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in a sauce-pan; but as soon as the water began to boil, they ran away in an agony of terror. Compared with the savages, there is no boy in Europe of the age of ten years, who may not be called learned. He has acquired a certain quantity of practical knowledge in physics; and as this knowledge is more than instinct, it is learning; learning which differs in degree only from that which enables a chemist to separate the simple metals from soda or potash.

The geographer Malte Brun remarks, that in many cities of the United States, that which is called a mob scarcely exists. Now it will be found that in these cities, education has been unstintedly bestowed upon all classes, down to the very lowest.

FEAR.

Charles Gustavus, the successor of Christina of Sweden, was besieging Prague, when a boor of most extraordinary visage desired admittance to his tent, and, being allowed entrance, offered, by way of amusing the king, to devour a whole hog, weighing two hundred weight, in his presence. The old General Konigsmarc, who stood by the king's side, and who, soldier as he was, had not got rid of the prejudices of his childhood, hinted to his royal master that the peasant ought to be burnt as a sorcerer. "Sir," said the fellow, irritated at the remark, "if your majesty will but make that old gentleman take off his sword and his spurs, I will eat him before your face, before I begin the pig." General Konigsmarc, (who at the head of a body of Swedes had performed wonders against the Austrians, and who was looked upon as one of the bravest men of the age,) could not stand this proposal, especially as it was accompanied by a most hideous and preternatural expansion of the frightful peasant's jaws. Without uttering a word, the veteran suddenly turned round, ran out of the court, and thought not himself safe until he had arrived at his quarters.

IMPORTANCE OF TRIFLES.

When Robert Bruce, king of Scotland, "had retreated to one of the miserable places of shelter in which he could venture to take some repose after his disasters, he lay stretched on a handful of straw, and abandoned himself to his melancholy meditations. He had now been defeated four times, and was on the point of resolving to abandon all hopes of further opposition to his fate, and to go to the Holy Land. It chanced that his eye, while thus pondering, was attracted by the exertions of a spider, who, in order to fix its web, endeavoured to swing itself from one beam to another above his head. Involuntarily he became interested in the pertinacity with which the insect renewed its exertions after falling six times. At the seventh, it gained its object:" and Bruce, in consequence, was encouraged to persevere

until he carried his own.

RELIGIOUS ANNIVERSARIES.

We will now, according to promise, briefly notice the Religious Anniversaries holden in this city last week.

The first was the Anniversary of the American Seaman's Friend Society, holden at Chatham Street Chapel on Monday evening. President of the Society, Adrian Van Sinderen. Its object is, to improve the moral condition of seamen. Receipts during the past year, $9,226; expenditures, $9,300. The next was the Anniversary of the New-York Southern Sunday School Union, which was holden at Chatham Street Chapel on Tuesday, commencing at 11 o'clock A. M. Rev. Dr. Mc'Murray in the chair. This Sunday School Union includes the twelve southern counties of the state, and numbers 30,000 children in its Report as its pupils. It has probably 40,000, some not being reported. In the afternoon, the Sunday Schools of the city celebrated their Anniversaries in various churches.

The American Peace Society held its Anniversary on Tuesday afternoon, at Clinton Hall, S. V. S. Wilder Esq. in the chair. The object of this Society is, to abolish the custom of war. We shall bestow some further attention upon it hereafter.

The next was the Anniversary of the New-York City Sunday School Union, holden on Tuesday evening, at the Broome Street Dutch Reformed Church, Rev. Dr. Milnor in the chair, the President, Eleazer Lord Esq. being absent. Number of schools comprised in this Sunday School Union, 68; number of punils, 13,484,

The Anniversary of the American Temperance Society was celebrated on Tuesday evening, in Chatham Street Chapel, John Tappan 1,000,000 members of Temperance Societies; that there are upEsq. in the chair. It appears by the Report, that there are now wards of 5,000 of these Societies in the United States; that there are upwards of twenty State Temperance Societies; that more than 2,000 individuals have ceased to manufacture, and 6,000 to and that insurance companies find it for their interest to insure vestraffic in ardent spirit; that more than 7,000 vessels sail without it; sels cheaper that sail thus.

