in its proper sense, the art of foretelling future events by observations taken from the chartering, flinging, feeding, and flight, of birds; though it is used by some writers in a more general significa-

tion, as comprising all the different kinds of divination*.

Augury was a very ancient superstition. We know from Hesiod, that husbandry was in part regulated by the coming or going of birds; and most probably it had been in use long before his time; as astronomy was then in its infancy. In process of time, these animals seem to have gained a greater and very wonderful authority, till at last no affair of consequence, either of private or public concern, was undertaken without consulting them. They were looked upon as the interpreters of the gods; and those who were qualified to understand their oracles were held among the chief men in the Greek and Roman states, and became the advisers of kings, and even of Jupiter himself. However absurd such an institution as a college of Augurs may appear in our eyes, yet, like all other extravagant institutions, it had in part its origin from nature. When men considered the wonderful migration of birds, how they disappeared at once, and appeared again at stated times, and could give no guess where they went, it was almost natural to suppose, that they retired somewhere out of the sphere of this earth, and perhaps approached the ethereal regions, where they might converse with the gods, and thence be enabled to predict events. It was almost natural for a superstitious people to imagine this; at least to believe it, as soon as some impostor was impudent enough to assert it. Add to this, that the disposition in some birds to imitate the human voice must contribute much to the confirmation of such a doctrine. This institution of augury seems to have been much more ancient than that of aruspicy; for we find many instances of the former in Homer, but not a single one of the latter, though frequent mention is made of sacrifices in that author. From the whole of what has been observed, it seems probable that natural augury gave rise to religious augury, and this to aruspicy, as the mind of man makes a very easy transition from a little truth to a great deal of error.

A passage in Aristophanes gave the hint for these ob-

Vol. II.

servations. In the comedy of the Birds, he makes one of them say thus: 'The greatest blessings which can happen to you, mortals, are derived from us; first, we show you the seasons, viz. Spring, Winter, Autumn. The crane points out the time for sowing, when the flies with her warning notes into Egypt; she bids the sailor hang up his rudder and take his raft, and every prudent man provide himself with winter-garments. Next the kite appearing, proclaims another season, viz. when it is time to shear his sheep. After that the swallow informs you when it is time to put on summer clothes. We are to you, (adds the chorus), Ammon, Dodona, Apollo: for, after consulting us, you undertake every thing; merchandise, purchases, marriages, &c.' Now, it seems not improbable, that the same transition was made in the speculations of men, which appears in the poet's words; and that they were easily induced to think, that the surprising foresight of birds, as to the time of migration, indicated something of a divine nature in them; which opinion Virgil, as an Epicurean, thinks fit to enter his protest against, when he says,

"Haud equidem credo, quae fit divinitas illis."

Ingenium.

But to return to Aristophanes. The first part of the chorus, from whence the afore-cited passage is taken, seems, with all its wildness, to contain the fabulous cant, which the augurs made use of in order to account for their impudent impositions on mankind. It sets out with a cosmogony; and says, That in the beginning were Chaos and Night, and Erebus and Tartarus: That there was neither water, nor air, nor sky: That Night laid an egg, from whence, after a time, Love arose: That Love, in conjunction with Erebus, produced a third kind; and that they were the seed of the immortal race, &c.