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acquainted with the real principles of the sciences, as they were then taught, before we can undertake to explain the signs in which they were embodied.

The sekos, or interior of the temple, consists of several apartments, all the walls and ceilings of which are in the same way covered with religious and astronomical representations.

The rooms have been lighted by small perpendicular holes cut in the ceiling, and, where it was possible to introduce them, by oblique ones in the sides. But some idea might be formed of the perpetual gloom in which the apartments on the ground-flour of the sekos must have been buried, from the fact, that where no sidelight could be introduced, all they received was communicated from the apartment above; so that notwithstanding the cloudless sky and the brilliant colours on the walls, the place must have been always well calculated for the mysterious practices of the religion to which it was consecrated. On one corner of the roof there was a chapel or temple twenty feet square, consisting of twelve columns, exactly similar in figure and proportions to those of the pronaos. The use to which it may have been applied must probably remain one of the secrets connected with the mystical and sometimes cruel service in which the priests of Isis were employed.

Towards the eastern end of the roof are two separate sets of apartments, one on the north and the other on the south side of it.

The ceiling of the next room is divided into two compartments by a figure of Isis in very high relief. In one of them is the circular zodiac; in the other a variety of boats with four or five human figures in each; one of whom is in the act of spearing a large egg, while others are stamping with their feet upon the victims of their fury, among which are several human beings. Near this scene a large lion, supported by four dog-headed figures, each carrying a knife, may be regarded as an additional type of the sanguinary purposes for which the apartment was used. The walls of the third room are covered with the several representations of a person,-first at the point of death lying on a couch; then stretched out lifeless upon a bier; and finally being embalmed.

The western wall of the great temple is particularly interesting for the extreme elgance of the sculpture.

Here are frequent representations of men who seem prepared for slaughter, or just going to be put to death. On these occasions, one or more appear, with their hands and legs tied to the trunk of a tree, in the most painful and distorted attitudes.

In a small chapel behind the temple, the cow and the hawk seem to have been particularly worshipped, as priests are frequently seen kneeling before them, presenting sacrifices and offerings. In the centre of the ceiling is the same front face of Isis in high relief, illuminated, as it were, by a body of rays issuing from the mouth of the same long figure, which, in the other temples, appears to encircle the heavenly bodies. About two hundred yards eastward from this chapel is a propylon of small dimensions, resembling in form that which conducts to the great temple, and, like it, built in a line with the wall which sur

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DOGMAS AND CUSTOMS OF THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS.

rounds the sacred enclosure. Among the sculptures on it, which appear of the same style, but less finished than those on the large temple, little more is worthy of notice than the frequent exhibition of human slaughter by men or by lions. Still farther towards the east, there is another propylon, equally well preserved with the rest, about forty feet in height, and twenty feet square at the base. Among the sacred figures on this building is an Isis pointing with a reed to a graduated staff held by another figure of the same deity, from which are suspended scales containing water animals, the whole group being an emblem of her influence over the Nile in regulating its periodical inundations.-Ibid, p. 166.

The signs of the zodiac portrayed in the centre of the roof of Freemasons'-hall, London, are in accordance with the astronomical decorations of the ancient temples of Egypt. Celestial and terrestrial globes also compose a part of the masonic emblems.

The author seems not to be aware that the Isis, pointing with a reed to a graduated staff, was directing the attention of the Egyptians to the nilometer, or measure of the inundation, so important to their wellbeing. This measure, in after times, as before noticed, became an ensign of office, Mercury's wand, and as such has been adopted by masonry.

The cruelty supposed to be connected with the Egyptian mode of worship, as indicated by the appearance of persons under torture, the reader will find in the sequel, were nothing more than sham representations of the punishments said to be inflicted upon the wicked in another life. The contrast displayed in the death of a virtuous character, carefully embalmed, clearly points out the intention of these representations. The apartments where these awful figures were portrayed were, no doubt, the first into which candidates for initiation into the mysteries were introduced.

CHAPTER II.

ORIGIN, NATURE, AND OBJECT OF THE ANCIENT MYSTERIES, ABRIDGED FROM BISHOP WARURTON'S DIVINE LEGATION; WITH NOTES AND REMARKS, POINTING OUT THEIR IDENTITY WITH FREEMASONRY, ETC.

Ir is proper to premise that the author uniformly refers to the works of the writers which he quotes, and generally gives the passages in the original language in which they were written. His quotations from the Eneid, the Metamorphosis of Epuleius, and some other works, given in the Latin language, are here rendered into English. A few Greek passages in his work are also given in translation, and all Greek terms are put in Roman characters, for the benefit of the general reader.

An abstract of the author's remarks, introductory to his treatise on the Mysteries, is first given, as follows:

So inseparable, in antiquity, were the ideas of law-giving and religion, that Plutarch, speaking of the preference of atheism to superstition, supposes no other establishment of divine worship than what was the work of the legislator. "How much happier would it have been," says he, "for the Carthagenians, had their first law-giver been like Critiag or Diogoras, who believed neither gods nor demons, rather than such an one as enjoined their public sacrifices to Saturn."

But here it will be necessary to remind the reader of this previous truth, that there never was in any age of the world, from the most early accounts of time to this present hour, any civil-policied nation or people who had a religion, of which the chief foundation and support was not the doctrine of a future state of rewards and punishments; the Jewish people only excepted. This, I presume, our adversaries will not deny. Mr. Bayle, the indulgent foster father of infidelity, confesses it in the fullest manner, and with the utmost ingenuity; "all the religions of the world, whether true or false, turn upon this grand pivot, that there is an invisible fudge, who punishes and rewards, after this life, the actions of men, both of thought and deed. From thence it is supposed the principal use of religion is derived," and thinks it was the utility of that doctrine which set the magistrate upon inventing a religion for the tate. "It is the principal motive that incited those who invented it." (Dict. Crit. and Hist. Art. Spinoza Rem. E.)

