seem probable that spirits must necessarily be the agents of vaticination, "which may otherwise, and from purely natural causes, take place; for if all nature stands in reciprocating agreement, it requires only that the inner spark be awakened, in order to give a view of the parts of the whole. This is a natural attribute of man, which, however, is only revealed under certain circumstances." Finally, he put to Anebo this question:-"What then do the Egyptians regard as the origin of all things? Then, Whether anything can stand alone, or in connection with another thing, or with many? Whether they have a physical or spiritual idea of things? Whether they deduce all things from one or more causes? Whether the first bodies are endowed with properties or not? And whether they believed matter to be created or uncreated? Whether men have actually a guardian spirit given to them, or more of them; or whether even every part of the body has not such? "For it appears that one guards the health, another beauty; and that over all these individual spirits there stands a general one. Or whether there be one guardian for the body and another for the soul; and that it may happen that one of these be a good spirit and the other a bad one? I suppose that the proper guardian is a part of the soul itself, and that the mind; and that those only are happy who have a wise understanding." Suspicor autem dæmonem proprium esse quandam animæ partem, videlicet mentem; eumque esse felicem, qui sapientem habeat intellectum" (1. c. p. 1). A short and comprehensive abridgment of this letter may be found in Augustin. de civit. dei, lib. x. c. 2.

This

All these questions his disciple Iamblichus from ColeSyria endeavours to answer in his work on the Mysteries of the Egyptians (Iamblichi Chalcidensis ex Colesyria de mysteriis Ægyptiorum). I will here notice some of these answers which the more particularly concern us. Iamblichus, who was so celebrated for his extraordinary cures and for his learning that Cunapius called him worthy of admiration (Javμáolor), and Proclus the divine (Setov), answered Porphyrius first (sect. i. cap. 3) on the question concerning the gods, thus: "The idea of the gods is imprinted on our souls, as well as the belief in spirits which are compre

hended, not from reason, nor the conclusions of reason, but from a pure and simple conception, which is eternal and contemporary with the soul. He defended demons as mediators between God and men, and which succeed each other in regular ranks, so that those nearest to the gods are ethereal— the demons of air, but the souls more earthy." The more a thing is bound to the body and the corporeal world, the more it is confined to a particular place, the more limited and dependent it is; the more incorporeal it is, and nearer to God, the more unconfined and of universal presence is it (sect. i. c. 8). The prescience of the gods extends over all things, and fills everything which is capable of it, as the sunshine does. As regards dreams and vaticination, Plato, in his idea of genii or spirits, has exactly divined the truth:"They are they who reveal to us the future." Thus, he is totally opposed to the opinion of Porphyry that it is the natural office of the soul to prophesy. His theory of dreams and of prescience contains much that is curious and beautiful, of which we will hear a little more. "There are good and bad spirits; and according to their character are the vaticinations true or false. Vaticination itself is not the work of nature or of art, but a gift of the divine beneficence. The prophesying conferred on us by the gods takes place in dreams, or in a medium state between sleep and waking, or in a state of full wakefulness. It is often as if we heard voices speaking. Sometimes an invisible spirit hovers over the sleeping one, so that he does not perceive it with the eye, but becomes conscious of it by a particular faculty; and this performs the wonderful service of averting the troubles of the soul and the body. When the dreams sent by God are over, we hear a broken voice, which teaches us what is to be done; often, too, we hear it in a middle condition between sleep and waking. Sometimes there appears a pure and perfectly quiescent light to the soul, during which the eyes remain closed, while the other senses are awake, and comprehend the presence, the speech, and the actions of the gods. But all this is perceived with perfect distinctness when the eye too sees, and the invigorated understanding is at the same time excited with that peculiar faculty. All these circumstances are of divine origin when they contain anything of a prophetic nature,

and are not to be confounded with ordinary sleep; therefore, speak not of sleep in connection with divine dreams."

As many do not deserve these prognostications in divine dreams, or regard them as human things, they have but seldom or never such a knowledge of the future; and therefore they doubt, and this very unjustly, that there may be also truth in dreams (Iamblich. 1. c. sect. iii. c. 2).

At the approach of such a divine inspiration in dream, the heart begins to droop, and the eyes involuntarily close, as in the middle state between sleep and waking. In ordinary dreams we sleep fast and perfectly; we cannot with sufficient distinctness determine what is present to our imagination. But when the dream comes from God, then we do not sleep; we perceive perfectly all the circumstances, and that much more so than in a waking state. And on this kind of dream is soothsaying founded. The life of our soul is double: a part adheres to the body and a part dissevers itself from it, and is of a divine nature (altera corpori annexa, altera divina et separabilis).

