114 



RAVEN 



My beloved is white and ruddy, the chiefest among 

 ten thousand. His head is as the most fine gold, 

 his locks are bushy ^ and black as a Eaven!^^* 



The above mentioned circumstances taken into consideration, 

 one would suppose that the lot of the subject of this chapter would 

 have been of a different complexion from what history and tradi- 

 tion inform us is the fact. But in every country we are told the 

 Raven is considered an ominous bird, whose croakings foretell 

 approaching evil ; and many a crooked beldam has given inter- 

 pretation to these oracles, of a nature to infuse terror into a whole 

 community. Hence this ill-fated bird, from time immemorial, has 

 been the innocent subject of vulgar obloquy and detestation. 



Augury, or the art of foretelling future events by the flight, 

 cries, or motions of birds, descended from the Chaldeans to the 

 Greeks, thence to the Etrurians, and from them it was transmitted 

 to the Romans.f The crafty legislators of these celebrated nations, 

 from a deep knowledge of human nature, made superstition a prin- 

 cipal feature of their religious ceremonies ; well knowing that it 

 required a more than ordinary policy to govern a multitude, ever 

 liable to the fatal influences of passion ; and who without some 

 timely restraints would burst forth like a torrent, whose course is 

 marked by wide-spreading desolation. Hence to the purposes of 

 polity the Raven was made subservient ; and the Romans having 

 consecrated it to Apollo, as to the god of divination, its flight was 



* Song of Solomon, v, 9, 10, 11. 



f Tiiat the science of augury is very ancient, we learn from the Hebrew laivglver, who prohibits 

 it, as well as every other kind of divination. Dent. chap, xviii. The Romans derived tlieir knowledge 

 of augury chiefly from the Tuscans or Etrurians, who practised it in the earliest times. This art was 

 known in Italy before the time of Romulus, since that prince did not commence the building of Rome 

 till he had taken the auguries. The successors of Romulus, from a conviction of the usefulness of the 

 science, and at the same time not to render it contemptible by becoming too familiar, employed the 

 most skilful augurs from Etruria to introduce the practice of it into their religious ceremonies. And 

 by a decree of the senate, some of the youth of the best families in Rome were annually sent into Tus- 

 cany to be instructed in this art. Vide Ciceron. de Divin. Also Calmet, and the abbe Banier. 



