es the various scenes of an initiation into the mysteries of
Isis with the fervor of a neophyte and {14} the studied refinement of a
rhetorician. But as a rule we find only incidental remarks and superficial
observations in the authors. Not even the precious treatise _On the Syrian
Goddess_, in which Lucian tells of a visit to the temple of Hierapolis and
repeats his conversation with the priests, has any depth. What he relates
is the impression of an intelligent, curious and above all an ironical
traveler.[19]

In order to obtain a more perfect initiation and a less fragmentary insight
into the doctrines taught by the Oriental religions, we are compelled to
turn to two kinds of testimony, inspired by contrary tendencies, but
equally suspicious: the testimony of the philosophers, and that of the
fathers of the church. The Stoics and the Platonists frequently took an
interest in the religious beliefs of the barbarians, and it is to them that
we are indebted for the possession of highly valuable data on this subject.
Plutarch's treatise _Isis and Osiris_ is a source whose importance is
appreciated even by Egyptologists, whom it aids in reconstructing the
legends of those divinities.[20] But the philosophers very seldom expounded
foreign doctrines objectively and for their own sake. They embodied them in
their systems as a means of proof or illustration; they surrounded them
with personal exegesis or drowned them in transcendental commentaries; in
short, they claimed to discover their own ideas in them. It is always
difficult and sometimes impossible to distinguish the dogmas from the
self-confident interpretations which are usually as incorrect as possible.

The writings of the ecclesiastical authors, although prejudiced, are very
fertile sources of information, but in perusing them one must guard against
another kind {15} of error. By a peculiar irony of fate those
controversialists are to-day in many instances our only aid in reviving the
idolatry they attempted to destroy. Although the Oriental religions were
the most dangerous and most persistent adversaries of Christianity, the
works of the Christian writers do not supply as abundant information as one
might suppose. The reason for this is that the fathers of the church often
show a certain reserve in speaking of idolatry, and affect to recall its
monstrosities only in guarded terms. Moreover, as we shall see later
on,[21] the apologists of the fourth century were fre