Part 20

Qualem creavit moribus, Jussit vocari NOMINE Mundi supremus arbiter.

In this manner he sports with tippling Meroe, as if her name told she would drink pure wine without water; or as he calls it, merum mereim. Thus Hippolytus was observed to be torn to pieces by his own coach horses, as his name imported; and thus Agamemnon signified that he should linger long before Troy; Priam, that he should be redeemed out of bondage in his childhood. To this also may be referred that of Claudius Rutilius:—

Nominibus certis credam decurrere mores? Moribus aut Potius nomina certa dari?

It is a frequent and no less just observation in history, that the greatest Empires and States have been founded and destroyed by men of the same name. Thus, for instance, Cyrus, the son of Cambyses, began the Persian monarchy; and Cyrus, the son of Darius, ruined it; Darius, son of Hystaspes, restored it; and, again, Darius, son of Asamis, utterly overthrew it. Phillip, son of Amyntas, exceedingly enlarged the kingdom of Macedonia; and Phillip, son of Antigonus, wholly lost it. Augustus was the first Emperor of Rome; Augustulus the last. Constantine first settled the empire of Constantinople, and Constantine lost it wholly to the Turks.

There is a similar observation that some names are constantly unfortunate to princes: e. g. Caius, among the Romans; John, in France, England and Scotland; and Henry, in France.

One of the principal rules of Onomancy, among the Pythagoreans, was, that an even number of vowels in a name signified an imperfection in the left side of a man; and an odd number in the right.—Another rule, about as good as this, was, that those persons were the most happy, in whose names the numeral letters, added together, made the greatest sum; for which reason, say they, it was, that Achilles vanquished Hector; the numeral letters, in the former name, amounting to a greater number than the latter. And doubtless it was from a like principle that the young Romans toasted their mistresses at their meetings as often as their names contained letters.

“Nævia sex cyathis, septem Justina bibatur!”

Rhodingius describes a singular kind of Onomantia.—Theodotus, King of the Goths, being curious to learn the success of his wars against the Romans, an Onomantical Jew ordered him to shut up a number of swine in little stys, and to give some of them Roman, and others Gothic names, with different marks to distinguish them, and there to keep them till a certain day; which day having come, upon inspecting the stys they found those dead to whom the Gothic names had been given, and those alive to whom the Roman names were assigned.—Upon which the Jew foretold the defeat of the Goths.

ONYCOMANCY, or ONYMANCY.

This kind of divination is performed by means of the finger nails. The ancient practice was, to rub the nails of a youth with oil and soot, or wax, and to hold up the nails, thus prepared, against the sun; upon which there were supposed to appear figures or characters, which shewed the thing required. Hence also modern Chiromancers call that branch of their art which relates to the inspection of nails, ONYCOMANCY.

ORNITHOMANCY,

Is a kind of divination, or method of arriving at the knowledge of futurity, by means of birds; it was among the Greeks what Augury was among the Romans.

PYROMANCY,

A species of divination performed by means of fire.

The ancients imagined they could foretel futurity by inspecting fire and flame; for this purpose they considered its direction, or which way it turned. Sometimes they added other matters to the fire, e. g. a vessel full of urine, with its neck bound round with wool; and narrowly watched the side in which it would burst, and thence took their prognostic. Sometimes they threw pitch in it, and if it took fire instantly, they considered it a favourable omen.

PYSCOMANCY, or SCIOMANCY,

An art among the ancients of raising or calling up the manes or souls of deceased persons, to give intelligence of things to come. The witch who conjured up the soul of Samuel, to foretel Saul the event of the battle he was about to give, did so by Sciomancy.

RHABDOMANCY,

Was an ancient method of divination, performed by means of rods or staves. St. Jerome mentions this kind of divination in his Commentary on Hosea, chap. vi. 12.; where the prophet says, in the name of God: My people ask counsel at their stocks; and their staff declareth unto them: which passage that father understands of the Grecian Rhabdomancy.

The same is met with again in Ezekiel, xxi. 21, 22. where the prophet says: For the king of Babylon stood at the parting of the way, at the head of the two ways, to use divination; he made his arrows bright; or, as St. Jerome renders it, he mixed his arrows; he consulted with images; he looked in the liver.

If it be the same kind of divination that is alluded to in these two passages, Rhabdomancy must be the same kind of superstition with Belomancy. These two, in fact, are generally confounded. The Septuagint themselves translate ‏חצים‎ of Ezekiel, by ῥαβδος, a rod; though in strictness it signifies an arrow. So much however is certain, that the instruments of divination mentioned by Hosea are different from those of Ezekiel. In the former it is ‏עצו‎ etso, ‏מקלו‎ maklo, his wood, his staff: in the latter ‏חצים‎ hhitism, arrows. Though it is possible they might use rods or arrows indifferently; or the military men might use arrows and the rest rods.

By the laws of the Frisones, it appears that the ancient inhabitants of Germany practised Rhabdomancy. The Scythians were likewise acquainted with the use of it: and Herodotus observes, lib. vi. that the women among the Alani sought and gathered together fine straight wands or rods, and used them for the same superstitious purposes.

Among the various other kinds of divination, not here mentioned, may be enumerated: Chiromancy, performed with keys; Alphitomancy or Aleuromancy, by flour; Keraunoscopia, by the consideration of thunder; Alectromancy, by cocks; Lithomancy, by stones; Eychnomancy, by lamps; Ooscopy, by eggs; Lecanomancy, by a basin of water; Palpitatim, Salisatio, παλμος, by the pulsation or motion of some member, &c. &c. &c.

All these kinds of divination have been condemned by the fathers of the Church, and Councils, as supposing some compact with the devil. Fludd has written several treatises on divination, and its different species; and Cicero has two books of the divination of the ancients, in which he confutes the whole system. Cardan also, in his 4th Book de Sapientia, describes every species of them.

ORACLE.

The word oracle admits, under this head, of two significations: first, it is intended to express an answer, usually couched in very dark and ambiguous terms, supposed to be given by demons of old, either by the mouths of their idols, or by those of their priests, to those who consulted them on things to come. The PYTHIAN was always in a rage when she gave oracles.

Ablancourt observes that the study or research of the meaning of Oracles was but a fruitless thing; and they were never understood until they were accomplished. It is related by Historians, that Crœsus was tricked by the ambiguity and equivocation of the oracle.

Κροισος Άλυν διαβας μεγαλην αρχην καταλνσει. rendered thus in Latin:—