62. The principle of the system of emanations was, that all things were of one substance; from which they were fashioned, and into which they were again dissolved, by the operation of one plastic spirit universally diffused and expanded. The liberal and candid polytheist of ancient Greece and Rome thought, like the modern Hindoo, that all rites of worship and forms of devotion were directed to the same end; though in different modes, and through different channels. "Even they who worship other gods," says the incarnate Deity in an ancient Indian poem, "worship me although they know it not."2 63. By this universal expansion of the creative Spirit, every production of earth, water, and air, participated in its essence; which was continually emanating from, and reverting back to its source in various modes and degrees of progression and regression, like water to and from the ocean. Hence not only men, but all animals, and even vegetables, were supposed to be impregnated with some particles of the Divine nature; from which their various qualities and dispositions, as well as their powers of propagation, were thought to be derived. These appeared to be so many different emanations of the Divine power operating in different modes and degrees, according to the nature of the substances with which they were combined: whence the characteristic properties of particular animals and plants were regarded, not only as symbolical representations, but as actual emanations of the supreme Being, consubstantial with 1 Των δη πρωτων φιλοσοφησαντων, οἱ πλείστοι τας εν ύλης ειδει μόνον ψηθησαν αρχας είναι παντων εξ οὗ γαρ εστιν άπαντα τα οντα, και εξ οὗ γιγνεται πρωτου, και εἰς ὁ φθείρεται τελευταίον, της μεν ουσιας υπομενούσης, τοις δε παθεσι μεταβαλλου σης, τουτο στοιχειον και ταυτην την αρχην ειναι των οντων και δια τοντα, ούτε γι νεσθαι ουθεν οιονται, ούτε απολλυσθαι, ὡς της τοιαύτης φύσεως αει σωζομενης. Aristot. Metaphys. A. μei. c. iii. νουν δε τις είπων είναι, καθαπερ εν τοις ζώοις και εν τῇ φύσει, τον αιτιον και του κόσμου και της τάξεως πασης. Ibid. αρχαιος μεν ουν τις λόγος και πατριός εστι πασιν ανθρώποις, ώς εκ θεου τα πάντα και δια θεου ἡμιν συνεστηκεν· ουδεμία δε φύσις αυτη καθ' ἑαυτην αυτάρκης, ερημωθεί σα της εκ τούτου σωτηριας διο και των παλαιων ειπειν τινες προηχθησαν, ότι ταυτα EOTI TAVTA DEWV TλEα, K. T. λ. Pseud. Aristot. de Mundo. c. vi. Principio cœlum ac terras, camposque liquentes, Virgil. Æneid. vi. 724. See also Plutarch, in Rom. p. 76. et Cicer. de Divinit. lib. ii. c. 49. 2 Bagvatgeeta. his essence, and participating in his attributes. For this reason, the symbols were treated with greater respect and veneration, than if they had been merely signs and characters of convention; and, in some countries, were even substituted as objects of adoration, instead of the deity, whose attributes they were meant to signify. 2 64. Such seems to have been the case in Egypt; where various kinds of animals, and even plants, received divine honors concerning which much has been written, both in ancient and modern times, but very little discovered. The Egyptians them selves would never reveal any thing concerning them, as long as they had any thing to reveal, unless under the usual ties of secrecy; wherefore Herodotus, who was initiated, and consequently understood them, declines entering into the subject, and apologises for the little which the general plan of his work has obliged him to say. In the time of Diodorus Siculus the priests pretended to have some secret concerning them;3 but they probably pretended to more science than they really possessed, in this, as well as in other instances: for Strabo, who was contemporary with Diodorus, and much superior to him in learning, judgment, and sagacity, says that they were mere sacrificers without any knowledge of their ancient philosophy and religion.4 The symbolical characters, called Hieroglyphics, continued to be esteemed more holy and venerable than the conventional signs for sounds: but, though they pretended to read, and even to write them, the different explanations which they gave to different travellers, induce us to suspect that it was all imposture; and that the knowledge of the ancient hieroglyphics, and consequently of the symbolical meaning of the sacred animals, perished with their Hierarchy under the Persian and Macedonian kings. We may indeed safely conclude, that all which they told of the extensive conquests and immense empire of Sesostris, &c., was entirely fiction; since Palestine must from its situation have been among the first of those acquisitions; and yet it is evident from the sacred writings, that at no time, from their emigration to 5 Proclus in Theol. lib. i. p. 56 et 7. 