often increased in violence after a temporary recovery, so the Jews would go on to higher degress of wickedness."

With regard to the difficulty in the language used by the possessed themselves, such as the giving to themselves of specific names-the prayer for permission, if cast out, to go into the swine the prayer not to be tormented our readers will be surprised to learn that every one of these peculiarities is to be found in the Hindoo demoniac possessions, excepting, it must be admitted, the phrase "before the time," which has no parallel in Hindoo traditions or belief. The petitions not to be tormented, and to be allowed to go elsewhere if cast out, are commonly addressed by the possessed to the Bhuktus, or Hindoo exorcists, who, by virtue of a divine possession in themselves, expel the devils from others. The petition not to torment them, refers, in their case, to the threats made by the exorcist, who, in commanding the devil to go out, threatens, if he refuse, to torment him, to twist him, to burn him, &c., by his thaumaturgic power; and sometimes, in fulfilment of this threat, he throws a little powder or ashes upon him, with a stern and commanding air, and the possessed shrieks out, as if actually burnt and tortured. Now this forcible expulsion from the body of the possessed-this command exercised over the system against the will-this, perhaps for the moment agonizing crisis, which may be necessary to restore him to his sane and healthy state-is what the Hindoo demoniac dreads. Is there not something of the same seen in the Gadarene demoniac, who, as described in Mark, v. 7, 8, cried with a loud voice, and said to our Lord" I adjure thee, by God, that thou torment me not. FOR, he said unto him, Come out of the man, thou unclean spirit." This, then, this forcible, and perhaps painful, expulsion, was apparently the torment which he deprecated. Indeed, we are thoroughly convinced that there existed among the Jews, schools of exorcism, exactly corresponding with some of those now in India, exactly corresponding with those once existing in Egypt as temples of Kanobos, according to the hints which we find in Van Dale and Jablonski; the close resemblance of which temples of the Egyptian Kanobos to the Mhuts or shrines of the Hindoo exorcist-power Kanoba,

and of both to the mesmeric seances of modern Europe, we shall hereafter have occasion to point out. The existence of such exorcisers in Judea, under the name of Perierchomenoi, or circumambulators, including in their number sons of the chief priest Sceva, is proved from the passage in the Acts, xix. 13, 14, to which we referred in our former paper: and it is probable that the exorcists mentioned in Mark, ix. 38, and Luke, ix. 49, were of the same class, though they now began to make use of the name of Jesus, deeming it more efficacious than those of Abraham, Isaac, Solomon, &c., which they had before employed. It is clear, too, from the question put by our Lord, By whom do your children cast them out ?" that these Jewish exorcists, who had no connexion with him, were, at least sometimes, successful in their attempts; and we know from Josephus (vide Antiqu. viii. 2, 5). that such a system of exorcism pre vailed among the Jews, even from the time of Solomon, to whom it is said to have been communicated by God for the general benefit of mankind. They employed, we are told, for this purpose, certain forms of incantation and exorcism, assisted and recommended by previous ceremonies. Josephus adds, that this method of expulsion, handed down from Solomon, was frequently practised with success in his own time, and relates a particular instance of such expulsion, exhibit ed in the presence of the Emperor Vespasian. Now, from the preliminary questions and forms which our Lord employed, in his healing of the demoniacs, it seems very probable that in this, as in the case of using clay and spittle to the blind and the deaf, he was pleased to employ some of the formula of these very schools-not indeed as efficient means of operation-except in so far as these might happen to be really efficacious (however mythically disguised) for the management or cure of madness or diseasebut from that benevolent condescension to the weakness of his brethren, which characterized the whole of his divine mission.

With regard, in particular, to our Lord's asking the possessed his name, and receiving for answer "My name is legion," we must observe, that such question and reply form a part, and generally the commencement of the

