Home › Contents › Mysteries and Oracles

Mysteries and Oracles

BESIDES the prevailing national religion and the general worship of the ancients, there existed almost everywhere a secret doctrine, which was either communicated by priests, likewise to a small circle of selected individuals, or taught by particular inquirers as the fruit of profane philosophy. Of the first, especially , remarkable proofs appear among many small nations. We speak here of mysteries, which we see originate in remote antiquity, and, at that time, produce the greatest effect.

There were several kinds of mysteries, which differed widely in object and effect. Some consisted only of religious ceremonies, the mystical solemnity of which seemed adapted to proclaim a higher majesty of the god, or to fill the mind with religious awe. Other mysteries were associations of devout people, who, by particular devotional practices, or by pursuing peculiar rules of life, endeavoured to attain a higher moral perfection than that of the rest. The third and noblest kind of mysteries were those where a secret doctrine was imparted to the initiated concerning subjects to the investigation of which we are urged by a high and eternal interest, but the unveiled contemplation of which is dangerous for the common intellect. There were, however, several grades of initiation. To the inferiorwhere those admitted were prepared, examined, or entertained by vain delusion, as in the great Elusinian mysteries-many, even women and children, were able to attain; into the inner sanctuary but few were introduced. They sufficed to prevent the extinction of the beneficial flame, and always let as much light emanate from their centre into external circles, and into the whole nation, as relations and the general state of cultivation permitted.

We meet with oracles in the ancient religions still more generally than with mysteries, by which here not merely those sacred places are understood, where a certain god replied by some organ to the questions put to him, but in general all the means and ways which superstition has invented to arrive at the knowledge of the divine will and the future. Man is incessantly tortured with the inquiet desire to raise the impenetrable veil, which lies over his future; and inexplicable feelings are often in his mind, which he calls forebodings, because he supposes a secret connexion between these and a coming event. For his little person is the centre from which he considers the world. Everything exists in reference to him; he imagines that on account of his private affairs, the gods stop the machinery of nature, and that even the celestial bodies direct their courses according to his destiny. This disposition was early abused by cunning men, and, to the question, who invented soothsaying, we may without hesitation answer with Voltaire: "it was the first rogue that met with the first blockhead." What advantage they were able to derive from this superstition did not escape the priests. Even legislators, who discerned in it an efficacious means for the direction of the multitude, favored the same, and it became a peculiar, sacred art, pursued according to fixed rules, and generally rethe future from the constellations, the entrails of animals, the flight of birds, dreams, lots, &c.

A CURIOUS BAPTISM, which took place at DUBLIN, in the year 1807.-A Moor, a native of Mogadore, in Africa, a strict 1807.-A Moor, a native of Mogadore, in Africa, a strict observer of the religion of Mahomet, wearing always, of his country, resided a few months in the above city A family, where he occasionally visited, being infant, solicited the stranger to stand godfather, which was immediately consented to; and on the appointed day, he appeared splendidly arrayed in his turban and robes, at the sacred font, where, with due solemnity, he answered to the accustomed interrogatives, -" All this I stedfastly believe. " To add still further to the oddity of the circumstance, the father was a member of the Roman Catholic church, and the mother of the Established one.

Some account of KALMUCK PRAYING MACHINES: from Travels in the Caucasus and Georgia.-" Among the most remarkable of the sacred utensils of the temples, is the Kürdä, vessel of wood or metal, either very small, or of immense size.

In its centre is fixed an iron axle; but the interior of the cylinder, which is quite hollow, is filled with sacred writings , the leaves of which are all stuck one to another at the edge, throughout the whole length. This paper is rolled tightly round the axis of the cylinder till the whole space is filled up.

A close cover is fixed on at each end, and the whole kürdä is very neatly finished, painted on the outside representations, or Indian prayers, and varnished. This cylinder is fastened upright in a frame by the axis; so that the latter, by means of a wheel attached to it below, may be set a-going with a string, and with a slight pull kept in a constant rotatory motion. When this cylinder is large, another, twice as small, and filled with writing, is fixed for ornament at the top of it. The inscription on such prayer-wheels commonly consists of masses for souls, psalms, and the six great general litanies, in which the most moving. petitions are preferred for the welfare of all creatures. The text they sometimes repeat a hundred, or even a thousand times, attributing, from superstition, a proportionably augmented effect to this repetition , and believing that by these frequent copies, combined with their thousands of revolutions, they will prove so much the more efficacious. You frequently see, as well on the habitations of the priests, as on the whole roof