though in a higher stage of mental development. In all spiritual manifestations among the Greeks, a greater variety of form and direction is evinced; a freer mobility and living interchange of susceptibility and activity. The idea of magic, or the magical element, must therefore have been more universal in its influence upon life. This general diffusion of magic among the Greeks is most evinced in their mythology; and we must therefore study it. As in their poetic talent, so in their idiosomnambulic state, did they perceive nature and her powers, and impress these upon the objects of their contemplation; and the more vivid and clear their perception, the more active their imagination, through the co-operation of manifold outward shapes, so much the more were they tempted to invest the immeasurable elementary forms of nature with human powers and human forms. The imagined shapes therefore became detached from the objects which had occasioned them, and took a subjective independent existence; and this would undoubtedly appear very mysterious to the uninitiated. The whole, therefore, became a symbolical world, in which Anthropomorphism reached a vigour and perfection whose roots reach even to dim and undefined feelings of the sent age.

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According to this we may clearly admit that the natural powers were symbolically transferred to mythology, and that that which refers to magnetism and clairvoyance will no less be contained therein. Although other investigators have only declared this surmise to be well founded, and although Schweigger (Samothracian mysteries) regarded the universal powers of nature as symbolised in the statues of the gods, Castor and Pollux, Jupiter and Hercules, yet I go further, and am confident that the above sentence-" the whole of Greece is a living magic"-can be proved from the mythology; and hope to demonstrate if not the certain truth, yet as much truth, probably, as many have considered sufficient for the success of their theories. We must distinguish between the magic and sorcery of the Greeks.

According to corresponding historical records, magic was transferred from the East to Europe, as Tiedemann has demonstrated in his work, "Quæ fuerit artium magicarum origo,"

and that philosophy came from the same source appears probable (Diogenes Laert. proem.) The foreign origin of demonology is traced thence from the evidence of ancient writers (Plutarch. de defectu orac. c. 10,-" Te μáywv twv περὶ Σωρουστρην ὁ λόγος οὗτος ἐστιν, ἔιτε Θράκιος ἀπ' Ὀρφεως, EXT ATуórios púylos.") It is far different, however, with sorcery; the idea of it as yonreía is only found at a later period; in fact, when the separation of philosophy and religion had commenced. The definition of sorcery is not found in Plato, Cicero, or in other writers, nor yet in the lexicographers under the head of μαγία, γοητεία, but is discovered only by comparison with the various accounts of its exercise given by ancient writers, and their views on the subject, with especial regard to its most flourishing period among the Greeks and Romans. Upon this is founded the axiom (according to Wachsmuth's investiga tions) that "sorcery attempts, independent of, and hated by, the older and higher national divinities, to seize on the course of nature, and even govern the gods."

the

The idea of magic as sorcery is confused by the representation of Fate ("Fato a quo multum magia remota est, vel potius omnino sublata. Quæ enim relinquitur vis cantaminibus et veneficiis si fatum rei cujusque, veluti violentissimus torrens, neque retineri potest, neque impelli ?" Apulejus de magia.) For sorcery and fate are opposed to each other. It is therefore easier for sorcery to govern diminished power of the gods, which is moreover subject to the Stygian fate. "Omne nefas superi prima jam voce precautis concedunt, carmenque timent audire secundum. Plurima surgunt vim factura deis" (Lucan). Apulejus says (Met. 3. 60) "inexpugnabili magica disciplinæ potestate," and cocca numium coactorum violentia." belief was much developed in the early ages of Christianity, and the gods were compelled to appear through certain formulæ (Iamb. de myster. Æg. vi. 4.) This was the transition to the later magic formula-for instance, Numa's exorcism of Jupiter Elicinus, of Tullus Hostilius (who was killed by lightning), to the Crystallomantia, Lecantomantia, and Hydromantia (Psellus de dæmon., Apulejus, &c.), and to the sorceries of the middle ages.

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This

Mythology with its magical meaning was, therefore, long perfected before the yonreía arose like a misgrowth. The belief in secret revelations, natural powers, and miraculous cures, certainly always existed among the Greeks, but not -belief in sorcery. Wachsmuth says "The conception of a power which is capable of influencing the course of nature, and by which men may even compel the gods, is ungrecian. Each unusual knowledge, each higher power, belongs to the gods, and can only be practised by their aid; the constitution of the world is still so infantine that there remains no room for men when the gods exert their influence directly. The representation of an order of things on a much larger scale of Providence, or an unbroken connection of natural causes and effects, is too elevated, though undoubtedly anticipated at that period, and too difficult in its application to life, to have been developed in all its purity by this childlike conception of the divine powers and their influence upon the universe. To each single striking appearance a single spiritualised cause is assigned,-a god. This individualised influence of the gods upon human life appeared to the ancient Greeks as the natural course of things, which is so far removed from an universal government that no idea exists of that which might be called natural and objective; for in this providentia specialissima of the gods such limits cannot be formed. Everything is explained by divine presence and divine power, and any phenomenon which cannot be explained is regarded as a répas sent by the gods; it is therefore not miraculous but something unusual; as is the evidence of divine anger, and so forth. On this rests the worship of the gods: fear, hope, suffering, &c., refer directly to the gods, as also prayer, thanksgiving, and penitence. And if a man knows more and can perform more than others, it must be a divine gift; and in this class may be reckoned a knowledge of the supposed miraculous powers of nature" (p. 214.)

