be viewed as a kind of sacred drama, the machinery of which is borrowed from the old Mysteries. p. 484. 1. The prologue. p. 485. 2. The opening of the door. p. 486. 3. The sealing on the forehead. p. 486. 4. The silence: the perfecting of the Mystery: the honey. p. 487. 5. The terrific pageantry of what may be called the doleful part of the sacred Mysteries. p. 488. (1.) The beast from the sea or from the abyss. p. 488. (2.) The seven-headed serpent. p. 489. (3.) The beast from the earth or the false prophet. p. 490. 6. The potency of names. p. 490. 7. The interpreting hierophant, and the Mystery of the oceanic great mother. p. 490, 8. The infernal lake of initiation. p. 492, 9. The joyful part of the sacred Mysteries. p. 493. (1.) The grand mundane renovation: the open gates: the river of Elysium : the waters of immortality. p. 493. (2.) The final discourse of the hierophant. p. 494. (3.) The dismission of the epopts. p. 495. DISSERTATION I. Respecting the rise and fall of the seventh and eighth apocalyptic forms of Roman government and the effusion of the fourth and fifth vials. SECTION I. Preliminary Observations. IN the Apocalypse, as all commentators agree, the Roman Empire, from first to last and under each of its various forms of government, is symbolized by the hieroglyphic of a wild beast having seven heads and ten horns. These seven heads are declared by the interpreting angel to represent seven kings or seven modes of political administration: and he asserts, that, at the time when St. John beheld the vision, five were fallen, the sixth was then in actual existence, and the seventh was future *. Now the form of Roman government, which existed when |