APOLLONIUS THE PROPHET AND WONDER-WORKER.
We will now turn our attention for a brief space to that side of
Apollonius' life which has made him the subject of invincible prejudice.
Apollonius was not only a philosopher, in the sense of being a
theoretical speculator or of being the follower of an ordered mode of
life schooled in the discipline of resignation; he was also a
philosopher in the original Pythagorean meaning of the term--a knower of
Nature's secrets, who thus could speak as one having authority.
He knew the hidden things of Nature by sight and not by hearing; for him
the path of philosophy was a life whereby the man himself became an
instrument of knowing. Religion, for Apollonius, was not a faith only,
it was a science. For him the shows of things were but ever-changing
appearances; cults and rites, religions and faiths, were all one to him,
provided the right spirit were behind them. The Tyanean knew no
differences of race or creed; such narrow limitations were not for the
philosopher.
Beyond all others would he have laughed to hear the word "miracle"
applied to his doings. "Miracle," in its Christian theological sense,
was an unknown term in antiquity, and is a vestige of superstition
to-day. For though many believe that it is possible by means of the soul
to effect a multitude of things beyond the possibilities of a science
which is confined entirely to the investigation of physical forces, none
but the unthinking believe that there can be any interference in the
working of the laws which Deity has impressed upon Nature--the credo of
Miraculists.
Most of the recorded wonder-doings of Apollonius are cases of prophecy
or foreseeing; of seeing at a distance and seeing the past; of seeing or
hearing in vision; of healing the sick or curing cases of obsession or
possession.
Already as a youth, in the temple at Ægæ, Apollonius gave signs of the
possession of the rudiments of this psychic insight; not only did he
sense correctly the nature of the dark past of a rich but unworthy
suppliant who desired the restoration of his eyesight, but he foretold,
though unclearly, the evil end of one who made an attempt upon his
innocence (i. 12).
On meeting with Damis, his future faithful henchman volunteered his
services for the long journey to India on the ground that he knew the
languages of several of the countries through which they had to pass.
"But I understand them all, though I have learned none of them,"
answered Apollonius, in his usual enigmatical fashion, and added:
"Marvel not that I know all the tongues of men, for I know even what
they never say" (i. 19). And by this he meant simply that he could read
men's thoughts, not that he could speak all languages. But Damis and
Philostratus cannot understand so simple a fact of psychic experience;
they will have it that he knew not only the language of all men, but
also of birds and beasts (i. 20).
In his conversation with the Babylonian monarch Vardan, Apollonius
distinctly claims foreknowledge. He says that he is a physician of the
soul and can free the king from the diseases of the mind, not only
because he knows what ought to be done, that is to say the proper
discipline taught in the Pythagorean and similar schools, but also
because he foreknows the nature of the king (i. 32). Indeed we are told
that the subject of foreknowledge ([Greek: prognôseôs]), of which
science ([Greek: sophia]) Apollonius was a deep student, was one of the
principal topics discussed by our philosopher and his Indian hosts (iii.
42).
In fact, as Apollonius tells his philosophical and studious friend the
Roman Consul Telesinus, for him wisdom was a kind of divinizing or
making divine of the whole nature, a sort of perpetual state of
inspiration ([Greek: theiasmos]) (iv. 40). And so we are told that
Apollonius was apprised of all things of this nature by the energy of
his dæmonial nature ([Greek: daimoniôs]) (vii. 10). Now for the student
of the Pythagorean and Platonic schools the "dæmon" of a man was what
may be called the higher self, the spiritual side of the soul as
distinguished from the purely human. It is the better part of the man,
and when his physical consciousness is at-oned with this "dweller in
heaven," he has (according to the highest mystic philosophy of ancient
Greece) while still on earth the powers of those incorporeal
intermediate beings between Gods and men called "dæmons"; a stage higher
still, the living man becomes at-oned with his divine soul, he becomes a
God on earth; and yet a stage higher he becomes at one with the Good and
so becomes God.
Hence we find Apollonius indignantly rejecting the accusation of magic
ignorantly brought against him, an art which achieved its results by
means of compacts with those low entities with which the outermost realm
of inner Nature swarms. Our philosopher repudiated equally the idea of
his being a soothsayer or diviner. With such arts he would have nothing
to do; if ever he uttered anything which savoured of foreknowledge, let
them know it was not by divination in the vulgar sense, but owing to
"that wisdom which God reveals to the wise" (iv. 44).
The most numerous wonder-doings ascribed to Apollonius are instances
precisely of such foreknowledge or prophecy.[109] It must be confessed
that the utterances recorded are often obscure and enigmatical, but this
is the usual case with such prophecy; for future events are most
frequently either seen in symbolic representations, the meaning of which
is not clear until after the event, or heard in equally enigmatical
sentences. At times, however, we have instances of very precise
foreknowledge, such as the refusal of Apollonius to go on board a vessel
which foundered on the voyage (v. 18).
