of War, it fignified Vanquishment, and running away: When Xerxes had prepared a vaft Army to invade Greece, it happened that a Mare brought forth a Hare: which Prodigy was a Prefage of Xerxes base and cowardly Flight, after his Fleet was deftroy'd by Themistocles.

I come in the laft Place to the Omens from the Heavens: I do not mean thofe by which Philofophers and Aftrologers made their Predictions; but fuch as were usually obferved by the common People fuch were Comets, which were always thought to portend fomething dreadful.

Such alfo were Eclipfes of the Sun, or Moon, with which several Armies have been fo terrified, that they durft not engage their Enemies, tho upon never fo great Advantages. Plutarch, in his Treatife of Superftition, reports, That Nicias, the Athenian General, being furrounded on every fide by his Enemies, was ftruck into fuch a Confternation by an Eclipfe of the Moon, that he commanded his Soldiers to lay down their Arms, and fo, together with a numerous Army, tamely yielded up himself to the Slaughter. For the true Cause of them being unknown, they were imputed to the immediate Operation of the Gods, that were thought thereby to give notice of fome fignal and imminent Calamity; and fo ftrongly were the Vulgar poffefs'd with this Opinion, that Anaxagoras brought himself into no small Danger, by pretending to affign the natural Reafon for them.

Lightnings alfo were obferved; and if they appeared on the Right Hand, accounted Good Omens; but if on the Left, unlucky: as Euftathius hath obferved, in his Comment upon the fecond Iliad, where Neftor tells the Grecians, earnestly defiring to return into their own Country, That Jupiter had made a Promife, that they should take Troy, and confirm'd it by Lightning.

Αερόπλων ἐπὶ δέξι' εναίσιμα σήματα φαίνων.

By Ominous Lightning gave the lucky Sign.

Other Meteors alfo were obferved by the Soothfayers, as the Ignis Lambens, which was an excellent Omen, prefaging future Felicity as appears from Servius Tullius, whofe Promotion to the Kingdom of Rome was foretold by it. The Argonauts, in their Expedition to Colchis, were overtaken by a dangerous Tempeft, near the Sigean Promontory; whereupon Orpheus made Supplication to the Gods for their Deliverance: a little after, there appear'd two lambent Flames about the Heads of Caftor and Pollux, and upon this enfued a gentle Gale, the Storm ceafing, and the Sea becoming calm and ftill: This fudden Alteration, begot in the Company a Belief, that the two Brethren had fome Divine Power and Efficacy, by which they were able to fill the Raging of the Sea; infomuch that it became a Custom for Mariners, whenever they were in any dangerous Storms, to invoke their Affiftance. If the two Flames (which from this Story are call'd by the Names of the two Heroes) appear'd together, they were ever after efteem'd an excellent Omen, foreboding good Weather: and therefore Theocritus, in his Hymn upon the Diafcuri, praiseth them for delivering poor Seamen, ready to be fwallow'd up by the Deep :

Αλλ'

Αλλ' ἔμπης ὑμᾶς τε καὶ ἐκ βυθῖ ἕλκετε ναας
Αὐτοῖσιν ναύταισιν οιομβροις θανέεσθαι

Αἶψα δ' απολήγοντ ̓ ἄνεμοι, λιαρα ἢ γλάνα
ΑμπέλαγΘ, νεφέλαι ο διεδραμον άλλυδις άλλαι,
Εκ δ' ἄγκπι τ ̓ ἐφάνησαν, ὅνων τ ̓ ἀνὰ μέσιν ἀμαυρῇ
Φάτνη, σημμαίνοισα τα πρὸς πλέον εὔδια πάντα.

And when the gaping Deep wou'd fain devour
The tatter'd Ship, you hinder't with your Pow'r
The ftormy Winds that vex the troubl'd Seas,

At

your Command, their roaring Blufters cease;
The pild-up Waves are still'd, and quiet lain,
An even Calmness makes a watry Plain.
The Clouds that had before obfcur'd the Sky,
Vanifh away, and quickly difpers'd fly.
The Bears, and other lucky Stars appear,
And bid the Seamen Safety not to fear,

E. D.

Horace fpeaketh to the fame Purpofe, calling thefe two Meteors Stelle, or Stars,

Dicam & Alciden, puerofque Ledæ;
Hunc equis, illum fuperare pugnis
·Nobilem ; quorum fimul alba Nautis
Stella, refulfit:

Defluit faxis agitatus humor,
Concidunt venti, fugiuntque nubes,
Et minax (quod fic voluere) ponto
Unda recumbit. (a)

Alcides next my Muse must write,

And Leda's Sons; one fam'd for Horfe,
And one in clofe, and handy Fight,

Of haughty Brav'ry, and of noble Force :
When both their Stars at once appear,
The Winds are hufht, they rage no more,
(It is their Will) the Skies are clear,

And Waves roll foftly by the quiet Shore.

