Mr. G. next examines a fubject highly interefting to men of letters, and to literature itfelf; viz. the revival of Greek learning in the 9th century. The Emperor Bafil, who lamented the defects of his own education, entrusted to the care of the learned and laborious Photius, his fon and fucceffor, Leo the Philofopher; whofe reign, and that of his fon, Conftantine Porphyrogenitus, forms one of the most profperous eras of the Byzantine literature. The scholars of the prefent age may ftill enjoy the benefit of the library of Photius, the philofophical extracts of Stobæus, the hiftoric Lexicon of Suidas, the Chiliads of Tzetzes, and the Commentaries of Euftathius on Homer. The Empress Eudocia, and the Princess Anna Comnena, cultivated the arts of rhetoric and philofophy; and we muft envy the generation that could fill perufe the Hiftory of Theopompus, the Orations of Hyperides, and the Odes of Alcæus and Sappho. In fpeaking of literature, Mr. Gibbon is peculiarly on his own ground; and the two concluding paragraphs of his 53d chapter may be confidered as models of juft criticism, and elegant compofition;-fuch models as do honour to our country, and to our language. But our narrow limits will not allow us to transcribe them. [To be continued.] ART. V. The Myftical Hymns of Orpheus, tranflated from the Original Greek with a preliminary Differtation on the Life and Theology of Orpheus. By Thomas Taylor. 8vo. 5s. fewed. Payne, &c. 1787. S every man who deferves, or even endeavours to deserve, well of the republic of letters, is entitled to our good withes, we lament that Mr. Taylor had not lived before the Trojan war, or filled fome lucrative and honourable poft in the Schools of Alexandria. In the former cafe, he might have profited by the personal inftructions of his master Orpheus, and even played on his lyre, without fearing the fate of Neanthus *. Afterwards, whèn Neanthus, the fon of Pittacus the tyrant, found that the lyre drew trees and wild beafts with its harmony, he earnestly defired its poffeffion; and having corrupted the prieft privately with money, he took the Orphean lyre, and fixed another fimilar to it, in the temple. But Neanthus confidering that he was not fafe in the city in the day time, departed from it by night; having concealed the lyre in his bofom, on which he began to play. But as he was a rude and unlearned youth, he confounded the chords; yet pleafing himfelf with the found, and fancying he produced a divine harmony, he confidered him felf as the bleffed fucceffor of Orpheus. However, in the midst of his tranfports, the neighbouring dogs, roufed by the found, fell upon the unhappy harper and tore him to pieces.' K 3 In In the latter, he might have explored new regions of intellect with Plotinus, or Proclus, whofe fociety would, probably, have been more congenial to his tafte than that of Plato himself. At prefent, he unfortunately feems to be fomewhat out of his element; for there are few, we believe, in these degenerate days, who contemplate the history of Orpheus, or of his philofophy, any otherwife than as a literary curiofity. For our own part, though we would by no means difpute the exiftence of fo celebrated a character, on the authority of Tully's dubious quotation from Ariftotle, yet Mr. T. muft pardon us, if, after his zealous endeavours to initiate us in the myfteries of the Thra cian bard, we fill retain our Christian prejudices, and even doubt the truth of fome anecdotes, which he has confidently related for inftance: This alone may be depended on, from general affent, that there formerly lived a perfon named Orpheus, whofe father was Oeagrus, who lived in Thrace, and who was the fon of a King, who was the founder of theology among the Greeks; the inftitutor of their life and morals; the firft of prophets, and the prince of poets; himself the offspring of a Mufe; who taught the Greeks their facred rites and myfteries, and from whofe wifdom, as from a perpetual and abundant fountain, the divine Muse of Homer, and the philofophy of Pythagoras and Plato, flowed; and, laftly, who by the melody of his lyre, drew rocks, woods, and wild beafts, ftopt rivers in their courfe, and even moved the inexorable King of Hell; as every page, and all the writings, of antiquity fufficiently evince.' It is true, Mr. Taylor's faith feems to waver a little afterward; for he mentions the heretical opinion of Palæphatus, on one of the moft extraordinary miracles of Orpheus, certainly without censure, and apparently with approbation. • With respect to his drawing trees and wild beafts by the melody of his lyre, Palæphatus accounts for it as follows: The mad Bacchanalian nymphs, fays he, having violently taken away cattle and other neceffaries of life, retired for fome days into the mountains. When the citizens, having expected their return for a long time, and fearing the