Page images
PDF
EPUB

the hatred of the Egyptians for the sea. It is, therefore, not inappropriate that a decapitated marine animal should be offered to Serapis, as the peculiar sacrifice devoted to the God of judgment. The garments of the Bacchanalians, (priests of the Osiris Inferus of Greece,) were sprinkled with wine-lees in imitation of blood. The name Medusa means the wine-press, and the trampling of the wine-press in scripture language is a metaphor employed to signify the destruction of the wicked. It is a singular corroboration of my reasoning, that the three Gorgons were fabled to have only one eye, since, as I have shewn, an eye in a circle, (whence comes the word Cyclops,) wasan emblem of the Makarian Opsin of the "Mysteries." Let us now return to the saloon.

The ceiling of this noble apartment is decorated with the signs of the zodiac, as it appears from Porphyry, all the initiatory caverns were. On the left wall, towards the further corner, is a figure of Serapis or Atlas, bearing the globe upon his head. Several other figures are interspersed, which relate to the mysteries and processions of Apis. But the alabaster chest is the great miracle of attraction in this superb holy of holies. This has been called a sarcophagus, but that it was not intended for the body of a king is clear, from Dr. Young's own shewing, for a figure of Isis adorns the bottom of it, and "kings were identified with Osiris;" in fact, it is in the shape of a cymba, cubile, (whence the name of Cybele), or arkite vessel, and it is covered with representations of the upper and lower mysteries. There is no necessity to inform the scholar, that mystic chests or cista were used in all of these. There was one at Eleusis in which a great variety of agricultural symbols were kept and explained. In these mystic chests the books of the law, and the effigies of Osiris, Bacchus, and Adonis, as they were called in different countries, were deposited by the priests for a particular time. Portions of an ox were

also, beyond a doubt, so deposited. The chest, therefore, though not a real sarcophagus, may have been employed as the mimic coffin of Osiris Inferus, in which his effigy was deposited, as Plutarch tells us, for three days, after which he was said to be revived.

Nothing could be better calculated for a grand scenic representation of the "sun rising from the depths of darkness at midnight," which, as Stobæus informs us, was the final beatific vision of the mysteries at Eleusis, than the alabaster coffer, the adjoining rooms, and the stair-case and passage behind it, which latter has been traced for three hundred feet, and which Belzoni very reasonably concludes led out into the valley beyond the rock in which the excavation is hewn. That valley may have been the original Elysian Garden, and we have Strabo's authority for believing this; who states that all the rocks in the neighbourhood were covered with pensile or hanging gardens, when hundred-gated Thebes "was in its high and palmy state."

Here then is a double entrance, such as the initiatory ⚫ cavern of Trophonìus had; for Pausanias tells us, that a suspected servant of Demetrius having entered that cave in order to pry into the mysteries performed there, "some few days after his dead body was thrown out by an outlet different from the common entrance." Lib. 9., chap. xxxix.

AN ADVENTURE AT THE SEA-SIDE.

"I have neither wife nor children."

E. C.

BURTON. Preface to the Anatomy of Melancholy.

AFTER a season of extreme fatigue, I left town early in the summer of 18-, in hopes to recruit my spirits and health by the excursion. I visited, in quick succession,

