accustomed to inscribe Etruscan words on the door-posts, to check and extinguish the outbreak of fire (Festus de verborum significatione, "arse, verre"). The Marsi were, according to Pliny, very skilful in the arts of sorcery, from the most ancient times. They enchanted poisonous serpents, and drew them by their songs from their nocturnal rest. We find also in ancient Rome what we find everywhere and among all people, namely, somnambulic phenomena, elicited in different modes, and magical practices to defend themselves from evil, the nature of which were unknown to men in their rude infancy, whence they were attributed to higher beings, and to which, by degrees, fables of the most absurd kinds were knit up. The Græco-Egyptian medical science, transplanted to Rome, and modified according to the national genius of the Romans, contains peculiarities which are no longer new to us, but which in many respects are remarkable. 66 Podalirius, the son of Esculapius, was very early worshipped by the Daunians as a helper in diseases. They wash themselves in the river Althänus, and, sleeping on rocks, hear the true oracles of the god of medicine." Podalirius, expelled by the burning of Troy to the Ausonian coast, in the territory of the Daunians, continued to practise the healing art, which he had learned from his father. And Strabo says (Strabo, lib. vi.), "In the land of the Daunians of that time the tomb of Podalirius remains, at a hundred stadia from the sea. The water of the river Althänus heals all diseases of cattle. Others also say that to Kalchas, the seer mentioned in the Iliad, a temple was dedicated in Daunia, a province of Italy, where he answered dreamers, and where the inquirers laid themselves down on the skin of a sacrificial wether, in order to obtain prophetic inspirations" (Wolf's Miscellaneous Writings and Essays). In a similar manner the subjects of King Latinus inquired of the oracle of Faunus : "In the Albun abyss, which pours to the nymphs of the woods He who, blessed by the priests, and sleeping on skin of the wether, In the following war of the Rutuli about Trona, the venerable priest Umbro was the only physician amongst the Marubii. He was accustomed to cast into sleep the hordes of adders and the pestilent-breathing Hydra, through magic song and stroking. When at length Æneas himself was wounded, Japys sought to heal him. Apollo had offered him, out of fervent love, his own offices,-divination by birds, the lyre, and the arrows. But he preferred "The virtue of herbs, and the genial methods of healing, And the practice of science secure, of glory regardless." And in consequence the Romans always acknowledged the Etruscans as their teachers in the divine arts of healing and of vaticination, and the interpretation of prognostications was their especial business. For this purpose, twelve Roman youths of the most distinguished families were committed to the care of the Etruscans to be instructed in the mysteries of soothsaying. The inspection of birds was particularly in use in the time of the Romans, and Numa established a College of Augurs, and these in the earliest periods were the physicians of Rome. One of the oldest practices in Rome, by which it was attempted to avert the wrath of the gods and to dissipate diseases, says Sprengel (i. p. 230), consisted in consulting the oracle in the Sibylline books. But, in fact, the Sibylline books were only resorted to in the later ages; in the earliest time the Sibyl herself was applied to, not only in diseases, but in the affairs of state, and in important circumstances of life. In general the name of the Sibyl is not even named; only occasionally an historical inquirer has discovered anything actual concerning her; as an extraordinary apparition, he has deigned her more or less attention, and, according to his judgment, has placed her in the realm of folly, or, but very rarely indeed, amongst well-attested truths. For the history of magnetism there is nothing more requisite in antiquity than a complete history of the Sibyls, which really affords the same testimonies as the oracles, that we may discover magnetism in all ages and in all countries of the world; not, indeed, under its present name, but under the veil of a mysterious science. If we attempt, however, to extract the entire history of magnetism out of the popular books written upon the subject, we shall find ourselves deceived. For this purpose a most laborious research is necessary. Many things in the history of the Sibyls, and particularly à propos to our object, are to be found in the "Bibliothèque du Magnétisme animal, T. H." pp. 154 and 242. I have pursued this inquiry to a voluminous extent, and will here present a condensed summary of what I have discovered. THE SIBYLS. By a Sibyl was understood an oracular woman, who, informed by the divine spirit, foretold future events (Petri Petiti de Sibylla, libri tres). "Sibylla est puella, cujus pectus numen recipit." The word is composed out of σίος, God, according to the Eolian dialect, and Bou, the counsel (Diodorus Sicculus et Origenes)-therefore, God's counsel. According to others it may be derived from oiw, to agitate violently (agito), and Búλλos, full,—that is, full of violent agitation during prophecy (Dissert. sur les Oracles des Sibylles, par G. Crasset, Paris, 1678); because she was generally in a state of violent agitation while she prognosticated. Men have never from that time been able to come to a clear agreement as to the number and age of