bly and helplessly too, poor human nature longs to see into the
future, and longs for help and guidance from some power, higher than
itself.

Thus considered, these shallow humbugs teach a useful lesson, for they
constitute a strong proof of man's inborn natural recognition of some
God, of some obligation to a higher power, of some disembodied
existence; and so they show a natural human want of exactly what the
Christian revelation supplies, and constitute a powerful evidence for
Christianity.

All the heathen religions, I believe, had oracles of some kind. But the
Greek and Latin ones tell the whole story. Of these there were over a
hundred; more than twenty of Apollo, who was the god of soothsaying,
divination, prophecy, and of the supernatural side of heathen humbug
generally; thirty or forty collectively of Jupiter, Ceres, Mercury,
Pluto, Juno, Ino (a very good name for a goddess that gave oracles,
though she didn't know!), Faunus, Fortune, Mars, etc., and nearly as
many of demi-gods, heroes, giants, etc., such as Amphiaraus,
Amphilochus, Trophonius, Geryon, Ulysses, Calchas, AEsculapius,
Hercules, Pasiphae, Phryxus, etc. The most celebrated and most
patronized of them all was the great oracle of Apollo, at Delphi. The
"little fee" appears to have been the only universal characteristic of
the proceedings for obtaining an answer from the god. Whether you got
your reply in words spoken by the rattling of an old pot, by observing
an ox's appetite, throwing dice, or sleeping for a dream, your own
proceedings were essentially the same. "Terms invariably net cash in
advance or its equivalent." A fine ox or sheep sacrificed was cash; for
after the god had had his smell (those ladies and gentlemen appear to
have eaten as they say the Yankees talk--through their noses,) all the
rest was put carefully away by the reverend clergy for dinner, and saved
so much on the butcher's bill. If your credit was good, you might
receive your oracle and afterward send in any little acknowledgment in
the form of a golden goblet, or statue, or vase, or even of a remittance
in specie. Such gifts accumulated in the oracle at Delphi and to an
immense amount, and to the great emolument of Brennus, a matter of fact
Gaulish commander, who, at his invasion of Greece, coolly carried off
all the bullion, without any regard to the screeches of the Pythoness,
and with no more scruples than any burglar.

The Delphian oracle worked through a woman, who