After a long and dreary period of ignorance, the nations of Europe began to arouse themselves from the lethargy in which they had been plunged: religious enthusiasm then awakened the ardour of heroism, and the wild but fascinating spirit of chivalry -whose actions were the offspring of disinterested valour, that looked for no reward but the smile of favouring beauty or grateful tear of redressed misfortune,-taught the world, that humanity and benevolence were no less meritorious than undaunted courage and athletic strength.

Knowledge, however, advanced with slow and timid steps from the cells of the monks, in which she had been obliged to conceal herself, whilst her rival, ignorance, had been exalted to palaces and thrones. From the period which succeeded that twilight of the Goths and Vandals, when all the useful arts were obscured and concealed by indolent indifference, we shall find that each succeeding age happily contributed to enlighten the world by the revival and gradual improvement of the arts and sciences; a corresponding elevation in the general sagacity of the human mind was the natural consequence: this can readily be shown by the proportionate decrease of the numerous methods by which specious impostors lived upon the credulity of others.

Few, it is to be hoped, in the present day seek consolation for disappointment in the mysteries of astrological judgments, or attribute their ill success in life to an evil conjunction of the stars, as revealed by the deluding horoscope of a caster of nativities.

That age has at length passed away, when the search after the philosopher's stone, or the universal solvent, terminated a life of incredible toil and hopeless expectation, in poverty and contempt. But there

are still many, who neglect the experience of the past, and, anxious to know their future fate, seek it in the fortune-teller's cards; or, unhappily, a prey to some of those ills that flesh is heir to, would rather seek to expedite their cure by some specious but empirical experiment, than wait for the slower but surer results of time and experience.

CHAPTER II.

ON ANCIENT ORACLES, &c.

Remote Origin of Oracles-Influence of Oracles-Opinions respecting them-Cause of the Cessation of Oracles-Superstition early systematized in Egypt-Boeotia early famous for OraclesOrigin of the Oracle of Dodona-Ambiguity of Oracular Responses-Stratagem of a Peasant-Oracles disbelieved by Ancient Philosophers-Cyrus and the Idol Bel-Source of FireWorshipping-Victory of Canopus over Fire-The SphinxSounds heard from it-Supposed Cause of them-Mysterious Sounds at Nakous-Frauds of the Priests of Serapis-The Statue of Memnon-Oracle of Delphi-Its Origin-Changes which it underwent-The Pythoness-Danger attendant on her Office-Tricks played by Heathen Priests-Origin of the Gordian Knot The Knot is cut by Alexander-Ambrosian, Logan or Rocking Stones-Representations of them on Ancient CoinsPliny's Description of a Logan Stone in Asia-Stones at Sitney, in Cornwall, and at Castle Treryn-The latter is overthrown, and replaced-Logan Stones are Druidical Monuments.

THE knowledge of the origin of the ancient oracles is lost in the distance of time; yet it seems reasonable to suppose, that traditionary accounts and confused recollections of the revelations graciously vouchsafed to Noah, to Abraham, and the Patriarchs, more especially Moses, may have been the foundation of these oracles, which were venerated in ancient times; and established in temples, which were, in some in

stances, supposed to be even the abode of the gods themselves: thus, Apollo was supposed to take up his occasional residence at Delphos, Diana at Ephesus, and Minerva at Athens.

The manner of prophecy was various, but that employed by oracles enjoyed the greatest repute; because they were believed to proceed, in a most especial manner, from the gods themselves. Every thing of essential consequence being, therefore, referred to them by the heads of states, Oracles obtained a powerful influence over the minds of the people; and this popular credulity offered tempting opportunities to the priests for carrying on very lucrative impostures, nor did they disdain or neglect to take advantage of those opportunities. Added to this, the different functions of the gods, and the different and often opposite parts which they were made to take in human affairs by the priests and poets, were plentiful sources of superstitious rites, and therefore of emolument to those who, in consequence either of office or pretension, were supposed to have immediate communications with the deity in whose temples they presided.

Much has been written on this subject; and some have even gone so far as to suppose that Divine permission was granted to certain demons, or evil spirits, to inhabit pagan shrines, and thence, by ambiguous answers, to deceive, and often to punish, those who sought by their influence to read the forbidden volume of futurity.

This doctrine was strenuously opposed by Van Dale; and Moebius (of Leipsic), although opposed to Van Dale's opinion, allows that oracles did not cease to grant responses immediately at the coming of Christ; and this has been considered a sufficient

proof as well as argument, that demons did not deliver oracular responses; but that those responses were impostures and contrivances of the priests themselves.

The true cause of the cessation of oracular prophecy, however; appears to be, that the minds of men became enlightened by the wide spreading of the Christian faith; and by the circumstance, that their superstition was compromised by the metamorphoses of their favourite heroes and deities into saints and martyrs. As an instance of which, it will hereafter be shown, that the statues of the ancient gods, even to this day, are allowed to stand and hold places in the churches and cathedrals of many catholic countries.

Those, who argue that oracles ceased immediately at the coming of Christ, relate, in confirmation of their opinion, that Augustus having grown old, became desirous of choosing a successor, and went, in consequence, to consult the oracle at Delphos. No answer was given, at first, to his enquiry, though he had spared no expense to conciliate the oracle. last, however, the priestess is reported to have said, "the Hebrew Infant, to whom all gods render obedience, chases me hence; He sends me to the lower regions; therefore depart this temple, without speaking more."

At

Superstition was formed into a system in Egypt at an age prior to our first accounts of that country. Vast temples were built, and innumerable ceremonies established; the same body, forming the hereditary priesthood and the nobility of the nation, directed with a high hand the belief and consciences of the people; and prophecy was not only among their pretensions, but perhaps the most indispensable part of their office.

Boeotia was also a country famous for the number

of its oracles, and from its localities was well suited for such impostures, being mountainous and full of caverns, by means of which sounds and echoes, apparently mysterious, could be easily multiplied to excite the astonishment and terror of the supplicants.

Herodotus informs us, that one of the first oracles in Greece was imported from the Egyptian Thebes. It happened, says Mr. Mitford, in his History of Greece, that the master of a Phenician vessel carried off a woman, an attendant of the temple of Jupiter, at Thebes on the Nile, and sold her in Thesprotia, a mountainous tract in the north-western part of Epirus, bordering on the Illyrian hordes. Reduced thus unhappily to slavery among barbarians, the woman, however, soon became sensible of the superiority which her education in a more civilised country gave her over them; and she conceived hopes of mending her condition, by practising upon their ignorance what she had acquired of those arts which able hands imposed upon a more enlightened people. She gave out that she possessed all the powers of prophecy to which the Egyptian priests pretended; that she could discover present secrets, and foretel future events.

Her pretensions excited curiosity, and brought numbers to consult her. She chose her station under the shade of a spreading oak, where, in the name of the god Jupiter, she delivered answers to her ignorant inquirers; and shortly her reputation as a prophetess extended as far as the people of the country themselves communicated.

These simple circumstances of her story were afterwards, according to the genius of those ages, turned into a fable, which was commonly told, in the time of Herodotus, by the Dodonæan priests. A black pigeon, they said, flew from Thebes in Egypt to