a long time upon the ground, not knowing whether he was awake or dreamed. Howbeit, he thought that he heard a noise which lit upon his head and smote it, whereby the sutures or seams thereof were disjoined and opened, by which he yielded forth his soul; which, being thus separate, was very joyous, seeing itself mingled with a transparent and pure air. . . When be looked behind him he could see the Earth no more, but the Isles all bright and illuminate with a mild and delicate fire, and those exchanged their places one with another, and withal, received sundry colours, as it were diverse tinctures, according as in that variety of change the light did alter; and they all seemed unte him in number infinite and in quantity excessive: and albeit they were not of equal pourprise and extent, yet round they were all alike also, by their motion, which was circular, the sky resounded. . Amid these Islands there seemed a sea or great lake diffused and spread, shining with diverse mixed colours upor a ground of grey or light blue. Moreover, of these Isles some few sailed, as one would say, and were carried a direct course down the water beyond the current; but others, and those in number many, went aside out of the channel, and were with such a violence drawn back that they seemed to be swallowed under the waves. ... And the same sea hath two mouths or entrances, whereby it receiveth two rivers of fire breaking into it, opposite one to the other, in such sort as the blueness thereof became whitish by reason that the greatest part was repelled and driven back. And these things he said he beheld with great delight. But when he came to look downward, he perceived a mighty huge hole or gulf all round, in manner of a hollow globe cut through the midst, exceeding deep and horrible to see to, full of much darkness, and the same not quiet and still, but turbulent and oftentimes boiling and walming upward, out of which there might be heard innumerable roarings and groanings of beasts, cries and wrawlings of an infinite number of children, with sundry plaints and lamentations of men and women together, besides many noises, tumults, clamours, and outcries of all sorts, and those not clear, but dull and dead, as being sent up from a great depth underneath. . . . One whom he saw not, said unto him The division of Proserpina, you may see if you will, how it is bounded with Styx. Styx (quoth he) is the way which leadeth unto hell and the kingdom of Pluto, dividing two contrary natures of light and darkness with the head and top thereof; for, as you see, it beginneth from the bottom of hell beneath, which it touches with the one extremity, and reacheth with the other to the light all about, and so limiteth the utmost part of the whole world, divided into four regiments. The first is that of life; the second of moving; the third of generation;

and the fourth of corruption. The first is coupled to the second by unity, in that which is not visible; the second to the third, by the mind or intelligence, in the sun; the third to the fourth, by nature, in the moon. And of every one of these copulations there is a Friend, or Destiny, the Daughter of Necessity, that keepeth the key. Of the first, she that is named Atropos, as one would say Inflexible; of the second, Clotho-that is to say, the Spinster; of the third in the moon, Lachesis-that is to say, Lot, about which is the bending of geniture or nativity. As for all the other Isles, they have gods within them; but the Moon, appertaining to the terrestrial Daemons, avoideth the confines of Styx, as being somewhat higher exalted, approaching once only in an hundred seventy seven second measures: and upon the approach of this precinct of Styx, the souls cry out for fear. And why? Hell catcheth and swalloweth many of them, as they glide and slip about it: and others the Moon receiveth and taketh up, swimming from beneath unto her; such, I mean, as upon whom the end of generation fell in good and opportune time, all save those which are impure and polluted: for them, with her fearful flashing and hideous roaring, she suffereth not to come near unto her; who, seeing that they have missed of their intent, bewail their woeful state, and be carried down again, as you see, to another generation and nativity. Why, quoth Timarchus, I see nothing but a number of stars leaping up and down about this huge and deep gulf, some drowned and swallowed up in it, others appearing again from below. These be (quoth he) the daemons that you see, though you know them not. And mark, withal, how this comes about. Every soul is endued with a portion of mind or understanding: but look how much thereof is mingled with flesh and with passions; being altered with pleasures and dolors, it becometh unreasonable. But every soul is not mixed after one sort . . . for some are wholly plunged within the body . . . others partly are mingled with the flesh, and in part leave out that which is most pure, and not drawn downward by the contagion of the gross part, but remaineth swimming and floating as it were aloft, touching the top or crown only of a man's head, and is in manner of a cord hanging up aloft, just over the soul which is directly and plumb under, to uphold and raise it up, so far forth as it is obeisant thereto, and not over-ruled and swayed with passions and perturbations: for that which is plunged down within the body is called the soul; but that which is entire and uncorrupt the vulgar sort calleth the understanding, supposing it to be within them as in mirrors that which appeareth by way of reflection: but those that judge aright and according to the truth name it Daemon, as being clean without them. These stars, then, which you see as if they were

