Absurd curiosity (for we must call things by their right names) has been carried so far as to seek Hebrew and Chaldee derivations from certain Teutonic and Celtic words. This, Bochart never fails to do. It is astonishing with what confidence these men of genius have proved that expressions used on the banks of the Tiber were borrowed from the patois6 of the savages7 of Biscay. Nay8, they even assert that this patois was one of the first idioms of the primitive10 language — the parent of all other languages throughout the world. They have only to proceed, and say that all the various notes of birds come from the cry of the two first parrots, from which every other species of birds has been produced.
The religious folly11 of auguries12 was originally founded on very sound and natural observations. The birds of passage have always marked the progress of the seasons. We see them come in flocks in the spring, and return in the autumn. The cuckoo is heard only in fine weather, which his note seems to invite. The swallows, skimming along the ground, announce rain. Each climate has its bird, which is in effect its augury14.
Among the observing part of mankind there were, no doubt, knaves15 who persuaded fools that there was something divine in these animals, and that their flight presaged16 our destinies, which were written on the wings of a sparrow just as clearly as in the stars.
The commentators18 on the allegorical and interesting story of Joseph sold by his brethren, and made Pharaoh’s prime minister for having explained his dreams, infer that Joseph was skilled in the science of auguries, from the circumstance that Joseph’s steward19 is commanded to say to his brethren, “Is not this it (the silver cup) in which my lord drinketh? and whereby indeed he divineth?” Joseph, having caused his brethren to be brought back before him, says to them: “What deed is this that ye have done? Wot ye not that such a man as I can certainly divine?”
Judah acknowledges, in the name of his brethren, that Joseph is a great diviner, and that God has inspired him: “God hath found out the iniquity20 of thy servants.” At that time they took Joseph for an Egyptian lord. It is evident from the text that they believe the God of the Egyptians and of the Jews had discovered to this minister the theft of his cup.
Here, then, we have auguries or divination21 clearly established in the Book of Genesis; so clearly that it is afterwards forbidden in Leviticus: “Ye shall not eat anything with the blood; neither shall ye use enchantment22 nor observe times. Ye shall not round the corners of your heads, neither shalt thou mar13 the corners of thy beard.”
As for the superstition23 of seeing the future in a cup, it still exists, and is called seeing in a glass. The individual must never have known pollution; he must turn towards the east, and pronounce the words, Abraxa per dominum nostrum24, after which he will see in a glass of water whatever he pleases. Children were usually chosen for this operation. They must retain their hair; a shaven head, or one wearing a wig25, can see nothing in a glass. This pastime was much in vogue26 in France during the regency of the duke of Orleans, and still more so in the times preceding.
As for auguries, they perished with the Roman Empire. Only the bishops27 have retained the augurial staff, called the crosier; which was the distinctive28 mark of the dignity of augur5; so that the symbol of falsehood has become the symbol of truth.
There were innumerable kinds of divinations, of which several have reached our latter ages. This curiosity to read the future is a malady29 which only philosophy can cure, for the weak minds that still practise these pretended arts of divination — even the fools who give themselves to the devil — all make religion subservient30 to these profanations, by which it is outraged31.
It is an observation worthy32 of the wise, that Cicero, who was one of the college of augurs33, wrote a book for the sole purpose of turning auguries into ridicule34; but they have likewise remarked that Cicero, at the end of his book, says that “superstition should be destroyed, but not religion. For,” he adds, “the beauty of the universe, and the order of the heavenly bodies force us to acknowledge an eternal and powerful nature. We must maintain the religion which is joined with the knowledge of this nature, by utterly35 extirpating36 superstition, for it is a monster which pursues and presses us on every side. The meeting with a pretended diviner, a presage17, an immolated37 victim, a bird, a Chald?an, an aruspice, a flash of lightning, a clap of thunder, an event accidentally corresponding with what has been foretold38 to us, everything disturbs and makes us uneasy; sleep itself, which should make us forget all these pains and fears, serves but to redouble them by frightful39 images.”
Cicero thought he was addressing only a few Romans, but he was speaking to all men and all ages.
