PROPERTY OF PRINCETON THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY

PREFACE.

The object of the following dissertation is to show that the mysteries of the Cabiri—which I conceive to have been the very same as those of Isis, Ceres, Mithras, Bacchus, Rhea, and Adonis—were principally founded upon certain mutilated traditions of the Deluge. Pagan records abound with corrupted accounts of that catastrophe, and even frequently enter into the details of its history with a most surprising degree of accuracy; so much so that the most careless observer cannot help being struck with their resemblance, in this point, to the Mosaical referring to the writings of Moses, i.e., the Bible narrative. All such traditions may be considered as the direct attestations that the mythology of the Gentiles bears to the existence of a general flood. In addition to them, it is also replete with allusions to it. These latter, indeed, are necessarily less obvious than the former, and are...