σεως, μακαρων νήσους καλουσια Ταυτον δε εστι και το ηλυσιον πεδίον. Δια τοι τουτο και ο ηρακλης τελευταίον αθλον εν τοις εσπερίοις μέρεσιν εποιήσατο, αντι κατηγωνίσατο τον σκοτεινον και χθόνιον βιον, και λοιπον εν ημέρα, ο ἔστιν εν αλήθεια και φωτι εζη. So that he who in the present state vanquishes as much as possible a corporeal life, through the exercise of the cathartic virtues, passes in reality into the fortunate islands of the soul, and lives surrounded with the bright splendors of truth and wisdom proceeding from the sun of good. But when the poet, in describing the employments of the blessed, says, Pars in gramineis exercent membra palæstris ; Per campum pascuntur equi. Quæ gratia curruum Pascere equos, eadem sequitur tellure repostos. This must not be understood as if the soul in the regions of felicity retained any affection for material concerns, or was engaged in the trifling pursuits of a corporeal life; but that when separated from generation, she is constantly engaged in intellectual employments; either in exercising the divine contests of the most exalted wisdom; in forming the responsive dance of refined imaginations; in tuning the sacred lyre of mystic piety to strains of deific fury and ineffable delight; in giving free scope to the splendid and winged powers of the soul; or in nourishing the intellect with the substantial banquets of intelligible food. Nor is it without reason that the river Eridanus is represented as flowing through these delightful abodes; and is at the same time denominated plurimus, be cause a great part of it was absorbed in the earth without emerging from thence: for a river is the symbol of life, and consequently signifies in this place the nature of an intellectual life, proceeding from on high, that is, from divinity itself, and gliding with prolific energy through the occult and profound recesses of the soul. But when, in the following lines, he says, Nulli certa domus. Lucis habitamus opacis, Riparumque toros, et prata recentia rivis Incolimus. By the blessed being confined to no particular habitation, the liberal condition of their existence is plainly implied; since they are entirely free from all material restraint, and purified from all inclination to the dark and cold tenement of body. The shady groves are symbols of the soul's retiring to the depth of her essence, and there, by a divinely solitary energy, establishing herself in the ineffable principle of things. And the meadows are symbols of that prolific power of the gods through which all the variety of reasons, animals, and forms was produced, and which is here the refreshing pasture and retreat of the liberated soul. But that the tradition of the principles from which the soul descended formed a part of the sacred mysteries is evident from Virgil; and that this was accompanied with a vision of these principles or gods, is no less certain, from the testimony of Plato, Apuleius, and Proclus. The first part of this assertion is evinced by the following beautiful lines: Principio cœlum ac terras, camposque liquentes Seminibus, quantum non noxia corpora tardant, Terrenique hebetant artus, moribundaque membra. Hinc metuunt cupiuntque: dolent, gaudentque: neque auras For the sources of the soul's existence are also the principles from which it fell; and these, as we may learn from the Timæus of Plato, are Jupiter, or the Demiurgus, the mundane soul, and the junior or mundane gods.-Now, of these, the mundane intellect, which, according to the ancient theology, is Bacchus, is principally celebrated by the poet, and this because the soul is particularly distributed into generation Dionysiacally, as is evident from the preceding extracts from Olympiodorus; and is still more abundantly confirmed by the following curious passage from the same author, in his comment on the Phædo of Plato. "The soul," says he, "descends Corically, or after the manner of Proserpine, into generation, but is distributed into generation Dionysiacally; and she is bound in body Prometheically, and Titanically: she frees herself therefore from its bonds by exercising the strength of Hercules; but she is collected into one through the assistance of Apollo and the Saviour Minerva, by philosophizing in a manner truly cathartic." Or xogiπως μεν εις γενεσιν κατεισιν ἡ ψυχη. Διονυσιακως δε μερίζεται υπο της γενέσεως. Προμηθείως δε και τιτανικως, εγκαταδείται τω σωματι. Αυει μεν ουν εαυτην ηρακλειώς ισχύσασα. Συναιρει δε δι' απολλωνος και της σωτηρας αθήνας, καθαρτικώς τω οντι φιλοσοφούσα. The poet, however, intimates the other causes of the soul's existence, when he says, Igneus est ollis vigor, et cælestis origo which evidently alludes to the sowing of souls into generation, mentioned in the Timæus. And from hence the reader will easily perceive the extreme ridiculousness of Dr. Warburton's system, that the grand secret of the mysteries consisted in exposing the errors of Polytheism, and in teaching the doctrine of the unity, or the existence of one deity alone. For he might as well have said, that the great secret consisted in teaching a man how, by writing notes on the works of a poet, he might become a bishop! But it is by no means wonderful that men who have not the smallest conception of the true nature of the gods; who have persuaded themselves that they were only dead men deified; and who measure the understandings of the ancients