T H E APOCATASTASIS; OR PROGRESS BACKWARDS. A NEW "TRACT FOR THE TIMES." BY THE AUTHOR. rlav 6s To xOvouvlvov, xcus Xpovou ~.r-sXov, U6zov ov, XpramI 1sp o(osF. xa t 8plo6txXg vcvaOuxvXsiTtr xzti toxStig-cturat wro,wv aturwv Er1 TC' aruaCL d0Xov0mr. Proclus, Institut. Theol. C. cxcviii. TRANSLATION.-Whatever, having a permanent being, ( folly for instance, ) nevertheless partakes of the vicissitudes of time, and is moveable, useth periods is circularly moved, and manifestly, hath its Apocatastasis from the same to the same. BURLINGTON: B U R L I N G T O N: CHAUNCEY GOODRICH. 1854. Entered according to act of Congress, by CHAUNCEY GOODRICH, In the Clerk's Office in the District of Vermont in the year 1854. CHAPTER I. Fata quoque, et vitas hominum suspendit ab astris. Manilii Astronomicon, iii. 58. Agspsg oupcvioi, Nux'og QsXa'rexVa c bsXavsk jg sy7xvx.og5 61v1o61,rspiOpoviot xvxXsovTi-s avraovyEsg,'ruposVrEsg assn 7ysvs.-'pEsg agca.vroV Io.p8Ltoi, aarC5 og iprsg ~cravcopsg ovs~g' vrruv avSpwxtv hstv 61strQovESg aWrmptov: shexr', Orphica H. vii. 3-7. Ye stars celestial! Children of black Night, Wheeling, enthroned sublime, in circling Orbs, Effulgent, genitors of all events, Who Fate obey, and who all fates dispose, Their lot appointing unto mortal men, All hail! "The sun ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to his place where he arose. The wind goeth toward the south and turneth about unto the north, it whirleth about continually; and the wind returneth again according to his circuits. All the rivers run into the sea, yet the sea is not full; unto the place from whence the rivers came, thither they return again. 4 The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is (lone is that which shall be done; and there is no new thing under the sun. Is there anything whereof it may be said, See, this is new? it hath been already of old time, which was before us." (Solomon.) The Preacher, doubtless, speaks truth here, yet he speaks somewhat superficially, or as a mere outside observer. lie does not unveil the causes, and announce to us the Law in obedience to which all terrestrial things not only "flow" but revolve, evermore moving onward, and onward, without let or stay, yet evermore returning, and coming round, full circle, to the points through which, before, many times, it may be, they have already passed. Perhaps he had not investigated the subject,-being of pretty extensive business engagementsand having, besides, much other literary work on hand: or perhaps the mere " weariness to the flesh," induced by "' much study," which extorted "'vanity of v-anities! all is vanity!"'of making books there is no end," may have made him content to assert the bare fact, of the incessant and stale iteration of things, while he was not in the mood to go into explanations, which, nevertheless, he may have been very competent to give. His silence, however, from whatever cause it may have originated, is the less to be regretted, because other wise men have spoken fully to the point which Solomon overlooked or neglected. "' The blessed body which revolves in a circle, (the visible heavens,) is the cause of the events in the sublunary world. For both are parts of the universe, and they have a certain relation to each other. If, therefore, the cause of generation in the things which surround us, originates in the natures which are above us, it follows that the seeds of things which happen here, descend from thence. And if some one should add, since astronomy gives credibility to this, that there are apocatastatic periods of the stars and spheres, some of which are simple but others compounded, such a one will partly accord with the Egyptians, and partly with the Grecians. A man of this kind, therefore, will not deny that in consequence of the same motions returning, effects also will return together with their causes; and that lives on the earth, generations, educations, dispositions and fortunes, will be the same with those that formerly existed." (Synesius de Providentia.)These apocatastatic periods (spioasoi, completed revolutions,) of the stars or spheres are of several kinds, as intimated in the above extract, and of course come round at different intervals. Two of the heavenly bodies may come to have the same relative position to each other which they had at some preceding time; as when the earth, at any given point of its orbit, has the same relation to the sun which it had a year before;-or the earth, sun, and moon; or these with one, or with more than one, of the planets, may come to the same relative position which they have been in before, and this, happening at different intervals for each combination of bodies, will be, for each combination, their apocatastatic period. Or the entire number of astronomical bodies may come to the same relative position they have had before. "The end therefore of the mundane year is, when all the planets and all the fixed stars have returned from a certain place to the same place, so that no star in the heavens may be situated in a place different from that in which it was before.. ".".. * This, however, according to the decision of physiologists, will take place at the expiration of 15,000 years. X X *' This year, therefore, is called the truly revolving year" &c. (AMacrobius, in Somn. Scip. lib. ii.) According to Firmicius, (Mathesis lib. iii) this is called the greater apocatastasis, and consists of 300,000 years. If then we suppose this period to commence from the present position of the heavens, all events on the earth for the next 300,000 years, or 15,000 years, the difference is not much, will be identically the same that they have been for the last 300,000, or 15,000 years. The successive apocatastatic periods of smaller numbers of heavenly bodies, instead of producing the same, will produce similar sublunary events, and these will be like in proportion to the number and sameness of siderial powers which combine to produce them. So much, and it would seem 6 to be sufficient, as of unquestionable authority, we may rely upon, without the aid of Solomon, in explanation of his assertion of the perpeutual reiteration of things under the sun. But not only are these periods different in duration, but they are different in the character and quality of the terrestrial effects they produce; the periods of different stars or combinations of stars, bringing about cifferent results,-those of the same, the same, or similar results. " Not only with respect to terrestrial plants, but likewise in terrestrial animals, a fertility and sterility of soul as well as of body takes place, when the revolutions of the heavenly bodlies complete the periphery of their respective orbits; which are shorter to the shorter lived, and contrarywise to such as are the contrary." (Plato, de Republica, viii.) That is, the apocatastatic periods of some stars are shorter, and of others longer; those of some are periods of sterility and degeneracy of men, animals, and plants; those of others, periods of fertility and excellence. Thus, though the great cycle of 300,000 years is constantly repeating itself with all its same sublunary events, this does not prevent that it may include within itself many smaller revolutions which repeat themselves, with their similar terrestrial results, at various intervals; in flact it consists of these shorter circumvolutions: " With centric and eccentric scribbled o'er, Cycle and epicycle, orb in orb." witness, as the celestial orbs revolve, and come to their various apocatastatic positions,the constant repetition of night and day; the return of similar seasons; the emergence from barbarism, the culmination, and the decay, of nations-return to the same point of barbarism from whence they started; and this process repeating itself perpetually in the same nations, the several mutations exhibiting essentially the same phases at each successive revolution. Yet these historico-dramatic exhibitions of terrestrial events will be the same with a difference,-the players are different, or if they are the same (Plato, de Repub. Lib. X) they are, unfortunately, not permitted to remember how they played before; and then in every large but partial cycle there may be some adjacent body which holds a different relation to it at different revolutions; or some interloping comet may cross the orbit of the period, modifying or dislocating its history at some points. We are not, therefore, to understand Solomon quite literally. We are not to expect, in comparing one partial apocatastatic period with another, or rather, the samle period with itself in its successive revolutions, to find, in earthly relations,. an exact parallel and identity. It is sufficient if we recognize a strong family likeness, a characteristic resemblance in most things, although there may be decided otherness in others, owing to temporary, accidental disturbing influences. Or single traits of the most decided similarity may characterize two successive periods, traits which may be quite accidental, and foreign to their true physiognomy and which may disappear in the third; as where the tails of two different but equal comets happen to pass severally across the same portion of their orbit during the two contiguous revolutions. In order to ascertain, in regard to two historical periods which remind us of one another, whether they are really apocatastatic, it is not always necessary to consult the astronomers, or the astrological doctors, to know whether their beginnings coincide chronologically with the apocatastatic position, and as it were, meeting in conclave, of the same celestial notabilities; it will be sufficient to determine by inspection whether they both belong to Plato's periods, either of fertility or of sterility, that is, whether they are both fertile or both barren periods in the Platonic sense. And by way of example and specimen of such periods, and of the proper method of detecting them, I will make a quotation from a most learned and very extraordinary man, one peculiarly well qualified to have an opinion in such abstruse matters, a sort of christian heathen, in the midst of Christendom in the nineteenth century, a man who honestly and manfully went over from Jehovah to Jupiter, a Julian on a small scale. Listen to his profession of faith in a Note on the following passage in his translation of Marinus' Life of Proclus. "But he purified himself every month, by the sacred rites in honour of the mother of the gods, celebrated by the Romans, and prior to them by the Phrygians: he like wise more diligently observed the unfortunate days of the Egyptians, than they themselves; and besides this, fasted on certain days in a peculiar manner on account of the lunar appearances." So far from the Life; —the Note is as follows: "A genuine modern will doubtless consider the whole of Proclus' religious conduct as ridiculously superstitious. And so, indeed, at first sight, it appears; but he who has penetrated the depths of ancient wisdom, will find in it more than meets the vulgar ear. The religion of the Heathens, has indeed, for many centuries, been the object of ridicule and contempt; yet the author of the present work is not ashamed to own, that he is a perfect convert to it in, every particular, so far as it was understood and illustrated by the Pythagoric and Platonic Philosophers." I have called the author of the above an extraordinary man, not because a christian heathen is anything extraordinary at the present titme, they are thick as autumn leaves, but because few of them have the imagnanimiit y to renounce their baptism, and profess publicly their adhesion to the "Dii Majores et gentium." I desire, however, to take this occasion to acknowledge my obligations to the gentleman in question, —not for his heathenism but for his learning-for I shall often, in the course of this work, find it much more convenient to use his translations than to make them for myself, besides that, in many cases, the originals are not within my reach. Where I cannot avail myself of his aid I must not be expected to translate with his admirable closeness to the original; I shall however hope to give the true meaning of the passages cited, or where I amn in doubt I will give the original itself. Such show of learning is not to my taste, but in the present instance, as the reader will perceive bye and bye, it appears to be unavoidable. But to the promised quotation."The different periods in which these mutations happen, are called by Plato, with great propriety, periods of fertility and sterility; for in these periods a fertility or sterility of men, irrational animals, and plants, takes place; so that in fertile periods mankind will be both more numerous, and upon the whole, superior in mental and bodily endowments, to the men 9 of a barren period. And a similar reasoning must be extended to animals and plants. The so much celebrated heroic age was the result of one of these fertile periods, in which men, transcending the herd of mankind, both in practical and intellectual virtue, abounded on the earth. And a barren period may be considered as having commenced somewhat prior to the Augustan age, the destruction of all the great cities, with all their rites, philosophy, &c., being the natural consequence of such a period. It appears to me that this period commenced in the time of Sylla, and I found this opinion on the following passage in Plutarch's life of that great commander. "But the greatest of all (the signs prior to the civil wars) was the following: On a cloudless and clear day, the sound of a trumpet was heard, so acute, and mournful, as to astonish and terrify by its loudness, all that heard it. The Tuscan wise men and soothsayers, therefore, declared that this prodigy signified the mutation into, and commencement of another age.For, according to them, there are eight ages, differing from each other in lives and manners, each of which is limited by divinity to a certain time of duration, and the number of years of which this time consists is bounded by the period of the great year. Hence when one age is finished, and another is about to commence, a certain wonderful sign will present itself, either from the earth or the heavens. The mournfulness of this sound of the trumpet was evidently an indication that a barren period was about to commence." (Thomas Taylor, Translation of Firmicius, Note d.) Thus we find the weight of authority in favor of the controling influence of apocatastatic periods to be very great, and we need no longer be in doubt in regard to the reasons of the iterations of things earthly. We see too why the smaller cycles of events may repeat themselves with a difference, for only the "'greater aFoatastasis" can have all its relation identically the same. It is manifest too, that the same apocatastatic series may take place in one part of the earth in one period. and in another part of it in the next period. For, suppose the earth itself not to be one of the celestial bodies whose 2 10 return to their apocatastatic position is to give character to the period in question; it follows that the earth may be in different parts of its annual orbit, and of its diurnal revolution, at the two successive apocatastatic moments or points of time, that is, for I wish to be understood, at the instant of one apocatastatic position of the stars that rule the period, the earth may be in one place, and at the next apocatastasis of the same stars, in another place. Hence, plainly, if the "seeds of things which happen here descend from thence," and the apocatastatic moment is the seed-time; the seeds which descend may, at different apocatastases, fall upon different parts of the earth's surface; so that events which before happened in one hemisphere, may have their second rehearsal in the other; or what was before in one longitude may have its next event in another. Hence, too, the same specific events, products of the same "seeds," may exhibit widely differing varieties at the different plantings; just as specifically the same tree in Italy will differ from itself in America, and that at the base of a mountain will be quite unlike itself at the top. But whither, quoth the practical reader, does this talk tend? Do you not, then, immediately perceive, my sagacious friend, that its direction is towards the most practical results imaginable? For, if it were made known to you that on Wednesday next you were to start a journey, would you not be looking after your trunks? Or if a voyage were announced, would you not hasten to provide sea stores? Does not the husbandman, in winter, make ready for the joyous labors of spring, because he knows that the apocatastasis of the earth and sun will then open his fields for cultivation? Does not the merchant raise his wharves above the ordinary level of the Ocean, and even above that of everyday tides, because he foresees that the return of the Sun and Moon to certain former relative positions will be attended with high water? But these are small influences of one or two astronomical bodies, repeated at short intervals; how much more, then, where numbers of the celestial spheres meet in solemn conclave to determine again, and predetermine, the whole series of earthly events, it may be, for a 11 thousand years, not only in the physical and physiological, but in the intellectual and moral regions; —how much more, could that order of events be foreknown to men as they fore know the succession of the seasons and the times of the tides, might such a knowledge be of the utmost practical value to mankind. If, then, by the aid of the genethliaci, or other mathematical and star-gazing people, or by other means, as intimated and exemplified in the quotation from Mr. Thomas Taylor, it could be certainly determined to what historic period our own, for instance, holds apocatastatic relation; what a chart were it in this uncertain sea, for the statesman, the philanthropist, the divine, and indeed for all men. How might nations provide for foreseen collisions with other nations, or guard themselves, like the prescient ruler of Egypt, against a coming scarcity; —how might the philanthropist prepare and adapt his charities to the very needs that were about to demand them;-the physician prearm himself to do battle with the pestilence which he saw in the distance;-the divine furnish himself with arguments wherewith to combat the errors, delusions, and false religions, the character of which, and the time of whose arrival he knew beforehand;-how might the fortunate man be more than doubly fortunate in the preenjoyment of his coming prosperity;-and the unfortunate strengthen himself against evils which he saw to be inevitable. How might it not be, for all men, almost as if each individual should be permitted to repeat his own life, in order to avail himself of the experience acquired in his first crude and unsatisfactory experiment, in order not to do what he had before done wrong, and to do better what little i? any he might have done well;-which, who would not rejoice at the opportunity of attempting? Do you, 0, doubting reader, doubt the reality of such apocatastatic repetitions of terrestrial events? how then do you account for the solemn asseveration of Solomon? or what presumption must you be possessed of if you yield not to the authority of the " divine Plato," the " divine Plutarch," the " di 12 vine Proclus," the " divine Iamblichus," and the Divine, Synesius, who was besides a bishop. Or do you profanely answer me that if all events on earth are thus planted and predetermined by the celestial conclaves, the "conscia fati sidera," that human foreknowledge cannot avail to alter or avoid what is preordained to be? my unthinking friend, you are like a non-orthodox sinner caviling at the foreknowledge of God, which as any old theologian can inform you, is one of the most pregnant signs of reprobation. CHAPTER II. Look here, upon this picture, and on this; The counterfeit presentment of two brothers. HAMLET. Inasmuch, therefore, as it has now been sufficiently demonstrated, to all men capable of appreciating an argument, that all mundane, and especially all sublunary, and terrestrial, affairs recur, come back, and copy themselves apocatastatically, as the tides follow the moon incessantly round the earth; and since it must be obvious to all properly disciplined, and truly thoughtful, minds,-notwithstanding the irreverent scoffs of shallow sciolists,-that a knowledge of its apocatastatic where — abouts may be, to any age or nation, of unspeakable practical value; may I, benevolent reader, in your opinion, hope to