extinct and put out, imagine and take them to be the souls which are totally drowned within bodies; and such as seem to shine out again and to return lightsome from beneath, shaking from them a certain dark and foggy mist, esteem the same to be such souls as after death are retired and escaped out of the bodies; but those which are mounted on high and move to and fro in one uniform course throughout are the Daemons or spirits of men who are said to have intelligence and understanding. Endeavour now therefore and strain yourself to see the connection of each one, whereby it is linked and united to the soul. When I heard this I began to take more heed, and might see stars leaping and floating upon the water, some more, some less, like as we observe pieces of cork shewing in the sea where the fishers' nets have been cast; and some of them turned in manner of spindles or bobbins, as folk spin or twist therewith, yet drawing a troubled and unequal course and not able to direct and compose the motion straight. And the voice said that those which held on a right course and orderly motion were they whose souls were obeisant to the reins of reason. . . but they that eftsoons rise and fall up and down unequally and disorderly are those which strive against the yoke. . . . Of such as are obedient at the first, and presently from their very nativity hearken unto their proper Daemon, are all of the kind of prophets and diviners who have the gift to foretell things to come, likewise holy and devout men of which number you have heard how the soul of Hermodorus the Clazomenian was wont to abandon his body quite, and both by day and night to wander into many places; and afterwards to return into it again. . . which it used so long, until his enemies, by the treachery of his wife, surprised his body one time, when the soul was gone out of it, and burnt it in his house. Howbeit, this was not true; for his soul never departed out of his body; but the same being always obedient unto his Daemon, and slacking the bond unto it, gave it means and liberty to run up and down, and to walk to and fro in many places, in such sort, as having seen and heard many things abroad, it would come and report the same unto him. But those that consumed his body as he lay asleep are tormented in Tartarus even at this day for it; which you shall know yourself, good young man, more certainly within these three months (quoth that voice): and for this time see you depart. When this voice had made an end of speaking, Timarchus, as he told the tale himself, turned about to see who it was that spake; but feeling a great pain again in his head, as if it had been violently pressed and crushed, he was deprived of all sense and understanding, and neither knew himself nor anything about him. But within a while after when he was come unto himself, he might see how he lay along at the entry of the foresaid cave

of Trophonius, like as he had himself at the beginning. And thus much concerning the fable of Timarchus; who being returned to Athens, in the third month after, just as the voice foretold him, he departed this life.

The Aether, then, according to the Platonist belief which we are examining, is the birthplace of human Souls, and their final abode when they have completed the purification which guarantees immortality to them as Pure Intelligences. But the Air is, none the less, the habitat, and, it would appear, the permanent habitat, of another class of immortal spirits, δαίμονες, who never were incarnate in terrestrial bodies. These immortal Saíuoves occupy the Air, that they may be near to help men on Earth, and mediate between them and God, whose dwelling is in the aethereal region. It is in this interspace between the "visible Gods," the Stars, and the Earth that the author of the Epinomis1 places the Saíuoves, whom he describes as interpreters between men and the Gods. He distinguishes three classes of such daíμoves: first, those who live in the so-called Aether under the Fire or true Aether, i.e. in the higher part of the space between the Earth and the Moon; secondly, those who inhabit the Air round the Earth-these two kinds of Daemons are invisible; thirdly, Daemons whose vehicle is watery mist-these are sometimes visible.2

It is in the same space between the Earth and the Moon that the Platonist Apuleius, writing in the second century after Christ, places the Saíuoves of Diotima's Discourse, an order of divine mediators between God and men to which he conceives the Sapóvior of Socrates and the Guardian Angels of all other men as belonging.

