Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 2.djvu/322

270 dregs of ignorance, as other spirits are produced from lees, by the force of fire. Some again think, that when our earthly tabernacles are disordered and desolate, shaken and out of repair, the spirit delights to dwell within them; as houses are said to be haunted, when they are forsaken and gone to decay.

To set this matter in as fair a light as possible, I shall here very briefly deduce the history of fanaticism, from the most early ages, to the present. And if we are able to fix upon any one material or fundamental point, wherein the chief professors have universally agreed, I think we may reasonably lay hold on that, and assign it for the great seed or principle of the spirit.

The most early traces we meet with of fanaticks in ancient story, are among the Ægyptians, who instituted those rites, known in Greece by the names of Orgia, Panegyres, and Dionysia; whether introduced there by Orpheus, or Melampus, we shall not dispute at present, nor in all likelihood at any time for the future. These feasts were celebrated to the honour of Osiris, whom the Grecians called Dionysius, and is the same with Bacchus: which has betrayed some superficial readers to imagine, that the whole business was nothing more than a set of roaring, scouring companions, overcharged with wine; but this is a scandalous mistake, foisted on the world by a sort of modern authors, who have too literal an understanding; and, because antiquity is to be traced backwards, do therefore, like Jews, begin their books at the wrong end, as if learning