worft for their wives and daughters, called Orpheus, and intreated him to invent fome method of drawing them from the mountains. But he tuning his lyre, agreeable to the orgies of Bacchus, drew the mad nymphs from their retreats; who defcended from the mountains, bearing at first ferulæ and branches of every kind of trees. But to the men who were eye-witnesses of these wonders, they appeared at first to bring down the very woods; and from hence gave rife to the fable.' After enumerating the different perfons celebrated under the name of Orpheus, Mr. T. proceeds to his Theology; exchanging, as he says, the obfcurity of conjecture for the light of * Orpheum poetam docet Ariftoteles nunquam fuiffe. De Nat. Deorum, lib. 1. clear elear evidence, and the intricate labyrinths of fable, for the delightful, though folitary, paths of truth. The learned reader may easily guess at the nature of Mr. Taylor's clear evidence, when he learns that it is collected intirely from the writings of the later Platonifts. That others may know where to feek for illumination on fo sublime a subject, we shall transcribe a specimen of Mr. T.'s differtation, in which he appears in the double character of an Orphic theogogue, and the tranflator of Proclus. After having stated, and attempted to explain, the well-known Orphic, or rather Platonic, divifion of beings into such as move only, fuch as are intirely moved, and fuch as both move and are moved, he proceeds thus: All things, therefore, depend upon unity, through the medium of intellect and foul. And intellect is of an uniform effence; but foul of a mental form oud, and the body of the world vivific, or vital, wxs. The firft caufe of all is indeed prior to intellect, but intellect is the first recipient of a divine nature; and soul is divine, fo far as it requires an intellectual medium. But the body which participates a foul of this kind is divine, in as great a degree as the nature of body will admit. For the illuftration of intellectual light, pervades from the principle of things, to the extremes; and is not totally obfcured, even when it enters the involutions of matter, and is profoundly merged in its dark and flowing receptacle. Hence we may with reafon conclude, that not only the univerfe, but each of its eternal parts, is animated, and endued with intellect, and is in its capacity fimilar to the univerfe. For each of these parts is a univerfe, if compared with the multitude it contains, and to which it is allied. There is, therefore, according to the Orphic and Platonic theology, one foul of the univerfe; and after this others, which from participating this general foul, difpofe the entire parts of the universe into order; and one intellect which is participated by fouls, and one fupreme God, who comprehends the world in his infinite nature, and a multitude of other divinities, who diftribute intellectual effences, together with their dependent fouls, and all the parts of the world, and who are the perpetual fources of its order, union, and confent. For it is not reasonable to fuppofe that every production of nature should have the power of generating its fimilar, but that the univerfe and primary effences fhould not more abun, dantly poffefs an ability of fuch like procreation; fince fterility can only belong to the most abject, and not to the most excellent aa tures. In confequence of this reafoning, Orpheus filled all things with Gods, fubordinate to the demiurgus of the whole, Any, every one of which performs the office deftined to his divinity, by his fuperior leader. Hence according to his theology there are two worlds, the intelligible and the fenfible. Hence too his three demiurgic principles: Jovial, Dionyfiacal, and Adonical, ae, sivoraxt, "Adaraix, from whence many orders and differences of Gods proceed, K 4 intel intelligible, intellectual, fuper-mundane, mundane, celeftial, au thors of generation. And among these some in the order of guardian, demiurgic, elevating and comprehending Gods; perfecters of works, vivific, immutable, abfolute, judicial, purgative, &c. and befides thefe to each particular divinity, he added a particular multitude of angels, dæmons, and heroes; for, according to Proclus, relating the opinion of Orpheus, and the theologifts +," About every God there is a kindred multitude of angels, heroes, and dæmons. For every God presides over the form of that multitude which receives the divinity." He likewife confidered a difference of fex in these deities, calling fome male, and others female; the reafon of which distinction Proclus †, with his ufual elegance and fubtilty, thus explains: "The divifion of male and female comprehends in itself, all the plenitudes of divine orders. Since the cause of ftable power and identity, and the leader xogos of being, and that which invests all things with the first principle of