Note 1030 — Chapter XI · SPIRIT OF THE GRECIAN RELIGION.

De Rep. v. 15. t. i. 377. seq. The Magi, among whom supernatural sights and powers were most familiar, maintained that the Gods occasionally appeared to them, and that the atmosphere is filled with spectral shadows, which, floating about like mists or exhalations, are visible to the sharpsighted.—Diog. Laert. Pr. vi. 9. A similar belief prevailed among the early anchorites. “It was their firm persuasion, that the air which they breathed was peopled with invisible enemies; with innumerable dæmons who watched every occasion and assumed every form, to terrify, and, above all, to tempt, their unguarded virtue.”—Gibbon, vi. 263.