either by divine or physical influences, or by inspiring springs and vapours of the earth. Plutarch classes the latter (Mor. p. 432, a.) among the various species of mania, οι μαντικὸν ρεῦμακαί πνευμα. Plato mentions the first especially in Phædrus, and Pliny brings forward many remarkable instances of cataleptic extacia (vii. 52, 174, pp.)

"To natural soothsaying," says Cicero, "belongs that which does not take place from supposition, observations, or well-known signs, but arises from an inner state and activity of the mind, in which men are enabled by an unfettered advance of the soul to foretell future things: this takes place in dreams, in cases of insanity, in madness (per furorem vaticinantes), and also in minds of great constitutional purity. Of this description are the oracles-not such as are grounded on augurial signs, but those which arise from an inner and a divine source. If we laugh at predictions drawn from the sacrifice of animals as folly, if we turn to ridicule the Babylonians and the Caucasians, who believe in celestial signs, and who observe the number and course of the stars,-if, as I have said, we condemn all these for their superstition and folly, which as they maintain is founded upon the experience of fifty centuries and a half,—let us in that case also call the belief of ages imposture, let us burn our records, and say that everything was but imagination! But is the history of Greece a lie, when Apollo foretold the future through the oracles of the Lacedæmonians, of the Corinthians? I will leave all else as it is; but this I must defend, that the gods influence and care for all human affairs. The Delphian oracle would never have become so celebrated, nor so overwhelmed by presents from every king and every nation, if every age had not experienced the truth of its predictions. Or has its fame departed? The power of the earth which moved the soul of the Pythia with its divine breath may have vanished through age, as rivers are dried up or take other courses; but the fact is there, and always will be, without we overturn history itself."

That men often foretell events shortly before their death is one of the earliest experiences, and in no respect does it differ from the other examples already mentioned; the predictions made by such persons have reference to persons and events, and often with the most minute particulars. An illumina

tion of the countenance also takes place, as in clairvoyants. Children of tender years tell those who surround them their future, like old men ; and people who were not considered ill, even a few days before their death, as well as those who had lain for years on the sick-bed. Even persons who for many years had been insane have been known suddenly to become possessed of their senses, and to disclose the future shortly before dissolution. Examples of this may be found in the most ancient authors,-Hippocrates, Galen, Avicenna, Aretæus, Cicero, Plutarch, and numbers of others. Experience shows that dying persons perceive things which they are unable to describe; that they hear the most enchanting harmonies, and that the powers of the soul are so increased that they overflow with the most inspired and poetic words. A few examples may be quoted.

Homer was well acquainted with this: for the dying Hector foretold the approaching death of Achilles. When Calanus ascended the burning funeral pile, and Alexander asked him if he were in need of anything, he replied "Nothing! the day after to-morrow I shall see you;" which was verified by subsequent events. Posidonius mentions a dying Rhodian, who named six persons, one after the other, in the order in which they were to die. Plutarch draws the following conclusion :- "It is not probable that in death the soul gains new powers which it was not before possessed of when the heart was confined by the chains of the body; but it is much more probable that these powers were always in being, though dimmed and clogged by the body; and the soul is only then able to practise them when the corporeal bonds are loosened, and the drooping limbs and stagnating juices no longer oppress it." Aretæus uses almost the same words::-" Until the soul is set free, it works within the body, obscured by vapours and clay." Modern examples may be met with in Werner, "Symbolik der Sprache." Older ones are collected by Sauvages," Nosologia methodica," t. iv.; Quellmalz, "De divinationibus medicis," Freiburg, 1723; Janites, "Dissertatio de somniis medicis," Argentinati, 1720; and particularly by M. Alberti, "Dissertat. de vaticiniis ægrotorum," Halæ, 1724.

Somnambulism, or sleep-walking, belongs to dreams and natural soothsaying.

By somnambulism and sleep-walking, we understand that state in which people, in the night and during sleep, at certain or uncertain times, leave their beds, dress themselves, occasionally speak, walk about, and do things which almost always differ very much from their ordinary daily occupations. They are, however, generally in perfect health, and free from any symptoms of fever. Their actions are often very strange: the somnambulist walks, reads, writes, and often performs the most difficult, and, in any other state, very dangerous feats; he climbs and mounts walls and roofs; sits down on the very edge of dangerous places; crosses the most terrific precipices on ridges of stone, and is able to do things which, in the natural state, would be impossible. A peasant, in my native town, was in the habit of getting up at night to do work which he was not able to do when awake. He left the house with closed eyes, and, after having finished his work, returned and went quietly to bed. At one time, he took his axe and felled a tree which hung over a foaming torrent at the bottom of a frightful abyss. An apothecary read his prescriptions, at night, through the ends of his fingers, and always made them up best when in the somnambulic state. There are many thousands of similar instances.

Usually, the outward senses are, as it were, dead; it is but seldom that the eyes of somnambulists are open, and even then they do not see with them; they do not hear that which goes on around them, not even when spoken to, though it is very perilous to call to them by name when at any dangerous place, as they occasionally awake, and in the sudden terror of the moment probably meet with some Vinjury.

