This circumstance is not fully understood; on the contrary, that the oracular verses are bad in composition, is certainly according to your judgment, my dear Serapion, a perfect truth. For the poems composed by you are in their contents philosophical and earnest, and in power, delicacy, and choice of expression, they have more similarity with the poems of Hermes and Hesiod, than with the sentences of the Pythia."

"We are certainly," replied Serapion, "diseased in eyes and ears, and induced by luxury and extravagance to see only beauty in that which is agreeable. We shall therefore soon blame the Pythia for not singing more delightfully than the Zither-players in Glaucus, for not being aromatic with ointments, and entering the sanctum clothed in purple ; or quarrel with her, that she burns laurel and barley-meal in stead of cassia, ladanum, and incenses. Do you not see how enchanting the poems of Sappho are; how much they delight and fascinate the readers? And yet the sibyl who, as Heraclitus says, delivers oracles with foaming lips, without smiles, cosmetics or ointments (without elegance and grace), has received a voice from Apollo, which will endure for centuries. Pindaros also avers, that Cadmus heard no clear ringing, and pleasant music with soft verses from this god. For a pure being free from passions has nothing to do with sensuality, which was cast from heaven with Ate (the goddess of destruction), and, as it appears, entered for the great part into the ears of men, where it has fixed itself."

But Theon objects, that if the verses are really bad, ought we to make Apollo their composer? the first inspiration alone comes from him, which is, however, adapted to the nature of every prophetess. If it were customary to deliver the oracle in writing, and not orally, we should certainly not ascribe the letters themselves to the god, or blame them that they were not as beautifully written as royal ones. Therefore, voice and sound, expression and metre, do not belong to Apollo, but to the woman; he only inspires her with the images and conceptions, and inflames her soul so that it can see the future; for in this consists enthusiasm."

Aristotle said, that "Homer alone used words which move with internal power; but I would say, that the votive offer

ings here move with internal power, as the providence of God wills it, and give presages through this power, and that not one single portion is empty and insensible, but that all are entirely filled by the divinity." (Here we have the magnetic conductors; the influence of substances placed en rapport; the reliques, &c.)

However, the ancient oracles were sometimes given in verse, sometimes in prose; but neither is contrary to reason: we must only have true conceptions of the godhead, and not believe that Apollo formerly composed the verses, and even now whispers the oracles to the Pythia, speaking as it were through a mask. The sentence of Heraclitus will undoubtedly be well known to you, that the oracle at Delphi neither speaks nor conceals, but only indicates to the king. For the god worshipped there employs the Pythia to see and hear, as the sun employs the moon. He reveals himself to men by the mortal body and immortal soul of the Pythia, who, however much she may desire to live in quietness, yet cannot remain unmoved during the inspiration of the god, or retain her natural calmness, but is driven about by the movements and strong passions awakened within her, like a ship upon the sea. That which is called enthusiasm appears to be a mixture of two movements; the one acting from without upon the soul, and the other already lying in the nature of the soul itself.

Thus

In the same manner other powers and natures belong to other things, which have each their peculiar movement, although they may be influenced by the same cause. it is impossible that he who knows not a single letter should talk in the language of poets, much less have read poems like the priestesses of the god. She is certainly of good and honourable family, and of an unspotted reputation; but as she was educated at the house of a poor peasant, she entered the oracle without the smallest experience of art or any artistic skill.

We accept as truth, that this god, to reveal his will, employs the voices of herons, wrens, and ravens, without ever requiring that they should, as messengers and heralds of the gods, express everything in words and with a clear voice. The most ancient priestesses delivered their oracles

in prose; but at that age the capabilities and powers of the soul became active through the smallest incitement or irritation of the imagination. To such a degree were men carried away by that which was proper to their nature.

"As regards ambiguity, circumlocution, and obseurity, I am not surprised that the ancients were sometimes compelled to have recourse to them. For those who visited the oracle were not common people, to ask counsel upon a purchase or trade, but powerful states, kings, or princes. To foretell disagreeable events to these would not have been favourable to those connected with the temple; for Apollo does not seem to find it advisable to follow that saying_of Euripides,-Phoebus alone must prophesy to man. He employs mortal men as his servants and prophets; over their safety he must watch, and see that his priests do not come to harm by bad men. He did not wish entirely to suppress the truth, but yet leaves its revelations, like a ray of light, to shine through, and become softened in verses, for the purpose of removing from it everything harsh and unpleasant. Besides, tyrants and enemies may not learn that which stands before them. For them he enveloped his replies in obscurity and conjecture, which concealed the meaning of the oracle to all others, but revealed it to the questioner without deceit."

Those inscriptions on the doors of the Delphian temple, of which the one is E, or Ev, Thou art, and the other, Know thyself, Trwi σeavròv, are of a profound psychological meaning. For the first is an address and welcome to the questioner of Apollo; the second, as it were, the reply. "The first awakens," says Plutarch, "at once a conception of the power of this god, and contains the true, single, and only fitting greeting which is taken from his being."

In writing upon Isis and Osiris, where he treats of the Egyptian mysteries, Pythia informs Manethos that they call the magnet after Horus and iron, the bones of Typhon, to signify the inspiring, healing, and opposing motions.

Of Mercury she says, that he had cut out the nerves of Typhon to use as strings of his harp, to indicate that reason brings the inharmonic to harmony, and does not destroy

their destructive powers, but only perfects it. Further on, the Kyphi is spoken of,-a mixture of sixteen materials, which is prepared according to the prescription of the sacred books, and which, diffusing around an aromatic power and healing vapour, soothes the wearied body into a profound sleep.

SECOND DIVISION.

MAGIC AMONG THE ROMANS.

AMONGST the Romans we find again the medical science of the Greeks and Egyptians, for it was introduced there partly through travellers and fugitives, and partly through the custom of the Romans adopting all foreign deities; besides that the dream-sleep (incubatio) was there used from the very earliest times. 66 Încubare dicuntur proprie hi, qui dormiunt ad accipienda responsa, unde ille incubat Jovi, id est dormit in Capitolio, ut responsa possit accipere" (Servius supra Virgilium.) But even before the introduction of foreign deities, magic was cultivated at the building of Rome by Numa. He is said by magical practices to have brought down Jupiter from heaven, that he might reveal by divine inspiration in what manner the religious service and the sacred rites should be established (Livy, i. 20). The same thing is related by others in different ways. Plutarch, in Numa, says, for example, that at the same time came Launus and Picus, men celebrated for their magic, science, and sorcery, to Italy, and were kindly received by Numa. the manner of Proteus, they could change themselves into different shapes, could compel Jupiter from heaven, and present him before Numa, so that he learned from him the art of performing miracles.

In

The

It is known, too, that the ancient Etruscans, and also the Sabines, had a kind of sacrificial rite by which they could avert storms and receive prophetic visions. Etruscans attributed to certain words and voices the power of enabling them to avert all kinds of evils. They were