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The Mystical Hymns of Orpheus - Platonic Philosophy

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INTRODUCTION, ix<br />

age, possessed a divine genius, and who<br />

having happily fathomed the depth <strong>of</strong> their<br />

great master's works, luminously and copi-<br />

ously developed their recondite meaning, and<br />

benevolently communicated it in their writ-<br />

ings for the general good.<br />

From this golden chain <strong>of</strong> philosophers, as<br />

they have been justly called, my elucidations<br />

<strong>of</strong> the present mystic hymns are principally<br />

derived : for I know <strong>of</strong> no other genuine<br />

sources, if it be admitted (and it must by<br />

every intelligent reader), that the theology <strong>of</strong><br />

<strong>Orpheus</strong> is the same as that <strong>of</strong> Pythagoras<br />

and Plato. Hence I shall not take any notice<br />

<strong>of</strong> the theories <strong>of</strong> Bryant and Faber and other<br />

modern mythological writers ; because these<br />

theories, however ingenious they may be, are<br />

so far from elucidating, that they darken,<br />

confound, and pollute the Grecian theology,<br />

by mingling with it other systems, to which it<br />

is as perfectly foreign and hostile as wisdom<br />

is to folly, and intellect to craft.<br />

That the philosophic reader therefore may<br />

be convinced <strong>of</strong> the truth <strong>of</strong> this observation,<br />

the following epitome <strong>of</strong> this theology, de-<br />

rived from the abovementioned sources, is<br />

subjoined. In the first place, this theology<br />

celebrates the immense principle <strong>of</strong> things as

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