Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Anc^
part of Europe ? , The next place is allotted to patriots , and those who died for the service of their country ; the third to pious and virtuous priests ; and the fourth and last to patrons and cultivators of the liberal arts and sciences . The first class consists of those who
founded society ; the second and third of those who supported it ; the fourth of those who adorned it ; representing in a manner those attributes of wisdom , strength , and beauty , the mention whereof will be so readily recognized by our readers . Virgil has throughout closely followed the doctrine of the mysteries , which taught that virtue alone could entitle men to happiriess , and
that rites , ceremon ies , lustrations , and sacrifices , could not supply the want of it . Nor has he been less studious in iniitating their spectacles and representations . But something is still wanting to complete the identification , viz ., the great secret of the mysteries , the unity of the divinity , to which we have before alluded as the leading doctrine of the mysteries . But he was too good a painter to leave anything ambiguous , and has therefore concluded his hero ' s initiation , as was
the custom , within structing him in the ' ATroppnra , or the doctrine of the TJnity . Musseus , therefore , said by some to have been the son of Orpheus , and hierophant at Athens , and whose name is well known as a poet , and as connected with the Eleusinian mysteries , now takes the place of the Sibyl as his conductor , and is made to conduct him to that part of Elysium in which his father dwelt , who in the following lines unfolds to him the doctrine of perfection : — -
, Principle cesium , ac terras , camposque liquentes , Lucentemque globum Lunas , Titaniaque astra Spiritus intus-. al . it , totamque infusa per artus Mens agitat molem , et magno se corpore miscet . Inde hominum pecudumque genus , vitseque volantum , Et qua ? marmoreo fert monstra sub aequore pontus . " *
This was no other than the doctrine of the ancient Egyptians , as We are informed by Plato , who says that they taught that Jupiter , or " the Father" ( to whom we have also alluded under the name of Osiris , ) was the spirit which pervaded all things . And the unity of the divinity is a doctrine which Virgil seems thoroughly to have felt , as the following lines show : —
44 Beum namque ire per omnes Terrasque , tractusque maris coelumque profundum Hinc pecudes , armenta , viros , genus omnc ferarum ; Quemque sibi tenues nascentem arcessere vitas , Scilicet hue recldi deindc ac resoluta refcrri Omnia . " !—( G eoug . iv . 221—226 . )
* " la the first place the spirit within nourishes the heavens , the earth , and watery plains , the moon's enlightened orb , arid the Titanian stars ; ancl the mind , diffused through all the members , actuates the whole frame , and mingles with the vast body of the universe . Thence the race of men and beasts , the vital principle of the flying kind , and the monsters which the ocean breeds under its smooth plain /* f is For the deity pervades all lands and the expanse of the sea , and the vast heaven : from him Hocks , herds , men , beasts , at their birth each derives its slender life : to him accordingly all return when the period of their dissolution arrives . "
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Anc^
part of Europe ? , The next place is allotted to patriots , and those who died for the service of their country ; the third to pious and virtuous priests ; and the fourth and last to patrons and cultivators of the liberal arts and sciences . The first class consists of those who
founded society ; the second and third of those who supported it ; the fourth of those who adorned it ; representing in a manner those attributes of wisdom , strength , and beauty , the mention whereof will be so readily recognized by our readers . Virgil has throughout closely followed the doctrine of the mysteries , which taught that virtue alone could entitle men to happiriess , and
that rites , ceremon ies , lustrations , and sacrifices , could not supply the want of it . Nor has he been less studious in iniitating their spectacles and representations . But something is still wanting to complete the identification , viz ., the great secret of the mysteries , the unity of the divinity , to which we have before alluded as the leading doctrine of the mysteries . But he was too good a painter to leave anything ambiguous , and has therefore concluded his hero ' s initiation , as was
the custom , within structing him in the ' ATroppnra , or the doctrine of the TJnity . Musseus , therefore , said by some to have been the son of Orpheus , and hierophant at Athens , and whose name is well known as a poet , and as connected with the Eleusinian mysteries , now takes the place of the Sibyl as his conductor , and is made to conduct him to that part of Elysium in which his father dwelt , who in the following lines unfolds to him the doctrine of perfection : — -
, Principle cesium , ac terras , camposque liquentes , Lucentemque globum Lunas , Titaniaque astra Spiritus intus-. al . it , totamque infusa per artus Mens agitat molem , et magno se corpore miscet . Inde hominum pecudumque genus , vitseque volantum , Et qua ? marmoreo fert monstra sub aequore pontus . " *
This was no other than the doctrine of the ancient Egyptians , as We are informed by Plato , who says that they taught that Jupiter , or " the Father" ( to whom we have also alluded under the name of Osiris , ) was the spirit which pervaded all things . And the unity of the divinity is a doctrine which Virgil seems thoroughly to have felt , as the following lines show : —
44 Beum namque ire per omnes Terrasque , tractusque maris coelumque profundum Hinc pecudes , armenta , viros , genus omnc ferarum ; Quemque sibi tenues nascentem arcessere vitas , Scilicet hue recldi deindc ac resoluta refcrri Omnia . " !—( G eoug . iv . 221—226 . )
* " la the first place the spirit within nourishes the heavens , the earth , and watery plains , the moon's enlightened orb , arid the Titanian stars ; ancl the mind , diffused through all the members , actuates the whole frame , and mingles with the vast body of the universe . Thence the race of men and beasts , the vital principle of the flying kind , and the monsters which the ocean breeds under its smooth plain /* f is For the deity pervades all lands and the expanse of the sea , and the vast heaven : from him Hocks , herds , men , beasts , at their birth each derives its slender life : to him accordingly all return when the period of their dissolution arrives . "