ficis affectos morbis) found no remedies, even when they visited all the temples: they even weary Esculapius in vain with their prayers and wishes. Usually the cure was of some duration, and the temple sleep was often repeated; they did not fell the tree with one stroke; and we must, moreover, remark, that all did not sleep, and of these but few prophesied. Instances are to be found in Philostratus (Biography of Apollonius of Tyana.) Before turning to the account of other oracles, we must mention some few peculiarities of the priests of Esculapius. It is necessary to remark, that here, as in Egypt, the priestly office was hereditary, and was handed down in families. An old law of this order says distinctly, "Holy things may only be revealed to the initiated; the profane may not receive them before they have been initiated into knowledge" (Hippoc. lex). All others found it difficult in the extreme to become priests; but before everything they had to be instructed in medical knowledge. The order of Esculapius compelled everyone who wished to be initiated into the orgies of knowledge to take an oath, calling upon Apollo, Esculapius, Hygen, and all gods and goddesses, and solemnly promising not to desecrate the secrets of the temple, and only to impart them to the sons of his instructors, or to those who had taken this oath. These priests practised the sacred customs and tended the sick. Some were appointed to the anointing, washing, and burning of incense; others to the prayers, hymns, and other preparations; and the highest cared for the sanctum in the interior of the temple, and the sleep-houses, to which the others were not admitted; others were in the courts as expounders of symbols and allegories. But the dreams of the sleepers were only explained by the highest priests. In later ages, philosophers and others dwelt in the halls and pleasure walks, with whom the sick might converse (Sprengel, i. 206.) Such expounders were to be found in all temples, in Egypt as well as in Greece, who explained that which strangers came to inquire, and told them all that they required or were permitted to know. According to Herodotus, Psammetichus had such expounders (punvéas); and Jablonski says that Herodotus consulted these in Egypt, and left all that we know con cerning them to posterity. Pausanias often mentions these expounders (nunra) in his description of Greece; and the Assyrians and Arabians also had their expounders (ἔξημήτας τῶν μύθων). The priests distinguished themselves in a remarkable manner by their dietary regulations. They often cured the most severe sickness by a mere change in the mode of life, --though occasionally diametrically opposite to the former one. And that severe diseases might be cured by a proper direction of the passions, Esculapius, as Galen says, was an evidence. "Those who through the violence of their passions had inflamed the body, he often advised to listen to a poem or a song, or to visit a comedy. To others he recommended riding, hunting, and martial exercises, and prescribed the kind of exercise as well as the choice of weapons." That which Galen says of Esculapius is also stated in Sprengel's learned investigations concerning the Esculapian priests in Pergamus. The priests were maintained by fixed properties and by rich presents and offerings which the sick brought. The dwellings of the singers and expounders were in the neighbourhood of the temple; the priests inhabited apartments in the temple which were very retired, and often connected with subterraneous passages. Thus, for instance, the temple of Serapis is said to have been full of such passages, as Rufin describes it; and in the Bible we are told that Daniel discovered the deceit of the priests of Baal, who carried away the sacrifices through secret passages. The most delightful fragrance often ascended from the passages and filled the places where strangers happened to be. To retain the remembrance of the benefits of God in perfect activity, certain festivals were instituted, and were held with great splendour in Epidaurus, Pergamus, Athens, and Cis. The greatest number of cities in Asia Minor united in celebrating this festival in common. In Epidaurus it was commemorated every five years, when there were various games, sacrifices, and solemn processions, in which the statue of the god, in a festal car of triumph, and drawn by Centaurs with burning torches, was led round, accompanied by torch-bearers singing hymns. On the recovery of the sick, and their departure from these sacred places, various sacrifices and presents were made, which they either left behind them in the temple, or gave to the priests as a reward for their trouble. These presents consisted in gold or silver vessels, votive tablets, members of the body in which they had been healed,-sometimes of ivory, or, among the poorer classes, of wood; paintings and works of art were also given. Aristides sent to Pergamus a silver tripod upon which were three golden images, of Esculapius, Hygea, and Telesphorus. In general the Greek temples were very richly endowed. It was especially customary to leave the history of the sick person, with his name, and an account of the disease, the remedies, and the manner of cure, carefully inscribed on a tablet. Such records were often engraved upon metal plates or columns; of these inscriptions six were still extant in the time of Pausanias at Epidaurus (Sprengel, i. 208.) It was customary at the oracle of Amphiarus to throw gold and silver coins into the sacred spring. Another custom, which must have assisted the exercise of medical knowledge not a little,was that all peculiar remedies, and particularly