imagines that Orpheus and Eurydice are typified under the figure of the manes and Immortal Life, as above described. It may be sufficient to answer, first, that Orpheus is always represented with a lyre, of which there are prints of four different gems in Spence's Polymetis, and Virgil so describes him, Æn. vi,-citharâ fretus; and, secondly, that it is absurd to suppose that Eurydice was fondling and playing with a serpent that had slain her. Add to this, that Love seems to have been an inhabitant of the infernal regions, as exhibited in the mysteries; for Claudian, who treats more openly of the Eleusinian mysteries, when they were held in less veneration, invokes the deities to disclose to him their secrets, and amongst other things, by what torch Love softens Pluto: Dii, quibus in numerum, &c.

Vos mihi sacrarum penetralia pandite rerum,

Et vestri secreta poli, quâ lampade Ditem

Flexit Amor.

In this compartment, there are two trees, whose branches spread over the figures; one of them has smoother leaves, like some evergreens, and might thence be supposed to have some allusion to immortality, but they may perhaps have been designed only as ornaments, or to relieve the figures, or because it was in groves where these mysteries were originally celebrated. Thus, Homer speaks of the woods of Proserpine, and mentions many trees i Tartarus, as presenting their fruits to Tantalus; Virgil speaks of the pleasant groves of Elysium; and in Spence's Polymetis there are prints of two ancient gems, one of Orpheus charming Cerberus with his lyre, and the other of Hercules binding him with a cord, each of them standing by a tree (Polymet. p. 284.) As, however, these trees have all different foliage, so clearly marked by the artist, they may have had specific meanings in the exhibitions of the mysteries, which have not reached posterity: of this kind, seemed to have been the tree of knowledge, of good and evil, and the tree of life, in sacred writ, both which must have been emblematic or allegorical. The masks, hanging to the handles of the vase, [pl. iv, fig. 2.] seem to indicate that there is a concealed meaning in the figures, besides their general appearance. And the priestess at the bottom, [pl. iv, fig. 1.] which I come now to describe, seems to show this concealed meaning to be of the sacred or Eleusinian kind.

3. The figure on the bottom of the vase is on a larger scale than the others, and less finely finished, and less elevated; and as this bottom part was afterward cemented to the upper part, it might be executed by another artist, for the sake of expedition; but there seems no reason to suppose that it was not originally designed for the upper part of it, as some have conjectured. the mysteries of Ceres were celebrated by female priests (for Porphyrius

As

Porphyrius says, the ancients called the priestesses of Ceres, Melissai, or Bees, which were emblems of chastity. Div. Leg. vol. 1, p. 235; and as, in his Satire against the sex, Juvenal says, that few women are worthy to be priestesses of Ceres, Sat. v1, the figure at the bottom of the vase would seem to represent a PRIESTESS or HIEROPHANT, whose office it was to introduce the initiated, and point out to them, and explain, the exhibitions in the mysteries, and to exclude the uninitiated, calling out to them, Far, far retire, ye profane!' and to guard the secrets of the temple. Thus the introductory hymn sung by the hierophant, according to Eusebius, begins, I will declare a secret to the ini tiated, but let the doors be shut against the profane.' Div. Leg. vol. 1, p. 171. The priestess or hierophant appears in this figure with a close hood, and dressed in linen, which sits close about her; except a light cloak, which flutters in the wind. Wool, as taken from slaughtered animals, was esteemed profane by the priests of Egypt, who were always dressed in linen. Apuleius, p. 64. Div. Leg. vol. 1, p. 318. Thus Eli made for Samuel a linen ephod. Samuel, i. S.