The American Tract Society celebrated its Anniversary in A.M. President, S. V. S. Wilder Esq. Receipts during the past year, Chatham Street Chapel on Wednesday, commencing at 10 o'clock $62,443,50; expenditures nearly the same. Tract distribution, 48,400,607 pages. Distribution since the formation of the Society, nine years since, 433,238,327 pages.

American Home Missionary Society (Presbyterian.) Anniversary on Wednesday evening, at Chatham Street Chapel, Gen. Van Rensselaer Presidert. Receipts, $68,621, 17. The expenditures, together with a balance due to the Treasurer at the commencment of the year, exceeded the receipts by $170,42.

American Baptist Home Missionary Society. Anniversary on on Wednesday evening, at the Mulberry Street Church. Receipts since the formation of the Society last year, $6580, 73.

American Bible Society. Anniversary on Thursday, commencing at 10 A. M. at Chatham Street Chapel, Hon. John Cotton Smith, President. Receipts for the year, about $85,000; expendi tures, about the same. Bibles and Testaments issued during the year, 91,168; since the formation of the Society, 18 years ago, 1,533,668.

Foreign Missionary Society, (Presbyterian.) The board of ComChapel on Friday, commencing at 10 o'clock A. M. This Society missioners of this Society held a public meeting at Chatham Street has sent out twenty-two missionaries to foreign lands during the past year.

Most of the foregoing Societies are composed of various denominations of Christians.

We are compelled to omit our Natural History the present week, in consequence of our unusual press of particular matter.

ITEMS OF NEWS.

The late arrivals at Boston from Smyrna, give the particulars of the occupation of Smyrna by the Egyptian army. The army itself had not entered the city; but it was taken possession of formally by a deputation, in the name of Ibrahim Pacha. It was said, that the Sultan of Egypt peremptorily rejects the mediation of France, which has for its object the salvation of Constantinople, and the preservation of the Turkish Empire.

There is little of interest in the European news. There is continual skirmishing in Portugal, without decisive results.

The number of deaths by famine in the Cape de Verd Islands, is stated to have been 33,000, or nearly two fifths of the population! has absconded from that city, leaving his creditors in the lurch to T. Grothe, Charge d'Affaires from the Low Countries to Mexico, the amount, it is said, of $30,000.

A letter from Vera Cruz, received at Mobile, states, that a bill was pending before the Congress of Mexico, proposing to confiscate the property of the Church to the service of the State, and to have no established religion.

The cholera at Matanzas was subsiding. The number of deaths already exceeded a thousand.

An outrage was recently committed on the person of the PreStates Navy, who had been dismissed by the President from the sident of the United States, by Lieut. Randolph, late of the United naval service. The President at the time of the outrage was on board a steam-boat at Alexandria, bound to Fredricksburg, Va. whither he had been invited to go, to lay the corner stone of the Washington monument about to be erected in that place. Randolph thrust one hand violently into the President's face, and would have committed further violence, had he not been prevented by the gentlemen who were at hand. The wretch succeeded in making his escape from the civil authorities of the place, being near the confines of the District of Columbia. This is the first instance of an assault on a President of the United States, and, as might be expected, meets with universal reprobation.

The trial of the Rev. Mr. Avery has been in progress the present week. We shall undoubtedly be able to give results in our next

number.

A horrid murder was committed in Morristown N. J. last week, on the persons of Samuel Sayre Esq. his wife, and his coloured servant girl. Their heads were split man, who had been in the employ of with an axe by a FrenchSayre three weeks. The wretch killed all the members of the family who were at home, and then robbed the house at his leisure. He was arrested at the HalfWay House between Newark and New-York, having on the clothes of his victim, the gold watch of Mrs. Sayre in his pocket, and a large sum of money. He now awaits his trial in Morristown jail.

The number of foreign arrivals at this port during the month of April, was 271-a larger number than ever arrived before in a single month.

NEW YORK SOCIETY FOR THE PROMOTION OF
KNOWLEDGE AND INDUSTRY.

street-begging, with all its accompaniments of fraud, and its inhuman demoralization of children.

The constitution of the Society also forbids, and this we regard as an object of primary importance, that any pecuniary aid shall be granted to persons of intemperate habits, except in cases of dangerous illness.

