MYSTERY. 
At the conclufion of the myfteries of Eleufis, the con¬ 
gregation was difmifl'ed in tliefe words: K.ov%, Of*., Ilxg. 
Thefe myfterious words have been coniidered hitherto as 
inexplicable: but they are pure Shanfcrit, and ufed to 
this day by Brahmins at the conclufion of religious rites. 
They are thus written in the “ language of the gods,” as 
the Hindoos call the language of their facred books, 
Canfcha, Om , Pacjha. Now Canfcha fignifies the objeft of 
our moft ardent wi/hes. Om, or Ohm, is the famous tri¬ 
literal monofyllable ufed both at the beginning and con¬ 
clufion of a prayer, or any religious rite, .like Amen. 
Pacjha exactly anfwers to the obfolete Latin word Vix; 
it fignifies change, courfe, Head, place, turn of work, : 
duty, fortune. It is ufed particularly after pouring water 
in honour of the gods. It appears alio from Hefychius, 
1. That thefe words were pronounced aloud at the con¬ 
clufion of every momentous tranfadlion, religious or civil. 
2. That when judges, after hearing a caufe, gave their 
fuffrages, by dropping of pebbles of different colours into 
a box, the noife made by each pebble was called by one of 
thefe three words, (if not by all three,) but more probably 
by the word patjha ; as the turn, or pacjha, of the voting 
judge, was over. When lawyers pleaded in a court of 
juftice, they were allowed to fpeak two or three hours, 
according to the importance of the caufe; and for this 
purpofe, there w’as a clepfpdra, or water-clock, ready, 
which, making a certain noife at the end of the expired 
pacjha, or turn, this noife was called pacjha, &c. The 
word pacjha is pronounced vacjh and vaff in the vulgar 
dialedls; and from it the oblolete Latin word vix is ob- 
vioufly derived. The Greek language has certainly bor¬ 
rowed largely from the Shanfcrit; but it always affedts 
the fpoken dialedfs of India ; the language of the Latins, 
in particular, does, which is acknowledged to have been 
an ancient dialed! of the Greek. Ajiatie PeJear cites, vol. v. 
The myfieries of paganifm w'ere ufually celebrated in 
caves and grottos, fitter for the concealment of crimes 
than the celebration of religious rites. The temples in 
thefe fecret receffes were fo conftrudted as to favour the 
artifices of priefts. Some velfiges of thefe fubterraneous 
apartments, which by their gloom diffufed an air of 
folemn fecrecy, and, by the hieroglyphic paintings and 
fculptures that covered their walls, anfwered the fame 
purpofe, have been dilcovered by fome modern travellers. 
Each of the pagan gods had, /ays bi/liop Warburton, be- 
fides the public and open, a fecret worfhip paid them ; 
into which none were admitted but thofe who had been 
feledled by preparatory ceremonies, called initiation. This 
fecret wor/hip was termed the mvjlerics. The firft and 
original myfteries of w'hich we have any account, were 
thole of Ills and Oliris in Egypt; (fee Egypt, vol. vi. 
p. 369, & feq.) From the Egyptians they were derived 
to the Greeks, under the prelidency of various gods, fuch 
as the inftitutor thought molt fuitable to his purpofe ; 
and, in procefs of time, thefe mylteries were dilfeminated 
through the northern and weltern nations of Europe. 
The learned prelate above named obferves, that the 
nature and end of all thefe myfteries were the lame, viz. 
