10 r 



AUGURY. 



Augury, whose flight there was supposed to be great signili- 

 cancy, such as the hawk, the eagle, and the vulture. 

 The sacred chickens were confined in pens, under 

 the charge of the puliarittl. It was a most lamentable 

 presage if they refined to eat ; but their devouring 

 the food set before them so eagerly as to drop part 

 of it, was one of the most indisputable signs of good 

 fortune, and was called tripudium, (or terripnvium, 

 from striking the ground). Their superintendant, no 

 doubt, und e rstood the art of eliciting hopeful or dis- 

 astrous intelligence, bv means of seasonable inanition 

 or repletion. He was but a bungling piillnrins who 

 could not contrive to effect a tripudium ; and, from 

 the artifice which he employed, arose the phrase 

 aiispirinm rimclum ct rrpvessmn. A chicken, pre- 

 viously half starved, may be expected to stuff so vo- 

 raciously, that much of the grain will escape from 

 its beak. The omens from quadrupeds were such as 

 a wolf on the right carrying something in his mouth, 

 which was favourable ; a hare crossing a road, a 

 strange dog, especially if black, coming into a house, 

 both of which were portentous of evil. Among 

 the direv , it was very discouraging to spill oil, or salt, 

 or honey ; but nothing could be more lucky than 

 the accidental spilling of wine, so as to leave an in- 

 delible stain on the garments. 



These weak superstitions, contemptible as they 

 appear to us, are not yet entirely exploded. The 

 vulgar in every nation ascribe a wonderful degree of 

 significancy to frivolous incidents like those which 

 have now been enumerated ; and we have seen per- 

 sons of considerable strength of intellect, not a little 

 agitated at the sight of a magpie, or the voice of a 

 cricket. All the world has heard, that if a company 

 happen to consist of thirteen, one of the number may 

 expect soon to die ; and what man or woman is igno- 

 rant of the prophetic virtue inherent in bees-wax, or 

 mutton-fat, when moulded into the magic form of a 

 a candle ? Such popular follies as these are finely 

 ridiculed by Addison, in the 7th paper of the Spec- 

 tator. It is no new thing, indeed, to attack them 

 with the weapons of ridicule. In the 12th book of 

 the Iliad, Hector chides Polydamas for wishing to 

 retire from the field, because an eagle appeared in the 

 air, carrying a bleeding serpent in his talons. After 

 expressing his contempt for the movements of birds, 

 whether to the right or to the left, he introduces this 

 noble sentiment : 



'Eij o<a:6? t5Tfl?, ufivnrSui tt'.^i 5r#Tg>j;. 



From chains to save his country, to repel 

 Her ruthless foes, and save a falling state ; 

 ^ '1'his glorious omen stimulates the brave, 



Whose lofty purpose is the pledge of triumph. 



Cicero also, though himself a member of the frater- 

 nity, speaks very contemptuously of their preten- 

 sions. " Where is the wonder," says he, " that a 

 cock should be clamorous, an animal which scarcely 

 ever ceases to strain his throat, either by night or by 

 day ? It would be a prodigy indeed, if a fish were 

 to do ' salutation to the morn,' in a shrill canorous 

 voice, like the crowing of a cock." After Christian- 

 ity was introduced into the Roman empire, augury 

 gradually lost its credit. It was discouraged by 

 Gratian, and condemned by various ecclesiastical 



councils. In times still more modern, however, some Augury. 

 delirious pretenders to magic, such as Michael Scot, 

 attempted to revive and methodise the art, which had 

 then fallen into desuetude ; but, notwithstanding their 

 efforts to save it from oblivion, augury, strictly so 

 called, is now so completely obsolete, that its arbitra- 

 ry canons are no longer interesting, except to those 

 who delight in obscure and chaotic researches. 



To account for the origin of a practice so absurd, 

 we shall merely suggest a few familiar facts, which 

 might be supposed to make a strong impression on 

 unenlightened men. Tlie instincts of many animals, 

 and particularly of birds, must have been remarked 

 at a very early period. Some of them, as we have 

 already hinted, disappear regularly at certain seasons, 

 and, when the stated period of absence has elapsed, 

 revisit the climate which they had forsaken ; thus 

 marking the vicissitudes of the year with almost as 

 great precision as the progress of time is measured 

 by the heavenly luminaries. In conjecturing the 

 cause of these alternate emigrations and returns, it 

 was not unnatural to ascribe them, either to sagacity 

 greater than human, or to the influence of superior 

 beings, by whose wisdom the hawk might have been 

 taught, on the approach of winter, to " stretch her 

 wings toward the south." In addition to the facts 

 relating to migratory birds, men could not fail to ob- 

 serve such a connection between the actions of va- 

 rious species of fowls and subsequent variations of 

 weather, as might seem to imply a power of foresee- 

 ing the changes which are about to take place in the 

 state of the atmosphere. But the most impressive 

 circumstances are those which are observed with re- 

 gard to carnivorous birds, particularly their crowd- 

 ing from the most distant regions to the fields of 

 slaughter, and the scenes where the pestilence is 

 spreading its ravages. " From the crag of the rock 

 the eagle seeketh her prey ; her eyes behold afar off ; 

 her young ones also suck up blood : and where the 

 slain are, there is she." After men have been accus- 

 tomed to associate the eagle, the vulture, and the 

 raven, with the shocking consequences of a battle, it 

 is not wonderful that the sight of these rapacious 

 creatures, hovering near an army, should inspire hor- 

 ror, and that the blood-thirsty perspicacity, which 

 attracts them from afar, should be considered as an 

 indication of prescience greater than human. When- 

 ever the imagination is thus excited, the concurrence 

 of the most fortuitous and unimportant circumstance 

 will be apt to mislead the judgment ; and whenever 

 any erroneous conclusion gains admission into the 

 mind, it is impossible to calculate the extreme impo- 

 sitions to which it may ultimately lead. An event, 

 favourable or unfavourable, occurring soon after any 

 singular appearance, or after any unusual combina- 

 tion of circumstances, however frivolous, is probably 

 noted as forming a link in the apparent chain ; and 

 thus the most chimerical principles are gradually es- 

 tablished ; so that what was at first nothing more 

 than vague conjecture, comes, in the course of time, 

 to be considered as an indisputable truth. Of these 

 prepossessions it is not wonderful that designing men 

 should have taken advantage, so as to convert the 

 superstitious tendencies of the untutored mind into 

 engines of despotic ride, and auxiliaries of passive 