WE view this Society as altogether too important to receive from us a mere passing notice, or the insertion of its Constitution and list of officers. It is so constituted, that if, by the accession of numbers, it can go fully into operation, it will almost entirely ex- The limits which we have prescribed to ourselves on this occapel idleness, beggary, wretchedness, vice, and crime, from the city.sion, will not permit us to enter much into detail in regard to the Where then is the individual who will not lend it his aid? Who objects already stated, or the means proposed for effecting them. that does not wish to be annoyed by the importunity of juvenile It is proper, however, to refer to one or two particulars. No essential and durable reform in society can ever be anticipabeggars as he passes along the streets; who that deprecates idleness, filth, mischief, suffering, infamy, and every thing vile; who ted, the foundations of which are not laid in a provision for the that regards the public weal, or even his own comfort as a member rising generation. of the community; will not lend his aid in a cause like this? We hail it as an era in the improvement of the social and moral condition of cities. We trust that the plan which is so well calculated to benefit society, will be adopted throughout the land. With these remarks we will introduce the Address of the Board of Managers of the Society under consideration, and would earnestly request our readers to peruse it, and then to enrol their names as members of said Society. The following is that

FELLOW CITIZENS:

ADDRESS.

THE formation of a Society which is intended to effect an important improvement in the condition of the community, and which must necessarily depend upon public opinion for its success, calls for a public explanation of its principles and objects, and of the means by which those objects are intended to be effected.

It is a well established fact, that there are from ten to thirteen thousand children in our city within the proper ages for instruction, who do not attend school.

A liberal provision has been made by the public authorities to remedy this evil, and the trustees of the Public School Society have devoted and are devoting their attention to this subject with the most praiseworthy zeal and fidelity. They have recently, with great care and labour, extended their plan of instruction, and adapted it to the increased means which have been placed in their hands. There is every reason to believe, that this labour will receive an abundant recompense in an increased attendance upon the schools, as well as in the improvement of their means of instruction. But it is confidently believed, that the power of this Society to discourage vagrancy in children, and the influence which it will bring to bear upon parents, will afford a more effectual remedy than can be otherwise provided, to this most discouraging and alarming evil.

Another very important department for the labours of the Society will be found in the establishment of schools for adults, to the extent and in the manner which experience shall demonstrate their practicability and usefulness.

The increased and increasing extent of pauperism in our city, presents a subject for the most serious consideration. This is what we reasonably expect from the over-crowded population, and amidst the decrepid political establishments of Europe; but it stands in unnatural contrast with our unequalled prosperity, and with the general health, vigour, and freshness of our political institutions. The question how far this evil results from our adop-mentioned, are the following. tion, or too close imitation, of a foreign system of poor laws, presents

a problem of which we shall now attempt the solution, but clear

which the future labours of this Society, we trust, will throw and sufficient light.

However this may be, it is certain that no public provision for the poor which has not especial reference to a removal of the causes of pauperism, can fail to increase its amount, and it is equally certain, that no such provision can embrace all the objects of private benevolence, or supersede its efforts. After the laws shall have done their best, an immense work will remain to be accomplished. This, it will be admitted, must be chiefly effected by moral means, and by measures that are preventive, rather than such as are remedial.

It is manifest, that individual efforts are wholly incompetent to effect the object in view.

The general design of the Society therefore is, to improve the intellectual, moral, and physical condition of the poor. Its primary and specific objects will be, to extend the advantages of education to the children of the indigent-to discourage their employment in hawking, peddling, street-begging, and pilfering-to establish the necessary schools for the instruction of adults-to abolish indiscriminate alms-giving-to visit the poor at their habitations-to give them counsel to aid them in obtaining employment-to inspire them with self-respect to inculcate habits of economy, industry, and temperance, and, whenever it shall be absolutely necessary, to provide, through the aid of private individuals, and of the public authorities, relief for their necessities.

