ORP 
been called the follower of Orpheus, and been fuppofed to 
have a es many of his opinions 
If we have feleéted yh too much fedulity and minutenefs 
whatever ancient an ern eek aarti to Orpheus 
have faid, it has Mais oceafioned b 
paid t 
by God ; and that on 
fide of the ether were chaos and dark night, which covered 
whatfoever was under the ether, thereby fignifying, ani 
night was prior. He declared alfo, that there was a eertai 
incomprehenfible being, which was the higheft and snot 
ancient of all thin Be, and the maker of the usiverf, both 
incomprehenfible God, who is the maker of all things, and 
who bringeth that which is not, int e iftenc 
by which power were procured all incorporeal principles, 
and the fun, the moon, the ftars, earth, fea, 
He hke- 
and all things therein, both vifible and invifible. 
wife declared, that mankind was form 
Eufeb. Chron. Grec. 
in rpheus; and Procl. in Tim. 
lib. ii.) IE this dam, in vo i admitted, we need not appeal 
the Orphic verfes, which are ua full as to the affertion 
a verfes, it is true, are 
cited by Pagan gas as havin 
Orpheus himfelf, yet 
by men of See learnin 
genuine, and wort By, 
ORP 
es other saan iva sy in Symp. Macrob. Sat. 
c. 16.)3 an 
r. 
emblem. This fyonbol was adopted and bap er ee by the 
Pheenicians, Chaldeans, ier Indian he 
Chinefe ; nor is it improbable, primary 
opinion of all who undertook . explain the formation of 
e world. 
Brucker, in his «* Hiftory of Philofophy by Enfield,’ 
(vol. i.) has deduced from the Orphic verfes and other frags 
ments of Orpheus the following fummary of the doétrine of 
Orpheus concerning God and nature. ‘ God, from all 
eternity, contained within himfelf the unformed principles 
0 ae nee world, and confifted of a compound nature, 
active and paffive By 6 ey of the see principle, he 
fent bak from himfelf, at the commencement of a certain 
finite period, all material ‘and {piritual eae which ee, 
in different degrees, of the ivine nature. All beings, pro- 
eeedine oo from God, will, after certain purgations, 
return 2 The univerfe icfelf will be deftroyed by fire, 
aa renewed.”’ He adds, an Orphic fragment 
is in prefered by Athenagoras, in which the omaeee a a 
orld is reprefented under the emblem o egg; 
‘i the union of night, or aes and “= “which at length 
burft, and difclofed the forms of nature. The meaning of 
this allegory probably is, that by the energy of the divine 
ative principle upon the eternal mafs of paffive matter, the 
vifible world was produced. Some writers have afcribed to 
Orpheus the doétrine fince maintained 
o 
a 
To ITay, 
North. pheus, e Thracians 
and Egyptians, from whom he derived his philofophy, held 
to be immortal. Diodorus Siculus relates, that he was the 
firft who taught (that is, among the 
of the future der of the wicked, 
to ee “ Why then do 
you not ‘immediately ae and put an end to your poverty and 
mifer 
The "lane ets “ a moon, Orpheus conceived t to be 
a oi worlds, 
f ta 
n: 
ag whi li had bee 
whic afterwards a ted by the Pythagoreans, ane 
other Grecian philo ar 
a 
fpecies of the {parus, of a flat figure, but v thick, has 
a {mall mouth, and is covered with {mall, but very rough 
{eales, 