“ to teach the doctrine of a future ftate.” He reprelents 
the defign of them in general to have been, to engage 
men to a holy and virtuous practice, to give them jult 
notions of religion, and to deleft the error of the vulgar 
polytheifm. And he concludes his account of the myf¬ 
teries with obferving, that there were three things about 
which they were principally concerned; viz. 1. The rife 
and eftablilliment of civil l’ociety. 2. The doftrine of a 
future ftate of rewards and punilhments. 3. The error 
of polytheifm, and the principle of the unity of the 
Supreme Being. Which latter was the objeft of the 
greater myfteries, in which the whole delufion of paganifm 
was difclofed, and the initiated were inftrufted, that 
Jupiter, Mercury, Venus, Mars, and the whole rabble of 
licentious deities, were only deified mortals; and that 
God alone was the creator of the univerfe, who pervaded 
all things by his virtue, and governed all by his provi¬ 
407 
dence : whereas in the lefs myfteries, which were prepara¬ 
tory to the other, the general belief of a providence and 
future ftate, and its confequent engagements to a virtuous 
life, were inculcated. But as thele myfteries, according, 
to the bilhop’s hypothefis, were an inftitution of the ftate 
for a benefit of the people, it is natural to inquire into 
the reafons of their being kept fecret, which, he lays,, 
were the following. Nothing ftimulates curiofity like 
that which retires from obfervation, and feerns to forbid 
fearch; and yet there was a neceftity of teaching fome 
things to the initiated, not expedient for others to know; 
hence he obferves, that the fecret in the lefs myfteries was 
fibme hidden rites and /hows, to be kept from the people, 
only to invite their curiofity ; and that the fecret in the 
greater was fome hidden doftrines to be kept from the 
people for the contrary purpofe. Befides, as the legifia- 
tors had been principally concerned in the rife of the vul¬ 
gar polytheifm, this circumftance furniflied another reafon 
for the fecrecy attending thefe myfteries. And that thefe 
myfteries were invented, eftabli/hed, and fupported, by 
the legi/lature, he argues from the place of their origin, 
which was Egypt, where all religious wor/hip was formed 
and propagated by ftatefmen, and direfted to political 
ends, becaule the /ages who brought them out of Egypt, 
and propagated them in Afia, Greece, and Britain, were 
all kings or legi/lators; becaufe the ftate prefided in the 
myfteries; becaufe, according to their original inftitution, 
neither /laves nor foreigners, who had no concern, no 
property, and no country, were to be admitted into them; 
becaufe an inftitution which taught the neceftity of a 
Uriel and holy life, mull be the invention of legi/lators,. 
to whofe fcheme virtue and the profpe<Sl of immortality 
were fo neceftary ; and hence they were ablually of infinite 
ufe to the ftate; and finally, from the exprefs teftimony- 
of Plutarch, who, in his Treatife of Ifis and Oliris, aferibes 
them to this original. However, thefe myfteries, in pro¬ 
cefs of time, greatly degenerated : one caufe of their cor¬ 
ruption feems to have been the feafon in which they were 
performed, and the profound fecrecy obferved in them; 
for the night gave opportunity to wicked men to attempt 
evil actions; and the fecrecy, encouragement to perpetrate 
them. Another caufe of their depravation was their 
being fometimes under the patronage of thofe deities 
who were fuppofed to infpire and prelide over irregular 
paflions; fuch as Bacchus, Venus, and Cupid; to which 
the bi/hop adds the hierophant’s withdrawing himftej,f 
from the care and infpedlion of the civil magiftrate. S.eeh 
is the ingenious and plaufible fcheme largely di/babFed 
and maintained by Dr. Warburton, in his “ Divi.ne -Le- 
gation,” book ii. fee. 4. 
Other learned writers, however, have advanced a very 
different opinion on this fubjeft. Some, w’no have al¬ 
lowed that the myfteries originated in Egyp*;, which is the 
moft probable opinion, have alcribed the.ir inftitution to 
the priefts; who eftabli/hed them, from motives of prieftr- 
craft, to aggraudize their order, to exte.nd-their influence 
and to increafe their revenues. A.ccordingly, they an¬ 
nexed to the obfervance of them e.very circumftance that 
tended to delude the multitude, to. gratify their fenfes 
and paflions, and to promote among them the influence 
of luperftition and enthufiafm. At a fubfequent period 
it is not at all unlikely that princes and legi/lators would’ 
avail themleives of the advantages which they might 
derive from thele inftitutions for eftablilhiny their own 
power, and accoinphllnng..their own plans of government 
Ivlolheim, in his edition of Cudworth’slntelfedlual Syftem ’ 
iuggefts that the myfteries were altogether 1 -commemora¬ 
tive; and that they were eftabli/hed with a view of pre¬ 
serving the remembrance of heroes and great men, who 
had been deified m confideration of their martial exploits, 
ufe/ul inventions, and public virtues.;,and-moreefpecially 
in acknowledgment of the benefits conferred by them 
on their contemporaries. To this purpofe, he conceives, 
that.the myfteries of Mithras in particular wereinftituted - 
(fee Mithras, vol. xv.) And he aferibes to the fame 
origin 