It is impossible to know where the care of such an association is most wanted, without a personal acquaintance with all who are its appropriate objects. It is intended that this care shall assume the character of a paternal guardianship. It is designed to establish a general and friendly itercourse with the poor, which shall secure a thorough knowledge of their actual condition, and enable us to apply the best means for its improvement. It is by such an intercourse only that we can assure them of our sympathy, bring them under its moral influence, and multiply among them the proper means and inducements to depend upon their own exertions for the comforts of life. It is only by the knowledge which will result from such an intercourse, and which will embrace every section of the city, that we can hope to minister relief, when necessary, with sound discrimination, and without which, it would be a curse rather than a blessing.

It is a distinguishing feature of this Society, that it is intended, not only to reach every family and every individual who may need its aid, but that, instead of being limited to a particular description of necessities, it shall einbrace the want of knowledge, of instruction, of advice, of employment, and of the necessaries of life. In short, it is intended that the poor shall look to the Society for their advisers, their protectors, and their benefactors, under all the trials to which they may be exposed.

The board feel convinced, that a narrower restriction of the labours of the Society would greatly diminish their influence and usefulness.

The means proposed to effect all the desirable objects above

It is intended that this Society shall embrace all those enlightened and benevolent individuals who can appreciate these designs

and are willing to promote them. Each ward of the city is to be

under the supervision of its own officers, and to be divided into small districts, placed under the special care of suitable persons, appointed by the Ward Associations for that purpose, and that, by this division of labour, which may be extended indefinitely, the duty of each visitor shall be of casy performance.

The whole Society is to be under the management of a Board of Managers, consisting of five individuals, chosen from each ward, and to be elected annually by the Ward Associations.

The general plan of the Society is now before the public. An effort will shortly be made to ascertain what support it can hope to receive from an intelligent community.

The citizens of each ward will soon be requested to become members of the Society, (and its Constitution is herewith submitted to them,*) and to form themselves into Ward Associations. If our labours shall be successful, they will probably result in a general reform of our system of providing for the poor-they can hardly fail in any event to produce an immense melioration of their condition.

The foundations of the Society are laid in the broadest and most liberal principles, and an appeal is now most earnestly and confidently made for the countenance and support of men of every sect, of every party, and of those who belong to none. By order of the Board.

ISAAC PEIRCE, Secretary. *Published in our last.

GIDEON LEE, President.

ONE HUNDRED AGENTS Could be advantageously employed in different sections of the Union, in obtaining subscribers for the Magazine. It is not of a local character, but is calculated for general circulation; and hence subscribers may as well be obtained in one part of the country as another. Good encouragement will be given to agents; and a number to the amount of one hundred at least, could be furnished by us with profitable employment.

PUBLISHED AT 222 WILLIAM STREET.

TERMS-ONE DOLLAR AND FIFTY CENTS PER ANN. IN ADVANCE. Should an order for the Magazine be received unaccompanied by allvance payment, one number will be sent, showing our terms; after which, no more will be forwarded till payment shall have been received.

Companies of four individuals, sending FIVE DOLLARS, current here, free of postage, will be furnished with four copies for one year. Companies of ten, sending TEN DOLLARS as above, will be furnished with ten copies.

Schools adopting the Magazine will be supplied at ONE DOLLAR per annum for each copy.

As the sum of $1 50, which is the price of the Magazine to a single subscriber, cannot be sent by mail, it will be necessary that two subscribers at least send payment in a letter together. The postage on the Magazine is 3-4 of a cent under one hundred

An important provision in the plan of the Society, and of its constitution, is that by which it is declared, that no person shall be relieved without the bounds of the district to which he belongs, nor without the knowledge of the visitors of that district. It will be perceived at once, that if the Society does not fail from the inade-miles, and 1 1-4 cent for any distance over. quacy of its numbers, th wil afford a more effective check Letters should be addressed thus: Editor of the Family than ever was devised by any contrivance of police or charity, to Magazine, 222 William street, New York.

*

OR

WEEKLY ABSTRACT OF GENERAL KNOWLEDGE.

VOL. I.

NEW YORK, SATURDAY, MAY 25, 1833.

HISTORY.

SOME particulars of these early times of the world are given by he Jewish historian, Josephus, which are not mentioned by Moses, and which we shall therefore give merely as the testimony of the former.

