14(5 LETTERS ON NATURAL MAGIC. 



It can scarcely be doubted, that a concave mirror was 

 the principal instrument by which the heathen gods were 

 made to appear in the ancient temples. In the imperfect 

 accounts which have reached us of these apparitions, we 

 can trace all the elements of an optical illusion. In the 

 ancient temple of Hercules at Tyre, Pliny mentions that 

 there was a seat made of a consecrated stone, "from 

 which the gods easily rose." Esculapius often exhibited 

 himself to his worshippers in his temple at Tarsus ; and 

 the temple of Eriguinum in Sicily was celebrated as the 

 place where the goddesses exhibited themselves to mortals. 

 Jamblichus actually informs us that the ancient magicians 

 caused the gods to appear among the vapours disengaged 

 from fire ; and when the conjurer Maximus terrified his 

 audience 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 recognizo 

 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 coming nearer, into a face evi- 

 dently divine and supernatural, of a severe aspect, but 

 mixed with gentleness, and extremely beautiful. Accord- 

 ing to the institutions of a mysterious religion the Alex- 

 andrians 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 Santa- 

 baren, who was celebrated for his power of working 