Mr. Creech.

If one Flame appear'd fingle, it was call'd Helena, and was a very dangerous Omen, portending nothing but Storms, and Shipwracks; efpecially if it follow'd Caftor and Pollux by the Heels; and, as it were, drove them away. Tho Euripides, in his Oreftes, makes them all profperous and defirable Signs, where fpeaking of Helena, he faith,

Ζωὸς γὰ ἦσαν ζῆν νιν ἄφθιτον χρεών,

Κdsoe το Πολυδεύκει τ ̓ ἐν αἰθέρΘ- πυχαῖς
ΣύνθακΘ ἔςαι ναυτίλοις σωτήρΘ.

(a) Carm. lib. 1.

For

For being sprung from Jove, the needs must be
Immortal too, and with her Brethren fhare
The heav'nly Regions, where her glorious Beams
Will fhine alike, to help the Mariner.

E. D.

Earthquakes were unfortunate Omens. Hence Seneca, among other direful Prefages, mentions an Earthquake (a).

Lucus tremifcit, tota fuccuffo folo

Nutavit aula, dubia quo pondus daret,
Ac fluctuanti fimilis.-

Earthquakes were commonly thought to be caus'd by Neptune, who is
hence term'd vooza, and evorixoay by the Poets; and therefore
it was ufual to fing Paans, and to offer Sacrifices on fuch Occafions, to
avert his Anger. This We
find to have been done by the Lacedemonians
in Xenophon (b). A Gulph being open at Rome, Curtius leap'd into it
to appease the angry Gods. And the fame Occafion happening at
Celana, a City of Phrygia, King Midas caft many Things of great
Value, and at length his own Son into the Gulph, by the Command
of an Oracle (c).'

The Winds alfo were thought to contain in them fomething pro phetical, and were taken notice of in Soothfaying; as appears from (d) Statius, when he faith,

Ventis, aut alite vifa

Bellorum proferre diem,

And as the Birds, or boding Winds prefage,
Defer the fatal Day of Battle.

Many others might be added, but I fhall only mention one more, viz. the Thunder, the nobleft, and moft obferved of all the heavenly Omens. It was good, or bad, like other Signs, according to its different Position; for on the Right Hand, it was lucky; on the Left, unfortunate. Thunder in a clear and ferene Sky, was a happy Sign, and given by Jupiter in (e) Homer, as a Confirmation, that he granted the Petitions made to him. The Poet's Words are thefe, where he fpeaks of Ulyffes, who had pray'd to the Gods for fome Sign, to encourage him in his Enterprize against Penelope's Courtiers;

Ως ἔφαγ ̓ ἀχρωμος· το δι ̓ ἔκλυε μητίετα Ζεὺς,
Αὐτίκα δ' εβρόντησεν επ' αἰγλήεντος Ολύμπο,
Υψόθεν ἐκ νεφέων, γήθησε ο διος Οδυσεύς.
Thus pray'd the Sire: And All-wife Jupiter
Forth-with, propitious to his earnest Prayer,
A Clap of well-prefaging Thunder fent,
From bright Olympus' cryftal Firmament,
Which glads his Soul.

H. H.

(c) Conf. Stobans Serm. I.

It was an unfortunate Omen to have any thing Thunder-ftruck. The Shepherd in Virgil (a) relates, that all his Misfortunes were thus foretold:

Sape malum hoc nobis, fi mens non lava fuisset,
De cœlo tatas memini pradicere quercus..

There is a parallel Paffage in Ovid's Letter to Livia:

Jupiter ante dedit fati mala figna futuri,
Flammifera petiit cum tria templa manu.

