If we may consider Josephus as a fair type of the learned and liberally educated men of his time, we are compelled to admit that the theory of disease held by the Hebrews of the period was not much, if at all, in advance of the rest of the world. It was undoubtedly largely the demoniacal theory of sickness. In the _Antiquities of the Jews_[183] Josephus, in his description of the sagacity and wisdom of Solomon, says: “God also enabled him to learn the skill that expels demons, which is a science useful and sanative to men. He composed such incantations also by which distempers are alleviated. And he left behind him the manner of using exorcisms, by which they drive away demons so that they never return; and this method of cure is of great force unto this day; for I have seen a certain man of my own country, whose name was Eleazar, releasing people that were demoniacal.” He goes on to describe the process of extracting the demon from the sick man through his nostrils. So again, in telling the story of Saul’s possession by the evil spirit from the Lord, he says:[184] “The physicians could find no other remedy but this—that if any person could charm those passions by singing and playing upon the harp, they advised them to inquire for such a one.” He seems to imply that David cured Saul by an incantation; and Spanheim, commenting upon the story, says that the Greeks had such singers of hymns, and that usually children or youths were picked out for that service, and that they were called singers to the harp.[185] Whether David merely influenced Saul in the natural and touching way so beautifully described by Robert Browning in his poem “Saul,” we must bear in mind that an “incantation” was precisely of the character of the Bible story, and that the demon theory of Saul’s malady is plainly stated.[186]