Baucis

“ Still Baucis, though in tatters, has no worse philosophy, when she has cried her herbs [1398] to good purpose to some slovenly slave.
How is it that not a man tries to descend into himself? Not a man! ”

“ But all at once something happened which startled and amazed Baucis and Philemon. They poured out wine for their guests, and lo! each time the pitcher filled itself again to the brim! In alarm they knelt down and implored the pardon of their visitors, for they now saw that these were not mere mortals. They were indeed none other than Jupiter and Mercury, who had come down to earth in disguise. The old couple excused themselves; by reason of their poverty and the lack of time, they had not been able to provide them a better entertainment. ”

“ Then spoke Jupiter in benignant accents: "Excellent old man, and woman worthy of such a husband, speak, tell us your wishes; what favor have you to ask of us?" Philemon took counsel with Baucis a few moments; then declared to the gods their united wish. "We ask to be priests and guardians of this your temple; and since here we have passed our lives in love and concord, we wish that one and the same hour may take us both from life, that I may not live to see her grave, nor be laid in my own by her." Their prayer was granted. They were the keepers of the temple as long as they lived. ”

“ Philemon and Baucis, in the Greek mythology a pair of poor people who, in fond attachment to each other, lived in a small cottage in Phrygia by themselves and gave hospitality to gods in disguise when every other door was shut against them, and to whom, in the judgment that descended upon their inhospitable neighbours, the gods were propitious, and did honour by appointing them to priesthood, when they would rather have been servants, in a temple metamorphosed out of their cottage. ”

“ Jupiter was astounded at this request, thinking that the lovely maiden had taken leave of her senses; but Baucis exclaimed again:
"Nay, my lord, give me back my old age again, when calm and peaceful days were mine, and pure and perfect love for my faithful Philemon was happiness enough for me! What care I for beauty that but enthrals the hearts of others? I only want my husband's love, and that was mine when old! Therefore, make me old again, my lord!"
As Baucis was pleading with Jupiter, Philemon approached with Vulcan ”

“ When Philemon and Baucis turned to go back, the older traveler said, “Good Philemon and Baucis, you gave us not only milk and bread but also a kind welcome. Ask for anything you want, and you shall have it.”
[38]
[39]
Philemon and Baucis looked at each other and said, “Grant that we may die together.”
“You shall have your wish,” said the traveler. “Now look at your home.”
They saw a beautiful white castle standing where their little house had been.
The old people fell on their knees to give thanks. When they looked up, the travelers were not there. ”

“ PHILEMON AND BAUCIS.
A long time ago, on a high hill, lived old Philemon and his good wife Baucis.
They were poor, but they were two of the kindest [36] old people that ever lived. Often they went without their supper to give it to some traveler.
One evening, Philemon and Baucis sat on their door-step looking at the sunset.
Soon they saw two travelers coming up the hill. Some children ran after them, shouting and setting their dogs on them.
“Come, Wife,” said Philemon. “Let us go and meet these travelers.” ”

“ Meanwhile as often as the bowl was drained it was
refilled of its own will and they see that wines refill themselves:
astonished by the strangeness they are frightened and utter
with supine hands prayers both Baucis and timid Philemon
and beg for forgiveness for the meal, and no preparations.
There was a single goose, the guard of their small house:
whom the owners prepared to sacrifice for the guest gods ”

“ The listening crowd admire the lofty sound;
“A present deity!” they shout around;
“A present deity!” the vaulted roofs rebound.
Chorus.
With ravish’d ears
The monarch hears,
Assumes the God,
Affects to nod,
And seems to shake the spheres.
The praise of Bacchus then the sweet musican sung,
Of Bacchus, ever fair and ever young!—
The jolly god in triumph comes!
Sound the trumpets! beat the drums!
Flush’d with a purple grace,
He shows his honest face,
Now give the hautboys breath! he comes! he comes!
Bacchus ever fair and young,
Drinking joys did first ordain:
Chorus. ”

