Taylor - Eleusianian and Bacchic Mysteries.pdf - Platonic Philosophy

"Introduction, 27Proclns does not hesitate to identify the theologicaldoctrines with the mystical dogmas of the Orphicsystem. He says: What Orpheus delivered in hiddenallegories,Pythagorasinto the Orphic Mysteries;learned when he was initiatedand Plato next received aperfect knowledge of them from the Orphean andPythagorean writings."Mr. Taylor s peculiar style has been the subject ofrepeated criticism and his translations are not;acceptedby classical scholars. Yet they have met with favor atthe hands of men capable of profound and reconditethinking and it must be conceded that he was endowed5with a superior qualification, that of an intuitive perception of the interior meaning of the subjects whichhe considered. Others may have known more Greek,but he knew more Plato. He devoted his time andmeans for the elucidation and dissemination of the doctrines of the divine philosopher ;English not only his writings,and has rendered intobut also the works ofother authors, who affected the teachings of the greatmaster, that have escaped destruction at the hand ofMoslem and Christian bigots.For this labor we cannot be too grateful.The present treatise has allwhich characterize the translations.the peculiaritiesof styleculties of these we have endeavored to obviatewhich will, we trust, be not unacceptableThe principaldiffiThe book has been for some time out of print;a laborto readers.and nolater writer has endeavored to it.replace There are