He says that Cain, by inventing weights, measures, &c. changed men from their primitive simplicity, to craftiness and guile. His posterity continually increased in wickedness. "They were," says Josephus, intolerable in war, and vehement in robberies; and if any one were slow to murder people, yet was he bold in his profligate behaviour, in acting unjustly, and doing injuries for gain." On the other hand, he represents the children of Seth as very different characters. "All these," says he, "proved to be of good dispositions. They inhabited the same country without dissensions, and in a happy condition, without any misfortunes falling upon them, till they died. They were also the inventors of that peculiar sort of wisdom which is concerned with the heavenly bodies and their order. And that their inventions might not be lost before they were sufficiently known, upon Adam's prediction that the world was to be destroyed at one time by the force of fire, and at another by the force of water, they made two pillars, the one of brick, the other of stone, inscribing on both their discoveries, that in case the pillar of brick should be destroyed by the flood, the pillar of stone might remain, and exhibit those discoveries to mankind, and also inform them that there was another pillar of brick erected by them. Now this remains in the land of Siriad to this day."

That there were pillars of the kind here described, appears evident from the circumstance, that Josephus mentions one of them as standing in his day; but that they were erected by the Antediluvian posterity of Seth, seems somewhat doubtful, inasmuch as the Deluge would have been very likely to overthrow them, and as they were in all probability erected by Seth or Sesostris, king of Egypt, who reared the like pillars in the land of Siriad. And yet, we will not take it upon us to say, that they were not constructed by the individuals to whom Josephus ascribes them. They might, perhaps, have withstood the Deluge. They might likewise have been other than those reared by Sesostris. All we would say is, that there was undoubtedly such a pillar in existence in the time of Josephus, and that it was most likely reared by the Egyptian king.

A very striking particular recorded in the Mosaic history, is the longevity of the early inhabitants of the world before the Deluge. It appears that it was no unusual thing for people at that period to live to the vast age of eight or nine hundred years. Some exceeded even this; and Methuselah, the oldest man on record, is said to have reached nine hundred and sixty nine.

This account of the great age of the Antediluvians, has been considered an objection to the credibility of the Mosaic history, seeing it is so different from the present state of things. From this very consideration, we should infer the contrary. Had the object of Moses in writing his book, been, to make out a plausible story, without regard to fact, he would never have inserted an account of a case of such a nature so

different from any thing with which his contemporaries were acquainted. Nor is it reasonable to suppose he would have conceived of such a thing, had it not been

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NO. 6.

reality; for, not only was there nothing in the existing state of things to lead to such a conception, but every thing to lead to the contrary. Absolutely and seriously, then, the history of Moses in this particular is the more entitled to credit, from this very circumstance which some consider a strong objection.

But we have not the mere testimony of Moses on this point. Josephus, after attesting to the same fact, says: "Now I have for witnesses to what I have said, all those that have written Antiquities, both among the Greeks and Barbarians: for even Manetho, who wrote the Egyptian history, and Berosus, who collected the Chaldean monuments, and Mochus, Hestianeus, and besides these, Hieronymus, the Egyptian, and those that composed the Phoenician history, agree to what I here say: Hesiod also, and Hecataeus, and Hellanicus, and Acusilaus; and, besides these, Ephorus and Nicolaus relate, that the ancients lived a thousand years." In short, all the ancient Greek and Barbarian historians attest to this longevity. Similar traditions prevail among the Burmans of India beyond the Ganges, and among the Chinese.

The next event in history that arrests the attention, is the translation of Enoch, which Moses thus records:"And Enoch walked with God, and he was not; for God took him." Gen. v. 24. Paul in his epistle to the Hebrews, xi. 5. speaking of this event, says: "By faith Enoch was translated, that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for, before his translation, he had this testimony, that he pleased God." Jude likewise speaks of Enoch, and mentions a prophecy of his, as follows: "And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds, which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him." Jude, 14th and 15th verses.

The sum of the foregoing testimony is, that Enoch, who was of the seventh generation from Adam, was an eminently pious man and a prophet, and that he was translated, so that he did not see death-consequently, was taken from this world alive, body and soul, and transferred to another, and rendered immortal. How any one, in view of this case, can say, as some do, that a future state, a state of immortality, is not taught in the Old Testament, is absolutely inconceivable.

