propriety of his actions. His circumspect scholar, Xenophon, speaks, in his Apology, of the truthfulness of the Socratic warnings. "I call this the dæmoniac or divine influence, and believe it to be nearer the truth than those divine powers attributed to birds. And that I do not speak falsely of the gods, I am confident from the proofs: I imparted many of their divine warnings to my friends, yet was I never convicted of error." Of this Socratic dæmon many remarkable stories are related at great length in the French "Annales du Magnétisme animale," No. 24, to which the reader is referred for further particulars. "If in Socrates the magnetic instinct was developed more in its own peculiar form, giving evidence of almost somnambulic appearances, Plato's soul, on the contrary, dwelt only in the magnetic sphere, in so far as he felt himself elevated to the contemplation of the divine and to higher inspiration; but this state was enduring, like a continuous stream, not subject to single flashes of divine light" (Thoughts upon Animal Magnetism, p. 76.)

Aristotle, the greatest investigator of nature in antiquity, furnishes us with much in his writings upon the subject of dreams. He speaks of the oracles, de Historiis Animalium, c. 20; in Rhetorica; in Libro de Veneficis, lib. vi. c. 22; de Carminibus et Incantationibus, lib. xxiv. c. 8; de Auguriis, c. i. lib. ix. c. 17; de Vatibus in problemate, sect. 21. "Many," says the latter passage, "who prophesy, have diseases of madness" ("morbis afficiuntur maniacis et lymphaticis, unde Sibyllæ et Bacchides, et qui numine afflati dicuntur, cum morbo tales non fiant, sed naturali temperie").

Even in his theory of dreams, he maintains that prediction is no work of the gods, but a purely natural property of the imagination. Soothsaying is, therefore, not a divine or demoniac work, but entirely a consequence of temperament, and, to this, the melancholy temperament-says Buccafierri, one of the commentators of Aristotle-is the most adapted; the temperament is, however, a gift of nature, and soothsaying is, therefore, natural. "Qui habet habitum melancholicum, habet per se causam prædicendi de futuris, et ideo per istum habitum prophetia erit secundum naturam, et melancholicus habitus erit pro propheta naturaliter, quis

ille habitus est naturalis," Lud. Buccafierri, Lectiones in Aristotelis libros, Venetiis, 1570, p. 102.

One of the most severe and able followers of Pythagoras, who made himself so renowned by his miraculous cures and magical arts, that his name even now produces terror, was Apollonius of Tyana. He is the first of whom it can be said that his cures and teachings were purely magnetic. In his sixteenth year he commenced his travels with intent to visit the temples of various countries, and become initiated in their various secrets. Philostratus, who has described his life very minutely, says that Apollonius visited the Temple of Esculapius at Egea; the Oracles of Amphiaraus, Delphi, and Dodona; the Magi of Nineveh and Babylon; the Brahmins of India, Eygpt, Ethiopia, Crete, Sicily, and Rome; and lastly, remained some time at Smyrna, Ephesus, and Tyana; and that he died in the year 96 after Christ, at about one hundred years of age. Wherever he went he incited to piety, to prayer, and morality; cured the most dangerous diseases with miraculous power, and predicted futurity; on which account he was even placed by the heathens in contrast to Christ; and because nothing certain was known of his death, the inhabitants of Tyana declared him to be immortal; they dedicated a temple in their town to him, and his likeness was hung up in many temples. The Emperor Antonius Caracalla worshipped him as divine; and Alexander Severus and other emperors showed him great honour and esteem; and the first also placed him among his household gods, which included many sacred persons-Christ, Abraham, and Orpheus (Lampiad. in Alex. Sever. c. 29.)

During the raging of a plague at Ephesus, he was called upon to arrest the evil; he hastened to the spot, and the plague ceased on his arrival. It was often not necessary for him to be present, and he could heal the sick at several places at the same time (Philost. de vita Apollonii, iv. c. 10). His talismans also performed no small wonders, as they are said not only to have restrained disease, but also had power over the winds and the storms of the ocean. It would occupy too much space to enumerate all his cures and predictions, which often border on the incredible; but it is worth while to become somewhat more intimately acquainted with his philosophy.

