child of the representation, and that it was that son who had founded the kingdom of Egypt; they called him Minos, a word which has been explained before; another appellation which they bestowed on this supposed son of Ham was Misori, which seems to be only a corruption of Mizraim, the scripture name of this chief of the Egyptian colonies.

Some of the eastern nations fancied they had discerned the prototype of this favourite child in Nimrod, who made himself famous in the neighbourhood of the Euphrates. He was there asserted to be the son of Chus, consequently the offspring of Ham, the father of Chus. He was born in Chusistan, a province on the other side of the Persian gulph, which still preserves the name of Nimrod's father. From these fictions they took occasion to confound Bacchus with Nimrod. To this, perhaps the festivals in celebration of the hunting of wild beasts gave considerable colour, for Nimrod had been a mighty hunter. The scripture calls him a mighty hunter before the Lord; and though interpreters have inveighed against Nimrod, there does not appear to be any thing said to his disadvantage in the text itself. The success of his chases, so useful to the whole country, procured him the confidence of those who resided near Babel, and being often at their head, he began to form a small kingdom, which, without reason, was confounded with the beginning of the Assyrian power.

Though the application of a few particulars of Nimrod to Horus, or, which is the same thing, to Bacchus, were not without probability, they were wholly destitute of truth. Horus, or young Osiris, or Menes, or Bacchus, by whatever name they pleased to call him, has no settled rank in history nor in existence. In quality of the son of Isis, he is a native of Egypt-then he is made a native of Nysus, in Arabia-a third legend gives him birth near the river Euphrates-again he is, without doubt, the son of Semele, a woman very well known in Boeotia; in short he is born in so many places, that his genealogists and historians knew not what to say. If

we pass on to the retinue of Bacchus, we shall, in the personages composing it, find proof that Bacchus was no more than a mark or assumed character, and not any man that ever existed.

To render the representation of the ancient chases, and of the first state of mankind more striking, the people appeared in such cloaths as men wore about the time of the dispersion, when they were in want of many things known in a more advanced state of society, when the change in the temperature of the air, and the confusion caused on the earth's surface, obliged them to seek for warm clothing in the furs of beasts, to build shelters for themselves, and on account of their new wants to invent new arts. It is probable, and it is natural to believe, that the people of primeval times clothed themselves in the skins of the beasts which they killed in hunting; especially those of bucks and goats, which were more soft and pliant than any others. He that had killed a lion or a tiger, might occasionally wear this badge of his activity and courage, and obtain honourable attention by this garment. When the arts of spinning and weaving, by which a more convenient clothing was obtained, were invented, the remembrance of the rudeness of former times, and the comparison of the hardships that men then endured, with the comforts and conveniences that they afterwards enjoyed, gave a particular interest to the festivals, which were instituted as memorials of this ancient state of things, and they were conducted perhaps with more animation and delight than any others.

One of the most essential parts of the feast was to appear at them covered with the skins of goats, bucks, tigers, and other tame and wild animals. The actors also in these representations smeared their faces with blood, to shew the marks of the dangers they had encountered, and of the victory they had obtained. Instead of blood, they sometimes had recourse to a slight smearing of dregs of wine, or to the juice of mulberries, which was less shocking on the face of the

actor, than the blood of the beasts would have been, and answered the end quite as well. Virgil alludes to this practice when he represents the actors of the Bacchanals as smearing their foreheads and temples with the juice of mulberries. These festivals soon degenerated into masquerades and extravagant ramblings; into bellowing and transports of fury, in which the actors seemed to strive to outdo each other in acts of madness; hence the epithet of Bacchanalian revels. Instead of putting on a buck or a goat's skin, they thought it best to dress themselves up altogether in the character of the animal; and for this purpose they made themselves masks of the bark of trees, adapting the features to the character they wished to assume. Instead of a child carried mysteriously about in a chest, they by degrees contracted the custom of carrying about a good plump boy, who was to act the part of this imaginary god. In process of time they gave him a chariot, and to render the whole more striking, the pretended tigers offered to draw him, whilst the fictitious bucks and goats jumped and capered round him.