"The translation of Enoch may be traced in the Grecian fables of the translation of their heroes or demigods, and particularly of Hesperus and Astrea (among the ancient Greeks) who are fabled to have ascended to heaven alive, and to have been turned into stars and celestial signs; of Dhruva among the Hindoos; of Buddha among the Ceyloncse, and of Xaca (another name for Buddha) among the Calmucs of Siberia."

There is now extant an apocryphal work attributed to Enoch, supposed to have been written a little before the commencement of the Christian era. It is filled with the marvellous-with the most fanciful and unnatural conceptions-and bears prima facie evidence of its spurious character. We shall in our next bestow some additional notice on this curious production. That a prophecy of Enoch was extant in the time of Jude, we have already seen. Whether Jude quoted it from the work under consideration, does not appear, nor is it material.

MYTHOLOGY

Bacchus, that first from out the purple grape, Crushed the sweet poison of misused wine.

BACCHUS.

Milton's Comus.

BACCHUS, the God of vintage, of wine, and of drunkards, is generally represented as an effeminate young man, crowned with vine and ivy leaves, having a javelin with an iron head, called a thyrsus, in his hand. He is drawn in a chariot, sometimes by lions and tigers, sometimes by lynxes and panthers, surrounded by a revelling band of satyrs, demons, nymphs that preside over the wine presses, fairies of fountains, and priestesses. Silenus is 'ten represented as following after him, sitting on an ass at bends under his burden. He is sometimes painted s an old man, and sometimes a smooth, beardless boy, as Ovid and Tibullus describe him. The following is Ovid's description :—

-Still dost thou enjoy

Unwasted youth? Eternally a boy

Thou'rt seen in heaven, whom all perfections grace,
And when unhorn'd, thou hast a virgin's face.

He is said to possess eternal youth, and is often represented with horns, either because he taught the cultivation of the earth with oxen, or because Jupiter his father appeared to him in the desarts of Libya under the shape of a ram, and supplied his thirsty army with wa

ter.

Bacchus was the son of Jupiter and Semele, the daughter of Cadmus, who perished by the artifice of Juno. This goddess, always jealous of her husband's amours, assumed the shape of Beroe, Semele's nurse and persuaded her to oblige Jupiter, by an inviolable oath, to grant her whatever she might ask. Her pretence for this was, that it was not Jupiter, but an imposter, that visited her; and his compliance or non-compliance with this request, was to be the test. This being accomplished, she instructed her to request him to appear to her in all the majesty with which he was wont to appear to Juno. Jupiter, not daring to violate his oath, arrayed himself in all his terrours, and, in the midst of thunder and lightning, entered Semele's house. Her mortal body could not withstand the shock, and she was immediately reduced to ashes. Bacchus not yet born, was preserved from the flames, and sewed up in his father's thigh, whence in fulness of time he was born, and delivered into the hands of Mercury, to be carried into Euboea, to Macris, the daughter of Aristæus, who immediately anointed his lips with honey, and brought him up with great care in a cave, to which there were two gates. According to some, Dirce, a nymph of the

Achelous, saved him from the flames. There are different traditions concerning the manner of his education. Ovid says, that, after his birth, he was brought up by his aunt, Juno, and afterwards entrusted to the care of the nymphs of Nysa. Lucian supposes, that Mercury carried him to those nymphs as soon as he was born. Some suppose, that Naxos can boast of the place of his education, under the nymphs Philia, Coronis, and Clyda. Pausanias relates a tradition which prevailed in the town of Brasiæ in Peloponnesus, that Cadmus, as soon as he heard of his daughter's amours, shut her up with the child lately born in a coffer, and exposed them on the sea. The coffer was carried safe to the coast of Brasiæ; but Semele was found dead, and the child alive. Semele was honoured with a magnificent funeral, and the child properly educated. This diversity of opinion shows, that there were many of the same name. Diodorus speaks of three, and Cicero of a greater number; but the son of Jupiter and Semele appears to have obtained the merit of all the rest. Those mentioned by Diodorus are, the one who conquered the Indies, surnamed the bearded Bacchus; a son of Jupiter and Proserpine, who was represented with horns; and the son of Jupiter and Semele, who was called the Bacchus of Thebes. Those mentioned by Cicero, are, a son of Proserpine, a son of Nisus, who built Nisa, a son of Caprius, who reigned in India, a son of Jupiter and the moon, and a son of Thyone and Nisus.

