The Distinction between the Early Elohistic and Jehovahstic Ages of
Primeval Patriarchal Times.--The Secrecy of Original Worship on
Mountain Tops.--The Collation and Reconciliation of the patriarchal
Traditions brought together by Moses.--The Commencement of the
Jehovahstic Age.--The Origin of Mythology.--The Magi; their
Organization and Modes of Worship.--The Deification of Nimrod, and the
Source of Political Power at its Beginning.--The Secret Writings they
adopted.--The Dead Invokers.--The Mysteries of Egypt, Greece, and Rome.
In a critical study of the books of Moses two eras seem to be discernible.
The earlier, the Elohistic, when God was only known by the name, "Elohim."
The latter, the "Jehovahstic," beginning at a later period.[10]
Though not altogether germain to our subject, may we here be permitted to
inquire--_par parenthese_--whether this simple rule does not furnish to us
the means of reconciliation of apparent contradictions?
All instruction originally was traditional alone. The patriarch was priest
and teacher, as well as ruler of his tribe. Each handed down to his
successor the {17} traditions he had received from his ancestors orally. As
tribes became nomadic, or else sought permanently new settlements and
homes, traditions in course of time necessarily became variant. Moses seems
honestly to have collated these traditions, and has, no doubt, given them
in their respective versions as he received them from Jethro, his
father-in-law, and from the patriarchal instruction among the elders of his
people in Egypt. Thus we can recognize those in which the name Elohim is
used as being of much earlier date than the same tradition differently
told, where the word Jehovah indicates the name of Deity. For instance, we
find in one place[11] the command of God to Noah to take the beasts and
fowls, &c., into the ark by sevens. But again, in the same chapter,[12] we
find them taken only by pairs. Are these not variant traditions of one
event? So, of the story of Abraham passing off his wife for his sister
before Pharaoh, king of Egypt,[13] and also before Abimelech, king of
Gerar,[14] and the farther tradition of Isaac and Rebecca having done the
same thing before Abimelech, king of Gerar.[15] Are not these variant
traditions of one fact? The legal experience of the writer for many years,
convinces him that no two persons without collusion view a transaction
generally exactly alike. Frequently--and each equally sincere and
honest--they widely vary in their testimony. {18} Collusion may produce a
story without contradiction. Slight discrepancies show there is no fraud,
only that the witnesses occupied different stand points, or gave more or
less attention to what was the subject matter.
But, asking pardon for this digression, let us return to our theme.
We know little or nothing about the teaching of the patriarchs in the
Elohistic age. Neither writing nor sculpture thereof existed in the time of
Moses, except, perhaps, the lost book of Enoch, or, unless--which we are
inclined to doubt--the book of Job had just before his era been reduced to
writing by the Idumean, Assyrian, or Chaldean priesthood. We find at that
period that sacrifices were offered on mountain tops. Why? Abraham went to
such a place to offer up his son. Was it not for secrecy in the religious
rite? If the earliest instruction was from God, whose truth is unchangeable
and eternal, were not the earliest sacrifices offered in secret by reason
of the same command which subsequently obliged the high priest of his
chosen people to offer the great sacrifice in secret within the veils,
first of the Tabernacle, afterward of the Temple? The Elohistic age ended
with the first official act of Moses, after he, also, had met with Aaron on
"the mount of God."[16]
A new era then commenced. As men dispersed {19} themselves over the earth,
the original belief in the one true God (Monotheism) was lost, and people
fell into the worship of many deities (Polytheism), adoring the visible
works of creation, more particularly the sun and the stars of heaven, or
else reverencing the operative powers of nature as divine beings. Faith in
the one Great JEHOVAH was preserved by the children of Israel alone. Idols
were erected within gorgeous temples. With the Chaldean, Phoenician, and
Assyrian, Moloch began the dreadful cruelty of human sacrifices, chiefly of
children. If, at first, the image of the idol was only a visible symbol of
a spiritual conception, or of an invisible power, this higher meaning was
lost in progress of time in the minds of most nations, and they came at
length to pay worship to the lifeless image itself. The priests alone were
acquainted with any deeper meaning, but refused to share it with the
people; they reserved it under the veil of esoteric (secret) doctrines, as
the peculiar appanage of their own class. They invented endless fables
