Becalms, in Euripides,* responds to the questions of Pen thens, who demanded from whom he received his new wor ship and his mysteries, that he received them from the son of Jupiter. All the ancient educators of the race affirn4ed the same of their teachings. Rhadamanthus says that he received from heaven the laws that he gave to the Cretans.t Minos shut himself up in a sacred cave, to com pose his code of laws, which he affirmed were revealed to him by the divinity. Zoroaster, the Persian Seer, claims also to have been divinely inspired-I He separated himself from society, and gave himself up to sacred meditations. He invoked the supernal powers, and at length the light of a heavenly inspiration descended upon his soul, and a divine messenger visited him and instructed him in celestial things. Thus, according to Chandemer, he received from heaven the Zend Avesta, that great depository of sublime maxims so revered by the ancient Persians. Ardheshir, desiring to reform the religious code of his kingdom, appointed one of the sages to accomplish the work. The new reformer, not wishing to make innovations which might not be authorized by heaven, invoked the aid of the spiritual powers. He sunk away into a mysterious sleep, and experienced an ecstacy, during which his soul seemed to go forth out of his body. At the end of seven days he awoke, and declared that he had been in communication with the unseen world of spirits, and employed a scribe to write the new revelations which he had received from the gods. Pythagoras§ also professed to receive the divine direction in the foundation of his famous society. He affirms of himself what Titus Liviusll asserts of Numa, viz: that the secrets of nature, which others knew by opinion and conjecture, were communicated to him by the direct interposition of the gods, and that Apollo, Minerva, andethe Muses, had often appeared to him. Whatever we may think of these professions and claims to a divine enlightenment, on the part of the ancient reformers, we cannot but respect that faith and piety which always led them to refer all wisdom and virtue to a divine influence. Their maxim seemed to be that whatever is useful to men is divine. And as the mysteries and the rules of virtue, which they cultivated and enforced, were useful to humanity, they were, of a conse quence, providential institutions created by the will of the Eternal. After what we have now said, it cannot be diffi cult to see clearly the true end and purpose of the mysteries, the fist and greatest fruits of which were, according to the ancients, to civilize savage people, soften their ferocious manners, render them social, and prepare them for a kind of life more worthy of the dignity of man. Cicero places, in
th# number of supreme benefits which the Athenians enjoyed, the establishment of the mysteries of Eleusis, the effect of which was, he tells us, to civilize men, and to make them com prehend the true principles of morality, which initiate man into an order of life which is alone worthy of a being destined to immortality. The same philosopher, in another place, where he apostrophizes Ceres and Proserpine, says that we owe to these goddesses the first elements of our moral life, as well as the first aliment of our physical life, viz: the knowledge of the laws, the refinement of manners, and the examples of civilization, which have elevated and polished -the habits of men and of cities. Their moral end was well perceived by Arrien, who tells us that all these mysteries were established by the ancients, to perfect our education and reform our manners. Pausanias,* speaking of the Eleusinia, says that the Greeks, from the highest antiquity, had estab lished them as an institution the most effectual to inspire men with the sentiments of reverence and love for the gods. And among the responses that Bacchust makes to Pentheus, whose curiosity is excited by his mysteries, he tells him that this new institution merits to be widely known, and that one of the greatest advantages resulting from it is the proscrip tion of all impiety and crime. From the above it appears that the mysteries must have been of the highest utility in advancing the civilization of our race, in promoting the arts, and stimulating a taste for science and letters. We have seen that the cultivation of music commenced with the establishment of the mysteries, and formed a great portion of tie ceremonies. Sculpture and painting were encouraged, and received their first impulse in these institutions. Litera ture and philosophy were pursued with ardor by the disci ples of Orpheus and Eumolpus, and through them religion shed a benign and gentle radiance over all of life. Through the mysteries society received wise and wholesome laws, and that moral and mental impulsion which raised Greece to the summit of human greatness. The drama also owes its birth to these institutions. The first plays, symbolical of man and his progress, his struggles, his trials, his labor, his combats and triumphs, were performed within the secret enclosures, secure from the intrusion of profane eyes. The ceremonies were themselves dramas, shadowing forth, more or less perfectly, the great truths of God, of nature, and the soul, pointing man forward to his great destiny, acquainting him with the conditions of moral perfection, and aiding him in advancing toward it.