Or moulds with rofy lips the magic words, Behind in twilight gloom with scowling mien. The demon PAIN, convokes his court unfeen; Whips, fetters, flames, pourtray'd on fculptur'd stone, In dread feftoons, adorn his ebon throne; Each fide a cohort of difeafes ftands, And shuddering Fever leads the ghaftly bands'; 110 O'er all Despair expands his raven wings, And guilt-ftain'd Confcience darts a thousand stings. Deep-whelm'd beneath, in vaft fepulchral caves, OBLIVION dwells amid unlabell'd graves; The ftoried tomb, the laurell'd buft o'erturns, And shakes their ashes from the mould'ring urns.— No vernal zephyr breathes, no sunbeams cheer, Nor fong, nor fimper, ever enters here; O'er the green floor, and round the dew-damp wall, The flimy fnail, and bloated lizard crawl; 120 While on white heaps of intermingled bones So in rude rocks, befide the Ægean wave, TROPHONIUS fcoop'd his forrow-facred cave; Unbarr'd to pilgrim feet the brazen door, And the fad fage returning fmil'd no more. Trophonius fcoop'd, l. 126. Plutarch mentions, that prophecies of evil events were uttered from the cave of Trophonius; but the allegorical ftory, that whoever entered this cavern were never again seen to finile, seems to have been defigned to warn the contemplative from confidering too much the dark fide of nature. Thus an ancient poet is faid to have written a poem on the miferies of the world, and to have thence become fo 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 fame materials, and thus the fum total of the happiness of the world continues undiminished; and that a philosopher may thus fmile again on turning his eyes from the coffins of nature to her cradles. SHRIN'D in the midft majestic NATURE stands, Extends o'er earth and sea her hundred hands; 130 Tower upon tower her beamy forehead crefts, And births unnumbered milk her hundred breasts; Drawn round her brows a lucid veil depends, O'er her fine waist the purfled woof descends; Her stately limbs the gather'd folds furround, And spread their golden felvage on the ground. From this firft altar fam'd ELEUSIS ftole Her fecret fymbols and her myftic scroll; Fam'd Eleufis ftole, 1. 137. The Eleufinian myfteries were invented in Egypt, and afterwards transferred into Greece along with most of the other early arts and religions of Europe. They feem to have confifted of scenical reprefentations of the philofophy and religion of those times, which had previously been painted in hieroglyphic figures to perpetuate them before the discovery of letters; and are well explained in Dr. Warburton's divine legation of Mofes; who believes with great probability, that Virgil in the fixth book of the Æneid has defcribed a part of these mysteries in his account of the Elyfian fields. In the first part of this scenery was represented Death, and the destruction of all things; as mentioned in the note on the Portland With pious fraud in after ages rear'd 140 Her gorgeous temple, and the gods rever'd. -First in dim pomp before the astonish'd throng, Silence, and Night, and Chaos, ftalk'd along; Dread fcenes of Death, in nodding fables drefs'd, Froze the broad eye, and thrill'd the unbreathing breaft. Then the young Spring, with winged Zephyr, leads The queen of Beauty to the bloffom'd meads; Charm'd in her train admiring Hymen moves, And tiptoe Graces hand in hand with Loves. Vafe in the Botanic Garden. Next the marriage of Cupid and Pfyche feems to have shown the reproduction of living nature; and afterwards the proceffion of torches, which is faid to have constituted a part of the mysteries, probably fignified the return of light, and the refufcitation of all things. Laftly, the hiftories of illustrious perfons of the early ages feem to have been enacted; who were firft reprefented by hiero-, glyphic figures, and afterwards became the gods and goddeffes of Egypt, Greece, and Rome. Might not fuch a dignified pantomime be contrived, even in this age, as might strike the spectators with awe, and at the fame time explain many philofophical truths by adapted imagery, and thus both amuse and inftruct? Next, while on pausing step the masked mimes 150 Enact the triumphs of forgotten times, III. Now rofe in purple pomp the breezy dawn, Or fwing their cenfers, as they wind along. Presents their offerings with unfullied hands; 160 "PRIESTESS OF NATURE! while with pious awe Thy votary bends, the mystic veil withdraw; |