fee writers fo judicious in all other refpects, lay it down as a kind of law, to relate thefe particulars with a fcrupulous accuracy; and to dwell gravely on a te dious detail of low, ridiculous ceremonies, fuch as the flight of birds to the right or left hand, figns discovered in the fmoaking entrails of beafts, the greater or lefs greedinefs of chickens in pecking corn, and a thoufand fuch abfurdities.

per

It must be confeffed that a reader of judgment cannot, without astonishment, fee the most illuftrious fons among the ancients for wisdom and knowledge; generals who were the leaft able to be influenced by popular opinions, and moft fenfible how neceffary it is to take advantage of aufpicious moments; the wisest counfels of princes perfectly well skilled in the arts of government; the most auguft affemblies of grave fenators; in a word, the moft powerful and most learned nations in all ages: to fee, I fay, all these fo unaccountably weak as to make the decifion of the greatest affairs, fuch as the declaring war, the giving battle, or pursuing a victory, depend on the trifling practices and customs above mentioned; deliberations that were of the utmost importance, and on which the fate and welfare of kingdoms frequently depended.

But, at the fame time, we must be fo juft as to own, that their manners, customs, and laws, would not per mit men in thefe ages to difpenfe with the observation of these practices: that education, hereditary tra. dition tranfmitted from immemorial time, the univer fal belief and confent of different nations, the precepts and even examples of philofophers; that all these, 1 fay, made the practices in queftion appear venerable in their eyes: and that these ceremonies, how abfurd foever they may appear to us, and are really fo in themfelves, conftituted part of the religion and pub. lick worship of the ancients.

This was a falfe religion, and a mistaken worship; and yet the principle of it was laudable, and founded in nature; the ftream was corrupted, but the fountain was

pure.

pure. Man, when abandoned to his own ideas, fees nothing beyond the present moment. Futurity is to him an abyfs invisible to the most eagle-eyed, the most piercing fagacity, and exhibits nothing, on which he may fix his views, or form any refolution with certainty. He is equally feeble and impotent with regard to the execution of his defigns. He is fenfible, that he is dependent entirely on a fupreme power, that difpofes all events with abfolute authority, and which in fpite of his utmost efforts, and of the wisdom of the bestconcerted schemes, by only raising the smallest obftacles and flightest modifications, renders it impoffible for him to execute his measures.

This obfcurity and weaknefs oblige him to have recourse to a fuperior knowledge and power: he is forced, both by his immediate wants, and the strong defire he has to fucceed in all his undertakings, to addrefs that Being, whom he is fenfible has reserved to himself alone the knowledge of futurity, and the power of difpofing it as he fees fitting. He accordingly directs prayers, makes vows, and offers facrifices, to prevail, if poffible, with the Deity, to reveal himself, either in dreams, in oracles, or other figns which may manifeft his will; fully convinced that nothing can happen but by the divine appointment; and that it is a man's greateft intereft to know this fupreme will, in order to conform his actions to it.

.

This religious principle of dependence on, and veneration of the Supreme Being, is natural to man: it is for ever imprinted deep in his heart; he is reminded of it, by the inward fenfe of his extreme indigence, and by all the objects which furround him; and it may be affirmed, that this perpetual recourfe to the Deity, is one of the principal foundations of religion, and the strongest band by which man is united to his

creator.

Those who were fo happy as to know the true God, and were chosen to be his peculiar people, never failed to address him in all their wants and doubts, in order to

obtain his fuccour, and the manifeftation of his will. He accordingly was fo gracious as to reveal himself to them; to conduct them by apparations, dreams, oracles, and prophecies; and to protect them by miracles of the moft aftonishing kind.

But those who were fo blind as to fubftitute falfehood in the place of truth, directed themfelves, for the like aid, to fictitious and deceitful deities, who were not able to answer their expectations, nor recompenfe the homage that mortals paid them, any otherwife than by error and illufion, and a fraudulent imitation of the conduct of the true God.