'Secrecy was the foundation on which all mysteries rested: when publicly known they ceased to be mysteries; hence a discovery of them was not only punished with death, by the Athenian law, but in other countries a disgrace attended the breach of a solemn oath. The priestess in the figure before us has her finger pointing to her lips as an emblem of silence. There is a figure of Harpocrates, who was of Egyptian origin, the same as Orus, with the lotus on his head, and with his finger pointing to his lips, not pressed upon them, in Bryant's Mythol. vol. 1, p. 398, and another female figure standing on a lotus, as if just risen from the Nile, with her finger in the same attitude: these seem to have been representations or emblems of male and female priests of the secret mysteries. As these sorts of emblems were frequently changed by artists for their more elegant exhibition, it is possible the foliage over the head of this figure may bear some analogy to the lotus above-mentioned.

"This figure of secrecy seems to be here placed, with great ingenuity, as a caution to the initiated, who might understand the meaning of the emblems round the vase, not to divulge it. And this circumstance seems to account for there being no written explanation extant, and no tradition concerning these beautiful figures handed down to us along with them.

'Another explanation of this figure at the bottom of the vase would seem to confirm the idea that the basso-relievos round its sides are representations of a part of the mysteries; I mean that it is the head of ATIS. Lucian says, that Atis was a young man of

GEN. CHRON. VOL. III. NO. XV.

217

of Phrygia, of uncommon beauty; that he dedicated a temple in Syria to Rhea, or Cybele, and first taught her mysteries to the Lydians, Phrygians, and Samothracians, which mysteries he brought from India. He was afterwards made an eunuch by Rhea, and lived like a woman, and assumed a feminine habit, and in that garb went over the world teaching her ceremonies and mysteries. Dict. par M. Danet, art. ATIS. As this figure is covered with clothes, while those on the sides of the vase are naked, and has a Phrygian cap on the head, and as the form and features are so soft, that it is difficult to say whether it be a male or female figure, there is reason to conclude, 1. that it has reference to some particular person of some particular country; 2. that this person is Atis, the first great hierophant, or teacher of mysteries, to whom M. de la Chausse says, the figure itself bears a resemblance. Museo. Capitol. tom. 4, p. 402.

In the Museum Etruscum, vol. 1, plate 96, there is the head of Atis with feminine features, clothed with a Phrygian cap, and rising from very broad foliage, placed on a kind of term supported by the paw of a lion. Goreus, in his explanation of the figure, says, that it is placed on a lion's foot, because that animal was sacred to Cybele, and that it rises from very broad leaves, because after he became an eunuch, he determined to dwell in the groves. Thus the foliage, as well as the cap and feminine features, confirm the idea of this figure at the bottom of the vase representing the head of Atis, the first great hierophant, and that the figures on the sides of the vase are emblems from the ancient mysteries.

'I beg leave to add, that it does not appear to have been uncommon amongst the ancients, to put allegorical figures on funeral vases. In the Pamphili palace at Rome, there is an elaborate representation of Life and Death, on an ancient sarcophagus. In the first, Prometheus is represented making man, and Minerva is placing a butterfly, or the soul, upon his head. In the other compartment, Love extinguishes his torch in the bosom of the dying figure, and is receiving the butterfly, or psyche, from him, with a great number of complicated emblematic figures, grouped in very bad taste. Admir. Roman. Antiq.'

To this explanation, at least in all its broader features, there seems every reason to subscribe. Various others might have been taken notice of in this place, as well as various observations on the material and workmanship of the vase; but, for this extended account of the fine monument of antiquity in question, the reader must be referred to a supplemental article, to be inserted in the succeeding volume of the GENERAL CHRONICLE; while, setting bounds to a particular description of a single object, the General Description of the Gallery is resumed.

(To be continued.)

461

A DESCRIPTION

OF THE CASCADE OF REGLA, NEAR MEXICO.

From the French of M. de Humboldt.