the Sibyls, their real country, and the period in which they lived. Scarcely any single author can be found who agrees with another on this head. This sufficiently shows that they had no clear idea of the nature of the spirit which inspired these women or maidens. Some authors name one; others two, three, or four; others ten Sibyls. Varro (lib. ix. ad C. Cæsar.), whom St. Augustine styles the most learned and eloquent man amongst the heathen, speaks of ten. With him agree Lactantius (De falsa religione, c. 6) and the greater part of the fathers. Elian (Elian, Toukiλns toropias, lib. xii. c. 35) speaks of four; Solinus three. Pliny also speaks of three, whose statues were to be found in the Capitol in Rome. The three of Solinus are the Delphic, the Erythräic, and the Cumanian. Diodorus of Sicily speaks only of one, whom he calls Daphne. Others call her Mantho, a daughter of Tiresias, who was sent in a sack from Thebes through the Epigonians to Delphi, seven hundred and twenty years before the destruction of Troy (Crasset, l. c.) Plato, in Phædro, speaks also of one (καὶ ἐὰν δή λεγωμεν Σεβύλλαν). And Cicero speaks only of one, both in his work on the Nature of the Gods and on Soothsaying. Plutarch speaks frequently in the plural number, but distinguishes Sibyls from the prophetic women. The dispute about the number of the Sibyls may, however, be decided in the following manner. There is only one prophecy according to nature, one illumination, one counsel of God, but many prophets. There may be many enlightened, though there be only one sunshine, the rays of which produce various effects on various things. The number of soothsayers cannot be, however, by any means determined. Two, three, or ten Sibyls admitted, are much too few: thus far the describers of the Sibyls have all been wrong. But if they speak only of the number of the Sibyls known to them and their cotemporaries, they may all be right. So, for example, Martian Capella heard only of two, Solin of three, but Varro of ten. The nature of the thing itself they did not understand, and could not, therefore, perceive that soothsaying and soothsayers were different, as Petitus had already perceived, when he said-"The spirit of prophecy, like the counsel of God, is only one, but may be exercised by many many may become celebrated through it." Also, in respect to the period, no time is given,-it has always been as the light has ever been. The early age of fable needs, therefore, little defence, as the refuge and the bugbear of confusion and lies. Moreover, we have only one clairvoyance, one inward illumination of the ruling spirit, but many_clairvoyants. If I now enumerate the Sybils mentioned by Varro, their names, and the countries where they more particularly exercised their powers, will become apparent, as well as which of them was the most remarkable. The first is the Persian or Chaldæan. She is said to have been the most ancient, and to have written four-and-twenty books, in which the future, and the birth of Christ, his X sufferings, his death, and resurrection, were proclaimed with the most perfect accuracy (Crasset, 1. c.) The second was the Lybian Sibyl; the third the Delphic, or the Daphne of Diodorus, of whom Homer sings, and to whom the most celebrated oracular sayings of Delphi are attributed. It is clear from this, that many women succeeding each other in the service of the gods, bore the same name; from which circumstance, those who were ignorant of this attributed the age of many to that of one. The fourth, and one of the most celebrated, was the Cumaan Sibyl, who, born in the district of Troy, is said to have gone to Italy, and was held in especial honour by the Romans, because, according to their belief, she foretold the whole destiny of their commonwealth (Plinius, lib. xxxiv. c. 5). Before the arrival of the Cumaan Sibyl in Italy, the people had particularly admired Carmenta, the mother of Evander, for her powers of vaticination (Plin. lib. i.) "Carmenta, quam fatiloquam ante Sibyllæ in Italiam adventum miratæ hac gentes fuerant." Thence the proverb has arisen, when any one speaks of hidden things, "He has spoken with the mother of Evander." Of this Cumaan Sibyl many things are related. Nævius, in his War of Africa, and Piso in his Annals, relate many things of her; and Virgil the poet has given a circumstantial account of this Sibyl. She delivered her oracles before Eneas landed in Italy, being said to dwell in a deep cave in the vicinity of the Avernian lake. She was called a maiden and the priestess of Apollo. She wrote her answers on palm leaves, and laid them in the entrance of the cave, whence they were carried by the winds into the distance. But when she gave her answers orally, she was in the highest state of agitation. Virgil describes this agitated condition in a masterly manner, as you not seldom see it in the crises of the magnetic sleep. She changes her features and the colour of her countenance," says Virgil (Æneid. lib. vi. v. 45, et seq. "Her hair erects itself; her bosom heaves full and panting; and her wild heart beats violently. Her lips foam, and her voice is terrible. As if beside herself, she paces to and fro in her cave, and gesticulates as if she would expel the god out of her breast.' This is the Corybantism which the Greeks, too, describe; the raving divination (divinatio per furorem) which, in attacks of cramp, and especially of hysteric women, is not a very rare occurrence; therefore Aristotle, and many others, styled divi |