CONCAVE MIRRORS. 67 



by making the statue of Hecate laugh, while in 

 the middle of the smoke of burning incense, he 

 was obviously dealing with the image of a living 

 object dressed in the costume of the sorceress. 



The character of these exhibitions in the 

 ancient temples is so admirably depicted in the 

 following passage of Damascius, quoted by M. 

 Salverte, that we recognise all the optical effects 

 which have been already described. " In a 

 manifestation," says he, " which ought not to be 

 revealed .... there appeared on the wall of 

 the temple a mass of light, which at first seemed 

 to be very remote ; it transformed itself, in com- 

 ing nearer, into a face evidently divine and su- 

 pernatural, of a severe aspect, but mixed with 

 gentleness, and extremely beautiful. According 

 to the institutions of a mysterious religion, the 

 Alexandrians honoured it as Osiris and Adonis." 



Among more modern examples of this illusion, 

 we may mention the case of the Emperor Basil of 

 Macedonia. Inconsolable at the loss of his son, 

 this sovereign had recourse to the prayers of the 

 Pontiff Theodore Santabaren, who was celebrated 

 for his power of working miracles. The eccle- 

 siastical conjuror exhibited to him the image 

 of his beloved son, magnificently dressed and 

 mounted upon a superb charger : the youth rushed 

 towards his father, threw himself into his arms, 

 and disappeared. M. Salverte judiciously ob- 

 serves, that this deception could not have been 

 performed by a real person who imitated the 

 figure of the young prince. The existence of 

 this person, betrayed by so remarkable a resem- 

 blance, and by the trick of the exhibition, could 

 not fail to have been discovered and denounced, 

 F 2 