IN changing our latitude and climate, we see the aspect of organized nature change also, plants and animals differing in their forms, and thus giving to every zone a peculiar character; for, with the exception of a few aquatic plants and cryptogamia, the plants which cover the earth are every where diverse. It is not the same with brute nature, with that assemblage of earthy substances which covers our planet. The same decomposed granite, upon which, amid the frosts of Lapland, there grow vaccinium, audromedas, and the lichen which nourishes the rein-deer, is found again in the thickets of shrubby ferns, palm-trees, and heliconia, whose glossy foliage expands itself under the influence of the equatorial heats. When, at the end of a long voyage, after having passed from one hemisphere to another, an inhabitant of the North sets foot on a distant coast, he is surprized at discovering, among a crowd of unknown objects, the same strata of slate, of micaceous schist, and of trapean porphyry, that form those barren coasts of the ancient continent which are washed by the Frozen Sea. Under all climates, the stony crust of the globe offers the same aspect to the traveller, and every where he finds, not without some emotion, in a new world, the rocks of his native country.

This analogy, existing in unorganized nature, extends even to those little phenomena which we might be tempted to attribute to causes strictly local. In the Cordilleras, as in the mountains of Europe, granite sometimes presents aggregations in the form of flattened spheroids, and divided into concentric strata. Beneath the tropics, as in the temperate zone, granite is found to contain those masses, abounding in mica and amphibole, which resemble black balls enchased in a mixture of feldspath and milky quartz; metalloïd diallage is found in the serpentines of the island of Cuba, as well as in those of Germany; amygdaloïds, and the curled stones (pierres perlées) of the flat of Mexico, are identified with those at the feet of the Carpathian mountains. The superposition of the secondary rocks follows the same laws, in regions the most remote from each other. Every where the same monuments attest the same succession in the revolutions which have progressively changed the surface of the globe.

In ascending to physical causes, we cease to be surprized that travellers have not discovered new rocks in distant regions. Climate influences the forms of animals and plants, because the play of affinities which presides over the developement of organs is modified at once by the temperature of the atmosphere, and by

that

that which results from the various combinations formed by chemical action; but the unequal distribution of heat, which is a consequence of the obliquity of the ecliptic, can have no sensible influence over the formation of rocks; while, on the contrary, this formation itself has powerfully influenced the temperature of the globe and its surrounding element. When great masses of matter pass from a liquid state to a solid one, the phenomenon is necessarily accompanied by an enormous disengagement of caloric. These considerations seem to throw some light upon the first migrations of animals and plants. I might be tempted to explain, by this progressive elevation of temperature, several important problems, particularly that which is presented by the productions of India embedded in the strata of the North, were I not fearful of adding to the number of geological reveries.

The basalts of Regla, represented in the plate,' offer an incontestable proof of that identity of form which we observe in the rocks of all the various climates. The mineralogical traveller, in casting his eyes over this landscape, will recognize the form of the basalts of Vivarais, and those of the Euganean mountains, or promontory of Antrim, in Ireland. The minutest phenomena observed in the columnar rocks of Europe are found in this group of basalts of Mexico. So great an analogy of structure leads to the supposition, that the same causes have operated in all climates, and at very different epochs; for basalts covered with argilaceous schists, and compact limestones, must be of an antiquity very different from that of those which lie upon strata of coal and of pebbles.'

more than

The little Cascade of Regla lies to the north-east of Mexico, at the distance of twenty-five leagues, between the celebrated mines of Real del Monte and the hot-springs of Totonilcos. A little river, which serves to turn the bocards de l'usine d'amalgama tion of Regla, the construction of which has cost ten millions of livres-tournois, works its way amid groups of basaltic columns. The sheet of water is considerable, but the height from which it is precipitated does not exceed eight or ten metres. The surrounding rocks, which, in their general aspect, call to mind the cave of Staffa, in the Hebrides, united with the contrasts of vegetation, and the wild appearance and solitude of the place, render the little cascade extremely picturesque. From the two sides of the ravine, issue columnar basalts of more than thirty metres in height, and which are crowned with tufts of cactus and yucca-filamentosa. The prisms are for the most part of five or six sides, and in some instances are as much as twelve

See the Frontispiece to this volume.

2 For M. de Humboldt's geological theory in general, and his remarks on the geology of America in particular, with Mr. Deluc's animadversions upon both, see General Chronicle, vol. i, p. 399.-ED.

decimetres