There have been examples where somnambulism has also taken place by day; but such cases were probably connected with disease, and would then constitute a species of delirium, from which it would be very difficult to recall them. The diseases with which sleep-walking are connected are Catalepsy, Hysteria, Melancholy, Epilepsy, and St. Vitus's Dance. It has also been observed in inflammatory and intermittent fevers, and particularly in youth.

Somnambulism was, in the earliest times, a subject of many theories and investigations. The Greeks called it

irvoßartiά; the Romans, noctambulatio and somnambulismus. Forest calls it a nocturnal insanity; Ettmüller, a waking sleep and a sleeping wakefulness; Paracelsus, a madness of the dreams; Junker, a disturbed imagination at night; A. v. Haller, a violent excitement of one part of the brain while the others are at rest; Weickart, a higher class of dreams, subject to the will, which endeavours to free it from some oppression; Brandis, an excitement of the whole brain Hofman, a half-waking dream, in which the creative power of the soul operates outwardly; Van Swieten, De Haen, etc., a transition state between dreaming and waking; lastly, Helmont ascribed it to the moon :

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In the following works a full account will be found of all the phenomena of sleep-walking.

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Jacob Horstius, De natura, differentiis et causis eorum qui dormientes ambulant, etc., Lipsiæ, 1593.-G. G. Richter' Dissert. de statu mixto somni et vigiliæ quo dormientes multa vigilantium munera abeant, Götting. 1756.-Gottfr. Fr. Meyer, Versuch einer Erklärung des Nachtwandelns, Halle, 1758-Schenkius, Dissert. de ambulatione in somno, Jenæ, 1671. Pigatti, Sonderbare Geschichte des Joh. Bapt. Negretti, eines Nachtwandlers, aus dem Italien, Nürnberg, 1782.-De la Croix, Observation concernant fille cataleptique et somnambule en même temps (Hist. de l'Acad. Royale des Sc. 1742).-Francesco Soave, Di un nuovo e maraviglioso sonnambulo, relazione (opusc. scelti sulle science e sulle arti, Milano, 1780, t. iii. p. 204).—Tandler, De noctisurgio, Viteb. 1602.-Th. Zwinger, Dissert. de somnambulis.-E. Förster, Insignium somnambulismi spontanei exemplorum narratio, Kiliæ, 1820.-Schlözer, Dissert. de somnambulismo, Viena, 1816-Bohn, Casus ægri, noctambulationis morbo laborantis, Lips. 1717.-Unzer, Gedanken vom Schlaf und Träumen, Halle, 1746.-Abbé Richard, La théorie des songes, Paris, 1767.-Muratori, Ueber die Einbildungskraft.-Moritz, Magazin der Seelenkunde.

To natural soothsaying belongs, lastly, second-sight; in Gaelic called Taishitaraugh. As in sleep-walking an inner activity arises during sleep, so does, in second-sight, a dream state appear, when awake, connected with an increased keenness of the senses. Visions, sounds, and even sensations of taste and odour, are experienced: these phenomena are most

frequently observed in the Highlands of Scotland and the Western Isles, especially Skye; also on the Danish coasts and islands. It is also met with in connection with other somnambulic manifestations-as, for instance, among the convulsionairs of the Cevennes, the wizards of Lapland, in the Mauritius, and on the African coast. Second-sight is occasionally hereditary.

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The phenomena are these:-At the moment of the sight, which takes place suddenly and irregularly, either by day or night, the seer becomes immoveable and rigid, often with open eyes; he neither sees nor hears anything of that which is going on around him outwardly, but foretells future and distant things; it is as if a portion of far-off space and time were placed before him as a perfect and living picture: for instance, deaths, the arrival of persons who may be hundreds of miles distant, events occurring at other places, battles by land or sea. The language used in second-sight is often symbolic, and experience alone may be able to unravel its meaning. The vision is often absurd, like a fantastic dream; as in one case where the seer saw himself, though from behind, and only recognised himself when he had put his coat on backwards. The power of second-sight may be transferred to another person, through the hands or feet; it is even, in some cases, infectious, so that persons at a distance occasionally see the same vision. Even little children have this power, which is shown by their screaming when an ordinary seer sees a funeral; and it has been maintained that animals possess the same gift, either transferred to them, or arising naturally. If the seer removes to another part of the world, he loses the power, but regains it when he returns. Second-sight differs from dreams and somnambulism so far as that the seer retains the most perfect remembrance of that which he has seen, and that the visions themselves occur in a perfectly wakeful state. It differs from common ghost-seeing, as the seer is perfectly master of his senses, and does not fall into those convulsions and rigidity which are produced by the former; and lastly, it has nothing in common with_the_religious visions of the 17th century, of Pordage, Brandeg, Jeane Leade, &c., as it is not of a religious character. Occasionally voices are heard,-called by the Scotch taish;