be' pardoned, if pardon it need, for what, doubtless to many, may look like a very presumptuous attempt, viz: the philanthropic attempt to point out to this age, and to this nation especially, its true apocatastatic relations to the past. First of all, then, is the present, a fertile period in the Platonic sense, or is it a period of sterility; that is, according to Plato's own commentary upon himself, a period of dissolution, degeneracy, and corruption (9Oop-a)? It is to be remembered that the baleful influence of the conjunction of malignant stars extends to animals, and plants, and to all social institutions, 14 as well as to men personally. (See Repub. Lib. viii.) To begin with the vegetable kingdom,-witness the late Irish famine; and do not the dealers in flour already announce the approach of another? and more than ten famines, as likely to result in a standing famine, and, a thousand years hence to stand forth as the great historic event characteristic of the present times; witness the potato-rot!! Besides, all men must have observed that certain species of trees, in all places, and in all circumstances, seem to be struck with a fatal blight, as if a curse had been pronounced upon their race. Witness also the exorbitant prices of all articles of human food, that infallible criterion of scarcity: and I think that, without further proof, it must be acknowledged that the present is anything but a fertile period for the vegetable, and of course for the animal world. For can beasts flourish without browse, or men be prolific without potatoes? In regard to the human race moreover,-witness that terrible, and so often repeated scourge, of Cholera, and the hitherto unusual extent and malignity of yellow fever; and are not these sufficient evidence of the moral as well as of the physiological degeneracy and corruption of the present race of men? And, then, consider the institutions of the present; are not all the thrones of the old world trembling like an aspen in the wind, or at least so aguishly disposed that they shake " at the shaking of a leaf?" and are not we on the very verge of the dissolution of the Union? All things tend to change, that is, to dissolution, decay, corruption; it is manifest therefore, that we have entered upon one of Plato's periods of sterility. What historic period, then, is calculated to remind us of the present time? of what period have the characteristic features and lineaments a strong family resemblance to those of the present? Do not all men of historic reading turn at once to the latter times of the Roman Republic? Has there ever been on earth any other republic with which our own can be for a moment paralleled? Thanks to Plutarch, and Mr. Thomas Taylor, we know that that also was a period of sterility, and also, still more fortunately, the very apocatastatic 15 point of time at which it commenced; for it would avail us very little to know to what apocatastatic period we have succeeded, unless we can also ascertain in what part of its orbit we are now situated. But in order to arrive at this indispensable condition of available knowledge, it becomes necessary to determine also when the succeeding period, that is our own, had its commencement. From what date, now-or have we any date, from which to settle so nice a point of chronology? I fear we shall not be able to find any record of the repetition of that loud and mournful sound of a trumpet "on a cloudless and clear day," which heralded the birth, and indicated the exact moment of the advent, of our apocatastatic elder brother, (that is, provided we prove our relationship). And had there been such,-unless we are further advanced into the period than I incline to think,-beyond all doubt, the second advent people would not have failed to make a note of it. It is not however necessary, as I understand the Tuscan wise men, that identically the same wonderful sign should present itself at the ushering in of each corresponding period, but only that some equivalent sign should manifest itself from the earth or the heavens. It is recorded by the elder Pliny, (Natur. Histor. Lib. ii. 58) who also mentions the sound of the trumpet spoken of by Plutarch, that, about the same time, there was heard in the sky sounds as of a battle, and that armies were actually seen to approach each other and fight in the heavens. Now unless I remember incorrectly, it was recorded not more than thirty years ago, that, "on a cloudless and clear day" as I believe, there was heard in the heavens a pretty smart cannonading, and I think armies were seen also at this time. The portent was supposed, at the time, if I remember, to have some relation to some of the Creek or Seminole wars, while in fact it might have been intended to announce much more important events. But as this "sign," though perhaps as "wonderful," is not quite as well attested as that recorded by Pliny and Plutarch, it will not perhaps be safe to rely wholly upon it as a chronological, or apocatastatical, starting point, on an occasion of so much importance. 16 How, then, shall we find our initial point? A sarcastic whig proposes a solution of the difficulty which looks extremely plausible, and which, so far as I know, does not violate any law of interpretation laid down for such cases. I am so well pleased with his theory that I propose to adopt it, but as I am not a fighting man, in case I should, instead of being, in the usual slang, newspaper way, called u)pon, be politely called out, to defend it, I expect he will have the goodness to take my place. He says, then, that Sylla, being a consummate general and Consul, that is president of the Roman Republic, is to be considered a historical, or representative character, and that, as the period of sterility to which our own may prove to be second, is known to have begun in his time, we must, therefore, look for some corresponding representative individual of our own time. That is, we must find somae individual holding equivalent offices in the Republic, and whose public or representative acts, moreover, correspond to those of Sylla. What, then, did Sylla? My friend says that he began " new measures" in the State by putting to death two of his enemries, or those who were setting on his enemies; —he does not say whether they were hanged, —that he first set the example of proscription, for opinion's sake, on a large scale; that he made himself Dictator; that he trampled not only on his enemies, but on all the other departments of the government; and that, instead of executing the laws, he administered tIhe constilution, as he understood it. And I think it must be confessed that history bears him out. He says moreover, with a lurking smile, which is rather a sneer, as if he himself may perhaps have been among the proscribed, that it is no slight confirmation of the correctness of his theory, that there has been an individual in our time, holding the same offices, and in all his public acts and relations copying so exactly1 this " old Roman," that, even without naming him, there isl not a man in the United States who does not at once recognize the portrait; that the public character and conduct of the ole are so perLect a counterpart of those of the other, that it is impossible to account 17 for it except on the supposition of an apocatastatic " damnable iteration." Here, then, we have been enabled, with apparent certainty, to fix upon exactly corresponding and coincident points in the two periods, which, of course, determines their chronological relations throughout; for any other such points are equally available for that purpose as the initial points. We may, therefore, feel quite independent of any "certain wonderful sign," either from the earth or the heavens, as it is no longer of consequence to us whether it was accurately observed and recorded or not. Let us now suppose, for the present, that the historic and representative acts of our "old Roman" president are really, what they are apparently, apocatastatic copies, or repetitions, and we have not only coincident points of the two periods having apocatastatic relation, but those points are obviously-if any one may feel curious in that regard,-very near their respective beginnings; probably a little posterior, for the "mournful sound of the trumpet," according to Pliny, was heard during the Cimbric war, which was some years before the first consulship of Sylla, and this also is not at all discordant with the time mentioned by Plutarch; and we are prepared for a somewhat more detailed comparison and parallelism of the two periods assumed, to see whether they can really make out their apocatastatic identity. And first, and most strikingly characteristic, standing out from the historic canvass, obvious even to the blind, are the two grand, haughty, all-absorbing, overshadowing, Republics!! The thoughtful reader will also take note that these Republics are not only wonderfully parallel in all their essential relations-for how they may have happened to be in different parts of the earth has already been explained,-but also that they are unique, having no similarity to anything except to each other;-for their third preceding advent lies beyond the horizon of history, with the Trojan wars &c., "before Agamemnon," devoured, record and all, by that old Saturn, who, swine like, eats up his own offspring. In their attitude towards1 and treatment of; Other nations 18 and governments, how are these Republics, as it were, the reflected images of each other. To compare here only charac teristic traits and actions, which will b)e sufficient.-did no Gen. Jackson whip the British in a pitched battle, as Syll. did Mithridates? did not another of our great generals con quer and reduce to a province of the Republic a great part o Mexico, as Caesar did Gaul? and as the Romans gained ex tensive possessions beyond the Alps and the Rhine, so hasy not we beyond the Rocky Mountains and the Rio del Norte and as the Romans insulted all the Kings of the East, eve the " Great King," so have not we bearded, and snubbed, th emperor of Austria, and called the Czar by opprobriol names? and as the Romans welcomed rel)els from other State and received from them accusations against their own goveri ments, so do not we? and as the kings of the former perio trembled, at the very name of Rome. so dares the preser batch more than open its mouth and peep, at us? Consider also the conmmerce of the ancient republic. At period a little posterior to the time of Sylla, how immllense, t supply the incredible luxury of Italy, must have been, by tI way of Alexandria and the Red Sea, the traffic with India and are we not about to parallel that traffic with the sawr countries by the way of San Francisco and the Pacific, 1 supply the same insatiable vanity and gluttony? So much for the foreign relations of our illustrious pred{ cessor. And if we examine the two States interiorly we shai find the resemblance not less striking. In the ancient Repul: lie, especially after that "'mournful sound of the trumpet announced the period of sterility, corruption and decay. -'wha weary and sickening selfishness, mutual proscription, and utter annihilation of all patriotism in the politicians of all parties who floated, like scumn upon dirty water, on the surface ol the body politic! This state of political morality, we imay say of all morality, was happily characterized by the convenient phrase, "omnia venalia Romae," all things, and all men. had their price, and were in the market at the se..n' I 9 highest bidder. l-ere too, alas! —ny l whlig friend says fronl the time of the m-an wllo walked, step for step; track f-r1- track in the footprints of Syl.(a thle Dictator,-tlhe paraillel is so disgustin(oly complete and perfect, tlhat we can only point to it and exclaim, withl aerted face, mournfully as that solemn trumpet could have uttered its warlining note: alter et ilel alter et idem! an.-iother -et tJhe sa..me- anol:er-; yet the same! At the same ti-e, wLhat a deve-lopme'nt, t-ierle was of' the a - daptive faculty, of wvhat mny be called the scienlce of corntrivance, that instinctive tact which provides for the indolent ease, and con-venience, of a rich and luxurious pep)ple; its products so splendid and gorgeous, so magnificent, and in many respects, so exquisitely comfortale c ——.at least for those who were not emnployed in putting up the fsixinTs —tlat they must be supposed to have been patented. certainly some of them, ill a part of the period at which we have not yet quite arrived.And then, in regard to public imiprovements and facilities; on what a grand scale were they projectedl, and with what scientific precision and perfection finished, in those days. Witness their broad highwtays, constructed of solid mason-work, threading in all directions the republic andl its provinces, extending even to the far wvestern oceant, passing through mountains, and across largest streams by bildges which still remain; their aqueducts, by which whole rivers were made to flow, high above the surface of the earth, and pour their limpid treasures into the "eternal," and other cities; and also their associate washing, and soapsavinlg, estalblisliments, called public baths, at that time. And are not we competingr with them, though yet not fully, in all these, and such like particulars? and do we not christen ourselves the " Ao e of Progress," exclusively because of our "going ahead" in these very same directions I Though our road has not yet reached the western ocean. If we look still more interiorly into the everyday life of our great prototype we fiid'there as here, then as now, that most incredible of all meeting of extremnes, men esenting with the most indignant pride and haughty jealously the least en Z:r i 20 croachment upon their freedom, surrounded by, and domineering over, with the most relentless tyranny, men whom they had deprived of all personal liberty. The highest freedom delighting in, and reposing upon the foul bosom of, the lowest slavery!! what a paradox then! what a paradox now! Then, as now, they had their foreign slave trade; then, as now, their domestic slave trade also; —and ah! how many parallels to the most touching and tragic tales of " Uncle Tom," and his "Key," then lacked a historian. But more interior still, and infinitely more important, as underlying, modifying, and to a great extent controling, and giving their essential character to, all other relations, is the religious relation of men. Under which general term is to be included the sum of their belief and opinions, both positive and negative, not only in regard to their moral responsibility, and future or present accountability to a Divine Judgment seat and Judge or Judges, and in regard to their practical duties to Him or to them, to God, or to "the gods;" but also in regard to their relations to other spiritual beings of whatever kind, superhuman, infrahuman, or extrahuman, or to the disembodied, or unembodied, spirits of men. The opinions and belief of men in regard to this class of relations are the foundation and substratum, or rather the specific germ, of the whole huinman life, both of the individual man, and of communities and states. " The seeds" of all outward acts and conduct, not pertaining to the mere animal life, " descend from thence." "Here," some one will interpose and say; "here, Mr. Author, your parallel altogether fails, or comes short." Not too fast, my impatient reader, just here it is, on the contrary, in my opinion, that the parallel is most complete. For what was the characteristic, all inclusive, overshadowing theological dogma of the ancient times we are speaking of? " Jupiter est quodcunque vides." And of this deification of the all, the deification of the parts, was a perfectly natural consequence; that is, pantheism leads inevitably to polytheism. Accordinglyj the ancients worshiped the Powers of nature; un 21 der various forms, and with various rites, consonant to their supposed attributes. And is not pantheism in our time also, proclaimed from high places, and from low places, and practically believed in, in all places, and by the same name of "Nature" under which it was formerly veiled? The Powers of Nature too, somewhat better known perhaps than in the former period, and coerced to do the bidding of man by a stronger magic than that of the ancient theurgists, still, are they not equally believed in, trusted in, worshiped, in fact, and equally as in the ancient time, to the exclusion of the idea of a God to whom could be offered truly spiritual homage? and have we not the same natural result, viz: the same essential atheism? for pantheism, polytheism, and atheism, are reciprocally cause and effect, and are equivalent terms, or rather the same thing under different names, or Atheism is the identity or middle term, of which Pantheism and Polytheism are the extremes. In regard to our supposed relations to other spiritual beings, especially to disembodied spirits, or the spirits of dead men, the parallel is, if possible still more perfect. The ancients believed that the souls of the dead had much power and influence in human affairs, and that they could communicate with the living in various ways. The Romans therefore had their household divinities, which were the spirits of their dead ancestors, presiding over the fortunes of the family, and which could be consulted in case of doubt or difficulty by their descendants. They had, besides, inunmerable oracles of the dead, fanes, temples, where the spirits of particular, distin" guished individuals, could, at any time, give response in regard to things present or future. In addition to these sources of information from the "spirit world," there were men and women, numerous as the spawn of Egypt, they were, in fact, in great part, the spawn of Egyt, by whose aid all sorts of spirits could be evoked and consulted at the pleasure of the questioner. Is there a parallel to all this in our own time? or is it an identity, the same thing?