103 



to discover, in the funeral rites of nations, the strongest remaining- 

 traces of a rehgion originally purer, had any such been received. 

 Existing therefore, as they do, in the Egyptian ceremonies, we 

 acknowdedge at once their origin. Their mummies were swathetl 

 Li imitation of the Chrysalis, to whose torpid state of existence 

 they considered death to be *analogous, as they compared the 

 life of man upon earth to that of the caterpillar or grub. The 

 mummies were preserved Avith the greatest care and veneration^ 

 those of princes in indestructible pyramids, that the soul, which 

 was emblemed by the aurelia or butterfly, might safely emerge 

 from them, in process of time, to glory and to immortality. This 

 fine allegory gave rise to the story of Cupid and Psyche, or the 

 reunion of Cupid — E^oj, or divine love — with i^u;^)?, the soul of 

 man : and, as this deity was of a character far less terrestrial than 

 the Cupid of more modern paganism, so is the story in which he 

 thus appears, but little contaminated by the channel through which 

 it flowed from the second parent of mankind. Psyche having, 

 through the temptation of curiosity, broken the commandment of 

 E|o?, falls from her state of innocence, and is deprived of the en- 

 joyment of his visible presence ; assisted, however, by his unseen 

 influence, through the temptations and misfortunes which were 

 the unavoidable and threatened result of her disobedience, she 

 is at lenffth restored to that celestial union which had been pro- 

 mised to her repentance. 



But to approach nearer to our subject ; even the gross animal 

 worship of the Egyptians was of nobler descent, and " f was, ac~ 



* Bryant's Mythol. V. 2. p. 385, &c. 

 t Brit. Review, No. J 7. Art. 6. 



