the immediate neighborhood of the pyramids; the bark of Charon, the infernal lake,' the judges of the dead, and the meadows of Elysium.2 Let us examine the account which Virgil has given of these very regions, connected with the rites of initiation, as they were copied from those of Isis and transferred from some cavern temples in or about the pyramids for so far the induction reaches. 1 stay not to inquire whether Warburton has proved his point or not. Too great a length added to the chain of argument weakens it in proportion. It is sufficient that Virgil has described the regions of the dead, the Edes Plutonis, and the Elysian fields. The sum of what may be thus collected amounts to this; that the entrance was sloping and dark, that the main passage divided itself into three parts, that one of those passages led to the regions of torment, and that within it was a deep pit. This account agrees surprisingly with the inward structure of the great pyramid-the obscure and sloping entrance -the three ways and the deep pit, which communicated, no doubt, with the subterranean city of the dead. In short, it occurs to me, that in all the traditional descriptions of hell, a certain leading idea, connected with the great pyramid, seems to be mixed up. I refer to its triangular external form, and three-fold internal division, which seem to imply the rites of a triple deity. Hecate was painted of three colors, and Pluto, like Seva his prototype, to whom pyramids and tridents are sacred, had three eyes. It appears also that the Egyptians used none but the three primitive colors in their sacred paintings, with which those employed by Moses in the tabernacle, and by the Brahmins in their twisted girdles, agree. Nothing certainly can be a more beautiful nor purer emblem of the trinity than triune light! The seven Jewish lights or Sephyroth resoluble into one central circle, and surmounted by three radical lights, curiously agree with the present phenomena of colors. Thus Hecate, the goddess of hell, is triplex.3 The emblem of the Egyptian Pluto, 'The lake is still named the Birket al Caroun. Nor is it improbable that the shore of Egypt in the time of Proteus extended little farther than Memphis, as Homer seems to imply. Herod. lib. ii. c. 4. 2 Derived from Elizout, blessedness. 3 It is very remarkable that she is called Trivia, from the meeting of three ways. So the cavern temple of the Indian Pluto, Seeva, at Elephanta, contains an image of three heads, approached by three intercolumnar ways. the guardian dog, had three heads; Serapis himself was tricipital;' the ways were three; there were three judges, three regions, three rivers, and three furies; and the passages were thronged with triform animals, such as Chimæras, Gorgons, &c. And, lastly, the ghost-compelling caduceus of Mercury was three-fold; so is the tridental sceptre of the Indian Pluto (Seevah), which stands conspicuous on the top of his pyramidal fanes. Perhaps these circumstances alone might not exert much influence on the question; but, supported by the testimony before adduced, they throw some weight into the scale. Hitherto, every thing quadrates with the theory, that the pyramids were devoted to rites of initiation. Let us see how that hypothesis squares with what we know of the funereal rites of Apis or Osiris, called Pluto and Serapis by the Greeks, Bacchus Bugenes, and Tauriformis; for my more particular position is, that the mysteries therein performed were the mysteries of this deity. The mysteries of Osiris and Isis suggested those of Bacchus and Ceres in Greece. Those of Bacchus and Osiris may perhaps be identified, but in those of the Eleusinian Ceres the search for Proserpine was substituted for that of Osiris. Nevertheless, there was but a slight shade of difference, for the great