"to word, as well as thing to thing: for TEAEYTA¡N is, to "die; and TEAEIZOAI, to be initiated. The first stage is "nothing but errors and uncertainties; laborious wanderings; "a rude and fearful march through night and darkness. And "now arrived on the verge of Death, and Initiation, every "thing wears a dreadful aspect: it is all horror, trembling, "sweating, and affrightment. But this scene once past, a "miraculous and divine light discloses itself: and shining plains " and flowery meadows open on all hands before them. Here "they are entertained with hymns and dances, with the sublime "doctrines of sacred knowledge, and with reverend and holy "visions. And now become perfect and initiated they are free, "and no longer under restraints; but crowned and triumphant, "they walk up and down the regions of the blessed; converse "with pure and holy men; and celebrate the sacred Mysteries "at pleasure"." The progress finished, and every thing over, Aeneas and his guide are let out again to the upper regions, through the ivory gate. For we are told there are two; one of horn and the other of ivory; and that true visions proceed from the first, and false from the latter. "Sunt geminae Somni portae: quarum altera fertur Upon which Servius, with the cold sentiments of a grammarian, only says, "Vult autem intelligi, falsa esse omnia quae dixit." He would have you understand by this, that all he has been saying is false and groundless. And this is the common interpretation of the critics. Ruaeus, one of the best of them, speaks to the same purpose: "Cum igitur Virgilius Aeneam "eburneâ portâ emittit, indicat profecto, quidquid à se de illo "inferorum aditu dictum est, in fabulis esse numerandum." This conclusion is strengthened by the circumstance of Virgil's being an epicurean; and speaking to the same purpose, in his second Georgic: "Felix, qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas, 66 Atque metus omnes et inexorabile fatum "Subjecit pedibus, strepitumque Acherontis avari!" But what a wretched conclusion do these men make the divine Poet put to this master-piece of all his works! which he wrote, 8 Sermo cxix. 66 66 66 66 not to amuse old women and children in a winter's evening, in the taste of the Milesian Fables; but for the use of men and citizens; to instruct them in the duties of humanity and society. His ends, therefore, in this book must have been, first, to make the doctrine of a future state useful in civil life; which it is evident he has done in the distribution of the rewards and punishments of it. Secondly, to set his hero on an adventure worthy his character. Now, if we will believe our critics, when he has strained all his nerves, throughout a whole book, to compass these ends, and got at length to the conclusion, he wantonly defeats them with one senseless dash of his pen; that speaks to this effect: "I have laboured, countrymen, to draw you to virtue, and to deter you from vice, in order to make every particular, and society in general, flourishing and happy. And doing this by example, I have inculcated the "truths I would teach you in the adventures of your great an"cestor and founder; of whom, to do you the greater honour, "I have made an accomplished hero; and put upon the most "divine and hazardous undertaking, the instituting a civil policy; and, to sanctify his character, and add sanction to his laws, I have sent him on the errand you see here related: but "lest the adventure should do you any service, or my hero any honour, I must inform you, that all this talk of a future state "is an idle, childish notion, and our hero's part therein only a "Lenten dream. In a word, all that you have heard, must pass for an unmeaning revery; from which you are to draw "no consequences, but that the Poet was in a capricious hu"mour, and disposed to laugh at your superstitions."-At this rate, I say, is Virgil made to speak, in the interpretation of antient and modern critics. 66 66 66 The truth is, this difficulty can never be got over, but upon our interpretation, that the story of the Descent signifies only an initiation into the Mysteries. This will unriddle the aenigma, and restore the Poet to himself. For if this was Virgil's intention, it is to be presumed, he would give some private mark to ascertain his meaning; for which no place was so proper as the conclusion. He has therefore, with a beauty of invention peculiar to him, made this fine improvement on Homer's story of the two gates; who imagined that of horn for true visions, and that of ivory for false. By the first, Virgil insinuates the reality of another state; and by the second, the shadowy representations of it in the shews of the Mysteries: so that the visions of Aeneas were false, not as there was no ground or foundation for a future state; but, as those he saw, were not. indeed in hell, but in the temple of Ceres. The representation being called ΜΥΘΟΣ κατ' εξοχήν. And this we propose as the true meaning of "Altera candenti perfecta nitens elephanto: "Sed falsa ad coelum mittunt insomnia manes.' For falsa insomnia do not signify lying but shadowy dreams. Thus the Roman widow, in the famous sepulchral inscription", begs the Dii manes to be so indulgent to her husband's shade, that she may see him in her dreams; that is, seem to see him, as the shade of Hector