Hence arose the vain observations of dreams, which, from a fuperftitious credulity, they miftook for falutary warnings from heaven; thofe obfcure and equivocal anfwers of oracles, beneath whofe veil the fpirits of darkness concealed their ignorance; and, by a studied ambiguity, referved to themselves an evasion or fubterfuge, whatever might be the iffue of the event. To this are owing the prognofticks, with regard to futurity, which men fancied they fhould find in the entrails of beafts, in the flight and finging of birds, in the aspect of the planets, in fortuitous accidents, and in the caprice of chance; thofe dreadful prodigies that filled a whole nation with terror, and which, as was believed, nothing could expiate but mournful ceremonies, and even fometimes the effufion of human blood: in fine, those black inventions of magick, thofe delufions, enchantments, forceries, invocations of ghosts, and many other kinds of divination.

All I have here related was a received ufage, obferved by the heathen nations in general; and this ufage was founded on the principles of that religion of which I have given a fhort account. We have a fignal proof of this in the Cyropedia*, where Cambyfes, the father of Cyrus, gives that young prince fuch noble instructions, instructions admirably well adapted to form the great captain, and great prince. He exhorts him, above all

* Xenoph. in Cyrop. I. i. p. 25, 27.

things,

ليه

things, to pay the highest reverence to the gods; and not to undertake any enterprife, whether important or inconfiderable, without firft calling upon, and confulting them; he enjoins him to honour priefts and augurs, as being their minifters, and the interpreters of their will; but yet not to truft or abandon himself implicitly and blindly to them, till he had first learnt every thing relat ing to the science of divination, of auguries and aufpices. The reafon he gives for the fubordination and dependence in which kings ought to live with regard to the gods, and the neceffity they are under of confulting them in all things, is this; how clear-fighted foever mankind may be in the ordinary course of affairs, their views are always very narrow and bounded with regard to futurity; whereas the Deity, at a fingle glance, takes in all ages and events. "As the gods," fays Cambyfes to his fon, "are eternal, they know equally all things, past, prefent, and to come. With regard to the mortals who addrefs them, they give salutary counfels to those whom they are pleased to favour, that they may not be ignorant of what things they ought, or ought not undertake. If it is observed, that the deities do not give the -like counfels to all men, we are not to wonder at it, fince no neceffity obliges them to attend to the welfare of those persons, on whom they do not vouchsafe to confer their favour."

Such was the doctrine of the moft learned and moft enlightened nations, with refpect to the different kinds of divination; and it is no wonder that the authors, who wrote the hiftory of thofe nations, thought it incumbent on them to give an exact detail of such particulars as conftituted part of their religion and worship, and was frequently in a manner the foul of their delibe rations, and the standard of their conduct. I therefore was of opinion, for the fame reason, that it would not be proper for me to omit entirely, in the enfuing history, what relates to this subject, though I have however retrenched a great part of it.

Archbishop Ufher is my usual guide in chronology.

In the hiftory of the Carthaginians I commonly fet down four æras: The year from the creation of the world, which, for brevity's fake, I mark thus, A. M. thofe of the foundation of Carthage and Rome; and laftly, the year that precedes the birth of our Saviour, which I fuppofe to be the 4004th of the world; wherein I follow Uther and others, though they suppose it to be four years earlier.

To know in what manner the ftates and kingdoms were founded, that have divided the universe; the steps whereby they rose to that pitch of grandeur related in hiftory; by what ties families and cities united, in order to constitute one body or fociety, and to live together under the fame laws and a common authority; it will be neceffary to trace things back, in a manner, to the infancy of the world, and to thofe ages in which mankind, being dispersed into different regions (after the confusion of tongues) began to people the earth.

In thefe early ages every father was the fupreme head of his family; the arbiter and judge of whatever contefts and divifions might arife within it; the natural legislator over his little fociety; the defender and protector of those, who, by their birth, education, and weakness, were under his protection and fafeguard.

But although these masters enjoyed an independent authority, they made a mild and paternal ufe of it. So far from being jealous of their power, they neither governed with haughtinefs, nor decided with tyranny. As they were obliged by neceffity to affociate their family in their domeftick labours, they alfo fummoned them together, and asked their opinion in matters of importance. In this manner all affairs were tranfacted in concert, and for the common good.

The laws which the paternal vigilance established in this little domeftick fenate, being dictated in no other view, but to promote the general welfare; concerted with fuch children as were come to years of maturity, and accepted by the inferiors, with full and free confent;

were