converfion, is comprehended in the mafculine order. But that which generates from itself, all various progreffions and partitions, measures of life and prolific powers, is contained in the female divifion. And on this account Timæus alfo, converting himself to all the Gods, by this divifion of generated natures, embraces their univerfal orders. But a divifion of this kind is particularly accommodated and proper to the prefent Theory, because the universe is full of this two-fold kind of Gods. For that we may begin with the extremes, heaven correfponds with earth, in the order and proportion of male to female. Since the motion of the heavens imparts particular properties and powers, to particular things. But on the other hand earth receiving the celestial defluxions, becomes pregnant, and produces plants and animals of every kind. And of the Gods exifting in the heavens, fome are dif tinguished by the male divifion, and others by the female: and the authors of generation, fince they are themselves deftitute of birth, are fome of this order and others of that, for the demiurgic choir is abundant in the univerfe. There are alfo many canals as it were of life, fome of which exhibit the male and others the female form. But why fhould I infift on this particular? fince from the abfolute unities, whether endued with a masculine or a feminine form, various orders of beings flow into the univerfe." With refpect to the Hymns, or Initiations, here tranflated, Mr. T. agrees that they are juftly afcribed to Onomacritus, though he seems to think, with Gefner, that this Athenian did not abfolutely forge them, but rather altered the dialect of the old Thracian poet, making probably fuch additions and fubtractions as he is faid by Herodotus § to have used in other in * Θεοι Νοητοί, Νοεροί, Ὑπερκόσμιοι, Εγκόσμιοι, Οὐράνιοι, Γενεσίεργοι. Εt inter hos, alia τάξεις φρερητικών θεών, Δημιεργικών, Αναγωγών, Συνεκτικών, Τελεσιεργών, Ζωογόνων, Αἱρεπίων, Απολύτων, Κριτικών, Καθαρτικών, &ς, Efchemb. Epig. p. 58. +In Timæum, p. 67. t In Tim. p. 290. See Herod. lib. vii. p. 508. with Weffeling's Note. ་་ ftances. ftances. It is not probable, fays Mr.. T. that they fhould have been the invention of any writer more modern than Onomacritus; and yet Cudworth reafons plaufibly, at leaft, to prove they have been interpolated-a charge which our tranflator, we fuppofe, thought beneath his notice. Granting, however, that the Orphic Hymns now extant may be in general attributed to Onomacritus, it is natural to fuppofe an agreement between them and the Pythagorean theology, as far as any idea of it can be obtained. Upon this principle Mr. T.'s industry has been employed in examining the Denarius Pythagoricus of Meurfius We fubjoin the following inftances of fimilarity, collected by Mr. T. not because we think the real or fuppofed arcana of the Pythagorean or Orphic theology admits of any fatisfactory ex planation, but to fhew that he has fpared no pains in what he thinks a useful pursuit: In the first place then, among the various names afcribed to the monad or unity, are thofe of the following Gods; viz. the Sun, Ju, piter, Love, Proteus, Vefta. Now in the hymn to the Sun we find the epithet able Zev, O immortal Jove. In that to Love Tugidomos, or wandering fire, which is likewife found in the hymn to the Sun. In the hymn to Love, that deity is celebrated as having the keys of all things t; viz. of æther, heaven, the deep, the earth, &c. And Proteus is invoked as poffeffing the keys of the deep 1. Again, Vefta, in the Orphic hymns, is the fame with the mother of the Gods; and the mother of the Gods is celebrated as "always governing rivers, and every fea§;" which perfectly agrees with the appellations given both to Love and Proteus. Again, among the various epithets afcribed to the duad, or number two, are, Phanes, Nature, Juftice, Rhea, Diana, Cupid, Venus, Fate, Death, &c. Now Phanes, in the Orphic hymns, is the fame with Protogonus; and Nature is called ewroyevic, or firstborn, and Six, or Juftice, as alfo www, or Fate. Likewife Rhea is denominated θύγατες πολυμορφα Πρωτογονοίο, or daughter of muchformed Protogonus; and in the fame hymn the reader will find other epithets, which agree with the appellation given to Nature. Again, both Nature and Diana are called xxxia, or swiftly bringing forth; and Love as well as Nature is called ou, or two-fold. In like manner Rhea and Venus agree, for he fays of Venus márta yaş ἐκ σέθεν ἐσιν, for all things are from thee; and of Rhea, Μήτης μέν τε θεῶν ἠδὲ θνητῶν ἀνθρώπων, or mother of Gods and mortal men. After which he exprefsly fays that earth and heaven, the fea and the air, proceed from her divinity. Befides this, he celebrates Venus as governing the three Fates; ngarius TRIO μg. And lastly, he fays of Love, after representing that deity as invested with the keys of all ་, things; |