pire, in those turbulent times, was seldom incurred without the loss of life. Trebellius assures us, that he did not survive this prediction above two years, and that the lines which he, at the same time, applied to his brother and his offspring, were also literally fulfilled.

While upon the subject of these predictions from Virgil, I will add another of a much more recent date, with which I shall conclude this part of my subject. It is taken from our own domestic annals, and though it has been mentioned before, will bear a repetition here, from the singular accuracy with which every part of the prediction was fulfilled. Welwood, in his Memoirs, relates that King Charles I. being at Oxford during the civil wars, went to visit the public library, and among other curiosities they exbibited to him an edition of Virgil superbly printed and bound. Lord Falkland, who was present, to divert the melancholy in which the King seemed to be so deeply plunged, proposed to him to try his fortune by the Sortes Virgiliane, which, he observed, was an usual kind of augury among the ancients. When the King opened the book, the passage which first met his eye, was part of Dido's imprecation against Eneas, thus translated by Dryden :

"Yet let a race of untai'd and haughty foes
His peaceful entrance with dire arms oppose;
Oppressed with numbers, in th' unequal field,
His men discouraged, and himself expelled;
Let him for succour, sue from place to place,
Torn from his subjects, and his son's embrace.
First let him see his friends in battle slain,
And their untimely fate lament in vain :
And when, at length, the cruel war shall cease,
On hard conditions may he buy his peace;
Nor let him, then, enjoy supreme command,
But fall inglorious by some hostile hand,

And lie unburied in the common sand.”

The King appeared to be struck with the accidental discovery of lines, which might be so applicable to his future fate, and bis melancholy increased. To divert it, Lord Falkland determined to make trial of his own fortune, presuming, that he would light upon some passage altogether foreign to his own case, and thus be able to expose the fallacy of these predictions. But he unfortunately fixed his attention upon a place still more suited to his destiny than the preceding verses to the King's. They are the expressions of Evander, upon the untimely fate of his son Pallas :

"O Pallas! thou hast failed thy plighted word,

To fight with caution, not to tempt the sword,
I warned thee, but in vain: alas, I knew
What perils youthful ardour would pursue ;

That thirst of fame would carry thee too far;
O curst essay of arms, disastrous doom;
Prelude of bloody fields, and fights to come."

Although no inference was probably drawn at the time, yet when both these predictions were afterwards so remarkably fulfilled, the inauspicious omen was long remembered, and deeply regretted.

I proceed now to the practice which, about the third century, crept in among the Christians, of casually opening the sacred books for directions in important, circumstances; to know the consequence of events; and what they had to fear from their rulers. This consultation of the divine will from the Scriptures was of two kinds-the first consisted, as I have said, in casually opening those writings; but not before the guidance of heaven had been implored, with prayer, fasting, and other acts of religion. The second was much more simple: the first words of the Scriptures, which were singing, or reading, at the very instant. when the person, who came to know the disposition of Heaven, entered the church, being considered either an advice or a prognostic. St. Austin, in his epistle to Januarius, justly condemns the practice; but St. Gregory of Tours, by the following instance, which he relates as having happened to himself, shews that he entertained a better opinion of it. "Leudastus, Earl of Tours," says he, "who was for.ruining me with Queen Fredegonde, coming to Tours, big with evil designs against me, I withdrew to my oratory under a deep concern, where I took the Psalms to try if, at opening them, I should light upon some consoling verse. My heart revived within me when I cast my eyes on this of the 77th psalm: "He caused them to go with confidence whilst the sea swallowed up their enemies." Accordingly, the Count spake not a word to my prejudice, and leaving Tours that very day, the boat in which he was sunk in a storm, but his skill in swimming saved him. The following, also, is from the same author" Chranmes having revolted against Clotaire, his brother, and being at Dijon, the ecclesiastics of the place, in order to foreknow the success of the procedure, consulted the sacred books; but instead of the Psalms, they made use of St. Paul's Epistle, and the Prophet Isaiah. Opening the latter, they read these words: I will pluck up the fence of my vineyard, and it shall be destroyed; because, instead of good it has brought forth bad grapes.' The Epistles agreeing with the prophecy, it was concluded to be a sure presage of the tragical end of Chranmes." St. Consortia, in her youth, was passionately courted by a young man of a very powerful family, though she had formed a design of taking the veil. Knowing that a refusal would expose her parents to many inconveniences, and perhaps to danger, she desired a week's time to determine her choice

At the expiration of this time, which she had employed in devout exercises, her lover, accompanied by the most distinguished matrons of the city, come to know her answer. "I can neither accept of you nor refuse you," said she, "every thing is in the hand of God; but if you will agree to it, let us go to the church and have a mass said; afterwards let us lay the holy gospel on the altar, and say a joint prayer: then we will open the book, to be certainly informed of the divine will in this affair." This proposal could not with propriety be refused; and the first verse which met the eye of both was the following-"Whosoever loveth father or mother better than me is not worthy of me." Upon this, Consortia said, "You see God claims me as his own," and the lover acquiesced. But about the eighth century this practice began to lose ground, as soon or late, reason and authority will get the better of that which is founded on neither. It was proscribed by several Popes and Councils, and in terms which rank it among Pagan superstitions. However, some traces of this custom are found for several ages after, both in the Greek and the Latin Church, upon the consecration of a Bishop, after laying the Bible upon his head, a ceremony still subsisted, that the first verse which offered itself was accounted an omen of his future behaviour, and of the good and evil which was reserved for him in the course of his episcopacy. Thus a Bishop of Rochester, at his consecration by Lanfranc, Archbishop of Canterbury, had a very happy presage in these words-" Bring hither the best robe, and put it on him." But the answer of the Scripture, at the consecration of St. Leitbert, Bishop of Cambray, was still more grateful-"This is my beloved son, in whom I am wel pleased." The death of Albert, Bishop of Liege, is said to have been intimated to him by these words, which the Archbishop, who consecrated him, found at the opening of the New Testament" And the King sent an executioner, and commanded his head to be brought, and he went and beheaded him in the pri son." Upon this, the primate, tenderly embracing the new Bishop, said to him with tears: "My son, having given yourself up to the service of God, carry yourself righteously and devoutly, and prepare yourself for the trial of martyrdom." The Bishop was afterwards murdered by the treacherous connivance of the Emperor Henry VI.

