iated into these impure and abominable mysteries, were
obliged, under the most horrid imprecations, to observe. The senate, being
apprized of the affair, put a stop to those sacrilegious feasts by the
most severe penalties; and first banished the practisers of them from
Rome, and afterwards from Italy. These examples inform us, how far a
mistaken sense of religion, that covers the greatest crimes with the
sacred name of the Divinity, is capable of misleading the mind of man.(63)

The Feast of Eleusis.

There is nothing in all Pagan antiquity more celebrated than the feast of
Ceres Eleusina. The ceremonies of this festival were called, by way of
eminence, "the mysteries," from being, according to Pausanias, as much
above all others, as the gods are above men. Their origin and institution
are attributed to Ceres herself, who, in the reign of Erechtheus, coming
to Eleusis, a small town of Attica, in search of her daughter Proserpine,
whom Pluto had carried away, and finding the country afflicted with a
famine, invented corn as a remedy for that evil, with which she rewarded
the inhabitants. She not only taught them the use of corn, but instructed
them in the principles of probity, charity, civility, and humanity;(64)
from whence her mysteries were called {~GREEK CAPITAL LETTER THETA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER SIGMA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER MU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER PHI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON WITH OXIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER RHO~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}, and _Initia_. To these
first happy lessons fabulous antiquity ascribed the courtesy, politeness,
and urbanity, so remarkable amongst the Athenians.

These mysteries were divided into the less and the greater; of which the
former served as a preparation for the latter. The less were solemnized in
the month Anthesterion, which answers to our November; the great in the
month Boedromion, which corresponds to August. Only Athenians were
admitted to these mysteries; but of them, each sex, age, and condition,
had a right to be received. All strangers were absolutely excluded, so
that Hercules, Castor, and Pollux, were obliged to be adopted as Athenians
in order to their admission; which, however, extended only to the lesser
mysteries. I shall consider principally the great, which were celebrated
at Eleusis.

Those who demanded to be initiated into them, were obliged, before their
reception,