triple image of Bacchus, Ceres, and Proserpine, at Eleusis, agrees in all respects with the Egyptian trinity of Osiris, Isis, and Bubaste, or Hecate. I feel assured that I may spare myself and the reader the proof of this identity, so voluminously handled, and shall therefore occupy it as a conceded ground. Osiris was represented by an ox, as Isis was by a cow. that form he received the name of Apis, which seems to imply a measure of time, and agrees with his destination; for after twentyfive years he was drowned in a sacred well near Memphis, and buried in certain caverns known only to the priests, and kept as a profound secret. It was at this burial, that the gates of Cocytus and Avernus, being thrown open, grated awefully on their mournful hinges.3 After a certain time he was re-produced to the adoring multitude. The dam of the sacred animal was kept in a consecrated stable near him. Under A similar resurrection is attributed to his prototype Osiris. 'Macrob. Sat. lib. i. c. 20. 2 Plutarch de Iside et Osiride, p. 356. 2 The mystic fables' related of that monarch are well known; his dispute with Typhon, the deposition of his body in an ark which floated to Biblus, his dismemberment into fourteen parts, the search made by Isis for his body, the conformation of the parts into so many separate images, their separate secret inhumation, and the defunct deity's subsequent revival in the form of an ox. It appears from Plutarch, that after three days' burial, the priests gave out that he was risen from the dead, and a voice was heard proclaiming, 'The God of all things is born.' This story is partly confirmed by a father of the church. "They deplore," says he, "annually with deep lamentations and shaved heads the murder and burial of Osiris, over the buried image of that monarch. When they have practised these things a certain number of days, they pretend they have found the remains of the mangled body and break out into extravagant joy."3 Plutarch. de Iside et Osiride, p. 358. 2 Plutarch says that "Isis, wishing to keep the burial-place of her husband unknown, after finding the dispersed parts of his body, made each part with wax and aromatics into the form of a man; and, assembling the priests, conferred on each of them an image of Osiris, adjuring them to keep the secret of his sepulchre, and worship him in their ABDITA as a god. For which reason, even now-a-days, every priest affirms that he has buried Osiris; that is to say, passed the rites of initiation!!"-Plutarch. de Iside et Osiride. 3 The Greek funeral festival called Nænia is evidently of Egyptian original, derived from Nen (child), and agreeing with the funeral wailings for Maneros (perhaps the Magian Manes). It is curious that the Chinese feast of Lanterns, which resembles the Isiac festival of Lamps, was instituted for the loss of a king's daughter reported to be drowned. They have a lake covered with the lotus, which they say is the remnant of a great deluge, and which overflowed several wicked nations; from which a boy, who was deposited in an ark or cradle, was the only individual that escaped. See-Kircher's Plate, Chin. illustr. p. 176. VOL. XXVIII. CI. JI. NO. LVI. U ΑΣΠΑΣΙΟΥ ΣΧΟΛΙΩΝ ΕΙΣ ΤΑ ΗΘΙΚΑ ΤΟΥ E Codd. MSS. Græce primus edidit H. HASE, Statuarum antiquarum Dresda publicus Custos. UÆ QUE de Aspasio Commentariorum in libros Aristotelis de moribus auctore comperta habemus, paucissima sunt. Patria ignoratur. De ævo nihil certi constat. Eudoro et Evarmosto' posteriorem Aspasium fuisse, Alexandri Aphrodisiensis ad Aristot. Metaphysic. I. i. c. 6. commentatio docet. Augusti æqualem vel unus Galeni locus, ubi Aspasii quidam discipulus tanquam insignis præceptor commemoratur, vel illud indicasse videbatur, quod quæ christianum cognitum faciant hominem nulla vestigia. 