I am warranted by Plutarch in comparing the secret adyta of the Egyptian temples with the Cave of Trophonius, for he in set words records their affinity. Similar recesses were common over all the world; for as Porphyry (de Ant. Nymph.) affirms, it was the custom of various nations to perform rites in caverns. Temples were generally attached to these excavations. At Cuma, there was one beneath the temple of the Sybil ;—at Eleusis, beneath that of Ceres ;-at Tænarus, there was another beneath the temple of Neptune, which was supposed to conduct to hell; and there Orpheus was recorded to have descended in search of Eurydice. So the Cimmerian cavern, by which Ulysses penetrated into the infernal realms, was probably attached to a temple of Proserpine, if we may infer any thing from the rites employed, and

The barren trees of Proserpine's dark wood.

Homer's cave of the Nymphs was, at all events, a mystic cavern, dedicated to those divinities, and placed beneath the rock of Phorcys, as that of Tænarus was scooped beneath the temple of Neptune. The treatise of Porphyry on this subject, is to prove the identity of its design with those of Mythras. It cannot, however, be doubted that Homer intended to describe an initiatory cavern hewn in the rock. The symbols he details were probably types of the mysteries there unfolded, relating to the generation, life, and death, and future prospects of man, and it is not unlikely that these mysteries were those of Cabira, the daughter of Phorcys, and mother of the Cabiri. The whole argument of Porphyry, respecting the northern and southern gates of Capricorn and Cancer, and the descent of souls from the north, is founded on the Egyptian philosophy, which blended theology with astronomy, and both with masonry.

Let us examine if this tomb of Psammis will agree with a Serapeum, and with the recorded tradition of initiation in the rites of Apis, corroborated by the cognate initiations of all the ancient nations.

There must be a sloping descent, facile descensus Averni. There is a sloping descent. There must be a well (A). There is. The entrance must be carefully concealed (B). It was. There must be two (C) ways. There are; one ascending, and the other descending. There must be a flight of fourteen stairs (D). There is. There must be a ladder and pit, or gulf (E). There are. There must be a chapel or chamber dedicated to a cow, on one side (F). There is. There must be an embalmed and dismembered body of a bull. There was. There must be a room of couches, or Thallassion. There is. There must be a sacred coffer or chest. There is. A theatre or stage must be requisite for the dramatic shows. The saloon has all the necessary characteristics.

These are remarkable proofs. A detail of the pictures and symbols in this extraordinary excavation will still farther corroborate their tendency. And upon this point we have a Scripture description of the Serapeum (if I may so term it) of Adonis, the Osiris, or Adonisiris, as he was called, of Syria; which is, alone, almost decisive of the question :—

And he brought me to the door of the court; and when I looked, behold A HOLE IN THE WALL.

Then he said unto me, Son of man, dig now into the wall: and when I had digged into the wall, behold a door!

And he said unto me, Go in and behold the wicked abominations that they do here.

So I went in and saw, and behold EVERY FORM of CREEPING THINGS, and ABOMINABLE BEASTS, and all the Idols of the house of Israel, POURTRAYED UPON THE WALL ROUND ABOUT.

Then he brought me to the gate of the Lord's house, which is towards the north, and behold there sat women weeping for Thammuz*.

* Ezekiel, chap. viii.

Now Thammuz, astronomically, signified the sun during the winter months, as Serapis did; and the next succeeding passage wonderfully connects the "dark chambers of imagery," the funereal rites, and the solar worship together. The Sol Inferus was certainly the terminating point of the mysteries.

Then he said unto me, Turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations than these; and he brought me into the inner court, and behold *** with their backs towards the temple, and their faces towards the East, about FIVE-AND-TWENTY MEN; and they wORSHIPPED

THE SUN TOWARDS THE EAST.

