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celebration of that festival. There were many other mysteriousinstitutions among the ancient Pagans , but the above were themost celebrated. The Samothracian mysteries, instituted in ho-nour of the Cabiri , were likewise of considerable celebrity, andwere supposed to confer the same blessings with the Eleusinian,but were not of equal celebrity. The Cabiri were Phoenician andlikewise Egyptian deities. Boclnirt lias explained their origin,number, names, and some part of their worship. The Orphicmysteries were likewise famous among the Thracians. Orpheus learned them in Egypt , and they were nearly the same with theBacchanalia of the Greeks. There were likewise the mysteries ofJupiter Idams in great request among the Cretans , and those ofCybele celebrated in Phrygia . To enumerate and detail all thesewould require a volume.

Mystery, under the Jewish and Christian dispensations, isapplied to such truths and proceedings as human reason by its ownpower cannot penetrate, The religion of the Jews is supposed tobe full of mysteries. The whole nation, according to St. Augus-tin , was a mystery, as it represented or was a type of the peopleof Christ, and the Christian religion. Whatever was commandedor forbidden them was figurative, and their sacrifices, priesthood,&c. included mysteries. The prophecies'concerning Jesus Christ in the Jewish books, are likewise figurative and mysterious. TheChristian religion lias also its mysteries ; but in the scripture-lan-guage the word mystery is used with some latitude, and denoteswhatever is not to be known without a divine revelation, and allthe secret things which God lias discovered by his ministers theprophets, by Jesus Christ and iiis apostles. The mysteries of theChristian church are, the incarnation of the Word , the hypostaticalunion of the divine and human nature, the miraculous birth, death,and resurrection,of the Son of God, the doctrine of the Trinity,&c.See the article Incarnation, &c. St. Paul often speaks of the.mysteries of the Christian religion; as “the mystery of the gospel,”

the mystery of the cross of Christ, ” “ the mystery which waskept secret since the world began:”, and he calls the preachersof the gospel, the “ stewards of the mysteries of God.”

Mystery, in English antiquity, is a term formerly applied toour dramatic exhibitions. It is well known, says Mr. Percy, inhis “ Reliques of Ancient English Poetry,” that dramatic poetryin this and most oilier nations of Europe owes its origin, or at leastits revival, to those religious shews which in the dark ages wereusually exhibited on the more solemn festivals. At those timesthey were wont to represent in the churches, the lives and miraclesof the saints, or some of the more important histories of Scripture.And as the most mysterious subjects were frequently chosen, suclias the incarnation, passion, and resurrection, of Christ , &c. theseexhibitions acquired the name of mysteries. At first they wereprobably a kind of dumb shews, intermingled with a few shortspeeches : at length they grew into a regular series of connecteddialogues, formally divided into acts and scenes. Specimens ofthese, in their most improved stale, may be seen in Dodsley ’sOld Plays, and in Osborne’s llarleian Miscellany. As the oldmysteries frequently required the representation of some allegori-cal personage, such as Death, Sin, Charity, Faith , and the like,by degrees the rude poets of those unlettered ages, towards thefifteenth century, began to form complete dramatic pieces, con-sisting entirely of such personifications. These they intituledmoral plavs, or moralities. The mysteries were very inartificial,representing the scripture-stories singly according to the letter.But the moralities are not devoid of invention ; they exhibit out-lines of the dramatic art; containing something of a fable or plot,and even attempting to delineate characters and manners.

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Mystery, in mathematics. Mathematicians have been accus-ed of introducing mysteries in geometry, which ought to havenone. See the Annalist; and Mr. Maclaurin ’s Fluxions, in theintroduction and other places. See also Paradox.

MYSTIC, in geography, a river in Massachusetts , which runsinto Boston harbour.

Mystic. SeeMysTici.

MYSTICAL implies something mysterious or allegorical.Some commentators on the sacred writings, besides a literal findalso a mystical meaning. The sense of scripture, say they, iseither that immediately signified by the words and expressions inthe common use of language ; or it is mediate, sublime, typical,and mystical. The literal sense they again divide into properliteral, which is contained'in the words taken simply and properly;and metaphorical literal, where the words are to be taken in a figu-rative a;id metaphorical sense. The mystical sense of scripturethey divide into three kinds: the first corresponding to faith, andcalled allegorical; (see Allegory ) j the second to hope, calledauagogical; the third to charity, called, the frupological sense.And sometimes they take the same word in scripture in aii thefour senses; the word Jerusalem , literally signifies the capital ofJudea ; allegorically, the church militant; tropologically, a be-liever; and anagogicaiiy, heaven. So that passage in Genesis I.“ let there be light, and there was light,” literally signifies corpo-real light; by an allegory, the Messiah ; in the tropologies!sense, grace; and anagogicaiiy, beatitude, or the light qfglory.

MYSTIC!, or MYSTICS , a kind of religious sects, distin-guished by their professing pure, sublime, and perfect devotion,with an entire disinterested love of God, free from all selfish con-siderations. The mystics, to excuse their fanatic ecstacies andamorous extravagancies, allege that passage of St. Paul, “ TheSpirit prays in us by sighs and groans that are unutterable.-” Nowif tlie Spirit, say they, pray in us, we must resign ourselves to itsmotions, and lie swayed and guided by its impulse, by remainingin a state of mere inaction. Passive contemplation is that state ofperfection to which the mystics all aspire. This mystic sciencesprung up towards the close of the third century. The authorsare not known ; but the principles proceeded from the knowndoctrine of the Platonic school, which was also adopted by Oei-gen aud his disciples, that the divine nature was diffused .throughall human souls, or that the faculty of reason, from which proceedthe health and vigour of the mind, was an emanation from Godinto the soul, and comprehended in it the principles and elementsof all truth, human and divine.

MYSTRUM, a liquid measure among the ancients, contain-ing a fourth part of the cyathus, and weighing two drachms and ahalf of oil, and two drachms two scruples of water or wine. Itnearly answers to our spoonful.

MYTENS, Martin, painter of portraits and history, wasborn at Stockholm in 1695, and at 11 years of age shewed an ex-traordinary genius. Iiis first excursion was to Holland, and fromthence he proceeded to London , where he practised miniature andenamel painting. In 1717 he visited Paris, and proved so fortu-nate as to obtain the favour of the duke of Orleans, and to have thehonour to paint the portrait of that prince, and also the portraits ofLouis XV. and the Czar Peter. In 1721 he arrived at Vienna ;and having with great applause painted the portraits of the emperor,tlie empress, and the most illustrious persons at that court, duringa residence of above two years, he proceeded on his intended jour-ney to Italy. Having visited Venice , and spent two years atRome ; he afterwards settled at Vienna, where he died in 1755,

MYTHOLOGY.

MYTHOLOGY, j>v9°>wy m , front a fable, and a

discourse,] any kind of fabulous doctrine; in its more appropriat-ed sense, it means those fabulous details concerning the objects ofworship, which were invented and propagated by men who livedin the early ages of the world, and by them transmitted to sue-,feeding generations, either by written records or by oral tradition. |

The theology and mythology of the ancients are therefore almostinseparably connected. YV itli respect to faille, it is a creature ofthe human imagination, and derives its birth from that love of themarvellous which is congenial to the soul of man. Tlie appear-ances of nature which every day occur, objects, actions, andevents, which succeed each other, seem too familiar and uninte-resting