, however, he does not describe in detail. In that offering, which was accompanied with a certain form of prayer, a vessel of water was offered up with the bread. The same father elsewhere informs us, that there was presented to the initiated a crown suspended on the point of a sword; but that they were taught to say, Mithras is my crown. By this answer was intimated, that they looked upon the service of that deity as their chief honour and ornament.
[7:15:663]

After the rites of the Teletse^[41. The mysteries were called Tektoe, which imports, “the rites which confer perfection.” ] were finished, the pupil was brought out of the cave or temple, and with great solemnity proclaimed a lion of Mithras;^[42. Tertull. adv. Marc. p. 55. The priests of Mithras were called the lions of Mithras, and his priestesses lionesses, some say hyaenas. The other inferior ministers were called eagles, hawks, ravens, &c. and on their festivals they wore masks corresponding to their titles, after the Egyptian manner, where the priests appeared at the ceremonies with masks resembling the heads of Lions, apes, dogs, &c. a circumstance which furnishes a ptesumption that the mysteries of Mithras were of Egyptian original. ] a title which imported strength and intrepid courage in the service of the deity. They were now consecrated to the god, and were supposed to be under his immediate protection; an idea which of course animated them to the most daring and dangerous enterprises.

The worship of Mithras was introduced into the Roman empire towards the end of the republic, where it made very rapid progress. When Christianity began to make a figure in the empire, the champions for Paganism thought of proposing to men the worship of this Power of Benevolence, in order to counterbalance or annihilate that worship which the Christians paid to Jesus Christ the true Sun of Righteousness. But this mode was soon abolished, together with the other rites of Paganism. The Persian grandees often affected names compounded with Mithras; hence Mithridates, Mithrobarzanes, &c.; hence, too, the precious stone called Mithridat, ^[43. Solinus, cap. x. ] which by the reflection of the sun sparkled with a variety of colours. There is likewise a certain pearl of many different colours, which they call Mithras. It is found among the mountains near the Red Sea; and when exposed to the sun, it sparkles with a variety of dyes. We find likewise a king of Egypt of that name, who reigned at Heliopolis; who being commanded in a dream to erect an obelisk to the solar deity, reared a most prodigious one in the neighbourhood of that city.

The votaries of Mithras pretended that he was sprung from a rock, and that therefore the place where the mysterious ceremonies were communicated to the initiated was always a cave. Many different reasons have been assigned for the origin of this rock-born deity, most of which appear to us unsatisfactory. If our readers will be obliging enough to accept of a simple and obvious conjecture, they may take the following. A rock is the symbol of strength and stability;^[44. Our Saviour probably alludes to this emblem, when he talks of building his church on a rock; and adds, that the gates of hell should not prevail against it. ] the dominion of Mithras, in the opinion of his votaries, was as firm as a rock, and as stable as the everlasting hills. If our readers should not admit the probability of this conjecture, we would beg leave to refer them to the learned Mr Bryant’s Analysis of Mythology, where they will find this point discussed with deep research and wonderful ingenuity. Whatever may have been the origin of this opinion with relation to the birth of Mithras, it is certain that some reverence to rocks and caves was kept up a long time even after the establishment of Christianity. Hence the prohibition given to some of the proselytes to that religion, that they should no more presume to offer up their prayers ad petras, at the rocks.^[45. The Caledonian druids seem to have regarded certain stones with a superstitious veneration, in which the Catholics imitated them. There are in several places of Scotland large stones, which the vulgar call leere stones, that is, we imagine, lecture. ]

We shall conclude our account of the mysteries of Mithras, by citing a passage from Μ. Anquetil, to whom we are so much indebted for what knowledge we have of the Persian theology, and in which the functions of that deity are briefly and comprehensively delineated. “The peculiar functions of Mithras are to fight continually against Ahriman and the impure army of evil genii, whose constant employment is to scatter terror and desolation over the universe; to protect the frame of nature from the de mons and their productions. For this purpose he is furnished with a thousand ears and a thousand eyes, and traverses the space between heaven and earth; his hands armed with a club or mace. Mithras gives to the earth light and sun: he traces a course for the waters: he gives to men corn, pastures, and children; to the world virtuous kings and warriors: he maintains harmony upon earth, watches over the law,” &c. As the history of Mithras, and the nature of his mysteries, are not generally known, we imagined it would be agreeable to many of our readers to have the most important articles relating to that subject laid before them as it were in detail.

We now proceed to the orgia or mysteries of Bacchus, which we shall introduce with a brief history of that deity. The original Dionysius or Bacchus was the Osiris of the Egyptians, which last was the Sun.^[46. See Macrob. lib. i. cap. 21, p. 247, bottom; Diogenes Laert. in proeemiο, par. 10; Martian. Capel, lib. ii.; Jablonski, vol. i. lib. ii. 415, par. 3; Plut. Jsis et Osiris, passim. ] Whether there was an Egyptian monarch of that name, as Diodorus Siculus affirms,^[47. Lib. i. ] has no manner of connection with the present disquisition. The Greek name of that deity is plainly oriental, being compounded of di, “bright,” and nasta or nasa, in the Aeolic dialect nusa, “a prince.” This name was imported from the East by Orpheus, Cadmus, or by whoever else communicated the worship of Osiris to the Greeks. That the Dionysius of the Greeks was the same with the Osiris of the Egyptians, is universally allowed. Herodotus tells us expressly,^[48. Lib. ii. cap. 144. ] that Osiris is Dionysius in the Greek language: Martianus Capellus, quoted above, expresses the very same idea.^[49. Theol. Egypt, lib. ii. cap. i. ] The original Osiris, then, was the sun; but the Dionysius or Bacchus of the Greeks was the same with the Osiris of the Egyptians; therefore the Bacchus or Dionysius of the Greeks was likewise the same luminary.

The name Osiris has much embarrassed critics and etymologists. The learned Jablonski,^[50. Pantheon. Egypt. ] instead of delineating the character, attributes, operations, adventures, exploits, and peculiar department assigned this deity by his votaries, has spent much of his pains on trying to investigate the etymology of his name. If it be granted, which is highly probable, that the Hebrew and Egyptian tongues are cognate dialects, we should imagine that it is actually the Chosher or Oshir of the former language, which imports “to make rich, to become rich.” Indeed the words Osiris and Isis were not the vulgar names of the sun and moon amongst the Egyptians, but only epithets importing their qualities. The name of the sun amongst that people was Phre or Phra, that of the moon Ioh, whence the Greek Io. The term Osiris was applied both to the sun and to the river Nile, both which by their influence contributed respectively to enrich and fertilize the land of Egypt.

It was a general custom amongst the orientals to denominate their princes and great men from their gods, demigods, and heroes. When the former were advanced to divine honours, they were in process of time confounded with their archetypes. The original divinities were forgotten, and these upstart deities usurped their place and prerogatives. In the earliest periods of the Egyptian monarchy, there appeared two illustrious personages, Osiris [7:15:664]and Isis. These were the children of Kronus; and being brother and sister, they were joined in matrimony, according to the custom of the Egyptians. As the brother and husband had assumed the name of the Sun, so the sister and consort took that of Isis, that is, “the woman,”^[51. Horus Apollo, cap. iii. . ] a name which the Egyptians applied both to the moon and to the earth, in consequence of the similarity of their nature, their mutual sympathy, and congenial fecundity. Osiris having left his consort Isis regent of the kingdom, with Hermes as her prime minister, and Hercules as general of her armies, quitted Egypt with a numerous body of troops, attended by companies of fauns,^[52. Men and women dressed in the habits of those rural deities. ] satyrs, singing-women, musicians, &c. and traversed all Asia as far as the Eastern Ocean. He then returned homeward through Upper Asia, Thrace, Pontus, Asia Minor, Syria, and Palestine. Wherever he marched he conferred numberless benefits on the savage inhabitants. He taught the art of cultivating the ground, preserving the fruits of the earth, and distinguishing the wholesome and nutritive from the unwholesome and poisonous. He instructed them in the culture of the vine; and where vines could not be produced, he communicated to them the method of producing a fermented liquor from barley, very little inferior to wine itself. He built many cities in different parts of the globe, planted numerous colonies,^[53. Many have thought this expedition fabulous; but the numberless monuments of Egyptian architecture, sculpture, and statuary, that have been discovered in the East seem to confirm it. ] and, wherever he directed his course, instituted just and wholesome laws, and established the rites and ceremonies of religion, and left priests and catechists of his train to teach and inculcate the observance of them. In short, he left everywhere lasting monuments of his progress, and at the same time of his generosity and beneficence. Where he found the people docile and submissive, he treated them with kindness and humanity; if any showed themselves obstinate, he compelled them to submit to his institutions by force of arms.