-" Monsieur Tonson come again?" For are not wo coming to have; for each family our guardian spirits? some fatherther, her wife, or childl, or all of theim together, who can comfort and advise us? Have we not oracles where the spirits of great men are constantly consulted? and( for those who can anywhere evoke the vulgar dead, could they have been more numerous in old Rome, or even in Egypt itself? Here truly are apocatastatic evidences to whicl I think no candid lawyer can demur. And, on the whole, arc not the arguments which go to prove the present period, coammencing at the time before, spoken of,-for I do not wish to be offensively definite on that point,- apocatastatic of that beginning a little before the first consulship of Sylla, amply and abundantly conclusive? We know that the ancient period was one of sterility from the nournfulnzess of the sound of the trumpet, which indication could also be fully confirmed if necessary, but no reader of history will need any confirmation of it. We have seen too that the present period is one of sterility and corruption in the Platonic sense. And then, taking the two great republics as the central points of the two periods; how numerous, how striking, how identical, how wonderful, are the coincidences of the two periods thus far! their discrepancies, how few, how slight, how easily accounted for, if they were of sufficient importance to be accounted of. Surely, and beyond question, if there is not an apocatastatic relation here, there is plainly, no such thing as apocatastatic relations at all. But if the two periods under consideration have really such a relation to each other, (and who call longer doubt it?) and our own is to continue, as of course it is to continue, its parallelism with its predecessor; then, my countrymen, to what a future, Dii avertite omen, are we to look forward!'What seditions, revolts, rebellions, servile wars, civil wars, and other internecine strifes, are before us! what luxury, corruption, indolence, cowardice, vice, crime, impiety, and superstition, are to fall naturally and justly, under the terrible power of such a loathsome, and shameful, yet shameless despotism, as, surely, the earth is never polluted with, under the conjunction and influence of any other set even of misanthropic and malignant stars. Meantime, 23 men, grown desperate, and hopeless of help from their gods, turn more and more to daemons and impious invocation of the dead, as if, deserted of heaven, and. despairing of aid from thence, they would fain compel hell itself to their assistanee; having comle to believe and hope in lying spirits which a profane curiosity prompted them with unhallowed rites to consult. "But (these divine men) conceived the last period to be under the dominion of Mercury, to whom the Moon in the last place conjoins herself. What can be found more subtile than this arrangement? For mankind being purified from rude and savage pursuits, arts also having been invented, and disciplines disposed in an orderly manner, the human race sharpened its inventive power. And because the noble genius in man could not preserve (uniformly) one course of life, the improbity of evil increased from various institutes, and confused manners and the crimes of a life of wickedness prevailed: hence the human race in this period both invented and delivered to others more enormous machinations. On this account these wise men thought that this last period should be assigned to Mercury, so that, in imitation of that star, the human race might give birth to inventions replete with evil." (Firmicius, Mathesis,) Certainly, Mercury, the god of the merchants, is the Ruler of our period, the god also of the instinctive understanding by whose inspiration the human race has sharpened its inventive power to a most vulpine and wily sharpness, having renounced faith in all higher divinities. And are we not fast entering that part of our orbit where "the seeds" of "more enormous machinations, and inventions replete with evil," having already taken root, are about to perfect their fruit? But is this hideous approaching night, of more than Egypti.an d( lrkness, left orbless, and without a ray, from the angry skies 2 lo! still beneath the eastern verge, one pitying Star throws up again its mild redeeming light, and the sinful earth is not wholly forsaken of heaven! Thus much may suffice for the general parallel of the two periods, in regard, both to what is past, of our own, and to what 24 is yet future. I hope however, it may not prove altogether uninteresting, just at the present time, or unprofitable, to the thoughtful reader, if, in one particular, viz: that of intercourse of the living with the dead, including its cognate subjects and their attendant manifestations, I shall follow the parallel somewhat more into detail, that we may determine, whether something has, indeed, at last, happened, " whereof it may be said, " See! this is new," giving the lie to the wisdom of Solomon; or whether we also must confess with him; "it hath been already of old time, which was before us." And in a moral and practical point of view, the subject of such intercourse may have another aspect, for some minds, if it shall prove to be only paganism come round again; than it presents, while they look upon it as some hitherto unknown, unique, and altogether peculiar, development of Nature or of Providence, reserved as the crowning boon for this, in-all-directions, especially backwards, progressive, and expansive age. Before entering upon the comparison in detail, however, it will be necess-. ary, for the sake of the unlearned reader, in order that he may the better understand quotations and allusions hereafter to be made, to exhibit a very general outline of some of the ancient doctrines in regard to the character, power, and possible influence and participation in human affairs, of several classes of spiritual beings, and especially of the spirits of the dead. We shall then be prepared to enter upon a serious subject,certainly from some points of view sufficiently serious,-I hope, with all due, and becoming, seriousness. Mean while, kind reader, excuse the seeming levity of the introduction, and take these preinitial chapters, this apocatastatic prelude,-so it be good-naturedly,-in whatever sense may best accord with your own astrologic whereabouts. CTHAP TER IiI. Quuma mnlt-: res in lphilosoplhh ne,aquam siats aill.uc explicatae sunt, tun perdlifcis, et peirobscuoa clup o.o: est d L natar:'a * *n'i u DLeOs esse jibrunt. * V * i ero.Lecs cssc d-ieunt, anita sunt in vanetate a3 disScnioloc, ut courn oio1st0il u tfl sit dinumrare senos. ~-~~~~~~ Lb 1 0'co, -eer.'.i. C..,[nry thiing's in phiosayoly are as yet y o 1 nans oel uesn' stcd; ut especially, the CueSoion concernting the natuoe of the Geols is one of groat diiculty, and very obscure. a a;' i,:lost men believe in the existence of Gods. ~* * * * * - * _But of those who hold that there are Gods, the opinions iln regard to them are so various and discordant that it were no sniall labor merely to co1unt thiseni. Most of +the heathens, it would seem, -,were not as' perfect converts in e-ery patrticular to tieir reigeion, even as it was tntderstocl and i'rat y th' e "-imt -0 an] 1..tonic..... ~, zi. j; triad~~re an d ~'a -oi,hilosop!mr, e- iS Thotit.bs j 1 C 4 1_ a-l _,o s tesi -e we may reinone L ci aso was so rt:' PI ii Pton's' t. "1 t )t OU With t~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~' *?'D P..'~':'' ~', tiP. cn:v else." tfte oinio0ns of tlhe Plat~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~_11~ o +~...:u?~Y/bIa:.,o anctiets eO'1 P n: tih Goa weilre so nu eous t 1 i o (uI 1 ~~~~i.~~7t 1' iOe no S una'-Irtarpi' jt to enuta.'Pe Ith I s lnt, Fc' 1,; ete 0:':: t0.., of them, on the present occasion. Indeed, wvere this in my power, the purposes of this tract do not require more than the most general outline of some of the leading hypotheses. The two most imlportant theories were tlhose of emanation, and. of evolution, w-hich, taking: their startingl points froim opposite extreimes, met each other half wa-y in a commlon polvtlheism. Both held to the eternity of matter, and tl-e emanation theory to the co-eternity of spirit also. it commenced filom the good," or "the one.": " The principle and first cause of all things is the good; and the good itself is the same with the one;' says Proclus. But this one, because of his perpetual exuberance, remains not a mere barren entity, " but immediately proceeds into Being, or Beislg itself, iwhich is no other than the highest order of the gods, otherwise expressed as IntelIect itself, or the intelligible world, or the divine Paradigm, or Exemplar of the Universe, where all variety and nmultitude are contained potentially, or in'"occult union." But it is necessary that this occult multitude should be expanded into actual diversity, hence a third procession originates, in which multitude no longer subsists indivisibly, but is perfectly diffused in order to the actual diversity of things, and the existence of the sensible world. This third principle is no other than oul, which expands the impartibility of Intellect, and unfolds all that was involved in its unity. After these three Principles there remains nothing but the gradation and diversities of multitude. But w-e are still very liigh up in the series, we have not yet descended to the fuirthest and outermost Stars for this Soul is not yet the ianin- mundi, or Soul of the world, but is the Supermundane Soul, the Deniiim'-gus, or Fashioner of the visible Universe by ilipiess!nIC uplon preexistent matter the form of the intellioiblle ParaT Ii li as near as the perversity of the material would admit; and!-y )procession into it from hlimself, of a lower grrade of Soul than himself, which is the " Soul of the orld." Ami I right, Mr. Taylor? But still far and steep is thle way to this " terrene abode," and to "the last of things;" it will be safest therel1fore 2? for us to take the strong hand of some one well acquainted with the path. "Having, thus fabricated the body of the T Univenr-e a perfect whole from perfect parts, he placed in its "center a Soul, and caused it to pervade the body through its "Lwhole extent, and also to infbld it from without. * * * * * "and so, from all these causes, he generated a blessed God. "He also for;led our nrurse the Earth, the firs. and oldest of t"the Gods generated within the celestial sphere. Of Earth "-and Heaven the children are Oceanus and Tethys, of these " Phocys, SaLturn, and Rthea, and -whoGee Cr is of that series; of " Saturn and Pthea, Jupiter and Juno and their brothers, and "those ) who are descended f'rom these. After these, and next " to these, are Daemons who inhabit the air, are always nfear 1tS, thoZtogh coimmonly/ in'visible to us, anld know all our "thouzg/ts. They are intermediate between gods and men, "their function is to interpret and convey to the gods what " comes fiom men, and to men what comes from the gods. All'intercourse and conversatfon between gods and men are car"ried on by m-eans of dacl-nons. When, therefore, all the " Gods which revolve visil y in heaven, and those which ren": cler themselves visible when tlhey please, were createdl, the "' (nerator of this All thus addressed them. Gods of gods, there are three mortal races yet to b, I formed, without which "heaven will not be perfect. That tlis universe, therefore'may be indeed a Universe, betake yonrselves according to your nature to the formation of animated beingrs, imitating " the power which was exercised in your own production. So'saying, lie poured into the same vessel as before, the remaind" der of the materials from which the Soul of the world was " formed, and tempering them nearly in the same manner as 1" before, lthough with only the secondl and third degree of puM'rity, lie finished the whole, anld drew out and distributed " Souls to each of the stars, and showing them the Uni-erse, hlie announced to themn the laws of their existence; that it': was necessary thcv should descend into bodies possessed of va \.iTou psbsi 0ions to-;atv l:e who) cout.roled them 1)y reason, and 28'~ lived virtIIouI-iy 5909hi retKn to i~s a ppropri'atf star and ii lead a h my lda_'.lt ". so d' assin and liv e unj 1sd 15 Oi_':;,'L_ ant1 e born t- 1e-':mlla, (Clh Ee.?;',ro n: -v]~at e noritieSs were you dcliiv of in'crr prec':;S 1i5 on._o fiwee, bona" w I, I -1 _ i 1 ()i' - iiLI1 i V 0 -yu- U i i la _ r si N.zAt I k C-o asuine 1: C-1' C' -) L n i tC s uoI io' to re-: —~, ~ ~~~ 1....i...J th, e LI ~ I i "o 1 h!c t b if; iEasj.. 1 til - td 0 k C) Aii v 11 e f i t-7 -lt t I Lt3 - - - a_ U CIJ I D L I t t fl ee t J I) e < a " S\SSf1tfn (IB-e#1f! —'f'1 ~t pj' PskXE- d)v So)ia~5} upfl Ytes 1'1'1b C'tS i I S lU4)g t5 0 nT)sq(Sibt j t*t24;g1- I;ti'ot o t n 095-1:,,' listrei s of' -'i a tol 1 -9 1 Q I, t - tho (~j 100! e'Vuio, rS a) /' J C- to WWil 1' *i i).nud " V': O S?.ds to:[i,.0::' orta! boies. e:eii vo s f it.''i euc -'.i its sori laie d itoe, ue me t_- ta.x -1e it iii ru e -,'c o't-ianer thie of e co n,-:,~ -. 1. ('. tc',, h._ 5! C,eus it o.ee t a heosue. 1~~~~~~~~~~.-.-, —,,o pr exse,, 1s;>irlc AI Ygp u4 0'r i fA/l 0 0OLC.wetfwS e C DC t: IU\- C P L 01 0N' aleS o t w, e e oi v f it t''Ou iee e i d1. F I MO. a117 I Ovr C t 1 C, I. IL s j, I' O vV,l1U;et ~t. g.D 1',t.) 1L t1J v(U berio d~icnbl llXy at~n tee no ix.ers0 e+Tci-eUs, 1tS ~ ow e*)-n-ti,<^- w e1i ulnilcall\T i't io ioat as amst o0 ia ts, -o- a rs it p o hir L-etier catseu trt4t oattert'[: r ee,e f o Bs 7- i e:rahng atnyT paliacugi I- to eIl i35,O^li Cro e t ni sia(l~~2 es muay:e tile lore reoaily. aec:.'o fo i:l uc tim,' were erolve thei eds, i' suau eoa, stais, t nI, if t - - p-e i sects, ejuadrupeds, ronkey,,: Ie e n,1Y ie and' supe l uni ae areaititta a p et, e u ai to tiie s le-.Is.?m' ([_il[1Ol 6 l acted m s on z.,...,o was apr of... only roo e nuh t vacu,-s:o5toeor in'i *t' i:s to 1' )"1eic I shall thereoir for your sake and imy own, restrict tise conparison about to be made bletwveeon tno'l eS m to h eC) a catastatically related, to certain tioreti o-pVa ci l opino.Us to certain practices, in cre-Lard to whic:l I sll eOta or t) show essential, but not always idlenitical, SIee11ss -tlCoS iv, to those which were anciently cailei lnaic, e Ciit'i:, cda:'~rment, necromancy; and are now kn3owuu 1> tUe nian'e\S 0 1. (';r netism, mesmerism, biology, phi. a n t 1oci l -tJ ons, s:1Litintercourse &c.; and to certain ohiti-o3n i- n ierd' t ho ie character, causes, and consequences o-f' these p-ral ctices an:l-, the resulting phenomena. And the pt 1;:alcl n5ll be mostly or -holly, b!etween properly ancien-t an.d preseit tic. CHAPTER IV. AXXoe t irv UroXhr'rEov Xai ~v rw, acvOpwwroov quiv toXX.a xrai ravrowcr vSVo Rwv avcO,4V rSpiEpsUrwV 5p yI(CYOV u rvoCX64vas T xa, av6yXL8I7OVOl. Epicurus, apud Diogenerm Laert. L. x. APOCATASTATIC TRANSLATION.-" How is it possible for man to be "free," while pent up between two contending forces'. Reason, the soul's prime minister, replies unequivocally in the negative; because man, materially, and spiritually, possesses universal affinities which he did not create, which he cannot control, which he cannot destroy; but he is compelled to act as he is acted upon." THE GREAT HARMONIA. Vol. ii. p. 225. Such as is the Theoretic, or most general and fundamental view of the "nature of things," and of human relations, such are the practical opinions, and such again the conduct of men, whether of individuals, or of communities, or of periods.And this, and these, again, are determined, and predetermined, to a great extent, by the character, that is, by the moral or voluntary character, of those who hold them; whether such views and opinions originate then and there, or whether, the "seeds" of them, "descending from the stars," or from some other superior or anterior point, find then and there, their fitting nidus, and appropriate soil. For all practical beliefs, -not mere inherited, professed, or pretended opinions, but 5 34 -all practical beliefs are, for the most part, matter of choice. And though they react, and often strongly, on the character of those who originate, or who adopt them, it were a question not easy to decide, whether they are more cause than effect of such character. What is quite certain is that they mutually act and react, each increasing and confirming the other. Hence it is found in all the languages o- men, that, all men have ever, and as it were unconsciously, held each other morally responsible for their practical opinions. This truth, however, is so trite as to be often overlooked and forgotten; nay, it is even denied, oftentimes, by men who, slightly selfconscious, obstinately refuse to see, what is quite obvious to everybody but themselves, that they have mistaken for truth, the mere shadow of their own wishes. Certain principles, therefore, with their consequent opinions, are, as it were, connatural and appropriate to certain individuals, places, and periods, so that by some law of spontaneity, or equivocal generation, they emerge there, or however originating, do, in fact, come to take possession of the minds to which they are adapted; and persons, or periods, similar in character, will originate or adopt similar or equivalent principles and opinions. For man, however self-degraded to a brute, is ever more than a mere animal; his spiritual character asserts itself under all circumstances. No man acts wholly, like animals, by mere intelligent instinct or impulse. He must have " principles of conduct," implying more or less the idea, of duty or spiritual obligation; and inasmuch as incompatibility of their conduct with their principles is, for all men, a relation in which they are ill at ease, a reconciliation is constantly aimed at, and by most men rather by adapting the principles to the conduct than the conduct to the principles. Or, if it is predetermined that the conduct shall have no relation to the law of duty, such determination will be accompanied by some theory which shall exclude from itself all recognition of such law of duty,-the spiritual asserting itself in the very act of denying its own existence. 35 The period, with which the present is to be compared, was one, of the most active intellectual development, conjoined with a most thorough, and almost total, corruption in politics and morals; relentless oppression yielding incredible wealth for the supply of a luxury more gorgeous and magnificent, and at the same tinme miore dissolute and shameless, than the world had hitherto witnessed; manifesting such forms of vice and crime, that lower degradation, or greater wickedness, would seem to be impossible to man. In such a period, and for such men, -men of active minds, theorising, philosophising, speculating, in all directions, as if to find a reason or an apology to themselves for their conduct, —for such men, the Pythagorico-Platonic theology, which recognized a Maker, a Providence, and spiritual accountability, was, plainly, inappropriate. Such a period, and such men, could not originate, and would not adopt, principles demanding sobriety, honesty, morality, religion,-there could be no affinity, but only mutual antipathy and repulsion. Such an atheistic, or pantheistic, development theory, as that of Democritus, or of whatever more ancient day-dreamer, may have been the father of it,if it be not rather the spontaneous offspring, at all times, of the minds of men who cannot tolerate the presence of a personal Deity who "taketh account" of human conduct,-such a theory was a seed much more likely to take root and bring forth fruit in such a soil. This theory, accordingly, after its Epicurean modification;; which, appeasing somewhat the Nemesis of conscience by admitting the existence of "the gods," while at the same time it represented them as wholly indifferent to human affairs,-became a more permanent and hopeless, because less disquieting, form of atheism, than the total denial of the existence of the Deity; and while it spoke beautifully of the beauty and pleasure of virtue and piety, as worthy to be practiced for their own sake, and of the happiness of conformity to the physical laws of man's organism, and so lulled the soul with a Syren-song,-for if happiness is the end, are not the means a matter of taste not to be disputed 36 about? and what are the laws of the organism but the natural impulses of the organs?