The assistants in the ceremonial, thus masked and disguised, had names given them, agreeable to what was acting. They were called Satyrs, from Satur; hidden, disguised; and Fauni, from Phanim, faces or masks; hence the Fauns and Satyrs of the Greeks and Romans. When the ceremony was ended, they suspended their masks on the nearest tree, dedicating them to Bacchus.

By the preaching of the ministers of the gospel, whose commission was to turn the nations from these vanities to serve the living God, the festivals of Bacchus were abolished, or rather changed their object and dismissed some of their extravagancies; but intemperate feastings and revellings are still practised at the same season of the year, under the pretence of doing honour to the founder of that religion, one of whose maxims is, "let your moderation be known to all men," and again, whether ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God."

Those who followed or attended the chariot of Bacchus were called Bacchantes, that is mourners, because the feast began with woes and complaints, and with frequent invocations on the assistance of God. The women who carried the sacred baskets were called Menades, that is the bearers of the manes or public signs; Thyades, that is wanderers, from their running about; and Bassarides, the grape gatherers, because the feasts were celebrated after vintage, and when the new wine began to be drinkable. The whole was succeeded by an old man upon an ass, who advanced with a sedate countenance, offering wine to the tired youth, and inviting every body to take some rest. The name of this figure is Silen, or Silvan, which means repose, or safety; the character seems intended to indicate the exemption of the aged from these labours, and the repose which they were entitled to for their past exertions. Virgil alludes to the hanging up of the masks in the following lines:

"Bacchus, on thee we call, with hymns divine,
And hang thy statues on the lofty pine;
Hence, plenty every smiling vineyard fills,
Through the deep valleys and the sloping hills.
Where'er the god inclines his lovely face,
More luscious fruit the rich plantations grace.
Then let us Bacchus' praises duly sing,
And consecrated cakes and chargers bring.
Dragg'd by their horns, let victim goats expire,
And roast on hazel spits before the fire.

Come, sacred sire, with luscious clusters crown'd,

Let all the riches of thy reign abound;

Each field, replete with blushing autumn glow,

And in deep tides, by thee, the foaming vintage flow."

Notwithstanding the Greek and the Latin poets thus make Bacchus the god of wine and the guardian of the vineyards; there is not much to countenance this character in what has yet presented itself in the feast of the memorial of past events; yet Bacchus is sufficiently identified with the infant Horus and the Van, in these words:

"Mystica vannus Iacchi.

We must then endeavour to find the semblance of the vine-crown'd, cup-bearing Bacchus in some other character assumed by the Horus of the Egyptians; this wè shall do in the feast of the in-gathering of the vintage, and the celebration of the general harvests. This festival was also held in December, because it was a leisure time and a pleasant season of the year, and very appropriate, for the vintage was over. Under the direction of Alecto, the clusters had been collected and submitted to the presses: under the instruction of Tisiphone, it had been committed to the casks or vats; and lastly, Megara presiding, it was undergoing the process of fining. In the festival for celebrating these blessings, and expressing their gratitude to heaven for them, Horus appeared in the character of a stout young man, bending beneath the weight of three large jars on his head; each of them surmounted with a loaf, and surrounded with fruits and vegetables, among which no doubt were clusters of grapes. The whole of these were placed on the horns of a goat, expressive of the season of the year, by the sign Capricorn. Here then we seem to have found not Bacchus Liber, but Bacchus Pater; not Ben Semele, the child of the representation, but the principal character in the feast of the vintage.

Out of this symbol, the elegant taste of the Greek sculptors made a highly classical figure, by banishing the pitchers from the head and horns, and placing a cup in his hand, at the same time twining the vine, or the ivy, gracefully about his brows, while the poets embellished his history with a number of pretty fictions. Another circumstance, the attitude of Horus, furnished another deity, viz. Harpocrates, whom the Greeks called the god of silence; for Horus, on the present occasion, held his finger on his lips, intimating the necessity of moderation and tranquillity. Instead of the cumbrous horns on the head of this Horus, the Greek sculptors placed a single horn in his hand. This was overflowing with fruits, and thence received the name of the horn of plenty. But this horn of abundance was more frequently put into the hand of Isis, as the announcer of