At the end of three years, he returned to Egypt, where his brother Typhon, a wicked unnatural monster, had been forming a conspiracy against his life. This traitorous design he soon afterwards accomplished in the following manner: He invited Osiris, with some other persons whom he had gained over, to an entertainment. When the repast was finished, he produced a beautiful coffer, highly finished, and adorned with studs of gold, promising to bestow it on the person whom it should fit best. Osiris was tempted to make the experiment. The conspirators nailed down the cover upon him, and threw the coffer into the river. This coffer, now become the coffin of Osiris, was, they inform us, wafted by the winds and waves to the neighbourhood of Byblus, a city of Phoenicia, where it was cast on shore, and left by the receding waves at the foot of a tamarind tree.

Isis, in the mean time, disconsolate and forlorn, attended by Anubis, was ransacking every quarter in search of her beloved Osiris. At length being informed by her faithful attendant and guardian, that his body was lodged somewhere in the neighbourhood of Byblus, she repaired to that city. .There, they say, she was introduced to the queen, and after a variety of adventures^[54. For the conquests and adventures of Osiris and Isis, we must refer our learned readers to Diod. Sic. B'ιlL 1. i. and Plutarch, Ids èt Osiris, p. 256, et seq. which we have been obliged to abridge, in consequence of the narrow limits prescribed to us. ] she recovered the corpse of her husband, which, of course, she carried back with her to Egypt; but the mischievous Typhon, ever on the watch, found her on the banks of the Nile, and having robbed her of her charge, cut the body into fourteen parts, and scattered them up and down. Now, once more, according to the fable, Isis set out in quest of those parts, all of which, one only excepted, she discovered, and interred in the place where she had found them; and hence the many tombs of Osiris in that country. These tombs were denominated taposins by the natives. Many other fabulous adventures were ascribed to those two personages, which it is not our province to enumerate at present. If our readers should wish to be more minutely informed on this subject, they may have recourse to the account given by Diodorus Siculus, or to the learned Mr Bryant’s Analysis of Ancient Mythology, and Μ. Cour de Gebelin, where they will find matter enough to gratify their curiosity.

To commemorate those adventures, the mysteries of Isis and Osiris were instituted; and from them both those of Bacchus and Ceres, amongst the Greeks, were derived. Of the Egyptian solemnity we have an exact epitome in one of the fathers of the church, to the following purpose: “Here follows,” says he, “an epitome of the mysteries of Isis and Osiris. They deplore annually, with deep lamentations and shaved heads, the catastrophe of Osiris, over a buried statue of that monarch. They beat their breasts, mangle their arms, tear open the scars of their former wounds; that by annual lamentations the catastrophe of his miserable and fatal death may be revived in their minds. When they have practised these things a certain number of days, then they pretend that they have found the remains of his mangled body; and having found them, their sorrows are lulled asleep, and they break out into immoderate joy.” What maxims of morality, secrets of physiology, or phenomena of astronomy, were couched under this allegorical process, it is not our business to investigate in this place. We shall only observe, that, in all probability, Osiris and Isis were sovereigns of Egypt at a very early period; that they had conferred many signal benefits on their subjects, who, influenced by a sense of gratitude, paid them divine honours after their decease; that in process of time they were confounded with the sun and the moon; and that their adventures were at length magnified beyond all credibility, interlarded with fables and allegories, and employed in the mysteries as channels to convey a variety of instructions to the initiated.

But be that as it may, it is certain that the very same mode of worship was established at Byblus, and in after ages transferred to Tyre. The Mizraim and Chanaanim were nearly connected by blood, and their religious ceremonies were derived from the very same source. By what medium the worship of Osiris at Abydus and Tyre was connected, we shall leave to others to explain; we shall only observe, that amongst the Phoenicians this deity obtained the names Adonis and Bacchus. The former is rather an epithet than a name;^[55. Adonis is evidently the Hebrew Αdοηi, or Adonai, “my lord,” and imports the sovereignty of the deity. ] the latter is evidently an allusion to the weeping and lamentation^[56. Bacchus is derived from the Phoenician word bahah, “to weep.” This was the name embraced by the Romans. ] with which the rites were performed. We find another name of that divinity mentioned in Scripture;^[57. Ezek. chap, viii. ver. 14. Tammuz is the name of one of the months of the Egyptian year. ] but that term is plainly of Egyptian original. We shall now proceed to the mysteries of Osiris as they were celebrated among the Greeks and Thracians, under the name of the Orgia of Dionysius or Bacchus ^[58. Diod. SicuL; Vossius, de Idol. ] ?

Orpheus, the celebrated Thracian philosopher, had travelled into „Egypt in quest of knowledge; and from that country, according to the most authentic accounts, he imported the Bacchanalian rites and institutions. Some have [7:15:665]affirmed that this same Orpheus being intimately acquainted with the family of Cadmus, communicated these rites to them, and endeavoured to transfer them to the grandson of that hero, which grandson became afterwards the Grecian Bacchus. It is, however, we think, much more probable that those rites were imported from Egypt or Phoenicia by Cadmus himself,^[59. Cadmus and Melampus, who were both Egyptians, introduced the Bacchanalia into Greece. The Egyptian or oriental name of Bacchus was Dinusi, that is, “the prince of light.” Cadmus had learned the name Bacchus from the Phoenicians. ] who was a native of the former country, and is thought to have spent some time in the latter before he emigrated in quest of a settlement in Boeotia. It is said that Semele, the daughter of Cadmus, and the mother of the Grecian Bacchus, was struck with lightning at the very instant of his birth. The child was, in all probability, denominated Bacchus, ^[60. We have omitted the immense farrago of fable relating to the connection between Jupiter and Semele, as of little importance to our readers. ] from the sorrow and lamentation this melancholy accident had occasioned in the family. Cadmus, in order to conceal the dishonour of his daughter, might, we imagine, convey away his infant grandson to some of his relations in Phoenicia or Egypt. There he was educated and instructed in all the mysteries of Isis and Osiris, and at the same time initiated in all the magical or juggling tricks of the Egyptian priests and hierophants. Thus accomplished, when he arrived at manhood, he returned to Thebes with the traditional retinue of the original deity of the same name, and claimed divine honours accordingly. This claim, however, was not admitted without much opposition; Pentheus, another grandson of Cadmus, was torn to pieces by the frantic Bacchanalians upon Mount Cithaeron, because he attempted to interrupt them in celebrating the orgia. Some have thought that Cadmus lost his kingdom for the same reason; but this, we think, is by no means probable; we should rather imagine that the old prince was privy to the whole process, and that it was originally planned by him, with a view to attract the veneration of his new subjects, by making them believe that there was a divinity in his family.

But however that may be, the vain-glorious Greeks attributed all the actions of the Egyptian hero to their new Bacchus; and, according to their laudable practice, engaged him in numberless adventures in which his prototype had no share. Most of those are futile and unentertaining.^[61. Nonnus, an Egyptian of Pentapolis, has collected all the fabulous adventures of Bacchus, and exhibited them in a beautiful but irregular poem. To this we must refer our learned readers. Of the Dionysiacs we have a most judicious sketch, Gebelin, Calend. p. 553, et seq. ] The Greeks commonly adopted some oriental personage as the hero of their mythological rhapsodies. Him they naturalized and adopted into some Grecian family, and so he became their own. To him they ascribed all the adventures and exploits of the oriental archetype from whom he was copied. Consequently in the orgia,^[62. The orgia belonged to all the Mydones, but to those of Bacchus in a peculiar manner. ] every thing was collected that had been imported from the East relating to Osiris; and to that farrago was joined all that the Grecian rhapsodists had thought fit to invent, in order to amuse the credulous multitude. This, however, was not the whole of the misfortune. The adventures of Osiris were described by the Egyptian hierophants, veiled with allegorical and hieroglyphical mysteries. These the persons who imported them into Greece did not thoroughly comprehend, or, if they did, they were not inclined to communicate them sound and unsophisticated. Besides, many oriental terms were retained, the import of which was in process of time lost or distorted. Hence the religious ceremonies of the Greeks became a medley of inconsistencies. The mysteries of Bacchus, in particular, were deeply tinctured with this meretricious colouring; the adventures of the Theban pretender were grafted upon those of the Egyptian archetype, and out of this combination was formed a tissue of adventures disgraceful to human nature, absurd, and inconsistent. Indeed the younger or Theban Bacchus seems to hate been a monster of debauchery; whereas the Egyptian is represented as a person of an opposite character. Of course the mysteries of the former were attended with the most shocking abominations.

These mysteries, as has been observed above, were first celebrated at Thebes, the capital of Boeotia, under the auspices of the family of Cadmus. From this country they gradually found their way into Greece, and all the neighbouring parts of Europe. They were celebrated once every three years,^[63. Hence these orgia were called Triteria. ] because at the end of three years Osiris returned from his Indian expedition. As the Greeks had impudently transferred the actions of the Egyptian hero to their upstart divinity, the same period of time was observed for the celebration of those rites in Greece that had been ordained for the same purpose in Egypt.