These prognostics were alleged upon the most important occasions. De Garlande, Bishop of Orleans, became so odious to the clergy, that they sent a complaint against him to Pope Alexander III., concluding in this manner-" Let your apostolical "Let hands put on strength to strip naked the iniquity of this man; that the curse prognosticated on the day of his consecration may overtake him for the Gospels being opened, according to custom, the first words were: And the young man, leaving his linen cloth, fled from them naked.'"

William of Malmsbury relates, that Hugh de Montaigne, Bishop of Auxerre, was obliged to go to Rome, to answer different charges brought against the purity of his morals, by some of his chapter; but they who held with the bishops, as an irrefragable proof of his spotless chastity, insisted that the prognostic on the day of his consecration was, "Hail, Mary, full of grace." I proceed to the second manner of this consultation, which was to go into a church with the intention of receiving, as a declaration of the will of heaven, any words of scripture which might chance to be sung or read, at the moment of the person's entrance. Thus it is said, St. Antony, to put an end to his irresolution about retirement, went to a church, where immediately hearing the deacon pronounce these words" Go sell all thou hast, and give it to the poor, then come and follow me," he applied them to himself, as a direct injunction from God, and withdrew to that solitude for which he is so celebrated among the Catholics. The following passage is from Gregory of Tours.

He relates that Clovis, the first Christian King of France, marching against Alaric, King of the Visigoths, and being near the City of Tours, when the body of St. Martin was deposited, he sent some of his nobles with presents to be offered at the Saint's Tomb, to see if they could not bring him a promising augury while he himself uttered this prayer-" Lord, if thou wouldest have me punish this impious people, the savage enemy of thy holy name, give me some signal token by which I may be assured that such is thy will." Accordingly, his messengers had no sooner set foot within the cathedral, than they heard the priest chaunt forth this verse of the 18th psalm-" Thou hast girded me with strength for war; thou hast subdued under me those that rose up against me." Transported at these words, after laying the presents at the tomb of the saint, they hastened to the King with this favourable prognostic: Clovis joyfully accepted it, and engaging Alaric, gained a complete victory. Here, also, may be subjoined a passage in the History of St. Louis IX.-In the first emotions of his clemency he had granted a pardon to a criminal under sentence of death; but some minutes after, happening to alight upon this verse of the psalm: "Blessed is he that doth righteousness at all times," he recalled his pardon,. saying, "the King who has the power to punish a crime, and does not do it, is, in the sight of God, no less guilty than if he had committed it himself." The Sortes Sanctorum were falminated against by various Councils. The Council of Varres "forbade all ecclesiastics under pain of excommunication to pry into futurity, by looking into any book, or writing, whatsoever." The Council of Ayre, in 506, expressed itself to the same effect; as did those of Orleans in 511; to Auxerre in 595, It appears, however, to have continued very common, at least in England, so late as the twelfth century. The Council of Durham, which met Vol. XIV. No. 22.

there in 1110, condemned jointly sorcerers, witches, diviners, such as occasioned death by magical operations, and who practised fortune-telling by the Holy book-lots. Peter de Blois, who wrote at the close of the twelfth century, places among the sorcerers those who under the veil of religion promised, by certain superstitious practices, such as the lots of the Apostles and Prophets, to discover hidden and future events; yet this same Peter de Blois, one of the most learned and pious men of his age, in a letter to Reginald, whose election to the See of Bath had for a long time been violently opposed, tells him that he hopes he has overcome all difficulties; and further, that he believes he is, or soon will be, established in his diocese. "This belief," says he, "I ground on a dream I lately had two nights successively, of being at your consecration; and, also, that being desirous of knowing its certain meaning, by lots of human curiosities, and the Psalter, the first which occurred to me were-- Moses and Aaron among his priests.'' Thus, though the ancient fathers, and, since then, others have in general agreed that the Sortes Sanctorum cannot be cleared of superstition, though they assert that it was tempting God to expect that it would inform us of futurity, and reveal to us the secrets of his will, whenever the sacred book is opened for such a purpose, though it contains nothing which is like a promise of that kind from God; though so far from being warranted by any ecclesiastical law, it has been condemned by several, and, at last, in more enlightened times, has been altogether abolished, yet they do not deny, that there have been occasions when discreet and pious persons have opened the sacred book, not to discover futurity, but to meet with some passage to support them in times of distress and persecution.

CHRISTIANITY boasts much of her morality, and the professors of her tenets sound the trump to all nations and to all religions, bidding them bring forward to the field of competition their 'proudest doctrines and their chiefest excellence. To hear the unwarrantable assertions and the presumptuous dogmas of Christian believers, the unthinking and unknowing mind might be apt to jump hastily at the conclusion, that the science of ethics is of comparatively modern date; that its principles were unknown,