The Ancient Mysteries.

sometimes prodigies and marvellous events succeeded one another with rapidity , Avbile injunctions of tbe most rigorous silence Avere imposed on the spectators . Hence those objects of magnificence or terror presented to the eyes , all calculated to produce tbe most lively impressions on tho mind . Such ceremonies are still iu use iu China , in Japan , and in those Eastern monarchies that haA'e subsisted from immemorial times . * They were knoAvn to the Caribbessto the

, Mexicans , aucl to the inhabitants of Peru , *)* before the destructive invasion of tbe Spaniards ; and they are found also at this day among the savages scattered over the Northern countries of the New . World , ! who , Avitb their independence , have preserved their original LO-AYS . Such formerly Avore the opinions of our brave ancestors , AA'I IO supported for so long a time the cause of liberty against the oppressors of the human race : tbey too had a

secret religion , and they fixed its abode in the obscurest retreats . Darksome AYOOCIS that inspired a sacred horror , ancl which time had respected as Avell as the band of man , were the habitations of their gods . Nobody durst approach them except on those stated days in which the Druids , escorted by the principal chiefs , went in pompons solemnit y to cut the sacred mistletoe , the symbol of their worship . In the Northern extremity of our continentalso

, , inaccessible grottos and immense caverns served to conceal from the multitude the sacrifices § of the priests of Odin , as we learn from some ancient characters inscribed on certain rocks in Iceland or Norway . Lastly , even those people that have been lately discovered scattered among the islands of the great Pacific Ocean , ancl Avho have been separated till UOAV from the world , have also their Mysteries . || We haA'e had more than one occasion to observe this

conformity of religious opinions in different ages ancl in different climates , Avbence , perhaps , it may be concluded that between man and the Deity there exist only a certain number of connecting relations , which are easil y traced . Thus , each individual system originating from the same princi p les would produce nearly similar results when civil society began to be formed ; ancl AA'hen afterwards a general intercourse was established among nations , it is not surprising that various people should insensibly adopt a theology similar in the essential parts thou ° \ h different in the form .

Thus , the first Greeks easily embraced that theology which was introduced , among them by tbe colonies . Tbey had borrowed their deities from tbe Oriental nations : to them they AA'ere indebted for that secret part of tbe religion Avhich could alone inform tbem of tbe true object of their veneration . The Mysteries were particularly celebrated in that country which has justly been considered as the parent of tho sciences ; f there they AA'ere cultivated by an

order of priests entrusted Avitb the care of preserving the sacred deposit ; and there it was only allowed to a feAV Avise men to remove the veil by which they AA'ere concealed . Orpheus , to AA'I IOIU we must always bave recourse Avhen Ave investigate tbe religion of the Greeks , bad travelled into Egypt , whence he had brought the Mysteries , which a philosopher of antiquity ** calls Divine , because tbey softened tbe manners of men ; because , with IaA \ 'S , tbey bestoAvecl

on them life and nourishment ; and , divesting them of their brutal inclinations , recalled tbem to tbe virtues of humanity . They Avere first instituted in a small island situated at the entry of tbe Tbracian Chersonesns , AA'hich antiquity long venerated as the centre of reli gion , and thence they passed insensibly into the neighbouring countries Melampus , instructed in the school of Orpheus , established similar institutions in Argolis ,

as did Trophonius in Bceotia , and the celebrated Musiens at Athens . ff In each canton tbey Avere distinguished by a different name , or rather , if Ave may use the expression , tbey had been put under the invocation of a particular divinit y