When the day appointed for the celebration of the orgia^[64. According to Clemens Alexandrinus, Cohort, page 12, Pott, the word orgia is derived from orge, which signifies “anger,” and originated from the resentment of Ceres against Jupiter, in consequence of a most outrageous insult he had offered her with success. V'e should rather imagine it derived from the Hebrew word argoz, signifying a “chest or coffer,” alluding to the casket which contained the secret symbols of the god-The Egyptians or Phoenicians might write and pronounce argoz, orgoz, or in some manner nearly resembling orgia. ] approached, the priests issued a proclamation, enjoining all the initiated to equip themselves according to the ritual, and attend the procession on the day appointed. The votaries were to dress themselves in coats of deerskins, to loose the fillets of their hair, to cover their legs with the same stuff as their coats, and to arm themselves with thyrsi, which were a kind of spears wholly of wood entwined with leaves and twigs of the vine or ivy. It is said that the Bacchanalians, especially the Thracians, used often to quarrel and commit murder in their drunken revels, and that in order to prevent those unlucky accidents, a law was enacted, that the votaries, instead of real spears, should arm themselves with these sham weapons, which were comparatively inoffensive. The statue of the deity, which was always covered with vine or ivy leaves, was now taken down from its pedestal, and elevated on the shoulders of the priests. The cavalcade then proceeded nearly in the following manner.

First of all, hymns were chanted in honour of Bacchus, who was called the Power of Dances, Smiles, and Jests ; while at the same time he was deemed equally qualified for the exploits of war and heroism. Horace, in some of his dithyrambic odes, has concisely pointed out the subjects of those Bacchanalian songs. In the collection of hymns fabulously attributed to Orpheus, we find several addressed to this deity,^[65. These stand between the 41st and 52d; one to Lenaeus, or the presser; one to Libnites, or the winnower; one to Bessareus, or the vintager; one to Sabazius, the god of rest; to Myses, or the Mediator &c. ] each under a different title, derived from the different appellations of the god. All these names are of oriental original, and might easily be explained, did the bounds prescribed to us admit of etymological disquisitions.

The hymn being finished, the first division of the votaries[7:15:666] proceeded carrying a pitcher of wine, with a bunch of the vine. Then followed the he-goat, an animal odious to Bacchus, because he ravages the vines. The chanting the hymns, the sacrificing the he-goat, and the revels, games, and diversions with which the celebration of those rites was attended, gave birth to the dramatic poetry of the Greeks; as the persons habited in the dress of fauns, sylvans, and satyrs,^[66. Dacier, Casaubon, and other French critics, have puzzled and perplexed themselves to little purpose about the origin of this word, without considering that it was coeval to dramatic poetry. ] furnished the name of another species of poetry of a coarser and more forbidding aspect.

Then appeared the mysterious coffer or basket, containing the secret symbols of the deity. These were the phallus,^[67. The phallus was highly respected by the Egyptians, and was used as the emblem of the fecundity of the human race. ] some grains of sesama, heads of poppies, pomegranates, dry stems, cakes baked of the meal of different kinds of corn, salt, carded wool, rolls of honey, and cheese, a child, a serpent,^[68. That reptile was in high veneration among the Egyptians. See Euseb. Ρrcep. Eναηg. lib. i. page 26, Steph, where we have a minute detail of the symbolical properties of that creature, according to Taautos, the great legislator of that people. ] and a van.^[69. Servius in Georg. I. Virg. ver. 166. Mystica vannus laachi. The van, says he, is an emblem of that purifying influence of the mysteries, by which the initiated were cleansed from all their former pollutions, and qualified for commencing a holv course of life. ] Such was the furniture of the sacred coffer carried in the solemn Bacchanalian procession. The inventory given by some of the fathers^[70. Clemens Alexandrinus. ] of the church is somewhat different. They mention the die, the ball, the top, the wheel, the apples, the looking-glass, and the fleece. The articles first mentioned seem to have been of Egyptian original; the last were certainly superinduced by the Greeks, in allusion to his being murdered and torn in pieces when he was a child by the machinations of Juno, who prevailed with the Titans to commit the horrid deed. These last seem to have been memorials of his boyish playthings; for, says Maternus, “the Cretans,^[71. De Errore Prof. Gent. ] in celebrating the rites of the child Bacchus, acted everything that the dying boy either said, or did, or suffered. They likewise,” says he, “tore a live bull in pieces with their teeth, in order to commemorate the dismembering of the boy.” For our part, we think, that if such a beastly rite was practised, it was done in commemoration of the savage manner of life which had prevailed among men prior to the more humane diet invented and produced by Isis and Osiris. Be that as it may, we learn from Porphyry,^[72. De Abstinentia. ] that in the island of Chios they used to sacrifice a man to Bacchus, and that they used to mangle and tear him limb from limb. This was no doubt practised in commemoration of the catastrophe mentioned above.

The orgia of this Pagan god were originally simple enough; but this unsophisticated mode was of no long continuance, for riches soon introduced luxury, which quickly infected even the ceremonies of religion. On the day set apart for this solemnity, men and women crowned with ivy, their hair dishevelled, and their bodies almost naked, ran about the streets, roaring aloud Evoke, ^[73. Clem. Alexand. Cohort, page 11, Pott, derives this word from Cheveh, the mother of mankind, who first opened the gate to that and every other error; but we are rather inclined to believe that it comes from the oriental word Heve, which signifies a “serpent,” which among the Egyptians was sacred to the sun, and was likewise the emblem of life and immortality. It then imported a prayer to Bacchus for life, vigour, health, and every other blessing. ] Bacclιe. In this rout were to be seen people intoxicated at once with wine and enthusiasm, dressed like Satyrs, Fauns, and Sileni, in such scandalous postures and attitudes, with so little regard to modesty and even common decency, that we are persuaded our readers will readily enough forgive our omitting to describe them. Next followed a company mounted upon asses, attended by Fauns, Bacchanals, Thyades, Mimallonides, Naiads, Tityri, &c. who made the adjacent places echo to their frantic shrieks and howlings. After this tumultuous herd were carried the statues of Victory, and altars in form of vine-sets, crowned with ivy, smoking with incense and other aromatics. Then appeared several chariots loaded with thyrsi, arms, garlands, casks, pitchers, and other vases, tripods, and vans. The chariots were followed by young virgins of quality, who carried the baskets and little boxes, which in general contained the mysterious articles above enumerated. These, from their office, were called ñslophorae. The phallopho-ri^[74. The phallus was the symbol of the fructifying power of Nature. The itophallus was the type of that power in act. ] followed them, with the chorus of itophallophori habited like fauns, counterfeiting drunk persons, singing, in honour of Bacchus, songs and catches suited to the occasion. The procession was closed by a troop of Bacchanalians crowned with ivy, interwoven with branches of yew and with serpents.^[75. Ovid. Met. ] Upon some occasions, at those scandalous festivals, naked women whipped themselves, and tore their skin in a most barbarous manner. The procession terminated on Mount Cithaeron, when it set out from Thebes; and in other places, in some distant unfrequented desert, where the votaries practised every species of debauchery with secrecy and impunity. Orpheus saw the degeneracy of. those ceremonies, and in endeavouring to reform them he probably lost his life. Pentheus suffered in the like attempt, being torn in pieces by the Bacchanalians on Mount Cithaeron, among whom were his own mother and his aunts. The Greeks, who were an airy jovial people, seem to have paid little regard to the plaintive part of the orgia; or rather, we believe, they acted with howling and frantic exclamations, often enhanced by a combination of drunkenness, ecstacy, and enthusiastic fury.

What secrets, religious, moral, political, or physical, were communicated to the votaries, it is impossible to determine with any degree of certainty. One thing we may admit, namely, that the doctrines discovered and inculcated in the orgia were originally the very same which the apostles of the sect had imbibed in Egypt and Phoenicia, and of which we have given a brief account near the beginning of this article. It is, however, probable, that the spurious or Theban Bacchus had superadded a great deal of his own invention, which, we may believe, was not altogether so sound and so salutary as the original doctrine. However that may be, the initiated were made to believe that they were to derive wonderful advantages from the participation of those rites, both in this life and that which is to come. Of this, however, we shall talk more at length by and by, in our account of the Eleusinian mysteries.

To detail the etymology of the names of this Pagan deity, the fables relating to his birth, his education, his transformations, his wars, peregrinations, adventures, and the various and multiform rites with which he was worshipped, would swell this article to a most immoderate size. If any of our readers should wish to be more minutely and more accurately acquainted with this subject, we must beg leave to refer them to Diodorus Siculus; Apollodorus, Bibl.; Euripides, Bacchae; Aristophanes, Panae; Nonn.Zh- onys.: and, amongst the moderns, to Ban. Mythol.; Voss, de Orig. Idol.; Μ. Fourmont, Réflexions sur l ’ Origine des Anciens Peuples; Mr Bryant’s Analysis; and especially to Μ. Cour de Gebelin, Calandrier ou Almanach. That prince [7:15:667]of etymologists, in his account of the festival of Bacchus, has given a most acute and ingenious explication of the names and epithets of that deity. For our part, we have endeavoured to collect and exhibit such as we judged most important, most entertaining, and most instructive, to the less enlightened classes of our readers.

