Ch. V.] 



THE PEOGEESS OF GEOLOGY. 



97 



to sleep in some arctic wilderness, and then be transferred 

 by a power, such as we read of in tales of enchantment, to a 



mi 



valley in a tropical country, where, on awaking, he 



find himself surrounded by birds of brilliant plumage, and 



all the luxuriance of animal and vegetable forms of which 



Natur 



most 



supposition, perhaps, which he could make, if by the necro- 

 maneer's art he were placed in such a situation, would be, 



in 



similar 



we cannot 



him 



consistency in his speculations than in the train of ideas in 

 an ordinary dream. 



It may afford, perhaps, a more lively illustration of the 

 principle here insisted upon, if I recall to the reader's recol- 



lection the legend of the Seven Sleepers. The scene of that 



popular fable was placed in the two centuries which elapsed 

 between the reign of the emperor Decius and the death of 

 Theodosius the younger. In that interval of time (between 

 the years 249 and 450 of our era) the union of the Eoman 

 empire had been dissolved, and some of its fairest provinces 

 overrun by the barbarians of the north. The seat of govern- 

 ment had passed from Eome to Constantinople, and the 

 throne from a pagan persecutor to a succession of Christian 

 and orthodox princes. The genius of the 



empire 



Hercules 



humbled in the dust, and the altars of Di 

 were on the point of being transferred to Catholic saints and 

 martyrs. The legend relates, ' that when Decius was still 

 persecuting the Christians, seven noble youths of Ephesus 

 concealed themselves in a spacious cavern in the side of an 

 adjacent mountain, where they were doomed to perish by the 

 tyrant, who gave orders that the entrance should be firmly 



secured with a pile of huge stones. 



immediately 



into a deep slumber, which was miraculously prolonged, with- 

 out injuring the powers of life, during a period of 187 years. 



time 



whom 



inheritance of the mountain had descended, removed the 



some 



of the sun darted into the cavern, and the 

 were permitted to awake. After a 



slumber 



seven sleepers 



VOL. I. 



H 