Most of the great men of Rome no more believed in auguries than Alexander VI., Julius II., and Leo X., believed in Our Lady of Loretto and the blood of St. Januarius. However, Suetonius relates that Octavius, surnamed Augustus, was so weak as to believe that a fish, which leaped from the sea upon the shore at Actium, foreboded that he should gain the battle. He adds that, having afterwards met an ass9-driver, he asked him the name of his ass; and the man having answered that his ass was named Nicholas, which signifies conqueror40 of nations, he had no longer any doubts about the victory; and that he afterwards had brazen41 statues erected42 to the ass-driver, the ass, and the jumping fish. He further assures us that these statues were placed in the Capitol.
It is very likely that this able tyrant43 laughed at the superstitions44 of the Romans, and that his ass, the driver, and the fish, were nothing more than a joke. But it is no less likely that, while he despised all the follies45 of the vulgar, he had a few of his own. The barbarous and dissimulating46 Louis XI. had a firm faith in the cross of St. Louis. Almost all princes, excepting such as have had time to read, and read to advantage, are in some degree infected with superstition.
点击收听单词发音
1 thoroughly | |
adv.完全地,彻底地,十足地 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
2 possessed | |
adj.疯狂的;拥有的,占有的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
3 demon | |
n.魔鬼,恶魔 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
4 etymology | |
n.语源;字源学 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
5 augur | |
n.占卦师;v.占卦 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
6 patois | |
n.方言;混合语 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
7 savages | |
未开化的人,野蛮人( savage的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
8 nay | |
adv.不;n.反对票,投反对票者 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
9 ass | |
n.驴;傻瓜,蠢笨的人 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
10 primitive | |
adj.原始的;简单的;n.原(始)人,原始事物 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
11 folly | |
n.愚笨,愚蠢,蠢事,蠢行,傻话 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
12 auguries | |
n.(古罗马)占卜术,占卜仪式( augury的名词复数 );预兆 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
13 mar | |
vt.破坏,毁坏,弄糟 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
14 augury | |
n.预言,征兆,占卦 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
15 knaves | |
n.恶棍,无赖( knave的名词复数 );(纸牌中的)杰克 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
16 presaged | |
v.预示,预兆( presage的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
17 presage | |
n.预感,不祥感;v.预示 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
18 commentators | |
n.评论员( commentator的名词复数 );时事评论员;注释者;实况广播员 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
19 steward | |
n.乘务员,服务员;看管人;膳食管理员 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
20 iniquity | |
n.邪恶;不公正 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
21 divination | |
n.占卜,预测 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
22 enchantment | |
n.迷惑,妖术,魅力 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
23 superstition | |
n.迷信,迷信行为 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
24 nostrum | |
n.秘方;妙策 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
25 wig | |
n.假发 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
26 Vogue | |
n.时髦,时尚;adj.流行的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
27 bishops | |
(基督教某些教派管辖大教区的)主教( bishop的名词复数 ); (国际象棋的)象 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
28 distinctive | |
adj.特别的,有特色的,与众不同的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
29 malady | |
n.病,疾病(通常做比喻) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
30 subservient | |
adj.卑屈的,阿谀的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
31 outraged | |
a.震惊的,义愤填膺的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
32 worthy | |
adj.(of)值得的,配得上的;有价值的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
33 augurs | |
n.(古罗马的)占兆官( augur的名词复数 );占卜师,预言者v.预示,预兆,预言( augur的第三人称单数 );成为预兆;占卜 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
34 ridicule | |
v.讥讽,挖苦;n.嘲弄 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
35 utterly | |
adv.完全地,绝对地 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
36 extirpating | |
v.消灭,灭绝( extirpate的现在分词 );根除 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
37 immolated | |
v.宰杀…作祭品( immolate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
38 foretold | |
v.预言,预示( foretell的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
39 frightful | |
adj.可怕的;讨厌的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
40 conqueror | |
n.征服者,胜利者 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
41 brazen | |
adj.厚脸皮的,无耻的,坚硬的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
42 ERECTED | |
adj. 直立的,竖立的,笔直的 vt. 使 ... 直立,建立 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
43 tyrant | |
n.暴君,专制的君主,残暴的人 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
44 superstitions | |
迷信,迷信行为( superstition的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
45 follies | |
罪恶,时事讽刺剧; 愚蠢,蠢笨,愚蠢的行为、思想或做法( folly的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
46 dissimulating | |
v.掩饰(感情),假装(镇静)( dissimulate的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
欢迎访问英文小说网 |