Oxford.
"_Carmen perpetuum_," &c. (Vol. v., p. 104.).--The words in Ham's Bible
are from the _Metamorphoses_ of Ovid (I. 3.):
"Primâque ab origine mundi
Ad mea perpetuum deducite tempora carmen."
This book has been called the Heathen Bible. It should be studied with
the Greek translation of Tzetzes (Boisaunade's edition), to show the
identity of the gods and heroes of Greece and Rome under their different
names in the two languages. Ovid was by profession a learned priest; and
it is probable that the subjects of his verse were the subjects of
scenic representations in the mysteries, to which probably moral and
natural or theological instruction was added, much after the manner of
the Greek choruses. That these mysteries taught something worth the
attention of a philosopher and moralist is manifest from the encomiums
of Cicero:
"Nam mihi cum multa eximia, divinaque videntur Athenæ tuæ
peperisse, atque in vitâ hominum attulisse, tum _nihil melius
illis mysteriis_, quibus ex agresti immanique vitâ exculti ad
humanitatem et mitigati sumus: initiaque ut appellantur, ita
reverâ _principia vitæ_ cognovimus; neque solùm cum lætitiâ
vivendi rationem accepimus, sed etiam cum _spe meliore
moriendi_."--_De Leg._ lib. ii. c. 14.
"For amongst other excellent and divine things which owed their
origin to your Athens, and in which we participate, nothing is
more admirable than those mysteries which have caused us to pass
from a wild and uncivilised condition to one of amelioration and
humanity: or, to speak more correctly, they first brought us to
life, as indicated by the term _initiation_ (beginning), which the
mysteries have retained; since this new kind of life
(regeneration) is not only attended with happiness, but is
succeeded by the hope of a better destiny after death."