The reason is, that men are unwilling to draw a limited meaning from any human act.  How could they, then, connecting, as they did, all victory with hope,—­how could they fall short of the most exalted hope, of the most excellent victory; especially in instances like the one now under our notice, where the material circumstances of the conquest as well as of the conqueror’s life have passed out of remembrance; when for generations men have dwelt upon the dim tradition in their thoughts, and it has had time to grow into its fullest significance,—­even finding an elaborate expression in sacred writings, in symbolic ritual, and monumental entablature?  Osiris, who subjected men to his reign of peace, was also held to be the Preserver of their souls.  Even Caesar, had he lived two thousand years before, might have been worshipped as Saviour.  All extended power, measured by duration in time or vast areas of space, becomes an incarnate Presence in the world, which awes to the dust all who resist it, and exalts with its own glory all who trust in it.  Achtheia mourns all failures; and here it is that the human touches the earth.  But they who conquer, these are our Saviours; they shall follow in the train of Dionysus; they shall lift us to the heavens, and sanctify in our remembrance the Sunday of Palms!

But Dionysus not only looks back with triumphant remembrance to ancient conquest, but has his victories in the present, also, and in the great Hereafter.  For triumph was connected with all Dionysiac symbols, hints of which are preserved to us in representations found upon ancient vases:  such, for instance, as the figure of Victory surmounting the heads of the ivy-crowned Bacchantes in their mystic orgies; or the winged serpents which bear the chariot of the victor-god,—­as if in this connection even the reptiles, whose very name (serpentes) is a synonyme for what creeps, are to be made the ministrants of his conquering flight.  The tombs of the ancients from Egypt to Etruria are full of these symbols.  Many of them have become dim as to their meaning by oblivious time; but enough is evident to indicate the prominence of hope in ancient faith.  This appears in the very multiplicity of Dionysiac symbols as compared with any other class.  Thus, out of sixty-six vases at Polignano, all but one or two were found to be Dionysiac in their symbolism.  And this instance stands for many others.  The character of the scenes represented indicates the same prominence of hope, sometimes as connected with the relations of life,—­as, for example, the representation, found upon a sepulchral cone, of a husband and wife uniting with each other in prayer to the Sun.  Frequent inscriptions—­such as those in which the deceased is carefully committed to Osiris, the Egyptian Dionysus—­point in the same direction; as also the genii who presided over the embalmed dead, a belief in whose existence surely indicated a hopeful trust in some divine care which would not leave them even in the grave.  Statues of Osiris are found among the ruins of palaces and temples; but it was in the monuments associated with death that they dwelt most upon his name and expressed their faith in most frequent incarnation and inscription.