The various “artificial” modes of divination for the most part rest evidently on the association of ideas in analogy and symbolism (see evidence in Tylor, Early Hist, of Mankind, p. 132; Primitive Culture, vol. i. p. 117, &c., 78.) A tree planted at a child’s birth, or any other plant mentally associated with a person, gives a sign by its flourishing or withering as to that person’s health or death (Ploss, Das Kind, vol. i. p. 71.) So with the sticks set up by Polynesians to see if the warriors they stand for will fall in battle, or with the cocoa-nut that is spun like a teetotum to point out a thief (Polack, New Zealanders, vol. ι. p. 270; Mariner’s Tonga Islands, ch. xx.) This kind of fanciful association appears in sortilege, or casting of lots, a proceeding remarkable not only for its antiquity but for the frequency with which religions have adopted it as a means of obtaining divine guidance, from the ages when classic poets sang of Homeric heroes praying to the gods when they cast lots in Agamemnon’s leather cap, or of Mopsus the soothsayer divining with sacred lots when the Argonauts embarked on their voyage (Homer, Il., vii. 175; Pindar, Pyth., iv. 338), and on until modern times, when the Moravians still resorted to solemn religious lots to determine difficult questions, such as the choice of wives. Dice or astragali (huckleb∩nes) have been used for the pur poses of sortilege (see Suetonius, Tiberius) ; and cartomancy, or fortune-telling by means of playing-cards, is still common. In ancient times omens were drawn from poets’ verses, fixed on by chance, a practice well known as Sortes Virgïlianae, from Virgil being often so consulted (see Smith’s Die. Gr. and Rom. Antiq., art. “Sortes ”); and the Bible came ’ to be afterwards so used for drawing texts, or “pricking for texts;” this practice is still very usual in Germany (see Wuttke, Deutsche Volksaberglaube, 2 ed., p. 227.) The haruspication, or examination of entrails, by which Roman statesmen were (or pretended to be) guided in public affairs (see Cicero, De Div., ii. 12; Plin. H. N., xi. 73); and scapulimancy, or the Tatar mode of divining by the cracks and lines in a shoulder blade (Lubbock, Origin of Civilization, p. 230), formerly known in England as “reading the speal-bone” (Brand, Popular Antiquities, vol. iii. p. 339), depended on imaginary symbolic associatiens, such as that cracks in opposite directions meant good and ill fortune, that the course of particular lines indicated the course of the consulter’s life, &c. This sort of falsa analogy may be well understood by any one who will have the similar art of palmistry, or divining by the lines of the hand, applied to his own future by a fortune-teller at a fair. Omens obtained by augury, or divining by the sight and cries of animals, especially birds (as the name indicates), are as familiar among uncivilized races as they were in ancient Rome; their symbolism is apparent in such rules as that a hawk means victory, an owl’s hoot is unlucky, and that a beast or bird on the right hand portends good, but on the left hand evil (Tylor, P. C., vol. i. p. 119). Another class of arts depend on the unconscious or halfconscious action of some person, often the diviner himself. Among these is the use of the well-known diviningrod, which when held in the hands, dips to indicate a hidden spring of water, a vein of ore, or a buried treasure (Brand, vol. iii. p. 332; see Chevreul, De la Baguette Divinatoire, &c.) The use of this instrument remains in some districts of England; it is locally known as “dowsing,” whence no doubt the name of Dousterswivel in The Antiquary. Similar in principle is the ancient coscinomancy. or divining by a sieve held suspended, and giving its indications by turning. In later times this gave place to the ordeal by the Bible and key, where the book is suspended by a key tied in with its wards between the leaves and the key supported on two persons’ forefingers, and the whole turns round to prove guilty some servant maid accused of theft (Brand, vol. iii. p. 351). In such cases, where the culprits’ fears are apt to betray them, the process of divination really serves as a practical test. Dreams are not only considered visits from ghosts, but often also as supernatural signs to be interpreted symbolically, as when a Kamtschatkan dreaming of dogs or lice would take it as foretelling a visit from Russians (Steller, Kamtschatka, p. 279). Of such interpretations the ancient art of oneiromancy consists, as may be seen in such rules as that if a woman dreams of kindling a fire, she will bear a male child'; if one dreams of white clouds it means joy, but if black clouds trouble (Brand, vol. iii. p. 132; Tylor, Z.c.). It remains to mention in few words astrology, the branch of divination whose importance in the world has exceeded that of all the rest together. Researches into the ancient writings of Chaldaea have now shown how fully historians were justified in treating that country as the principal among the sources whence the stargazers received their precepts (see Sayce, “Astronomy and Astrology of the Babylonians,” in Trans. Soc. Bibl. Arch., vol. iii.; Maury, La Magie et V Astrologie.) The rules in such comparatively modern works as Sibly’s Occult Sciences and Lilly’s Astrology fairly enough represent the ancient traditions, and show their still intelligible symbolism,—how the stars rising at a child’s birth are made in the horoscope to typify its destiny, and the planets and signs of the zodiac exercise “influences” often plainly drawn from their natures or names. Thus Mars has to do with soldiers, Venus with lovers, and Mercury with prattlers; the solar man is grand and generous, the lunar man unsteadfast and inclined to change his dwelling, the sign Leo presides over places where wild beasts abound, but Aries over pastures. At the courts of Asiatic rulers, the state astrologer still nominally holds a position like that of his predecessor in the ancient empires of the world, but it is evident that the last twenty years have shaken, even in the barbaric East, the power of the occult sciences over the human mind. . (e. b. t.)

The kinds of divination, to which superstition in modern times has given belief, are not less numerous, or less ridiculous, than those which were practised in the days of profound ignorance. The divining rod, which is mentioned in Scripture, is still in some repute in the north of England, though its application is now confined principally to the discovery of veins of lead ore, seams of coal, or springs. In order that it may possess the full virtue for this purpose, it should be made of hazel. Divination by Virgilian, Horatian, or Bible lots, was formerly very common; and the last kind is still practised. The works are opened by chance, and the words noticed which are covered by the thumb: if they can be interpreted in any respect relating to the person, they are reckoned prophetic. Charles I. is said to have used this kind of divination to ascertain his fate. The ancient Christians were so much addicted to the _sortes sanctorum_, or divining by the Bible, that it was expressly forbidden by a council. Divination by the speal, or blade bone of a sheep, is used in Scotland. In the Highlands it is called _sleina-reached_, or reading the speal bone. It was very common in England in the time of Drayton, particularly among the colony of Flemings settled in Pembrokeshire. Camden relates of the Irish, that they looked through the bare blade bone of a sheep; and if they saw any spot in it darker than ordinary, they believed that somebody would be buried out of the house. The Persians used this mode of divination.

Of all attempts to look into futurity by such means, as well as resorting to charms and other methods of curing diseases, and discovering secrets, we may say, that they are relics of Paganism, and argue an ignorance, folly, or superstition, dishonourable to the Christian name; and are therefore to be reproved and discouraged.