Dickens).(18) There are
still in parts of Greece and in Asia Minor shrines at which incubation
is practiced regularly, and if one may judge from the reports, with as
great success as in Epidaurus. At one place in Britain, Christchurch
in Monmouthshire, incubation was carried on till the early part of the
nineteenth century. Now the profession has come back to the study
of dreams,(19) and there are professors as ready to give suggestive
interpretations to them, as in the days of Aristides. As usual,
Aristotle seems to have said the last word on the subject: "Even
scientific physicians tell us that one should pay diligent attention to
dreams, and to hold this view is reasonable also for those who are not
practitioners but speculative philosophers,"(20) but it is asking too
much to think that the Deity would trouble to send dreams to very simple
people and to animals, if they were designed in any way to reveal the
future.
In its struggle with Christianity, Paganism made its last stand in the
temples of Asklepios. The miraculous healing of the saints superseded
the cures of the heathen god, and it was wise to adopt the useful
practice of his temple.
(18) Mary Hamilton: Incubation, or the Cure of Disease in
Pagan Temples and Christian Churches, London, 1906.
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