compares our English version of this verse with the Hebrew words, must see that our translators wandered from the strict sense of the original text, to express their notion of familiar spirits. I have translated the Hebrew word aobo, python; if it was a womandiviner, it should be pythonissa, the Greek word is εfyasgi," and that the diviners of this sort were anciently thought to answer those whe consulted them, without the assistance of any dæmon, or familar spirit, is evident from Plutarch. Our English translators render doresh el ha methim, necromancers," the vulgar Latin translates it quærens a mortuis, the LXX, ETTERWTWY THS VEXCUs. I must acknowledge, that all the translations, and the Targum of Onkelos, take the words in the same sense, and interpret them to signify consulters of departed spirits; and by the marginal reference in our English Bibles, we are directed at this word to 1 Sam. xxviii. 7. as if the woman at Endor, to whom Saul went to raise Samuel, were a doresh el hamethim, though she is there said to be pythonissa, and the python, or pythonissa, is here in Deuteronomy mentioned as a diviner of a different sort from the doresh el hamethim; or, as we render it, necromancer. The several translations, which we

επερωτων

" Vers. LXX.

Eundes γας εστι και παιδικον κομιδη το οιεσθαι τον Θεον αυτόν, ώσπες τις είγαστριμύθος, ευρυκλετας παλαι νυνι πυθωνας προσα γορευομενος, ενδυομενον εις τα σώματα προφητων υποφθείγεσθαι, &c. Plut. de Defectu Orac. p. 414. Vid. Cic. de Divin. lib. 1. c. 19. ▾ Deut. xviii, 11:

have of the Hebrew Scriptures, as well as the Targum of Onkelos, were all made much later than the time of deifying the souls of heroes; and very probably, the prevailing opinion among the heathens, at the time of making these translations being, that such departed spirits were in this manner propitious unto men, this might occasion the translators to think, that the words might be rendered as they have translated them. But it should have been considered, that the notion of hero-gods arose later than the time of Moses, and the words doresh el hamethim may rather signify one that enquires of the dead idols, which the heathens had set up in the nations round about the Israelites, in opposition to those, who sought only to the living God. As in after-ages, the heathens believed that the world was governed by genii, hero-spirits, or dæmons, by the appointment of the deity; so in these earlier, and first ages of idolatry, they worshipped only the lights of heaven, and the elements; allowing indeed a supreme Deity, but thinking these all had intelligence, and were appointed by him to govern the world. And as when the

z Mundum...habere mentem, quæ se et ipsum fabricatum sit, et omnia moderetur, moveat, regat: erit persuasum etiam solem, lunam, stellas omnes, terram, mare, deos esse, • quod quædam animalis intelligentia per omnia ea permeet et transeat. Cic. Acad. qu. 1. 4, c. 37. Consentaneum est in iis sensum inesse et intelligentiam, ex quo efficitur in deorum numero astra esse ducenda. Id. de nat. Deorum. lib. 2. c. 15.

opinion of dæmons, and hero-spirits prevailed, all prophecy, dreams, prodigies, and divinations of all sorts were referred to them; so in these earlier times, before men had proceeded to set up hero-deities, and to worship dæmons; when the lights of heaven, and elements were the objects of their worship, it was thought reasonable to imagine, that the sun, moon, and stars, by their natural influence upon the air, earth, and water, did frequently cause vapours and influences, which might affect the minds of persons, who by due art and preparation were fit for divination, so as to enable them to foretel things to come, to deliver oracles. Nay, they thought a proper discipline might make them capable of working wonders, or procuring prodigies; and all these things they conceived might be done, without the Deity being at all concerned in them. They did not indeed deny, that GOD sometimes interposed; they acknowledged him to be the great author of all miracles, signs, wonders, dreams, prophecies, and visions, whenever he thought fit. But they believed also, that they might and would be effected without his interposition; either by fate, meaning hereby the natural course of things,

a Plutarch. lib. de defectu Oraculorum.

Cumque magna vis videretur in monstris procurandis in haruspicum disciplinâ. Cic de divinat. lib. 1. c. 2.

• Naturâ significari futura sine Deo possunt. Id. ibid. c. 6. a Primùm, ut mihi videtur, a Deo, deinde a fato, deinde a naturâ vis omnis divinandi, ratioque repetonda est. Id. ibid. c. 55.

which God had appointed to proceed in the universe;" that is, they thought that God had so framed the several parts of the mundane system, that from the revolution of the heavenly bodies, and the temperament and situation of the earth, air and water; or in general, from the disposition of the several parts of the universe to, and influence upon one another, prodigies, omens, signs, dreams, visions, and oracles, would constantly at the proper places and seasons be given, as necessarily as the heavenly bodies performed their revolutions; and that men might, by long observation and experience, form rules for the rightly interpreting and understanding what the Deity had thus appointed to be discovered to them; or they said, that these things might

• Fatum est non id quod superstitiosè, sed quod physice dicitur causa æterna rerum. Id. ibid. Deum-interdum necessitatem appellant, quia nihil aliter possit, atque ab eo constitutum sit. Id. Acad. Quæst. lib. 4. c. 44.-T κωλύσει της το Διος ΕΙΜΑΡΜΕΝΗΣ και πρόνοιας υπηκους πανίας ival.-Plutarch. lib. de Defect. Orac. p. 426.

' Principio Assyrii trajectiones motusque stellarum observaverunt, quibus notatis, quid cuique significaretur memoriæ prodiderunt....Chaldæi....diuturnâ observatione siderum scientiam putantur effecisse, ut prædici posset quid cuique eventurum, et quo quisque fato natus esset. Eandem artem etiam Egyptii longinquitate temporum innumerabilibus pænè seculis consecuti putantur. Cic. de Divin. lib.1.c.1. Atque hæc, ut ergo arbitror, rerum magis eventis moniti quàm ratione docti probaverunt. Ibid. c. 3. Observata sunt hæc tempore immenso, et in significatione eventûs animadversa et notata; nihil est autem, quod non

be effected in a natural way, i. e. by the use of natural means proper to produce them. We are told by one of Plutarch's disputants, that the earth emits vapours, and powerful effluvia of several sorts, and some of such a nature as to cause men to divine, if they be in a proper temper of mind to be affected by them; and the Pythia at Delphos is supposed, in Cicero, to have been inspired from such an influence of the earth affecting her. In Plutarch it is remarked, that sometimes the natural temper of the air caused in the Prophet, the proper disposition to receive the vaticinal influence; at other times, that the vates disposed themselves for it, by drinks and inebriations.i When the vaticinal influence operated upon the mind, by the conveyance of the air, without any artificial assistance; then they said the vaticination proceeded from fate, because it proceeded from the natural course of things, or order of nature, which God had appointed to go on in the universe; but if drink, or any other artificial means,

longinquitas temporum excipiente memoriâ prodendisque monumentis efficere atque assequi possit. Ibid. c. 7. Affert autem vetustas omnibus in rebus longinquâ observatione incredibilem seientiam: quæ potest esse etiam sine motu atque impulsu deorum, cum quid ex quoque eveniat, et quid quamque rem significet crebrâ animadversione perpectum sit.

Ibid. c. 49.

Plutarch, de def. Oracul. p. 432. h De Divinat. lib. 1. c. 19.

¿ Plutarch. ubi sup.