Sacred

statues and crucifixes sweated, or the hair grew on them and was regularly shorn: relics cured disease, or restored amputated limbs: the fishes came to shore to hear St Antony preach; and pious persons falling from heights were supported in the air. The diffusion of knowledge has not only led all but the most ignorant now to discredit such superstitions, but has also softened our hearts, and has made us hate cruel gods as well as cruel men. The horrors of a priestly hell, in which “infants a span long” were said to roast, no longer terrify. The miraculous is a name for the unknown, and misunderstood, and its home is amid the myths and legends of the past, Mirror. A sacred emblem not only in Japan but in Egypt, Pheenicia, Etruria, and elsewhere, as we see from the figures engraved on the ancient mirrors of bronze. It is the emblem of Venus, and of woman: of Maya or “illusion,” and of light, The Egyptians offered mirrors and combs (see Kteis) to go de es, and metal mirrors are found beside idols in America. In China mirrors on house roofs scare away demons. Buddhists and Shinto worshipers alike use them (see Japan), Miru. The Polynesian queen of Hell—perhaps the same as Mari in India. See Mar, Mara, and Mari, Mishnah. The Jewish collection of the rules and sayings of famous Rabbis, some of whom lived before the Jerusalem temple was destroyed. It is written in Hebrew, and was compiled by Rabbi Judah, and others, at Tiberias about 150 to 200 B.c., after the Sanhedrin had retired from Jamnia, S. of Joppa, to Galilee, on the death of Rabbi Akibah in the revolt of 135 a.c. The Talmud includes the Mishnah as text, with the commentary either of Jerusalem (about 390 a.c.) or of Babylon (365 to 427 A.c. or, in part, perhaps as late as 800 a.c.), these two commentaries being in Aramaik (see E. Deutsch, Lity. 568