Bacchus invented so many things useful to mankind, either in finishing controversies, in building cities, in making laws, or in obtaining victories, as to be declared a god by the joint suffrages of the whole world. What Bacchus could not himself do, his priestesses were able to accomplish; for, by striking the earth with their thyrsi, they drew forth rivers of milk, honey, and wine, and wrought several other miracles without the least labour; though they derived all their power from Bacchus. He taught the Egyptians the manner of planting the vine, the art of making wine, that of making honey, and of cultivating the earth; who for these great services honoured him as a god, and called him Osiris. The ass Nauplias, who it is said lived near this time, merits much praise; for, by gnawing the vines, he taught the art of pruning them. We are also indebted to Bacchus for the introduction of commerce and merchandise, and the invention of the science of navigation. He reduced. men from a wandering, unsettled state of savage life, to a well regulated society, and taught them to worship the gods. He subdued India and many other countries:

Egypt, Syria, Phrygia, and all the east submitted to his | sway, where he erected pillars as Hercules did in the west, He marched at the head an army composed of men and women all inspired with divine fury, and armed with thrysi, cymbals, and other musical instruments. The leader was drawn in a chariot by a lion and a tiger, and was accompanied by Pan and Silenus, and all the Satyrs. His conquests were easy, and without bloodshed; the people easily submitted to him, and gratefully elevated to the rank of a god the hero who taught them so many useful arts.

Bacchus wishing to reward Midas, king of Phrygia, for some service, bade him ask what he would. Midas desired, that whatever he touched might become gold. Bacchus granted his request, though he was sorry that Midas had asked a gift so destructive to himself. Immediately, whatever Midas touched became gold, even his meat and drink. He now saw the folly of his desire, and wished Bacchus to take back his gift. Bacchus consented, and bade him bathe in the river Pactolus. Midas obeyed; whereupon the land of that river became gold, and the river was called Chrysorrhoos or Aurifluus. When a child, he was found asleep in the isle of Naxos by some Tyrrhenian mariners, who carried him away. Bacchus changed them into dolphins, except the pilot, who expressed some concern at his misfortune.

43

Bacchus might look after the vines. These festivals are
thus described by Virgil in his Georgics.

And glad with Bacchus, on the grassy soil,
Leap'd o'er the skins of goats besmear'd with oil.
Thus Roman youth, deriv'd from ruin'd Troy,
In rude Saturnian rhymes express their joy;
Deform'd with vizards, cut from barks of trees,
With taunts and laughter loud their audience please;
In jolly hymns they praise the god of wine,
Whose earthen images adorn the pine,

And there are hung on high, in honour of the vine.
Lastly, the Romans celebrated the Bacchanalia, o
Dionysia, or Orgia, feasts of Bacchus. They were sol
emnized at first in February, at mid-day, by women only;
but afterwards, in the most scandalous manner by men
and women, young boys and girls, till the Senate by an
edict abrogated this festival, as Diagundos did at Thebes.
Pentheus, king of Thebes, attempted the same thing,
but the Baccha barbarously killed him, whence came
the story that his mother and sisters tore him in pieces,
fancying he was a boar. It is said that Alcithoe, the
daughter of Ninyas, and her sisters, despising the sa-
crifices of Bacchus staid at home spinning, while the
Orgia was celebrating, and, on that account, were changed
into bats. Lycurgus having vainly attempted to hinder
these Bacchanalia, is reported to have cut off his own
legs, because he had rooted up the vines, to the dishon-
our of Bacchus.