The Egyptians were the first people who perfected civil policy, and established religion: they were the first, too, who deified their kings, law-givers, and public benefactors. This was a practice invented by them, who, in process of time, taught the rest of the world their mystery. The attributes and qualities assigned to their gods always corresponded with the nature and genius of the government. If this was

gentle, benign, compassionate, and forgiving, goodness and mercy were most essential to the deity; but if severe, inexorable, captious, or unequal, the very gods were tyrants, and expiations, atonements, lustrations, and bloody sacrifices composed the system of religious worship.

Gods partial, changeful, passionate, unjust,
Whose attributes were rage, revenge, and lust,
Such as the souls of cowards might conceive,
And formed like tyrants, tyrants would believe.

The first step the legislator took was to pretend a mission and revelation from some god, by whose command and direction he had framed the policy he would establish. In a word, there is hardly an old lawgiver on record but what thus pretended to revelation and the divine assistance.

The universal custom of the ancient world was to make gods and prophets of their first kings and law-givers. Hence it is that Plato makes legislation to have come from God, and not from man.

Aristotle, in his maxims for setting up and supporting a tyranny, lays this down for one "to seem extremely attached to the worship of the gods, for that men have no apprehension of injustice from such as they take to be religious, and to have a high sense of Providence.* Nor will the people be apt to run into plots and conspiracies against those whom they believe the gods will in turn fight for and support." And here it is worth noting that, anciently, tyrants, as well as law-givers, gave all encouragement to religion, and endeavoured to establish their irregular wills, not by convincing men that there was no just nor unjust in actions, but by persuading them that the privilege of divine right exempted the tyrant from all moral obligation.

Porphyry quotes an express law of Draco's concerning the mode of divine worship. "Let the gods and our own country heroes be publicly worshipped, according to the established rites; when privately, according to every man's abilities, with terms of the greatest regard and reverence; with the first fruits of their labours, and with annual libations." Andocides quotes another of Solon, which provides for the due and regular celebration of the Eleusinian Mysteries. Athenæus does the same. And how considerable a part these were of divine worship, and of what importance to the very essence of religion, we shall see hereafter.

The second step the legislators took to propagate and establish religion, was to make the general doctrine of a providence, with which they prefaced and introduced their laws, the great sanction of their institutes.

Thus Zaleucus begins his preface: "Every inhabitant, whether of town or country, should first of all be firmly persuaded of the being and existence of the gods; which belief he will readily be induced to enter

This principle is beginning to be understood, and acted upon, by some of our leading patriots in the American republic.-Edit.

tain when he contemplates the heavens, regards the world, and observes the disposition, order, and harmony of the universe; which can neither be the work of blind chance, nor of man. These gods are to be worshipped as the cause of all the real good we enjoy. Every one, therefore, should so purify and possess his mind, as to have it clear of all kinds of evil, being persuaded that God is not honoured by a wicked person, nor acceptably served, like miserable man, with sumptuous ceremonies, or taken with costly sacrifices, but with virtue only, and a constant disposition to good and just actions."

And much in the same fashion does Charondas introduce his laws.

In imitation of this practice, Plato likewise, and Cicero, both preface their laws with the sanctions of religion. And though these two great men were not, strictly speaking, law-givers in form, yet we are not to suppose that what they wrote in this science was like the dreams of the sophists, for the amusement of the idle and curious. They were both well practised in affairs, and deeply conversant in human nature, and they formed their speculative institutes on the plan, and in the spirit and views of ancient legislation, the foundation of Plato's being the Attic Laws, and the foundation of Cicero's the Twelve Tables.

Plato makes it the necessary introduction to his laws, to establish the being and providence of the gods by a law against sacrilege. And he explains what he means by sacrilege in the following words :-" Either the denial of the being of the gods, or, if that be owned, the denial of their providence over men; or, thirdly, the teaching, that they are flexible, and easy to be cajoled by prayer* and sacrifice." And afterwards:-"It is not of small consequence, that what we here reason about the gods, should by all means be made probable, as that they are, and that they are good, and that their concern for justice takes place of all other human considerations. For this, in our opinion, seems to be the noblest and best preface that can be made to a body of laws. In compliancy with this declaration, Cicero's preface to his laws is conceived in the following terms :-"Let our citizens then be first of all firmly persuaded of the government and dominion of the gods, that they are the lords and masters of the world; that all things are disposed by their power, discretion, and providence; and that the whole race of mankind is in the highest manner indebted to them; that they are intimately acquainted with every one's state and condition; that they know what he does, what he thinks, with what disposition of mind, and with what degree of piety he performs the acts and offices of religion; and that, accordingly, they make a distinction between good and evil."

And then follow the laws themselves, the first of which is conceived in these words:-"Let those who approach the gods be pure and undefiled; let their offerings be seasoned with piety, and all ostentation of pomp

*Plutarch, in his treatise of Isis and Osiris, remarks that, "In Crete there was a statue of Jupiter, without ears. The Cretians judging it fit that he who is the ruler and lord of all things, should hear no one."-See Taylor's Translation Jamb. p. 248. -Edit.

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