-by removing the only restraints which could control, and the only incitements to virtue which could influence, corrupt and wicked men, and by furnishing them, at the same time, with what they most of all desired, principles, conformable to their predetermined conduct, it made reformation hopeless by seeming to make vice both safe and reasonable. This theory, so modified, became the main source of the "principles of conduct" for the leading men of the period in question. What rendered this theory so acceptable and welcome to those already predisposed to receive it, was,-both before and after its modification,-its total abrogation of the law of duty, its practical denial of all properly spiritual accountability. For what cared the men of that period, what care the profligate and licentious, the vicious and the wicked, of any period, for mere physical responsibility to the violated "Laws of Nature," if any sophistry can even but half persuade them that the conscience which makes cowards of them, the fearful looking-for of future retribution at the hands of a personal, holy, and just Judge, are but the shadows of groundless fears, the uneradicated superstitions of the nursery? Let those embrace virtue who find her lovely; to them she is neither beautiful nor desirable; and are they not as much entitled to their choice of happiness as those who seek it in a different form and if they sometimes carry their enjoyment to what some are pleased to call excess do they not at least make sure of it? if the Laws of Nature are offended have they not antidotes wherewith to appease, or can they not cheat, blind nature, or reform in time to prevent unpleasant consequences? Or if they deliberately prefer a short life and a merry one to the tedium of a stupid life of sobriety and virtue, have they not a right to choose for themselves? It was not so much its denial of a future life, which was a part of the modification of this theory, which part, however, comparatively few adopted, as it was its view of the "Nature of things," and of the character of the Gods, which made it so soothing 37 and welcome an application to the conscience, anat gave to it its peculiar influence. For the Gods were wholly removed from human affairs, and indifferent to human conduct, neither rewarding nor punishing them except by the physical consequences of their actions, and therefore the fear of death was effectually taken away, even for those who did not believe it to be the termination of existence. Such views of man's relation to the Deity, propagated by leading minds, and gradually pervading all ranks of men, must have reacted strongly to quicken the development of that kind of character which already demanded them. And of the correctness of such views what stronger confirmation could be given than such examples of successful wickedness,'unwhipt of justice,' as that of Sylla, and of Augustus, and iAndeed of Rome herself, as the mistress of the world? Add to this the views of Nature which belonged to the same theory, as a machine setting itself in motion, or if set in motion by the gods, evolving, without their further care, whatever it may evolve,-a self-developing universe. Considering that it commenced as a chaos of indivisible atonms having only vague likings and dislikings, it had already done much; it had really become a very splendid and efficient piece of machinery, and what new products might not now be expected from it. For, according to this view, it was, plainly, no apocatastatic contrivance, everlastingly reiterating itself, and recurringo to the same points,-else it never would have arrived at its present point of evolution,-but a progress in a straight line, evermore arriving at new regions. It had evolved man with his present life and why not a future life? had not Caesar, who was once known to cry like a sick girl "give me some drink," and "help nme Cassius," become a god? and had not Caesar's horse come to be Consul? The human mind had been evolved to know much, of visible things, why not of invisible? it had explored in all directions the present life, why not the future? it could take knowledge of the distant in space, why not of the dlistant in time? did not the evolution manifestly tend to the convergence of all intelligence and pow .38 er in man as the lor'( as5 well as tlhe product of N ature! was not Rome the eaithlv Providence, and did not Caesar already 11ol(l divided emnpire Avithi Jupiter? might there not be some magic word of power w M.lli would enable him to control, not only na-ture, blut the aous themselves'? which should compel all spirits, whethier of uneTlbodied or disembodied, men, of heroes, llemons, gods; to mllke l aown their secrets, (and to unfold to men llthe future? Such were some of the last results of the ancient theory of pnrolress so thonult and so experimented ou(r apocata statitc piredecessors. (Plit. Nat. list. L. xxx. v.) A way of lookin c a he':nature of' thinss" alidmirably adaptecd to keep alive curiosity, to awaken expectation, and to make credille whatever newi an(d wonderful thinos migiht manifest, or seem to nianifest, themselves; a way indeed, that might make doubly credulous credulity itself. Such, and such-like fundamental principles, in regard to the "'nature of things," And in regard to the nature of the gods, together with the popular belief in regtar-d to man's relations to thie dead, and to other spirits, mlust have tended strongly, notwithstanding the Epicurean denial of the immortality of the soul, to produce that outburst of impious curiosity in regard to the future, attempting to satisfy itself by sacrilegious experiments in regard to man's power to evoke and compel spirits, which characterized the period under consideration; although, doubtless, the maddening excitements of political parties, and during the latter part of the period, at which ~we have not yet arrivedl every mjan's fear for his life, which hung upon the caprice of a despot, must have super-added to curiosity, intense anxiety, to know, not only his own future, but that of his enemies also. Certain it is, that, during the last century of the Roman Republic, and the first centuries of the Empire, men seemed madly resolved, by whatever means, and at whatever cost, and hazard, to rend the veil which conceals the future from the present, though it were necessary to assault the heavens, or to make descent upon hell itself. That our own period is not in all these respects yet quite 39 parallel to its predecessor may be true, but it is to lbe reime-abered that we are yet near its commencement. Our wealth is yet rapidly increasing, and so our luxury and consequent vices and crimes have not arrived at their acme. Our political parties have riot yet quite reached the point where to the victors belong not only the spoils, b)ut the live.s, also, of the minority; and we are yet, it may b)e, a hundred years from the evolution of a Caesar, and the establishnment of the Emnpire. But our business in the present chapter is with principles and opinions, and here I think we shall find the parallelism pretty fairly commenced. To say nothing of older pantheistic theories and pantheistic men, as Spinoza, Hobl:bes, &c., or of the (atheistic spawn of Germany, not without their influence, d(irect or indirect, now and here; have we not, in our own time, and language, popular writers of highest talents, who with wide, deep, and insidious power, subvert the foundations of all proper human responsibility? -for pantheism, and the "Eternal Laws," know, or teach, only the responsibility appropriate to animals. Wide-spread, and fearful to the humanity in men is this influence. Witness, as a single specimen of it, in "Tr'1he Life" of poor Sterling, a soul capable of the truest and fullest spiritual life and development, perishing in tihe serpent folds of atheistic sophistry, like an unhappy beast in the embrace of the anaconda. As for development theories, whichel come next in the order of evolution after atfheism — for where there is no Creator the Universe irmust be gotten up in some other -way,-O, Democritus, with what undreamed-of apocatastatic honors has your dreaming head been crowned! "a hundred sons and every son a god!" and competent, every one, to the highest functions of Deity. Well may these awaken expectation, as indeed they have. For instance, we are looking daily for the advent of the "New Man;" but whether to be evolved,out of the old one, or in some more kindred line of development, as in theat, it may be, of the innocent, non-carniverous, fiuit-consuming Simiae-on this point we are in doubt. This we know, that 40 oftentimes, of late, he has attempted to be born, of the old effete humanity, but though the throes are strong and even convulsive, they never prove sufficient to bring him to the birth.The vis vitae of the race seems too weak for such a product. We may, therefore, among other things, expect that the sceptre is about to depart from our house. " The perfectibility of the human race," therefore, which our pride prompts us to believe in as the natural order of evolution, may prove a problem too hard for the outworking powers, and may compel them, in order to "progress," to recede and take another path, even as the Democritic atoms, as we are informed, and may well believe, tried innumerable combinations before they arrived at the present order of things. But I am wandering somewhat from my purpose, which was to show, that, the development theories of our time are sufficiently like those of the period we have been considering to have sprung from the same siderial semination or planting, that is, apocatastatically the same; and that they have had, and have, an analogous influence and effect. MAy limits, and promise to be brief forbid the attempt to characterize, or even to name, all the recent specimens of world-manufacture; being not less numerous, or less admirable, than those of the renowned Knickerbocker Catalogue of Cosmogonies. They would be found equally so, probably, in the period to which ours has succeeded, were we to look for them in that curious old Patent Office to which ours also are rapidly hastening, the limbo of things lost. I shall only glance at one or two of them, which-incredible as the fact may seem, and indeed, were it not for the obvious truth of the observations with which this chapter commences, must appear, even to credulity herself, —which, I say, have been, and are, the source of principles of conduct, not merely of speculative principles, but of actual faith and practice, to men and women not a few. The Vestiges of Creation, which was a sort of nine days wonder in certain quarters, and, still lingers there in its effects, was doubtless the clever attempt of some literary Gulliver to measure the utmost dimensions of the gullibility 41 of that self-complacent personage, the reading Public. But what must have been his astonishment, and amusement, at finding his line too short; at finding himself; instead of being laughed at as a scientific Munchausen, revered, as another Newton; at finding lis dreams accepted and acted upon as realities! But though this theory, such theories, might well be reckoned not within the sphere of sober criticism, as indeed, they are not, in relation to the rational understanding, yet their influence for evil is not small in relation to the moral and spiritual convictions and practical conduct and duties of men. Their effect is two-fold. They disturb the logical understanding, and the feelings of many whose spiritual relations to the truth are right, but who are pained, disquieted, and sometimes thrown into distressing doubt, and fear, at suggestions which are mere puzzles to the faculty judging according to sense, or even at the bare possibility of mistake in regard to their faith in providence, in redemption, in immortality, and in God. What to them are the Eternal Laws, and Immutable Nature, and Free Development; what to them is all visible beauty, though Nature were ten times more beautiful? what to them the grandeur of Nature manifesting mighty power? what to them law, order, design, exhibiting perfect intelligence? what though taste and intellect find in full measure their satisfying correlatives; if, mean while, their highest spiritual intuitions and aspirations find not their corresponding object? if an eternally productive Principle, or Law of development, evolving certain beneficent results, and working out in some cases a sort of physical retribution, has taken the place of the Eternal Law-giver and Judge, whom they love in proportion as they fear, and fear in proportion as they love Him. What to them this Universal Nature, and magnificent dwelling for the earthly man, to whom God is but an Instrument, and to whom therefore Nature is sufficient, if the spiritual life find not Him who is its End. To those, on the contrary, a much more numerous class, to whom the presence of God is disquieting and unwelcome, to 6 42 whom the consciousness of moral responsibility, and the belief of future retribution, are a weary restraint upon their free development, who will gladly acknowledge their accountability to the Laws of Nature, so they may escape the scrutiny of an omniscient and just Sovereign,-as undutiful children rejoice to be left to the care of servants, to these, such theories as exclude from the Universe a personal Deity, or, what is equally satisfactory, admit only a Soul of the world, or some Epicurean Divinity, remote, and indifferent to human conduct, or who leniently expunges sin, wicked, and such-like ungentlemanly terms from his vocabulary, and good-naturedly finds men only frail, erring, or unfortunate-such theories, to such men, are not only welcome, but, however they may outrage, both reason and understanding, and the deepest consciousness of mankind, they are, to a great extent, practically believed in, or at least serve as a pretext, and seeming source of principles, for the course of conduct already chosen, and so remove, or diminish, that restless disquiet of a wholly unappeased conscience, whose tendency was to drive them towards the truth. But, of all the recent theories of development and progress, that which seems to have most influence at present, especially in relation to the peculiar apocatastatic movement which it is the main purpose of this tract to consider, is entitled " The Principles of Nature." It may, indeed, by the fairest analogy, be reckoned the Epicurean modification of the Vestiges of Creation. In its coarse materialism, and in its moral aspect and bearings, with its incessant small-talk of virtue and benevolence, while it saps the whole foundation of human virtue, it is strictly, and even plagiaristically, Epicurean. It has simply superadded to the Epicurean theory what it calls the immortality of the soul, but which would more properly be called the eternal mortality of the soul, for it is only its mortal life prolonged. By making man, body and soul,-for spirit by the theory he has none,-the material product of material forces and manipulations, a kind of chemico-me chanical result,-material Laws!! think of that ye meditating atoms, —and subjecting him wholly, and only, to the laws of Nature, it divests him of all distinctive humanity, and makes him simply,-snatching the sceptre from the Lion's grasp,-the "King of Beasts." By denying to man all moral character and responsibility, all spiritual relations of course cease to exist; conscience is only the product of priestcraft, God is only the soul of the world, and man holds the same relation to him, —or to it rather,-as a tree, or mineral, except that the evolution in him of the quality of locomotion, and the distillation of a very refined and subtile matter called prudence, or forethought, render him, in a somewhat different way from that of the tree, physically accountable for the physical relations in which he voluntarily places himself. Religion there can be none; and the "progress" of the human animal, as indicated by the theory, is such, that the wolves among them would, in due time, in this world or the next, become good household dogs, tigers would be transformed to domestic cats, the large fishes would cease to eat the small ones, the hawks to devour the chickens, the crows to pull what they did not plant, and ultimately all would arrive at a most comfortable zoological paradise. This, it must be acknowledged, is a step beyond Epicurus, by the addition of plenty of time for the proposed progress; but, unluckily for the theory, the progress of most persons is in the opposite direction, from better to worse, but this is mostly owing to religion, circumstances will, doubtless, be more favorable in the next sphere, where there is probably no religion, as there will be none here when this theory is universally adopted. His admirers may then appropriate to the author of it the triumphant language of the great commentator upon Epicurus in regard to him; -Omne immensum peragravit mente animoque, Unde refert nobis victor. quid possit oriri, Quid nequeat; finita potestas denique quoique Qua nam sit ratione, atque alte terminus haerena. 44 Qud re Religio, pedibus subjecta, vicissim Obteritur, nos exaequat victoria coelo. Lucretius De Rerum Natura, Lib. i. 75-80. With clairvoyant vision he surveyed immensity, returning thence triumphant, laden for us with rich spoils, to wit: the power to know what events are possible, and what are impossible; the law of each finite evolution; and what yet remains latent and undeveloped; whereby Religion, trampled in the dust, is, in its turn., ranquished; the victory places us on equal terms with heavens."' This language is quite as applicable to the author of the Principles of Nature, and of the Great Harmonia, as to Epicurus himself; at least in the peculiar mental regions where his influence is felt, as it is just now pretty extensively. The essential quality of these theories, the same in both, which renders them so inviting to nine tenths of those who would fain believe them, and do practically believe in them, is the delightful anodyne to the conscience which they administer, the deliverance from the heavy incubus of religion, and from the bondage of the fear of death, which they bestow, and the liberty which they confer, of free, spontaneous, development, without the chilling drawback of a future account to give. For if there be no God, or if the "Divine Nature" sit apart in careless self-enjoyment, " Ipsa suis pollens opibus, nihil indiga nostri, Nec bene promeritis ca.pitur, nec tangitur ira, Lucretius De Rerum Natura, Lib. i. 61-2. itself sufficient to itself, desiring nothing of us, and neither regards our virtues, nor is displeased at our vices;" what a delightful relief to many men, if not to most men, to believe that they are thus free to make the most of nature, every man according to his taste, responsible only to nature; and that they may thus have the full enjoyment of whatever their talents and tastes may enable and prompt them to compass and acquire, unmitigated, and unalloyed, by the uninvited presence of any horrid Nemesis, or by the intrusive thought of a judgment to oome. Not that those who are disposed to adopt 45 atheistic, or rather, rathumotheistic theories,are always persons of more than ordinarily depraved or vicious character; on the contrary they are often men of amiable and benevolent disposition, quite exemplary, it may be, in regard to the second commandment,-though assuredly very little developed in the consciousness of their spiritual relations,-w-ho in discarding or enervating the idea of retribution, are thinking rather of its relation to others, than to themselves; but even to such, their theory, in proportion as they really believe in it, is like an emergence from gloom and shadow to a warmer and more cheering light; for to those who know not, or love not, above all things the religion which exhibits the character of God as elevated above all human thought, and unyielding as fate itself, in its moral attributes,-to such, this religion is, and has ever been, that gravis Religio, Quae caput a coeli regionibus obtendebat, Hlorribili super adspectu mortalibus instans. Lucretius de Rerum Natura, Lib. i. 65-6. I-Ter head who high towards heaven uplifting proud,'With dreadfiul aspect frowns on mortal men. These theories of mere nature-evolution, and, of course,except in a physical sense-of irresponsible development for man, and of ever new unfolding, and upliftings of the veil of Nature, to be expected —this expectation more sparingly expressed in the ancient theory, though equally implied there as in the modern, for if nature has evolved thus much after infinite experiments, what reason to suppose that she intends no more experiments? indeed Lucretius expressly says, Sic igitur mundi naturam totius etas Mutat, et ex alio terrain status excepit alter; Quod potuit nequeat; possit, quod non tulit ante. (Lib. v. 832-4) which Good translates more correctly than common; " So time transmutes the total world's vast frame, From state to state urged on, now void of powers Erst known, and boasting those unknown before." -theso theorios of evolution and expctation, and all essen 46 tially godless, though they may not have given birth, at least not wholly, to the opinions and practices of their respective periods, which are about to be compared; certainly have promoted them, both by removing all moral restraint in regard to practices, many of which in all times have been commonly held to be impious; and by awakening, or stimulating, especially in the modern instance, a vague, restless and at the same time, profane curiosity. Such views of nature, and of man's relation to God, in concert with the, anciently, widespread, and in the present period, widely spreading, notions in regard to man's relations to disembodied spirits, certainly were, and are, a fitting preparation, in the minds of those who admit them, for the spirit-fanaticism, the epidemic necromancy, and other methods of divination, which are characteristic alike, both of the ancient, and the present periods. CHAPTER V. " He holds him with his glittering eyeThe wedding-guest stood still, And listens like a three years' child, The Mariner hath his will." THE ANCIENT MARINER. The ancients were, undoubtedly, well acquainted with the phenomena which are the result of what is now called mesmerism, biology, clairvoyance &c.; and which were then the effect of the same causes known by the names of fascination, enchantment, divination, magic, &c. The power thus acquired by one person over another was probably made use of for unlawful purposes, since the practice of these impious arts, as they were then accounted, was forbidden on pain of death. That the ancients knew how to produce mesmeric effects by the eye alone is often implied, and not very unfrequently expressed, by contemporary authors. This was called fascination, (fascinatio, /3Lxxavcx, as if from pas~, xclviv, to kill with the eyes) though this word was not appropriated exclusively to effects produced by the eye. Certain kinds of praise which were intended to injure, and were supposed to prove pernicious to, their object, were called also fascination Not in the sense 48 in which we sometimes speak of one being fascinated and spoiled, bly flattery or excessive praise; but the notion was precisely the same as still exists in Eastern countries where mothers, in evident alarIm, snatch their children fromn the preseince of strangers who express admiration of them. It seems difficult to conjecture the origin of such an opinion, the grround of such fears, unless we suppose that the praise was considered as a kind of lure, while the child was being brought under the power of the "evil eye." Something more than this, however, is implietl in the following quotation, since we can hardly suppose inanimate objects to be injured( by any neuropathic effects. " Isigonus and Nynmphlodorus assert that there are certain families in Africa who have the power of fascination by praise (laudatione)-that whatever is praised by them perishes,-lrees uwither-children die." (Plinii Natur. Itistor. Lib. vii. 2.) From the time of the elder Pliny to the present is a pretty long period for a wholly groundless notion to have sustained itself. "Isigonus adds that there are persons of the same kind among the Treballians and I1lyrians, who fascinate by the eye also, and that they even cause the death of those upon whom they look long and intentlyv; especially if with an expression of anger; and that the young more readily feel their pernicious influence." (Idem Ibidem.) Appollonides also relates that there are women of this sort in Scythia. Phylarchus says there are many possessed of a similar power in Pontus." (Idem Ibidem.) These quotations show expressly that the mesmeric power of the eye was anciently well known and exercised; the following imply the same thing, in such-wise as to furnish equally strong proof of its existence. "Why do we as a defence against fascination use a peculiar fornm of adoration; invoking the Grecian Nemesis'? whose statue is, on that account, placed in the Capitol at Rome." (Idem, Lib. xxviii. 