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PDF - Cunningham Memorial Library

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APPENDIX.<br />

DIVINATION, SEE MANTEIA, rAGE 16.<br />

DIVINATION is the pretended act or art of foretelling<br />

future events. This art or science, in which the<br />

Pagans thought themselves sure of success, if they<br />

proceeded nccordillg to certain established rules, was<br />

founded on their system of theology. They had deified<br />

all the parts and powers of nature, and more especially<br />

the heavenly bodies; ascribing to the latter not ouly life<br />

and intelligence, but a forc.pcrcciving notion, and a<br />

sovereign influence On e\'ery thing here below.<br />

DIVINATION was divided, by the ancients, into llatural<br />

and Artificial.--Natuml Divination is that which<br />

presages things from a mere internal sense and pcrsug.­<br />

sian of the mind under a particular cmotion or agitation,<br />

wi~hout any assistance of signs. This was not to be<br />

attained by any rules of art, but infused or inspired into<br />

the diviner, without his taking any farther care about it<br />

than to purify and prepare himself for the reception of<br />

the divine afflatus. Of this kind were all those who<br />

delivered oracles, and foretold future events by inspiration,<br />

without observi!1g external signs. '*<br />

'* Natural Divinatiort, again, is of two kinds; the onc<br />

native, and the other by influx. Thefirst is founded on<br />

Ihe supposition that the soul, which was thought 10 be<br />

1.2

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