We now proceed to the Eleusinian mysteries, which, amongst the ancient Greeks and Romans, were treated with a superior degree of awe and veneration. These were instituted in honour of Ceres, the goddess of corn, who, according to the most authentic accounts, was the Isis of the Egyptians. The mysteries of Osiris and Isis have been hinted at in the preceding part of this article. They were originally instituted in honour of the^ sun and moon, and afterwards consecrated to an Egyptian prince and princess, who, in consequence of their merits, had been deified by that people. We know of no more exact and brilliant description of the ceremonies of that goddess, in the most polished ages of the Egyptian superstition, than what we meet with in the witty and florid Apuleius,^[76. Lib. ix. ] to which we must take the liberty to refer our more curious readers. Our business at present shall be to try to investigate by what means, and upon what occasion, those mysteries were introduced into Attica, and established at Eleusis. A passage from Diodorus Siculus,^[77. Lib. ì. ] which we shall here translate, will, we think, throw no inconsiderable light on that abstruse part of the subject.

“In like manner with him (Cecrops), says that judicious historian, they tell us, that Erechtheus, a prince of Egyptian extraction, once reigned at Athens. Of this fact they produce the following evidence. A scorching drought, during the reign of this prince, prevailed over almost all the habitable world except Egypt, which, in consequence of the humidity of its soil, was not affected by that calamity. The fruits of the earth were burnt up, and at the same time multitudes of people perished by famine. Erechtheus upon this occasion, as he was connected with Egypt, imported a vast quantity of grain from that country to Athens. The people, who had been relieved by his munificence, unanimously elected him king. Being invested with the government, he taught his subjects the mysteries of Ceres at Eleusis, and the mode of celebrating the sacred ceremonies, having transferred from Egypt the ritual for that purpose. In those times the goddess is said to have made her appearance at Athens three several times; because, according to tradition, the fruits of the earth which bear her name were then imported into Attica. On this account the seeds and fruits of the earth were said to be the invention of that deity. Now the Athenians themselves acknowledge, that, in the reign of Erechtheus, the fruits of the earth having perished for want of rain, the arrival of Ceres in their country did actually happen, and that along with her the blessing of corn was restored to the earth. They tell us at the same time, that the Teletae and the mysteries of that goddess’ were then received and instituted at Eleusis.”

Here then we have the whole mystery of the arrival of Ceres in Attica, and the institution of her mysteries at Eleusis, unveiled. The whole is evidently an oriental allegory. The fruits of the earth had been destroyed by a long course of drought. Egypt, by its peculiar situation, had been preserved from that dreadful calamity. Erechtheus, in consequence of his relation to the Egyptians, im ported from their country a quantity of grain, not only sufficient for the consumption of his own subjects, but also a great overplus to export to other parts of Greece, Sicily, Italy, and Spain. Triptolemus, another Egyptian, was appointed by Erechtheus to export this superfluous store. That hero, according to Pherecydes, was the son of Oceanus and Tellus, that is, of the sea and the earth; because his parents were not known, and because he came to Eleusis by sea. The ship in which he sailed, when he distributed his corn to the western parts of the world, was decorated with the figure of a winged dragon; therefore, in the allegorical style of his country, he was said to be wafted through the air in a chariot drawn by dragons. Those creatures, every body knows, were held sacred by the Egyptians.

Wherever Triptolemus disposed of his corn, thither were extended the wanderings of Ceres. In order to elucidate this point, we must observe, that along with the grain imported from Egypt, Erechtheus, or Triptolemus, or both, transported into Attica a cargo of priests and priestesses from the temples of Busiris, a city which lay in the centre of the Delta,^[78. Herod, lib. i. ] where the goddess Isis had a number of chapels erected for her worship. The presidents of these ceremonies, like all other bigots, gladly laid hold on this opportunity of propagating their religious Tites, and disseminating the worship of the deities of their •country. That the Egyptian priests were zealous in propagating the dogmas of their superstition, is abundantly evident from the extensive spreading of their rites and ceremonies over almost all Asia and a considerable part of Europe. The Greek and Roman idolatry is known to have originated from them; and numberless monuments •of their impious worship are still extant in Persia,^[79. Asiatic Researches, vols. i. and ii. ] India, Japan, Tartary, &c. Our inference then is, that the worship of Isis was introduced into every country where Triptolemus sold or disposed of his commodities. Hence the wanderings of Ceres in search of her daughter Proserpine, who is generally called Coré. The famine occasioned by ,the drought destroying the fruits of the ground imports the loss of Proserpine. The restoration of the corn in various parts of the earth, by fresh supplies from Egypt from time to time, imports the wanderings of Ceres in quest of Proserpine. The whole process is an oriental allegory. The disappearing of the fruits of the earth, of which Proserpine, or Persephone,^[80. Plutarch, Isis ci Osir. ] or Peresephone,^[81. This word seems to be formed of two Hebrew terms, pkerì, “fruit,” and tzaphan or tzephon, “abscondit, recondidit.” ] is the emblem, is the allegorical rape -of that goddess. She was seized and carried off by Pluto, sovereign of the infernal regions. The seed committed to the earth in that dry season appeared no more, and was consequently said to dwell under ground with Pluto. It was then that Ceres, that is, corn imported from Egypt, set out in quest of her daughter. Again, when the earth recovered her pristine fertility, the Coré, or maid, was found by her mother Ceres, that is, the earth; for Isis, among the Egyptians, frequently signified the earth. The wanderings of Isis in search of Osiris furnished the model for the peregrinations of Ceres.

Ceres, the Roman name of the goddess of corn, was unknown to the modern Greeks. They always denominated her Damater, ^[82. Damater is compounded of the Chaldaic particle da, “the,” and mater, “mother.” As Isis often signified the earth, the Greeks naturally adopted that title; because, according to them, that element is the mother of all living. In the very same manner they discarded the word Juno, an original title of the moon, and substituted Hera, which intimates “mistress or lady.” ] which is rather an epithet than a proper name. The Greeks, who always affected to pass for originals, suppressed, we think, the Egyptian name on purpose to conceal the country of that deity. As a proof of the probability of this conjecture, it may be observed, that [7:15:668]they metamorphosed the wanderings of Isis in search of Osiris into the peregrinations of Ceres in quest of Proserpine. The Romans, who were less ambitious of the character of originality, retained one of her oriental names.^[83. According to some of the Latin etymologists, Ceres, or rather Geres, is derived from gero, “to bear, to carry,” because the earth bears all things, or because that element is the general fruit-bearer. But as this term came to Italy immediately from the East, and not through the medium of Greece, we would rather incline to adopt an oriental etymology. The Hebrew word cheres signifies arare, “to plough a name naturally applicable to the goddess of husbandry. ] Ceres, says Diodorus, appeared thrice in Attica during the reign of Erechtheus, which seems to import that fleets loaded with corn had thrice arrived in that country from Egypt during that period.

Cecrops, the first king of Attica, had established the worship of the Saitic Athena or Minerva in that region, and consecrated his capital to that deity. Erechtheus, in his turn, introduced the worship of Isis, or Damater, who in all appearance was the tutelar deity of Busiris, his native city. The subjects of Cecrops were a colony of Sai tes, and readily embraced the worship of Minerva; but the aborigines of that district being accustomed to a maritime, perhaps to a piratical course of life, were more inclined to consecrate their city to Neptune the god of the sea, and to constitute him their guardian and protector. Cecrops, by a stratagem, secured the preference to Minerva, his favourite divinity. Erechtheus, in order to give equal importance to his patroness, had the address to institute the Eleusinian mysteries; and, to accomplish his design, laid hold on the opportunity above mentioned.

This appears to us to be the most probable account of the origin and institution of the Eleusinian mysteries, for which the Sicilian historian has indeed furnished the clue. We shall now proceed to detail some other circumstances which attended the original institution of these far-famed ceremonies.

The archpriestess who personated the newly imported deity was entertained by one Celeus,^[84. Apollod. Bibl. lib. iii. cap. 13. ] who was either viceroy of that petty district of which Eleusis was the capital, or some considerable personage in that city or its neighbourhood. Upon her immediate arrival, according to the fabulous relations of the Greeks, a farce was acted not altogether suitable to the character of a goddess whose mysteries were one day to be deemed so sacred and austere. These coarse receptions and other indecencies attending the first appearance of the goddess, that is, the Egyptian dame who assumed her character, were copied from the like unhallowed modes of behaviour practised on occasion of the solemn processions of her native country. These scommata, or coarse jokes, had an allegorical signification in Egypt; and amongst the most ancient Greeks the very same spirit was universally diffused by the oriental colonists, who from time to time arrived and settled amongst them. In process of time they abandoned the figurative and allegorical style, in consequence of their acquaintance with philosophy and abstract reasoning. In the ceremonies of religion, however, the same allegorical and typical representations which had been imported from the East were retained; but the Grecian hierophants in a short time lost every idea of their latent import, and religious, moral, or physical interpretation. Accordingly, this shameful rencounter between Ceres and Banbo,^[85. Ibid, ubi supra; Clem. Alexand. Cohort, p. 17; where the story is told with very little reserve. ] or Jambe, was retained in the mysteries, though we think it was copied from Egypt, as was said above, where even that obscene action was probably an allegorical representation of something very different from what appeared to the Greeks.

