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Moreover, many have reported her the daughter of
Hermes, and many of Prometheus; the latter of which
they esteem as the author of wit and forecast, and the
former of letters and music. For the same reason also
they call the former of the Muses at Hermopolis at the
same time Isis and Justice, Isis being (as we before said)
[p. 67]
no other than wisdom, and revealing things divine to such
as are truly and justly styled the sacred bearers, and keepers of the sacred robes; and these are such as have in
their minds, as in an ark, the sacred doctrine about the
Gods, cleansed from superstitious frights and vain curiosities, keeping out of sight all dark and shady colors, and
exposing to sight the light and gay ones, to insinuate
something of the like kind in our persuasion about the
Gods as we have represented to us in the sacred vestments.
Wherefore, in that the priests of Isis are dressed up in
these when they are dead, it is a token to us that this doctrine goes with them to the other life, and that nothing
else can accompany them thither. For as neither the
nourishing of beards nor the wearing of mantles can ren
der men philosophers, so neither will linen garments or
shaved heads make priests to Isis; but he is a true priest
of Isis, who, after he hath received from the laws the representations and actions that refer to the Gods, doth next
apply his reason to the enquiry and speculation of the
truth contained in them.
Plutarch. Plutarch's Morals. Translated from the Greek by several hands. Corrected and revised by. William W. Goodwin, PH. D. Boston. Little, Brown, and Company. Cambridge. Press Of John Wilson and son. 1874. 4.
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