SORTILEGE, (Sortilegium) a species of divination performed by means of sortes or lots.
The sortes Prenglineæ, famous in antiquity, consisted in putting a number of letters, or even whole words, into an urn; and then, after shaking them together, they were thrown on the ground; and whatever sentences could be made out from them, constituted the answer of the oracle. To this method of divination succeeded that which has been called the sortes Homerianæ and sortes Virgilianæ, a mode of inquiring into futurity, which undoubtedly took its rise from a general custom of the oracular priests of delivering their answers in verse; it subsisted a long time among the Greeks and Romans; and being from them adopted by the Christians, it was not till after a long succession of centuries that it became exploded. Among the Romans it consisted in opening some celebrated poet at random, and among the Christians the Scriptures, and drawing, from the first passage which presented itself to the eye, a prognostic of what would befall one's self or others, or direction for conduct when under any exigency. There is good evidence that this was none of the vulgar errors; the greatest persons, philosophers of the best repute, admitted this superstition. Socrates, when in prison, hearing this line of Homer,
Within three days I Phthia's shore shall see,
immediately said, within three days I shall be out of the
3 O 2 world;
Sorileg. world; gathering it from the double meaning of the word Phthia, which in Greek is both the name of a country and signifies corruption or death. This predication, addressed to Æschines, was not easily forgotten, as it was verified.
When this superstition passed from Paganism into Christianity, the Christians had two methods of consulting the divine will from the Scriptures; the one, casually, to open the divine writings, and take their direction, as above mentioned; the other, to go to church with a purpose of receiving, as a declaration of the will of heaven, the words of the Scripture, which were singing at the instant of one's entrance.
This unwarrantable practice of inquiring into futurity prevailed very generally in England till the beginning of the 18th century; and sometimes the books of Scripture, and sometimes the poems of Virgil, were consulted for oracular responses. One remarkable instance is that of King Charles I. who being at Oxford during the civil wars, went one day to see the public library, where he was shown, among other books, a Virgil nobly printed and exquisitely bound. The lord Falkland, to divert the king, would have his majesty make a trial of his fortune by the Sortes Virgiliane. Whereupon the king opening the book, the passage which happened to come up was this:
At, bello audacis populi vexatus et armis,
Fimbis extorris, complexu avulsus luti,
Auxilium imploret; videatque indigna suorum
Funera: nec, cum se sub leges pacis iniqua
Tradiderat, regno aut optata luce frueretur;
Sed cadet ante diem, mediaque inhumatur arena.
Æneid, lib. iv.
Yet let a race, untamed and haughty foes,
His peaceful entrance with dire arms oppose;
Oppressed with numbers in the unequal field,
His men discouraged, and himself expelled,
Let him for succour sue from place to place,
Torn from his subjects, and his son's embrace;
First let him see his friends in battle slain,
And their untimely fate lament in vain;
And when at length the cruel war shall cease,
On hard conditions may he buy his peace.
Nor let him then enjoy supreme command,
But fall untimely by some hostile hand,
And lie unburied on the barren sand. }
Lord Falkland observing that the king was concerned at this accident, would likewise try his own fortune in the same manner, hoping he might fall upon some passage that would have no relation to his case, and thereby divert the king's thoughts from any impression which the other might have upon him; but the place he stumbled upon was as much suited to his destiny as the other had been to the king's; being the lamentation of Evander for the untimely death of his son Palas: for this lord's eldest son, a young man of an amiable character, had been slain in the first battle of Newbury.
We have ourselves known several whose devotion has not always been regulated by judgement pursue this method of divination; and have generally observed, that the consequence has been despair or presumption. To such we beg leave to recommend one passage in Scrip-
ture which will never disappoint them: Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.