At the same time that Ceres arrived in Attica, Bacchus likewise made his appearance in that country. He was entertained by one Icarus; whom, as a reward for his hospitality, he instructed in the art of cultivating the vine, and the method of manufacturing wine. Thus it appears that both agriculture and the art of managing the vintage were introduced into Athens much about the same time. Ceres was no other than a priestess of Isis; Bacchus was no doubt a priest of Osiris. The arrival of those two personages from Egypt, with a number of inferior priests in their train, produced a memorable revolution in Athens, both with respect to life, manners, and religion. The sacred rites of Isis, afterwards so famous under the name of the Eleusinian mysteries, date their institution from this period.

When this company of propagandists arrived at Eleusis, they were entertained by some of the most respectable persons who then inhabited that district. Their names, according to Clemens Alexandrinus, were Banbo, Dysau-lis, Triptolemus, Eumolpus, and Eubulus. From Eumolpus were descended a race of priests called Eumolpidae, who figured at Athens many ages after. Triptolemus was an ox herd, Eumolpus a shepherd, and Eubulus a swine herd. These,were the first apostles of the Eleusinian mysteries. They were instructed by the Egyptian missionaries; and they, in their turn, instructed their successors. Erechtheus, or, as some say, Pandion, countenanced the seminary, and built a small temple for its accommodation in Eleusis, a city of Attica, a few miles west from Athens, and originally one of the twelve districts into which that territory was divided. Here, then, we have arrived at the scene of those renowned mysteries, which for the space of near two thousand years were the pride of Athens and the wonder of the world.

The mysteries were divided into the greater and lesser. The latter were celebrated at Agrae, a small town on the river Ilyssus; the former were celebrated in the month which the Athenians called Boedromion,^[86. The third month of the Athenian year, answering to our September. ] the latter in the month Anthesterion.^[87. The eighth month, answering to our February; but Meursius makes it November. ] The lesser mysteries, according to the fabulous legends of the Greeks, were instituted in favour of the celebrated Hercules. That hero being commanded by Eurystheus to bring up Cerberus from the infernal regions, was desirous of being initiated in the Eleusinian mysteries before he engaged in that perilous undertaking. He addressed himself to Eumolpus the hierophant for that purpose. There was a law amongst the Eleusinians prohibiting the initiation of foreigners. The priest not daring to refuse the benefit to Hercules, who was both a friend and benefactor to the Athenians, advised the hero to get himself adopted by a native of the place, and so to elude the force of the law. He was accordingly adopted by one Pyolius, and so was initiated in the lesser mysteries, which were instituted for the first time upon that occasion. But this account has all the air of a fable. The lesser mysteries were instituted by way of preparation for the greater.

The person who was to be initiated in the lesser mysteries, as well as in the greater, was obliged to practise the virtue of chastity a considerable time before his admission. Besides, he was to bind himself by the most solemn vows not to divulge any part of the mysteries. At the same time, he was, according to the original institution, to be a person of unblemished moral character. These were preliminaries [7:15:669]indispensably necessary in order to his admission. A bull was sacrificed to Jupiter, and the hide of that animal, called by a peculiar name (Δ/ο; Kωθ∕ov), was carefully preserved and carried to Eleusis, where it was spread under the feet of the initiated. The candidate was then purified by bathing in the river Ilyssus, by aspersions with salt water or salt, with laurel, barley, and passing through the fire; all which rites were attended with incantations and other usages equally insignificant and ridiculous. Last of all, a young sow was sacrificed to Ceres; and this animal, according to the ritual, behoved to be pregnant. Before it was killed it was to be washed in Cantharus, one of the three harbours which formed the Piraeus.

All these ceremonies being duly performed, the candidate was carried into the hall appointed for the purpose of initiation. There he was taught the first elements of those arcana which were afterwards to be more fully and more clearly revealed in the more august mysteries of Eleusis. The pupils at Agrae were called Mystae, which may intimate probationers; whereas those of Eleusis were denominated Epoptae, importing that they saw as they were seen.

The lesser mysteries were divided into several stages, and candidates were admitted to them according to their quality and capacity respectively. Those who were initiated in the lowest were obliged to wait five years before they were admitted to the greater. Those who had partaken of the second kind underwent a noviciate of three years; those who had been admitted to the third, one of two years; and those who had gone through the fourth were admitted to the greater at the end of one year; which was the shortest period of probation a candidate for that honour could legally undergo. Such was the process generally observed in administering the lesser mysteries.

With respect to the greater mysteries, it is probable that originally none but the natives of Attica were admitted to partake of them. In process of time, however, the pale was extended so far and wide as to comprehend all who spoke the Greek language. All foreigners were debarred from those sacred rites. They tell us, however, that Hercules, Bacchus, Castor and Pollux, Aesculapius, and Hippocrates, were initiated in an extraordinary manner, from a regard to their high character and heroic exploits. All barbarians, too, were excluded; yet Anacharsis the Scythian was indulged that privilege, in consequence of his reputation for science and philosophy. All persons guilty of manslaughter, though even accidentally or involuntarily, all magicians, enchanters, in a word, all impious and profane persons, were expressly prohibited from sharing the benefit of this Pagan sacrament. At last, however, the gate became wider, and crowds of people, of all nations, kindreds, and languages, provided their character was fair and irreproachable, rushed in by it. In process of time the Athenians initiated even their infants; but this, we imagine, must have been a kind of lustration or purification, from which it was supposed that they derived a kind of moral ablution from vice, and were thought to be under the peculiar protection of the goddess.

The celebration of the mysteries began on the fifteenth day of the month Boedromion, and, according to most ancient authors, lasted nine days. Meursius has enumerated the transactions of each day, which are much too numerous to fall within the compass of this article; we must therefore refer our curious reader to the author just mentioned. Some days before the commencement of the festival, the praecones, or public criers, invited all the initiated, and all the pretenders to that honour, to attend the festival, with clean hands and a pure heart, and with the knowledge of the Greek language.

On the evening of the fifteenth day of the month called Boedromion the initiations commenced. Our readers will observe, that all the most sacred and solemn rites of the Pagan superstition were performed during the night; they were indeed generally works of darkness. On this day there was a solemn cavalcade of Athenian matrons from Athens to Eleusis, in carriages drawn by oxen. In this procession the ladies used to rally one another in pretty loose terms, in imitation, we suppose, of the 1siac procession described by Herodotus, which has been mentioned above. The most remarkable object in this procession was the Mundus Cereris, contained in a small coffer or basket. This was carried by a select company of Athenian matrons, who, from their office, were styled Camphorae. In this coffer were lodged the comb of Ceres, her mirror, a serpentine figure, some wheat and barley, the pudenda of the two sexes, and perhaps some other articles which we have not been able to discover. The procession ended at the temple, where this sacred charge was deposited with the greatest solemnity.

We have upon record no description of the temple of Eleusis. Pausanias intended to have described it, but says that he was diverted from his design by a dream.^[88. Lib. ix∙ ] Strabo informs us, that the mystic sanctuary was as large as a theatre, and that it was built by Ietinus.^[89. See Eleusis. ] In the porch, or outer part of this temple, the candidates were crowned with garlands of flowers, which they call himera, or “the desirable.” They were at the same time dressed in new garments, which they continued to wear till they were quite worn out. They then washed their hands in a laver filled with holy water; a ceremony which intimated the purity of their hearts and hands. Before the doors were locked, one of the officers of the temple proclaimed with a loud, voice a stern mandate, enjoining all the uninitiated to keep at a distance from the temple, and denouncing the most terrible menaces if any should dare to disturb or pry into the holy mysteries. Ñor were these menaces without effect; for if any person was found to have crowded into the sanctuary, even through ignorance, he was put to death without mercy. Every precaution having been taken to secure secrecy, the initiatory ceremonies now began. But before we describe these, we must lay before our readers a brief account of the ministers and retainers of these secrets of Paganism.

The chief minister of these far-famed mysteries was the hierophant. He was styled king, and enjoyed that dignity during life, and was always by birth an Athenian. He presided in the solemnity, as is evident from his title. This personage, as we learn from Eusebius, represented the demiurgus, or creator of the world. “Now, in the mysteries of Eleusis,” says that father, “the hierophant is dressed out in the figure of the demiurgus.” What this demiurgus was, we learn from the same writer. As this whole institution was copied from the Egyptians, we may rest assured that the figure of the Eleusinian demiurgus was borrowed from the same quarter. “As for the symbols of the Egyptians,” says he, quoting from Porphyry,^[90. Pr<∑ραrαliο Εvangelii. ] “they are of the following complexion. The demiurgus, whom the Egyptians call Kneph, is figured as a man of an azure colour, shaded with black, holding in his right hand a sceptre, and in his left a girdle, and having on his head a royal wing or feather wreathed round.” Such, we imagine, was the equipment of the Eleusinian hierophant. This person was likewise styled prophet. He was to be of the family of the Eumolpidae; was obliged to make a vow of perpetual chastity[7:15:670]; and even his voice, hair, and attitude, were adjusted to the ritual.