As light precedes the shadow, magic precedes sorcery; the abuse proceeds from the use,-error marches side by side with truth. Without the earlier magic of instinctive clairvoyance, and the acting vitality of the mind, sorcery would not have been discovered. The symbols

which ecstatic clairvoyance had implanted in the mythology were not explicable to all, and their signification may be investigated from various directions. If through the clairvoyance-as we see in magnetism-which was methodically practised in the oracular temples, the powers of nature were discovered and known in their various activity, therefore the supposition is not without foundation that the secrets of the temple consisted in magical knowledge, and in the practice of those powers of nature, which, being intimately connected with the religious customs, must also have been comprehended by mythology. From this it is clear, that the gift of prophecy, and the power of working wonders, formed the contents of the mysteries, and that they were no less reflected in the mythology. The inscriptions which have been found in the temple, and collected by Hippocrates among others, in fact refer to magical subjects, as far as their meaning has been understood. the mythology, the gods of medicine are prominent and numerous, as well as the elementary powers of nature, as I shall proceed to show. According to Homer, Pæan was the first physician; from him comes the deified Asclepios, whose sons were Machaon and Podalirius; the sun god, Apollo; Minerva; the magic zone of Venus; Pluto's kingdom; and Jupiter's Olympus, with its electrical thunder the key-bearing Cybele, whose dancing priests prophesied; the deeds and inventions of Bacchus. No step can be made in mythology without treading on magical ground.

In

It is characteristic that, among the Greeks, belief in demons, as intermediate beings, was wanting, and proves from the absence of an idea of two morally opposite powers, common in the East, that the magic of the Greeks was purely human. The antagonistic powers which are raised against each other in the Greek mythology are not to be confounded with the conceptions of good and evil, which the Greeks did not yet apply to their gods. Even in Homer's time, the gods held communication with men; the idea of the supernaturally divine was not yet separated from those of the universal material connection of nature. As soon, however, as the space extends, and the chasm between material and spiritual, between God and man,

is widened, and when the conception of the divine nature is purified and becomes cleared from its obscurity, though without entirely embracing the objective without the subjective in contemplation, man endeavours to find the best substitute and aid in filling up the chasm, and, at the same time, an intermediary being between himself and the highest intangible. The Greeks might, therefore, just as easily have formed their own ideas of demons and spirits, as have received them from the East. In Homer, daiμwv still signifies God (Il. vii. 291, xvii. 98, xix. 188; Od. xi. 61, xvi. 621); ayyeλo-the angels-are but messengers and heralds (Il. i. 334.) In Hesiod (Scut. Herc. 94) the souls of men, in the golden age, appear as mediators, daípoves, and as guardians of men. This conception, however, appears not to have been common among the people, but only among the philosophers, which causes us to conjecture that it is of foreign origin; the more so, from the fact that the most profound philosophy comes, in general, from the East, and that demonology is traced there, and to Egypt, by Plutarch and others. The influence of demons in the magic art was, afterwards, more generally believed in by philosophers than the oriental dualism. Even Pythagoras secretly taught similar doctrines with Hesiod (ειται δὲ πάντα τόν ἀέρα ψυχῶν ἔμπλεων, καὶ τούτους δαίμονας τε καὶ ἥρωας voμíseosa). From this arose the belief, at a later age, that Pythagoras, or the Pythagoreans, had communicated with demons, and were able to exorcise them (Porphyr. vita Pyth.) Empedocles is said to have been the first to speak of good and evil demons, even of a species of fall (Plutarch. de defectu orac. c. 17.; de Is. c. 26), and magic is distinctly spoken of in connection with him (Diog. Laert.)

The demon of Socrates is not the same as the mediatory demon. In Plato we find most concerning demons, who, however, gives also the opinions of others, but does not state anything positive of their good or bad qualities. Osoi and Aaipoves are taken together. These uncertain expressions of Plato, however, formed a rich source of the demonsystem of the Alexandrian philosophers. It did not consist, as in the theology of the Chaldæans, Persians, and Egyptians, of merely opposite and antagonistic powers, like the Giants and Titans leagued against the gods of Olympus, or of the