rent of ſacred and civil Inſtitutions, the Kingdom of Egypt. That wiſe People ſeem to have early obſerved the Curbs of the human Paſſions, and the Methods of governing a large Society. They ſaw the general Bent of Mankind, to admire what they do not underſtand, and to ſtand in awe of unknown Powers, which they fancy capable to do them great good or ill: They adapted their religious Belief and ſolemn Ceremonies to this Diſpoſition; made their Rites myſterious, and delivered their allegorical Doctrines under great Ties of profound and pious Secrecy.
Ω ΤΕΚΝΟΝ! ΣΥ ΔΕ ΤΟΙΣΙ ΝΟΟΙΣΙ ΠΕΛΑΖΕΟ, ΓΛΩΣΣΗΝ ΗΥ ΜΑΛ’ ΕΠΙΚΡΑΤΕΩΝ, ΣΤΕΡΝΟΙΣΙ Δ’ ΕΝΘΕΟ ΦΗΜΗΝ.[1]
Now, thou my Son! approach with Mind intent, And careful keep thy Tongue: But in thy Breaſt Revolve theſe awful Sounds.—
Hence the Number of monſtrous Stories concerning their Gods, which the firſt Grecian Sages that travell’d into Egypt certainly underſtood, and explained to their Adepts[2], among whom, after ſome Deſcents, I reckon Heſiod and Homer: But falling afterwards into the Hands of Men
- ↑ Ὀρφεύς πρὸς Μουσαίον. In Fragment, Ὀρφικῶν Ἐπῶν.
- ↑ Diodorus the Sicilian, after having explained the natural Signification of the Allegory of Bacchus’s being the Son of Jupiter and Ceres, or Wine’s being the Production of the Earth and Moiſture, adds theſe remarkable Words, σύμφωνα δὲ τούτοις εἶναι τάτε δηλούμενα, διὰ τῶν ὈΡΦΙΚΩΝ ΠΟΙΗΜΑΤΩΝ, καὶ τὰ παρεισαγόμενα κατὰ τὰς τελετὰς, περὶ ὧν οὐ θέμις τοῖς ἀμυήτοις ἱστορεῖν τὰ κατὰ μέρος. βιβ. γ. Which plainly ſhews the Nature and Tendency of the Orphick Rites.