The next minister was the daduchus, or torch-bearer, who, according to the father above quoted, was attired like the sun. This minister resembled the sun, because that luminary was deemed the visible type of the supreme demiurgus, and his vicegerent in governing and arranging the affairs of this lower world.

The third was the person who officiated at the altar. He was habited like the moon. His office was to implore the favour of the gods for all the initiated. We should rather imagine, that the person at the altar, as he resembled the moon, was intended to represent the goddess herself: for the Egyptian Isis, who was the archetype of Ceres, was sometimes the moon and sometimes the earth.

The sacred herald was another principal actor in this solemn exhibition. His province was to recite every thing that, according to the ritual, was to be communicated to the novices; and he probably represented Thyoth or Thoth, that is, Hermes or Mercury, the interpreter of the gods.

Besides these, there were five epimeletae or curators, of whom the king was one, who jointly directed the whole ceremonial. Lastly, There were ten priests to offer the sacrifices. There were no doubt many officers of inferior note employed upon these occasions; but these were only insignificant appendages, whose departments have not been transmitted to posterity.

After this detail of the ministers of this solemn service, we return to the mystae, or candidates for initiation. Some of the fathers of the church^[91. Justin, Eusebius, Clemens Alexandrinus. ] mention a hymn composed by the celebrated Orpheus, which was sung by the mystagogue or king upon that occasion. This hymn appears to us one of those spurious compositions which abounded in the first ages of Christianity, and which the pious apologists often adopted without sufficient examination. That some sacred hymn was chanted upon that occasion, we think highly probable; but that the one in question was either composed by Orpheus, or used at the opening of these ceremonies, to us appears somewhat problematical.

Before the ceremony opened, a book was produced, which contained every thing relating to the Teletae. This was read over in the ears of the mystae, who were ordered to write out a copy of it for themselves. This book was kept at Eleusis, in a sacred repository, formed by two stones exactly fitted to each other, and of a very large size. This repository was called petroma. At the annual celebration of the greater mysteries, these stones were taken asunder, and the book taken out, which, after being read to the mystae, was replaced in the same casement.

The initiations began with a representation of the wanderings of Ceres, and her bitter and loud lamentations for the loss of her beloved daughter. Upon this occasion, no doubt, a figure of that deity was displayed to the mystae, while loud lamentations echoed from every corner of the sanctuary. One of the company having kindled a firebrand at the altar, and sprung to a certain place in the temple, waving the torch with the utmost fury, a second snatched it from him, roaring and waving it in the same frantic manner, and a third, fourth, &c. in the most rapid succession. This was done to imitate Ceres, who was said to have perlustrated the globe of the earth with a flaming pine in her hand, which she had lighted at Mount Aetna.

When the pageant of the goddess was supposed to arrive at Eleusis, a solemn pause ensued, and a few trifling questions were put to the mystae. What these questions were, is evident from the answers. “I have fasted; I have drunk the liquor; I have taken the contents out of the coffer, and, having performed the ceremony, have put them into the hamper; I have taken them out of the hamper, and put them again into the coffer.” The meaning of these answers, we conjecture, was this: “I have fasted, as Ceres fasted whilst in search of her daughter; I have drunk off the wort, as she drank when given her by Banbo; I have performed what Ceres taught her first disciples to perform, when she committed to them the sacred hamper and coffer.” After these interrogatories, and the suitable responses, the Mundus Cereris was displayed before the eyes of the mystae, and the mystagogus or hierophant, or perhaps the sacred herald by his command, read a lecture on the allegorical import of those sacred symbols. This was heard with the most profound attention, and a solemn silence prevailed throughout the fane. Such was the first act of this religious farce, which perhaps consisted originally of nothing more.

After the exposition of the Mundus Cereris, and the irn- l port of her wanderings, many traditions were communicated to the mystae concerning the origin of the universe and 1 the nature of things. The doctrines delivered in the' greater mysteries, says Clemens Alexandrinus, “relate to the nature of the universe. Here all instruction ends. Things are seen as they are; and nature, and the things of nature, are given to be comprehended.” To the same purpose Cicero: “Which points being explained and reduced to the standard of reason, the nature of things, rather than that of the gods, is discovered.” The father of the universe, or the supreme demiurgus, was represented as forming the chaotic mass into the four elements, and producing animals, vegetables, and all kinds of organized beings, out of those materials. They say that they were informed of the secrets of the anomalies of the moon, and the eclipses of the sun and moon; and, according to Virgil,

Unde hominum genus, et pecudes, unde imber et ignes.

What system of cosmogony those hierophants adopted, is evident from the passage above quoted from Eusebius; and, from the account immediately preceding, it was that of the most ancient Egyptians, and of the orientals in general. This cosmogony is beautifully and energetically exhibited in Plato’s Timaeus, and in the genuine spirit of poetry by Ovid in the beginning of his Metamorphoses.

The next scene exhibited upon the stage, on this solemn occasion, consisted of the exploits and adventures of the gods, demigods, and heroes, who had from time to time been advanced to divine honours. These were displayed as passing before the mystae in pageants fabricated for that important purpose. This was the original mode amongst the Egyptians, and was no doubt followed by their Eleusinian pupils. These adventures were probably demonstrated to have been allegorical, symbolical, hieroglyphical; at least they were exhibited in such a favourable point of view, as to dispel those absurdities and inconsistencies with which they were sophisticated by the poets and by the vulgar.

With respect to the origin of those factitious deities, it was discovered that they had been originally men who had been exalted to the rank of divinity in consequence of their heroic exploits, their useful inventions, or their beneficent actions. This is so clear from the two passages quoted from Cicero by Bishop Warburton,^[92. Divine Legaticn of Moses. ] that the fact cannot be contradicted. But that prelate has not informed us so precisely, whether the mystagogues represented them as nothing more than dead men in their present state, or as beings who were actually existing in a deified state, and executing the functions assigned them in the rubric of Paganism. Another query naturally occurs; that is, to what purpose did the mystagogucs apply this communication[7:15:671]? That the hierophants did actually represent those deified mortals in the latter predicament, is obvious from another passage quoted from Cicero by the same prelate. “What think you,” says the illustrious Roman, “of those who assert that valiant, or famous, or powerful men, have obtained divine honours after death; and that these are the very gods now become the objects of our worship, our prayers, and adoration? Euhemerus tells us when these gods died, and where they lie buried. I forbear to speak of the sacred and august rites of Eleusis. I pass by Samothrace and the mysteries of Lemnos, whose hidden rites are celebrated in darkness, and amidst the thick shades of groves and forests.” If, then, those deified mortals were become the objects of worship and prayers, there can be no doubt of the belief of their deified existence. The allusion to the Eleusinian and other Pagan mysteries, towards the close of the quotation, places the question beyond the reach of controversy. But though, according to this account, “there were gods many and lords many,” yet it is evident, frotn the passage quoted from Eusebius in the preceding part of this article, that the unity of the Supreme Being was maintained, exhibited, and inculcated. This was the original doctrine of the hierophants of Egypt. It was maintained by Thales, and all the retainers of the Ionian school. It was the doctrine of Pythagoras, who probably gleaned it up in the country just mentioned, in connection with many other dogmas which he had the assurance to claim as his own.

But however the unity, and perhaps some of the most obvious attributes, of the Supreme Author of nature, might be illustrated and inculcated, the tribute of homage and veneration due to the subordinate divinities was by no means neglected. The initiated were taught to look to the dii majorum gentium with a superior degree of awe and veneration, as beings endowed with an ineffable measure of power, wisdom, purity, goodness, &c. These were, if we may use the expression, the prime favourites of the Monarch of the universe, who were admitted into his immediate presence, and who received his behests from his own mouth, and communicated them to his subordinate officers, prefects, lieutenants, and others. These they were exhorted to adore; to them they were to offer sacrifices, prayers, and every other act of devotion, both on account of the excellency of their nature and the high rank they bore at the court of heaven. They were instructed to look up to hero-gods and demigods, as being exalted to the high rank of governors of different parts of nature, as the immediate guardians and protectors of the human race; in short, as gods near at hand, as prompters to a virtuous course, and assistants in it; as ready upon all occasions to confer blessings upon the virtuous and deserving. Such were the doctrines taught in the Teletae with respect to the nature of the Pagan divinities, and the worship and devotion enjoined to be offered them by the mysteries.