which gave rise to Mythology. They ruled the people by the might of
superstition, and acquired wealth, honor, and power, for themselves.[17] We
arrive then at nearly the culminating point of Egyptian priestcraft, the
days of "wise men," "sorcerers," and "magicians."[18] Such men ever {20}
have, and we presume ever will employ secrecy as the chief element of their
clever jugglery. Mankind love to be deceived. Let an Adrian, Blitz, or
Alexander--while they tell you, and you well know it, that their tricks are
a deception--put forth notices of an exhibition, and they will attract
crowds, where an Arago, or a Faraday, would not be listened to. Maelzel's
automata, or Vaucanson's duck, will attract the world, when Bacon's, or
Newton's, or Laplace's works may remain in dust on the book-shelves. Human
nature is always the same, and thus it was in the days of Moses and
Pharaoh. The wise men, sorcerers, and magicians, held undisputed sway, not
only over the superstitions of the people, but over their educated monarchs
and princes. Egypt possessed, at an inconceivably early period, numberless
towns and villages, and a high amount of civilization. Arts, sciences, and
civil professions, were cherished there, so that the Nile-land has
generally been regarded as the mysterious cradle of human culture; but the
system of castes checked free development and continuous improvement.
Everything subserved a gloomy religion and a powerful priesthood, who held
the people in terror and superstition. Their doctrine, that, after the
death of man, the soul could not enter into her everlasting repose unless
the body were preserved, occasioned the singular custom of embalming the
corpses of the departed to preserve them from decay, and of treasuring them
up in the shape of {21} mummies in shaft-like passages and mortuary
chambers. Through this belief, the priests, who, as judges of the dead,
possessed the power of giving up the bodies of the sinful to corruption,
and by this means occasioning the transmigration of their souls into the
bodies of animals, obtained immense authority. Notwithstanding the
magnificence of their architectural productions, and the vast technical
skill and dexterity in sculpture and mechanical appliances which they
display, the Egyptians have produced but little in literature or the
sciences; and even this little was locked up from the people in the
mysterious hieroglyphical writing, which was understood by the priests
alone.[19] The following translation is a quotation from a Latin work:
"Among the ancient Egyptians, from whom we learn the rudiments of speech,
besides the three common kinds of letters, other descriptions of characters
are used which have been generally consecrated to their peculiar mysteries.
In a dissertation on this subject, that celebrated antiquarian (_conditor
stromatum_), Clement, of Alexandria, teaches in his writings, thus: 'Those
who are taught Egyptian, first, indeed, learn the grammar and chirography
called letter-writing, that is, which is apt for ordinary correspondence;
secondly, however, that used by the priests, called sacred writing, to
commemorate sacred things; the last also, hieroglyphic, meaning sacred
sculpture, one of the first elements of which is {22} cyriologism, meaning,
properly speaking, enunciating truth by one or another symbol, or in other
words, portraying the meaning by significant emblems.' With Clement agrees
the Arabian, Abenephi, who uses this language: (This Arabic writing is
preserved in the Vatican library, but not as yet printed: it is often
quoted by Athanasius Kircher, in his Treatise on the Pamphilian Obelisk,
whence these and other matters stated by us have been taken.) 'But there
were four kinds of writing among the Egyptians: First, that in use among
the populace and the ignorant; secondly, that in vogue among the
philosophers and the educated; thirdly, one compounded of letters and
symbols, without drawn figures or representations of things; the fourth was
confined solely to the priesthood, the figures or letters of which were
those of birds, by which they represented the sacred things of Deity.' From
which last testimony we learn that erudite Egyptians used a peculiar and
different system of writing from that of the populace, and it was for the
purpose of teaching their peculiar doctrines. For example, they show that
this writing consisted of symbols, partly of opinions and ideas, partly of
historic fables accommodated to a more secret method of teaching. But
Clement, of Alexandria, went further. In book v. of Antiquities
(_stromata_, 'foundation of things'), he says: 'All who controlled
theological matters, Barbarian as well as Greek, have concealed their
principles, hiding the truth in enigmas, signs, symbols, as {23} well as
allegories, and also in tropes, and have handed them down in various
symbols and methods.'"[20] This passage led subsequently to the brilliant
discoveries of Champollion.
