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had the merit of abolishing this custom. In the Ordinances of that emperor, the law to such effect is found in the following terms:- "Ut nullus in Psalterio, vel Evangelio, vel aliis rebus sortiri præsumat, nec divinationes aliquas observare."

But even Socrates himself was not proof against this superstition; as we learn from the following passage of Diogenes Laertius, in the Life of Socrates. It shows in a strong point of view the inconsistency of human wisdom in the wisest, that the man who could make such a reply as the following to his wife ; Τῆς γυναικὸς εἰπούσης, ̓Αδίκως ἀποθνήσ σκεις, Σὺ δὲ, ἔφη, δικαίως ἐβούλου ; should have had his mind affected by a sors Homerica, communicated in a dream : — Όναρ δόξας τινὰ αὐτῶ λέγειν,

Ηματί κεν τριτάτῳ Φθίην ἐρίβωλον ἵκοιο,

Πρὸς Αἰσχίνην ἔφη, Εἰς τρίτην ἀποθανοῦμαι.

Brutus drew a similar presage from the coincidence of his opening on the passage in the sixteenth Iliad, where Patroclus says that Fate and the son of Latona had caused his death, and Apollo being the watchword on the day of the battle of Pharsalia.

The opinions of the ancients respecting the deathbed inspiration of poets, the Sibylline and other oracles, are well known. Thus Aristophanes, in the play of The Knights:

*Αδει δὲ χρησμούς· εἶθ ̓ ὁ γέρων σιβυλλιά.

Actus 1. Scena 1.

Ovid gives the following account of the festival of Vesta, which was celebrated on the 9th of June, in his Fasti:

Adspicit instantes mediis sex lucibus Idus
Illa dies, qua sunt vota soluta Deæ.
VESTA, fave: tibi nunc operata resolvimus ora:
Ad tua si nobis sacra venire licet.

Ovid's Medea, and Horace's Canidia, are both indebted to the Pharmaceutria of Theocritus for

many of their love-charms. The uy was a bird used by magicians in their incantations, supposed to be the wag-tail. The moon and the night, notwithstanding the supposed purity of Diana, have always kept bad company with sorcerers, and are the old accomplices of their abominations, as well as the receivers of lovers' vows, knowing them to be stolen :

Βασεῦμαι ποτὶ τὰν Τιμαγήτοιο παλαίςραν
Αὔριον ὥς νὶν ἴδω· καὶ μέμψομαι, οἷα με ποιεί.
Νῦν δὲ νὶν ἐκ θυέων καταθύσομαι. ἀλλὰ, Σελάνα,
Φαῖνε καλόν· τὶν γὰρ, ποιαείσομαι ἄσυχα, δαῖμον,
Τᾷ χθονίᾳ 3' Εκάτα, τὰν καὶ σκύλακες τρομέοντι,
Ερχομένων νεκύων ἀνά τ' ἠρία, καὶ μέλαν αἷμα.
Χαῖρ ̓ Εκάτα δασπλῆτι, καὶ ἐς τέλος ἄμμιν ὀπάδει,
Φάρμακα ταῦθ ̓ ἕρδοισα χερείονα μήτε τι Κίρκας
Μήτέ τι Μηδείας, μήτε ξανθᾶς Περιμήδας.
Ἴυγξ, ἕλκε τὸ τῆνον ἔμον πολὶ δῶμα τὸν ἄνδρα.

Manducus was the name given to a strange figure, dressed up frightfully, with wide jaws and large teeth, carried about at public shows:

C. Quid, si aliquo ad ludos me pro manduco locem?
L. Quapropter? C. Quia pol clare crepito dentibus.
Plautus, in Rudente.

These grotesque masks were designed partly to raise terror, and partly laughter. Juvenal also alludes to them:

Pars magna Italia est, si verum admittimus, in qua
Nemo togam sumit, nisi mortuus. Ipsa dierum
Festorum herboso colitur si quando theatro
Majestas, tandemque redit ad pulpita notum
Exodium, cum personæ pallentis hiatum
In gremio matris formidat rusticus infans.

Sat. iii.

Superstition is often closely connected with vice, sometimes degenerating into it, and ultimately furnishing a mere cloak for it. The festivals and ceremonies in honour of Bacchus, celebrated by his frantic priestesses, whose very name is derived ȧò τ μaíveσ are thus indignantly described:

Nota Bonæ secreta Deæ, cum tibia lumbos
Incitat; et cornu pariter, vinoque feruntur
Attonitæ, crinemque rotant, ululantque Priapi
Mænades.

Juvenal. sat. vi.

Morpheus is represented as one of the children of sleep, and as taking the human semblance:

At pater e populo natorum mille suorum
Excitat artificem, simulatoremque figuræ,

Morphea.

Ovid. Metamorph. xi.

Another of the sons of sleep is denominated pobrug, from the Greek poenтpòv, signifying affright, or a dreadful vision and phantom of night:

Hunc Icelon Superi, mortale Phobetora vulgus
Nominat.

MISCELLANEOUS PASSAGES FROM PLUTARCH.

We have an English proverb, that cleanliness is next to godliness. The sentiment, though quaint in terms, expresses an ancient and universal feeling with all people, sufficiently civilised to have "sat in good men's seats," or to "have been knolled to church by the bell" of any religious sect, false or true. Plutarch thus describes the magnificence of the funeral made for Timoleon by the Syracusans, and attended by the people dressed in what we should call their Sunday clothes: Πρἔπεμπον δὲ πολλαὶ μυριάδες ἀνδρῶν καὶ γυναικῶν, ὧν ὄψις μὲν ἦν ἑορτῇ πρέπουσα, πάντων ἐςεφανωμένων καὶ καθαρὼς ἐσθῆ τας φορούνων.

The transfiguration of Christ, as recorded by Matthew, chap. xvii., forcibly illustrates the naturally received connection, between whiteness and absolute purity :-" And after six days Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John his brother, and bringeth them up into an high mountain apart, and was transfigured before them: and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light."

There is considerable obscurity and difficulty in the following passage of Plutarch's treatise, Cur Pythia nunc non reddat Oracula carmine. In the text of Wyttenbach it stands thus:Οἶμαι δὲ για νώσκειν τὸ παρ' Ηρακλείτῳ λεγόμενον, ὅς ̓ ἄναξ, οὗ τὸ μαν

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