w ebb.
The _sortes Homericae_ and _sortes Virgilianae_ which succeeded the
_sortes Praenestinae_, gave rise to the same means used among christians
of casually opening the sacred books for directions in important
circumstances; to learn the consequence of events and what they had to
fear among their rulers.

[12] Kennet's Roman Antiquities, Lib. XI, C. 4.

[13] Romulus, who founded the institution of the Aruspices, borrowed it
from the Tuscans, to whom the Senate afterwards sent twelve of the sons
of the principal nobility to be instructed in these mysteries, and the
other ceremonies of their religion. The origin of this act among the
people of Tuscany, is related by Cicero in the following manner: "A
peasant," says he, "ploughing in the field, his ploughshare running
pretty deep in the earth, turned up a clod, from whence sprung a child,
who taught him and the other Tuscans the art of divination." (Cicero, De
Divinat. l. 2.) This fable, undoubtedly means no more, than that this
child, said to spring from the clod of earth, was a youth of a very mean
and obscure birth, but it is not known whether he was the author of it,
or whether he learnt it of the Greeks or any other nations.

[14] Particularly Livy, Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Pliny, and Valerius
Maximus.

[15] Nothing is more easy than to account for these productions, which
have no relation to any events that may happen to follow them. The
appearance of two suns has frequently happened in England, as well as in
other places, and is only caused by the clouds being placed in such a
situation, as to reflect the image of that luminary; nocturnal fires,
enflamed spears, fighting armies, were no more than what we call the
Aurora Borealis or northern lights, or ignited vapours floating in the
air; showers of stones, of ashes, or of fire, were no other than the
effects of the eruptions of some volcano at a considerable distance;
showers of milk were caused by some quality in the air, condensing, and
giving a whitish colour to the water; and those of blood are now well
known to be only the red spots left upon the earth, on stones and leaves
of trees, by the butterflies which hatch in hot and stormy weather.

CHAPTER IV.

HISTORY OF ORACLES--THE PRINCIPAL ORACLES OF ANTIQUITY.

Few superstitions have been so famous, and so seductive to the minds of
men during a number of ages, as oracles. In treaties of peace or truces,
the Greeks never forgot to stipulate