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As at that time magic was severely forbidden by the emperor and the council (senatus-consultus) as dishonourable, Apollonius endeavoured to uphold magic in all its dignity. He, however, made a proper distinction between magic and sorcery, and admited, as a true Pythagorean, that he held the doctrines and laws of Pythagoras, and also his ability to perform the wonders of Pythagoras, though not by sorcery, as was supposed, but by the aid and assistance of science and nature. Under magic Apollonius understood that power which acts through sacrifice, sacred ceremonies, and words, and in this sense may be called magic. But Apollonius does not speak of demons and spirits and their varieties as the New-Platonists are accustomed to do. "A sorcerer," says he, am I not; but a better man, sustained by God in all my actions. Sacrifices have I no need of; for God is always present to me and fulfils my wishes, so that I leave all those cheats and evil-doers far behind me (circulatores istos atque nebulones longo post me intervallo relinquo). This art is not possessed by those who only exercise the powers of the body, and strive madly after the victory. On this account the acts of these sorcerers are in the houses of traders; we see their gains attributed to the sorcerer,—their losses to their parsimony. On this account sorcery has attracted and inflamed many admirers, so that in sickness they even rely upon it, and counsel with old women, who offer them Indian spices or stones from the bowels of the earth or fallen from the moon or the stars. Even persons who laughed at these things have endeavoured to prove how they may be performed. I, however, believe, from firm conviction, that young people should not even speak with such persons, that they may not accustom themselves to such arts, in joke or amusement" (Philostrat. i.) By this severe distinction true magic was elevated from dishonour to the highest esteem.

Every art," says he in his defence, "beyond true philosophy, is directed to the collecting of riches. There is therefore a species of false sages, whom thou must not confound with those who truthfully prophesy. The prediction, if it be true, is of the highest value; but whether to call this an art or not, I cannot tell. I call sorcerers false sages,

for these only are attracted by riches, which I have always despised, so that I cannot be reproached with them. I did not invent my wisdom, but received it as a species of heirloom from Pythagoras, whose commands and regulations I follow (Philostrat. viii. c. 3, 4.) I wear a robe of linen, which, as well as being conducive to cleanliness, also produces more truthful dreams. Between God and men exists a bond of relationship; and by this is man in some measure a participator in the divine nature. All are convinced that the powers of the mind and the soul are derived from God, and that those are nearest to God who are most richly endowed with them. The Indian wisdom, to which the Egyptian is related, says, that God created all, and the cause of creation was the goodness of God. If God is therefore good, we may consider a good man as participating in the spirit of God. To what this leads he shall know who is acquainted with the philosophy of the Eclectics" (c. 7.)

The philosophy of Apollonius is purely Platonic and Pythagorean. All comes from God; our soul is a portion of God's being, and is only deformed and separated from God by matter, but may again approach God and the divine powers; and may regain the divine power of performing wonders, as soon as it is purified from the dross of matter, and become again filled with the original inborn radiance. His own words upon this subject are remarkable—“ My mode of life is very different from that of other people; I take very little food, and this, like a secret remedy, maintains my senses fresh and unimpaired, as it keeps everything that is dark from them, so that I can see the present and future as it were in a clear mirror. The sage need not wait for the vapours of the earth, and corruption of the air, to foresee plague diseases; he must know them later than God, but before the people. The gods see the future, men the present, sages that which is coming. This mode of life produces such an acuteness of the senses, or some other powers, that the greatest and most remarkable things may be performed (c. vii. 2, 9.) I am, therefore, perfectly convinced that God reveals his intentions to holy and wise men."

Acute and far-seeing investigators of antiquity recognise the conditions of the magical state as natural appearances,

so that they regarded the prediction of future events, and the influence at a distance, as rare developments of the inward ability of the human soul, but at the same time as a natural phenomenon of the same. In the treatises upon the decline of the oracles, upon the inscription E in the temple at Delphi; upon the Pythia no longer delivered her sentences in verse- -and upon Isis and Osiris, Plutarch brings forward in the form of dialogues the various causes in a very instructive manner. I shall make a somewhat long extract from Plutarch's moral writings, translated by Kaltwasser, to show in what manner these somnambulic conditions were recognised, and how even then the most varied and opposite ones were sustained with philosophical reason.

"The admonition," says Demetrius, in the first treatise, "which Lamprias has given us, is well founded; for, as Euripides says, the gods deceive us by many shapes, not of fallacies, but of things themselves, if we consider ourselves wise enough to decide upon subjects of such importance. It has already been said that the oracles, when they are deserted by the dæmons, lie like unused musical instruments, inactive and voiceless. This leads us to a much more important question regarding the causes and power by means of which the dæmons render prophets capable of receiving enthusiasm and communicate to them representations of future things."

"Do you imagine," replied Ammonius, "that the dæmons are anything else than souls, which, as Hesiod says, wander through the atmosphere? I always believe that a soul which is united with a body suitable to this world, is only to be distinguished, as one man from another man, playing comic or tragic parts. It is, therefore, neither unreasonable nor strange that souls should come to souls, and impart to them conceptions of future things, occasionally by letters, or by a mere touch, or by a glance, reveal to them past events or announce future ones." Upon the prayer of Ammonius and others that he would give his opinion unreservedly, Lamprias continued thus:

"If the unembodied souls are, according to Hesiod's opinion, dæmons, holy inhabitants of the earth and guardians of mortal men, why should we seek to deprive these souls which are still in the body of that power, by which the