far away from the society of men, and deprivation of food and sleep, as well as violent self-castigation to stifle the impulses of our nature: with the latter we find that inclination to do good from love to men, which distinguished the saints and prophets. It is therefore easily to be understood, that among the hermits of Thebes, in the monasteries of the middle ages, among solitary shepherds, in secluded valleys and monotonous districts; as well as among persons who have been brought up with every thought studiously turned from the outer world, ecstatic states should arise, in which men experienced pleasure, from the fact that no limits bounded them, and no foreign influences prevented the mind from floating in the unbounded spheres of the imagination. Neither must we feel surprise when such seers of a less elevated nature are able to look far into the future, or present ideas in striking imagery, which they could not have learned from the outward world; for they rise from the inexhaustible, overflowing inner-spring of the spiritual universe, as the noblest germs of thought are unfolded in repose and seclusion, but are retarded by the whirl and restlessness of the surrounding world. We shall later regard this description of esctasy more narrowly, as found among the Indian seers and fakirs.

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As representative of the retirement and seclusion of hermits and monks, I may mention the so-called Quietists, Hesychiasts, or oupaλoixó, umbilicamini, who inhabited Mount Athos in the fourteenth century. The latter name was given them from their mode of prayer, as it was taught them by their Abbot Simeon, in his works upon "Moderation and Devotion." Sitting alone in a corner, observe and practise what I tell you; lock your doors, and raise your mind from every vain and worldly thing. Then sink your beard upon your breast and fix your eyes on the centre of the body-on the navel; contract the air-passages that breathing may be impeded; strive internally to find the position of the heart where all mental powers reside. At first you will discover only darkness and unyielding density; but if you persevere night and day, you will miraculously enjoy unspeakable happiness. For the soul then perceives that which it never before saw-the radiance between the heart and itself."

These hermits maintained this light to be the light of God, as it was manifested to the disciples on Mount Tabor. (Leo Allatius de ecclesiis occid. et orient., Colon. 1648, 1, 2, c. 17.) Similar mystical contemplations and visions of good and evil spirits are met with among the New Platonists; in the witchcraft and the cases of possession of the middle ages; and among the mystics of a higher order, as Pordage, Swedenborg, and Jacob Böhme.

The conditions manifested in saints and prophets, who are moved by the divine breath, are in reality distinct, and do not belong to the history of magic, but of religion. But from the similarity between these and other phenomena they have been generally classed with ecstasia; on which account we shall devote a little attention to them, but only to show the most striking differences.

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To the various forms of clairvoyance during ecstasia must be reckoned that of the saints and prophets. But the abstraction of the truly inspired is not to be mistaken for the convulsive prophesyings of the seer, or those self-mortifying mountebanks who vibrate between madness and bigotry. The cause, as well as the manifestation and object, very different from these. In all the examples already named, the ecstasia breaks partially and uncertainly through the surrounding mist; it rises and falls, ebbs and flows, according to the tone of the mind and the movement of the blood. A breeze which comes we know not whence, fans the slumbering ecstasy into a flame, and dies away again we know not how; it has no stated duration, and no firm purpose or end. Existence pines in solitude, and as the body wastes away by a life contrary to nature, and becomes a useless encumbrance, so does the mind lose all sense of the beauty and harmony of nature; it loses all power of useful and inventive thought; it no longer is capable of loving its neighbour more than itself; and no longer has the power of unfolding powers and capacities of the will and character, which would operate beyond the narrow bounds of individuality, in distance and the future. It was not entirely without foundation, that of old these enigmatical phenomena whose influences for good or evil have something of a supernatural appearance, were ascribed to a hidden and internal demon, who appeared now as a soothsayer, now as a mis

chievous imp, now as a devil, or even rose sometimes almost to a state of inspiration. This demon is always prophetic, even when false and evil, for it urges man on to wicked deeds and inclinations, at first gently, but afterwards with evergrowing power as soon as its whisperings are listened to. It seems that the devil seeks to rouse the evil lying dormant within us, to deride the attempted resistance, ridicules the timid, embitters the gentle, betrays the hopeful, and endeavours to cut off the path of reformation to all. Schubert says- "There is also that inclination of the devil to praise evil as something good, and to turn truth by this means in a dangerous lie; and also to praise goodness for the purpose of making it suspected."

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The enthusiasm of real religion gives, however, evidence of a higher and invisible order of things, which acts upon material world of man, and produces in him a touching and deep conviction, and a gentle and refreshing illumination. The soul, inspired by the divine breath, is no longer restrained in its working and activity, for its visions are not phantoms raised upwards by a mind agitated and distracted by fear, restlessness, or dissatisfaction; the body has not become through convulsions or voluntary mutilation a useless. burden, a withered reed, or a broken casket, but is even in its natural weakness an untiring instrument of works and deeds, which scatter blessings over present and future ages.

