The meaning of this, we must now endeavour to find. And our nearly exclusive source of information is the dissertation of Plutarch. Some of his comments I will immediately proceed to quote.

And first, in respect to the names themselves. He intimates that Isis is derived from 192, and that this is not a barbarous title, for that all the gods are named anо du Yeμαίων του θεατου και του θέοντος, (from their worthiness to be seen and their capability of motion.)—But Plutarch further informs us that Plato would rather take it from Ougia, substance and entity. Osiris receives his name from 0505, just,— and go, sacred.

Of the slaughter of Osiris he reports many allegorical interpretations. Of these we cull three.-Osiris is the moisture so necessary to a country like Egypt, whose soil is so fertile, and where rain is almost unknown. The overflow of the Nile was the great resource. Typhon is the burning sun drying up all, and then by a strange change of character is the sea swallowing up the Nile.-Osiris is the principle of good: Typhon is the genius of evil. This second solution is but a mythos of the Manichean doctrine.-A third unriddling is, that Osiris is the highest portion of the soul, that which thinks and aspires to excellence and that Typhon is the grosser animal part.

There was always in Egypt a strong attachment to the double doctrine. The priests were the depositaries of all knowledge, which they doled out with a niggard hand. This was called exoteric, and esoteric: the more public and the more intimate revelation. Pythagoras constantly employed it, though he boasted philosophy, and founded a school. He enjoined on his disciples the strictest silence for years, spoke to them from a concealment into which they could not pry, prescribed a course of initiation, and enounced his opinions in forms the most trite unless they contained a hidden redeeming sense. Surely these are not very serious counsels! "Put from thee every vessel of vinegar! Never eat in a coach! Never sit down on a peck measure! Wipe not thy bench with a firebrand! Never plant a palm! Stop not to cut wood on a journey! Pare not thy

nails at sacrifice! Take not a swallow into thy house! Never stir the hearth with a sword!" And all the historians and poets often appear to labour with a secret which they must not betray. Herodotus in his Euterpe speaks of certain flagellations, but says that, in whose honour the self-disciplining votaries inflict them, he is not at liberty to disclose. And, again, describing a temple at Sais, he relates that there is the tomb of a particular personage whom, he adds, "I do not think myself permitted to name." Orpheus, if the fragment be his which Suidas preserves, thus opens his noble hymn: "I will speak to those who may lawfully hear me: but instantly close the doors against all the profane." The Ionic sect were so cautiously trained by their great master, that their secresy became a subject of alarm to states! These tried more than once to extort the secret, but it was of no avail. "At length Dionysius of Syracuse determined to master it. He ordered Tymicha into his presence, and pointed to the instruments of torture. But she, true to the taciturnity and secretiveness of her sex, would tell nothing; having, however, as a little help and slight precaution, bit off her tongue.

The Mysteries of Isis, of which a mercenary party was sure to make the most, were rehearsed with the greatest splendour at Eleusis, which has already been mentioned as the first resting-place of the bereaved goddess. It was always contrived, if possible, to keep a power to the spot, if its worship drew many votaries. These divinities were generally sculptured, in a ruder age, with their feet joined together, lest they should run away. Cumberland, in his Remarks on Sanchoniathon, says that all the Egyptian statues were thus formed: and argues that such was the Palladium of Troy. Warburton instances the case of a high wall being built to keep some god within his temple; else, says the smart-phrased prelate, "He would doubtless have soon shown a clean pair of heels." When the Egyptians first saw the disparted feet of a god by Daedalus, they chained the legs together lest it should escape: and Timæus accounts for the burning of the temple of Diana on the night of Alexander's birth, that she, being professionally called in, was necessarily absent from home.

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Of the Eleusinian mysteries or cryphia, we have some scattered intelligence in the ancient authors, but nothing so full and authentic as in the Metamorphosis of Apuleius. It is, in its conclusion, the tale of one, by name Lucius, who had been transformed into an ass. I imagine that this does not imply so much moral degradation as ignorance. For this animal was not deemed unclean. It was an offering to Bacchus. And it was commonly employed to bear the sacred furniture of the Isiac temples.* But it knew nothing, of course, concerning the import of its burthen. It became a proverbial expression, “Asinus mysteria portat." So Lucius would compare his want and unsusceptibility of all religious information. In the opening of the eleventh book, the poor beast having escaped to the shore near the temple,—he (I shall use the personal pronoun to avoid ambiguity) awakes in the early watch of the night with sudden fear amidst the clear shining of the full moon. Hoping that his dire misfortunes may now have an end, he resolves to pray to that orb, after seven immersions of his head in the sea, which Pythagoras had ordained as the religious number. Gazing on her, he adores her as the queen of heaven, whether Ceres, then inhabiting that country,-or Venus, then worshipped in the sea-encircled Paphos,-or the sister of Phoebus, Latona Diana, -or Proserpina, otherwise Hecate, with three faces,-calling upon her to give "pause and peace" to his sufferings, and to restore his human form. Sinking once more to sleep, a divine face rises before him out the sea, most bland and adorable. Isis is known by her chaplet of flowers, and by the sacred asps. In her right hand is the sistrum: in her left, the cup. (That cup, it should be observed, wore the shape of a small boat, having reference to the admeasurements of the Nile during the inundation; and our small cups, of a certain use, though having little naval likeness, are still called boats.) She answers his prayers: describing herself as Parent-Nature, as the ultimate heavenly and infernal ruler, worshipped in every form and every name. Her mystic ship is to be launched on the morrow. Her priest is to bear a rosy crown in the pomp of her procession: and on * Βατραχοι, 160.