The number twenty-five is most remarkable. It was sacred to Serapis, and was the cycle of years at the end of which the priests entered the Serapium, for the purpose of secretly drowning and entombing Apis. The mysteries of Apis were diffused over the greatest part of the ancient world, in which the image of a bull, or Minotaur, or man-bull, appears to have been an emblem of the primitive state of man-perhaps his antediluvial state. His rites were certainly of a gloomy and sanguinary description.

My opinion is, that the alabaster Sarcophagus, as it is called, was not the coffin of a really-buried personage, but an ark or tabernacle, used (like the coffin of Hiram in the mysteries of freemasonry) in the funereal rites of the Egyptian Pluto, or Serapis. If it was the tomb of Osiris, it was only his mystical tomb, and one out of fourteen others, erected for the purpose of mystical rites every twenty-five years. Nor is it unlikely, that tradition, in the fable of Busiris, has reported truly of it; that this mysterious alabaster chest has streamed with the blood of human sacrifices; and that the saloon where it stands has resounded with the thrilling shriek of dying agony.

Now, if it were not the sarcophagus of any buried monarch, the alternative is, that it was an ark or cymba, employed in the initiatory rites. Such chests, in short, appertained to almost all the ancient mysteries. We are informed that the Mosaic tabernacle was of dimensions and shape not unlike, and was supposed to contain the Sephyroth, or symbol of the universe; and we learn from Plutarch, that a chest containing a golden ark was used in the mysteries of Osiris.

Now, as to the characteristics of the alabaster Sarcophagus found in this excavation, the slightest inspection is as favourable to my theory, as it is hostile to that which supposes it to be the tomb of Psammis. The shape of it is that of a cymba, or arkite vessel. The Scyphus of Apis, by which he was conveyed to Memphis, is upon record; and the coffin of Osiris, as well as this Scyphus, are, beyond a doubt, emblems of the ark, and, therefore, they contained symbols of the seeds of all things, it being the womb of a new creation, and thence itself called "Chaos." Now, what is the situation of this magnificent receptacle? It is placed over the mouth of a cavernous descent, of three hundred feet in explored length, but of which the actual termination is unknown. Was any thing better calculated for a priestly juggle than this cavern, the theatrical proscenium, and the retiring chambers of the saloon?

The alabaster Sarcophagus is covered with representations of the lower mysteries-the arkite ritesthe water-spectacles on the Nile. What had this to do with Psammis? Again, it is admitted by the original broacher of this theory, Dr. Young, that according to the Egyptian creed, the departed soul of the male was re-absorbed into Osiris-that of the female into Isis. There is a figure of Isis at the bottom of this magnifi

cent receptaculum. Was the buried person a queen after all, then? The idea is preposterous. But what shall resist the logic of this final query? Was there an effigy of Psammis found? a mummy? an effigy—a relic of any thing human? No. But was there any thing found relating to Apis? Yes! The actually embalmed body of Apis. Can any one doubt, then, that this was one of the secret shrines in which he was embalmed, and in which his funereal rites were periodically performed?

There are many strong attestations in favour of the hypothesis now submitted to the public. The actual pillar of Serapis-the cow's room on one side-the embalmed body of Apis-Ezekiel's description of a similar cavern-the cavern-shrines excavated in honour of the

same deity, under a different name. And here it may be remarked, that the "hole in the wall" may have been intended for the purpose of the cavern-rites in question.

It may have implied the narrow entrance into life. In the Mythratic mysteries, the candidates were obliged to pass through a narrow strait, like serpents, on their belly. So it was in those of Trophonius; and the aspirant was obliged to strip off his garments for this purpose, as an emblem of putting off the flesh. But whether this be so or not, the coincidence of the phrase "hole in the wall" is singular, and Ezekiel's description certainly implies that it was an entrance, occasionally concealed by brickwork and masonry.

Another curious corroboration, though perhaps not so important as those I have stated, is the well. Apis was drowned where he was embalmed. Where, then, could the drowning of the embalmed body within take place but here? All the most ancient of the initiatory