CHAP. XII. PERVERSION OF THE RELIGION. 201 



jcct, speedily perva^rted the meaning of the very 

 grouiuhvork itself; and the Greeks and Romans, 

 wlio were admitted to participate in a portion of 

 those secrets, fell into a labyrinth of error, Avhich 

 gave to the whole system the character of an 

 absurd fable. Indeed, they went still further, and 

 taking literally certain enigmatical ceremonies, they 

 converted speculative and abstract notions into 

 physical realities, and debased the rites they bor- 

 rowed irom Kgypt by tlie most revolting and pro- 

 fane excesses, tending to make religion ridiculous, 

 and to obviate all the purposes for which it liad 

 been instituted. For, however erroneous the 

 notions of the ancients were, however mistaken 

 in the nature of the Deity, and liowever much 

 truth was obscured by the worship of a })lurality 

 of Gods, still the morality inculcated by religion 

 and practised by good men was deserving of com- 

 mendation ; and we cannot but censure those who 

 degraded what was good, and added to eiror bv 

 the misap])lication of mysterious secrets. 



This perversion of certain allegorical rites, and 

 the misinterpretations given by the Greeks and 

 Romans to some religious customs of the Kgyj)- 

 tians, have, in many instances, led to the idea that 

 the priesthood of Thebes and Memphis, under the 

 plea of religion, were guilty of enormities, which 

 would shock the most de})raved; and an erroneous 

 judgment has been formed from the mode in which 

 the worship of Osiris was conducted by his votaries 

 at Rome. I will not pretend to say that the 

 Romans did not find the ceremonies of that worship 



