The Ancient Mysteries.

chosen most commonly out of those of the third order : a certain proof that in Greece tbey had the same origin Avith the arts . Tims , the most ancient of all were those of tbe discoverers of metallurgy , of the Cyclops at Lemnos , of the Curetes and Dacty li in tho island of Crete ; but especially of the Cabiri in Samothracia : which SIIOAVS us , at the same time , that ciA'ilization began in the islands that surround GreeceAvhenco it was afterwards spread over the

con-, tinent . When by a lucky revolution the Greeks bad been rescued from barbarism , tbey Avisbed that the beneficent deities , to Avhoni they attributed the discoveries that were most useful to man , should preside over tbe religious Avorship which had been introduced at the same period . These august functions Avere committed to the charge of Ceres and of Bacchus ; of tbe lirst especiall AVIIO bad introduced lawsand taught the practice of agriculture .

y , , The Mysteries , instituted in honour of that goddess , soon obtained a conspicuous celebrity . They differed , IIOAVCA'C I- , in nothing from those that Avere afterwards established in other places , and AA'hich soon became numerous . In Avbatover place they were celebrated , or AvhateA'er form they assumed , they continued ahvavs essentiallv the same ; ancl as thev were but a nortion of that

relig ion which , as we bave seen , comprehended the universal system of Nature , they must have had the same object . Among those who haA'e taken pleasure in disfiguring mythology , some haA'e pretended that the object of the Mysteries was to unveil the errors of the former , and to instill into the people purer sentiments , by informing them with regard to the nature of the beings they adored , and by teaching them , " that MercuryJupiter , Bacchus , ancl the whole rabble of licentious deities

, were only dead , mortals ; subject in life to the same passions and infirmities Avitb tlieniseh'es ; but having been , on other accounts , benefactors to mankind , grateful posterity had deified tbem , and with their virtues had indiscreetl y canonized their vices . " This opinion belongs to War-burton , * and is founded , like the rest which he has adopted , on a pretended letter of Alexander the Great to his motherrelated by St AugustineMinutins Felixancl some others

, , , , ancl Avhich ought to be ranked in the number of those pious frauds Avhich the first Christians thought themselves at liberty to practice . We shall not stop to combat this opinion , of AA'hich Ave have already shewn the absurdity , lt leads to tbe improbable supposition that the Ancients cultivated two sorts of relig ion of opposite tendency , that the one condemned what the other enjoined , and that the people Avere at once impious and idolatrous .

Far from destroying polytheism , in the sense in which this Avord ought to be taken , tbe Mysteries tended to establish it ; but tbey confined it within its true bounds ; tbey guarded it especially against the errors of the imagination ; and having explained what it vras necessary to understand b y that multiplicity of gods , the objects of public veneration , they arose to tbe Supreme Intelligence Avho comprehends them all , and from whom they are all but an emanation . The true meaning of the adventures that Ave ascribed to themof the fables

, that composed their history , was unfolded ancl explained . The principles of the universe , tbe most imposing phenomena of astronomy , and those arts that had served as the basis of society , all passed successively under review . Tbey took particular caro to commemorate the principal epochas of the Avorld , which bad at first been formed out of tbe bosom of Chaos , then alternatel y destroyed ancl renewed : lastlythey niu'eiled the picture of Science and Reliion unitin

, g g together for the happiness and instruction of mankind . The Mysteries alone Avere capable of interpreting the sacred emblems ; and thus , says Circero , " Avben they are Avell examined and duly considered tbey illustrate the nature of things more than that of the gods " . f But their principal object , under the name of Universal Nature , was the one unorig inated being , whose functions as Avell as attributes bad been per-