Note 52 — Chapter IX

Eleusis was famed for the celebration of mysteries, as they were called; which consisted in leading the aspirant through various terrific scenes and representations; after which, if his courage remained unshaken, he was instructed in a purer and more exalted system of religion than was openly taught in Greece. Secrecy on the part of the initiated was most strictly enforced. The immortality of the soul appears to have been the leading doctrine inculcated in these ceremonies; which seem traceable to the earliest periods of Grecian history, and were probably derived from Egypt. The initiated went yearly in solemn procession from Athens to Eleusis, and chaunted on these occasions the hymns alluded to.