chodonosor, and lay desolate for forty years. This does not agree well with Mitford's account of Egypt. Babylon was ruined by the Medes. This does not agree well with Mitford's account of Babylon; but it is justice to add, that almost all our commentators and historians have chosen to correct Scripture by profane history. Until the conquests of Alexander, conquests which have been ludicrously exaggerated in their extent and importance, Persia "pushed westward, and northward, and southward," and overpowered all resistance. This does not agree well with Mitford's account of Persia. If then, in addition to these variations of the original harmony, we set Mitford at variance with Homer, we shall do him no service. It will be better to conclude, though without knowing why, that this antient pre-eminence and the pride of it are matters of fact, and to proceed accordingly." 1 "The Argians were, according to Herodotus, so thoroughly in the Persian interest, that they had undertaken to intercept any Spartan troops that should attempt to quit Laconia." So says Mitford, in the section which contains the campaign in Boeotia and battle of Platea, and which therefore brings us back to Mardonius and his army. But was not the undertaking of the Argians very strange? How could the pride of antient pre-eminence enable them in their weak state to intercept the 50,000 troops of Sparta? "To exalt causes into agents, to invest abstract ideas with form and animate them with activity, has always been the right of poetry." True; but Herodotus is the father and prince of history, of grave prose. So we must make further enquiry into this undertaking, and also into some other little matters, which are connected with the very wonderful campaign in Boeotia and battle of Platea. p. 19.) If Bonaparte had desolated England, and burnt London, would our merchants have thought themselves safe in the Isle of Dogs? Nebuchadnezzar was not a man to be bearded. "Nebuchadnezzar next attacked Egypt, then distracted by civil wars, and totally subdued it. The conquest, however, does not appear to have been permanent." (Ibid.) From that conquest to the present hour, Egypt has not been governed by native princes, but has truly been the basest of the kingdoms. Moab was very proud, and the remnant of Moab feeble. From Ar of Moab we may derive the Greek Apns, our own War, the French Guerre, and the Latin forms Gra-Divus and Graii. In Heres, or KirHeres of Moab, we may trace Ceres, and the real cause of her wanderings. 2 See Johnson's remarks on Milton's Allegories. 332 ON THE MYSTERIES OF ELEUSIS. A LEARNED Platonist of our own time, Mr. T. Taylor, in a "Dissertation on the Eleusinian Mysteries," has attempted to prove that they were intended to teach allegorically the Platonic philosophy. Pray does Mr. T. suppose that they originated amongst the Platonists: They were certainly neither of Platonic nor of Orphic invention. Although we are uncertain whether they were introduced into Greece by Melampus,' or by Orpheus, or by Eumolpus,3 or by the daughters of Danaus ; yet it is generally agreed that they came thither from Egypt. Their original import was lost in their migration; and it is highly probable that at the time when they were transported to Greece, the Egyptians themselves had lost the knowlege of their meaning. The more ancient of the Greeks, Pausanias tells us, considered the Mysteries of Eleusis as exceeding in sanctity all other sacred rites, as much as the immortal gods were superior to the heroes. Diodorus Siculus says that they were celebrated over the whole world on account of their great antiquity and purity. And Cicero observes of Ceres, or Demeter, one of the Eleusinian triad, that she was exceedingly ancient and sacred, and the origin and chief of all sacred rites amongst every people and nation. And the writer of the Homeric Hymn to Ceres, 1 Μελαμποδα δε τον Αμυθάονος αλλοι φασιν εξ Αιγύπτου μετακόμισαι τῇ Ἑλλαδι τας Δηους ἑορτας, πενθος ὑμνουμενον. Clemens Alexandrin. Protrept. p. 10. Herodotus says the same thing, lib. ii. p. 122. 2 Ορφεα μεν γαρ των μυστικών τελετών τα πλειστα και τα περι την ἑαυτου πλατην οργιαζόμενα, και την εν άδου μυθοποιίαν απενεγκασθαι, κ. τ. λ. Diodorus Siculus, lib. i. p. 107. Πρωτος Ορφευς μυστηρια θεων παραδεδωκεν. Schol. in Eurip. Alcest. and Pausanias (in Laconicis) says, Δημητρα δε Χθονιαν Λακεδαιμονιοι μεν σεβειν φασι, παραδόντος σφισιν Ορφευς. 3 Ευμολπος ὁ Μουσαίου τα μυστηρια ανεφηνεν εν Ελευσινι. Marmor Oxoniens. P. 23. 