If we regard these differences more narrowly, we shall have but little difficulty in defining the boundaries between the lower order, the magical ecstasy, and the higher and divinely inspired holy seers and prophets. The motives are as different in each as the actions. In the magic ecstasy of the Brahminic initiation, in the religious fanaticism of the hermits of the Theban Desert,—the self-torturers, the visions and the imagined comunication with God take place by chance, or through artificial agencies; but in the real prophets and true saints the divine mission falls unexpectedly upon them from above. A self-arrogated excellence and self-sufficiency are the mainsprings of the former; it exists in seclusion, darkness, and solitude; it renounces every social bond of life, and every endeavour to cultivate the mind. In the latter, reign, on the contrary, humility, pleasure in light and life, with the impulse to

work openly and actively. No division of stations takes place, but every power is united to form a common whole; the prophet preaches the word of God and the belief in His power; the reward and punishment for good and evil deeds; and the love of God and our neighbours, is his open admonition. If in the former, pride in self, and contempt, or, at least, but small esteem for the world, is to be found, with the continual striving for a perfect apathy of the passions, so may we observe in the latter a wise use of life, a joyful peace in the service of God, with the continual remembrance of the weakness of human nature, with the continual prayer for divine assistance to understand and receive the knowledge of universal truth, and the true obedience and resignation to the will of God. The true prophet is a child in humility, a youth in action, and a man in counsel. The world is often a hell to the ecstasist; but, to the saint, a school, where duties are learned, and the scholar becomes a useful member of the scheme of nature. In the former, commands are given by the seer; in the latter, the prophet announces them as the revelations of God. There, the means of producing ecstasy are contempt and renunciation of the world, and unnatural mortification of the body: here, the world is arranged for enjoyment of life; and the true prophet makes use of no artificial means: he repeats the word directly received from God, without preparation or mortification of the flesh-communicates it—and lives with and among his fellow-men.

The visions of the magician are, even in the highest stages of enthusiasm, merely shadowy reflections, surrounded by which, the world, with its significations and even its inner constitution, may be seen by him: but the lips are silent in the intoxication of ecstasy and the dazzling light of his pathologic self-illumination. On this account, the many phantasmagoria of truth and falsehood; the changing pictures of the imagination, and the feelings, in disordered ranks and inharmonic shapes; the wanderings and convulsions of the mind and body. Their visions are not always to be relied upon, neither are they always understood. In the prophets, visions are the reflection and illumination of a divine gentle radiance on the mirror of their pure soul, which retains its whole indivi

duality, and never forgets its perfect dependence and connection with God and the outer world. The contents of these visions are the common circumstances of life-religious as well as civil; the words are teachings of truth, given clearly and intelligibly to all men and ages. The prophet neither seeks nor finds happiness in the state of ecstasy, but, in his divine vocation, to spread the word of God; not in an exclusive contempt, but in the instructing and active working among his brethren. The true prophet does not, therefore, sink into inner speculations, and forget even himself in his imaginative world, but retains his living connection with God and his neighbour in word and deed. As, in the higher states of inspiration, the causes and the manifestations vary, so do also the motives and the consequences.

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The Brahminic seers complained of the gradual retrogression of the mind from its pristine radiance towards perishable nature, and the dominion of death, according to the various stages of the world, and deplored the misery, the dissatisfaction, the deterioration connected with it all this we find in the mind and body of the degenerated heathen nations of India. On the contrary, how has not the illumination of the mind increased through the prophets of Israel in respect to religion, and through that also, gradually and historically, on the civil system! The spirit of Christianity, which rests upon the west, gradually extends its peaceful influence; and while other nations are everywhere else sinking into the torpor and darkness of Paganism, mountains are here transplanted through faith, and by word and deed, and by true Christian love, trees are planted whose fruit will some time refresh the heathen, but which can only be fully ripened in another world, to which our eyes must unceasingly be directed. The magical seer lives in the intoxication of his own visions; the prophet lives in faith; and actions, not visions, are signs of holiness. 'Probatio sanctitatis non est signa facere, sed unumquemque ut se diligere, Deum autem vere cognoscere," says St. Gregory. If we regard all this according to the causes and the results, we shall arrive at the following conclusion:

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According to its origin, magic vision is the work of man planted in an unhealthy ground, whether it arises voluntarily or is produced by the science of the physician. An