such as were newly discovered, were inscribed upon the doorposts or columns of the temples. Thus the celebrated combination of Eudamus against the bite of serpents is said to have been engraved on the door of the Asclepion at Cis (Galen. de antidotis, lib. ii.; Plin. xx. c. 24). A goldsmith bequeathed to the temple at Ephesus an eye lotion, which was to assist all those who, suffering from severe diseases of the eyes, had been abandoned by human aid. Even surgical instruments were bequeathed by their inventors to these sacred hospitals. Erasistratus presented the Delphian temple with an instrument for the extraction of teeth (Sprengel, i. 208). That such tablets have not been handed down to our age is much to be deplored nothing is now known of these tablets in Greece; but of those preserved to us by Gruter, and which were found in the Tiber island at Rome, I shall speak at a later period. Having spoken at such length upon the subject of the temple of Esculapius, I shall mention some of the peculiarities of other oracles. Almost as celebrated as the oracles of Esculapius were those of Apollo, and of these the most renowned was the oracle at Delphi, which took its name from a town of Boeotia,lying on the south side of Mount Parnassus, and which is said to have been founded in the following manner: herdsmen who pastured their flocks in the neighbourhood noticed that the goats, when they approached too near to a certain chasm from which a peculiar vapour arose, became intoxicated; and this happening to a shepherd, he was curious to examine the chasm. He not only fell into the same convulsive movements, but he began to foretell future events. The belief soon became common that this chasm must contain something of a divine nature; and it was much visited to obtain a knowledge of futurity. But as it occasionally happened that those who went too near to the hole fell into it, being stupified by the exhalations, and thus lost their lives; the hole was covered by a tripod or table, having an opening in the centre, upon which those who wished to prophesy were seated. For some time this wonder was not ascribed to any particular deity; but at length Apollo was universally acknowledged to be the ruler of this spot; and a species of temple, formed of laurel branches, was erected in his honour. This temple was afterwards superseded by one of stone, and provided with priests who should cultivate diligently the worship of the god. It is particularly remarkable, that in the temple at Delphi young girls were usually appointed to the office of soothsaying, and were, as I have already mentioned, chosen from the lower classes, and of simple manners. They were called Pythia, which name was derived from Apollo Pythios, being called so from the snake Pytho, which he killed. In the early ages, this chasm, through which the gases arose, was more simply covered in; for, according to Plutarch, the well-known tripod upon which the Pythia sat was of a later date. Some maintain the tripod to have been a table standing upon three legs, on which the prophetess sat. According to Iamblichus (sect. iii. c. 2), it was sometimes a tripod of brass, at others a cauldron with four feet. Others are of opinion that it was a golden vessel standing upon three legs. This was said to have been drawn up in some fishermen's nets from the sea; each of them wished to have the treasure, and their violent quarrel was at length decided by the Pythia, who ordered them to send it to the wisest man in Greece. It was therefore sent to Thales, but he transferred it to Bias as still wiser, and he again to a third. At length it returned again to Thales, who presented it to the Delphian Apollo (Pantheon mythicum, auctore P. F. Pomey, Lipsia, 1759, p. 31). as - That these prophecies arose from subterranean vapours was unanimously admitted; but how this took place was subject to many theories. Some explained it in a natural manner, that the soul was so much excited by this vapour to foretell futurity by an increased activity. Îamblichus (1. c. sect. iii. c. 11) says, that the sibyls at Delphi prophesied by means of the penetrating, fiery spirit which arose from the chasm; and that this was the spirit of divine fire, which filled them with divine glory. In every case it was the divine spirit which operated upon them,-whether it was a natural (physicus) or religious spirit. Others maintain that the Pythia, sitting upon the tripod, received the evil spirit which arose from the chasm, and, being filled with fury, uttered words of madness and insanity, with foaming lips and disordered hair. It is very remarkable that the Pythia has been called the ventriloqual prophetess (ventriloqua vates; and among the Greeks, éyyaorpiμavтes ἐγγαστρίμαντες Eyyαorρíμvos). (Aristoph. in Væstas, i. reg. 28; and Pantheon. myth. p. 31). They therefore must have been acquainted with the transposition of self-consciousness to the pit of the stomach. The priests also here interpreted the symbolical, and often inexplicable, answers of the oracle, which were usually delivered in rhyme. The Lydian King Croesus enquired of the oracles concerning a war with Persia. He wished, however, to test their veracity, and ordered his ambassadors to enquire of the oracles, on the hundredth day after their departure, with what he was then occupying himself. What the other oracles replied is not known, says Herodotus, but the Pythia at Delphi replied, "See! I number the sands; the distances know I of ocean; When the messenger returned, the King believed the Pythia to be divinely inspired, because at that very moment he had boiled a lamb and a tortoise in a brazen cauldron with a |