To avert unlucky Omens given by Thunder, it was usual to make a Libation of Wine, pouring it forth in Cups. And they stood in fo much Fear of Lightning, that they adored it, as (b) Pliny obferves. They endeavoured to avert its malignant Influences, by hiffing, and whiftling at it, which they call'de, as appears from (c) Ariftophanes, when he faith, avaras, If I caft forth Lightning, cat, they'll hifs, where the Scholiaft obferves, that it was ufual rais d'segrais TOTALew, to his at the Lightning. In Places which had fuffer'd by Thunder, Altars were erected, and Oblations made to avert the Anger of the Gods: And after that, no Man adventur'd to touch, or approach them. Hence Artemidorus (d) obferves, that by the Thunder obfcure Places were made iníonpa, remarkable, by reason of the Altars and Sacrifices which were there presented to the Gods: and that on the contrary, Places which had been frequented became enμa njabara, defart and Solitary ; ἐδεὶς γὰρ ἐν αὐτοῖς διατρίβειν ἔτι θέλει. becaufe no Man would, after that Accident, stay there. At Rome, Places affected by Thunder were inclos'd by a publick Officer, and the Fragments of the Thunder-bolt, if any fuch could be found, were carefully bury'd, left any Person should be polluted by touching them. And it was farther customary, to atone for any thing which was Thunder-ftruck, by facrificing a Sheep, which being call'd bidens, the thing affected by Thunder came to be term❜d bidental, as the old Scholiaft obferves from the following Paffage of Perfius (e),

O

An quia non fibris ovium, Ergennaque jubente,
Trifle jaces lucis, evitandumque bidental ?

CHA P. XVI.

Of Divination by Lots.

F Lots there were four Sorts, viz. Political, Military, Luforious, and Divinatory; the three first do not at all concern my prefent Purpose, however treated of by fome in this Place. Of the Prophetical there were divers forts, two of which were most in use, viz. Enzuar. γεία, and Κληρομαντεία.

ΣTIXquarteα, was a fort of Divination by Verfes, wherein 'twas ufual to take fatidical Verfes, and having wrote them upon little Pieces of Paper, to put them into a Veffel, and fo draw them out, expecting to read their Fate in the firft Draught. This was often practis'd upon the Sibylline Oracles, which were difpers'd up and down in Greete, Italy, and all the Roman Empire: whence there is frequent mention in Authors of the Sortes Sibyllina. Sometimes they took a Poet, and opening in one, or more Places, accepted the firft Verse they met with, for a Prediction. This was also called Paquarela, from the Rhapsodies of Homer; and, as fome are of Opinion, proceeded, at the firft, from the Efteem which Poets had amongst the Ancients, by whom they were reputed Divine, and Infpired Perfons. But, as Homer had of all the Poets the greatest Name, fo alfo the Sortes Homerica of all others were in the moft Credit: Yet Euripides, and other Poets, were not wholly neglected. Virgil alfo, and the Latin Poets, were made use of in this Way, as appears as well from other Inftances as that remarkable one of Severus in Lampridius, whofe Promotion to the Røman Empire was foretold by opening at this Verfe,

Tu regere imperio populos, Romane, memento.

Remember, Roman, with Imperial Sway
To rule the People..

The Chriftians alfo practis'd the like on the Bible, according to that of Nicephorus Gregoras (a), Ανοίξειν ἔκεινε δεῖν ἐν ψαλτηρίῳ πρόβλεμα

dinelor dwoe.wv, i. e. He judg'd it neceffary to dip into the Pfalter, that there he might find a Support, or Defence against the Distress he laboured under. And Heraclius is reported by Cedrenus, to have asked Counfel of the New Teftament, κ εὐρεῖν επιτρέποντα ἐν Αλβανία παραXeyir, and to have been thereby perfuaded, to winter in Albania. And Saint Augustine himfelf, tho' he difallows this Practice in fecular Affairs, yet feems to approve of it in fpiritual Matters, as appears from his (b) Epiftle to Fanuarius.

Kanequarrela, was a fort of Divination, wherein they made Conjectures, by throwing ras xapes, Lots; where you may observe, that Lots were call'd in the plural Number name, and by the Latins, fortes; to diftinguish them from xañes, and fors, which in the fingular Number ufually fignified the Hint, or occafion given to Diviners, to make their Conjectures by, as the Scholiaft upon Euripides reports. Thefe

neg were ufually black and white Beans; amongst the Ancients little Clods of Earth; Pebbles alfo, Dice, or fuch like things diftinguifhed by certain Characters: Hence this Divination was term'd by feveral Names, as ψηφομαντεία, αςευγαλομαντεία, κυβομαντεία,περτομαντεία, &c. They caft the Lots into a Veffel, and having made Supplication to the Gods, to direct them, drew them out, and according to the Characters, conjectur'd what fhould happen to them. All Lots were facred to Mercury, whom they thought to prefide over this Divination; and therefore the Ancients, as (c) Euftathius obferves, sveppias evexa, i. e. for (a) Lib. VIII. (b) Epift. CXIX. (c) Ul. h. p. 548. Ed. Bafil.

Good