38 
added to the library of the society, which might otherwise pass 
into their place in the catalogue and on the shelves, without 
due appreciation. We have now three volumes of the great 
work, Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum,” undertaken by the 
Royal Academy of Prussia, of which Dr. Hiibner, of Berlin, is 
one of the editors. The first of these volumes contains the 
Italian inscriptions; the second the Spanish; the third will 
probably he devoted to the English. An Atlas contains exact 
copies and facsimiles of some of the oldest monuments, bringing 
before the eye all their peculiarities of form and execution, of 
language and orthography. One of the most remarkable of 
these is the facsimile of the bronze tablet containing the decree 
of the Roman Senate against the Bacchanalia, passed b c. 188 
(a.v.c. 568), and therefore now 1958 years old. Independently 
of the interest which its age excites, it refers to a very 
remarkable event in Roman history, and illustrates the state of 
religion and manners among that people. The Bacchus of 
Mythology had a two-fold character, and a two-fold repre¬ 
sentation ; one, the god ever fair and young,” the other, 
distinguished as the Indian Bacchus, middle aged, grave, 
bearded, and clothed to the ancles. I shall not attempt to 
establish an historical connection between the Grecian and the 
Indian god, or to lead you into an inquiry into the mystical 
religions of the Greeks—a labyrinth without a clue. It is 
sufiicient to say that his worship existed in Greece under two 
forms; one, recognised by the state, sanctified by religion, at 
once festive and solemn in its celebrations, as the Dionysia at 
Athens; the other, mystical in its doctrines, obscure and 
fanatical in its rites, and admitting to them only the initiated. 
In the year which I have mentioned the Roman Senate was 
alarmed by the intelligence that a secret conspiracy was formed, 
originating in Etruria, equally dangerous to the religion and 
morals of the people, and to the constitution of the state, the bond 
of which was the secret worship of Bacchus. It prevailed ex¬ 
tensively in Southern Italy, and was recognized by the state, the 
figure of the god, under the emblem of a bull with a youthful 
human face, called Bacchus Hebon, being found on the coins of 
Naples and Sicily. It was not, however, by this worship that the 