Who, then, were the "erudite Egyptians" who used a peculiar system of
writing" for the purpose of teaching their peculiar doctrines?" Who were
{24} these "magi," "wise men," "sorcerers," and "magicians"? Nowhere do we
find Pharaoh in the midst of his troubles calling for a priest. It is
always for the wise men, magicians, and sorcerers. Were they not the
priests?--were they not those who controlled the mysteries--who practised
divination? When Moses and Aaron cast down their rods, the magicians of
Egypt "also did in like manner with their enchantments," and the result was
the same.[21] When Moses smote the waters that they became blood, the
acuteness of the priests, or magi, in their mysteries taught them a lesson
whereby they were able to do the same.[22] When the frogs came up on
Pharaoh and on all his people, and on all his servants, and covered the
land of Egypt, we learn "the magicians did so with their enchantments, and
brought up frogs upon the land of Egypt."[23] If the ancient Egyptians were
like their descendants, it is singular the magi could not accomplish the
next plague, that is, of lice. But here their power ended. The magi
originated in Media. According to oriental custom, to them was intrusted
the preservation of scientific knowledge, and the performance of the holy
exercises of Religion. Afterward, in a special sense, the magi were a caste
of priests of the Medes and Persians, deriving the name of Pehlvi; Mag, or
Mog, generally signifies in that language, _a priest_. They are expressly
mentioned by Herodotus as a Median tribe. Zoroaster was not their founder,
{25} but was their reformer, and the purifier of their doctrines. The Magi
of his time were opposed to his innovations; and they, therefore, were
condemned by him. When afterward, however, they adopted his reforms, he
effected their thorough organization, dividing them into APPRENTICES,
MASTERS, and PERFECT MASTERS. Their study and science consisted in
observation of their holy rites, in the knowledge of their sacred forms of
prayer, and liturgies by which Ormuzd was worshipped, and in the ceremonies
attendant on their prayers and sacrifices. They only were permitted to act
as mediators between God and man. To them alone was the will of God
declared. They only could penetrate the future. And they alone predicted
the future to those who sought of them therefor. In later days the name
Magi became synonymous with sorcerer, magician, alchemist, &c.[24]
{26}
The magi of Egypt were the priests, the founders and preservers of the
mysteries of the secret grades of instruction, and of the hieratic and
hieroglyphic writings and sculptures. In secret they were the priesthood.
In public, in religious matters, the same. But in public secular affairs
they seem to be recognised as Magi.
