A GOOD OMEN. 2/ 



" And often, to our comfort, shall we find 

 The sharded beetle in a safer hold 

 Than is the full-wing'd eagle." 



Cymbeline, Act iii. Sc. 3. 



With the Romans, the eagle was a bird of good omen. 

 Josephus, the Jewish historian, says the eagle was selected 

 for the Roman legionary standard, because he is the king 

 of all birds, and the most powerful of them all, whence he 

 has become the emblem of empire, and the omen of 

 victory.* 



Accordingly, we read in Julius Ctzsar, Act v. Sc. i : 



" Coming from Sardis, on our former ensign 

 Two mighty eagles fell ; and there they perch'd, 

 Gorging and feeding from our soldiers' hands." 



This incident is more fully detailed in North's " Plu- 

 tarch," as follows: "When they raised their campe, 

 there came two eagles, that flying with a marvellous force, 

 lighted upon two of the foremost ensigns, and alwaies fol- 

 lowed the souldiers, which gave them meate and fed them, 

 untill they came neare to the citie of Phillipes ; and there 

 one day onely before the battell, they both flew away." 



The ensign of the eagle was not peculiar, however, to 

 the Romans. The golden eagle, with extended wings, 

 was borne by the Persian monarchs,-f- and it is not impro- 



* " De Bello Judico," Hi. 5. t Xenophon, " Cyropaedia, " vii. 



