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44 the first Alcibiades: i. e. "In the most holy of the mysteries, before the presence of the god, certain terrestrial dæmons are hurled forth, which call the attention from undefiled advantages to matter." And Pletho, on the Oracles, expressly asserts, that these spectres appeared in the shape of dogs.

After this, Æneas is described as proceeding to the infernal regions, through profound night and darkness:

Ibant obscuri sola sub nocte per umbram,

Perque domos Ditis vacuas, et inania regna.

Quale per incertam lunam sub luce maligna

Est iter in silvis: ubi cælum condidit umbra

Jupiter, et rebus nox abstulit atra colorem.

And this with the greatest propriety; for the mysteries, as is well known, were celebrated by night: and in the Republic of Plato, as cited above, souls are described as falling into generation at midnight; this period being peculiarly accommodated to the darkness and oblivion of a corporeal nature; and to this circumstance the nocturnal celebration of the mysteries doubtless alluded.

In the next place, the following beautiful description presents itself to our view:

Vestibulum ante ipsum, primisque in faucibus orci

Luctus, et ultrices posuere cubilia curæ:

Pallentesque habitant morbi, tristisque senectus,

Et metus, et male suada fames, ac turpis egestas;

Terribiles visu formæ; Lethumque Laborque:

Tum consanguineus Lethi sopor, et mala mentis

Gaudia, mortiferumque adverso in limine bellum,

Ferreique Eumenidum thalami, et discordia demens,

Vipereum crinem vittis innexa cruentis.

In medio ramos annosaque brachia pandit

Ulmus opaca ingens: quam sedem somnia vulgo

Vana tenere ferunt, foliisque sub omnibus hærent,

Multaque præterea variarum monstra ferarum:

Centauri in foribus stabulant, Scyllæque biformes,

Et Centumgeminus Briareus, ac bellua Lernæ,

Horrendum stridens, flammisque armata Chimæra,

Gorgones, Harpyiæque, et forma tricorporis umbræ.

And surely it is impossible to draw a more lively picture of the maladies with which a material nature is connected; of the soul's dormant condition through its union with body; and of the vari-