resentations 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 wors