M. Gazette then made his bow and departed.

Thus far M. de la Harpe. Those who recollect the melan- choly exit of all those characters above mentioned, during the reign of terror in France, must be astonished at the exact fulfilment of this remarkable prediction, so unlikely to be accomplished at the time it was uttered. That M. de la Harpe was capable of imposing a falsehood on the "world, in the last moments of his life, will, I believe, be suspected by few ; and I have never heard the authenticity of the above called in question. — News from the Invisible World.
DETDEN AiN-D HIS S0>' S NATIYITT.
Dryden, with all his understanding, was fond of judicial astrology, and used to calculate the nativity of his children. At the birth of his son Charles he laid his watch on the table, begging one of the ladies then present, in a most solemn manner, to take an exact notice of the very minute the child was born, which she did, and acquainted him with it. About a week after, when his lady was pretty well re- covered, Mr. Dryden took occasion to tell her that he had been calculating the child's nativity, and observed with grief that he was born in an evil hour ; for Jupiter, Venus, and
DEYDEN AND HIS SON's NATIVITY. 451
the Sun were all under the earth, and the lord of his as- cendant afBicted with a hateful square of Mars and Saturn. *' If he lives to arrive at his eighth year," said he, " he will go near to die a violent death on his very birth-day ; but if he should escape, as I see but small hopes, he will, in the twenty-third year, be under the very same evil direction ; and if he should escape that also, the thirty-third or thirty- fourth year will, I fear ." Here he was interrupted by
the grief of his lady, who could no longer patiently hear calamity prophesied to befall her son.
The time at last came, and August was the inauspicious month in which young Dryden was to enter into the eighth year of his age. The court being in progress, and Mr. Dryden at leisure, he was invited to the country seat of the Earl of Berkshire, his brother-in-law, to keep the long vacation with him at Charlton in Wilts : his lady was invited to her uncle Mordaunt's, to pass the remainder of the summer. When they came to divide the children, lady Elizabeth would have him take John, and suffer her to take Charles ; but Mr. Dryden was too absolute, and they parted in anger : he took Charles with him, and she was obliged to be content with John.
When the fatal day came, the anxiety of the lady's spirits occasioned such an effervescence of blood as threw her into a violent fever, and her life was despaired of, till a letter came from Mr. Dryden, reproving her for her womanish credulity, and assuring her that her child was well, which recovered her spirits ; and in six weeks after she received an explanation of the whole affair.
Mr. Dryden, either through fear of being reckoned super- stitious, or thinking it a science beneath his study, was extremely cautious of letting any one know that he was a dealer in astrology, and therefore could not excuse his ab- sence on his son's anniversary from a general hunting-match Lord Berkshire had made, to which all the adjacent gentle- men were invited. When he went out, he took care to set the boy a double exercise in the Latin tongue, which he taught his children himself, with a strict charge not to stir out of the room till his return, well knowing the task he had set him would take up much longer time.
Charles was performing his duty in obedience to his father ;
452 DITINATION.
but, as ill fate would have it, the stag made towards the house, and the noise alarmiDg the servants, they hastened out to see the sport. One of them took young Dryden by the hand, and led him out to see it also ; when, just as they came to the gate, the stag being at bay with the dogs, made a bold push and leaped over the court wall, which, being very low and old, and the dogs following, threw down a part of the wall ten yards in length, under which Charles Dryden lay buried. He was immediately dug out, and after lan- guishing six weeks in a dangerous way he recovered. So far Dryden' s prediction was fulfilled.
On the twenty-third year of his age, Charles fell from the top of an old tower belonging to the Vatican at E-ome, occa- sioned by a swimming in his head with which he was seized, the heat of the day being excessive. He again recovered, but was ever after in a languishing state.
In the thirty-third year of his age, being returned to England, he was unhappily drowned at Windsor. He had, with another gentleman, swam twice over the Thames ; but re- turning a third time, it was supposed he was taken with the cramp, because he called out for help, although too late. Thus the father's calculation proved but too prophetical. — Wardey's Wonders, Vol. ii.
DIVINATIOjS'^
AETIFICIAL DIYI^'ATION
Is that -which proceeds by reasoning upon certain ex- ternal signs, considered as indications of futurity.
:n-atlila.l diyikatiof
Is that which presages things from a mere internal sense and persuasion of the mind, without any assistance of signs ; and is of two kinds — the one from nature, and the other by influx. The first is the supposition that the soul, collected within itself, and not diff'used, or divided among the organs of the body, has, from its own nature and essence, some foreknowledge of future things : witness what is seen in dreams, ecstasies, on the confines of death, &c. The second
AxixoiiA:N'CY, alectoiio:mantia, etc. 453
supposes that tlie soul, after the manner of a mirror, receives some secondary illumination from the presence of God and other spirits.
AXI^'OiTAlN'CT
"Was an ancient species of divination or method of fore- telling future events by means cf an axe or hatchet. , The word is derived from the Grreek, a^unj, an axe ; fiayreia, di- vination. This art was in considerable repute among the ancients ; and was performed, according to some, by laying an agate stone upon a red-hot hatchet.