Atque (he says) 3 si Platonis vera sententia est, nunquam se Deum cum homine communicare, facilius me audierit lapis, quam Jupiter. Non usque adeo (responderit enim Plato pro sententia sua, mea vice), non usque adeo, inquit, sejunctos et alienatos a nobis deos praedico, ut ne vota quidem nostra ad illos arbitrer pervenire. Neque enim ipsos cura rerum humanarum, sed contrectatione sola removi. Caeterum sunt quaedam divinae

1 According to Zeller (Plato, p. 561, Engl. Transl.), probably Philippus of Opus, one of Plato's pupils.

2 Epinomis, 984, 985; cf. Zeller, Plato (Engl. Transl.), p. 615. 3 Apuleius de Deo Socratis, vol. ii. p. 116, ed. Bétolaud.

mediae potestates, inter summum aethera et infimas terras, in isto intersitae aeris spatio, per quas et desideria nostra et merita ad deos commeant; hos Graeci nomine Saíuovas nuncupant. Inter terricolas caelicolasque vectores, hinc precum, inde donorum ; qui ultro citro portant, hinc petitiones, inde suppetias, ceu quidam utriusque interpretes et salutigeri. Per hos eosdem, ut Plato in Symposio autumat, cuncta denunciata, et magorum varia miracula, omnesque praesagiorum species reguntur. Eorum quippe de numero praediti curant singula, proinde ut est eorum cuique tributa provincia: vel somniis confirmandis, vel extis fissiculandis, vel praepetibus gubernandis, vel oscinibus erudiendis, vel vatibus inspirandis, vel fulminibus jaculandis, vel nubibus coruscandis, caeterisque adeo, per quae futura dinoscimus. Quae cuncta caelestium voluntate et numine et auctoritate, sed daemonum obsequio et opera et ministerio fieri arbitrandum est. . . Quid igitur1 tanta vis aeris, quae ab humillimis lunae anfractibus, usque ad summum Olympi verticem interjacet f Quid tandem? Vacabitne animalibus suis, atque erit ista naturae pars mortua ac debilis? . . . Flagitat ratio 2 debere propria enim animalia in aere intelligi; superest ut quae tandem et cujusmodi ea sint, disseramus. Igitur terrena nequaquam, devergant enim pondere; sed ne flammida, ne sursum versus calore rapiantur. Temperanda ergo nobis pro loci medietate media natura. mente formemus et gignamus animo id genus corporum texta, quae neque tam bruta quam terrea, neque tam levia quam aetherea, sed quodammodo utrimque sejugata. . . . . . Quod si nubes 3 sublime volitant, quibus omnis et exortus est terrenus, et retro defluxus in terras est; quid tandem censes daemonum corpora, quae sunt concretu multo tanto subtiliori? Non enim sunt ex hac faeculenta nubecula, tumida caligine conglobata, sicuti nubium genus est; sed ex illo purissimo aeris liquido et sereno elemento coalita, eoque nemini hominum temere visibilia, nisi divinitus speciem sui offerant, quod nulla in illis terrena soliditas locum luminis occuparit, quae nostris oculis possit obsistere, qua soliditate necessario offensa acies immoretur; sed fila corporum possident rara, et splendida, et tenuia, usque adeo ut radios omnis nostri tuoris et raritate transmittant, et splendore reverberent, et subtilitate frustrentur. . . . Debet deus nullam perpeti vel odii, vel amoris temporalem perfunctionem; et idcirco nec indignatione nec misericordia contingi, nullo angore contrahi, nulla alacritate gestire; sed ab omnibus animi passionibus liber, nec dolere unquam, nec aliquando laetari, nec aliquid repentinum velle vel nolle. Sed et haec cuncta, et id genus caetera, daemonum mediocritati rite congruunt. Sunt enim inter nos ac deos, ut loco regionis, ita ingenio mentis intersiti, habentes communem cum