704 DEMO N 
nothing divine, there may be fomething demoniacal in 
them. Zeno, Oleanthes, Chryfippus, Babylonius Dio¬ 
genes, Antipater, and Pofidonius, are enumerated by 
Cicero, as writers on this fubjedt. 
That the auguries were employed with a political de- 
fign, there can be no doubt, and their utility was fully 
experienced in the aflenrbiies of the people : they were 
likewife very ferviceable in promoting difcipline in the 
armies. The attention of the ancients to omens, in their 
military expeditions, was minute and conftant, nor could 
any negledt of them be eaftly forgiven. The lofs of the 
Roman fleet, under Claudius Pulcher, was generally attri¬ 
buted to his having drowned the holy chickens; and the 
death of Marcellus was imputed to his negiedt of the 
omenswhich forbad his advancing againft the enemy. Yet 
the order of Claudius was a mere joke. The augurs told 
him the chickens would not eat, which was confidered 
as a bad omen : they (hall drink then, replied Claudius, 
and ordered them to be thrown overboard. Others of 
the Romans laughed at this mode of divination. Cato 
wondered that one augur could look at another without 
laughing; Hannibal’s keen farcafm affedted both Prufias 
(when he was deterred from fighting by the aufpices) 
and the art itfelf: “Would you rather,” faid he, “ truft 
a calf’s liver than a veteran commander ?” It is a ftriking 
circumftance in the character of Pompey, that while he 
was difputing the empire of the world with his great 
rival, he collected aufpices from all quarters, confiding 
in their truth. It appears that the augurs knew how to 
make their predictions agreeable, for Cicero fays that 
every thing happened contrary to them; omnia fere contra 
ac diEla eveniffe. Auguftus was fliamefully fuperflitious, 
and confided in his dreams. Suetonius preferves a very 
ingenious explanation of an omen which terrified the 
emperor. A Hath of lightning effaced the letter C, from 
the infeription of a ftatue of Auguftus. The augurs de¬ 
clared that he would furvive this fign only an hundred 
days, the number denoted by C, and that he ftiouid be 
received among the gods, becauie JE( ar, the remaining 
part of the word, denoted a god in the Etrufcan language. 
We may indulge our curiofity in remarking, how nearly 
the moft polifhed nations of antiquity, in thefe fuperfti- 
tions, approach the Indian tribes of North America. All 
the marches of the Indians are regulated by the dreams 
of the old warriors, who, under this pretence, often con¬ 
vey information gained by fpies to the young men ; but 
it muft be obferved, that they only pay attention to 
dreamers of eftablifhed character. They have their re¬ 
gular diviners or conjurors alfo, who are at the fame 
time phyficians. When a difeafe proves mortal, the 
doctor is frequently in danger from the refentment of the 
patient’s.friends: from this rifle, the progrefs of refine¬ 
ment has happily exempted the phyficians of Europe. 
In every Indian village, the war-woman alfo is a kind of 
oracle; by dreams and prefages, fhe diredts the hunters 
to their prey, and the warriors to the enemy, and is re¬ 
warded with a fhare of the fpoils ; bat the unhappy fe¬ 
male who afpires to this dignity, and whole prefages are 
fallacious, (for there are frequently rivals,) never efcapes 
without a fevere beating. Thefe circumftances recall to 
the mind C<efar’s account of the ancient Germans, and 
they are not the only ones in which the Indians ftrongly 
referable the Celts. A perfuafion fo general and fo per¬ 
manent muft depend on alfociations not more remote than 
thofe enumerated : but when \ye trace it, through the 
vicillitudes of governments, and alterations of manners, 
to the very clofe of the feventeenth century; when we 
difeover that fome of the firft men in rank and abilities, 
of fo late a period, fupported it, and that fober and 
learned writers have defended it a few years back, we 
muft admit the influence of long-eftabliftied c-uftom, and 
the dignity of antiquity to have powerfully affifted this 
delufion. Artifice and credulity have alfo confpjred to 
its permanency ; and the aftrological phyftcians, found¬ 
ing their opinions on fome plfcenomena in the courfe of 
O L O G Y. 
