coming of Christ, and his sufferings. His words are "He will fall into the hostile hands of the wicked; with poisonous spittle will they spit upon him; on the sacred back they will strike him; they will crown him with a crown of thorns; they will give him gall for food, and vinegar for drink. The

veil of the temple will be rent, and at mid-day there will be a darkness of three hours long. And he will die, repose three days in sleep, and then, in the joyful light, he will come again as the first."

The learned Jesuit Canisius refers to other oracles which had foretold the same, which he says he drew from unprinted manuscripts, which Bethulejus also mentions. Lactantius, also, refers to these prophecies (Divin. institut. lib. i.) "I do not doubt," he says, "that in earlier times the books of the Sibyls were regarded as absurdities, because they were not understood. People called the miracles adventures, of which neither the time, the place, nor the worker, were identified."

What Justin Martyr writes is very remarkable (Justin Martyr adversus gentes oratio, Admonitorum ad Græcos). "It would be easy to determine which is the true religion if people observed what the prophets and the Sibyls have foretold. The Sibyl was born at Babylon, and came thence to Cumæ, where she revealed future things. In the midst of her dwelling are three cisterns hewn in the stone for bathing. The Sibyl, though she speaks great and wonderful things, knows not herself what she says. Especially when she begins to lose the inspiring spirit, she loses at the same time the memory of all that she has foretold. Therefore people are not accustomed to wonder at the deficiencies which are found in the books; the fault lies not in them, but in those who wrote the deliveries down, and who through ignorance did not write them down fully or correctly." Still more important is what he says in his second defence, which he laid before the Emperor Antoninus, and in which he greatly complained that the Christians were forbidden to read the books of the Sibyls. According to Clemens of Alexandria, even the Apostle Paul defended the oracle, which we learn from the inquiries of Crasset (Crasset, 1. c. p. 12.) Clemens makes the Apostle speak thus:"Take the books of the Greeks; behold the Sibyl, how she

maintains the unity of the godhead, and all things which shall come to pass. Take Hystaspes, and read him, and you will see that he speaks clearly and openly of the Son of God." To this place belongs the passage in Plato-" We derive great benefit from that rage which we see in the prophetesses of Delphi and Dodona, when under the divine influence. If, therefore, we were here to relate all that the Sibyls and others have foretold, we should require much time and labour; but these things are so well known to the world, that they require here no further remark." In Varro (Varro de re rustica, lib. i. c. 1.) it is said:"I will not concede that the Sibyl has not sung what, as well during her life as since her death, has been of so much advantage, whose books we still publicly consult, if we desire to learn what we are to expect from this or that prognostication."

Finally, Constantine the Great gives the highest and most weighty testimony. It is, therefore, the more remarkable that his speech on the Sibyls was read in the first council of the church at Nicäa. He had still the books, and it was not till fifty years after his death that they were burnt (Crasset.) To the literature regarding the Sibyls belong also the following writings :-E. Schmidii Sibyllina, Wittemb. 1618; Gutbier, de Sibyllis ejusque oraculis, 1690; Gaetani, de Sibyllis, 1756; Poseus, Sibyllarum icones. Colon. 1756; Wagneri Inquisitio in oracula Sibyllarum, Tübing. 1664; Koerber, de Sibyllarum libris, Geræ, 1680; Mark, de Sibyllinis carminibus, Francof. 1682; Sibyllina oracula cum commentario Galæi, Amstel. 1689.

THE ORACLES.

It has generally been believed that the Oracles, through the coming of Christ, had lost their voice, and that nothing was ever afterwards to be heard from them. This belief had its foundation in the ignorance of their nature, and in the superstitious notion that the devil through them carried on his evil work. This idea was strengthened by some occasional answers of the Oracles themselves, and, amongst others, Porphyrius received this response-" The voice comes no longer to the priestess; she is condemned to a long

silence." To Augustus, too, who, according to Suidas and Nicephorus, sent to the Oracle to inquire what successor he should have, it was answered-"The Hebrew child, whom all the gods obey, drives me hence."

But the Oracles did not cease with Christ, since they continue still to speak; on the contrary, the clear light was indeed first kindled, and made so strong that no storm or wind has power to extinguish it; while before it only found security in dark caves. We can prove this from the earlier histories. Plutarch, who lived after Christ, says expressly: "The Oracle of Lebadia, that of Trophonius and of Delphi, continue still." In another place he says, "The temple of Delphi is more splendid than ever, all dilapidations are repaired, and new buildings erected, so that the little city of Delphi draws its support from it.'

