ed the fact, and actually depended upon their interposition. Fifthly, The happy influences of the teletae, were supposed to administer consolation to the Eopoe in the hour of dissolution; for, says Irocrates, "Ceres bestowed upon the Athenians two gifts of the greatest importance; the fruits of the earth, which were the cause of our no longer leading a savage course of life; and the teletae, for they who partake of these entertain more pleasant hopes both at the end of life, and eternity afterwards." Another author * tells us, "that the initiated were not only often rescued from many hardships in their lifetime, but at death entertained hopes that they should be raised to a more happy condition." Sixthly, After death, in the Elysian fields, they were to enjoy superior degrees of felicity, and were to bask in eternal sunshine, to quaff nectar, and feast upon ambrosia, &c.

The priests were not altogether disinterested in this salutary process. They made their disciples believe, that the souls of the uninitiated, when they arrived in the infernal regions, should roll in mire and dirt, and with very great difficulty arrive at their destined mansion. Hence Plato introduces Socrates† observing, "that the sages who introduced the teletae had positively affirmed, that whatever soul should arrive in the infernal mansions unhayed and uncleaned, should lie there immersed in mire and filth." And as to a future state (says Aridides), "the initiated shall not roll in mire and grope in darkness; a fate which awaits the unholy and uninitiated." It is not hard to conceive with what a commanding influence such doctrines as these must have operated on the generality of mankind.

When the Athenians advised Diogenes to get himself initiated, and enforced their arguments with the above considerations, "It will be pretty enough (replied the philosopher) to see Aegaeus and Epaminondas wallowing in the mire, while the most contemptible rascals who have been initiated are strutting in the islands of bliss."

When Antiphenes was to be initiated in the Orphic mysteries, and the priest was boasting of the many astonishing benefits which the initiated should enjoy in a future state †, "Why, forsooth, (says Antiphenes)," 'tis wonder your reverence don't even hang yourself in order to come at them the sooner."

When such benefits were expected to be derived from the mysteries, no wonder if all the world crowded to the Eleusinian standard. After the Macedonian conquests, the hierophants abated much of their original strictness. By the age of Cicero, Eleusis was a temple whither all nations referred to partake of the benefits of that institution. We find that almost all the great men of Rome were initiated. The hierophants, however, would not admit Nero on account of the profligacy of his character. Few others were refused that honour; even the children of the Athenians were admitted. But this, we think, was rather a lustration or consecration, than an initiation. Perhaps it paved the way for the more august ceremony, as the Christian baptism does among us for the other sacrament.

That this institution gradually degenerated, can hardly be questioned; but how much, and in what points, we have not been able to investigate. The fathers of the church, from whom that charge is chiefly to be collected, are not always to be trusted, especially when they set themselves to arraign the institutions of Paganism. There were indeed several ancient authors, such as Melanthius, Menander, Sotades, &c. who wrote purposely on the subject in question; but their works are long since irrecoverably lost. For this reason, modern writers, who have professedly handled it, have not always been successful in their researches. The two who have laboured most indefatigably, and perhaps most successfully, in this field, are Meursius and Warburton. The former, in his Liber Singularis, has collected every thing that can be gleaned from antiquity relating to the ceremonial of these institutions, without, however, pointing out their original, or elucidating the end and import of their establishment. The latter has drawn them into the vortex of a system which has in many instances led him to ascribe to them a higher degree of merit than we think they deserve. These instances we would willingly have noticed in our progress, had the limits prescribed us admitted such a discussion.

If we may believe Diodorus the Sicilian, these mysteries, which were celebrated with such wonderful secrecy at Eleusis, were communicated to all mankind among the Cretans. This, however, we think, is rather problematical. We imagine that excellent historian has confounded the mysteries of Cybele with those of the Eleusinian Ceres. These two deities were undoubtedly one and the same, that is, the moon or the earth. Hence it is probable, that there was a striking resemblance between the sacred mysteries of the Cretans and Eleusinians.

This institution continued in high reputation to the age of St Jerome, as appears from the following passage: "Hierophantice quoque Atheniensium legant utique hodie cicuta forbitione cafrari." The emperor Valentinianus intended to have suppressed them; but Zozimus*, informs us, that he was diverted from his design by the proconsul of Greece. At length Pontius Theodosius the elder, by an imperial edict, prohibited the celebration of these as well as of all the other fairs of Paganism. These mysteries, instituted in the reign of Erechtheus, maintained their ground to the period just mentioned, that is, near 2000 years; during which space, the celebration of them never had been interrupted but once. When Alexander the Great massacred the Thebans and razed their city, the Athenians were so much affected with this melancholy event, that they neglected the celebration of that festival.

There were almost numberless other mysterious institutions among the ancient Pagans, of which these stories are sketched above were the most celebrated. The Samaritans, among the Thracian mysteries, instituted in honour of the Cabiri, were likewise of considerable celebrity, and were supposed to confer much the same blessings with the Eleusinian, but were not of equal celebrity. The Cabiri were Phoenician and likewise Egyptian * deities. The learned Bochart has explained their origin and name, names, and some part of their worship. Herodotus. The Orphic mysteries were likewise famous among the Thracians. Orpheus learned them in Egypt, and they were nearly the same with the sacra Bacchanalia of the Greeks. There were likewise the mysteries of

of Jupiter Ídaeus in great request among the Cretans, those of the Magna Mater or Cybele, celebrated in Phrygia. To enumerate and detail all these would require a complete volume. We hope our readers will be fully satisfied with the specimen exhibited above. We are convinced many things have been omitted which might have been inserted, but we have collected the most curious and the most important.—Every one of the potions might have been authenticated by quotations from authors of the most undoubted credibility, but that process would have swelled the article beyond all proportion.