was seen by Aeneas, "In somnis ecce ante oculos moestissimus Hector "Visus adesse mihi" a and this, in distinction from what that Roman widow makes the other part of her prayer, viz., to be really joined to him in the other world. But though the dream that issued from it was unsubstantial, I make no question but the ivory gate itself was real. It appears, indeed, to be neither more nor less than the sumptuous gate of the Temple, through which the initiated came out when the celebration was over. This was of an immense bigness, as appears from the words of Apuleius: "Senex "comissimus ducit me protinus ad ipsas fores aedis amplis"simae "." Strabo is more particular. Next (says he) is Eleusis, in which is the Temple of the Eleusinian Ceres, and the mystic cell built by Ictinus, "capable of holding as large a number as a theatre"." But Vitruvius's description of it is still more curious: "Eleusinae Cereris et Proserpinae cellam im"mani magnitudine Ictinus Dorico more, sine exterioribus co"lumnis ad laxamentum usus sacrificiorum pertexit. Eam "autem postea, cum Demetrius Phalereus Athenis rerum poti"retur, Philon ante Templum in fronte columnis constitutis "Prostylon fecit. Ita aucto vestibulo laxamentum initiantibus "operisque summam adjecit autoritatem"." And Aristides thought this the most extraordinary circumstance in the whole affair. But this, (says he) was most wonderful and divine, that this of all the public assemblies of Greece, was the only one which was contained together within one edificea. Here was room, we see, and so purposely contrived, for all these shews and representations. And now, as we have said so much of them, yet occasionally, and by parts, it will not be amiss, before we conclude, to give a general and concise idea of them. I take the substance of the celebration to be a kind of drama of the history of Ceres, which afforded opportunity to represent these three things, about which the Mysteries were prin Apud Grut. P. 786. a Metam. 1. 11. » Εἶτ ̓ Ἐλευσὶν πόλις, ἐν ᾗ τὸ της Δήμητρος ἱερὸν της Ελευσινίας, και ὁ μυςικὸς σηκὸς, ὃ κατεσκεύασεν Ικῖνος, ὄχλον θεάτρο δέξασθαι δυνάμενον, Lib, 9. Geog. c De Architec. Praef. ad 1. 7. ἀ Τὸ δὲ δὴ μέγισον καὶ θειόταφον, μόνην γὰρ ταύτην πανηγύρεων εἷς οἶκος συλλαβων εἶχε. Eleusin. Orat. cipally concerned. 1. The rise and establishment of Civil Society. 2. The doctrine of a future state of Rewards and Punishments. 3. The detection of the Error of Polytheism, and the principle of the Unity. The goddess's Legislation in Sicily and Attica, at both which places she was said to civilize the savage manners of the inhabitants, gave birth to the first; her search for her daughter Proserpine in hell, to the second; and her resentment against the Gods for the theft, to the third'. I have now gone through my explanation of this famous voyage. And, if I be not greatly deceived, the view in which I have placed it, not only clears up and explains a number of difficulties inexplicable on any other scheme; but likewise gives an uncommon grace and elegance of perfection to the whole Poem: for now this famous Episode appears to be entirely of a piece with the main subject; which is the erection of a civil Policy and a Religion: For custom had made initiation into the Mysteries an indispensable preparative to that arduous undertaking. Thus far then concerning the Legislator's care to perpetuate the doctrine of a future state: and if we have been longer than ordinary on this head, our excuse is, that this doctrine is the main subject of our general inquiry. That the magistrate cultivated the belief of it, with a more than common labour, is evident from this very extraordinary circumstance.-There are several savage nations, discovered by modern travellers, which, in the revolutions and distractions of Government, being forced to remove their seats, it is probable, have fallen from a civilized, to a barbarous life. These are found to be without any knowledge of a God, or appearance of Religion: and yet, which is wonderful, to entertain the belief and expectation of a future state. A miracle that can be accounted for in no other way, than by what has been said above of the Legislator's principal concern in the support of this doctrine; and of the deep root it takes in the mind, by its agreeable nature, when once it is received. So that though, as we have observed, "no Religion ever existed without the doctrine of a future state, yet the "doctrine of a future state has existed without Religion." e That the establishment of society or the image of savage and polished manners was represented in the Mysteries, I collect from several circumstances. Diodorus tells us, that in the Sicilian feasts of Ceres, which lasted ten days, was represented the antient manner of living, before men had learned the use and culture of Bread Corn. Τῆς δὲ Δήμηρος τὸν καιρὸν της θυσίας προέκριναν ἐν ᾧ τὴν ἀρχὴν, ὁ οπόρος τοῦ σίτε λαμβάνει. Ἐπὶ δὲ ἡμέρας Ι' πανήγυριν ἄξεσιν ἐπώνυμον τὴς θεῖ ταύτης, τῇ τε λαμπρότης της παρασκεύης μεταλοπρεπεσάτην, καὶ τῇ ΔΙΑΣΚΕΥΗ ΜΙΜΟΥΜΕΝΟΙ ΤΟΝ APXAION BION. P. 200. Steph. Ed. દે f This circumstance Apollodorus informs us of; his words are these: Matãoα δὲ παρ ερμήνεων, ὅτι Πλέτων αὐτὴν ἤρπασεν, ΟΡΓΙΖΟΜΕΝΗ ΘΕΟΙΣ, ΑΠΛΕΙΠΕΝ ΟΥ ΡΑΝΟΝ. εἱκασθεῖσα δὲ γυναικὶ; ἧκεν εἰς Ἐλευσῖνα· Bibl. l. 1. c. 5. |