5.) "The skin of the forehead of the hyena is reckoned a defence against fascination." (Idem Lib. xxviii. 27) " I know not whose eye has fascinated my tender lambs." (Virg. Ec. iii. 103) 49 The Romans even had a god, Fascinus by name, who was not, however, as usual, the patron of the rogues whose name he bore; but at least so I infer from his being called " custos infantumi," the protector of children, —the defender of others against their power. (Plinii Nat. FHist. 28. 7) I have not met with any examples of the mesmeric state being induced by passes after the present fashion, except one or two of doubtful interpretation, which therefore I shall not lbring forward. The common method of mesmerising among the ancients seems to have been by means of music, and especially singing, hence called incantation and enchantment. I will adduce some specimens of it from the defence of Apuleius before a Roman judge on bleing accused of magic. The chief point of thle accusattion was, tlhat, he was in the habit of what we should call mesmerising, or biologizing, a certain boy, and the evidence relied upon was, that, the boy was accustomed to swoon or fall downt in his presence. After disposing of some minor points of the charge, which were plainly frivolous or incredible, he proceeds as follows: " They, therefore, (the accusers) fablricated a story consonant with common opinion and report, viz: that a certain boy, having been taken to a secret apartment, before a small altar and lamp,-no one being permitted to be present except a few who were in the plot, —was subjected to a magical incantation, (carmine cantatum) and that when he felt the influence of the charm, (ubi inearntatus sit) he swoonel away; (corruisse, went into a magnetic sleep,) that, afterwards, he was aroused from a state of unconsciousness. This is as far as they dared to go with the lie. But in order to make a whole story of it, they ought to have added that this same boy became possessed of a divining power, so as to foretell future events; for the object of such incantations is presage and divination. And this marvel in relition to boys is confirmed, not merely by vulgar opinion, but by the authority of learned men. For I remember to have read in Varro the philosopher, a man most accurately learned and erudite. among other things of the same kitnd, the fol7 60 lowvng; that, some persons at Tralles, endeavoring to ascertain the event of the Mlithridatic war by meains of magical i_:quisiti'n; a boy, looking intently upon the image of MAercury in water, chanrtel a hundred and sixty verses expressive of what was future. Also that Fabius, having lost five hundred denarii, went to consult N'igidius; that, boys, subjected by him to the influence of the magical chant, described the place where the purse with a part of the money was concealed, said that the remainder was spent, and that one denarius was in the possession of Marcus Cato the philosoplher, which Cato confessed he had received fronm a footman as a contribution to the temple of Apollo. These, and other things, I have read, indeed, in mnany authors, concerning magical boys, but I am undecided in opinion whether I shall admit or deny the possibility of them. I believe, however, with Plato, that between gods and men in nature and in rank, there exist certain intermediate div ine beings, and that divination and all magical miracles are under their control. I lbelieve, moreover, that the huiman mind, and especially that of the child, which is pure, can, by the soothing power of song or of odors, be cast into a, profound sleep and become oblivious of things present, and that, forgetting the body, it can, for a short time, be restored and return to its proper nature, that is, to an immortal alnd divine nature, and that so, veluti quodam sopore, it is enabled to presage the future. But, in order that these things may be so, it is requisite, as I understand, that a boy be selected of fa r and unblemished form, of ingenuous and active mind anwl ready speech, so that, either the divine agent may lodge within as in a fit temple, if indeed we mnay t or/thily s.tip]ose suLc,h an, agent to be presenot in the body of the boy; or else, the mind itself, being aroused, is suddenly restored to its inherent power of presage; which power is readily resumed, being irnmcediately developed, when the mind is no longer weakened and obtunded by the oblivious influences of the body. But not from every wood, as Pythagoras says, should Mercury be carved."( Apulcius, de Magia, Oratio.) I d'-sire 51 to commend the contents of this curious extract to the especial consideration of the connoisseurs an-l participants, both embodied, and disembodied, of the present apocatastaltic iteration of the like. What say you. ye boggling, clumsy, christian ghosts, spelling out your inanities letter l)y letter, rap by rap, or tip by tip; to the hundred and sixty verses, and good hexameters too, I dare say, and spoken, ore rotundo, pregnant with the fate of the mighty king of Pontus. How is it that you are, with now and then an exception, so inferior to your apocatastatic copy? Is Mercury dead with Pan, and all the old experienced oracle-utterers g)ne extinct? or have they gone to upper spheres, and given place to mere beginners? Consider the advice of Pythagoras, whether it mnight not be of service to you, for surely your.Messengers are often made of very soft materials. And you, gentlemen Spiritists, especially you who develop and consecrate mediums, would it not be well for the new dispensation if you should follow a little more the ancient practice, and select handsome talented boys, whose souls dwell loosely in their clay, and can at any moment steal out and take a peep through time and space, and so become truly clairvoyant? or. if you prefer the other theory, be found a congruous receptacle, and well adapted instrument, for some supernal presence?-these, rather than stale maidens, Pythonesses, or unmaidens ~o enveloped in their mortal coil that they can find no egress, "immersed in matter," such matter too that none but an unclean spirit would choose to enter it. Consider too, gentlemen, the modest noncommittalism of this ancient dzmibeliever in, and truly plil!sophic critic of, such phenomena. That there are spirits, and that there is a spirit in these cases, he believes with Plato, but whether the spirit goes out or comes in, on that point, he modestly declines to be dogmatic. Would not an unbiassed ol-bserver of our "'modern instances"-with whatever humility and doubt he might dissent from your belief-lean strongly to the opinion that, at least in our own time, the spirit goes out? 52 It is obvious, from the above quotation, that the methods of divination there referred to, were suciFicntly co-mmon among the Romans, though from the f!ct of their b eing accounted impious, and declared to be unluwfu], they were of course less public than at present, and the authors who seem to have treated most fully of them have not come down to us. We can, however, I think, make out most of thle details of the process b)y which the magnetic sleep was induced, and the desired responses to questions, or other communications, obtained. The author of the foregoing extract goes on to exculpate himself from the charge of magic, by showing that the boy, who was said to fall down in his presence, was subject to epileptic fits, that he was a coarse, stupid, vulgar, sickly cliild, not at all up to the Pythargrean definition of a Mercury; then addressing his accusers lie says:-"A fine lad truly you have chosen for one to bring before the altar, on whose head to place ones hands (caput contingat) wholm to robe in the pure pallium, forom whom to expect responses!" (responsum speret!) It is, I think, implied in this last quotation, that the hands were also used in magnetising, as well as the voice, and probably the eyes at the same time. The following, then, cannot be far from a correct picture of an ancient sitting or circle, at least, where the method was by what they called incantation or enchantment. A dark and secret apartment, the smoking altar, the small pale lamp, the fuming incense diffusing Sabaean odors, the little cluster of earnest faces turned towards the handsome young Medium, who sits before the altar robed in the pure. white linen, palliumn, sacred to religious rites,-in front of him the MaRgus, his hand upon the young man's head; his serpent eyes fixed on his face, his voice uttering the low wailinrg magic chant,-the boy sleeps,-he responds to the Sorcerer-he speaks hexameters,-he (or some Spirit in him) utters oracles! Such was one of the ancient methods of getting answers to curious questions. But there were, besides those described by Apuleius, other methods of inducing the clairvoyant state, of putting the soul 53 of the Medium en rapport with the distant or the future. The following is a specimen. " He (Isodorus) met with a consecrated woman (yuvaix ispu, priestess?) who possessed a supernatural endowment after a wonderful manner. For, having poured pure water into a glass vessel, she beheld in the water the phantasms (purp..uw) of future events, and by means of the vision foretold with certainty what was about to take place. I have also myself, witnessed the same thing. (Ex Isodori Philosophi Vita, Damascio Auctore, apud Photium.) There is nothing said here of incantation, as there is not in the case of the boy who responded in hexameters while looking at an image in water instead of into water itself; but that it was sometimes used in connexion with this fixing of the eyes, this staring process of abstraction, is shown by the next quotation. It shows also that these-at that time —illicit practices had found their way into very respectable society. The questioner here is a Roman Emperor, very desirous to ascertain whether lie was to continue to sport the imperial purple which he had honestly bought with his money, or whether he was about to exchange it for a "stone coat." "Julian was guilty ol the folly of consulting the Ma.gicians &c.They immolated certain victims not consonant with the customs of Roman sacrifice, and chanted profane incantations; also those things which are said to be done at the mirror, in which boys, their eyes being blindfolded, are said to see with the top of the head by means of incantations uttered over it, (incantato vertice) Julian had recourse to; whereupon the boy is said to have beheld the approach of Severus, and the death of Julian." (Spartian. Vita. Jul. Did.) There is some obscurity in regard to the exact process here, but I think the supposition may have been that the boy was to direct his eyes, at least mentally, as if to gaze into the mirror through the top of his head, for he is said to look into, or look back (respicere) into, the mirror at the top of his head. Let us, next, look at a few specimens of self-magnetization, 54 or spontaneous clairvoyance.'IThe most celebrated, and indeedl, world-renowned, manifestations of this kind made their appearance in certain prescient females, called Sibyls, at various times, and in various places, of the ancient heathen world. They are said to have written their oracles (Xprio,) upon the leaves of trees as the spirit of divination came upon them. If so, one of them at least, must have thought hers worth copying, for the historian relates that she offered them for sale to the Romans in nine books, (3j3XouJ; 9vvEW) and when they thought the price too high she burned three and still demanded the same price for the six; being still refused she burned three more and demanded still the same price for the remaining three, —she was evidently good at a bargain, if not at vaticination,-they were now purchased, and found, or supposed, to have such important relations to the future destinies of Rome, that they were preserved, with mtore care than any other sacred deposit, says the historian. Ten distinguished citizens were set apart, exempt from military and civil duties, for the purpose of taking care of them, without whom they could never be seen, being preserved in a stone coffer, under ground, (xaact ys) in the temple of the Capitolian Jupiter. They were always consulted in important deliberations of the senate, and whenever danger from without or from within threatened the State. (Dionyss. Halicarnass. L. iv. 62) These genuine Sibylline Xpri'o were destroyed,fatal omen! when the Capitol was burned in Sylla's time, just at the commencement of that "sterile period" ushered in by the "mournful sound of the trumpet:"-a period, like our own, and all other sterile periods, doomed to subsist on make-believes, and all sorts of supposititions, and illegitimacies. The degenerate, and degenerating Romans, therefore, instead of rousing themselves to carve their own future destiny, sent ambassadors to various parts of Europe and Asia, to ask leave to copy, for the Roman People, whatever Sibylline fragments- for the most part, not true Sibyllina, but old wives fables, and other witch-droppings —they might find there. 55 These it was that the Medium-led statesmen, of the remaining days of the Republic, consulted, quarreled over, forged, interpreted, and miis-interpreted, each to his own purpose, precisely as our old women do the Constitution; and precisely as iniscalled American statesmen will, nay do, proh pulor, ec nOetas apocatastaticum "conlsult the spirits," in the American Capitol. However, it is plain from the record and the conduct of men, that there were in those days clairvoyant women who could see with the top of the head, or in somec other anomolous way, or at least,-which is sufficient for my present purpose,-that people, at that time, supposed they had sufficient reason to think so. But this endowment was not peculiar to women, men also not unfrequently exhibited the same. The following are from "The Life" of that ancient Swedenborg, cr Davis, Apollonius Tyanensis. IHe was on a visit to the Sages of India for the purpose of perfecting himself ini philosophy and theurgy, not yet, it seems, "fully developed," magnetically. HIaving made known his purpose, the Superior of the philosophic fraternity said to himl: " It is the custom of others to inquire of those who visit them, who they are, and for what purpose they come; but with us the first evidence of wisdom is that we are not ignorant of those who come to us. So saying he gave account both of the paternal and maternal families of Apollonius,-of all he did at Aegae —how DDamis came to him,-of their conversa4ion on the journey, and of what they heard from others. All this he related readily and fluently as if he had himself been a companion of the journey. Apollonius being astonished and inquiring how he obtained such knowledge? (such power of knowing) you also. said he, possess the same endowment but not yet in perfection." (Philostrat. Vita Apollonii Tyanensis L. iii. C. 16.) Itis psychometric faculty enable:l him to see that Apollonius was capable of "becoming a good Medium." Accordingly, we find him, after his return from India,-the Brahmins probably mesmerised him a few 56 times-quite well "developed." For discoursing one day at Ephesus in a grove near the city, a flock of birds was observed sitting quietly upon a tree-shortly there arrived another bird emitting a peculiar note, whereupon the whole flock set up a cry and flew away. The auditors noticing and wondering at the conduct of the Lirds; Apollonius interrupted his discourse and said, that, "a boy-near a gate of the city, which he named, —carrying a vessel of grain, had fallen down and spilled it, and having left much of it on the ground was gone away; —that the bird, happening to be near, and observing this, had come to inform his companions that they might partake of his good fortune. Many of the company thereupon hastened to satisfy themselves of the truth of the statement,-Apollonius, meantime, going on with his discourse. Soon they returned shouting, and filled with admni ration &c." ([dem L. iv. 3) The next specimen is instructive, especially to the faculty; but as I have promised to b)e brief, I must abbreviate it somewhat. Apol!onius being at Tarsus, a young man was brought to him, —for he was a healing medium as well as a clairvoyant, —who, thirty days before, had been bitten by a mad dong. He commanded the dog to ~be brought to him. But, as the accident had occurred when the boy was out of the city, none of those about him had seen the dog, and he himself had not observed him so as to be able to describe or distinguish him. Thereupon Apollonius, retracting himself; withdrawing himself inwards, (U.i.