RAVEN. 117 



sidered an ominous bird, whose croakings foretell approaching evil ; and 

 many a crooked beldam has given interpretation to these oracles, of a 

 nature to infuse terror into a whole community. Hence this ill-fated 

 bird, immemorially, has been the innocent subject of vulgar obloquy 

 and detestation. 



Augury, or the art of foretelling future events by the flight, cries, or 

 motions of birds, descended from the Chaldeans to the Greeks, thence 

 to the Etrurians, and from them it was transmitted to the Romans.* 

 The crafty legislators of these celebrated nations, from a deep know- 

 ledge of human nature, made superstition a principal feature of their 

 religious ceremonies ; well knowing that it required a more than ordi- 

 nary policy to govern a multitude, ever liable to the fatal influences of 

 passion ; and who, without some timely restraints, would burst forth like 

 a torrent, whose course is marked by wide-spreading desolation. Hence, 

 to the purposes of polity the Raven was made subservient ; and the 

 Romans having consecrated it to Apollo, as to the god of divination, its 

 flight was observed with the greatest solemnity ; and its tones and inflec- 

 tions of voice were noted with a precision, which intimated a belief in its 

 infallible prescience. 



But the ancients have not been the only people infected with this 

 species of superstition ; the moderns, even though favored with the light 

 of Christianity, have exhibited as much folly, through the impious 

 curiosity of prying into futurity, as the Romans themselves. It is true 

 that modern nations have not instituted their sacred colleges or sacer- 

 dotal orders, for the purposes of divination ; but in all countries there 

 have been self-constituted augurs, whose interpretations of omens have 

 been received with religious respect by the credulous multitude. Even 

 at this moment, in some parts of the world, if a Raven alight on a vil- 

 lage church, the whole fraternity is in an uproar ; and Heaven is im- 

 portuned, in all the ardor of devotion, to avert the impending calamity. 



The poets have taken advantage of this weakness of human nature, 

 and in their hands the Raven is a fit instrument of terror. Shakspeare 

 puts the following malediction into the mouth of his Caliban : 



* That the science of augury is very ancient, we learn from the Hebrew hiwgiver, 

 who prohibits it, as well as every other kind of divination. Deut. chap, xviii. 

 The Romans derived their knowledge of augury chiefly from the Tuscans or Etru- 

 rians, who practised it in the earliest times. This art was known in Italy before 

 the time of Romulus, since that prince did not commence the building of Rome till 

 he had taken the auguries. The successors of Romulus, from a conviction of the 

 usefulness of the science, and at the same time not to render it contemptible by 

 becoming too familiar, employed the most skilful augurs from Etruria, to intro- 

 duce the practice of it into their religious ceremonies. And by a decree of the 

 senate, some of the youth of the best families in Rome were annually sent into 

 Tuscany, to be instructed in this art. Vide Ciceron. de Divin. Also Calmct, and 

 the Abb6 Banier. 



