CENTURY X. 527 



their vow and promise, the other should have any 

 feeling of it in absence. 



988. If there be any force in imaginations and 

 affections of singular persons, it is probable the force 

 is much more in the joint imaginations and affections 

 of multitudes : as if a victory should be won or lost in 

 remote parts, whether is there not some sense thereof 

 in the people whom it concerneth, because of the 

 great joy or grief that many men are possessed with 

 at once ? Pius Quintus, at the very time when 

 that memorable victory was won by the Christians 

 against the Turks, at the naval battle of Lepanto, 

 being then hearing of causes in consistory, brake off 

 suddenly, and said to those about him, &quot; It is now 

 more time we should give thanks to God, for the great 

 victory he hath granted us against the Turks :&quot; it is 

 true, that victory had a sympathy with his spirit ; for 

 it was merely his work to conclude that league. It 

 may be that revelation was divine : but what shall 

 we say then to a number of examples amongst the 

 Grecians and Romans ? where the people being in 

 theatres at plays, have had news of victories and 

 overthrows, some few days before any messenger 

 could come. 



It is true, that that may hold in these things, 

 which is the general root of superstition : namely, 

 that men observe when things hit, and not when 

 they miss ; and commit to memory the one, and 

 forget and pass over the other. But touching divi 

 nation, and the misgiving of minds, we shall speak 