When mythology was invented, most of the gods, if not all of them, were
received as symbolical, physical beings, the poets made of them moral
agents; and as such they appear in the religions of the people of earlier
days. The symbolical meaning would have been lost, if no means had been
provided to insure its preservation. The MYSTERIES, it seems, afforded such
means. Their great end, therefore, was to preserve the knowledge of the
peculiar attributes of those divinities which had been incorparated into
the popular religion under new forms; what powers and objects of nature
they represented; how these, and how the universe came into being; in a
word, cosmogonies, like those contained in the Orphic instructions. But
this knowledge, though it was preserved by oral instruction, was
perpetuated no less by {27} symbolic representations and usages; which, at
least in part, consisted of sacred traditions and fables. "In the sanctuary
of Sais," says Herodotus (l.c.), "representations are given by night of the
adventures of the goddess; and these are called by the Egyptians
_mysteries_; of which, however, I will relate no more. It was thence that
these mysteries were introduced into Greece."[25] The temples of India and
of Egypt seem to be identical in architecture and in sculpture.[26] Both
nations seem to have sprung from the old Assyrian stock.[27] The magi of
both countries appear to have had a common origin; and their teachings must
have been, therefore, traditionally the same. We may, then, presume that
there were three grades in the instructions of these mysteries, by whatever
name they may have been called--whether Apprentices, Masters, and Perfect
Masters, or otherwise; that they were sacred in their character; and that
their symbolic meanings were revealed in these MYSTERIES, and in no other
manner, while they were kept a secret from the world at large. But this was
not all. They spread, with emigration and commerce, into all then known
countries. Their common origin, or at least that of most of them, is still
perceptible. CERES had long wandered over the earth, before she was
received at Eleusis, and erected there her {28} sanctuary. (Isocrat. Paneg.
op., p. 46, ed. Steph., and many other places in Meursii Eleusin., cap. 1.)
Her secret service in the Thesmophoria, according to the account of
Herodotus (iv. 172), was first introduced by Danaus; who brought it from
Egypt to the Peloponnesus.[28] One writer says that mysteries were, among
the Greeks, and afterward also among the Romans, secret religious
assemblies, which no uninitiated person was permitted to approach. They
originated at a very early period. They were designed to interpret those
mythological fables and religious rites, the true meaning of which it was
thought expedient to conceal from the people. They were perhaps necessary
in those times, in which the superstitions, the errors, and the prejudices
of the people, could not be openly exposed without danger to the public
peace. Upon this ground they were tolerated and protected by the state.
Their first and fundamental law was a profound secrecy. In all mysteries
there were dramatic exhibitions, relating to the exploits of the deities in
whose honor they were celebrated.[29] We may thus trace all ancient pagan
religion to a common origin, with similarity of human means to accomplish a
general result, variant in name, or in practice, as to the deity, or form
of its worship, but resting on a unity as to its commencement and its
object.
{29}
We can hardly penetrate the veil which hides from us the pagan worship of
that early human stock the race of Ham, which--without the divine light
granted only to the Israelites--was the origin of false worship. We can
only arrive at conclusions, but these are the result of strong presumptions
arising from undisputed historical facts. What are they?
One of the principal chiefs of the earliest race, whence came the magi,
&c., was Nimrod, afterward deified by the name of Bel to the Chaldeans,
Baal to the Hebrews, [Greek: Belos] to the Greeks, and Belus to the Romans;
and when, in later days, statues received adoration (which at first was
only accorded to the being of whom the statue was a type), he became
worshipped under a multiplication of statues, they were in the Hebrew
language called "Baalim," or the plural of Baal. Nimrod was the son of
Cush, grandson of Ham, and great-grandson of Noah. "And Cush begat Nimrod:
he began to be a mighty one in the earth. He was a mighty hunter before the
Lord: wherefore it is said, 'Even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the
Lord.' And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad,
and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. And out of that land he went forth to
Assyria, and builded Nineveh, and the city Rehoboth, and Calah, and Resen
between Nineveh and Calah: the same is a great city."[30] While, then, {30}
the children of Shem and Japheth pursued the patriarchal course, and
preserved the ancient traditions subsequently handed down, the descendants
of Ham, suffering under the patriarchal malediction of Noah, built cities
composed of families, and a great kingdom composed of cities and nations.