2 Των δε είνεκεν ανειται τα ίρα (θηρια) ει λέγοιμι, καταβαιην τῳ λόγῳ ες τα θεια πρήγματα, τα εγω φευγω μάλιστα απηγέεσθαι τα δε και ειρηκα αυτων επίψαυσας, αναγκαιη καταλαμβανόμενος ειπον. Herodot. l. ii. s. 65. 3. Οἱ μεν ουν ἱερεις αυτων (των Αιγυπτιων) απορρητον τι δογμα περι τουτων εχουσιν, lib. i. P. 96. ed. Wess. 4 Strabo lib. xvii. p. 806. A * See the curious inscription in honor of Ptolemy V. published by the Society of Antiquaries of London, 1803. their captivity, were the ancient Hebrews subject to the kings of Egypt; whose vast resources were not derived from foreign conquests, but from a river, soil, and climate, which enabled the labor of few to find food for many, and which consequently left an immense surplus of productive labor at the disposal of the state or of its master.1 65. As early as the second century of Christianity, we find that an entirely new system had been adopted by the Ægyptian priesthood, partly drawn from the writings of Plato and other Greek and Oriental sophists, and partly invented among thenselves. This they contrived to impose, in many instances, upon Plutarch, Apuleius, and Macrobius, as their ancient creed'; and to this Tamblichus attempted to adapt their ancient allegories, and Hermapion and Horapollo, their symbolical sculptures; all which they very readily explain, though their explanations are wholly inconsistent with those given to Herodotus, Diodorus, and Germanicus; which are also equally inconsistent with each other. That the ancient system should have been lost, is not to be wondered at, when we consider the many revolutions and calamities, which the country suffered during the long period that elapsed from the conquest of it by Cambyses, to that by Augustus. Two mighty monarchs of Persia employed the power of that vast empire to destroy their temples and extinguish their religion; and though the mild and steady government of the first Ptolemies afforded them some relief, yet, by introducing a new language, with new principles of science and new modes of worship, it tended perhaps to obliterate the ancient learning of Egypt, as much as either the bigotry of their predecessors, or the tyranny of their successors. 66. It is probable, that in Ægypt, as in other countries, zeal and knowledge subsisted in inverse proportions to each other: hence those animals and plants, which the learned respected as symbols of Divine Providence acting in particular directions, because they appeared to be impregnated with particular emanations, or endowed with particular properties, might be worshipped with blind adoration by the vulgar, as the real images of the gods. The cruel persecutions of Cambyses and Ochus must necessarily have swept off a large proportion of the former class: whence this blind adoration probably became general; different cities and districts adopting different animals for their tutelar deities, in the same manner as those of modern Europe put themselves under the protection of different saints; or See Herodot. lib. ii. c. 15. those of China under that of particular subordinate spirits, sup posed to act as mediators and advocates with the supreme God. 67. From the system of emanations, came the opinion, so prevalent among the ancients, that future events might be predicted by observing the instinctive motions of animals, and more especially those of birds; which, being often inexplicable from any known principles of mental operation, were supposed to proceed from the immediate impulse of the Deity. The skill, foresight, and contrivance, which many of them display in placing and constructing their nests is wholly unaccountable; and others seem to possess a really prophetic spirit, owing to the extreme sensibility of their organs, which enables them to perceive variations in the state of the atmosphere, preceding a change of weather, long before they are perceptible to us. The art of interpreting their various flights and actions, seems to have been in repute during the Homeric times; but to have given way, by degrees, to the oracular temples; which naturally acquired pre-eminence by affording a permanent establishment, and a more lucrative trade, to the interpreters and deliverers of predictions. 