ALECTOBOMANTIi.
Is an ancient kind of divination, performed by means of a cock, which was used among the Greeks in the following manner : — A circle was made on the ground, and divided into 24 equal portions or spaces : in each space was written one of the letters of the alphabet, and upon each of these letters was laid a grain of wheat. This being done, a cock was placed within the circle, and careful observation was made of the grains he picked. The letters corresponding to these grains were afterwards formed into a word, which word was the answer decreed. It was thus that Libanius and Jamblicus sought who should succeed the Emperor Valens ; and the cock answering to the spaces 6E0A, thev concluded upon Theodore, but by a mistake, instead of Theodosius.
AEITHM0MA2TCT
Is a kind of divination or method of foretelling future events by means of numbers. The Gematria, which makes the first species of the Jewish Cabala, is a kind of Arith- momancy.
BELOMAlfCT
Is a method of divination by means of arrows, practised in the East, but chiefly among tlio . Arabians.
Belomancy has been performed in difi'erent manners : one was to mark a parcel of arrows, and to put eleven or more of them into a bag ; these were afterwards drawn out, and according as they were marked, or otlierwise, they judged
454 DITiyATION.
of future events. Another way was to have three arrows, upon one of which was written, God forbids it me ; upon another, God orders it me ; and upon the third nothing at all. These were put into a quiver, out of which one of the three was drawn at random ; if it happened to be that with the second inscription, the thing tliej consulted about was to be done ; if it chanced to be that with the first inscrip- tion, the thing was let alone ; and if it proved to be that without any inscription, they drew over again. Belomancy is an ancient practice, and is probably that which Ezekiel mentions, chap. xxi. v. 21 : at least St Jerome understands it so, and observes that the practice was frequent among the Assyrians and Babylonians. Something like it is also men- tioned inHosea (chap, vi.), only that staves are mentioned there instead of arrows, which is rather Bhabdomancy than Belomancy. Grotius, as well as Jerome, confound the two together, and show that they prevailed much among the Magi, Chaldeans, and Scythians, from whom they passed to the Sclavonians, and thence to the Germans, whom Tacitus observes to make use of Belomancy.
CLEROMil^^CY
Is a kind of divination performed by the throwing of dice or little bones ; and observing the points or marks turned up.
At Bura, a city of Achaia, a celebrated Temple of Her- cules, where such as consulted the oracle, after praying to the idol, threw four dice, the points of which being well scanned by the priest, he was supposed to draw an answer from them.
CLEDOXrSM.
This word is derived from the Greek y\rjff(oy, which signifies two things, — viz. a report, and a bird: in the first sense, Cledonism should denote a kind of divination drawn from words occasionally uttered. Cicero observes that the Pythagoreans made observations not only of the words of the gods, but of those of men, and accordingly believed the pronouncing of certain words — e. g. incendium — at a meal very unlucky. Thus, instead of prison, they used the words domicilium ; and to avoid calling the Furies by the name erinnyes, which was supposed to be unpleasiug
COSCI^TOMAXCY, CAPNOMANCT, CAPTOTROMAXCY. 455
to them said Eumenides. In the second sense, Cledonism should seem a divination drawn from birds, — the same with Ornithomantia.
COSCOOMANCT,
As the word implies, is the art of divination by means of a sieve.
The sieve being suspended, after repeating a certain form of words, it is taken between two fingers only, and the names of the parties suspected repeated : he at whose name the sieve turns, trembles, or shakes, is reputed guilty of the evil in question. This doubtless must be a very ancient prac- tice. Theocritus, in his third Idyllion, mentions a womau who was very skilful in it. It was sometimes also practised by suspending the sieve by a thread, or fixing it to the points of a pair of scissors, giviug it room to turn, and naming, as before, the parties suspected : in this manner Coscinomancy is still practised in some parts of England. From Theo- critus it appears that it was not only used to find out persons unknown, but also to discover secrets.
CAPNOMANCT
Is a kind of divination by means of smoke, used by the an- cients in their sacrifices. The general rule was, when the smoke was thin and light, and ascended straight up, it was a good omen ; if on the contrary, it was an ill one.
There was another species of Capnomancy, which con- sisted in observing the smoke arising from poppy and jes- samin seed cast upon burning coals.
CATOPTEOMAyCT
Is another species of divination used by the ancients, per- formed by means of a mirror.
Pausauias says that this method of divination was in use among the Achaians, where those who were sick, and in danger of death, let down a mirror, or looking-glass, fastened by a thread, into a fountain before the temple of Ceres ; then, looking in the glass, if they saw a ghastly disfigured face, they took it as a sure sign of death ; but, on the con- trary, if the face appeared fresh and healthy, it was a token of recovery. Sometimes glasses were used witliout water,
456 DmNATiON.
and the images of future thiugs, it is said, were represented in them.
^ CHIEOMAKCT
Is the art of divining the fate, temperament, and dispo- sition of a person by the lines and lineaments of the hands.
There are a great many authors on this art, — viz. Arte- midorus, Fludd, Johannes de Indagine, Taconerus, and M. De le Chambre, vrho are among the best.