THEIR MYSTICISM. 303 



subject the Daemon which belongs to each man. 

 It is entitled " Concerning Love ;" and the doc- 

 trine appears to be, that the Love, or common 

 source of the passions which is in each man's mind, 

 is "the Daemon which they say accompanies each 

 man 6 ." These daemons were, however, (at least 

 by later writers,) invested with a visible aspect and 

 with a personal character, including a resemblance 

 of human passions and motives. It is curious thus 

 to see an untenable and visionary generalization 

 falling back into the domain of the senses and the 

 fancy, after a vain attempt to support itself in the 

 region of the reason. This imagination soon pro- 

 duced pretensions to the power of making these 

 daemons or genii visible ; and the Treatise on the 

 Mysteries of the Egyptians, which is attributed to 

 lamblichus, gives an account of the secret cere- 

 monies, the mysterious words, the sacrifices and 

 expiations, by which this was to be done. 



It is unnecessary for us to dwell on the progress 

 of this school ; to point out the growth of the The- 

 urgy which thus arose ; or to describe the attempts 

 to claim a high antiquity for this system, and to 

 make Orpheus, the poet, the first promulgator of 

 its doctrines. The system, like all mystical systems, 

 assumed the character rather of a religion than 

 of a theory. The opinions of its disciples materially 

 influenced their lives. It gave the world the spec- 

 tacle of an austere morality, a devotional exaltation, 



6 Ficinus, Comm. in v. Enn. iii. 