This kingdom was the origin of pagan worship. They lost the patriarchal
traditions, and were the first to establish on this earth the concentration
of power in a political system. That power once attained, the daring energy
of the king became in the hand of the priesthood a subject of deification
for two reasons. 1. The king was mortal, and must die. 2. The power must be
preserved. When afterward, under Peleg, this race, at their {31} building
of Ba-Bel--their temple of Bel--became dispersed, and left to us only their
ruin of that temple, now called _Birs Nimroud_, the magi, or priests,
preserved the power he attained to themselves, by means of secrecy in their
mysteries, and which were dispersed subsequently through the earth in
different languages and forms, varying with the poetry and climate of the
country or countries thereafter occupied, and adapted from time to time to
the existing exigencies of the times. Thence sprang the origin of
mythologies, or, in other words, fabulous histories of the fructifying
energies of Nature, whether developed in the germination of the vegetable
kingdom, or in an occasional poetical version of some heroic act of one in
power.
This nation, the old Assyrian, became dispersed at the destruction of their
great temple. But their political power everywhere was mysteriously
preserved. When the magi became organized in Media, they spread in every
direction. From earliest days we find their worship amid the nations
conquered by Joshua. We see them in the traces of the [Greek: Oi Poimenes],
or shepherd-kings of Egypt, and in the sorcerers of the days of Moses. We,
find them reformed by Zoroaster in Persia. They are conspicuous among the
Greeks, who derived their mysteries from Egypt; and in the worship of Isis
at Rome, never indigenous there. And even in later days (those of Darius,
Belshazzar, and Cyrus), they seem to be thoroughly {32} re-established in
their original birthplace. And, strange as it may appear, we find their
power over kings, generals, nations, and people, in the hands of the
priesthood, by means of their mysteries, from all early history, until
affected by the gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
Regarding, then, the off-shoot from patriarchal tradition to be the origin
of pagan worship; referring also to the first formation of cities, and of
one immense kingdom, by the descendants of Ham (accursed by his prophetic
ancestor), by whom an empire was first established; to Nimrod's
deification; to the preservation in the priesthood of future political
power; to the fact that after his death they would and might thereby
perpetuate the same; that wherever thereafter dispersed, they did so by
their revelations by mysteries, in which they controlled not only the
masses of the people, but those who governed them, in whatsoever nation
then known--we arrive at the conclusion that the mysteries were the
elements of religious and consequently of political power.
The important Greek mysteries, of the details whereof we know most,
were--1. The _Eleusinian_. 2. The _Samothracian_, which originated in Crete
and Phrygia, and were celebrated in the former country in honor of Jupiter.
From these countries they were introduced among the Thracians or Pelasgians
in the island of Samothrace, and extended thence into Greece. They were
sometimes celebrated in honor {33} of Jupiter, sometimes of Bacchus, and
sometimes of Ceres. 3. The _Dionysia_, which were brought from Thrace to
Thebes, and were very similar to the former. They were celebrated every
second year. The transition of men from barbarism to civilization was
likewise represented in them. The women were clothed in skins of beasts.
With a spear (_thyrsus_), bound with ivy, in their hands, they ascended
Mount Cithaeron; when, after the religious ceremonies, wild dances were
performed, which ended with the dispersion of the priestesses and the
initiated in the neighboring woods. They had also symbols, chiefly relating
to Bacchus, who was the hero of these mysteries. These celebrations were
forbidden in Thebes, even in the time of Epaminondas, and afterward in all
Greece, as prejudicial to the public peace and morals. 4. The _Orphic_,
chiefly deserving mention as the probable foundation of the Eleusinian. 5.
The mysteries of Isis, not in vogue in Greece, but very popular in
Rome.[31] The offspring of Egyptian priestcraft, they were instituted with
a view to aggrandize that order of men, to extend their influence, and
enlarge their revenues. To accomplish these selfish projects, they applied
every engine toward besotting the multitude with superstition and
enthusiasm. They taught them to believe that they were the distinguished
favorites of Heaven; that celestial doctrines had been revealed to them,
too holy to be communicated to the profane {34} rabble, and too sublime to
be comprehended by vulgar capacities. Princes and legislators, who found
their advantage in overawing and humbling the multitude, readily adopted a
plan so artfully fabricated to answer these purposes. The views of those in
power were congenial with those of the priests, and both united in the same
spirit to thus control the respect, admiration, and dependence, of the
million.