In the waking state we use almost always only the corporeal soul; in sleep, on the contrary, we are, as it were, released from every bond of the body, and avail ourselves of that circumstance, and of body-detached soul, and then this spiritual or divine part quickly awakes, and acts according to its proper nature. Now since the mind relates to the being, and the soul contains the foundation of all occurrences already in itself, it is no wonder if out of a general occasion the future also is foreseen. But when the soul unites her double nature—that is, the life of the body and of the understanding with the general spirit out of which she is taken-then will she demand a more perfect vaticination: then she becomes filled with all the knowledge of the general universe, so that she also experiences what takes place in the upper world."

"If the soul thus strives to unite herself with the gods, she receives the power and the capacity to know all things --that which has been and which shall be; she illuminates all times, and beholds all things about to take place, regulates them already beforehand, as it seems best, to order, to heal, and to improve. Where there are feeble invalids, she renovates them; if men commit any disorders an crime

she restores all to propriety again. She discovers arts, deals out justice and right, and establishes the order of the laws. Thus are sicknesses healed through divine dreams in the temple of Esculapius: thus has the art of healing arisen through the observation of the nocturnal apparitions in divine visions. For Esculapius learnt medicine from his father Apollo through this medium of revelation, by which also the use of poisons in the cure of diseases was introduced. Esculapius taught the science to his children, and these extended it farther. The whole mighty army of Alexander would have been destroyed if Dionysius had not demonstrated in sleep the means of averting nameless disasters. But," so he ends this chapter, "what avails it to run through all particular instances, as I see every day similar things sufficient to render superfluous all reasoning, by their marvellous appearance? These things are enough to have demonstrated the truth of vaticination through divine dreams,-what it is, whence it comes, and, finally, what advantage it confers on mankind."

As remarkable is what he says in the fourth and fifth chapters:-"The diviner receives from the gods different inspirations. Genuinely divine inspirations they, however, only receive who fully dedicate their lives to the gods, or who have converted their own life into a divine one; who are no longer slaves to their senses- -" neque sensuum utuntur officio"-who do not direct their views merely to a selfish end, and who do not voluntarily lay open their knowledge to the day. These no longer lead a mere animal or human life, but a divine one, by which they are inspirited and guided. Sometimes there hovers an invisible, bodiless spirit around these slumberers, who are not informed through the sight, but through another sense and another perception. This spirit approaches with a rushing sound, surrounds them on all sides without touching them, and wonderfully assuages to them the sufferings of the soul and of the body. Sometimes a clear and tranquil light illuminates them, by which the eye is closed and bound; but the other senses are awake, and perceive how the gods walk in the light, and hear what they say, and know what they do. In sleep we are more freed from the fetters of the body, and enjoy the ideas and the knowledge of the spiritual life:

and then awakes the divine and intellectual form of the soul. Then is the soul influenced by the whole of which it is a part, and is filled with wisdom and the true gift of prophecy, that it may be able to comprehend the origin of things."

"There are, however, different kinds of this divine inspiration; therefore the appearances are different. Either God dwells in us himself, or we consecrate ourselves to him wholly. Sometimes we are participant in the highest, the intermediate, and the lowest degree of divine power; sometimes God is revealed in his full presence to us; sometimes it is a union through inspiration. Sometimes the soul only partakes of the inspiration; sometimes the body with it, and so the whole man- 66 'totum animal." According to these differences appear the different signs in the inspired. Some, namely, are agitated through their whole frames; others only in certain limbs; others again remain in perfect rest. Sometimes a well-regulated harmony is perceived-a dance, or an accordant song; sometimes the opposite of these. Sometimes their bodies seem to grow in height, sometimes in breadth; sometimes to hover in the air. Sometimes they perceive a soft, melodious voice; sometimes the greatest variety through pauses, and deeper or higher tones," &c. (sect. iii. c. 4, 5).

We see how Iamblichus knew the condition of the clairvoyant to the very smallest particular, and how correctly he had comprehended and described the different anomalies of this condition. The cause of this he seeks not, however, in the body or in the soul, but in God alone. "It is no transport, but a secret emotion (motus anagocicus). It is a mediation of spirits and a breath of God-enthusiasm. It is divine light and the spirit of God that pervades and enlightens us.' (See the Doctrine of the Exegetic Society of Stockholm; the Philosophy of Benathan, etc.) Iamblichus explains the assertion of Porphyry that some directly fall into a transport if they hear a musical instrument:

"What is usually said of music and its effects, by which our minds are now disturbed, now soothed; by which some are excited to excesses, others to peace and gentleness, and in which different minds are so differently affected-all this appears to me natural, human, and not divine. But the