THE ANCIENT MYSTERIES.
13
unless he had undergone formal initiation, as distinguished from the mystic ceremonies of
certain festivals, the performance of which, though confiaed to particular classes of persons, or
to a particular sex, yet did not require a regular initiation.
2rf,
The
later or corrupted Mysteries,
which continued until the fourth
or fifth centuries of
the Christian era.
As
regards all secret societies of the Middle Ages, the mysteries of the ancient world are
important, as presenting the first examples of such associations, and from having been the
all later imitations.
If, then, we regard Freemasonry (in its existing form) as a
mere assimilation of the Mysteries, our attention should be chiefly directed to the bewitching
dreams of the Grecian mythologists, which, enhanced by the attractions of poetry and romance,
model of
would naturally influence the minds of those " men of letters," ^ who, it is asserted, " in the
year 1646" rearranged the forms for the reception of Masonic candidates, in preference to the
—
degenerate or corrupted mysteries of a subsequent era.
Ou
the other hand,
if
is
Masonry
mysteries, the peculiarities of the
lingered amidst the disjecta
membra
regarded as the direct descendant, or as a survival of the
Mithraic worship the latest form of paganism which
—
of the old
Eoman Empire
—
will mainly claim our notice.
It is almost certain, therefore, that if a set of philosophers in the seventeenth century
ransacked antiquity in order to discover a model for their newly-born Freemasonry, the
"Mysteries i^roperly so called" furnished them with the object of their search. Also, that if
without break of continmty the forms of the Mysteries are now possessed by the Freemasons
their origin must be looked for in the rites of Mithraism.
The first and original mysteries appear to have been those of Isis and Osiris in Egypt, and
has been conjectured that they w-ere established in Greece somewhere about 1400 B.C.,
during the sovereignty of Erectheus. The allegorical history of Osiris the Egyptians deemed
it
Herodotus always mentions it with great caution.
the most solemn mystery of their religion.
It was the record of the misfortunes which had happened to one whose name he never ventures
to utter; and his cautious behaviour with regard to everything connected with Osiris shows
that he had been initiated into the mysteries, and was fearful of divulging any of the secrets
he had solemnly bound himself to keep.
Of the ceremonies performed at the initia