They made their disciples believe that in the next world the souls of the
uninitiated should roll in mire and dirt, and with difficulty reach their
destined mansion. Hence, Plato introduces Socrates as observing that "the
sages who introduced the Teletae had positively affirmed that whatever soul
should arrive in the infernal mansions _unhouselled_ and _unannealed_
should lie there immersed in mire and filth."--"And as to a future state,"
says Aristides, "the initiated shall not roll in mire and grope in
darkness, a fate which awaits the unholy and uninitiated." When the
Athenians advised Diogenes to be initiated, "It will be pretty enough,"
replied he, "to see Agesilaus and Epaminondas wallowing in the mire, while
the most contemptible rascals who have been initiated are strolling in the
islands of bliss!" When Antisthenes was to be initiated, and the priests
were boasting of the wonderful benefit to ensue, "Why, forsooth, 'tis
wonder your reverence don't hang yourself, in order to come at it sooner,"
was his remark. When, however, such benefits were expected to be derived
from the {35} mysteries, it is no wonder the world crowded to the
Eleusinian standard. Initiation was, in reality, a consecration to Ceres
and Proserpine. Its result was, honor and reverence from the masses. They
believed all virtue to be inspired by these goddesses. Pericles says: "I am
convinced that the deities of Eleusis inspired me with this sentiment, and
that this stratagem was suggested by the principle of the mystic rites." So
also Aristophanes makes the chorus of the initiated, in his Ranae, to
sing:--
"Let us to flowery mead repair,
With deathless roses blooming,
Whose balmy sweets impregn the air,
Both hills and dales perfuming.
Since fate benign one choir has joined,
We'll trip in mystic measure;
In sweetest harmony combined,
We'll quaff full draughts of pleasure.
For us alone the power of day
A milder light dispenses,
And sheds benign a mellow ray
To cheer our ravished senses.
For we beheld the mystic show,
And braved Eleusis' dangers;
We do and know the deeds we owe
To neighbors, friends, and strangers."
It is believed that the higher orders of magi went further, and pretended
to hold intercourse with, and cause to appear, the very [Greek: eidolon] of
the dead. In the days of Moses it was practised. "There shall not be found
among you ... a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard,
or a necromancer."[32] {36} Diodorus Siculus mentions an oracle near Lake
Avernus, where the dead were raised, as having been in existence before the
age of Hercules.[33] Plutarch, in his life of Cimon, relates that
Pausanias, in his distress, applied to the Psychagogi, or dead-evokers, at
Heraclea, to call up the spirit of Cleonice (whose injured apparition
haunted him incessantly), in order that he might entreat her forgiveness.
She appeared accordingly, and informed him that, on his return to Sparta,
he would be delivered from all his sorrows--meaning, by death. This was
five hundred years before Christ. The story resembles that of the
apparition of Samuel before Saul: "To-morrow shalt thou and thy sons be
with me."[34] The appearance of Samuel was regarded as a real transaction
by the writer of Ecclesiasticus, for he says: "By his faithfulness he was
found a true prophet, and by his word he was known to be faithful in
vision; for after his death he showed the king his end, and lift up his
voice from the earth in prophecy."[35] The rabbins say that the woman was
the mother of Abner; she is said to have had the spirit of _Ob_, which Dean
Milman has remarked is singularly similar in sound to the name of the
_Obeah_ women in Africa and the West Indies. Herodotus also mentions
_Thesprotia_, in Epirus, as the place where Periander evoked the spirit of
his wife Melissa, whom he had murdered.[36]
{37}
It was a very general opinion, in later days, that demons had power over
the souls of the dead, until Christ descended into Hades and delivered them
from the thrall of the "Prince of Darkness." The dead were sometimes raised
by those who did not possess a familiar spirit. These consulters repaired
to the grave at night, and there lying down, repeated certain words in a
low, muttering tone, and the spirit thus summoned appeared. "And thou shalt
be brought down, and shalt speak out of the ground, and thy speech shall be
low out of the dust, and thy voice shall be, as of one that hath a familiar
spirit, out of the ground, and thy speech shall whisper out of the
dust."[37]
Euripides also refers to necromancy.[38]
ADMETUS.
