... And when Jacob had made an end of commanding his sons,
he gathered up his feet into his bed, and yielded up the ghost,
and was gathered unto his people."
Homer affords two instances of a similar kind: thus, Patroclus
prophesies the death of Hector (Il. [Greek: p] 852.)[1]:--
[Greek: "Ou thaen oud autos daeron beae alla toi aedae
Agchi parestaeke Thanatos kai Moira krataiae,
Chersi dament Achilaeos amnmonos Aiakidao."][2]
Again, Hector in his turn prophesies the death of Achilles by the hand
of Paris (Il. [Greek: ch.] 358.):--
[Greek: "Phrazeo nun, mae toi ti theon maenima genomai
Aemati to ote ken se Pharis kai phoibus Apollon,
Esthlon eont, olesosin eni Skaiaesi pulaesin."][3]
This was not merely a poetical fancy, or a superstitious faith of the
ignorant, for we find it laid down as a great physical truth by the
greatest of the Greek philosophers, the divine Socrates:--
[Greek: "To de dae meta touto epithumo humin chraesmodaesai, o
katapsaephisamenoi mou kai gar eimi aedae entautha en o malist
anthropoi chraesmodousin hotan mellosin apothaneisthai."][4]
In Xenophon, also, the same idea is expressed, and, if possible, in
language still more definite and precise:--{117}
[Greek: "Hae de tou anthropou psuchae tote daepou theiotatae
kataphainetai, kai tote ti ton mellonton proora."][5]
Diodorus Siculus, again, has produced great authorities on this
subject:--
[Greek: "Puthagoras ho Samios, kai tines heteroi ton palaion
phusikon, apephaenanto tas psuchas ton anthropon uparchein
athanatous, akolouthos de to dogmati touto kai progignoskein
autas ta mellonta, kath hon an kairon en tae teleutae ton apo
tou somatos chorismon poiontai.
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