-Xv, stopping the outer machinery and taking on the interior state,) " 0, Damis, said he, the dog is white, shaggy, large, and resembles the Amphilochian breed. He stands trembling near a certain fountain, (naiing / the Jbuntain) very desirous, and at the same time afraid, to drink. Iring him hither to me, saying to him only that it is I who summons him. Being conducted to him, accordingly, bly Damis, the doc threw himself at the feet of Apollonius, whining, (or weeping, Xxauv) Apollonius patted and soothed him, and bringing him to the boy he commanded him to lick the bite, in order that the remedy might be the same thing as that which had produced the disease." (Idem L. vi. 43) 0, Hahneman! Great Itch-Compeller! Solomon was right! and your honors are also in danger, for yours, it is plain is, after all, only an apocatastatic homoeopathy! One specimen more,-out of a great number recorded in his Life, —of the clairvoyant powers of this capital old Medium is all my limits will permit. He was again at Ephesus discoursing near the city, when hesitating, and then ceasing to speak, as when one forgets what he was going to say next; he looked fiercely upon the ground, strode forwards three or four steps, and, "strike the tyrant! strike!" he exclaimed. And when all Ephesus, (most of the citizens being present) was astonished at his conduct; —courage, my friends, said he, for this very day the tyrant is slain, this day, did I say, nay, at the very moment that I stopped speaking. Soon as there was time for the news to arrive it was found, accordingly, that just at that hour, Domitian was assassinated at Rome. (Idem, L. viii. C. 26.) I must not omit to insert here another example of clairvoyance from the life of our friend Iamblichus, just to show that he also was an Adept in the occult sciences, or an Expert, as the lawyers say, for we shall have to call him upon the stand as a witness in that character bye and bye. "Iamblichus went with his disciples to sacrifice, in one of the suburbs of the city; and after the sacrifice was performed they returned to town, gently walking along, and discoursing concerning the gods, as a subject very proper for the occasion. Then Iamblichus, who was perfectly lost in thought in the midst of the discourse, whose voice was fallen, and eyes immovab6lyfixed on the earth, turned to his companions and exclaimed " Let us take another road, for not far from hence is a funeral procession." Iamblichus, accordingly, chose a purer way, and was accompanied by a few of his disciples; the rest, doubting, went forward and met the procession, &c." (Eunapii Vita Iamblichi.) It would be easy to add the record of many more similar manifestations from the fabulous lives of still more 8 58 ancient sages as Pythagoras, Orpheus, &c., but as these are suspicious, for more reasons than one, and as I propose to deal only with veritable and well attested facts, I shall pass them by. But these are, as it were, mere amateur performances, the private and illicit doings of unconsecrated and profane people, intrusively attempting the functions which properly appertained to others. The public religion sought to keep such things under its own control. All legal Mediums were consecrated and religiously set apart to their office. Among these, by far the most celebrated, and most frequently consulted, was the priestess of Apollo at Delphi, or as she was often called, the Pythia, and sometimes Pythoness. The theory was that Apollo spoke through her voice. But it is obvious that, in so far as she possessed any powers of privesion or clairvoyance, they originated in the same way as in the case of the enchanted boys; that is, the induction of the magnetic, or trance state, was an indispensable condition of their development; and this state was induced by essentially the same means. When she was about to give oracular responses she entered a cave in the mountain over which the Delphic Temple was built,-she was placed in the basket or basket-shaped seat of the sacred tripod, which, being open at the bottom, stood over a rent or crevice in the rock from which issued a mephitic vapor,-she drank of the inspiring water of the Castalian Spring-she was enclosed with branches of laurel whose leaves she chewed-before her was the altar of the God -the air was loaded with the fumes and fragrance of burning incense —the music of trumpets and other instruments resounded through the cavern,-around her stood the priests and other servants of Apollo, and those to whom the response was to be given,-she became unconscious, went into the magnetic state, (hence the phrase &v OXpcDU x aOoad to sleep in the hollow of the tripod, signified to prophesy,)-but soon the god himself, duly invoked, arrived, and took possession and control of the organs of the Pythia-she was now inspired with a "divine 69 fury or rage," she became agitated, convulsed, tore her hair, foamed at the mouth, until at length the excitement found vent in the utterance of pure Greek hexameters, which contained or constituted the oracular responses to the questions proposed, which were enclosed in sealed envelopes and known only to the questioner. At least, in the more ancient periods, the responses were always in hexameter verses, but afterwards in prose; which fact caused no little trouble to the believers in plenary inspiration, and who held that the spirit "came in" instead of going out;-for why should the god of music and poetry forget how to make verses? However, we shall see bye and bye that they had a way of accounting for it. Here is evidence of clairvoyance, at least, and on a pretty large scale, if we consider the extent of Apollo's correspondence, the number of letters from all parts of the world which were answered without opening them. As to the correctness of the answers, and their coincidence with events, though it must be confessed that they were sometimes a little equivocal, Cicero says (De Divinatione Lib. i. xviii) that Chrysippus collected innumerable oracles the truth of everv one of which was confirmed by most abundant testimony. A specimen or two must suffice; and lest some infidel sceptic should suspect that the seals of some of those envelopes were in the habit of being tampered with, I will select those which shall put all his doubts to shame, and to flight. Listen to the father of history. "Crcesus, king of Lydia, wishing to test the powers of the Pythia, sent messengers to Delphi with directions to inquire, on a certain day, what the king of the Lydians was doing. * * N * * * * No sooner had the Lydians entered the temple to consult the god, and to ask the question commanded, than the Pythia uttered the following in hexameter verses: "I know the number of the sands, and the measure of the sea; I know what the dumb would say, I hear him who speaks not. There comes to me the odor of tortoise and lamb's flesh seething together in a brass vessel; beneath the flesh is brass, there is also brass above." This oracle being recorded, the messelngers returned to Sardis. Croesus read and was satisfied. * * * * For after he had sent the messengers to consult the oracle, oil the aplpointed day, he hit upon the following to be done, as something which he supposed might be difficult to detect and describe:-cutting up a tortoise and a lamb, he boiled them together in a brazen vessel which also had a cover of brass." (EIerodotus, Clio.) The Pythia must have been, in this case, extremely clairvoyant, or else have had excessively acute olfiactories, have been clairolfacient. When the Gauls under 3Brennus were, apparently, about to destroy the Temple at Delphi, the god being consulted, the Pythia answered from the Oracle: " I, and the white virgins will see to that mnatter." Whereupon the Gauls, being seized with a panic in a snow-storm among the mountains, fled or perished in the snow. (Cicero de Divinatione Lib. i. 37) This is a very unexceptionable example of the combination o.f prescience with clairvoyance, for which the Pythia was famed, beyond all her compeers. The following is a specimen of equivoque, or double enten-.dre, like the still more famous response to Crcesus; who, when inquiring if he should be successful against the Persians was told, that, if lie crossed the Halys, he should destroy a great kingdom. W'W hen however, on consulting Apollo at Delphi, he was advised to beware of the seventy-third year, supposing he was to live until that period, and not thinking of the age of Galba, he was filled with confidence &c." (Suetonius Vita Neronis c. 40) Crcesus, by crossing the river, destroyed his own kingdom; and Nero, instead of living to:his seventy third year, was destroyed by Galba who was seventy-three years of age. The celebrated response to Pyrrhus, "Aio te, Aeacida, Romanos vincere posse" was another of the same sort. The poor Pythia has, I think, been ridiculed without reason, and her credit very unjustly impeached on account of these and such-like utterances. For, it is manifest, that the double meatnilg in such cases is an essential condition of the truth of the prediction, otherwise the prophecy would defeat its own fulfilment and so prove false. Such cases, therefore, instead of discrediting, ought to confirm the clairvoyant character of the prophetess,-it was her business to see the future, not to change it. The Pythia, however, though first in rank, possessed no peculiar powers, but was only one among innumerable others, in the service of the ancient religions, who, in various ways, evinced the possession of the same. "The religion of this temple (that of the Deus Heliopolitanus in Syria) excels in divination. The absent consult this God by sending sealed letters; and answers are given, in order, to their contents. Thus the Emperor Trajan, being about to enter Parthia from this province, and being desired by his friends to inquire in regard to the event of the undertaking, excercised Roman prudence by first testing the powers of the Oracle, lest he might be imposed upon. First, therefore, he sent sealed letters to which he desired a reply in writing. The God commanded paper to be brought, sealed blalnk, and sent; the priests being astonished at that sort of reply, because they were ignorant of the character of the (Trajan's) letters. Trajan received the answer with great admiration because he also had sent blank tablets to the God. He then sent other sealed letters inquiring whether he should return to Rome after finishing the war. The god directed a vine to be cut in pieces, wrapt in linen, and carried to him, signifying, as the event proved, that his bones were to be carried back to Rome." (Macrobius Saturnal. L. i. c. 23.) Such specimens of divination are found scattered throughout ancient history, besides "innumerable" instances of it, which, according to Cicero and Apuleius, were recorded but have not come down to us; but these examples are perhaps sufficient (I have promised to be brief) to prove the existence, and illustrate the character, of the ancient clairvoyance, at least as manifested by oral communications. I shall have occasion to bring forward other forms of it under a different head. The following quotation, from one well acquainted with the subject, shows pretty conclusively, the identity of the influence which affected these vaticinating people with the present animal magnetism, or Mesmerism, or spirit-influence. "I wish to point out to you the signs by which those who are rightly possessed by the gods may be known.- * * * they neither energize according to sense, nor are in such a vigilant state as those who have their senses excited from sleep; nor are they moved as those who energize according to impulse. Nor again are they conscious of the state they are in, neither as they were before, nor in any other way; nor, in short, do they exert any knowlege, which is peculiarly their own. The greatest indication, however, of the truth of this is the following: Many, through divine inspiration, are not burned when fire is introduced to them, the inspiring influence preventing the fire from touching them. Many also, though burned, do not apprehend that they are so, because they do not then live an animal life. And some, indeed, though transfixed with spits do not perceive it; but others that are struck on the shoulders with axes, and others that have their arms cut with knives, are by no means conscious of what is done to them. From these things it is demonstrated that those who energize enthusiastically are not conscious of the state they are in, and that they neither live a human, nor an animal, life, according to sense or impulse, but that they exchange this for a certain more divine life, by which they are inspired and perfectly possessed." (Iamblichus de Mysteriis.) I had intended to exhibit manifestations parallel to those contained in this chapter, from the writings of the spiritists of the present time; but the parallelism here, in all essential particulars, is so obvious to all who have even but the most superficial acquaintance with the subject, that I shall save myself the trouble of transcribing, and the reader that of perusing, what must be already abundantly familiar to him. The 68 fascination by the eye is what any one may witness, and most have often witnessed, at biological lectures and other such-like exhibitions, or at the " Circles;"-to be fatally fascinated by praise is a thing not at all rare in the present times, though I must confess, that I am not personally cognizant of any instance in which trees have been made to wither and die from that cause alone,-there is a point in the ancient magic which is not yet, I think, re-developed-the enchanted boys are only specimens of magnetisation by a different method, although indeed, the chant is still sometimes used for that purpose;the Pythia was merely a good Medium;-such cases as those of Apollonius and others are not uncommon, even since Swedenborg,-and Sibyls we have in every village. Of the aqua-clairvoyance I shall have more to say in another chapter. CHAPTER VIL Qui rore puro Castaliae lavit Crines solutos, * * * * * Apoilo. HORAT. CARMIN. L. iii. v. 02. Who bathes his flowing hair in pure Castalian dew?-Apollo. Let us next examine some other facts of the ancient Spiritism, of a somewhat different character, and see whether they also are sufficiently analogous to those of the present Spiritism to prove their apocatastatical relation to each other. The first quotation which I shall bring forward, I desire to make use of for a double purpose, viz: as. a specimen of spirit-writing, and of that quality of certain ancient waters, which confered the power of divination, and induced the clairvoyant state, a quality, in this respect, precisely like that of magnetized water in our time. The ancient spirits, so far as I have hitherto ascertained, were not accustomed to make use of the Medium's hand for writing communications, except in the case of the poet, who was supposed to be the writing-mediuim and amanuensis of the Muses; and with one other remarkable exception viz.: that of the Sibyls. These ladies were a sort of female hermits, who lived in forests, mountains, and caves, in various places and countries, and gave responses in writing to those who consulted them, just as Mrs C - at B Mrs S at MI and so many others at other places, do at present. Thcy seem to have written too, when not consulted; for the good of posterity or whomsoever it might concern, whenever the spirit took them by the arm; so that tlhey were obliged to write upon the leaves of trees or whatever came to hand. These xpr;u.oi have, unfortunately, all, or nearly all, perished; although we have plenty of counterfeits; their great value and authority in ancient times leading to very extensive forgeries of them. In other instances, the spirits who had acquired power to control the Medium's muscles, commonly took the tongue instead of the hand, and so, instead of going through the present tedious process of training and development, from rapping to writing, and from writing to speaking, they saved time, and made speaking Mediums at once. The specimens of spiritwriting which I have found seem to have been a sort of acheiropoietic productions, or perhaps they were written by the "condensed" hand of the airy and tenuous spirit-vehicle, or iclwXov, which spirits, anciently, as well as now, made use of for locomotion and other purposes. Even this kind of writing seems not to have been common in the former period, and it is, so far as I know, in the present, among the rarest of spiritmanifestatioms. In regard to the "aquae fatidice,";' as they were called, of which the Castalian fountain at Delphi was quite the most famous, from the drinking of which the Pythia obtained in part her clairvoyant powers, and perhaps Apollo himself, to whom the fountain was sacred, and who, it seems, was in the habit of bathing his head in it, probably when he wished to excite the vaticinating mood, or he might have used it to cool his brain as Byron did, —and which waters were found also in many other places; the most probable explanation of their peculiar quality, and one strictly analogical, reasoning from the present to the pasts is, to suppose that the 9 spirit who spoke through the drilnking Medium, or rather, that the "genius loci," if he were, or were not, the communicating spirit, mna.gnetised the water on every occasion of its use for the purpose of divination, or, the latter Fersonazle may have indulged a personal pride in keeping it at all times magnetisedl, for the use, whether of men, or o: gods. In the same way we may perhaps best explain the instances of waterdivination in the precedinll chapter, that is, by supposing the water to have b)een magnetized ly s11e sp:irit, or sonmebody else. The following is the prolm:ised qu.otzttion. "It is supposed by those who have examtined the sub'ject, that, the water in this place (Daphne, in Syria,) conies from the Castalian fountain, lilch confers the faculty of divinati)n?;;having the same namre, and the same qualities, as that at DLelphi.'llhey bjoast that IHadrian. while yet a private man, received intimations here concerning the empire. For, they say, that havirng dipt a leaf of laurel in the spring, lhe found, on taking it o;t, a prediction of the future plainly written thereon."'(Sozonien Lib. v.) That this was no mere boast of' those concerned for the credit of the spring is proved by the fact related by several other historians, that, on coming to the empire, Hadrian walled in, and shut up, this spring, lest it should teach others how to become emperors; and( that it remained closed until Julian's time. Perhaps other emperors as well as HaI-drian were afraid of it. This spring was perlhaps the only one, among the divining waters, which had tle faculty of expressing itself in writing; but the same kind of spirit-writing was often found inscribed upon rocks and walls, (Nicephorus Gregoras Iist. Lib. v.) the spirits being able in those days to communicate without a Medium, as they are beginning to do in these. But we must consider a few more instances of the curious, and marvelous, not to say miraculous, effects of the ancient divining waters. And would it not be well that our own springs should be carefully examined, with a view.,to ascer 67 tain whether they do not, some of them, possess analogous powers? Or if not, perhilaps some benevolent spirits may consent to take charge, and presile, each over his own fountain, and become the genius loci, and( impart to the waters the same powers as did their apocatastatic brethren. We have, in modern times, plenty of healingc waters for diseases of the body, many of them too, presided over by spirits, or, at least, they were so not long since, why mal-y we not have, for the benefit of the soul? a series of good theological:waters, judiciously and conveniently located!! —what could tend more to a healthful and true.'progress." This too, will be evolvred, as sure as ours is apocatastatic of the period we have supposed. Our business, however, at present, is with the an;cient fountains.' "It is well known that the Oracle at Colophon gives responses bly means of water. For there is a fountain in a subterranean cavern firomn which the prophet drinks. Then, havinog, on the prescribed nights, perf,)ormed the accustomed cerem)nies, he utters respnseCs, havian bacomnz iuivisible to the spectators presenzt! ( Erx S' ov o C;)l dscl,-) — Ilence it is is manicest that this water confers a divining power." (lamblichus de Mlysteriis.) This fountain at Colophon must have been a very wonderful fountain, more so if possible than that which had the p)wer to write on laurel leaves. It not only magnetized the prophet who drank of it, s) as to make him clairvoyant, but it enabled him to magnetise the eyes of all the persons present at his sittings —for such, I take it, must le the explanation of the fact of his becoming invisible t:) them. This is a power not yet, so far as I know, attained hy any modern Mledium. The spirits often mnagnetise the eyes of the Aledium so as to rencler the spectators invisible to hint, anl the bi,)l)ogists take away the power of visio)n from the eyes of those whom they canlfitsciiiate, but to flsci;ate a whole auliencc is, I believe hitherto beyond the mapnetio battery of even tho l1ev. Lo Rqo 68 Sunderland. That same Colophonian water must have been equal to the ring of Gyges. and if the fountain is not dry, its re-disc:)very wouldl be worth more to the finder than all the gold of California. IHowever, let me not tempt any man of Connecticut, or of New-Haimpshire, to go in quest of it, since it might. after all, prove a losing speculation; for its powers and properties are not, probably, inherent in the water itself, -it might not therefore bear transportation,-but are confered by the resident and presiding spirit at his pleasure. Such things are all "the work of the spirits." This is evident from the following remarkable quotation:" The prophetess in BranchidcT, whether she hold in her hand a wand anciently the gift of some god, andt becomres filled with a divi;e liglIt; nl.el1cr, sitting upon an axle, she foretells future events; whether, dlipping her feet or the hem of her garment (xpa:Jot5ov) in water; or whether, envel3ped in the vapor of water, she receives the divine influence; —by all these methods prepared, she receives the god fiont without. This is also apparent from thle number of sacrifices, fron the whole of the prescril)ed ritual, and whatever else is done before the access of the oracular inspiration, the baths of the prophetess, her fasting three wvhole days, her remainingr in the adytunm, her beccrting already encircled with li-ght, and rej)icing for some tiie; —fw.r all these things demonstrate that the god is invoked to approach, that Ihe cco.nes front without, thalt the prophetess is inspile:l in a wonderful imanner before she comes to her accustomAed place; ('efore she opens the sitting) and it is nD ae n Aliifcst, tl t, in tle 1l irit I Lich rises from the fountain, ( esidles the natural quality of the water) there is another superior (-p.s.fi-us/ov) god, who is separate fiom the place, and who is the cause of the place. and the country, and of the whole divination." (dlem Iiideem.) HIere is a most unhesitatintg believer in the spirits; a man too who beyond all others made it the business of hlis life to invcstigatc the mysteries of spirit-intercourse; and to observe 69 and mark in a scientific manner,-beyond all modern competition, (unless the Judge may approach him)-the attendant phenomena, whether physiological, psychical, or physical. Such investigators in the present period are also apt to become confirmed believers. The reader will please to notice also in passing, the beautiful specimen of odic light exhibited by this Medium, the grand display of that sort of lurid lights being reserved for the chapter on physical manifestations.