THE 
MONTHLY MAGAZINE. 
Vol.60.No.415.] OCTOBER 1, 1825. 
[Price 2s. 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
On the StxtH Ectocue of VirGiL: 
SILENUS. 
Y position derived from this ex- 
traordinary eclogue, and which 
was probably suggested by the same 
sybelline sources as the fourth, named 
Pollio, will appear, perhaps, at first 
sight paradoxical; but I believe it is 
capable of the most rigid species of 
proof: that there was a tradition hand- 
ed down from the first man or men, 
and entertained by all the most vene- 
rable of the Pagan creeds, especially 
the Oriental, that a great king and law- 
giver should come to gather mankind 
into one common family; and that the 
name assigned to this expected theo- 
crat was the same in several other na- 
tions besides the Jews—namely, Sur- 
LOH. 
For instance, the word selau, signi- 
fying a rock or stone, is a common de- 
signation of the Messiah. A rock or 
stone is frequently seen on coins, with 
the draco salutus twining round it. On 
Tyrian coins, it is sometimes accom- 
panied by a tree—perhaps the tree of 
life. Stones were the emblems of the 
Inearnate Mediatorial Divinity through- 
out the East. At Delphi, a stone, sa- 
ered to Apollo, was anointed (the word 
Messiah means anointed) every day. 
Horus and Serapis were represented by 
a stone, with a human, head and shep- 
herd’s staff. Juggernaut, the same 
deity among the modern Hindoos, is 
pourtrayed in a similar manner; and 
his worshippers expect from the deity 
a general gathering of all people, and a 
general equality, which is annually pre- 
figured by a species of saturnalian mix- 
ture of castes in honour of him. 
From se/au comes the name of the 
shepherd god Silenus, whom Virgil cele- 
brates, in the sixth eclogue, as a di- 
vine philosopher, prophet, and ex- 
pounder of the creation and mysteries 
of nature. This personage wonder- 
fully exhibits the close analogy be- 
tween Pagan mythology and theologi- 
cal tradition. Originally he was a much 
more important personage than he he- 
came in Greek fable; being, evidently, 
the same as the Beth-peor of the Phe- 
Monrtury Mac. No. 415. 
nicians, and the Mendes of Egypt. As 
the Silenus, or Pan, of Egypt, he was re- 
presented with a star in his breast; so 
Bethpeor appears to have been symbo- 
lized by the star Chiun, Plutarch relates 
an extraordinary circumstance of some 
great event connected with his future 
advent in his Life of Agis; he calls 
him a son of Apollo, and yet one of the 
‘ ungenerated and unbegotten gods;” 
and that the oracle of Pasiphe (which 
was, doubtless, another name for the 
sacred cow Isis), gave out that he 
should, one day come and rule over the 
earth. It is a very remarkable circum- 
stance, that on this anticipation ajug- 
gle was played off by the friends of 
Agis, not much unlike that which the 
friends of Johanna Southcott attempted 
to play off on the same subject—the 
predicted advent, and universal mo- 
narchy of Shiloh. , 
I am aware that, at first sight, there 
will appear a profaneness in connecting 
the image of the drunken Silenus with 
the lawgiver and prophet. But the 
amagewhich we form of Silenus is de- 
rived from the Greeks, who understood 
nothing of the mythology which they 
borrowed from Egypt, “ their nursing 
mother.’ It is, besides, requisite to 
remark, that great allowance is to be 
made for the metaphors of the pictorial 
language. To the necessity of employ- 
ing these metaphors, perhaps, is owing 
the corruption of the first pure 
stream of Egyptian theology, and the 
infinitude of silly fables, engrafted, by 
ignorant interpreters of the. language, 
on its original texture. Indeed, were 
all the words which we employ now in 
the most.finished compositions, traced 
to their roots, a similar confusion of 
images would ensue. But when I speak 
of the original Egyptian church pos- 
sessing a pure theology, I mean to 
speak comparatively, for a dash of ma- 
terialism was certainly blended with its 
belief in a trinity; and gross physical 
association undoubtedly polluted its 
pre-knowledge, and pre-shadowing of. 
the resurrection and final judgment. 
But, notwithstanding the apology for 
the admixture of what appears like un- 
seemly metaphor in the case of iden- 
2'C tity 
