But these writers deserve vourable construction. that favour, by the sublime manner in which they celebrate the great Father of the Universe, and by those effusions of love and gratitude, which are inconsistent with the materialist's system. Virgil has no such claim to our indulgence. THE MIND of the UNIVERSE is rather a metaphysical than a theological being. His intellectual qualities are faintly distinguished from the powers of matter, and his moral attributes, the source of all religious worship, form no part of Virgil's creed. Yet is this creed approved by our orthodox prelate, as free from any mixture of Spinozism. I congratulate his Lordship on his indulgent and moderate temper. His brethren (I mean those of former times) had much sharper eyes for spying out a latent heresy. Yet I cannot easily persuade myself, that Virgil's notions were ever the creed of a religious society, like that of the mysteries. Luckily, indeed, I have no occasion to persuade myself of it; unless I should prefer his Lordship's mere authority to the voice of antiquity, which assures me, that this system was either invented or imported into Greece by Pythagoras; from the writings of whose disciples Virgil might so very naturally borrow it. Anchises then proceeds to inform his son, that the souls both of men and of animals were of celestial origin, and (as I understand him) parts of the universal mind; but that by their union with D. L. vol. i. p. 278. earthly earthly bodies they contracted such impurities as even death could not purge away. Many expiations, continues the venerable shade, are requisite, before the soul, restored to its original simplicity, is capable of a place in Elysium. The far greater part are obliged to revisit the upper world, in other characters and in other bodies; and thus, by gra dual steps, to reascend towards their first per fection. of This moral transmigration was undoubtedly taught in the mysteries. As the Bishop asserts this from the best authority, we are surprised at a sort of diffidence, unusual to his Lordship, when he advances things from his own intuitive knowledge. In one place, this transmigration is part the hidden doctrine of perfection;* in another, it is one of those principles which were promiscuously communicated to all. The truth seems to be, that his Lordship was afraid to rank among the secrets of the mysteries, what was professed and believed by so many nations and philosophers. The pre-existence of the human soul is a very natural idea; and from that idea speculations and fables of its successive revolution through various bodies will arise. From Japan to Egypt, the transmigration has been part of the popular and religious creed. Pythagoras and Plato || have endeavoured * D. L. vol. i. p. 279. + Idem, p. 142. See our modern relations of Japan, China, India, &c. and fur Egypt, Herodotus, L. ii. Ovid. Metamorph. xv. 69, &c. 158, &c. Plato in Phædro and in Republic. L. x. to demonstrate the truth of it, by facts, as well as by arguments. Of all these visions (which should have been confined to the poets) none is more pleasing and sublime, than that which Virgil has invented. Æneas sees before him his posterity, the heroes of ancient Rome; a long series of airy forms Demanding life, impatient for the skies, and prepared to assume, with their new bodies, the little passions and transient glories of their destined lives. Having thus revealed the secret doctrine of the mysterics, the learned Prelate examines the ceremonies. With the assistance of Meursius,† he pours out a torrent of erudition to convince us, that the scenes through which Æneas passed in his descent to the shades, were the same as were represented to the aspirants in the celebration of the Eleusinian mysteries. From thence his Lordship draws his great conclusion, that the descent is no more than an emblem of the hero's initiation. A staunch polemic will feed a dispute, by dwelling on every accessary circumstance, whilst a candid critic will confine himself to the more essential points of it. I shall, therefore, readily allow, what I believe may in general be true, that the mysteries exhibited a theatrical representation of all that I shall mention here, once for all, that I do not always confine myself to the ORDER of his Lordship's PROOFS. + Meursii Eleusinia, sive de Cereris Eleusina sacro. was was believed or imagined of the lower world; that the aspirant was conducted through the mimic scenes of Erebus, Tartarus, and Elysium; and that a warm enthusiast in describing these awful spectacles, might express himself as if he had actually visited the infernal regions.* All this I can allow, and yet allow nothing to the Bishop of Glouces ter's hypothesis. It is not surprising that the COPY was like the ORIGINAL; but it still remains undetermined, WHETHER VIRGIL INTENDED TO DESCRIBE THE ORIGINAL OR THE COPY. Lear and Garrick, when on the stage, are the same; nor is it possible to distinguish the player from the monarch. In the green-room, or after the representation, we easily perceive, what the warmth of fancy and the justness of imitation had concealed from us. In the same manner it is from extrinsical circumstances, that we may expect the discovery of Virgil's allegory. Every one of those circumstances persuades me, that Virgil described a real, not a mimic world, and that the scene lay in the infernal shades, and not in the temple of Ceres. The singularity of the Cumaan shores must be present to every traveller who has once seen them. To a superstitious mind, the thin crust, vast cavities, sulphureous steams, poisonous exhalations, and fiery torrents, may seem to trace out the narrow confines of the two worlds. The lake Avernus was the chief object of religious horror; the black See D. L. vol. i. particularly p. 280. woods woods which surrounded it, when Virgil first came to Naples, were perfectly suited to feed the superstition of the people.* It was generally believed, that this deadly flood was the entrance of hell;† and an oracle was once established on its banks, which pretended, by magic rites, to call up the departed spirits. Eneas, who revolved a more daring enterprise, addresses himself to the priestess of those dark regions. Their conversation may perhaps inform us, whether an initiation, or a descent to the shades, was the object of this enterprise. She endeavours to deter the hero, by setting before him all the dangers of his rash undertaking: Facilis descensus Averni: Noctes atque dies patet atri janua Ditis; Sed revocare gradum, superasque evadere ad auras, These particulars are absolutely irreconcileable with the idea of initiation, but perfectly agreeable to that of a real descent. That every step, and every instant, may lead us to the grave is a melancholy truth. The mysteries were only open at stated times, a few days at most in the course of the year. The mimic descent of the mysteries was laborious and dangerous, the return to light * Strabo, L. v. p. 168. + Silius Italicus, L. xii. ↑ Diod. Sicul. L. iv. p. 267. edit. Wesseling. Eneid, vi. 126. easy |