process of exorcism, at almost every exorcist shrine in India. And it is a curious fact, that, if the possessed be a Mahomedan, he generally gives a Mahomedan demoniac name in reply; if a Hindoo, a Hindoo mythological name; and, as with us, black is the diabolical colour, and Moors and negroes are associated in our minds with magicians, and evil spirits; and magic is black; and the devil himself is supposed to dwell familiarly with his servants, in the shape of a black dog-so in the lower and more popular demonology of the Hindoos-a lesser mythology in itself we encounter one devil classed as the spirit of a deceased Moosoolman ; another as the spirit of a deceased "Firingee," or Portuguese Christianthe latter distinguished, when visible, by wearing a hat. The trials for witchcraft throughout Europe exhibit a somewhat similar peculiarity-the possessed give replies, harmonizing, in general, with Christian ideas on possession and demonology, but singularly varied by notions and traditions purely local. This fact, that each demoniac uses names to which he is accustomed from previous associations, leads us to suppose it probable that "LEGION" was a name well known to the popular Syrian demonology, applied, perhaps, to those who seemed, from the violence of their actions, possessed by many devils. The demoniac himself says, in Mark, v. 9, λεγεὼν ὀνομα μοι, 66 Legion is name to me," not to us. And, v. 7"I adjure thee by God that thou torment ME not"— μá μr Faoavions—and so, also, we read in Luke, viii. 28. In Matt. viii. 29, indeed, it is "to torment us," but here there are two demoniacs speaking, as stated in the verse immediately preceding. What is still more remarkable, our Lord himself, in v. 8, addresses the spirit in the singular number-"Come out of the man (thou) unclean spirit" [Eğiλds To πνευμα το ἀκάθαρτον εκ του ἀνθρώπου]; and it is not until after the demoniac had said (Mark, v. 9) "My name is Legion [or Legion is name to me] for we are many," and after "he [the man] besought him much that he would not send them [the devils] away out of the country" (v. 10)—or, as it is expressed in v. 12" all the devils besought him, saying, send us into the swine; or, as Matthew relates it, viii. 31-" So the devils besought him, saying, If thou cast us out, suffer us to go away into

the herd of swine"-it is not until then that our Lord, humouring, must we not say it,the idea which possessed the maniac, uses the plural number, and says " -“Go (ye) vzαysrs."-Matt. viii. 32. As to any proof of a real plurality in the daimons, from the precipitate flight of the swine down the steep, we know that a single man, rushing on a sudden, and with violent action, towards a flock of sheep, will send them all running in terror in one direction; and this is the explanation which has, in fact, been adopted by more than one commentator, regarding the destruction of the swine.

The conclusion which we would draw from the foregoing observations is, that the name given by any of these parties is of no weight whatever as an argument, either pro or con, as regards the true character of these anomalous seizures and conditions; since we see, in different systems, the parties always follow the old and habitual associa tions of the respective countries, creeds, and popular beliefs, in which they were brought up. The Jewish demoniacthe Hindoo in Waren-the Christian witch the modern mesmeric patientall speak in their second personality, according to what they have heard or read before. The names or accounts, therefore, which they give, cannot be held to be the true names or accounts of their several states. This position, however, though it will prevent us from receiving any demoniac utterance as decisive evidence of the reality of possession, leaves us in the same state of doubt as before, and will not warrant our drawing the conclusion that there are not such possessions; for the possession may be real, though the name and the account given of it be false. It is certainly, on the one hand, a strong presumption against any of these utterances proceeding from real devils, that they should all speak so differently in different times and places, and so exactly reflect back the associa tions of the party; but, on the other, if Satan have power to send his angels into men, and if he act upon a consis tent principle, it would consort with this principle to assume, chameleon. like, the particular shade of falsehood which may happen to prevail in each time and place, and give it strength; so that the spirit which would speak in the Greek Pythoness as Apollo, in the Mahomedan as Sultan Mahomed, in

the Christian witch as an imp of Satan, in the Hindoo as the goddess Devee, or the devils Vetalu or Cheda, thus lending support to each false view of divine providence, might-in an age of unbelief, and among a scientific people, which disbelieves alike devils and angels and the whole bent of which, where not absolutely directed to ma terialism, is towards a self-deifying Pantheism-consistently subserve this delusion, by speaking Pantheistic reveries in the mouth of the mesmerised somnambulist. Although, therefore, the varieties and discrepancies in the names and accounts given of themselves by the suppossessed possessing spirits, among people of different countries, and times, and creeds; and the invariable dependence and harmony found to exist between each account, and the belief and associations amidst which the possessed or illumined was brought up, or with which he had been previously imbued, are wholly inconsistent with the intrinsic truth of such names and accounts in themselves, and constitute a difficulty, and even a primâ facie presumption, against the whole theory of a personal demoniac possession-they are not absolutely irreconcilable with it upon the above reasoning. All that we can say at present is, that these names do nothing towards establishing its truth.

