Chap. V. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 281 



Powers appeared to him under the form of different Divinities, fuch 

 as iEfculapius, Apollo, and Minerva, but particularly of iEfculapius, 

 whom he confiders as his tutelary God, and from whom he got the 

 moft particular diredions for the cure of his difeafe, which, at 

 laft, was cured accordingly. Thefe directions he did not at firfl: fet 

 down in writing, nor what he did in confequence of them ; but, af- 

 terwards, by the fpecial order of the God, he wrote them down, a^ 

 far as his memory ferved him; and he has carriedthe narrative down 

 to the twelfth year of his difeafe, in the beginning of which he breaks 

 off abruptly *, being probably prevented by death from finifti- 

 ing it. Befides the Dreams, without number, concerning the cure 

 of his difeafe, he got directions, by Dreams and Vifions, in many 

 other things ; and, particularly, he efcaped being fwallowed up by a 

 great earthquake, which almoft totally deftroyed Smyrna while he 

 was there, by being ordered in a Dream to go to a certain place in 

 the neighbourhood of the town, and there to build an altar, and to 

 facrifice to Jupiter : And he fays the earthquake juft flopped at that 

 place t' Another time, he fays, Minerva with her iEgis, fuch as (he 

 was reprefented by- Phidias's ftutue of her in Athens,] appeared to him 

 when three other perfons were prefent, who did not fee her, as he did, 

 except when fhe mounted up into the air and went out of fight, 

 but heard her fpeak to him ; and he has told us what fhe 

 faid %. What was chiefly prefcribed to him by iEfculapius, (be- 

 fides many drugs which he mentions), was the ufe of the cold bath, 

 when the froft was fo fevere that he could not get kito the water 

 Vol. II. N n without 



* Page 318. 

 t Ibid. 



% Page 300. She put him In mind of the OJyffcy, and fjid that he ought to 

 believe, from what he then faw, that the afliftance which Homer faid (lie had given 

 to Uiyfles and Tclcmachus was not fabulous, and that he might cipeil the like af- 

 fiftance from her. 