“ Writers on Grecian mythology relate that Ceres, the goddess of corn, gave her flesh to eat, and that Bacchus, the God of wine, gave blood to drink. Nor is there any evidence that Christ and his followers made a better use, or different use, or a more spiritual application of the sacrament, or ceremonial offering of bread and wine, than the pagans did, though some have claimed this. It was a species of symbolism with both, notwithstanding Mr. Glover, a Christian writer, declares, that "in the sacrament of the altar are the natural body and blood of Christ, verily and indeed." ”

“ Bacchus and Ceres had their Priests and Temples, one for his being the first Planter of the Vine, and the other for finding out the Way of sowing Bread-corn; and yet if any Man could give us an Account of the first raw Attempts and imperfect Practice in these Arts, he might indeed gratify the curious Lover of unprofitable Philology, but never oblige the present Age by any useful Knowledge. ”

“ He was hardly ever sober, but he knew so much and understood the world so well, that one of the gods, named Bacchus, made Silenus his chief adviser and counselor. You will hear more of Bacchus later on. I will only tell you now that he was not one of the great gods of Olympus, but lived on the earth, like Pan. Only, while Pan was the god of all wild, savage nature, Bacchus was the god of nature as men make it: Bacchus taught men to turn Pan’s wild woods into corn-fields and gardens, to put bees into hives, and to make wine. ”

“ Francis had resumed all Christian doctrine, the teaching of the Scriptures, the Fathers, and the Councils into a sum of theology; St. Thomas had examined in detail the pagan philosophy, had corrected it, and reconciled it with Christian truth. Roger Bacon, the Franciscan, not content with the ancient sciences catalogued by Aristotle, had begun to penetrate deeper into the secrets of nature, and the Dominican, Vincent of Beauvais, presented in his ‘Mirror’ an epitome of all that man, up to that time, knew in nature, science, art, philosophy, and history. ”

“ Bacchus [to Glaucus] . Come hither.
Glaucus [aside] . Now shall I grow young again, and be the god I
am—and yet I tremble.
Bacchus. You look like one who thinks himself of note.
Glaucus. Surely, sir, surely. I am Silenus, your high godship's
faithful old servant. I wish I could see myself. ”

“ Such swarming was the essence of that strange dance of the Bacchic women: literally like winged things, they follow, with motives, we may suppose, never quite made clear even to themselves, their new, strange, romantic god. Himself a woman-like god,—it was on women and feminine souls that his power mainly fell. At Elis, it was the women who had their own little song with which at spring-time they professed to call him from the sea: at Brasiae they had their own temple where none but women might enter ”

“ But the Graces also imitate a circle in their resemblances on the earth. Add too, that Bacchus is the source of joy, who is said to obtain a common kingdom with the sun. But why should I here mention the epithet Horus, or other names of the Gods, all of which correspond with the divinity of the sun? Mankind, indeed, may conceive the excellence of the God from his operations; since he perfects the heavens with intellectual goods, and renders them partakers of intelligible beauty. For as he originates from this beauty, he applies himself both wholly and by parts, to the distribution of good. ”

“ So I, for one, thought little about the general tendency of orthodox writers to claim Bacon by means of the Paradoxes. I knew that, in his "Confession of Faith" [306] he is a Trinitarian of a heterodox stamp. His second Person takes human nature before he took flesh, not for redemption, but as a condition precedent of creation. "God is so holy, pure, and jealous, that it is impossible for him to be pleased in any creature, though the work of his own hands.... ”

“ And no wonder that superstitious rites and ceremonies are attributed to Bacchus, when almost every ungovernable passion grows wanton and luxuriant in corrupt religions; nor again, that fury and frenzy should be sent and dealt out by him, because every passion is a short frenzy, and if it be vehement, lasting, and take deep root, it terminates in madness. And hence the allegory of Pentheus and Orpheus being torn to pieces is evident; for every headstrong passion is extremely bitter, severe, inveterate, and revengeful upon all curious inquiry, wholesome admonition, free counsel and persuasion. ”

“ Their priests made use of fifes and cymbals; they were crowned with wreaths of ivy, and a vine wrought in gold was seen in their temple. Hence some have inferred that Bacchus, the conqueror of the East, was the object of their adoration. ”

