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OF THE DRUIDS. 189•What course they took, what happy signs they shew;They fled, and, fluttering by degrees, withdrew &c.DrydeiVs translat.Nor was I unmindful, you may be sure, of thatpassage in Plautus*,'Tis not for nought, that the raven sings now on my left;And, croaking, has once scrap'd the earth with his feet.Upon my putting some questions to those gentlemen,they said it was certain by the observationof all ages, thata raven having any white in it^wings, and flying on the right hand of any person,croaking atthe same time, was an infallible presageof good luck.I us'd a great many argumentsto show them the vanity and unreasonableness ofthis piece of superstition, comparing it amongother extravagancies, to the no less absurd one ofdreams; where if one happens by chance to cometo pass, while ten thousand fail,and the other remember'd.these are forgotBut I am persuadedall I did or cou'd say, even my argument ad hominem,in proving that augury was specially forbidby the law of Moses, woud have made littleimpression on them; had itnot been that theymiscarry'd in what they went about, as one ofthem candidly own'd to me some weeks after-* Non temere est, quod corYOS cantat mihi nunc ab laevamanu;Semel radebat pedibus terrain, et voce crocitabat sua.Auhd, Act, 4. Sain, 3. vet. 1,A a