respect paid to omens, auguries and oracles, was profound and universal;
and the persons in power monopolized the privilege of consulting and
interpreting them. They joined the people in expressing their
veneration; but there is little reason to doubt that they conducted the
responses in such a manner as best suited the purposes of government. On
this account, it would not be difficult for the oracle to emit
predictions, which, to all those unacquainted with the secret, would
appear altogether astonishing and unaccountable. It would seem that this
principle alone is sufficient to explain all the phenomena of ancient
oracles.

Though devination has long ceased to be an instrument of government,
abundance of designing persons have not been wanting in latter ages, who
found much interest in taking advantage of the weakness or credulity of
their fellow creatures. Against this pestilent and abandoned race of
men, most civilized countries have enacted penal laws. But what rendered
such persons peculiarly detestable in modern times, was the
communication which they were supposed to hold with the devil, to whom
they sold themselves, and from whom, in return, they derived their
information. And by this principle the penal statutes, instead of
extirpating, inflamed the evil. They alarmed the imaginations of the
people; they tempted them to impute the cause of their misfortunes and
disappointment to the malice or resentment of their neighbours; they
induced them to trust to their suspicions, much more than to their
reason; and they multiplied witches and wizards, by putting into
possession of every foolish informer the means of punishment. In several
countries of Europe, these statutes still subsist; they were not
abolished in Britain till a period still at no great distance. Since the
abolition of persecution, the faith of witchcraft has disappeared even
among the vulgar. It was long found inconsistent with any considerable