Taylor - Eleusianian and Bacchic Mysteries.pdf - Platonic Philosophy

"176 Bacchic Mysteries.tious passions, by gratifying the sight,andat the same time vanquishing desire, throughthe awful sanctity with which these riteswere accompanied : for," says he,the properway of freeing ourselves from the passions is,first, to indulge them with moderation, bywhich means they become satisfied ; listen, asit were, to persuasion, and may thus be enThis doctrine is indeed sotirely removed."*rational, that it can never be objected to byany but quacks in philosophy and religion.For as he is nothing more than a quack inmedicine who endeavors to remove a latentbodilydisease before he has called it forthexternally, and by this means diminished itsfury so he is;nothing more than a pretenderin philosophy who attempts to remove thepassions by violent repression, instead ofmoderate compliance and gentle persuasion.But to return from this disgression, the following appears to be the secret meaning ofthis mystic discourse :The matron Baubomay be considered as a symbol of that pas-* Mysteries of the Egyptians, Chaldeans, and Assyrians.