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Show ORIGIN OF SOCIETY. CANTO I. 12 Unbarr'd to pilgrim feet the brazen door, And the sad sage returning smil' d no more. SHRIN'n in the midst majestic NATURE stands, Extends o'er earth and sea her hundred hands; Tower upon tower her beamy forehead crests, And births unnumber' d milk her hundred breasts; Drawn round her brows a lucid veil depends, 0' er her fine waist the purfled woof descends; Her stately limbs the gather'd folds surround, And spread their golden selvage on the ground. From this first altar fam'd ELEusrs stole I-ler secret symbols and her mystic scroll; 130 smile, seems to have been designed to warn the contemplative from considering too much the dark side of nature. Thus an ancient poet is said to have written a poem on the miseries of the world, and to have thence become so unhappy as to destroy himself. When we reflect on the perpetual destruction of organic life, we should also recollect, that it is perpetually renewed in other forms by the same materials, and thus the sum total of the happiness of the world continues undiminished; and that a philosopher may thus smile again on turning his eyes fi·om the cof-fins of nature to her cradles. Fam'd Eleusis stole, 1.137. The Eleusinian mysteries were invented CANTO J. PRODUCTION OF LIFE. IS With pious fraud in after ages rear' d Her gorgeous temple, and the gods rever'd. 140 -First in dim pomp before the astonish'd throng, Silence, and Night, and Chaos, stalk'd along; Dread scenes of Death, in nodding sables dress'd, Froze the broad eye, and thrill'd the unbreathing breast. Then the young Spring, with winged Zephyr, leads 'I'he queen of Beauty to the blossom'd meads; in Egypt, and afterwards transferred into Greece along with most of the other early arts and religions of Europe. They seem to have consisted of scenical representations of the philosophy and religion of those times, which had previously been pain ted in hieroglyphic figures to perpetuate them before the discovery of letters; and are well explained in Dr. vVarburton's divine legation of Moses; who believes with great probability, that Virgil in the sixth book of the .LEneid has described a part of these mysteries in his account of the Elysian fields. In the first part of this scenery was r epresented Death, and the destruction of all things; as mentioned in the note on the Portland Vase in the Botanic Garden. Next the marriage of Cupid and Psyche seems to have shown the reproduction of living nature; and ' afterwards the procession of torches, which is said to have constituted a part of the mysteries, probably signified the return of light, and the resuscitation of all things. Lastly, the histories of illustrious persons of the early ages seem to have been enacted; who were first represented by hieroglyphic figures, and afterwards became the gods and goddesses of Egypt, Greece, and Rome. lVIight not such a dignified pantomime be contrived, even in this age, as might strike the spectators with awe, and at the same time explain many philosophical truths by adapted imagery, and thus both amuse and instruct? |