may
both adopt for their own the expression wrought for himself by a
pure and fervent poet in these freighted lines of pathetic beauty:

32 Genius of Christianity, part ii. book vi. ch. vii.

"I gather up the scattered rays Of wisdom in the early days, Faint
gleams and broken, like the light Of meteors in a Northern night,
Betraying to the darkling earth The unseen sun which gave them
birth; I listen to the sibyl's chant, The voice of priest and
hierophant; I know what Indian Kreeshna saith, And what of life
and what of death The demon taught to Socrates, And what, beneath
his garden trees Slow pacing, with a dream like tread, The solemn
thoughted Plato said; Nor Lack I tokens, great or small, Of God's
clear light in each and all, While holding with more dear regard
Than scroll of heathen seer and bard The starry pages, promise
lit, With Christ's evangel overwrit, Thy miracle of life and
death, O Holy One of Nazareth!" 33

33 Whittier, Questions of Life.

PART FIFTH.

HISTORICAL AND CRITICAL DISSERTATIONS CONCERNING A FUTURE LIFE.

CHAPTER I.

DOCTRINE OF A FUTURE LIFE IN THE ANCIENT MYSTERIES.

THE power of the old religions was for centuries concentrated in
the Mysteries. These were recondite institutions, sometimes
wielded by the state, sometimes by a priesthood, sometimes by a
ramifying private society. None could be admitted into them save
with the permission of the hierarchs, by rites of initiation, and
under solemn seals of secrecy. These mysterious institutions,
charged with strange attractions, shrouded in awful wonder, were
numerous, and, agreeing in some of their fundamental features,
were spread nearly all over the world. The writings of the
ancients abound with references to them, mostly eulogistic. The
mighty part played by these veiled bodies in the life of the
periods when they flourished, the pregnant hints and alluring
obscurities amid which they stand in relation to the learning of
modern times, have repeatedly obtained wide attention, elicited
opposite opinions, provoked fierce debates, and led different
inquirers to various conclusions as to their true origin,
character, scope, meaning, and results.

One of the principal points in discussion by scholars concerning
the Mysteries has been whether they inculcated an esoteric
doctrine of philosophy, opposed to the popular religion. Some
writers have maintained that in their symbols and rites was
contained a pure system of monotheis