(says Pindar) that Ixion, by the decrees of the gods, while he is incessantly turning round his rapid wheel, calls out upon MORTALS to this effect, that they should be always ready at hand to repay a benefactor for the kindnesses he had done them *." Where the word ΒΡΟΤΟΙ, living men, seems plainly to shew, that the speech was first made before men in this world. The poet closes his catalogue of the damned with these words: “ Aufi omnes immane nefas, AUSOQUE POTITI. For the ancients thought an action was fanctified by the success; which they esteemed a mark of the favour and approbation of Heaven. As this was a very pernicious opinion, it was necessary to teach that the imperial vil lain who trampled on his country, and the baffled plotter who expired on a gibbet, were equally the objects of divine vengeance. Æneas has now passed through Tartarus. And here end the LESSER MYSTERIES. Their original † explains why these sort of shews were exhibited in them. We are told they were instituted for the sake of Hercules, when about to perform his eleventh labour, of fetching Cerberus from hell ; and were under the prefidency of Proserpine §. The hero advances to the borders of ELYSIUM; and here he undergoes the lustration : + See the Div. Leg. 1 Ἐμυήθη ἐν Ἐλευσῖνι τὰ δὲ αὐτὸν [Ἡρακλεα] λεγομενα ΜΙΚΡΑ μυσήρια. Tzetz. in Lycoph. § Τὰ δὲ μικρὰ Περσεφόνης. Schol. Ariftoph, ad Plut. Secund. "Occupat to the evidence before them. These judges were of the priesthood: and so, it is probable, taught, like the priests of the church of Rome, that their decrees were ratified in the other world: Partiality and corruption would, in time, pervert their sentence; and spite and favour prevail over justice: As this might scandalize the people, it would be found necessary to teach, that the sentence, which influenced every one's final doom, was referved for a future judicature. However the priest took care that all should not go out of his hands; and when he could be no longer Judge, he contrived to find his account in turning Evidence; as may be seen by the singular cast of this ancient inscription: Ego Sextus Anicius pontifex TESTOR honeste hunc vixiffe : Manes ejus inveniant quietem *. How much this whole matter needed explaining, we may fee by what a fine writer makes of it, in a discourse written to illustrate Æneas's defcent into hell: "There are three kinds of persons, (fays he) described as being situated on the BORDERS; and I can give no reason for their being stationed there in so particular a manner, but because none of them feem to have had a proper right to a place among the dead, as not having run out the thread of their days, and finished the term of life that had been allotted them upon earth: The first of these are the souls of infants, who are snatched away by untimely ends; the second are of those who are put to death wrongfully, and by an unjust sentence: and the third, of those who grew weary of their lives, and laid violent hands upon themselves t. After this, follow the episodes of Dido and Deiphobus, in imitation of Homer, where we find nothing to * Fabius Celfus, Inscript. Antiq. 1. iii. † Mr. Addifon's Works, Vol. ii. p. 300. Quarto Edit. 1721. our our purpose, but the strange description of Deiphobus, whose mangled phantom is drawn according to the philosophy of Plato; which teaches, that the dead not only retain all the passions of the foul, but all the marks and blemishes of the body*. Æneas, having passed this first division, comes now on the confines of TARTARUS; and is instructed in what relates to the crimes and punishments of the inhabitants. His guide here more openly declares her office of HIEROPHANTE, or interpreter of the mysteries. "Dux inclyte Teucrûm, Nulli fas casto sceleratum infiftere limen : It is remarkable that Æneas is led through the regions of “ Tum demum horrisono stridentes cardine facræ And this could not be otherwise in the shews of the mysteries, for very obvious reasons. The criminals destined to eternal punishment, in this division, are, 1. Those who had finned so secretly as to escape the animadverfion of the magistrate : • Μασιγίας αὖ εἴτις ἦν, καὶ ἴχνη εἶχε τῶν πληγῶν ἐλὰς ἐν τῷ σώματι, ἢ ὑπὸ μαςίγων ἢ ἄλλων τραυμάτων ζῶν, καὶ τεθνεῶτος τὸ σῶμα ἐσιν ἰδεῖν ταῦτα ἔχον· κατεαγότα εἴτε ἦν μέρη ἢ διεσραμμένα ζῶντος, καὶ τεθνεῶτος ταῦτα ἔνδηλα· ἑνὶ δὲ λόγῳ οἷος ἐἶναι παρεσκεύασο τὸ σῶμα ζῶν, ἔνδηλα ταῦτα καὶ τελευτήσαντος ἦν πάντα, ἢ τὰ πολλὰ ἐπί τινα χρόνον. Gorgias, p. 524. "Gnoffius hæc Rhadamanthus habet durissima regna? And it was principally on account of such crimes that the legislator inforced the doctrine of a future state of punish ment. But it is worth while to observe, that, according to this doctrine, the rack to extort confession came originally from the place of the damned, where only it could be equitably applied. 2. Those whose principles dissolve the first bonds of association and society, the ATHEISTS, and the despisers of God and religion : "Hic genus antiquum terræ Titania pubes. This was agreeable to the laws of Charandos, who says: Be the contempt of the gods put in the number of the most flagitious crimes *. The poet dwells particularly on that species of impiety which affects divine honours: “ Vidi & crudeles dantem Salmonea pænas, Dum flammas Jovis & fonitus imitatur Olympi. And this, without doubt, was an oblique cenfure of the apotheosis, then beginning to be paid and received at Rome. 3. The infringers of the duties of IMPERFECT obligation, which civil laws cannot reach: Such as those without natural affection to brothers, duty to parents, protection to clients, or charity to the poor: * Ἔσω δὲ μέγισα ἀδικήματα θεῶν κατασρόνησις. apud Stob. Serm. 42. " Hic quibus invisi fratres, dum vita manebat; Nec partem pofuêre fuis; quæ maxima turba eft. 4. Those pests of public and private peace, the TRAYTOR and the ADULTERER, with all their various fpawn. "Quique ob adulterium cæfi, quique arma fecuti Hic thalamum invafit natæ, vetitosque hymenæos. It is observable, he does not say, simply, adulteri, but ob adulterium cæfi; as implying, that the greatest civil punishment makes no atonement for this crime at the bar of divine justice. 5. The invaders and VIOLATORS of the holy mysteries, held out in the person of Theseus, make the fifth and Jast class of offenders. "Sedet, æternumque fedebit 1 Infelix Thefeus; Phlegyasque & miferrimus omnes - DIVOS. The fable says, that Theseus and his friend Pirithous formed a design to steal Proferpine from hell; but being taken in the fact, Pirithous was thrown to the dog Cer • So the law of the twelve tables: PATRONUS SI CLIENTI FRAUDEM FECERIT, SACER ESTO. + The Phlegya here mentioned, I take to be those people of Bastia, spolen of by Paufanias, who attempting to plunder the temple of Apollo at Delphi, were destroyed by lightening, earthquakes, and pestilence: Hence Phlegya, I suppose, signified impious, facrilegious persons in general; and is so to be understood in this place. berus, |