the dispersion of the crowd he is enjoined to follow him, and to snatch the garland as if desirous of kissing the hand which carries it, and instantly he shall return to the shape of man. Having bound him with promises and vows, she disappears, or as is beautifully recorded, "in se recessit." He waits impatiently for the dawn, and soon hears the preludes of that festival. There is first a procession of a ludicrous kind. All sorts of actors and actings, grotesque and caricatured. Herb-women, clothed in white, now lead on the proper march, scattering their flowers: others, with glistening mirrors, multiplying the deeply-affected throngs who press towards the goddess: others still, waving ivory combs, as if by the motion of their arms, and the bending of their fingers, they were braiding her royal ringlets: and yet a fourth band, scattering the sweetest balsams and perfumes. Then advanced a great multitude of both sexes with torches and all kinds of artificial lights. After this there swelled the softest sounds of flutes and horns. These musicians were followed by the most lovely choir of youths singing appropriate strains. Now the herald-trumpeters advanced, sacred to Serapis, and commanding an uninterrupted passage. The initiated at length appeared, men and females of every rank and age. These are compared to earthly stars, and they now sweep onward striking their sistra of brass and silver and gold. The chief priests come into sight, supporting the symbols, the exuviæ, of the highest divinities. The first raised a dazzlingly refulgent lamp: the second, in both hands, bore the altars which are called the auxilia from one of the names of this goddess, Auxiliaris: the third, a palm, of gold most delicately foliated and the caduceus of Mercury: the fourth, his own left hand widely extended, itself a deformed one, as an emblematical display of Justice, being supposed from its natural slowness and coldness a fitter image of that attribute than the right: the fifth, the sacred fan: and the last a ewer Then appear the figures of the gods! The horrid image of Mercury is masked, evidently here thought the same with Anubis, the messenger between the Celestials and the Inferi, presenting an aspect alternately dark and bright. A miniature represen

tation of the bull was borne on the shoulders of an attendant immediately after the spectacle of Mercury. The ark of the dreadest amoggla succeeded. And the whole was closed by an urn, sculptured with Egyptian hieroglyphics, which was deemed a type of supreme power, and was enchased with the story of the divinest acts.- Lucius proceeds to say that he approached the priest, and instantly devoured the crown of roses. His metamorphosis was immediately reversed. Covered by one of that religious assembly, the priest congratulates him, being prepared for the miracle by a corresponding vision, that he has arrived at the haven of peace and the altar of mercy. He invites him to yield himself to a further initiation. All this may shadow the less mysteries. The ship, all being now arrived at the shore, is to be launched; and it is covered with significant devices. Given to the deep, it is kept in sight as long as possible, and then the procession re-forms, and with irrepressible triumph returns to the temple. They who are entitled to enter the penetralia, lay down the divine images in their proper places; and then the Grammateus, standing before the door of the shrine, pronounces his blessing on the whole people (this was after the subjugation of Greece) and releases his auditory by the salutation, Λαοις Αφεςις.* Lucius, however, is to be let into these secrets more adeptly. The doors of the inner temple, after he has been kept in suspense many days, are solemnly opened with sacrifice, and certain books of cypher are placed before him and explained. Then, attended by a religious guard, he is led to the baths. Being placed in one, the high priest bedews him with the holy water and thoroughly purifies him. He is then conducted, and bid to stand two-thirds of the day, before the image of the deity. He is commanded, in a way he must not declare, to abstain from any gratifying eating, that is, from any thing but was absolutely required for subsistence, from all flesh of animals, and from wine, for ten days. When the day arrived for his access to the sacred presence, the profane

* This reminds us of the language of the Deacon in the Roman High Mass: "Ite, missa est." The Latin adverb extemplo implies a very prompt compliance with such command.