The Eleusinian and Bacchic Mysteries

A line drawing in a classical Greek or Roman style. In the center, a bearded man in long robes stands gesturing toward a group of athletic, semi-nude men on the left near a palm tree and columns. To the right, under a draped, roofed structure, figures recline on a couch. A figure in the foreground crouches near a low table, while another pours from a vessel. The scene suggests a mythological or philosophical gathering. Below the illustration is the caption "Bacchus."

"It is not merely
The human being's pride that peoples space
With life and mystical predominance,
Since likewise for the stricken heart of Love
This visible nature, and this common world
Is all too narrow; yea, a deeper import
Lurks in the legend told my infant years
That lies upon that truth, we live to learn,
For fable is Love's world, his home, his birthplace;
Delightedly he dwells among fays and talismans,
And spirits, and delightedly believes
Divinities, being himself divine.
The intelligible forms of ancient poets,
The fair humanities of Old Religion,
The Power, the Beauty, and the Majesty,
That had their haunts in dale or piny mountain,
Or forests by slow stream, or pebbly spring,
Or chasms or watery depths; — all these have vanished.
They live no longer in the faith of Reason,
But still the heart does need a language; still
Does the old instinct bring back the old names."