by their own, should be led to fabricate a system so improbable and absurd. But that this tradition was accompanied with a vision of the causes from which the soul descended, is evident from the express testimony, in the first place, of Apuleius, who thus describes his initiation into the mysteries. "Accessi confinium mortis; et calcato Proserpinæ limine, per omnia vectus elementa remeavi. I Nocte media vidi solem candido coruscantem lumine, deos inferos et deos superos. Accessi coram, et adoravi de proximo." That is, "I approached the confines of death; and treading on the threshold of Proserpine, and being carried through all the elements, I came back again to my pristine situation. In the depths of midnight I saw the sun glittering with a splendid light, together with the infernal and supernal gods: and to these divinities approaching near, I paid the tribute of devout adoration.” And this is no less evidently implied by Plato in the Phædrus, who thus describes the felicity of the virtuous soul prior to its descent, in a beautiful allusion to the arcane visions of the mysteries. Karλos δε τιτε ην ιδειν λαμπρον, οτε συν ευδαιμονι χορω μακαρίαν οψιν τε και θεαν επομενοι μετα μεν διος ημεις, αλλοι δε μετ' αλλον θεων, είδον τε και ετελούντο τελετων ην θεμις λέγειν μακαριωτάτην ην οργιάζομεν ολοκληρα μεν αυτοί οντες, και απαθείς κακων οσα ημας εν υστέρω χρόνω υπεμενεν. Ολοκληρα δε και απλα και ατρεμη και ευδαιμόνα φασματα μυούμενοι πε και εποπτεύοντες εν αυγη καθαρα καθαροι οντες και ασήμαντοι τούτου ο νυν τη σωμα περιφέροντες ονομάζομεν οστρεου τρόπον δεδεσμευμένοι. That is, "But it was then lawful to survey the most splendid beauty, when we obtained, together with that blessed choir, this happy vision and contemplation. And we indeed enjoyed this blessed spectacle together with Jupiter; but others in conjunction with some other god; at the same time being initiated in those mysteries, which it is lawful to call the most blessed of all mysteries. And these divine Orgies were celebrated by us, while we possessed the proper integrity of our nature, and were freed from the moles tations of evil which awaited us in a succeeding period of time. Likewise, in consequence of this divine initiation, we became spectators of entire, simple, immoveable, and blessed visions, resident in a pure light; and were ourselves pure and immaculate, and liberated from this surrounding vestment, which we denominate body, and to which we are now bound like an oyster to its shell." Upon this beautiful passage Proclus observes, in Theol. Plat. lib. 4, p. 193, "That initiation and inspection are symbols of ineffable silence, and of union with mystical natures, through intelligible visions." Και γαρ η μυησις, και η εποπτεία, της άρρητου σιγής εστι συμβολον, και της προς τα μυστικά Apul. Metamorph. lib. ii. prope finem. δια των νοητων φασματων ενώσεως. Now, from all this, it may be inferred, that the most sublime part of ñoña or inspection, consisted in beholding the gods themselves invested with a resplendent light; and that this was symbolical of those transporting visions, which the virtuous soul will constantly enjoy in a future state; and of which it is able to gain some ravishing glimpses, even while connected with the cumbrous vestment of body. Ev But that this was actually the case, is evident from the following unequivocal testimony of Proclus in Plat. Repub. p. 380. απασι ταις τελεταις και τους μυστηρίοις, οι θεοι πολλας μεν εαυτων προτεινουσι μορφας, πολλα δε σχηματα εξαλλάττοντες φαινονται και τοτε μεν ατύπωτον αυτων προβέβληται φως, τοτε δε εις ανθρώπειον μορφήν εσχη ματισμένον, τοτε δε εις αλλοιον τυπον προεληλυθως. i. e. “ In all initiations and mysteries, the gods exhibit many forms of themselves, and appear in a variety of shapes and sometimes, indeed, an unfigured light of themselves is hurled forth to the view; sometimes this light is figured according to a human form, and sometimes it proceeds into a different shape." This doctrine, too, of divine appearances, in the mysteries, is clearly confirmed by Plotinus, Ennead. i. lib. 6. p. 55, and Ennead. 9. lib. 9. p. 700. And, in short, that magical evocation formed a part of the sacerdotal office in the mysteries, and that this was universally believed by all antiquity, long before the æra of the latter Platonists, is plain from the testimony of Hippocrates, or at least Democritus, in his Treatise de Morbo Sacro. p. 86, fol. For speaking of those who attempt to cure this disease by magic, he observes: yap σλnny тe xalasρειν, και ηλιον αφανίζειν, χειμωνα τε και ευδίην ποιειν, και όμβρους και αυχμους, και θαλασσαν αφονον και γην, και τ' αλλα τα τοιουτο τροπα παντα επιδέχονται επιστασθαι, ειτε και εκ ΤΕΛΕΤΩΝ, είτε και εξ αλλης τινος γνώμης η μελέτης φασιν οιοί τε είναι οι ταύτα επιτηδεύοντες δυσεβεειν εμοι γε δοκεουσι. κ. λ. i. e. " For if they profess themselves able to draw down the moon, to obscure the sun, to produce stormy and pleasant weather, as likewise showers of rain, and heats, and to render the sea and the earth barren, and to accomplish every thing. else of this kind; whether they derive this knowledge from the Mysteries, or from some other institution or meditation, they appear to me to be impious, from the study of such concerns." From all which it is easy to see, how egregiously Dr. Warburton was mistaken, when, in p. 231 of his Divine Legation, he asserts, |