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Article THE ANCIENT MYSTERIES.—If. (Continued f ... ← Page 2 of 8 →
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The Ancient Mysteries.—If. (Continued F ...
Thraeian origin . , Sometimes , however , they referred their invention to the ancient Peiasgi . These tAvo accounts are , howeA er , in substance the same ; the Thraciaiis and the Peiasgi being the ancestors of those Greeks who did not emigrate from Egypt and Phoenicia . " They were equally / ' says Faber , c ( the children of one great family ; for they were branches of the Indo-Scythic race , \ vh . icli sent out colonies in almost every direction , and which communicated its religious institutions to its descendants , the elder Hellenes / 5
And this again justifies our vieAV of the Egyptian origin of many of the Grecian mysteries , as it is natural that a people emigrating to another country would preserve their own institutions ; on which supposition a modern writer of eminence founds an argument , that the lost ten tribes of tlie Jewish nation are to he found among the Indian tribes of North America , among whom are many customs strictly Jewish , in their nature .
Among other celebrated instructors , or hierophants , in the mysteries , was the renowned Pythagoras ; who taught , it seems , certain rites of purification , and in initiating his disciples into the mysteries united
a kind of divine philosophy with religious worship , and instructed them with the greatest accuracy in the knowledge of the hero-gods . These instructions of his , however ,-were . ' no mere speculations of his oavu ; he had derived them partly from the Orphic rites of the Thracians , partly from the Egyptian priesthood , partly from the Chaldseans and the Magi , and partly from the mysteries of Eleusis , Imbros , and Delos . Ancl here at least Faber himself seems not to deny Egypt as
a common origin to the mysteries . Before , however , finally leaving the subject of the origin of the mysteries , let us give briefly one more theory , viz . —that in the infancy of society , when as yet mankind were few in number , all the children of Noah were associated together in a single community ; that while they formed thus , as yet , but one empire , a great apostacy from the worship of the true God took place ; that at that period the original system of idolatrous worship and the sacred rites or mysteries attached to it wore first contrived ; and that afterwards , when colonies were sent forth from the parent society , and when hcav
independent polities were gradually established , the same mysterious rites , and the same peculiar mode of worship , were carried by the emigrants to every part of the world . Taking , however , according to the Bishop of Warburton ,. Egypt as the birth-place of the mysteries , let us uoav direct our inquiries to their
purport . They Avere , most probably , a profound political invention of the Egyptian legislators ; and their object was , first to expose to the initiated the futility of the established polytheism , and afterAvards to declare to them the existence of one supreme Being , the creator and moderator of the universe . The solemnity is supposed to have commenced with reciting to tlie aspirants the theology of the herogods ; from which it would plainly appear that they Avere mere mortals , who had lived and died on earth , but Avho had been deified
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Ancient Mysteries.—If. (Continued F ...
Thraeian origin . , Sometimes , however , they referred their invention to the ancient Peiasgi . These tAvo accounts are , howeA er , in substance the same ; the Thraciaiis and the Peiasgi being the ancestors of those Greeks who did not emigrate from Egypt and Phoenicia . " They were equally / ' says Faber , c ( the children of one great family ; for they were branches of the Indo-Scythic race , \ vh . icli sent out colonies in almost every direction , and which communicated its religious institutions to its descendants , the elder Hellenes / 5
And this again justifies our vieAV of the Egyptian origin of many of the Grecian mysteries , as it is natural that a people emigrating to another country would preserve their own institutions ; on which supposition a modern writer of eminence founds an argument , that the lost ten tribes of tlie Jewish nation are to he found among the Indian tribes of North America , among whom are many customs strictly Jewish , in their nature .
Among other celebrated instructors , or hierophants , in the mysteries , was the renowned Pythagoras ; who taught , it seems , certain rites of purification , and in initiating his disciples into the mysteries united
a kind of divine philosophy with religious worship , and instructed them with the greatest accuracy in the knowledge of the hero-gods . These instructions of his , however ,-were . ' no mere speculations of his oavu ; he had derived them partly from the Orphic rites of the Thracians , partly from the Egyptian priesthood , partly from the Chaldseans and the Magi , and partly from the mysteries of Eleusis , Imbros , and Delos . Ancl here at least Faber himself seems not to deny Egypt as
a common origin to the mysteries . Before , however , finally leaving the subject of the origin of the mysteries , let us give briefly one more theory , viz . —that in the infancy of society , when as yet mankind were few in number , all the children of Noah were associated together in a single community ; that while they formed thus , as yet , but one empire , a great apostacy from the worship of the true God took place ; that at that period the original system of idolatrous worship and the sacred rites or mysteries attached to it wore first contrived ; and that afterwards , when colonies were sent forth from the parent society , and when hcav
independent polities were gradually established , the same mysterious rites , and the same peculiar mode of worship , were carried by the emigrants to every part of the world . Taking , however , according to the Bishop of Warburton ,. Egypt as the birth-place of the mysteries , let us uoav direct our inquiries to their
purport . They Avere , most probably , a profound political invention of the Egyptian legislators ; and their object was , first to expose to the initiated the futility of the established polytheism , and afterAvards to declare to them the existence of one supreme Being , the creator and moderator of the universe . The solemnity is supposed to have commenced with reciting to tlie aspirants the theology of the herogods ; from which it would plainly appear that they Avere mere mortals , who had lived and died on earth , but Avho had been deified