To proceed, however, with the gospel demoniacs. May not the knowledge of our Lord's person and dignity displayed by the parties possessed, as seen in Matt. viii. 29, Mark, v. 7, Luke, iv. 34, 41, Acts, xix. 15, as well as the knowledge shown by the pythonic damsel of the real character of Paul and his companions, as servants of the most high God, and teachers of the way of salvationActs, xvi. 17-so far from being irreconcilable with the hypothesis of physical disease, be in perfect harmony with it? It is a fact, which all the records of medical experience prove beyond a question, and which is confirmed by some striking revelations in the Causes Celebres," and in private biography, that in peculiar conditions of the body, upon the approach of death-in many cases of cerebral and nervous derangement, in some forms of mania, in epilepsy and epileptic hysteria, in trance or ecstasy, in common somnambulism, as well as in the phenomena of mes

merism-phenomena which seem very closely related to the second sight of the highland seers; to the avtoruvn or prophetic power which the soothsayer Calchas is said by Homer to have received from Apollo, the god of medicine as well as of vaticination; to the dnyanu-drishtee, or gnostic vision, by which, in the Hindoo Poranus, the seer is often represented as describing future or remote events; and even to the ordinary prophetic faculty of Balaam, whose evil purpose was, on a particular occasion, over-ruled miraculously for the blessing of the chosen people; who describes himself as "falling into a trance, but having his eyes open," and of whom it is said that, on that particular occasion, when the spirit of God came upon him, "he went not, as at other times, to seck for enchantments;" the scriptures thereby intimating that it had been his usual practice to resort to certain specific instrumental means or processes, for the purpose of wooing, or exciting within himself the prophetic faculty, which he exercised for "the rewards of divination;" that in all or many of these cases, there does very commonly exist an inversion of consciousness the loss of one's own identity, and the assumption of another personality and often, besides this curious feature, a real exaltation of the faculties, a genuine intuition transcending present time and place; in a word, a portion, however limited or temporary, of true prophetic vision. In the writings of the ancients, we meet constantly with true facts, the result of a faithful observation of nature, connected with false theories, the consequence of a false or an inadequate idea of God and of the spiritual world. The accounts which their writers have left of epilepsy, must be considered as faithful, though the names and the theories attached to it are false. We admit the description of the epileptic, though we may deny the justice of calling the visitation the "divine disease;" or "a rushing and seizing upon," as if by spiritual powers, which the word epi-lepsis itself would seem to imply (thereby approaching the Hindoo idea of Jhupate, "devil-blast” or “devil-rush”). ́ We recognise the convulsions of Virgil's sybil, and the quakings of Horace's priestesses within the shrine, though we cannot allow them to proceed from

the inhabitation and rule, either of Apollo or Cybele. And such we hold to be the true view of the

Homeric μαντοσύνη or vaticination, that it is a description of a true factof real mental phenomena, found in conjunction with peculiar physical conditions, whether these conditions be the result of disease, of temperament, or of a specific treatment. And this view is confirmed by meeting, in the writings of another, but totally distinct ancient nation, the Hindoos, the parallel fact of the dnyanu-drishtee or gnostic vision. This term, which is erroneously represented in Molesworth's generally excellent dictionary, as an adjective signifying "that has a mental eye," is a compound noun signifying literally the gnosis-sight," i. e., the internal power of vision or intuition of remote objects, obtained by the meditative sage through inward concentration and contemplation. It corresponds alike with prophetic vision, with the second sight, and with the clairvoyance of the mesmerists. There is not, perhaps, in the whole range of literature, a subject more curious, or having eventually more important bearings on some of the highest questions of philosophy and religion, than the evidence of the existence of a systematic mesmeric illuminism among the Hindoos for many ages, which their own literature affords. These have been hitherto either entirely overlooked, or not fully understood by European scholars.

