life, had his health irreparably injured, and the whole class of
artificial dreams and visions, the effect of some powerful narcotic
acting upon the body after the mind had been predisposed for a certain
train of ideas.

[11] The _sortes praenestinae_ were famous among the Greeks. The method
by which these lots were conducted was to put so many letters or even
whole words, into an urn; to shake them together, and throw them out;
and whatever should chance to be made out in the arrangement of these
letters or words, composed the answer of the oracle. The ancients also
made use of dice, drawing tickets, etc., in casting or deciding results.
In the Old Testament we meet with many standing and perpetual laws, and
a number of particular commands, prescribing and regulating the use of
them. We are informed by the Scripture that when a successor to Judas in
the apostolate was to be chosen, the lot fell on St. Mathias. And the
garment or coat without a seam of our Saviour was lotted for by the
Jews. In Cicero's time this mode of divination was at a very low ebb.
The _sortes Homericae_ and _sortes Virgilianae_ which succeeded the
_sortes Praenestinae_, gave rise to the same means used among christians
of casually opening the sacred books for directions in important
circumstances; to learn the consequence of events and what they had to
fear among their rulers.

[12] Kennet's Roman Antiquities, Lib. XI, C. 4.

[13] Romulus, who founded the institution of the Aruspices, borrowed it
from the Tuscans, to whom the Senate afterwards sent twelve of the sons
of the principal nobility to be instructed in these mysteries, and the
other ceremonies of their religion. The origin of this act among the
people of Tuscany, is related by Cicero in the following manner: "A