More Mysteries

Among all nations of the Western parts of the world, the prophetesses called Sybils were anciently known. There were eight of them who were celebrated in a very peculiar manner, and a work is extant in eight books which purport to contain their prophecies.

Secrets of the Sybils

By the expression the Sybils was generally meant a collection of scrolls, written partly in very early and partly in later times by female prophetesses bearing that name.

In the earliest time of Christianity they were considered by the fathers of the Church as of the very first importance, in fact, of such very great importance, that the Christian religion might be considered to be almost founded upon them, and by most of the early fathers their genuinesness was not only never disputed, but it was expressly admitted.

They are now despised.

The reason for this will not be difficult to discover. I shall make a careful inquiry into the genuineness of these books, in the course of which, we shall see various proofs.

The old fathers called the Sybils prophetesses in the strictest sense of the word. The Sybils and their oracles were known to Plato, to Aristotle, Diodorous Siculus, Strabo, Plutarch, Pausanias, Cicero, Varro, Virgil, Ovid, Tacitus, Juvenal, and Pliny. Under all circumstances it is absolutely impossible to deny that certain prophecies did anciently exist; and the only question will be, whether we have the real originals, and if the originals, whether uncorrupted or not.

Many authors have endeavoured in vain to ascertain the meaning of the word Sybil. In the Old Irish the word means cycle; the Sybils were beloved of Apollo and the cycle must have been that of the sun. There was supposed to be a prophetess of each Sybils or Cycle. We have the prophecies of eight. There was one for each cycle as it passed.