The Ancient Mysteries.

assemblies were the occasion of disorders ; but such disorders were contrary to the principles of the sect , because no religion ever existed which did not propose to inculcate a most perfect observance of the laws of morality , by conjoining- relig ious motives with the political sanctions of these laws . " But what must appear singular is , that the fathers of the Church themselves had no difficultin borrowing from them many of those ceremonies

y which they endeavoured to degrade . They make use of expressions entirely similar . " The usage of the Church , " says St . Cyrillus , " is not to discover its Mysteries to the Gentiles , especially those that concern the Father and the blessed Spirit . It is even shy of talking of them to the catechumens ; on the contrary , it is almost always in obscure terms , in such a manner , howeveras that the believers who are instructed may comprehend and that the

, rest may not be discouraged . " By these enigmas the Dagon is overturned . " The formula in use in the primitive Church was precisely that of the temple of Eleusis . " Depart , ye profane . Let the catechumens , let those who are not initiated , retire . " The Christians at that time called the sacraments by the name of Mysteries , or Orgies . The priest was the mystagogue , and the eucharist a true initiation , * The same silence was exacted , the same trials

were to be undergone ; and the secret dogmas , which Avere only revealed to a few , and that after certain preparations , represented the secret doctrine . Thus , the same Clemens Alexandrinus exclaims in a holy transport , " 0 Mysteries , truly sacred ! 0 pure light ! At the light of thy torches the veil that covers God and Heaven falls off . I am holy , uow that I am initiated . * It is the Lord himself who is the Hierophauta . He sets his seal upon the adept , whom he illuminates with his beams ; ancl whom , as a recompense for his faith , he will recommend to the eternal love of his Father . These are the orgies of my Mysteries ! come ye , and be received . "

Thus , the Mysteries of antiquity scarcely changed their form when Christianity became the prevailing religion . At that period the Jews ' also adopted them , and among these people they were the origin of the Cabala . We may affirm that afterAvards they never ceased to exist . We see them shining in great lustre through the darkness of the middle ages ; and whether the traces of them were preserved in spite of the ignorance which then covered the Western World , or whether the age of chivalry brought them from the

East , it is certain that our brave chevaliers acquired in that expedition those heroic virtues that have made them so celebrated , of which perhaps it would be difficult at this day to find an example , and which at least console us for the barbarism of those ages that involved the history of the human mind in impenetrable obscurity . At the revival of letters , the Mysteries acquired new lustre . They obtained an influence over the still barbarous mannerswhich

, they no doubt contributed to soften by inculcating particularl y the principles of refined morality . The ceremonies with which they are attended prove to this day from whence they drew their origin . They seem to have retained their magnificent decorations and ancient observances , only to demonstrate that in the midst of revolutions which have swept away so many nations from the face of the earth : men , since the establishment of societies , compose but

one great family . Whatever conformity there may exist between the Mysteries of the Moderns and those of the Ancients , the latter are particularl y distinguished from the former in having made an essential part of religion , or rather in having constituted the religion itself . Greece derived another advantage from the mysteries ; they were the source from which the finest geniuses of that nation drew the greatest part of those discoveries that have rendered them immortal . Philosophy is the object of the mysteries , according to Strabo . We shall not affirm that without the ceremonies of Ceres and Bacchus that important branch of human knowled ge would not