difeafes, had their full ftiare in tills operation. Cardan 
was one of the moft celebrated medical aftrologers, and 
boafts with much fatisfadtion, that on being informed of 
the fymptoms for which Hamilton, archbifhop of St. An¬ 
drew’s, wiflied to confult him, he declared without hefi- 
tation the exadt fituation of the planets at his nativity, 
which he afterwards verified, by calculating his horo- 
fcope. Porta and Fernelius followed Cardan in com¬ 
bining medicine with aftrology. Paracelfus, by fuppoling 
a fpirit, derived from fome conftellation, toreftde in every 
human being, rendered the connexion ftill more inti¬ 
mate. Severinus and Hartmann followed liis opinions. 
Horftius believed not only that certain conjunctions of 
the ftars produce epidemics, but that evil afpedts pro¬ 
duce miafmata. The grave and fagacious Lommius lup- 
pofes that the appearance of comets prefages the plague. 
At length, the Cartelian philofophy produced enquiries 
that terminated in more rational conclufions refpedling 
medicine ; the influence of fome of the planetary bodies 
on the human frame was allowed, as far as they could 
be fuppofed to affedt the ftate of the atmofphere, but 
the effedt of their afpedts was denied. But the opinion 
was not fo fpeedily diferedited among other clafles of 
men, as with phyficians. Some of the firft charadlers- 
in France were infatuated with their belief in pretended 
prophets. Wierus fays they were remarkable in his time 
on this account. Sully declares that one of the confide- 
rations which kept him faithful to his raafter, in the 
moft unpromifing ftate of his affairs, was a predidtion of 
La Brofte, that Henry would make his fortune; Henry 
himfelf was very uneafy, before his aflaflination, on ac¬ 
count of fome prophecies. The aftrologer Morin diredted 
cardinal Richelieu’s motions in fome of his j'ournies. 
In our own country propliecies were always eagerly 
attended to: Commines fays, that in his time, an Eng- 
lifliman was never without a propliecy in his mouth. Tiie 
ftatute of queen Elizabeth againft falfe propliecies, was 
occafioned by the difturbances they excited in the ftate ; 
the earl of Northampton, in his Defenfative, afterts that 
they had produced many civil commotions, and this af- 
fertion is repealed by fir Edward Coke. During the reign 
of James I. the fafhionable opinions encouraged every 
fpecies of delufion : Lilly was an ufeful tool to the long 
parliament; and, if we may truft his own representation, 
confidered by them with refpedt; aftrologers and pro¬ 
phets fwar'med at that time, and the credit given to them 
will ceafe to furprize, when we recclledt that the pre- 
didtions of Rice Evans, who lived then, have found de¬ 
fenders in Warburton and Jortin. To.thefe we may add 
the names of Ciidworth and Morhoff; the former de¬ 
fended prophecies in general, the latter the quatrains of 
Noftradamus. It was in 1707, when this nation was ad¬ 
vancing rapidly in the career of lcience, as well as of 
arms, that the French ’prophets appeared among 11s. 
They fpoke Latin and Greek without underftanding 
either, as they pretended. It muft be confeffed that thefe 
infpired paflages are extremely barbarous, but they made 
noife enough.to attract the notice of government, and the 
prophets finiflied their million in Bridewell. There is a 
well-known ftory of John Lacy, who was firft the pro- 
tedior of thofe vifionaries, and afterwards a prophet him¬ 
felf; that when iome of them were taken up, he went 
to the folicitor-general, and told him, that the Lord 
commanded him by his mouth to grant a noli profequi in 
favour of his fervants : The'Lord knows very well, re¬ 
plied the folicitor-general, that it is not in my power to 
grant a noli profequi. 
A fadt deferving more attention is, that at this time, 
when the extenfion of knowledge and reafon is fo proudly 
boalted, and in this ifland of philofophers, as fome de¬ 
light to term it, the poffeflion of a prophetic-faculty is 
believed in fome of the northern parts of the kingdom ; 
and that fupported by evidence fo ftrong, as nearly to 
convince one of tire moft acute philofophers of the age, 
in his vifit to thofe regions. This fpecies of divination, 
fccond 
