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The Mystical Hymns of Orpheus - Platonic Philosophy

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xlii INTRODUCTION.<br />

could have existed at all, at a period when<br />

other learned men, as well as Onornacritus,<br />

had access to the genuine writings <strong>of</strong> Or-<br />

pheus, and were equally capable with him-<br />

self <strong>of</strong> changing them fro111 one dialect into<br />

another? Even at a late period <strong>of</strong> antiquity,<br />

will any man who is at all familiar with the<br />

writings <strong>of</strong> Proclus, Hermias, and Olympio-<br />

dorus, for a moment believe that men <strong>of</strong> such<br />

learning, pr<strong>of</strong>undity, and sagacity, would<br />

have transmitted to us so many verses as<br />

Orphic, though not in the Doric dialect,<br />

when at the same time they were the pro-<br />

ductions <strong>of</strong> Onomacritus ? We may there-<br />

fore, I think, confidently conclude, that though<br />

Onomacritus altered the dialect, he did not<br />

either add to or diminish, or in any respect<br />

adulterate the works <strong>of</strong> <strong>Orpheus</strong>; for it is<br />

impossible he should have committed such a<br />

fraud without being ultimately, if not imme-<br />

diately, detected.<br />

With respect to those who contend that<br />

the works which are at present extant under<br />

the name <strong>of</strong> <strong>Orpheus</strong> were written during the<br />

decline and fall <strong>of</strong> the Roman empire, I trust<br />

every intelligent reader will deem it almost<br />

needless to say, in confutation <strong>of</strong> such an

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