CHAPTER X. General Review of the Ancient Rite. FROM the foregoing description of the Ancient Mysteries, it will be seen that, to a certain degreefollowing the opinion of many of the early Christian fathers they realized the idea of a church. As none but the just and virtuous were eligible to membership, the initiated were-or at least were reputed to be the wisest and best of all countries, and constituted the ancient Pagan Ecclesia-if one may so speak the Church, or Assembly of the Wise and Good-a body competent to teach and enforce the everlasting truths of religion. Their chief object was to teach the doctrine of one God, the resurrection of man to eternal life, the dignity of the human soul, and to lead the people to see the shadow of the Deity, in the beauty, magnificence, and splendor of the universe. By the most solemn and impressive ceremonies they led the minds of the neophytes to meditate seriously the great problems of human duty and destiny-imbued them with a living sense of the vanity and brevity of life-and of the certainty of a future state of retribution-set forth in marked contrast the beauty of virtue and truth, and the deep bitterness and tormenting darkness of vice and error; and enjoined on them, by the most binding obligations, charity, brotherly love, and inflexible honor, as the greatest of all duties, the most beneficial to the world, and the most pleasing to the gods. They also, by these rites-rites magnificent and impressive, and startling, by sudden transitions and striking contrasts-rites commencing in gloom and sorrow, and ending in light and joy-dimly shadowed forth the passage of man from barbarism to civilization, from ignorance to science, and his constant progress onward and upward through the ages, to still sublimer elevations. The trembling and the helpless neophyte, environed with terror and gloom, and pursuing his uncertain and difficult way through the mystic journey of initiation, which terminated in light and confidence, was a type or representative of humanity marching upward, from the gloom and darkness of the primitive state of barbarism, to a high degree of enlightenment, and of social refinement and perfection. The mystic ceremony was, therefore, emblematical of the progressive development of man, and was intended as an aid to that development. The initiatory rituals of Orpheus, of the Cabiria, and of Isis, typifying thus the development of man and the progress of society, were in a sense pro phetic announcements of a Golden Age to come— a more perfect state where virtue, triumphant over vice, and truth victorious over error, would be installed on the throne of the world, and direct all human actions and relations. The Roman poet, Virgil, himself a Mystagogue, well versed in the ancient Mysteries-borrowing from them some of his finest thoughts*-describes this epoch in a strain of sublime and lofty eloquence: "The last era of Cumaan song is now arrived. The great series of ages begins anew. Now, too, returns the virgin Astræa-returns the reign of Saturn. The serpent's sting shall die, and poison's fallacious plant shall die, and the Assyrian spikenard grow on every soil; and blushing grapes shall hang on brambles rude, and dewy honey from hard oaks distill; and fruits and flowers shall spring up every-where without man's care or toil. The sacred Destinies, harmonious in the established order of the Fates, will sing to their spindles as they spin the mysterious threads of life. Roll on, ye Golden Ages, roll."" The idea which these rites presented of future retribution, is not in harmony with modern opinions, at least so far as most of our Protestant communions * Vide Enead, lib. vi.-Bishop Warburton contends that Virgil's entire description of the descent of Æneas into the lower regions, and his progress through hell to the Elysian Fields, is but a poetical and somewhat highlycolored delineation of the initiation of a candidate into the Mysteries of Eleusis! are concerned. All the ancient systems of Religion and Philosophy held that all punishment was purgatorial*—a means of purification-and consequently finite and limited in its character and duration, and was graduated according to the degree of moral turpitude attached to each offence. Hence in the initiation the neophyte represented the progress of the soul through the various stages of discipline— upward from the receptacles of sorrow to Elysian beatitude and purity. In all these rites, indeed, the idea seemed to prevail that man, society, humanity, could be perfected only by the ministry of gloom and suffering. The soul's exaltation, and highest good and truest repose, were to be approached only by the way of tears, and sacrifice, and toil. Those mystic dramas symbolize the profoundest mysteries of the soulthe deepest experiences of the human heart. They taught that through darkness and difficulty, in the midst of obstacles and opposition, man should ever struggle upward and onward-onward from the shadowy vale of doubt, and fear, and perplexity, to the golden ORIENT, whence comes the light of Eternal truth! These ancient initiatory dramas, too, were emblematical of the pilgrimage of Life, which, as man * Vide Enfield's History of Philosophy. Also Guigniaut: Religions de l'Antiquité considereés principalement dans leur Formes Symboliques et Mythologique. soon enough discovers, is often dark and gloomy and difficult, surrounded by sorrow, and fear, and doubt. Nevertheless, they taught him that over this dark, perplexed, and fearful course, lay the way to a glorious destiny-that through night to day, through death to life-through earth to heaven, must he, the earth-pilgrim, work his way; that by constant struggle, severe toil, and earnest endeavor, he might overcome every obstacle, conquer every foe-master the world-free himself of every fetter, and in light and freedom, stand face to face with the mighty secrets of the universe-no longer a mystery to him;-that in science, religion, and morals, he might soar to the loftiest heights, whence he could look backward over the dark and tortuous path in which he had been wandering, and forward to sublimer elevations, to more glorious ideals, which seemed to say to him, " On, on, for ever!" The sentiment which pervades all of these rites is so well expressed by the German poet, in the following beautiful lines, that we cannot refrain from introducing them here: 66 66 Through Night to Light! and though to mortal eyes Good cheer! good cheer! the gloom of midnight flies, Through storm to calm! and though his thunder-car The rumbling tempest drive through earth and sky; Good cheer! good cheer! the elemental war Tells that a blessed healing hour is nigh. |