We hope ere long to lay before our readers some interesting and convincing specimens of this evidence. For the present, however, we content ourselves with a single illustration of this gnosis-sight, which we translate word for word from the Panduvu Prutapu of Shreedhuru, a well-known metrical abbreviation of a portion of the Muhabharutu, one of the two great religious epics of the Hindoos. The passage occupies from the twentyninth to the thirty-fifth stanzas of the forty-first adhyayu or canto, in the original, which refers to the Bhishmu Purvu of the Muhabharutu as its authority. In this, as in many other passages in our possession, the gnostic sight, or power of clairvoyance, is represented as awakened in the disciple and lesser seer (in this instance Sunjuyu) by the preceptor and greater seer (in this instance Vyasu) placing his hand upon the other's head-one of the most effective operations in mesmerism for producing the same effect. In this extract the periphrases, "Sutyuvutee's son," and "sire of Shooku," both refer to the divine seer, poet, prophet Vyasu. Dhriturashtru is a blind monarch, whose hundred sons are about to be slain in battle. Sunjuyu, a minor seer, is a disciple of Vyasu, at whose bidding he performs in this scene the part of the boy Alexis, and reveals to the king what occurs far away. Gujupooru, the City of Elephants, is the same as Hustinapooru, the ancient Delhi :

and

And then follows the enumeration and description of the leaders and of the armies; then the celebrated episode called the Bhuguvud-Geeta, containing the theosophic dialogue between Urjoonu and Krishnu, and the fatal battle which ensues; all which, though occurring at a distance, Sunjuyu beholds by gnostic vision, and details to the blind monarch.

Such passages as this constantly occurring in the Hindoo writings, and alluding to the gnostic-sight, as to a common and well-known phenomenon, strengthen our position, that the Homeric mantosune or vaticinationthe ordinary and unsanctified prophetic faculty which Balaam awakened within himself "at other times," when "he went to seek for enchantments," and the second sight of the highland seers, were not pure fables; but described a real fact-a fact which harmonizes with the records of medical, no less than of mesmeric experience however erroneous the various theories framed by each party in ancient or in modern times, to account for its existence, namely, the spiritual exaltation and prophetic or intuitive power which is often awakened in, and is a concomitant, and, as it were, a symp tom of peculiar types of bodily disease, or of peculiar degrees and stages of the attenuation of the bodily life.

Now in such a state of exaltation of the faculties, of extrusion of the present, and awakening to the spiritual world, the moral sense is often sharpened to an intense degree. Whether we take the experiences of somnambulism and mesmerism, or, discarding these altogether as unsafe testimony, confine ourselves to the revelations of the sick chamber, we shall often find, both in the wild utterances of those who are suffering under some form of mental derangement, and in the calmer declarations of those whose bodily powers have nearly decayed, and who already stand almost in the very presence of death, the profoundest glances into character a perception that might almost be termed a feeling of the good or evil nature of those who approach them, or are mentioned in their presence a keen sensitiveness to the de

formity of sin and the beauty of holiness. Could the soul, then, of the sinless one, the holy one of God, stand in the virgin light of its spotless innocence, before such an awakened spiritual gaze, without instant recognition and homage?

But besides this consideration, we know from the exclamations of the blind and the lepers, and others who besought our Lord for relief, that his person and reputation were well known; and thus, such utterances of recognition on the part of the demoniacs may be not wholly unconnected, either with a previous knowledge on their own parts, or with expectations excited by what they heard bruited of his power and holiness on every side, mingled, it must be remembered, with the old notions regarding their own possession, the result of that popular belief and those associations with which they had been familiar. How such popular belief and associations operate upon the mind and actions of parties so affected, may be observed to this day in India, where all the utterances of the possessed refer to the gods and devils of their own mythology, and especially to those of their own immediate circle or locality. It can be clearly perceived, also, in the narrative of the discovery of the bodies of the martyrs, SS. Protasius and Gervasius, by St. Ambrose. It was a popular belief in the Church at that period, that the devils in the bodies of the possessed were tormented by the sight of the relics of martyrs: hence, in order to test the genuineness of these relics, certain demoniacs were brought to the spot; and as the parties employed in digging approached the site of the bodies, these unfortunate beings began to exhibit all the symptoms of demoniac torture. Any one conversant with the history of the convulsionaries, or the ordinary phenomena of epileptic hysteria, very well knows that a single word, act, or idea, is sufficient to induce a paroxysm where parties have been long affected. These demoniacs, hearing in their sane intervals, and believing that they were possessed, and that the sight of martyrs' relics would have the effect of bringing on