2 Eundem nostrum Aspasium, cujus hic prodierunt fragmenta, jure habemus atque auctorem vulgatæ jam diu in viii. Nicomacheorum librum commentationis, de quo optime Schleiermacherus, v. cl., Commentatores Nicomacheorum in quæstionem vocans, nuperrime sentiit.3 Commentarii ipsi Aristotelis verba abunde explicantes, ita ut sensum sæpius denuo implicent, integriores leguntur in Codicibus Mss. bibliothecarum Italarum et Regis Christianissimi Parisiis. Sunt vero, ut ex locis insignioribus hic excerptis satis apparebit, tantopere verbis, rebus minime dilatati, ut cartæ jacturam consideranti in his acquiescendum esse satius visum sit. Quæ eruditionis speciem cujuscunque præ se ferre videbantur, jam omnia religiose servata hic leguntur. Non penitus vero hucusque hæc fragmenta delituerunt. Commentariorum græcorum, qui Aldorum cura prodierunt, latinus interpres, Bernardus Felicianus, hinc illinc libro suo locos Nostro desumtos adjecit, quorum singulorum ubique hic invenies redditam rationem. Minuent vere hæc fragmenta, opinor, desiderium Aspasii, celebris, uti perhibetur, peripatetici, ejusque deperditorum σvypaμμáτar, quum quid boni præstiterit ab Alexandro reli 1 Evarmosti nomen, ut in Buhlii indice interpretum Aristotelis græcorum, ita in Fabricii quoque Bibl. Gr. omissum. Prorsus incognitus. Eudorus peripateticus Strabone fuit anterior, qui illius l. xvii, c. 1. mentionem fecit. 2 De cognosc. et curandis animi morbis. Opp. T. iv. p. 352. ed. Paris. 3 Ueber die griech. Scholien zur Nikomachischen Ethik des Aristoteles, in Volumine Actorum Soc. litter. Berolin. cui index: Abhandlungen d. histor. krit. Klasse der K. Pr. Ak. d. WW. aus d. jahren 1816-1817. p. 263-276. quisque Aristotelis græcis interpretibus jam traditum credere possis, nisi hæc ipsa nunc primum græce prelo submissa fragmenta explicationibus alienis interpositis ab homine parum sagaci ita reformata tibi persuasurus sis. Difficile enim, sicut in aliis Aristotelicorum librorum commentariis, hic quoque erit dictu quid ex primo interprete fluxerit, quid de propriis seriores addiderint grammatici. Præsidia vero quibus usus est editor, ad textum hoc modo constituendum hæc fuerunt; P. a. Cod. regius Parisinus, numero 1902 signatus, chartaceus, formæ in 4°. longioris, seculi xvi. P. b. Cod. iterum Paris. numero 1903 insignis, chartaceus idem, in 4°. sec. xvi. uterque, ut proximus, mutilus, a scriba parum gnaro confectus. P. c. Cod. Par., N. 1927, olim 2106, Mediceus, chartaceus, sec. XV. VR. a. Cod. Vaticanus, Bibliothecæ reginæ Suecorum Christinæ, N. 122 signatus, chartaceus, in 4°. recentissimus, in margine a manu docta emendatus. V. b. Cod. Vaticanus, N. 1622, in fol. chartaceus. Uterque ex antiquiore melioris notæ Codice sumtus. VR.b. Cod. Vaticanus Bibl. reginæ Christina N. 178. chartaceus idem, in 4o. admodum recens, sed ab eadem manu hinc illinc correctus. Fl. a. Cod. Florentinus, Bibl. Laurentianæ, plutei lxxxi. n. 14. membranaceus in fol. sec. xv. Fl. b. Cod. Florentinus, Bibl. Laurentianæ, plutei lxxxv., n. 1., bombycinus, in fol. sec. xiv. Hic Codex reliquis ut ætate, ita scriptura præstantior, 'xeávou nomine vulgo celebratur. Ασπασίου Σχόλια εἰς τὰ ̓Ηθικὰ τοῦ ̓Αριστοτέλους. ̔Η περὶ τὰ ἤθη " πραγματία καὶ μάλιστα πολιτικὴ ἠθικὴ, κατὰ μὲν τὸ ἀναγκαῖον < προτέρα ἔστι 3 τῆς θεωρητικῆς φιλοσοφίας, κατὰ δὲ τὸ τίμιον ὑστέρα. ᾗ μὲν γὰρ ἀδύνατον καλῶς ζῆν μὴ σώφρονας ὄντας καὶ δικαίους καὶ ὅλως τὸ ἦθος κεκοσμένους 4 καὶ εἰς συμμετρίαν τινὰ τὰ τῆς ψυχῆς πάθη καταστήσαντας, ταύτη δόξειεν 5 εἶναι ἀναγκαία ἡ πολιτικὴ καὶ ἡ 6 ἠθικὴ καὶ διὰ τοῦτο πρότερα. οὐδὲν γὰρ πλέον ἀνίει οὐδ ̓ εἴ 10xà in marg. V. a. 2 καὶ μὲν τὸ ἀναγκ. VR. a. Par. b. incipit ab his verbis. 3 Sic Flor. Par. Tapi, Vat. a. in textu ini rs, in marg. iorì ʼn BIBX. 5 Paris a. dóεL. 6 Vat. et Flor. car. . 8 Abest a Par. b.; Vat. a. b. àvó‹‹ ʼn ßißa. |