As the two principal ends proposed by these initiations were the exercise of heroic virtues in men, and the practice of sincere and uniform piety by the candidates for immortal happiness, the hierophants had adopted a plan of .operations excellently accommodated to both these purposes. The virtuous conduct and heroic exploits of the great men and demigods of early antiquity were magnified by the most pompous eulogiums, enforced with suitable exhortations to animate the votaries to imitate so noble and alluring an example. But this was not all; the heroes and demigods themselves were displayed in pageants or vehicles of celestial light. Their honours, offices, habitations, attendants, and other appendages, in the capacity of demons, were exhibited with all the pomp and splen dour that the sacerdotal college were able to devise. The sudden glare of mimic light, the melting music stealing upon the ear, the artificial thunders reverberated from the roof and walls of the temple, the appearance of fire and ethereal radiance, the vehicles of flame, the effigies of heroes and demons, adorned with crowns of laurel, emitting rays from every sprig, the fragrant odours and aromatic gales which breathed from every quarter, all dexterously counterfeited by sacerdotal mechanism, must have filled the imagination of the astonished votaries with pictures at once tremendous and transporting. Add to this, that every thing was transacted in the dead of night, amidst a dismal gloom, whence the most bright effulgence instantaneously burst upon the sight. By this arrangement, the aspirants to initiation were wonderfully animated to the practice of virtue while they lived, and inspired with the hope of a blessed immortality when they died. At the same time, their awe and veneration for the gods of their country were wonderfully enhanced by reflecting on the appearances above described. Accordingly Strabo very judiciously observes, “that the mystical secrecy of the sacred rites preserves the majesty of the Deity, imitating its nature, which escapes our apprehension. For these reasons, in celebrating the Teletae, the demons were introduced in their deified or glorified state.

Butas all the candidates for initiation might not aspire to the rank of heroes and demigods, a more easy and a more attainable mode of conduct, in order to arrive at the palace of happiness, behoved to be opened. Private virtues were inculcated, and these too were to meet a condign reward. But, unhappily, this present life is too often a chequered scene, where virtue is depressed and trodden under foot, and vice lifts up its head and rides triumphant. It is a dictate of common sense, that virtue should sooner or later emerge, and vice sink into contempt and misery. Here, then, the conductors of the mysteries properly and naturally adopted the doctrine of a future state of rewards and punishments. The dogma of the immortality of the human soul was elucidated, and carefully and pathetically inculcated. This doctrine was likewise imported from Egypt; for Herodotus^[93. Lib. ii. ] informs us, “that the Egyptians were the first people who maintained the immortality of the human soul.” The Egyptian immortality, however, according to him, was only the metempsychosis or transmigration of souls. This was not the system of the ancient Egyptians, nor indeed of the Teletae. In these, a metempsychosis was admitted; but that was carried forward to a very distant period, to wit, to the grand Egyptian period of 36,000 years.

As the mystagogues well knew that the human mind is more powerfully affected by objects presented to the eyes than by the most engaging instructions conveyed by the ear, they made the emblems of Elysium and Tartarus pass in review before the eyes of their novices. There the Elysian scenes, so nobly described by the Roman poet, appeared in mimic splendour; and, on the other hand, the gloom of Tartarus, Charon’s boat, the dog of hell, the furies with tresses of snakes, the tribunal of Minos and Rhadamanthus, &c. were displayed in all their terrific state. Tantalus, Ixion, Sisyphus, the daughters of Danaus, and others, were represented in pageants before their eyes. These exhibitions were accompanied with most horrible cries and bowlings, thunders, lightning, and other objects of terror, which we shall mention in their proper place.

No contrivance could be better accommodated to animate the pupils to the practice of virtue on the one hand, or to deter them from indulging vicious passions on the other. It resembled opening heaven and hell to a hardened[7:15:672] sinner. The practices inculcated in celebrating the mysteries are too numerous to be detailed in this imperfect sketch. The worship of the gods was strictly enjoined, as has been shown above. The three laws, generally ascribed to Triptolemus, were inculcated: 1. To honour their parents; 2. To honour the gods with the first fruits of the earth; 3. Not to treat brute animals with cruelty. These laws were imported from Egypt, and were communicated to the Eleusinians by the original missionaries. Cieero makes the civilization of mankind one of the most beneficial effects of the Eleusinian institutions: “Nullum mihi, cum multo eximia divinaque videntur Athenae tuae peperisse; tum nihil melius illis mysteriis, quibus ex agresti immanique vita, exculti ad humanitatem, et mitigati sumus; initiaque, ut appellantur, ita revera principia vitae cognovimus; neque solum cum laetitia vivendi rationem accepimus, sed etiam cum spe meliore moriendi.” Hence it is evident that the precepts of humanity and morality were warmly recommended in these institutions. The virtue of humanity was extended, one may say, even to the brute creation, as appears from the last of Triptolemus’s laws above quoted. Some articles were enjoined in the Teletae which may appear to us of less importance, which, however, in the symbolical style of the Egyptians were abundantly significant. The initiated were “commanded to abstain from the flesh of certain birds and fishes; from beans, from pomegranates and apples, which were deemed equally polluting. It was taught, that to touch the plant of asparagus was as dangerous as the most deadly poison. Now, says Porphyry, whoever is versed in the history of the visions, knows for what reason they were commanded to abstain from the flesh of birds.”

The initiated then bound themselves by dreadful oaths to observe most conscientiously, and to practise, every precept tendered to them in the course of the Teletae; and at the same time never to divulge one article of all that had been heard or seen by them upon that occasion. In this they were so exceedingly jealous, that Aeschylus the tragedian was in danger of capital punishment for having only alluded to one of the Eleusinian arcana in a tragedy of his; and one of the articles of indictment against Diagoras the Melian was, his having spoken disrespectfully of the mysteries, and dissuaded people from partaking of them. It must, then, be allowed, that the institution of the mysteries was of infinite advantage to the Pagan world. They were indeed a kind of saeraments, by which the initiated bound themselves by a solemn vow to practise piety towards the gods, justice and humanity towards their fellow men, and gentleness and tenderness towards the inoffensive part of the brute creation. The Pagans themselves were so thoroughly convinced of this fact, that, in their disputes with the apologists for Christianity, they often appealed to the Teletae, and contrasted their maxims with the most sublime doctrines of that heavenly institution.

In order to impress these maxims the more deeply upon the minds of the novices, and to fix their attention more stedfastly upon the lectures which were delivered them by the mystagogue or the sacred herald, a mechanical operation was played off at proper intervals during the course of the celebration. “Towards the end of the celebration,” says Stobaeus, “the whole scene is terrible; all is trembling, shuddering, sweat, and astonishment. Many horrible spectres are seen, and strange cries and howlings uttered. Light succeeds darkness; and again the blackest darkness the most glaring light. Now appear open plains, flowery meads, and waving groves, where are seen dances and choruses; and various holy phantasies enehant the sight. Melodious notes are heard from far, with all the sublime symphony of the sacred hymns. The pupil now is completely perfect, is initiated, becomes free, released, and walks about with a crown on his head, and is admitted to bear a part in the sacred rites.” Aristides (de Myst. Eleus.') calls Eleusis “a kind of temple of the whole earth, and of all that man beholds done in the most dreadful and the most exhilarating manner. In what other place have the records of fable sung of things more marvellous? or in what region upon earth have the objects presented to the eye borne a more exact resemblance to the sounds which strike the ear? What object of sight have the numberless generations of men and women beheld, comparable to those exhibited in the ineffable mysteries ?” To the same purpose, Pletho, in the oracles of Zoroaster, informs us, “that frightful and shocking apparitions, in a variety of forms, used to be displayed to the mystae in the course of their initiation and a little after, he adds, “that thunder and lightning and fire, and every thing terrible which might be held symbolical of the divine presence, were introduced.” Claudian, in his poem De Rapta Proserpina, gives an elegant, though brief, description of this phenomenon, which throws some light upon the passages above quoted.

Jam mihi cernuntur trepidis delubra moveri Sedibus et claram dispergere culmina lucem, Adventum testata Deae f jam magnus ab imis Auditur fremitus terris, templumque remugit Cecropidum.

The sight of those appearances was called the autopsia. or “the real presence ;” hence those rites were sometimes called epoptica. The epoptae were actually initiated, and were admitted into the sanctum sanctorum, and bore a part in the ceremonial; whereas the mystae, who had only been initiated in the lesser mysteries at Agrae, were obliged to take their station in the porch of the temple. The candidates for initiation bathed themselves in holy water, and put on new clothes, all of linen, which they continued to wear till they were quite torn, and then they were consecrated to Ceres and Proserpine. From the ceremony of bathing, they were denominated hydram ς and this again was a kind of baptismal ablution. Whether the phrases of washing away sin, putting on the Lord Jesus Christ, putting off the old man with his deeds, putting on a robe of righteousness, being buried in baptism, the words mystery, perfect, perfection, which occur so frequently in the New Testament, especially in the writings of the apostle Paul, are borrowed from the Pagan mysteries, or from usages current amongst the Jews, we leave to our more learned readers to determine.

