Taylor - Eleusianian and Bacchic Mysteries.pdf - Platonic Philosophy

80 Eleusinian andpart, is nothing more than the commencement,as itwere,will experiencesame in kind thoughof that torment which ithereafter : a torment thedifferent in degree,asit will be much more dreadful, vehement,and extended.And by the above specimen,the reader may perceive how infinitely superior the explanation which the Platonic philosophy affords of these fables ,is to the frigidand trifling interpretations 6f Bacon andother modern mythologists ;who are ableindeed to point out their correspondence tosomething in the natural or moral world, because such is the wonderful connection ofthings, that all things sympathize with all,but are at the same time ignorant that thesefables were composed by men divinely wise,who framed them after the model of thehighest originals, from the contemplation ofreal and permanent being, and not from regarding the delusive and fluctuating objectsof sense. This, indeed,will be evident toevery ingenuous mind, from reflecting thatthese wise men universally considered Hellor death as commencing in the present life