“ Polydore Virgil affirms of this season and its delicacies, that it sprung from the feasts of Bacchus, which were celebrated in Rome with rejoicings and festivity at the same period. This, therefore, is another adoption of the Romish church from the heathens; and it is observed by Brand, that on Shrove Monday it was a custom with the boys at Eton to write verses concerning Bacchus, in all kinds of metre, which were affixed to the college doors, and that Bacchus’ verses “are still written and put up on this day.” The Eton practice is doubtless a remnant of the catholic custom. ”

“ Thus Bassianus gloried in the beauty, which to his mind expressed, however inadequately, the potency of his ineffable deity. Here was a God who was able to make men happy, and had taken him into a very specially protective embrace; a God who was evidently supreme, only, and alone, the God of the Universe. ”

“ Thus, the man who is brought under the control of a passion of anger, fear, or love, or who is overcome with wine or sleep, was by the Greeks said to be baptized with these things. So, in the Scriptures, he who is under such control that he is “led of the Spirit,” is said to be “baptized with the Spirit.” This meaning of baptizo no candid scholar can deny; and in it we have already seen abundant relief from all the perplexities of the immersion theory. ”

“ The great pagan conceptions of fate and the gods live in his poetic world along with deeply Christian attitudes and intuitions—Aether and Bacchus with Christ. So the generation of the living sees its deepest yearning, the germ of its new religious dream, pre-existing in this mystic leader. ”

“ There Orpheus found Eurydice again in the communion of soul with soul, and learnt what she had meant when she said, "Some day our love shall prevail, never again to be conquered." So it came to pass that he became the priest of Bacchos, the mystic god, who is one with Life and Love. And he wrote upon tablets the rule of life, by which, through purity and initiation, men may become one with the god, and when they have been purified by birth and re-birth in many diverse forms, they may win, because they are one with him, the immortal life that changeth not, like the life of the stars in heaven. ”

“ In the year 95.—It is here recorded that Clemens, the fourth bishop of the church at Rome, ordained: That the heretics’ baptism is neither to be supported nor accepted; therefore, he that has received baptism in conformity with the truth of the church, shall not be rebaptized; but he who does not rebaptize the unclean, that is, baptized by the ungodly or heretics, shall be deposed, as one who mocks the cross and death of Christ, and does not distinguish the false priests, or teachers, from the true ones (distinct. 30. cap.) ”

“ The orgies of Bacchus were mystical tumults; the apostles of mania have always had recourse to disordered movements, frenetic agitations and horrible convulsions. From the effeminate priesthood of Bacchus to the Gnostics; from whirling dervishes to epileptics at the tomb of Paris the deacon; the characteristics of superstition and fanatic exaltation have been always the same. It has been invariably under the pretext of purifying doctrine and in the name of an exaggerated spiritualism that the mystics of all times have materialised the symbols of the cultus. ”

“ Throughout the epistle, Peter’s name is not even mentioned; nor is that of Linus or Cletus, his supposed assistants, who always, it is said, supplied his place when he was absent. Indeed, so far as can be gathered from Paul’s epistle, the Romish Christians appear not to have had, at that time nor previously, any bishop or any ecclesiastical head. The epistle is addressed “To all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints.” (Romans i. 7.) It exhorts them to obey magistrates;――but not to reverence and obey their spiritual rulers. ”

“ And let every one be pure as to his mouth speaking propitious things; for now I will with hymns celebrate Bacchus according to custom:—Blessed is he, [5] whoever being favored, knowing the mysteries of the gods, keeps his life pure, and has his soul initiated into the Bacchic revels, dancing o'er the mountains with holy purifications, and reverencing the mysteries of the mighty mother Cybele, and brandishing the thyrsus, and being crowned with ivy, serves Bacchus! Go, ye Bacchæ ”

“ Augustine, spoken on the same day, in the year 387, when St. Ambrose gave holy baptism to this son of so many tears: “I believe in God; I believe in Jesus Christ; I believe in the church.” To listen to M. Bougaud is a royal treat; I hung, as it were, on his lips, drinking in that eloquence which is indeed the two-edged sword spoken of in Scripture. “God is the place of souls. A place is that which bears, which supports.” ”