mple consecrated to Isis.

That edifice was then but of recent erection; the ancient temple had
been thrown down in the earthquake sixteen years before, and the new
building had become as much in vogue with the versatile Pompeians as a
new church or a new preacher may be with us. The oracles of the goddess
at Pompeii were indeed remarkable, not more for the mysterious language
in which they were clothed, than for the credit which was attached to
their mandates and predictions. If they were not dictated by a
divinity, they were framed at least by a profound knowledge of mankind;
they applied themselves exactly to the circumstances of individuals, and
made a notable contrast to the vague and loose generalities of their
rival temples. As Arbaces now arrived at the rails which separated the
profane from the sacred place, a crowd, composed of all classes, but
especially of the commercial, collected, breathless and reverential,
before the many altars which rose in the open court. In the walls of
the cella, elevated on seven steps of Parian marble, various statues
stood in niches, and those walls were ornamented with the pomegranate
consecrated to Isis. An oblong pedestal occupied the interior building,
on which stood two statues, one of Isis, and its companion represented
the silent and mystic Orus. But the building contained many other
deities to grace the court of the Egyptian deity: her kindred and
many-titled Bacchus, and the Cyprian Venus, a Grecian disguise for
herself, rising from her bath, and the dog-headed Anubis, and the ox
Apis, and various Egyptian idols of uncouth form and unknown
appellations.

But we must not suppose that among the cities of Magna Graecia, Isis was
worshipped with those forms and ceremonies which were of right her own.
The mongrel and modern nations of the South, with a mingled arrogance
and ignorance, confounded the worships of all climes and ages. And the
profound mysteries of the Nile were degraded by a hundred meretricious
and frivolous admixtures from the creeds of Cephisus and of Tibur. The
temple of Isis in Pompeii was served by Roman and Greek priests,
ignorant alike of the language and the customs of her ancient votaries;
and the descendant of the dread Egyptian kings, beneath the appearance
of reverential awe, secretly laughed to scorn the puny mummeries which
imitated the solemn and typical worship of his burning clime.

Ranged now on either side the steps was the sacrific