of Demonax *. No wonder, then, if the suadvantages of the Initiated, both here and ter, should make the Mysteries universally to. And, indeed, they soon grew as compree in the numbers they embraced, as in the s and countries to which they extended: men, , and children ran to be initiated. Thus Apu

describes the state of the Mysteries even in e: "Influunt turbæ, sacris divinis initiatæ, viri inæque, omnis ætatis & omnis dignitatis." The 5, we see, seemed to think initiation as necess the Christians did baptism. And the custom ating children appears from a passage of TeI, to have been general.

erietur alio munere, ubi hera pepererit;

orro autem alio, ubi erit puero natalis dies, bi INITIABUNT."

hey had even the same superstition in the stration of it, which some Christians had of n, to defer it till the approach of death; so the farmer Trygæus, in the Par of Aristophanes :

Δεῖ γὰρ μυηθῆναι με πρὶν τεθνηκέναι.

"The

ccasion of this solicitude is told us by the t on the Rana of the same poet. nians believed, that he who was initiated, and ucted in the Mysteries, would obtain celestial

an. Vit. Dem. t. II. p. 374, et seq. Edit. Reitzii, 4o. 743

- lib. xi. pag. 959. Edit. Lugd. 1587, 8vo.

m. act. i. sc. i. And Donatus, on the place, tells us, the tom prevailed in the Samothracian mysteries: "Terenollodorum sequitur, apud quem legitur, in insula Samom à certo tempore pueros initiari, more Atheniensium.”

"honour

"honour after death: and THEREFORE all ran to "be initiated *." Their fondness for it became so great, that at such times as the publick Treasury was low, the Magistrates could have recourse to the Mys teries, as a fund to supply the exigencies of the State. Aristogiton (says the commentator on Her"mogenes) in a great scarcity of publick money, "procured a law, that in Athens every one should pay a certain sum for his initiation †.

دو

Every thing in these rites was mysteriously conducted, and under the most solemn obligations to secrecy. Which how it could agree to our representation of the Mysteries, as an institution for the use of the people, we shall now endeavour to explain.

They were hidden and kept secret for two reasons:

I. Nothing excites our curiosity like that which retires from our observation, and seems to forbid

* Λόγω γὰρ ἐκράτει παρ' Αθηναίοις, ὡς ὁ τὰ μυτήρια διδαχθεὶς, μετὰ τὴν, ἐνθένδε τελευτὴν θείας ἠξιῦτο τιμῆς· διὸ καὶ πάνες πρὸς τὴν μύησιν ἔσπευδον.

† Αριτογείτων ἐν σπάνει χρημάτων, γράφει νόμον, παρ' Αθηναίοις μισθῆ μνεῖσθαι. Syrianus.

Cum ignotis hominibus Orpheus sacrorum ceremonias aperiret, nihil aliud ab his quos initiabat in primo vestibulo nisi jurisjurandi necessitatem, & cum terribili quadam auctoritate religionis, exegit, ne profanis auribus inventæ ac composita religionis secreta proderentur. Fermicus in limine lib. vii. Astronom. -Nota sunt hæc Græcæ superstitionis Hierophantis, quibus inviolabili lege interdictum erat, ne hæc atque hujusmodi Mysteria apud eos, qui his sacris minimè initiati essent, evulgarent. -Nicetas in Gregorii Nazianzeni Orat. eiç và åyıa pãra. This obligation of the initiated to secrecy was the reason that the Egyptian hieroglyphic for them, was a grass-hopper, which was supposed to have no mouth. See Horapollo Hieroglyph. lib. ii. cap. 55. Edit. Pauw, 1727, 4to.

Our

earch. Of this opinion we find the learned us, where he says, "The people will despise at is easy and intelligible, and therefore they st always be provided with something wonderful mysterious in Religion, to hit their taste, and ulate their curiosity*." And again, "The rance of the mysteries preserves their venera: for which reason they are entrusted only to cover of night." "The veil or mist (says nens Alex.) through which things are only itted to be seen, renders the truths contained er it more venerable and majestick ." On these les the Mysteries were framed. They were cret, to excite curiosity: They were celebrated night, to impress veneration and religious hornd they were performed with variety of shews resentations (of which more hereafter) to fix petuate these 'impressions ||. Hitherto, then, steries are to be considered as invented, not

ὅσον καταγελάσεται ὁ δῆμος· δεῖται γὰρ τερατείας. Το thesanre Nicephorus Gregoras, Hist. lib. v. p. 72. Edit. Basil. fol. - γὰρ τοῖς πάσι πρόχειρα κόρον τε ἔσχε, καὶ ἀχρησία σφίσιν ὡς περικέχεται.

