DIVINATION (dTv'T-n5'shiln), (1Icb.
sem, lot), is a general term.descri:,tive the vari ous illtifory arts an( tend!: practiced for the dis covery of things secret or future.
The human mind has always shown a strong curiosity to ascertain the course of fortune and the issue of present or contemplated schemes; and in those countries and ages where ignorance of physical laws has combined with superstition to debase it, it has sought to gratify this innate dis position to pry into futurity by looking for pre sages in things between which and the object of Its anxiety no connection existed but in the di viner's imagination. Scarcely a single department of nature but was appealed to as furnishing, on certain conditions, good or bad omens of hu man destiny ; and the aspect of things which. perhaps by the most casual coincidence, marked some event or crisis in the life of one or two in dividuals, came to be regarded, by blind credulity, as the fixed and invariable precursor of a similar result in the affairs of mankind in general. By such childish and irrational notions was the con duct of the heathen guided in the most important, no less than in the most ordinary occurrences of life; and thence arose the profession of augurs, soothsayers, et hoc genus oriole of impostors, who, ingrafting vulgar traditions on a small stock of natural knowledge, established their claims to the possession of an occult science, the importance and influence of which they dexterously increased by associating it with all that was pompous and imposing in the, ceremonies of their religion.
This science, if that can be called science which was the product of ignorance and fraud united, was divided into various branches, each of which had its separate professors. In a general view, divination may be considered as either natural or artificial ; the first being founded on the notion that the soul possesses, from its spiritual nature, some prescience of futurity. which it exemplifies particularly in dreams, and at the approach of death; the second resting on a peculiar interpre tation of the course of nature, as well as on such arbitrary observations and experiments as super stition introduced. The different systems and
methods that were anciently in vogue were almost incredible; as, for instance, Mromancy, divining by the air ; Arithmomancy, by means of num bers; Capnomancy, by the smoke of sacrifices; Chiromancy. by the lines on the palms of the hands; Hydromancy, by water ; Pyromancy, by fire, etc. But without attempting an enumeration and explanation of all the arts of divination that were anciently practiced, let us confine ourselves to the mention of those which occur in sacred his tory (Exod. vii :11; Is. xliv :25; 1:35; Dan. ii :12. etc.).
(1) Wise Men. This is a term applied gener ally to magicians, or men who were skilled in natural science.
(2) Wizards. 'Wizards,' or wise men, and 'a witch,' from an Arabic verb signifying 'to reveal.' both practicing divination by the same arts, e., pretending to reveal secrets, to discover things lost, find hidden treasures and interpret dreams (3) Flight of Birds. Onc who foretold what was to happen by the flight of birds, or the use of lots. (See LuT.) (4) Observer of Times. One who, though rendered by our translators 'an observer of times,' foretold political or physical. changes by the mo tion of the clouds, along with whom Isaiah con joins those who made the same predictions from eclipses and the coirjunction of the stars (xlvii: 13).
(5) An Enchanter. 'An enchanter' was prob ably one who practiced Ophiomancy. or the art of charming serpents, which was and still is a favorite trick of jugglery in the East (0) Charmer. 'A charmer,' one who placed words and things in a certain arrangement, or muttered them, as a kind of spell.
(7) Consulter with Familiar Spirits. 'A consulter with familiar spirits,' or a 'ventrilo quist,' was a wizard who asked counsel of his familiar, and gave the responses received from him to others—the name being applied in refer ence to the spirit or demon that animated the per son, and inflated the belly, so that it protuberated like the side of a bottle (see Lev. xx :27; I Sant xxviii:8; also Acts xvi :16).