The Ancient Mysteries.

because he was now permitted to contemplate that truth , after which he had so long sighed , ancl which Avas now to be revealed to him . The Hierophanta , who was the exclusive interpreter of the will of the gods , first made an oblation of bread , Avhile he pronounced some mysterious Avords . This was called the chaste bread , because none fed on it but the pure , and it Avas only distributed to the riests empfoyed in the service of the altaror to those who approached the

p , sacred mysteries with suitable dispositions . At this time the pontif took an opportunity of recalling to the minds of the assistants the duties of morality , and of recommending to them the practice of every virtue ; ancl then he began the solemn prayers with the following invocation : " I am to reveal a mystery to the initiated . Exclude the nnhalloAved and profane : ancl do thou , 0 Musams , offspring of the splendid Selene , give an

attentive ear to my song , for truth shall be displayed without disguise . Be-Avare , lest prejudice delude thee , or prevent thee from enjoying tbe happiness that the knowledge of truth alone can bestow . Contemplate this heavenly oracle , and preserve it in purity of heart and mind . Tread in . the 2 ) atbs of justice ; adore the sole rnler of the universe . He is one ancl independent . All other beings oive their existence to him alone ; he acts in them ancl through them ; he sees all , but has never yet been beheld by mortal eyes . "

Tbe crowd of priests and of the initiated celebrated in concert this first cause . They addressed to him their VOAVS ; they adored him under every form in which he thinks proper to represent himself , ancl by wdiich he continuall y makes manifest his power . All the gods that compose the celestial hierarchy , ancl Avho were only attributes of tbe Supreme Intelligence , were by turns invoked ; and , while the purest incense burnt upon tbe altars , tbe whole temple resounded Avith the names of Vulcan ; of Minerva ; of Panlord of universal

, matter ; of old Saturn ; of Hercules the powerful , the magnanimous , the invincible ; of the great Jupiter , and above all of the beneficent Ceres , Avho hacl so benefited the human race . Some of these sacred songs have escaped the devastations of time , such as the hymns of Orpheus , to whom is also ascribed that sung by the Hierophanta , and precious fragments they are whoever may have been tbe author ; they certainly belong to the most remote antiquity , ancl

it is now impossible to explain them if they are not applicable to the initiations . Indeed , as the Abbe Soucbay has well observed , * " these hymns could not have had any other object . They all begin , " says he " by earnest invocations , and by such energetic formulas as these , 'Give ear unto me ; I inA'oke thee ; I call upon thee . ' " They abound in epithets expressive of the power or of the attributes of the Deity ; the recitation of them was preceded b y the burning of incense or perfumes in honour of the gods .

If we may believe Warbnrton , ancl after him Voltaire , tbe beginning of the Theogonyof Sanchoniatho , wliich comprised an allegorical description of the origin of the world , was also read at the Mysteries . ' ' It is probable that this was the time chosen for explaining the physical revolutions of the globe , and for unfolding the sense of all the fables of ' mythology . " The doctrine of the Great Mysteries , " says Clemens AJexandrinus , " related to the whole universe ;' here all instruction ended : nature ancl the things it contains were unveiled . " The

initiated were informed wifcb regard to the symbolical representations of the fixed stars , of the planets , ancl in general of the mundane system , " "b y shewing them a ladder , " says Celsus , " in which Avere seven interstitial spaces , Avith an eighth at the top of all . " Various emblems were employed to exhibit the glorious course of the sun , whose worship made such an essential part of reli gion . That god who ivas dead , and was revived , we find a principal character in the M ysteries of every country ; Caclmillus among the Cabiri , Atys in Phrygia , Adonis in Syria , Osiris among the Egyptians , ancl in Greece the young Jacchus torn by the Titans . Indeed , all the festivals that succeeded