THE MAGPIE. 213 



in a great measure appropriated to the cottage, and 

 sometimes endowed with powers of witchcraft and espe- 

 cially of divination, is 



THE MAGPIE. 



Though we need not say that there is no foundation 

 whatever for those powers of divination and seer-craft, 

 which the ignorant have, in all ages,, attributed to cer- 

 tain birds, yet we may rest assured that rational en- 

 quiry will always find something to gratify it, in those 

 cases where superstition finds more than nature ; for 

 though we do not always attend to, or improve them, 

 the dreams of the uninformed are the beacons that 

 guide us to philosophy. They are proofs that there is 

 something which forces itself upon the attention, and 

 of which the explanation is too abstruse for those who 

 are yet unable to resist observing the phenomena, and 

 endeavouring to find out their causes and connexions. 



And the magpie is certainly one of the most lively 