Suetonius, in the Life of Nero, relates that the Oracle of Delphi warned Nero beforehand that he should beware of his three-and-seventieth year. Nero believed, therefore, that he should live to that age, and did not dream of the three-and-seventy years' old Galba, who deprived him of the empire. Philostratus speaks of Apollonius, who lived ninety years after Christ, and who had visited the Oracles of Amphiaraus, of Delphi, and Dodona. Julian sent to Delphi to inquire whether he should undertake the expedition against Persia. Dionysius says that Amphilochus vaticinated in dreams two-hundred-and-fifty years after Christ. Macrobius relates that in the times of Arcadius and Honorius, the god at Heliopolis in Syria, and Fortuna at Antium, still flourished. According to Kinderling on "The Somnambulism of our time compared with the Incubation or the Temple-sleep and Soothsaying of the Ancient Pagans," 1788, the temple-sleep was still in practice in the fifteenth century. The people were so confident of help in the temples that even to have imagined themselves in a temple in a dream was considered a sign of convalescence. The Greeks yet fast on certain days, in order more surely to obtain dreams. But with Constantine the temple establishments entirely ceased, as he forbade all offerings most strictly, as Cæsar already had pronounced sentence of death on all pagan soothsayers.

High as stood the reputation of the Sibyls amongst the

Romans, still higher were the Oracles esteemed amongst the Greeks; yes, even the expounders of the Sibylline books sometimes referred directly to the Oracles as to a higher authority. Apollo was very early paid divine honours by the Romans. The Consul Brutus sent to Delphi to seek counsel on account of the evil auguries which created such anxiety in Rome; and about 461 years before Christ a temple was built to Apollo, and the Vestal virgins were appointed to the service of it. Not long afterwards Esculapius was not less honoured here than in Epidaurus, having come in this manner to Rome. In a very fatal sickness amongst the people, the Sibylline books were opened, and the interpreters themselves counselled that a deputation should go to Esculapius to seek his advice. Quintus Apulinus was therefore sent thither the next year. When he had delivered his message, instead of an answer, a serpent rolled itself, to the admiration of all, out of the temple, down to the shore, sprang into the ship, and laid itself down quietly in the cabin of the ambassador.

According to Ovid (Metamorph. lib. xv. v. 622) the ambassador received through a dream the revelation that Esculapius would change himself into a serpent. Some of the Asclepiads immediately accompanied him, to make the Romans acquainted with the service of the god. When the anchor was cast at the mouth of the Tiber, the snake sprang upon the Tiber island, and laid himself quickly down. This was a sign to them that the god must here be honoured. A temple, therefore, was built on the spot, and the worship established on the same plan as at Epidaurus. Under the reign of the Emperor Claudius, the temple of Esculapius was so much frequented, and so celebrated on account of the cures done, that masters sent their slaves thither to be healed; and by a decree of the emperor all so healed became free (Sueton. in Claud.) Petronus also corroborates this statement by the assertion that in Nero's time these consultations in the temple were very common; and Pliny gives some of the curative means recommended; amongst others, the roots of the wood-rose against the bite of venomous creatures. Others are to be found in the pages of Elian and Galen. The Egyptian Serapis had also a high reputation amongst the Romans; and a separate

temple was soon afterwards built by Junius Bubulcus to Hygeia. In consequence she became honoured as the goddess of health (dea salus), and was generally represented with a serpent, and with a sacrificial cup in her hand. Isis had a temple in the field of Mars, which was again destroyed fifty years before Christ. Minerva was worshipped by the Romans under the name of the prophetess (fatidica medica). Mercury and Hercules, according to Livy, were also honoured as medical divinities. Lucina was held in high veneration by the women, as the goddess of birth.

Much might be said on the magic of the Romans which would agree with the modes of magnetic treatment, or still more with the means of conducting the magnetic fluid, if we had not already repeatedly pointed out the resemblance. In no country was it carried to so high a pitch of superstition-yea, of madness and of abuse-as amongst the Romans. Frequently the commands of the senate and the sternest imperial prohibitions were totally unavailing to check the horrible abuses and corruptions resulting from its practice. So early as under the consulate of Lucius Emilius Paulus many magicians were expelled from Rome. The severe prohibitions of Julius Cæsar and the Emperor Constantine are well known. Under the government of Marcus the greater part of the magical books were destroyed by a legal order.

But there have been many zealous defenders of magic, who have brought forward such means of cure, the number and peculiar properties of which it would carry us too far to enumerate; amongst others, Asclepiades, who lived in the time of Pompey the Great, and cured many severe diseases by the magical art. To cure the falling sickness, he caused the patient to bind upon his arm a cross with a nail driven into it. Xenocrates is known as a magician, as well as Basilides and Karpocrates, and their disciples. Julianus, the necromancer (Theurgus), won the highest reputation, and is said even to have driven the plague out of Rome by magical power. Equally celebrated was Apuleius, a Platonic philosopher, who wrote much that is interesting on magic. Amongst the physicians there were many who successfully exercised this means. Serenus Samonicus cured ague, by hanging bones round the neck, in