see) 
440 
not the least obstacle to be overcome. On 
the evening ee the removal of the sta- 
tue, an accident happened which had’ nearly 
ut an end to the undertaking. While the 
inhabitants were conversing with the Turkish 
officer who brought the firman from the wai- 
wode of Athens, an ox, loosed from its yoke, 
canie and placed itself before the statue; and 
after butting with its horns for some time 
against the marble, ran oi with considerable 
speed bellowing into the plain of Eleusis. 
Instantly a general murmur prevailed; and 
several women joining in the clamrour, it was 
with difficulty any proposal could be made. 
© They had been always,’ they said, ¢ famous 
for their corn; and the fertility of the land 
would cease when the statue was removed.’ 
These are exactly the words of Cicero with 
respect to the Sicilians, when Verres removed 
the statue of Ceres: ‘ Quéd Cerere violata, 
omnes cultus fructtisgue Cereris, in his locis 
interiisse arlilrantur®.” 
“« At length, however, these scruples were 
removed; and on the following morning, 
November the 22d, 1801, the priest of Elen- 
sis, arrayed in his vestments as for high 
Art. VI. 
‘THOSE persons, to whom Mr. Fa- 
ber’s book is only known by the title of 
a Dissertation on the Mysteries of the 
Cabiri, will possess but a very faint idea 
of the multiplicity of topics to which 
it extends. It is, in short, nothing less 
than an attempt to prove, that the whole 
eircle of the heathen mythology is re- 
ducible to two united sourges of super- 
tition: the worship of the heavenly 
bodies, and that cf the ark of Noah, 
with the persons and personified circum- 
stances connected with it. Before we 
proceed. any further, it may be proper 
to give a general account of this system 
in the words of the author. 
“ We have no reason to think, that the 
idolatry of the Gentile world was of a merely 
arbitrary contrivance; on the contrary, it 
seems to have been built, almost universally, 
tipon a traditional remembrance of certain 
teal events. These events I apprehend to be 
the destruction of the first race of mankind hy 
the waters of the deluye, and the intreduction 
of the Sabian superstition by Nimrod. 
“Tt is searcely possible, that all recohe- 
tion. of the flood could have been very coon 
érased from the minds of the Noachidx; 
‘hence it is natural to suppose, that the an- 
niversary either of its commencement, cr of 
44 Dissertation on the Mysteries of the Cabiri. 
Farner, Fellow of Lincoln College. 
ANCIENT CLASSICS. 
mass, descended into the hollow in which 
the statue was partially buried, to strike the 
first blow with a pickaxe for the removal of 
the rubbish, that the people might be con= 
vinced no calamity would bef] the labourers. 
At mid-day the statue had reached the sum- 
mit of thehill above Eleusis; and as thes 
was setting, by the additional assistance’ of — 
the crew of a Casiot vessel, hired to conyey 
it away, was placed at the extremity of: 
ancient quay of the 
«¢ The next day, November 28, boats were 
placed parallel to each other from the quay to 
the vessel ; and planks being laid over them, 
a kind of stage was formed, on which the 
crew could more easily work the blocks of the 
ship. These being all brought to act at once 
upon the marble, it was raised and let into 
the hold. The vessel then sailed to Smyrna, 
where the statue was again moved into the 
Princessa merchantman, Capt. Lee. In her 
passage home this vessel was wrecked and 
lost near Beachy Head; but the statue was 
recovered, and has finally reached its destina- 
tion.” 
” 
By Grorce STANLEY 
Svo. 2 vols. pp. about 900. 
its termination, would be duly commemorated 
by a solemn religious festival. Sach a-com- 
micmoration, in its primitive simplicity, 
would doubtless be not only innocent, but 
even serviceable to the cause of piety and 
norality; but-at the same time it would be 
liable fo gross abuse, which in the result 
proved unhappily to be the case. The com- 
memorative festival, however irreprehensihle 
it might originally have been, was but too 
soon corrupted; Noah and his family were 
elevated to the rank of demons or hero-gods ; 
and at Jength unblushing obscenity usurped 
the name and garb of religion. 
«© The antediluvian worship appears to 
have been of a totally different sort. ‘In 
the days of Enos the son of Seth,” says Mai- 
monides, ‘ men fell imto grievous errors, 
and even Enos himself partook of their in- 
faiuation. ‘Uheir language was, that since 
Ged had placed on high the heavenly bodies, 
and used them as. his ministers, it was evi- 
dently his will, that they should receive from 
men the same veneration, as the servants of 
a great prince justly claim from the subject 
multitude. Impressed with this notion, 
they begai: te build temples to the stars, to 
sacrifice to them, and to worship them, in 
the vain expectation, that they should thus 
please the Creator of all things. Atfirst in- 
deed, they did not suppose the stars to be 
the only deities, but adored in conjunction 
with them the Lord God Omnipotent. In 
“< * Ciceroin Verr. lib, 4 ¢. $1. The removal of the statues of Ceres and Triptolemus 
from the Temple at Enna, by Verres, is particularly applicable. 
" amplitudo saluti Juit, guéd corm Gemol.tio, atgue asporlatio perdifieris videlatur.” Lib. 
4. c. 40. 
§ His pulchritudo periculo, 