[Greek: hora ge me ti phasma nerteron tod e]?
HERCULES.
[Greek: ou psuchagogon tond' epoieso xenon].
ADM. See! is not this some spectre from the dead?
HER. No dead-invoker for thy guest hast thou.
Seneca describes the spirits of the dead as being evoked by the Psychagogus
in a cave rendered gloomy and as dark as night by the cypress, laurel, and
other like trees.[39] Claudian refers to the same superstition.[40] And
Lucan,[41] where Erictho recalls a spirit to animate {38} the body it had
left, by horrid ceremonies. So Tibullus:[42]--
"Haec cantu finditque solum, manesque sepulchris,
Elicit, et tepido devocat ossa toro."
The celebrated Heeren, in his "Politics of Ancient Greece" (ch. iii., p.
67, Am. ed.), remarks, in reference to the mysteries of Eleusis, that they
exhibited the superiority of civilized over savage life, and gave
instructions respecting a future life and its nature. For what was this
more than an interpretation of the sacred traditions which were told of the
goddess as the instructress in agriculture, of the forced descent of her
daughter to the lower world, etc.? And we need not be more astonished if,
in some of their sacred rites, we perceive an excitement carried to a
degree of enthusiastic madness which belonged peculiarly to the East, but
which the Hellenes were very willing to receive. For we must not neglect to
bear in mind that they shared the spirit of the East; and did they not live
on the very boundary-line between the East and the West? As those
institutions were propagated farther to the west, they lost their original
character. We know what the Bacchanalian rites became at Rome; and had they
been introduced north of the Alps, what form would they have there assumed?
But to those countries it was possible to {39} transplant the vine, not the
service of the god to whom the vine was sacred. The orgies of Bacchus
suited the cold soil and inclement forests of the North as little as the
character of its inhabitants.
Without going further into detail (the minutiae of which are thus opened to
every scholar), we must presume that the mythology of the children of Ham,
the origin of pagan worship, fostered by variant mysteries to obtain and
maintain temporal power, spread itself through the then known world. So far
as we know, the secret doctrines which were taught in the mysteries may
have finally degenerated into mere forms and an unmeaning ritual. And yet
the mysteries exercised a great influence on the spirit of the nation, not
of the initiated only, but also on the great mass of the people; and
perhaps they influenced the latter still more than the former. They
preserved the reverence for sacred things, and this gave them their
political importance. They produced that effect better than any modern
secret societies have been able to do. The mysteries had their secrets, but
not everything connected with them was secret. They had, like those of
Eleusis, their public festivals, processions, and pilgrimages, in which
none but the initiated took a part, but of which no one was prohibited from
being a spectator. While the multitude was permitted to gaze at them, it
learned to believe that there was something sublimer than anything with
which it was acquainted, revealed only to the initiated; and {40} while the
worth of that sublimer knowledge did not consist in secrecy alone, it did
not lose any of its value by being concealed. Thus the popular religion and
the secret doctrines, although always distinguished from each other, united
in serving to curb the people. The condition and the influence of religion
on a nation were always closely connected with the situation of those
persons who were particularly appointed for the service of the gods, the
priests. The scholar will readily call to mind a Calchas, a Chryses, and
others. The leaders and commanders themselves, in those days, offered their
sacrifices (see the description which Nestor makes to Pallas, Od. iii.,
430, &c.), performed the prayers, and observed the signs which indicated
the result of an undertaking. In a word, kings and leaders were at the same
time PRIESTS.[43]
How far may this have been a reason why Pharaoh did not call on a priest
for help, but rely on the supposed superior knowledge of the Magi? a higher
grade of secret instruction, perhaps, than he had received.
* * * * *
{41}