Taylor - Eleusianian and Bacchic Mysteries.pdf - Platonic Philosophy

Prometheus.INTRODUCTION TO THE THIRD EDITION.IN offering to the public a new edition of Mr. ThomasTaylor s admirable treatise upon the Eleusinianto insert a fewand Bacchic Mysteries, it isproperwords of explanation. These observances once represented the spiritual life of Greece, and were consideredfor two thousand years and more the appointed meansfor regeneration through an interior union with theDivine Essence. However absurd, or even offensivethey may seem to us, we should therefore hesitate longhands on whatbefore we venture to lay desecratingothers have esteemed holy. We can learn a valuablelesson in this regard from the Grecian and Romanwriters, who had learned to treat the popular religiousrites with mirth, but always considered the EleusinianMysteries with the deepest reverence.It isignorance which leads to profanation. Menridicule what they do not properly understand. Alcibiadeswas drunk when he ventured to touch what his11