The instances of seeing present events at a distance, however--such as
the burning of a temple at Rome, which Apollonius saw while at
Alexandria--are clear enough. Indeed, if people know nothing else of the
Tyanean, they have at least heard how he saw at Ephesus the
assassination of Domitian at Rome at the very moment of its occurrence.
It was mid-day, to quote from the graphic account of Philostratus, and
Apollonius was in one of the small parks or groves in the suburbs,
engaged in delivering an address on some absorbing topic of philosophy.
"At first he sank his voice as though in some apprehension; he, however,
continued his exposition, but haltingly, and with far less force than
usual, as a man who had some other subject in his mind than that on
which he is speaking; finally he ceased speaking altogether as though he
could not find his words. Then staring fixedly on the ground, he started
forward three or four paces, crying out: 'Strike the tyrant; strike!'
And this, not like a man who sees an image in a mirror, but as one with
the actual scene before his eyes, as though he were himself taking part
in it."
Turning to his astonished audience he told them what he had seen. But
though they hoped it were true, they refused to believe it, and thought
that Apollonius had taken leave of his senses. But the philosopher
gently answered: You, on your part, are right to suspend your rejoicings
till the news is brought you in the usual fashion; "as for me, I go to
return thanks to the Gods for what I have myself seen" (viii. 26).
Little wonder, then, if we read, not only of a number of symbolic
dreams, but of their proper interpretation, one of the most important
branches of the esoteric discipline of the school. (See especially i. 23
and iv. 34.) Nor are we surprised to hear that Apollonius, relying
entirely on his inner knowledge, was instrumental in obtaining the
reprieve of an innocent man at Alexandria, who was on the point of being
executed with a batch of criminals (v. 24). Indeed, he seems to have
known the secret past of many with whom he came in contact (vi. 3, 5).
The possession of such powers can put but little strain on the belief of
a generation like our own, to which such facts of psychic science are
becoming with every day more familiar. Nor should instances of curing
disease by mesmeric processes astonish us, or even the so-called
"casting out of evil spirits," if we give credence to the Gospel
narrative and are familiar with the general history of the times in
which such healing of possession and obsession was a commonplace. This,
however, does not condemn us to any endorsement of the fantastic
descriptions of such happenings in which Philostratus indulges. If it be
credible that Apollonius was successful in dealing with obscure mental
cases--cases of obsession and possession--with which our hospitals and
asylums are filled to-day, and which are for the most part beyond the
skill of official science owing to its ignorance of the real agencies at
work, it is equally evident that Damis and Philostratus had little
understanding of the matter, and have given full rein to their
imagination in their narratives. (See ii. 4; iv. 20, 25; v. 42; vi. 27,
43.) Perhaps, however, Philostratus in some instances is only repeating
popular legend, the best case of which is the curing of the plague at
Ephesus which the Tyanean had foretold on so many occasions. Popular
legend would have it that the cause of the plague was traced to an old
beggar man, who was buried under a heap of stones by the infuriated
populace. On Apollonius ordering the stones to be removed, it was found
that what had been a beggar man was now a mad dog foaming at the mouth
(iv. 10)!
On the contrary, the account of Apollonius' "restoring to life" a young
girl of noble birth at Rome, is told with great moderation. Our
philosopher seems to have met the funeral procession by chance;
whereupon he suddenly went up to the bier, and, after making some passes
over the maiden, and saying some inaudible words, "waked her out of her
seeming death." But, says Damis, "whether Apollonius noticed that the
spark of the soul was still alive which her friends had failed to
perceive--they say it was raining lightly and a slight vapour showed on
her face--or whether he made the life in her warm again and so restored
her," neither himself nor any who were present could say (iv. 45).
Of a distinctly more phenomenal nature are the stories of Apollonius
causing the writing to disappear from the tablets of one of his accusers
before Tigellinus (iv. 44); of his drawing his leg out of the fetters to
show Damis that he was not really a prisoner though chained in the
dungeons of Domitian (vii. 38); and of his "disappearing" ([Greek:
êphanisthê]) from the tribunal (viii. 5).[110]
We are not, however, to suppose that Apollonius despised or neglected
the study of physical phenomena in his devotion to the inner science of
things. On the contrary, we have several instances of his rejection of
mythology in favour of a physical explanation of natural phenomena.
Such, for instance, are his explanations of the volcanic activity of
Ætna (v. 14, 17), and of a tidal wave in Crete, the latter being
accompanied with a correct indication of the more immediate result of
the occurrence. In fact an island had been thrown up far out to sea by a
submarine disturbance as was subsequently ascertained (iv. 34). The
explanation of the tides at Cadiz may also be placed in the same
category (v. 2).