The amours of Bacchus are not numerous. He marBacchus was so called from a word signifying "to ried Ariadne, after she had been forsaken by Theseus revel," and the wild women, his companions, are called in the island of Naxos, and by her he had many children, Thyades and Manades, which words signify sadness and among whom were Ceranus, Thoas, Enopion, Tauropolis, &c. Some say he was the father of Hymenæus, folly. They were likewise called Mimallones, that is, actions. He was called Biformis, because he was both whom the Athenians made the god of marriage. Accord-imitators or mimics, because they imitated all Bacchus's ing to Pliny, he was the first who ever wore a crown. wine makes one sometimes cheerful and pleasant, someHis beauty is compared to that of Apollo, and like him young and old, with a beard and without one, or because he is represented with flowing fine hair loosely floating times peevish and morose. He was named Bris æus from the nymph, his nurse, or from brisa, a bunch of cover his mother, whom Jupiter willingly made a god-pressed grapes, or else from the promontory Brisa, in dess under the name of Thyone.

down his shoulders. Bacchus went down to Hell to re

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the island of Lesbos, where he was worshipped;-BroThe fir, the ivy, bindweed, the fig, and the vine, were mius, from the crackling of fire, and the noise of thunconsecrated to Bacchus. So also were the dragon and der heard when his mother was killed:-Bimater, from the pie, signifying the talkativeness of drunken people. his two mothers, Semele and the thigh of Jupiter. He was also called by the Greeks Bugenes, that is, born of The goat was slain in his sacrifices, because he is destructive to vines. The Egyptians sacrificed swine an ox, and thence Tauriformis and Tauriceps ;-Dæmon to his honour before their doors. The priests and Bonus, the good angel;-Dithyrambus, either because priestesses of Bacchus were the Satyrs, the Sileni, the he was born twice, or because of the double gate that the cave had in which he was brought up, or perhaps because Naiades, but especially the revelling women called He was called DioBaccha. The sacrifices were these: the Oscophoria, the drunkard cannot keep secrets. instituted by the Phoenicians; the Trieterica, celebrated nysius, from his father Jupiter, or from the nymphs in the winter, at night, by the Bacchæ, who went about Nysæ by whom he was nursed, or from a Greek word armed, making a great noise, and pretending to foretel signifying to prick, because, when he was born, he prickthings to come; the Epilincea games, celebrated in the ed his father's side with his horns, or for some other He was called Evius or Evious, because in the time of vintage, before the press for squeezing the grapes reason. war with the Giants, when Jupiter did not see Bacchus, was invented. They contended with one another in treading the grapes, who should soonest press out the he thought he was killed, and cried out, "Alas! son!" most must. The Apaturia, celebrated by the Athenians, or because, when he found Bacchus had overcome the set forth how much men are deceived by wine. Ambro- Giants, by changing himself into a lion, he cried out Well done! son!"-Evan, from the acclamasia festivals were observed in January, a month sacred to again, Bacchus. The Romans called these feasts Brumalia, tions of the Bacchantes ;-Euchius, because he fills his Brumia being one of the names of Bacchus among glass to the brim;-Eleleus and Eleus, from the war them. They celebrated them in February and August. cry of the soldier in battle. Jaccus was also one of his Ascolia were feasts deriving their name from a Greek names, from the noise which drunken men make;word signifying a leathern bottle, several of which were Lenæus, because wine palliates and assuages sorrow, or produced, filled with air, or, as others say, with wine. from a Greek word signifying "vat" or "wine press;" The Athenians, by leaping on these with one foot, Liber and Liber Pater, from libero, as in Greek they call thought they did great honour to Bacchus, because him Eleutherios, the "Deliverer," for he is the symbol they trampled on the skins of the goat, which animal is of liberty;-Lyceus and Lyceus, signifying the same, because wine frees the mind from cares;-Neytilius and an enemy to vines. The Romans distributed rewards among those who in leaping overcame the rest, all call-Nycæous, because he was educated on the mountain ing upon Bacchus in rude verse. They carried his sta-Nysa, aud because his sacrifices were celebrated in the tue about their vineyards, having their faces masked or night;-Rectus, because he taught a King of Athens daubed with the bark of trees and dregs of wine, presenting him with their oblations in basons, after which they burnt them. In the last place, they hung little wooden or earthen images on the highest trees, which, from the smallness of their mouth, were called Oscilla. These images were so many watch towers from which

to dilute his wine with water; whereby men who through much drinking staggered before, began to go straight. His mother Semele and his nurse were sometimes called Thyo; hence he was called Thyoneus. Lastly, he was called Triumphus; because, when the conquerors went into the capitol, the soldiers cried out "Io Triumphe!”

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