Creuzer,[15] a distinguished German writer, who has examined the subject
of the ancient Mysteries with great judgment and elaboration, gives a
theory on their nature and design which is well worth consideration.

This theory is, that when there had been placed under the eyes of the
initiated symbolical representations of the creation of the universe, and
the origin of things, the migrations and purifications of the soul, the
beginning and progress of civilization and agriculture, there was drawn
from these symbols and these scenes in the Mysteries an instruction
destined only for the more perfect, or the epopts, to whom were
communicated the doctrines of the existence of a single and eternal God,
and the destination of the universe and of man.

Creuzer here, however, refers rather to the general object of the
instructions, than to the character of the rites and ceremonies by which
they were impressed upon the mind; for in the Mysteries, as in
Freemasonry, the Hierophant, whom we would now call the Master of the
Lodge, often, as Lobeck observes, delivered a mystical lecture, or
discourse, on some moral subject.

Faber, who, notwithstanding the predominance in his mind of a theory which
referred every rite and symbol of the ancient world to the traditions of
Noah, the ark, and the deluge, has given a generally correct view of the
systems of ancient religion, describes the initiation into the Mysteries
as a scenic representation of the mythic descent into Hades, or the grave,
and the return from thence to the light of day.

In a few words, then, the object of instruction in all these Mysteries was
the unity of God, and the intention of the ceremonies of initiation into