several watering-places, without experiencing the relief I had anticipated. At last, I fixed myself at the town of , upon the -coast, where the number of visitors were small, or, in the language of those places, where there was not much "company." Here I still found my self restless and uneasy. I felt conscious that I wanted quiet, but my mind had been wrought to such a state of excitement by my preceding labours, that it seemed to spurn repose: I was, for some time, extremely feverish and distressed. While so, I became naturally discontented, repining at my condition, which subjected me to toils so pernicious, as I deemed, to my health and peace. In this frame of mind it was my fortune to meet with a being, the knowledge of whom had the effect of completely reconciling me to all the troubles and vexations of my active course of life, and of sending me back to them again with a cheerful heart. After having passed the preceding evening at the library, to which I was a subscriber, and having gone home wearied with the bustle and noise, and my ears stunned by the incessant-"one, two, three, four yet remaining-four gone"-cry of the men engaged in vending the numbers' in the Jeu de Roulette, I had returned one morning to the room, and was endeavouring to glean from the newspapers of the day some amusement, when I observed an elderly gentleman enter, and address to the keeper of the library an inquiry for lodgings, of which such people are used to keep, at watering-places, a registry. While he was speaking to the shopman, I had time to observe him: and from the instant his figure struck my eye, as he appeared at the door, my attention was rivetted by it. The gentleman might be about sixty, and was very thin and tall. That, in his appearance, which so deeply interested me was, the abstraction of his air, and the settled composure of his features. His motions were deliberate and cautious: in crossing the open floor, they seemed to be made with as much

wariness as if injury were to be apprehended from an encounter with some obstacle: each foot was advanced as cautiously, and laid down with as much precision, as if a gulf yawned beside it. In the manner, too, in which the body was carried forward, there was a strange evenness and equableness. Progress did not seem to be attained by the successive advances of the two limbs, but after the manner of creeping animals, by gliding onwards with a smooth sinuous motion. In the face every muscle was exactly composed; there was no spontaneous play of the features: the eyes did not move, there was a determination in their position, a peremptory fixedness in their direction; nay, the very eyelids scarce seemed to twinkle. The expression of the whole, however, was not the same as from the inert countenance of a simpleton: there was a very discernible effort, which took from it that character. It rather resembled the face

of a strong-minded man, who, suffering acute pain, endeavours to prevent that distortion of the features which pain naturally produces. In the lineaments of the singular individual, whom I am attempting to describe, I could discover the indications of strong passion; and I soon saw that it was only by a constant and unremitted effort that they were constrained to wear the placid, tranquil air which they did. And yet there was that about this person which forbad the thought that he was at the moment suffering from any immediate affliction, or anxious on any particular account. It is scarcely possible I should have succeeded in conveying, by this description, an idea of the uncommon aspect of this being: I must content myself with saying, that it interested me more intensely than any object ever did. I heard the shopman inquire " how many beds the gentleman wanted-what family he had;" and the stranger replied, with an emphasis and decision that struck strangely upon my ear-"For myself and my servant alone." The man then said, he did not know, at the

moment, where any such accommodations were to be had : and the stranger having begged him to look out for them, as he was anxious to leave his hotel, I, on the moment, recollected that I knew an house in which the apartments he needed were vacant; and, advancing just as the stranger was about to retire, I told him that, happening to have heard his conversation with the shopman, I begged leave to recommend his trying the house in my recollection, which I described. At my first address he almost started, but immediately regained his former composure, and having thanked me briefly, but with great politeness, made me a very low and formal, yet courteous, bow, and went out of the library.

I have omitted to speak of his voice; it was low and still, the tones subdued, and the utterance calm and articulate. But it seemed to be smothered; and, like a muffled drum, to be capable of producing a very different effect from that to which it was on the moment applied: there was, too, occasionally, a slight tremor in it, as though caused by strong emotion. And, on the whole, when I heard the stranger speak, and especially when he spoke to myself, I felt assured that there was more in him than might be at first imagined; and that, if the mystery of his character could be searched, it would be well worth the pains. After his departure I remained only a few minutes, and then sauntered forth, musing on the probabilities of what he might be. It chanced that my feet took the same direction which his had pursued on leaving the library, and I had not proceeded far, when, as I turned the corner of a street, I saw before me a crowd collected around a man, whom some people appeared to be in the act of raising from the ground. I quickened my pace, and recognised in the person, who was in the arms of the individuals so occupied, my recent acquaintance. He was insensible, and, I soon discovered, had fallen down in a fit. A fellow-creature with whom I had so

« PreviousContinue »