CANTO i. PRODUCTION OF LIFE. 13 



With pious fraud in after ages rear'd 

 Her gorgeous temple, and the gods rever'd. 140 



First in dim pomp before the astonish'd throng, 

 Silence, and Night, and Chaos, stalk'd along; 

 Dread scenes of Death, in nodding sables dress'd, 

 Froze the broad eye, and thrill'd the unbreathing breast. 

 Then the young Spring, with winged Zephyr, leads 

 The queen of Beauty to the blossom'd meads; 



in Egypt, and afterwards transferred into Greece along with most 

 of the other early arts and religions of Europe. They seem to have 

 consisted of scenical representations of the philosophy and religion 

 of those times, which had previously been painted in hieroglyphic 

 figures to perpetuate them hefore the discovery of letters; and are well 

 explained in Dr. Warburton's divine legation of Moses; who believes 

 with great probability, that Virgil in the sixth book of the JEneid has 

 described a part of these mysteries in his account of the Elysian fields. 



In the first part of this scenery was represented Death, and the 

 destruction of all things; as mentioned in the note on the Portland 

 Vase in the Botanic Garden. Next the marriage of Cupid and 

 Psyche seems to have shown the reproduction of living nature; and 

 afterwards the procession of torches, which is said to have constituted 

 apart of the mysteries, probably signified the return of light, and the 

 resuscitation of all things. 



Lastly, the histories of illustrious persons of the early ages seem 

 to have been enacted ; who were first represented by hieroglyphic 

 figures, and afterwards became the gods and goddesses of Egypt, 

 Greece, and Rome. Might not such a dignified pantomime be con- 

 trived, even in this age, as might strike the spectators with awe, and 

 at the same time explain many philosophical truths by adapted 

 imagery, and thus both amuse and instruct? 



