JAMBLICUS, the name of two celebrated Platonic philosophers, one of whom was a native of Chalcis, and the other of Apamea in Syria. The first, whom Julian compares to Plato, was the disciple of Anatolius and Porphyry, and died under the reign of the Emperor Constantine. The second also enjoyed great reputation. Julian wrote several letters to him; and it is said he was poisoned under the reign of Valens. It is not known to which of the two we ought to attribute the works which have reached us in Greek under the name of Jamblicus. These are, 1. Pro-trepticus, seu adhortatio ad philosophiam, Leipsig, 1813, in 8vo; 2. De Vita Pythagorae, Amsterdam, 1707, in 4to, Greek and Latin, with the corrections and notes of Ludolf Kuster; 3. In Nicoachi Geraseni Arithmeticam Introductionem et De Fato liber, nunc primum editus Graece, in Latinum Sermonem conversus, notis illustratus a Sam. lennulio, Arnheim, 1688, in 4to; 4. De Mysteriis Aegyptiorum, Venet. Aldus, 1497, in folio, a work filled with theurgic and extravagant notions. Hebenstreit has published a learned dissertation De Jamblichi philosophi Syri doctrina, Christines religioni quam imitari studete noxia, Leipsig, 1764, in 4to. The system of the Neo-Platonists was built on the doctrine of emanation, according to which all beings are destined, after undergoing several degrees of purification, to return to the Deity, whence they emanated. By this system, the sage may, even in this life, attain to the intuition of the divinity, the most sublime end or aim of philosophy. This school admitted the existence from thirty to forty leagues north-north-west from Point Negrill, to the westward of Jamaica, the Grand Cayman being the most remote. Cayman-braque, and Litth Cayman, he within five miles of each other, and about thirty-four miles north from the Grand Cayman. These islands were discovered by Columbus, but they were never permanently settled until after the conquest of Jamaica by Great Britain. Grand Cayman, the only one of them occupied, is about one mile and a half long, one mile broad, and contains about 1000 acres. It is ver; low, but towards the middle of the island vegetation is abundant. These islands are favourite breeding places for turtles, immense shoals of which animals cross the ocean from the Bay of Honduras, to deposit their eggs on the low, sandy shore of the Caymans. The present race of inhabitants, of whose numbfers accurate accounts have not been given, are said to be descended from the English Buccaneers, and, from being inured to the sea. form excellent pilots and seamen. The bishop of Jamaica estimated their numbers in 1827 at 1600. They are very healthy, and attain to a great age. Justices of the peace are sent from Jamaica, but in no way are the inhabitants interfered with by the chief settlement to which they belong. They have a chief or government officer of their own choosing, and they frame their own regulations.

With regard to the working of the emancipation bill, by which, from the 1st of August 1834, the slaves aged six and upwards became apprenticed labourers, without any formal indentures, nothing as yet can be said with certainty. Any disturbances which have broken out were anticipated, even by those who were most sanguine as to the success of the measure; but when the negroes shall have become familiar with their change of condition, their transition from a state of slavery to that of freedom, every thing will probably go on prosperously. At all events, from the accounts received, we are entitled to indulge in a less gloomy augury for the future, than has been but too general!)' entertained by those who investigated the subject, or were interested in the change, (r. a. r.) of a class of demons, or spirits of an inferior order, mediators between God and man. To enter into communication with them required great purity of maimers, and a holiness which disengaged man from every thing terrestrial. Fallen souls inhabit bodies which serve as their prison; and if, during their lives, they have not laboured to divest themselves of their vices, they are, after death, sent back to other bodies still more vile, until they be entirely purified; a doctrine which approximates closely to metempsychosis. The Neo-Platonists also admitted a species of trinity; the soul, according to them, emanated from the intelligence, or second divine essence (r¢u¢), which again emanates from the infinite and perfect being. In order to oppose the progress of Christianity, which began to ruin all established religions, it was believed necessary to envelope in obscurity this doctrine of emanations; and hence they affected to regard as the authors of this system Zoroaster in Persia, Orpheus in Thrace, and Hermes in Egypt. (Schoell, Hist. Abreg. de la Litter. Grecque, tom. i. p. 203.)