-These waters, then, were not the cau.se of the strange manifestations which accompaied the due ritual use of them, but only an occasion, or, mneans, without which the spirit could not, or did not choose to, produce them. It would be unphilosophical however, irreligious rather, to suppose their employment to be wholly arbitrary. Perhaps their use was symbolical; their transparency imparting, by some sympathetic action, the same quality to the otherwise turbid and opake Iuture, and their purity suggesting truth in the communications, of which the light which invested the Medium was, as it were, the shadow and assurance. Bat we must return for a moment to the fountain at Colophon, which had other note-worthy properties, besides the power of rendering people invisible. "There is not a woman here as at Delphi, but a priest is elected from certain families, and mostly from Miletus, who is informed only of the ntame and number of those who conme to consult the Oracle. He then retires into the cavern, and drinking of the secret fountain,-though ignorant generally (plerumque) of letters and poetry,-he delivers responses, in verse, to whatever mental questions any one has in his mind. (super rebus quas quis mente concepit.)-(Tacitus, Annal. Lib. ii.) Iere is what we may call, in modern phrase,'a well developed Medium;" the power of answering mental questions being a test and proof of it, this being, as I understand, one of the highest 70 functions of the office. Altogether, a sitting of this Medium must have been a very spirital affair, the medium himself bein' changed into a spirit, or, however, there was nothingr left for the senses but his voice, vox and preterea nihil; and then, spli-it-like, to reaJd ones very thoughts!! I know not whether modn ern cevelopnlents have yet reached so wholly spirital a form of exhibition! This fiwculty of clairvoyance in relation to the thoughlts of others, however, was not peculiar to this Medium, thle Pytliia expressly laid claim to it,-"I know what the dumb woult say, I hear the voice of him who speaks not," —and often manifested it. It was frequently implied also in the manifestations of other ancient mediumS. There was another form in which the ancient clairvoyance sometimes expressed itself; not without imitation, it is said, in the present period. The following is an example of it. " Then was performed a great miracle. For Mus, as is related by the Thebans, having visited various oracles, came to the temple of Apollo Ptoi. There ftllowved himn three men publicly selected by the Thebans, for the purpose of recording the responses which might be given. But, on arriving at the temple, they were astonished to hear the priestess answer in some foreign language, instead of speaking Greek, so that they had nothing to do. Whereupon MAus, taking from them their tal)lets, wrote down the responses of the Oracle-it was said in the Carian tonogue,-and having made the record he departed &c.; (tIerodotus. Urania.) The sages of Indit also, as appears from the Life of Apollonius, seem to have possessed this power of speaking the language of those whom tlley addressed. It was also one of the accomplishments of Apollonits himself. (Vita Apollon. Lib. i. c. 19) Was the rapporlt Yfaagneliqlte existing between the person speakingt and the person spuiken to? was it the ars.wv, or guardian angel, of the speaker who happened to be a linguist, or is the opinion of Apollonius the true 71 one, who explained such facts in his own case, and especially all instances of clairvoyance by water, like those we have been considering, as the effect of the Pythagorean dietthat is, of water drinking, and n nm-carniverous food; Leans also being excluded. (Vita Apollon. Lib. ii. c. 37) IIe was, however, somethling of a slilitist, perhaps as much so as Iamblichus, and intimates that by such means the god is induced to "enter firom without." Besiiles the develrped lMedliums through whom the spirits could commlunic.ate with a third persoan, there were also in ancient times what are now called impressible Mediums, who received the livine influx into their own consciousness, or semi-consciousness, but it was not fully transmitted for the benefit of others. These, as might be expected, are to be found mostly among the later, or tle new, mystical, Platolnists. " For the end and scope with him consisted in aplproximating, and bei(ngr united to, the god who is above all thinLgs. But he four tilmles obtarinedl this end while I was with him, and this by an ineffable energy and not in capacity. b y * * * by employing for this purpose the paths narrated by Plato in the Ba13nquet, the supremle divinity appeared to him, who has neither any formr nor idea, but is estlablisl:ed above intellect anl every intelligible; to whom also I, P'orphyry, say that i once approacheled, and was united, when I was sixty-eight years of age." (Porphyr. Vita Plotin.)'l'The mesmeric insensibility was also one of the ancient phenomena; though I am not aware that it was, at that time, ever induced for the purpose of avoiding the pain of surgical operations. Sufficient evidence that ancient nerves were not different firom the present, has perhaps been given already in the extract from Iamblichus, and parallel facts are common everywhere among those'"who energize enthusiastically." I will however, make one quotation. "11Under Mount Soracte is the town of Feronia, which is also the name of the goddess of the place, who is held in 72 great honor there. There is also a grove of Feronia, in which are performed sacred rites of a very wonderful kind. For those possessed by this Dremon (;, a"xsXoVsvo, uro TS~ 6aJ:ovoo; au.~;) walk with naked feet over burning coals, and hot ashes, without suffering any injurious effects from the fire." (Strabo. Lib. v.) CHAPTER VII. Evocantes animas daemonum, eas indiderunt imaginibus sanctis divinisque mysteriis, par quas idola et bene faciendi et male vires habere potuissent.Hermes Trismegistus, in Asclepian Dialogue. Evoking the souls of dzemons, they caused them to enter into images by means of sacred and mysterious rites, and through the presence of these spirits the Idols were enabled to exhibit manifestations both good and evil. qavrxayE 6s ro.XXaxLg, (scla yorsitc) xotC iupog ovPoavtou svaosgI, xas xttissAla~,s sr ~our'wv otvaX/arax qrupi 6& auootio arW Xatraseg atvamnrovcra. Psellus, de Daemonibus. Often too, celestial fire is made to appear through magic, and then statues laugh, and lamps are spontaneously enkindled. ** * * * void of light Save what the glimmering of these livid flames Casts pale and'dreadful. PARADISE LosT, L. i. The ancients were much more scientific than we in their methods of spirit-intercourse. They had examined the subject much more profoundly. Their theoretical views were more consistent, and mature, and relied upon with more confidence than ours. Minds of the highest order were devoted to the investigation of the subject. And then, what is very essential to success, both in faith and practice, they went about it much more religiously than we. It was a sacred theurgy practiced by consecrated and holy men as a part of religion. And even the unlicensed, and outsiders, when they presumed to call spirits from the vasty deep; or, through the 10 74 eyes, or top of the head of some enchanted boy, or water-magnetised woman, dared to peep into the otherwise invisible world, they felt as if they were sacrilegiously tresspassing on hallowed ground, and quieted their consciences, and at the same time honored and placated the spirits, by the due performance of sacred rites. Soymetimes, however, the spirits, instead of being solicited, were commanded to speak, and then, especially if the purpose of the questioner were unlawful, the rites were impious, with dire chanted imprecations, choric dances, and accursed spells, not even excepting human sacrifices, or the utterance of words or names of such mystic and mighty power as to compel the gods themselves. Yet even these were reckoned religious ceremonies. The ancients, "religiosissimi homines," if they had wished a table to tip them answers to questions, mental or vocal, instead of laying their hands upon it, would first have dedicated it to the numen, or spirit, from whom they expected the response, and consecrated it with sacrifice, and incense, and chaplet, and unction, and libation, and lighted tapers, and then with dance, and chanted invocation, have invited the spirit to enter. But the ancients did not use tables, those profane inmates of the kitchen, for any such hallowed purpose. Statues, images, simulacra, wrought with the utmost skill, and those "not of every wood," were reckoned more appropriate for such purposes. And even such a simulacrum was only a dead inanimate block, until, with all due and solemn rites, the spirit, whose residence it was to become, and who was to act and answer in and by it, had been successfully invoked, instated, and inthroned within it. Having thus prepared "apiece of wood," as that old puritan, Isaiah, sneeringly calls it, they had something that could tip, and nod, and marlch, and float thro' the air, and speak besides, if occasion required. Sometimes, however, they made use of other objects for purposes of divination and consulting the spirits, as thie tripod of the Pythia, for instance, and then such ob'j`ects had to be consecrated in due form. 75 The following example of the method of constructing, consecrating, and using, what may be called a divining machine, is quite a curiosity in itself, and interesting from its similarity in several particulars, to some of the present methods. I would commend it to the favorable notice and consideration of modern spirits, especially of those beginners who are obliged to spell out their responses. It is really a scientific and very elegant method of using the alphabet for that purpose, and much more convenient, than going, as it were, fishing among the whole twenty-four letters in search of each one as it is needed, after the present clumsy fashion. It was quite an artistic, and gentleman-like, dactylomancy, altogether superior to any use of the ring in our time, as well as to our pinacomancy, or the typtomancy, which makes a similar use of the alphabet. The occasion of its employment in the instance which brought it under the notice of history was as follows. Certain political gentlemen, in the time df the Emperor Valens, being incautiously curious to know who was to be the next emperor, made inquiry of the spirits. The Roman police, however, who managed to be informed of many things without the aid of the spirits, were of opinion that they were asking improper questions. Whereupon the inquisitive gentlemen, suddenly found themselves arraigned for high treason. On their trial, one of the operators, described to the judges the machine, which had been brought into court, and their way of consulting the spirits by it, as follows: "This ill-omened little table, which you see before you, most noble judges, we constructed of laurel twigs, with unlucky auspices, so as to resemble in form the Delphic tripod; and having consecrated it with mystic, chanted, imprecations, and with much, and long continued, dancing in a ring round about it, at length we got it in operation. The method of working it, whenever it was consulted concerning, hidden things, was on this wise.. It was placed in the midst of an apartment, which was made pure by Arabian odors; a circular plate composed of different metals being simply laid upon it, upon the extreme margin of whose circumference were skilfully engraved the scriptile forms of the twenty-four iletters of the alpha bet, separated from each other by accurately measured spaces. Over this, robed in linen vestments, having on his feet sandals of the same material, the torulus wound about his head, and holding in his hand the boughs of a tree of good omen,-the spirit fiom whom the prescient response was expected having been propitiated by appropriate chants, -stood one skilled in ritual science; holding suspended a small ring composed of finest Carpathian thread, and wrought with mystic rites, which, falling at regular intervals upon single letters, composed heroic verses conformable to the questions asked, and complete in mode and measure, like those which proceed from the Pythia, or from the Oracle at Branchidoe." —(Ammianus, L. xxix, 29.) Now, any spirit who can compress his vehicle so as to produce any physical manifestation whatever, could, one would suppose, cause such a ring, suspendedfrom the ceiling of the room, to vibrate in the required direction, as the spirit did in this case; and certainly, with much more ease than they can tip tables, or even rap upon them. What say you my "tricksy spirits" to such an experiment, with the ring? And here I desire the Commissioner of Patents to take notice that all modern "Celestial Telegraphs," "Psychographs," and such like recent contrivances, are mere apocatastatic copies, and not patentable at all, as I understand the law,-I therefore enter my "caveat," not that I wish to apply for a patent, but, "suum cuique" let justice be done; anciently, as now, "some things could be done as well as others." But it is time to proceed to the ancient manifestations by means of consecrated effigies, or simulacra. "The image of the god (Jupiter Ammon) is composed of emeralds and other precious stones, and gives oracles in a way quite peculiar. It is borne about in a golden ship by eighty priests; who, bearing it upon their shoulders, go whithersoever the god (image) by nodding his head, directs them." 77 (Diodor. Sicul. Lib. 17) This is not much, even though Jupiter did it. About equivalent to tipping a light-stand, or moving some other small furniture. "From Byblos I ascended Libanus a days journey, having heard that there was an ancient temple of Venus there. * *' * * * * In it are many precious, and many wonderful, things. For the statues sweat, move, and give oracles. And often, when the temple is shut, a cry originates within (f3or'syEvEo) which has been heard by many."-(Luclan. de Syria Dea.) These are physical manifestations equal to table-moving, and required, probably, spirits of about the same stregth, except that the ancient spirits being more at home in their effigies, which were a sort of earthly bodies for them, and conformed at least in some measure, to them, could act in and by them with more convenience and ease, than a modern spirit can get into a table and cause it to move. The ability to produce sounds and other physical manifestations is also perhaps greater, in places consecrated to the spirits, than elsewhere. At least, such manifestations in modern spirit-temples, as for instance, the thunder in Broadway, the blowing of the trumpet at Athens, Ohio, &c., are thus accounted for. (See Spiritual Telegraph Nov. 19, 1853.) "A little before the misfortune of the Lacedvemonians at Leuctra, there was heard the clashing of arms in the temple of Hercules, and the statue of Hercules sweat profusely. At Thebes, at the same time, in the temple of Hercules, the folding doors, which were fastened with bolts, suddenly opened of themselves, and the arms which were hung upon the walls were found thrown upon the ground. There were other signs preceding this calamity. The statue of Lysander at Delphi, which the Lacedemmonians had placed there after his great naval victory over the Athenians, appeared crowned with weeds and bitter herbs, and the two golden stars which had been suspended there as offerings in honor of Castor and Pollux who had assisted them visibly in that battle, fell, and 78 disappeared." (Cicero, de Divinatione i. 94) These spirits might almost have done such things as the Judge describes, if they had not thought them in bad taste. But the ancient spirits were quite up to the modern in physical manifestations every way, as we shall see as we pro. ceed. " There was, at Antioch, an image of Jupiter Amicalis, so compounded by magic arts, and consecrated by unhallowed rites, that it mocked the eyes of those who looked upon it, (ut falleret oculos intuentium, became invisible?) and seemed to exhibit various portentous appearances, and to give responses. The truth of this was made manifest to all men, and even to the emperors themselves." (Ruffinus) This art of making ones self invisible is one I should be happy to learn of the spirits, but I am not aware that any Mediums, or tables, in our times, are accustomed to render themselves invisible to non-magnetize'd, or non-spirited people. " There are many Oracles among the Greeks, many also among the Egyptians, many in Africa, and many here in Asia. But these give responses neither without priests, nor without interpreters. HIere, however, Apollo is self-moved, and performs the prophetic office wholly by himself; and this he does as follows. When he wishes to "communicate," he moves in his place, whereupon the priests forthwith take him up. Or if they neglect to take him up, he sweats, and comes forth into the middle of the room, (egs,seov s,, xiv6Lru) when, however, others bear him upon their shoulders, he guides them, moving from place to place. At length the chief priest supplicating him, asks him all sorts of questions. If he does not assent he moves backwards; if he approves he impels forward those who bear him, like a charioteer. Thus they arrive at responses. They do nothing except by this method. Thus he gives predictions concerning the seasons, foretells storms, d4c. I will relate another thing also, which he did in my presence. The priests were bearing him upon their shoulders-he left them below upon the ground, while he 79 himself was borne aloft and alone into the air," (Lucian. de Syria Dea) Here now is a hint which ought not to be lost. A method suggested in which the prescient spirits may make themselves useful to mankind, and at the same time enrich their friends, -a kind of benevolence which we are told they like to indulge in. Let them make a reliable almanac, or almanacs, calculated for various meridians, and with tables of the weather for each day, or each week; surely, the books, if found to predict truly, would become right saleable,-a good speculation for some of the publishers for the spirits,-but, if they cannot inform us correctly in regard to the future of this world, let us be cautious how we trust them in regard to the next. Here we have also as good a specimen of what "a piece of wood" can do, if it were wood, as any modern table or other furniture has exhibited hitherto, not excepting the table that went out at the window, or the bell that the Judge saw float over the heads of the company, ringing itself as it went.The old spirits could also play on musical instruments as well as the new ones. " The brazen statue of Memnon which held a harp, at certain hours emitted musical sounds. (canebat) Cambyses commanded it to be opened, suspecting some hidden mechanism within. Nevertheless, the statue, which had been consecrated with magic rites, after it had been opened, continued its music at the accustomed times." (Scholiastes Juvenalis.) Some of the ancient statues could even speak, after a, fashion.' Concerning this statue, (of Apollo) where it stood, and how it spoke, I have said nothing. It is to be understood, however, that there was a statue at Delphi which emitted an inarticulacei. voice. For you must know that spirits speak with inirticulate voices because they have no organs b!y which they can speak articulately." (Nonnus) This author seems not to have been well'informed in regard toAlw s,p.kin-,sp ow,rs.of ta4 sPitits. e a1- anete history declares that their voice was often heaid;;i: t:e air, speaking articulately,: and repatin-g.the - same wworls i differont places.