To roll incessant with impetuous speed,
Like some dark river, into Matter's sea.
Nor is it with less propriety denominated Aornus, i. e. destitute of birds, or a winged nature; for on account of its native sluggishness and inactivity, and its merged condition, being situated in the extremity of things, it is perfectly debile and languid, incapable of ascending into the regions of reality, and exchanging its obscure and degraded station for one every way splendid and divine. The propriety too of sacrificing, previous to his entrance, to Night and Earth, is obvious, as both these are proper emblems of a corporeal nature.
In the verses which immediately follow,
Ecce autem, primi sub limina solis et ortus,
Sub pedibus mugire solum, et juga cæpta movere
Silvarum, visaque canes ululare per umbram,
Adventante dea,
We may perceive an evident allusion to the earthquakes, &c. attending the descent of the soul into body, mentioned by Plato in the tenth book of his republic; since the lapse of the soul, as we shall see more fully hereafter, was one of the important truths which these mysteries were intended to reveal. And the howling dogs are symbols of material demons, who are thus denominated by the magic oracles of Zoroaster, on account of their ferocious and malevolent dispositions, ever baneful to the felicity of the human soul. And hence matter herself is represented by Synesius in his first hymn, with great propriety and beauty, as barking at the soul with devouring rage: for thus he sings, addressing himself to the Deity:
Μακαρ ος τις βορον υλας
Προφυγων υλαγμα, και γας
Αναδυς, αλματι κουφω
Ιχνος ες θεον τιταινει.
Which may be thus paraphrased:
Blessed! thrice blessed! who, with winged speed,
From Hyle's dread voracious barking flies,
And, leaving Earth's obscurity behind,
By a light leap, directs his steps to thee.
And that material dæmons actually appeared to the initiated previous to the lucid visions of the gods themselves, is evident from the following passage of Proclus in his MS. Commentary on
