arshalled and brought to
bear in the Mysteries. By chemical and mechanical secrets then in
their exclusive possession, the mystagogues worked miracles before
the astonished novices.47 They had the powers of electricity,
gunpowder, hydrostatic pressure, at their command.48 Their rites
were carried out on the most magnificent scale. The temple at
Eleusis could hold thirty thousand persons. Imagine what effect
might be produced, under such imposing and prepared circumstances,
on an ignorant multitude, by a set of men holding all the
scientific secrets and mechanical inventions till then discovered,
illumination flashing after darkness successively before their
smitten eyes, the floors seeming to heave and the walls to crack,
thunders bellowing through the mighty dome; now yawning revealed
beneath them the ghostly chimera of Tartarus, with all the
shrieking and horrid scenery gathered there; now

47 Anthon's Class. Dict., art. "Elicius."

48 Salverte, Des Sciences Occultes, ou Essai sur la Magie. See
also editor's introduction to Thomson's Eng. trans. of Salverte's
work.

the mild beauties of Elysium dawning on their ravished vision,
amid strains of celestial music, through fading clouds of glory,
while nymphs, heroes, and gods walked apparent. Clement of
Alexandria tells us that one feature of the initiation was a
display of the grisly secrets of Hades.49 Apuleius, in his account
of his own initiation, says, "At midnight I saw the sun shining
with a resplendent light; and I manifestly drew near to the lower
and to the upper gods and adored them in immediate presence." 50
Lobeck says that, on the lifting of the veil exposing the adytum
to the gaze of the initiates, apparitions of the gods appeared to
them.51 Christie, in his little work on the Greek Mysteries, says
that the doctrines of the Eleusinian shows were explained by means
of transparent scenes, many of which were faithfully copied upon
the painted Greek vases; and these vase accordingly, were
deposited in tombs to evidence the faith of the deceased in a
future life. The foregoing conceptions may be illustrated by the
dramatic representations, scenic shadows behind transparent
curtains, in Java, alluded to by Sir Stamford Raffles.52

It is remarkable how far the Mysteries spread over the earth, and
what popularity they attained. They penetrated into almost every
nation under the sun. They admitted, in some degree, nearly the
whole people. Herodotus informs