D

barbarism, to elegance and refinement; and been taught not only
to live with more comfort, but to die with better hopes.1

8. When Greece lost lier liberty, the periods of probation were
dispensed with in favor of her acknowledged sovereigns but, ne-
vertheless, so sacred and awful was this subject, that even in the
lowest stage of her servitude and depression, the Emperor Nero
did not dare to compel the priests to initiate him, on account of the
murder of his mother.5 To divulge any thing thus learnt was
everywhere considered as the extreme of wickedness and impiety;
and at Athens was punished with death ;4 on which account Alci-
biades was condemned, together with many other illustrious citizens,
whose loss contributed greatly to the ruin of that republic, and the
subversion of its empire.5

9- Hence it is extremely difficult to obtain any accurate informa-
tion concerning any of the mystic doctrines : all the early writers
turning away from the mention of them with a sort of religious
horror;6 and those of later, times, who have pretended to explain
them, being to be read with much caution; as their assertions are

* Mini cum raulta eximia divinaque vkleritur Athena; tuas peperisse—
turn nihil melius illis mysteriis,quibus ex agi esti immanique vita exculti, ad
humanitatem initigati sumus: initiaque, lit appellantur, ita revera principia
vitas cognovimus: neque solum cum laetitia vivendi rationem accepimus,
sed etiam cum spe melioii moriendi. Ciceron. de Leg. 1. i. c. 24.

km /J.tjv a Tav aKkuv aKovets, ol iretBovirt iroWovs, Aeyovrts as ovSev ov^a/ir} Tip
8ia\vdevTt KaKov, ou5e \VTrripov €<ttiv, oida 6n ica\vci <re iriarcvtiv 6 irarptos Aoyos, /cat
Ta /xvcTTUca ffvufioKa tuv irepi rov Aiovvcrov opyiafffiwv, a o~vvio~p.iv aX\ti\ois oi koivW'
vovvres. Plutarch, de Csnsol. 1. x.

2 Plutarch, in Demetr.

3 Sueton. iuNeron. c. 34.

* Andocid. orat. de myst. Sam. Petit, in leg. Attic. }>. 33.

5 Thucyd. lib. iv. c. 45, &c.

6 T' nAta i*ev evcrTo/io. KeicrBa, Ka.6' RpoSorov, eff.Ti yap pLvaTinosTcpa. Plutarch.
Symp. 1. ii. q. 3.

iEschylus narrowly escaped being torn to pieces on the stage for bringing
out something supposed to he mystic; and saved himself by proving that
he had never been initiated. Clem. Alex. Strom, ii. Aristot. Nicom. Eth.
1. iii. c. 1.