4 Αἱ Δαναου θυγατέρες ησαν, αἱ την τελετην ταυτην [την θεσμοφοριαν Δημητρος] εξ Αιγύπτου εξαγαγουσαι, και διδαξασαι τας Πελασγιώτιδας γυναικας. Herodotus, lib. ii. p. 176. * Οἱ γαρ αρχαιοτεροι των Ελληνων τελετην την Ελευσινιαν παντων, όποσα ες ευσεβειαν ήκει, τοσουτῳ ηγον εντιμοτέραν, ὅσῳ και θεους επιπροσθεν ἡρώων. Pausan. Phocica, lib. x. c. 31. 6 Και τοις εν Ελευσινι μυστηρίοις, & δια την ὑπερβολην της αρχαιότητος και άγνειας εγενοντο πασιν ανθρωποις περιβοητα. Diod. Sic. lib. v. p. 333. 7 Hoc dico, hanc ipsam Cererem, antiquissimam, religiosissimam, principem omnium sacrorum, quæ apud omnis genteis, nationesque fiunt, a C. Verre ex suis templis ac sedibus esse sublatam. Cicero, Orat. in Verrem.-And thus Apuleius, -Eleusinii vetustam deam Cererem. Metamorph. lib. xi. represents those who had been initiated as peculiarly happy, in comparison with the uninitiated who were ignorant and covered with darkness: Όλβιος, ὃς ταδ' οπωπεν επιχθονίων ανθρωπων · Ος δ' ατελής, ἱερων ός τ' άμμορος, ουποθ ̓ ὁμοιων Thus also Seneca represents these mystic rites as attended by vast crowds of people: Turba secretam Cererem frequentat, Et citi tectis properant relictis Attici noctem celebrare Mystæ.2 We may judge, therefore, that they must have been intended to represent some very important event, something more than Platonical allegories. My readers may perhaps start, if I tell them that it was intended to preserve the remembrance of the most important of all events, of the fall of man, as the origin of the changing destinies of the human race. But when they have read the following observations, they may form their own conclusions. The lesser mysteries have little to do with my subject. They were but supplementary to the others. It appears from Diodorus, that they were brought along with the other mysteries from Egypt. They taught the notion of a future state of reward and punishment, consequent on the events that were commemorated in the greater. They taught that death was the lot of all; that facilis descensus Averni: Sed revocare gradum, superasque evadere ad auras, Virgil, Æn. vi. 126. They pictured to the minds of the people the dreadful tribunal and administrator of judgment after death, the fate of the wicked, their punishment in the gloomy and comfortless realms of Tartarus: Gnossius hæc Rhadamanthus habet durissima regna, 1 Homer, Hymn. eis Anuntpa, v. 406. 2 Seneca, Herd. Furens, act. iii. Thus Cicero :-"Omitto Eleusinam sanctam illam et augustam ubi initiantur gentes orarum ultimæ."-Cic. de Nat. Deor. lib. p. 294. i. 3 Diodorus Siculus, lib. i. p. 107. supra citat. VOL. XXXIX. CI. JI. NO. LXXVIII. Ꮓ Distulit in seram commissa piacula mortem. Virg. Æn. vi. 566. Quam pœnam, aut quæ forma viros fortunave mersit. En. vi. 614. Next were exhibited the joyous realms of the real Paradise, the happy fields and pleasant groves : Devenere locos lætos, et amœna vireta Purpureo; solemque suum, sua sidera nôrunt. Æn. vi. 638. As well as the occupations of the blessed, now at length freed from the fetters of mortality:— Pars in gramineis exercent membra palæstris; Armorumque fuit vivis, quæ cura nitentes Æn. vi. 642. The greater mysteries consisted in representing what formed in the popular mythology the fable of the rape of Proserpine.' And as some of the shows of the lesser mysteries 2 have been described poetically by Virgil, so the less arcane parts of the shows of the greater have formed the subject of a poetical work by Claudian. The poet himself refers distinctly to the source from whence he took his story at its commencement. He introduces the very expression of the mystics-" Hence, ye profane!"3 and speaks of the religious fury and astonishment with which he is inspired, as though he were present at its mysterious representation: gressus removete, profuni! 1 Δηω δε και Κορην, δραμα ηδη εγενέσθην μυστικον και την πλανην, και την ἁρπαγην, και το πενθος αυταιν Ελευσις δαδουχει. Clem. Alex. Protrept. p. 9.See also Lactantius, Arnobius, and D. Augustinus, de Civ. Dei, lib. vii. c. 20. 2 The sacred pledges that were supposed to be connected with the fate of Messene, and which were so carefully preserved by the brave Aristomenes, consisted of thin plates of lead, rolled up in the form of a volume, and contained the history and worship of Ceres and Proserpine. 3 Ἑκας, έκας, ὅστις αλιτρος, and Έκας, έκας, εστι βεβηλον.—Βεβαλοις τα ταιν Ελευσινιαιν θεαιν μυστηρια ου διηγετεα. Lysis Pythagoreus.Thus Orpheus, Φθεγξομαι οἷς θεμις εστι, θυρας επίθεσθε βέβηλοις. Virgil, too, intimates the source of the narrative in his sixth book, by the expression-"Procul, o procul este, profani!" Æn. vi. 258. “Profani, qui non estis initiati," says Servius, in loc. |