SORTES VIRGILIANjE, ETC. 241 



When in the breeze the distant watch-dog hay'd: 



And heroes fled the Sibyl's mutter'd call, 



Whose elfin prowess scaled the orchard-wall. 



As o'er my palm the silver piece she drew, 



And traced the line of life with searching view, 



How throbb'd my fluttering pulse with hopes and fears, 



To learn the color of my future years!" 



MRS. F. 



Thank you, Esther.. 



FREDERICK. 



Aunt, relative to superstition, how much the Romans were 

 influenced by it in their Sortes Virgilianae* and Homericae, 

 which were but a kind of fortune-telling;. 



MRS. F. 



Yes, superstition, as one of the old writers says, is the 

 greatest burthen of the world, and the Romans were not ex- 

 empt from the common weakness. The Sortes Virgilianae 

 and Homericse were succeeded by the Sortes Sanctorum, or 

 divinations by the Bible; and this had become so common'in 

 the fifth century that it was expressly forbidden by several 

 councils,! though they were never able to suppress it entirely; 

 for in the beginning of the eighth century, when, indeed, ig- 

 norance had attained its greatest pitch,:}: we find it preserved, 

 among other superstitious practices, such as divination from 

 the flight of birds, magic, &c. 



ESTHER. 



But this species of divination is retained by the nations of 

 the East to the present day; and Nadir Shah twice decided 

 upon besieging cities, by opening the poems of Hafiz. 



* Charles I and Lord Falkland tried the Sortes Virgilianse when 

 in the Bodleian Library: Charles opened the .ZEneis at b. iv. 1. 613., 

 and Lord Falkland at b. xi. 1. 152. 



f At that of Vannes, A. D. 465; Agde, 506; and Auxerre, 578; and 

 they are again forbidden in 793, by an edict of Charlemagne. 



$ Schmidt. 

 21 



