ESSAY ON THE SACRED FIRE AND ON THE VESTALS.

CHAPTER ONE.

INTRODUCTION.

THE HISTORY of the Vestals The Vestal Virgins were priestesses of Vesta, the Roman goddess of the hearth. is tied to that of the Sacred Fire; the Authors who have written on this particular order of Priestesses have too often neglected the essential object of their worship; my design is to gather here the principal features relating to this species of Religion and its Ministers; to fulfill this, it is necessary to go back quite far. The worship of Fire is one of the oldest known—