The Ancient Mysteries.

fictions , in which the marvellous was derived from a sacred source , and where the imagination , already surrounded by magnificent objects , of which-it could dispose at its pleasure , was under no necessit y to invent either the monstrous or fantastic . The epic poem had already acquired all the majesty that belongs to it . And how interesting to the masters of the world must not that poem have been which illustrated their oriinwhile it comprehended whatever

g , religion deems most venerable and august ! Every circumstance leads us to believe , what Warbttrton has most ingeniously demonstrated , that the description of the infernal regions in the yEneid is a representation of the sacred Mysteries , and of the ceremonies that attended their celebration . The Mysteries were divided into two kinds , the greater and the less . The latter were only a preparationa sort of noviciatewhich it was to

, , necessary perform before the aspirant could be admitted to the former , of which they were the images as sleep , says Euripides , is the image of death ; and they chiefly consisted iu lustrations and purifications of every kind . After the candidate had been sufficiently exercised by a long fast and a series of austere observances , he was led into a chapel on the banks of- a river , consecrated for the purposewhere he was plunged into the water as au emblem

, of regeneration . This ceremony TertuUian compares to that , of baptism , of which it was indeed the symbol . The candidate was even presented by a kind of introductor , who performed the office of a father , and may be called by the name of sponsor . The priest , who had the care of the preparatory lustrations ,

was called the H ydranus . A victim was then sacrificed , which was generall y a a sow with young , ' probably because that animal was made use of to signify the fecundity of nature : and the candidate having taken an oath that he would reveal nothing of what was to be communicated , various questions were proposed to him . He was asked , for instance , if he had eaten fruit , he replied , " I have fasted , I have drank of the cyceon , I have taken the cistus , I have put into the calathus ; and having operatedI have put back the calathus into the cistus" *

, . We shall not attempt to explain these mysterious formulas , of which it is now impossible to conjecture the sense . Some authors , and among others , M . Gebelin , think they referred to the productions of the earths We shall only say that the cyceon was a mixture of wine , of honey , of water , and meal . As to the calathus , or sacred basket , it was carried in great pomp on cars in the solemn processions at the feasts of Ceres , and then the people were prohibited from

appearing at any place from which it could be seen . As it passed along , every eye was fixed on the ground . When the candidate had answered to all the questions , and had performed the customary requisites , the elements of the secret doctrine , in which he was afterwards to be perfectly instructed , were explained to him , and thus be was graduall y prepared for admission into the sanctuary But it was to

. necessary undergo new preparations , and to suffer new trials more severe than the former . He was still but a Mystes , or adept , the name given to those who had been admitted onl y to the lesser Mysteries : it was not till he had been initiated into the greater , that he obtained the name of Fpoptes , or contemplatist .

The interval between the performance of these two ceremonies was at least a year . We shall leave to the learned the care of fixing the particular period and time of their celebration ; such researches do not fall within our plan . The genius of the ancient reli gion is our object , and we shall confine ourselves to those circumstances which peculiarly characterize it . ( To be continued . )