The epoptae having sustained all those fiery trials, heard and seen every thing requisite, taken upon them the vows and engagements above narrated, and, in a word, having shown themselves good soldiers of Ceres and Proserpine, were now declared perfect men. They might, like Cebes’s virtuous man, travel wherever they chose; those wild beasts (the human passions) which tyrannise over the rest of mankind, and often destroy them, had no longer dominion over them. They were now not only perfect, but regenerated men. They were now crowned with laurel, as was said above, and dismissed with two barbarous words, Koyξ cμ,~αξ, Konx ompax, of which perhaps the hierophants themselves did not comprehend the import. They had been introduced by the first Egyptian missionaries, and retained in the sacra after their signification was lost. This was a common practice amongst the Greeks. In the administration of their religious ceremonies, they retained many names of persons, places, things, customs, &c. which had been introduced by the Phoenicians and Egyptians, from whom they borrowed their system of idolatry. These terms constituted the language of the gods, so often mentioned by the prince of poets. To us the words in question appear to be Syriac, and to signify, Be vigilant, be innocent.
[7:15:673]

Numerous and important were the advantages supposed to redound to the initiated, from their being admitted to partake of the mysteries, both in this life and that which is to come. First, they were highly honoured, and even revered by their contemporaries; indeed, they were looked up to as a kind of sacred persons, and were, in reality, consecrated to Ceres and Proserpine. Secondly, they were obliged by their oath to practise every virtue, religious, moral, political, public, and private. Thirdly, they imagined, that sound advice and happy measures of conduct were suggested to the initiated by the Eleusinian goddesses. Accordingly, says Pericles, the celebrated Athenian statesman, “I am convinced, that the deities of Eleusis inspired me with this sentiment, and that this stratagem was suggested by the principle of the mystic rites.” There is a beautiful passage in Aristophanes’s comedy of the Ranae ^[94. Act. i. ] to the very same purpose, of which we shall subjoin the following periphrasis. It is sung by the chorus of the initiated :—

Let us to flow’ry mead repair, With deathless roses blooming, Whose balmy sweets impregn the air, Both hills and dales perfuming.

Since fate benign our choir has join’d, We’ll trip in mystic measure;

In sweetest harmony combin’d We’ll quaff full draughts of pleasure.

For us alone the pow’r of day

A milder light dispenses;

And sheds benign a mellow’d ray

To cheer our ravish’d senses: For we beheld the mystic show, And brav’d Eleusis’ dangers, We do and know the deeds we owe To neighbours, friends, and strangers.

Euripides, in his Bacchae, ^[95. Act i. near the beginning, and in many other places. ] introduces the chorus extolling the happiness of those who had been acquainted with God, by participating in the holy mysteries, and whose minds had been enlightened by the mystical rites. They boast, that “they had led a holy and unblemished life, from the time that they had been initiated in the sacred rites of Jupiter Idaeus, and from the time that they had relinquished celebrating the nocturnal rites of Bacchus, and the banquets of raw flesh torn off living animals.” To this sanctity of life they had no doubt engaged themselves, when they were initiated in the mysteries of that god. The Eleusinian epoptae derived the same advantages from their sacramental engagements. Fourthly, the initiated were imagined to be the peculiar wards of the Eleusinian goddesses. These deities were supposed to watch over them, and often to avert impending danger, and to rescue them when beset with troubles. Our readers will not imagine that the initiated reaped much benefit from the protection of their Eleusinian tutelary deities; but it was sufficient that they believed the fact, and actually depended upon their interposition. Fifthly, the happy influences of the Teletae were supposed to administer consolation to the epoptae in the hour of dissolution; for, says Isocrates, “Ceres bestowed upon the Athenians two gifts of the greatest importance; the fruits of the earth, which were the cause of our no longer leading a savage course of life; and the Teletae, for they who partake of these entertain more pleasant hopes both at the end of life, and eternity afterwards.” Another author tells us,^[96. Aristides, de My»t. Eleut. ] “that the initiated were not only often rescued from many hardships in their lifetime, but at death entertained hopes that they should be raised to a more happy condition.” Sixthly, after death, in the Elysian fields they were to enjoy superior degrees of felicity, and were to bask, in eternal sunshine, to quaff nectar, and feast upon ambrosia, &c.

The priests were not altogether disinterested in this salutary process. They made their disciples believe that the souls of the uninitiated, when they arrived in the infernal regions, should roll in mire and dirt, and with very great difficulty arrive at their destined mansion. Hence Plato introduces Socrates^[97. Plato in Phado. ] observing, “that the sages who introduced the Teletae had positively affirmed, that whatever soul should arrive in the infernal mansions unhousell’d and unanneal’d, should lie there immersed in mire and filth.” “And as to a future state,” says Aristides, “the initiated shall not roll in mire and grope in darkness; a fate which awaits the unholy and uninitiated.” It is not hard to conceive with what a commanding influence such doctrines as these must have operated on the generality of mankind.

When the Athenians advised Diogenes to get himself initiated, and enforced their arguments with the above considerations, “It will be pretty enough,” replied the philosopher, “to see Agesilaus and Epaminondas wallowing in the mire, while the most contemptible rascals who have been initiated are strutting in the islands of bliss.”

When Antisthenes was to be initiated in the Orphic mysteries, and the priest was boasting of the many astonishing benefits which the initiated should enjoy in a future state,^[98. Diogenes Laertius. ] “Why, forsooth,” says Antisthenes, “’ tis wonder your reverence don’t even hang yourself in order to come at them the sooner.”

When such benefits were expected to be derived from the mysteries, no wonder if all the world crowded to the Eleusinian standard. After the Macedonian conquests, the hierophants abated much of their original strictness. By the age of Cicero, Eleusis was a temple whither all nations resorted to partake of the benefits of that institution. We find that almost all the great men of Rome were initiated. The hierophants, however, would not admit Nero, on account of the profligacy of his character. Few others were refused that honour; even the children of the Athenians were admitted. But this, we think, was rather a lustration or consecration, than an initiation. Perhaps it paved the way for the more august ceremony, as the Christian baptism does among us for the other sacrament.

That this institution gradually degenerated, can hardly be questioned; but how much, and in what points, we have not been able to investigate. The fathers of the church, from whom that charge is chiefly to be collected, are not always to be trusted, especially when they set themselves to arraign the institutions of Paganism. There were indeed several ancient authors, such as Melanthius, Menander, Sotades, &c. who wrote purposely on the subject in question; but their works are long since irrecoverably lost. For this reason, modern writers, who have professedly handled it, have not always been successful in their researches. The two who have laboured most indefatigably, and perhaps most successfully, in this field, are Meursius and Warburton. The former, in his Liber Singularis, has collected every thing that can be gleaned from antiquity relating to the ceremonial of these institutions, without, however, pointing out their original, or elucidating the end and import of their establishment. The latter has drawn them into the vortex of a system which has, in many instances, led him to ascribe to them a higher degree of merit than we think they deserve. These instances we would willingly have noticed in our progress, had the limits prescribed us, in treating the subject, admitted such a discussion.
[7:15:674]

If Diodorus the Sicilian may be believed, these mysteries, which were celebrated with such wonderful secrecy at Eleusis, were communicated to all mankind amongst the Cretans. This, however, we think, is rather problematical. We imagine that that excellent historian has confounded the mysteries of Cybele with those of the Eleusinian Ceres. These two deities were undoubtedly one and the same, that is, the moon or the earth. Hence it is probable that there was a striking resemblance between the sacred mysteries of the Cretans and Eleusinians.

This institution continued in high reputation to the age of St Jerome, as appears from the following passage: “Hierophantae quoque Atheniensium legant usque hodie cicutae sorbitione castrari.” The Emperor Valentinianus intended to have suppressed them; but Zozimus^[99. Advert. Jovin. ] informs us that he was diverted from his design by the proconsul of Greece. At length Theodosius the elder, by an imperial edict, prohibited the celebration of these as well as of all the other sacra of Paganism. These mysteries, instituted in the reign of Erechtheus, maintained their ground to the period just mentioned, that is, nearly 2000 years, during which space the celebration of them never had been interrupted but once. When Alexander the Great massacred the Thebans and razed their city, the Athenians were so much affected with this melancholy event that they neglected the celebration of that festival.

There were almost numberless other mysterious institutions among the ancient Pagans, of which these sketched above were the most celebrated. The Samothracian mysteries, instituted in honour of the Cabiri, were likewise of considerable celebrity, and were supposed to confer much the same blessings with the Eleusinian, but were not of equal celebrity. The Cabiri were Phoenician and likewise Egyptian deities.^[100. Sanchoniathon and Herodotus. ] The learned Bochart has explained their origin, number, names, and some part of their worship. The Orphic mysteries were likewise famous among the Thracians. Orpheus learned them in Egypt, and they were nearly the same with the sacrt Bacchanalia of the Greeks. There were likewise the mys teries of Jupiter Idaeus in great request among the Cretans, those of the Magna Mater or Cybele, celebrated ir Phrygia. To enumerate and detail all these would requiro a complete volume. We hope our readers will be fully satisfied with the specimen exhibited above. We are convinced many things have been omitted which might have been inserted, but we have collected the most curious and the most important. (o. o. o. o.)