τία σεμνότης ἐςὶ τελειῶν· καὶ νὺξ τῦτο πιτεύεται τα μυσάρια. Providentia.

τε καὶ πάνθ' ὅσα διὰ τίνος παρακαλύμματος ὑποφαίνεται, · σεμνοτέραν δείκνυσι τὴν ἀλήθειαν. Strom. L. v. pag. 419. t. Sylburgh.

des, in the Bacchantes, act. ii. makes Bacchus say, that were celebrated in the night, because darkness has solemn and august in it, and proper to fill the mind horror.

τὰ μυσήρια ἐν ΑΛΛΗΓΟΡΙΑΙΣ λέγεται, πρὸς ἔκπληξιν και ἐν ΣΚΟΤΩ», * ΝΥΚΤΙ· ἔοικε δὲ καὶ ἡ ἀλληγορία τῷ σκότω Demet. Phalereus de Elocutione, § 110.

ή

to

to deter, but to incite the curiosity of the people. But,

II. They were kept secret from a necessity of teaching the Initiated some things, improper to be communicated to ALL. The learned Varro in a fragment of his book Of Religions, preserved by St. Augustin, tells us, that "There were many truths, "which it was inconvenient for the State to be generally known; and many things, which, though false, "it was expedient the People should believe; and "that therefore the Greeks shut up their MYSTERIES "in the silence of their sacred inclosures*."

Now to reconcile this seeming contradiction, in supposing the Mysteries to be instituted to invite the People into them, and, at the same time, to keep them from the People's knowledge, we are to observe, that in the Eleusinian rites there were two celebrations of the Mysteries, the GREATER and the LESST. The end of the less must be referred to what we said of the Institutor's intention to invite the people into them; and of the greater, to his intention of keeping some truths from the people's knowledge. Nor is this said without sufficient warrant: Antiquity is very express for this distinction. We are told that the lesser Mysteries were only a kind of preparatory purification for the Greater ‡, and might

* Multa esse vera, quæ vulgo scire non sit utile; multaque, quæ, tametsi falsa sint, aliter existimare populum expediat. Et ideo Græcos TELETAS ac MYSTERIA taciturnitate parietibusque clausisse. Civ. Dei, lib. iv. cap. 31.

† Ἦσαν τὰ μὲν μεγάλα τῆς Δήμητραν· τὰ δὲ μικρὰ Περσεφόνης τῆς Urns Juyalós. Interp. Græc. ad Plut. Aristophanis.

4 Ἔσι τὰ μικρὰ ὥσπερ προκάθαρσις, καὶ προάγνευσις τῶν μεγάλων. Schol. ad Plut. secund. Aristoph.

easily communicated to all*. That four

years t the usual time of probation for those greater steries; in which (as Clemens Alexandrinus exssly informs us) the SECRETS were deposited ‡ However, as it is very certain, that both the ater and lesser Mysteries were instituted for the efit of the State, it follows, that the DOCTRINES ght in both, were equally for the service of Society; with this difference; some without inconvenience t be taught promiscuously, others could not. 'n the whole, the secret in the lesser Mysteries principally contained in some hidden rites and es to be kept from the open view of the people, to invite their curiosity: And the secret in the ter, some hidden doctrines to be kept from the le's knowledge, for the very contrary purpose. For Shews common both to the greater and lesser eries, were only designed to engage the attention, aise their devotion.

t it may be worth while to enquire more particuinto the HIDDEN DOCTRINES of the greater eries: for so religiously was the secret kept, that ing seems still to lie involved in darkness. We therefore, proceed cautiously; and try, from oscure hints dropped up and down in Antiquity,

Pandere res alta terra & caligine mersas.

πενόησαν μυςήρια εὐμελάδα. Schol. Aristoph. Cùm epoptas ante quinquennium instituunt, ut opinionem io cognitionis ædificent. Tertul. adv. Valentinianos, in

ὰ ταῦτα δί ἐςι τὰ μικρὰ μυςήρια, διδασκαλίας τινὰ ὑπόθεσιν · προπαρασκευῆς τῶν μελλόνων· τὰ δὲ μεγάλα περὶ τῶν συμπάνιων ειν ἔτι ὑπολείπεται, ἐποπτεύειν δὲ, καὶ περινοεῖν τήν τε φύσιν, καὶ τὰ =. Strom. v. pag. 424. C. Edit. Sylburgii. C

2. II.

First,