[16] In these Mysteries, after the people had for a long time bewailed the loss of a particular person, he was at last supposed to be restored to life.--BRYANT, _Anal. of Anc. Mythology_, vol. iii. p. 176. [17] Herod. Hist., lib. iii. c. clxxi. [18] The legend says it was cut into _fourteen_ pieces. Compare this with the _fourteen_ days of burial in the masonic legend of the third degree. Why the particular number in each? It has been thought by some, that in the latter legend there was a reference to the half of the moon's age, or its dark period, symbolic of the darkness of death, followed by the fourteen days of bright moon, or restoration to life. [19] Mystères du Paganisme, tom. i. p. 6. [20] Notes to Rawlinson's Herodotus, b. ii. ch. clxxi. Mr. Bryant expresses the same opinion: "The principal rites in Egypt were confessedly for a person lost and consigned for a time to darkness, who was at last found. This person I have mentioned to have been described under the character of Osiris."--_Analysis of Ancient Mythology_, vol. iii. p. 177. [21] Spirit of Masonry, p. 100. [22] Varro, according to St. Augustine (De Civ. Dei, vi. 5), says that among the ancients there were three kinds of theology--a _mythical_, which was used by the poets; a _physical_, by the philosophers, and a _civil_, by the people. [23] "Tous les ans," says Sainte Croix, "pendant les jours consacrés au souvenir de sa mort, tout étoit plongé dans la tristesse: on ne cessoit de pousser des gémissemens; on alloit même jusqu'à se flageller et se donner des coups. Le dernier jour de ce deuil, on faisoit des sacrifices funèbres en l'honneur de ce dieu. Le jour suivant, on recevoit la nouvelle qu'Adonis venoit d'être rappelé à la vie, qui mettoit fin à leur deuil."--_Recherches sur les Myst. du Paganisme_, tom. ii. p. 105. [24] Clement of Alexandria calls them μυστήρια τὰ πρὸ μυστηρίων, "the mysteries before the mysteries." [25] Les petits mystères ne consistoient qu'en cérémonies préparatoires.--_Sainte Croix_, i. 297.--As to the oath of secrecy, Bryant says, "The first thing at these awful meetings was to offer an oath of secrecy to all who were to be initiated, after which they proceeded to the ceremonies."--_Anal. of Anc. Myth._, vol. iii. p. 174.--The Orphic Argonautics allude to the oath: μετὰ δ' ὁρϗια Μύσῖαις, ϗ. τ. λ., "after the oath was administered to the mystes," &c.--_Orph. Argon._, v. 11.