68. The same ancient system, that produced augury, produced oracles: for the human soul, as an emanation of the Divine Mind, was thought by many to be in its nature prophetic; but to be blunted and obscured by the opaque incumbrance of the body; through which it, however, pierced in fits of ecstasy and enthusiasm; such as were felt by the Pythian priestesses and inspired votaries of Bacchus. Hence proceeded the affected madness and assumed extravagance of those votaries; and also the sanctity attributed to wine; which, being the means of their inspiration, was supposed to be the medium of their communion with the deity; to whom it was accordingly poured out upon all solemn occasions, as the pledge of union and bond of faith; whence treaties of alliance and other public covenants were anciently called libations.4 Even drinking it to 1 Du Halde, vol. ii. p. 49. 2 Virgil. Georgic. i. 415. Ammian. Marcellin. lib. xxi. c. 1. Το γαρ βακχευσιμον, Και το μανιώδες, μαντικήν πολλην έχει. + ΣΠΟΝΔΑΙ. Η. 8. &c. intoxication, was in some cases an act of devotion; and the vine was a favorite symbol of the deity, which seems to have been generally employed to signify the generative or preserving attribute; intoxicating liquors being stimulative, and therefore held to be aphrodisiac. The vase is often employed in its stead, to express the same idea, and is usually accompanied by the same accessary symbols.3 69. It was for the same reason, probably, that the poppy was consecrated to Ceres, and her statues crowned with it; 4 and that Venus was represented holding the cone of it in one hand, while the other held an apple, and the Toxos or modius decorated her head; for the juice of the poppy is stimulative and intoxicating to a certain degree, though narcotic when taken to excess. 70. By yielding themselves to the guidance of wild imagination, and wholly renouncing common sense, which evidently acted by means of corporeal organs, men hoped to give the celestial faculties of the soul entire liberty, and thus to penetrate the darkness of futurity; in which they often believed themselves successful, by mistaking the disorderly wanderings of a distempered mind for the ecstatic effusions of supernatural perception. This sort of prophetic enthusiasm was sometimes produced, or at least supposed to be produced, by certain intoxicating exhalations from the earth; as was the case at Delphi; where the design of setting up an oracle was first suggested by the goats being observed to skip about and perform various extravagant gesticulations, as often as they approached a certain fissure in the - διο και θοινας και θαλίας και μεθας ωνομάζον· τας μεν ότι δια θεούς οινουσ θαι δειν υπελαμβανον τας δ' ὅτι θεων χαριν ηυλίζοντο και συνήεσαν τούτο γαρ εστι δαιτα θαλειαν· το δε μεθύειν, φησιν Αριστοτελης, το μετα το θυειν αυτῷ χρησθαι. Seleuc. apud Athenæ. Deipnos. lib. ii. c. 3. Πινειν δ' εις μεθὴν ουδαμου πρεπου έλεγε (ὁ Πλάτων), πλην εν ταις ἑορταις, του και TOV OLOV SidovTOS Eov. Diog. Laert. lib. iii. s. 39. 2 See coins of Maronea, Soli, Naxus, &c. 3 See coins of Thebes, Haliartus, Hipponium, &c. + Cereale papaver. Virg. See coins of Seleucus IV. 5 Το μεν δη αγαλμα (Αφροδίτης) καθημενον Καναχος Σικυώνιος εποιησεν. πεποίηται δ' εκ χρυσου τε και ελέφαντος φέρουσα επι τῇ κεφαλῇ πολον, των χειρών δε έχει τη μεν μηκωνα, τη δε έτερα μηλον. Pausan. in Cor. c. x. s. 4. Figures holding the poppy in one hand and the patera in the other, are upon the medals of Tarentum and Locri in Italy. The laurel was also supposed to have a stimulative and intoxicating quality, and therefore the proper symbol for the god of poetry and prophecy. ἡ δαφνη ενεργει προς τους ενθουσιασμους. Σοφοκλης και Λυκόφρων Δαφνην φαγων οδοντι πριν το στομα.... Δαφνηφαγον φοιβαζεν εκ λαιμων απα Schol. in Hesiod. Theogon. v. 30. |