-; and this was callfd, and universally k kao, hy'.theo name of "'Vox Divina." -In the case of the statue above mentioned, the spirit was evidently experimenting, wi the perverse material of which it was made, to see if he could make it articulate, as spirits now train the muscles which they wish to use for, writing or speaking; but as the statue had no larynx or other organs of voice, as modern mediums have, tlke spirit found the.-solid stone (for the statue was probably of -stone,) too inflexible for' his purpose. But not only the inanimate, wood and stone media-if it is proper to call those objects inanimate into which.the spirits had been invoked and inchanted,-exhibited remarkable phenomena; the. human, flesh-and-blood Mediums also, when the spirits had. entered into them, gave wonderful physical magifestatios. of their presence. ".The signs, of those. that are.inspired, are multifrm.: Fo.r tbheinspiration is indicated by the motions of the-(whoe) bdy) and of certain parts of it, by the perfect rest. of the body, by harmonious orders and dances, and by elegant sounds, (uusicai?) or the contraies. of these, Either t]e body,. likewise, is. *oe-to bo elevated, or increased in lWtk,. or to ebe orne aoang msblimely in, the air.. An equability also of voiee according to magnitude-.; or.a great variety of voioo a.rft in terats of silence, may be observed. And agaig, sometimes theonds:-have a musical intension and remissiog. (lambliclans de Mysteriis.).It seems it was not unusual for the Medium to become not merely clairvoyant, but meteoric also, so as quite to countebalance and defy the law of gravity, just as happens to Mr. —-- and some other modern Mediums. Tshe iancsreii bilk" also, is curious from its analogy to the blowapX e tiom of the Mediums in the middle ages, and inged in mm reeat4ites,-wherter e bythery were unable to siark. in. waRi; 81 which fact was observed also in very ancient times, as appears from the following quotation. "These same people, moreover, (he is speaking of those who had the power of fascinating by the eye,) cannot be made to sink in water, even where weighed down by their (wet) clothes." (Phylarchus apud Plin. Nat. Hist. vii. 2.) As we must suppose the spirits to operate by, and according to, the laws of nature, it seems likely that they produce these meteoric effects by retaining, or generating, within the bodies of those manifesting such marvellous specific levity, the requisite quantity of hydrogen, comparatively little when they are only to swim, but a good deal, one would think, and pretty well compressed, when they are to become lighter than atmospheric air. It is also apparent from the "great variety of voice," spoken of by Iamblichus, that several spirits could possess the medium at the same time, or in succession at the same sitting, or at least, such is the present explanation of similar changes of voice. The manifestations related by Iamblichus will do very well for Egypt, which had anciently great reputation in that line. India however, seems to have been the birthplace and cradle of the science of spirit-intercourse, and spirit-influence and phenomena. Egypt was but an imperfect and far-off imitator, as appears from the dispute of Apollonius Tyanensis with the Egyptian gymnosophists.. (Philostrat. Apollon. Tyan. Vita Lib. vi. c. 11) The sages of India were, apparently, at all times, clairvoyant, and meteoric, or possessed of the power of rising into the air, whenever they chose to exercise it. The following, from an eye witness, beats Egypt entirely, and quite distances the doings of all the modern spirits of whom I have any definite knowledge. "I have seen, said Apollonius, the Brahmins of India, dwelling on the earth and not on the earth, living fortified without fortifications, possessing nothing, and yet everything. This he spoke somewhat venigmatically; but Damis (the companion of his journey to India) says they sleep upon the 11 82 ground, but that the earth furnishes them with a grassy couch of whatever plants they desire, That he himself had seen them, elevated two cubits above the surface of the earth, walk in the air! not for the purpose of display, which was quite foreign to the character of the meni; but because whatever they did, elevated, in common with the Sun, above the earth, would be more acceptable to that Deity. * * * * * * * Having bathed, they formed a choral circle, having Iarchas for their coryphaeus, and striking the earth with their divining rods, it rose up, no otherwise than does the sea under the power of the wind, and caused them to ascend into the air. Meanwhile they continued to chant a hymn not unlike the paean of Sophocles which is sung at Athens in honor of Aesculapius. When they had descended &c." (Philostrat. Vita Apollon. Tyanens. Lib. iii. c. 15, 17.) Thus much may suffice for this kind of physical manifestations, although I have passed by many recorded and well attested facts still more extraordinary; but I do not choose to bring forward anything which might prove incredible in the present stage of our own development. It were a pleasant and edifying sight, to behold a modern Circle floating in the air, and gyrating around their Medium, while they chant a hymn of invocation to their Spirit-President. When we have attained to this point of imitation, antiquity will set us still more difficult lessons. The next class of physical manifestations of which I shall give some specimens, is that of the luminous appearances now called galvanic, magnetic, or odic lights, which sometimes assume shadowy spectral forms. These seem to have attended the ancient spirit-intercourse more commonly, and more remarkably, than they have hitherto done in the present iteration of it. We have seen that the prophetess at Branchidae became encircled with light during her preparations to give responses; -the same thing happened to the Pythia according to Iamblichus. "The prophetess at Delphi, whether, by means of 83 the thin and fiery vapor which proceeds from the mouth of the cavern, she gives oracles to men; or whether, from the Adytum, sitting upon a brazen tripod, or upon a four-footed stool sacred to the god, she delivers responses; in either case, she gives herself up wholly to the divine influence, and becomes effulgent with rays of light." (cvro a,~ou aupos axTrvos xcarayUaysera) (Iamblichus de Mysteriis) This manifestation of luminous appearances must have been quite common anciently, if indeed, not an invariable attendant upon the presence of true and good spirits; though not always visible except to the Mediums, as perhaps is implied in the following extract:" But a species of fire is seen by the recipient, prior to the spirit being received, which sometimes becomes manifest to all the spectators, either when the numen is descending or when he is departing. *' * Those, however, who without these blessed spectacles, draw down spirits invisibly, are without vision, as if they were in the dark, and know nothing of what they do, except some small signs which become visible through the body of him who is divinely inspired, (the Medium) and certain other things which are manifestly seen, but they are ignorant of all the most important particulars of divine inspiration, which are concealed from them in the invisible." (Iambl. de Myst.) These lights, which were sometimes a mere halo, and sometimes spectral appearances, or apparitions, were a manifestation of the utmost practical importance, inasmuch as, by them, was to be determined the character of the spirit in possession of the Medium. I would commend this method to the early and careful consideration of the present Circles, since they seem to have great difficulty on this point, and are often led into uery amusing, not only, but vexatious, and expensive, mistakes, (See Supernal Theology) for want of some such scientific test of the character of the spirits. In order, therefore, to relieve the circles of such annoying inconveniences in future, and to hasten their development in this direction, I will furnish them, from the 84 highest authority, with the scientific test they are so much in need of, while, at the same time I accomplish my purpose of giving a view of this class of phenomena in the ancient period. "What is the indication of a god, or angel, or archangel, or demon, or a certain archon, or a soul being present? For to speak boastingly, and to exhibit a phantasm of a certain quality, is common to gods and demons, and to all the more excellent genera." (Porphyry to the Egyptian Anebo. ) The subject must have excited the same questions, and questioning, formerly as at present; however, Iamblichus throws great light upon it in his answer to the above query, as follows:" The phantasms, or luminous appearances, of the gods are uniform, those of demons are various; *' * those of souls are all-various. And the phasmata, indeed, of the gods will be seen shining with a salutary light; those of archangels will be terrible; those of angels more mild; those of demons will be dreadful; those of heroes are milder than those of demons; those of archons produce astonishment; and those of souls are similar to the heroic phasmata. The phasmata of the gods are entirely immutable according to magnitude, form, and figure; those of archangels fall short in sameness; *' * * those of demons are, at different times seen in a different form, and appear at one time great, and at another time small, yet are still recognized to be the phasmata of demons; * * *' * and those of souls imitate in no small degree the demoniacal mutations.'* *' * In the forms of the gods which are seen by the eyes the most clear spectacles of truth are perceived; * * * the images of demons are obscure; ~ "' + " and the images of souls appear to be of a shadowy form. Again the fire of the gods appears to be entirely stable; that of archangels is tranquil; but that of angels is stably moved. The fire of demons is unstable; but that of heroes is, for the most part, rapidly moved. The fire of those ar chons that are of the first rank is tranquil; but of those that are of the last order is tumultuous; and the fire of souls is transmuted in a multitude of motions." The light also, from the different orders of spirits produces different physical effects upon the beholders. The moral effect of the vision of the different orders is also different. All these different appearances, and their effects, are to be accurately observed, by those who would not fall into fatal errors and delusions: " For (hear, hear, and mark,) when a certain error happens in the theurgic art, and not such autoptic, or self-visible, images are seen as ought to occur, but others instead of these, then, inferior powers assume the form of the more venerable orders, and pretend to be those whose forms they assume, and hence, arrogant words are uttered by them, and such as exceed the authority they possess. *' * much falsehood is derived from the perversion which it is necessary the priests should learn from the whole order of the phasmata, by the proper observation of which, they are able to confute and reject the fictitious pretexts of those inferior powers, as by no means pertaining to true and good spirits." (Iamblichus de Mysteriis.) " That, however, which is the greatest thing, is this, that he who draws down a certain divinity, sees a spirit descending and entering into some one, recognizes its magnitude and quality; and from this spectacle the greatest truth and power of the god, and especially the order he possesses, as likewise about what particulars he is adapted to speak the truth, what the power is which he imparts, and what he is able to effect, become known to the scientific." (Idem Ibidem.) These rules imply that such lights, phantasms, "livid flames," or spectral appearances, were the usual, and that they ought to be, the constant attendants upon spirit-intercourse. They are also sufficiently definite and precise, undoubtedly, to serve instead of spirit-credentials, in the hands 86 of the "scientific." But let the inexperienced, and those who have more curiosity than caution, beware of spirits who refuse to show their light; —they are, of course, spirits of darkness. That these rules are capable of answering the purpose for which they were intended, of determining the character and quality of a "self-visible spirit," is proved and illustrated by the following example of their application: "A certain Egyptian priest, who at that time was at Rome, and who became known to Plotinus through one of his friends, being desirous to exhibit his wisdom in that illustrious city, persuaded our philosopher to attend him, for the purpose of beholding, through his invocations, his familiar demon; to which request Plotinus readily consented. But the invocation was performed in the temple of Isis; this being the only pure place in Rome the Egyptian priest was able to find. However, instead of a demon, as was expected, a god approached, who was not in the genus of demons. The Egyptian, astonished at the unexpected event, exclaimed, "' Happy Plotinus! who hast a god for a demon, and whose familiar attendant does not rank among the inferior kind." (Porphyr. Vita Plotin.) The practiced eye of the priest at once detected the rank and quality of the spirit, doubtless by the character of the light by which he made himself visible. Here, now, is something which begins to look like science. Something by which the "real reality" and actual character of the spirits and of their communications may be tried and tested. Here is a veritable science of spiritism, reliable and appropriate. But, without "the glimmering of these livid flames," all is darkness; and without accurate distinction, and scientific appreciation of their different shades, motions, and effects upon the beholders, both physical and psychical, all is still uncertainty. Such being the result, anciently, and the successful and satisfactory result-for Iamblichus says the true theurgist would laugh at the attenipt of evil daemons to deceive him —of five hundred years of investigation and 87 scientific experiment; what rashness in our modern beginners, mere sophomores in this abstrusest of all the sciences, viz: rJ )S ~0I'V 4sU6&v xCa 4su3OVrWV! —-what rashness! to go on stumbling-as many, nay most, do go on-without the guidance of those various and peculiar subternal phosphorescences which are the natural lights and safety-lamps of the region under exploration. CHAPTER VIII. For rather er he shulde faile, With nicromance he wolde assaile, To make his incantation. GOWER. Lamps must be solemnly burned before it; and then, after some diabolical exorcisms necrolmantically performed, the head shall prove vocal. GREGORY, POSTHUM. In the examples of divination and other manifestations which have been related, little has been said in regard to the character or rank of the spirits whose presence was supposed to be necessary to the phenomena. Ancient opinions varied on this point. By some it was held that they were all spirits of dead men (Euhemerus et alii) not even excepting the gods themselves, who, by a gradual process going on for ages, like unto certain geological changes, came at length to be fully transformed, from simple ghosts, unto the nature of deity. Indeed the process was going on pretty rapidly before their eyes,; as in such cases as those of Hercules and Aesculapius, and others, not to mention those mushroom gods, the dead Roman Emperors, who sprang up in a night, from beasts, into divinities, demanding their temples and altars, and giving orac1s in competition with Apollo himself. 89 The prevailing belief, however, was that there were several orders of gods, then heroes, demons, and souls. Which last were not necessarily spirits of the dead, because all ancient souls were pre-existent like Dr. Beecher's, and Spirit-Swedenborg's (Celestial Telegraph,) and a soul communicating thro' a medium, or a simulacrum, might be one which had not yet "descended into matter," or it might be the spirit of a dead man; probably the rules, of which Iamblichus has given us a specimen, enabled " the scientific" to distinguish the one kind from the other. But however much the gods or unembodied souls may have been consulted; the disembodied souls, or spirits of the dead, seem to have been, anciently, as now, the favorite source of information, especially in the private Circles and Sittings. Perhaps there was some feeling of restraint and hesitation in regard to calling familiarly, in a private way and not in their public temples, upon the "Great Gods," as, in our time, I believe, the Almighty, and even the Angels, are not commonly sent for to answer questions. The common belief of the ancients in regard to the relation of the living to their dead ancestors was also extremely favorable to the prevalence of this kind of spirit-intercourse. The subjoined extract gives a very good idea of that belief especially among the Romans. We see here that the term demon may mean also a spirit of the dead. " There is also a second class of daemons viz: the souls of those who having lived meritoriously have departed from the body. Such a soul I find called in the ancient Latin tongue Lemur. Of these Lemures, he, who having obtained by lot the guardianship of his posterity, presides over the house with a quiet and placable superintendence is called the household Lar. But those, who, on account of a vicious life, having obtained no happy seats, are a sort of vagabonds, or are punished by a kind of exile; and who inflict idle terrors upon good men, but more real evils upon the wicked; —this kind is commonly called Larvao. But inasmuch as it is un12 90 certain which of these kinds has fallen to the lot of any one, whether it may be a Lar or a Larva, he is called the god Manes, Manem Deum, —the appellation god being added by way of respect. Because, of those belonging to this class, those only are considered gods who having passed through life with wisdom and justice, and being afterwards supposed by men to'possess divine powers, are honored with lanes and religious ceremonies; as Amphiaraus in Boeotia; in Africa Mopsus; in Egypt Osiris; others in other places, and Aesculapius everywhere. But this whole order of daemons consists of those who were once in human bodies." (Apuleius de Deo Socratis.) These last, the spirits of distinguished men, had everywhere their public fanes and temples, or more humble places of resort, where they could be at all times consulted,-as Swedenborg and Dr. Franklin, and especially our defunct M. D's will have in due time; we already have panpsychia, or places consecrated to spirits in general, and each will be sure to claim his separate, and appropriate, honors shortly,the whole world was crowded with them, "stipatus est orbis," says an ancient writer. But above all others Aesculapius was everywhere in demand and repute. This man had been a physician in his life-time of considerable business and reputation; but his post-mortem practice was one of incredible extent,-the poor spirit must have had a weary travel of it even for a spirit, to attend at all his offices as often as he was called for,-with an ever increasing fame, justly due,-as appeared from innumerable tablets suspended in his temples by grateful patients, describing their disease, giving the prescription, and recording the cure,-to remarkable success. A fact, this success, not at all incredible, or likely to be doubted, by any one competent to form a correct opinion. This is plain from the record of his cases. Most of these invaluable documents have perished through time and the envy of the Christians.A few however remain, of which the following are a specimen: 91 "At this very time the Oracle gave response to Caius who was blind:'That he should approach the sacred altar; that he should kneel; that from the right side he should come to the left, and place five fingers upon the altar, and raise his hand, and place it upon his eyes.' And his sight was fully restored, the people being present and congratulating." "To Lucius afflicted with pain in the side and despaired of by all men, the god gave response:'That he should approach the altar, and take ashes, and mix with wine and place upon his side.' And he recovered, and publicly returned thanks to the god, and the people congratulated him." " To Julianus vomiting blood and despaired of by all men, the god gave response from the oracle;'that he should approach the altar and take the cones of the pine (or seeds of the pine cone, xoxxous