rubrum, sanguinei coloris significat, apud sequiores vero, ut Hesiod. Asp. 250. et nostri Hymni v. 304. sanguinolentum, ita Qoòs etiam primo rubrum, ut Il. ', 159. deinde sanguinis avidum significare potuit: Ilgenius purpureum animum interpretatur, et comparat Virg. Æn. ix. 349. Purpuream vomit ille animam, quo nihil minus Homericum, tales metaphoræ apud Lyricos et tragicos Græcos tantum in usu fuerunt." (p. 178.) Mr. Blomfield, on the Prometheus, has inappositely cited this 361st verse of the Hymn to Apollo, as has been shown by Mr. Barker elsewhere. [To be continued.] ON THE SORTES SANCTORUM OF THE ANCIENT THE SORTES SANCTORUM, or SORTES SACRE, were a species of divination practised in the earlier ages of Christianity, and consisted in casually opening the Sacred Scriptures, and from the words, which first presented themselves, deducing the future lot of the inquirer. They were evidently derived from the Sortes Homerica, and Sortes Virgiliana of the Pagans, but accommodated to their own circumstances by the Christians, who being "mingled among the heathen, learned their works." Ps. cvi. v. 35. Complete copies of the Old and New Testaments being rarely met with prior to the invention of printing, the PSALMS, or the PROPHETS, or the FOUR GOSPELS, were the parts of Holy Writ principally made use of in these divinatory consultations, which were sometimes accompanied with various ceremonies, and conducted with great solemnity, especially on public occasions. Thus the Emperor Heraclius, in the war against the Persians, being at a loss whether to advance, or to retreat, commanded a public fast for three days, which being terminated, he applied to the Gospels, and opened upon a text which he regarded as an oracular intimation to winter in Albania. Gregory of Tours also relates, that Merovaeus, being desirous of obtaining the kingdom of Chilperic his father, consulted a female fortune-teller, who promised him the possession of the royal estates; but, to prevent deception, and to try the truth of her prognostications, he caused the PSALTER, the BOOK OF KINGS, and the FOUR GOSPELS, to be laid upon the shrine of St. Martin, and after fasting and solemn prayer, opened upon passages which not only destroyed his former hopes, but seemed to predict the unfortunate events which afterwards befel him.' Gataker, Of the Nature and use of Lots, ch. x. p. 343. 2d Ed. Lond. 1627. The President Henault, in his Chronological Abridgment of the History of France, A. D. 506. says, "This abuse was introduced by the superstition of the people, and afterwards gained ground by the ignorance of the bishops; since there were prayers at that time read in churches for this very purpose. This appears evident from Pithou's Collection of Canons, containing some formule under the title of The Lot of the Apostles, which M. Pithou the elder found at the end of the canons of the Apostles, in the Abbey of Marmoustier." Various canons were made in different Councils and Synods against this superstition. About the year 465, the Council of Vannes, in the Synodal epistle to the absent bishops, expresses its decision in the following terms: "Ac ne id fortasse videatur omissum, quod maxime fidem catholicæ religionis infestat, quod aliquanti clerici student auguriis, et sub nomine fictæ religionis, quas sanctorum sortes vocant, divinationis scientiam profitentur, aut quarumcumque scripturarum inspectiones futura promittunt : hoc quicumque clericus detectus fuerit vel consulere, vel docere, ab ecclesia habeatur extraneus." This was repeated at the Council of Agde in 506. and in the year 578. the Council of Auxerre decreed: "Non licet ad sortilegos, vel ad auguria respicere, non ad caragios, nec ad sortes quas Sanctorum vocant, vel quas de ligno, aut de pane faciunt, aspicere: sed quæcumque homo facere vult, omnia in nomine Domini faciat." The fourth Council of Toledo, held in 633. also ordained Can. 30. "Clericus qui sortilegos consuluerit, suspensus in Monasterium conjiciatur." A Capitulary of Charlemagne, framed in 789. decrees: "De codicibus vel tabulis requirendum, et ut nullus in Psalterio, vel in Evangelio vel in aliis rebus sortiri præsumat, nec divinationes aliquas ob servare. And amongst the Ecclesiastical Laws of Canute, is the following: "Prohibemus etiam serio omnem ethnicismum. Ethnicismus est, quum quis idola adorat, hoc est, quum quis adorat deos gentiles, et solem vel lunam, ignem vel fluvium, torrentem vel saxa vel alicujus generis arborum ligna, vel (quum quis) veneficium amat, vel sicariatum committit ullo modo; vel sortilegio, vel teda, vel aliquo phantasmate aliquid perficit."4 Similar canons were formed in the Councils of London, under Archbishop Lanfranc in 1075, and Archbishop Corboyl, in 1126. But ecclesiastical authority was insufficient to suppress the practice: the desire to pry into futurity existed too strongly in the human breast to be easily controlled, and it was reserved to more enlightened times to abolish the superstition, by convincing of its folly. The learned Gataker has adduced a number of instances of the use of the Sortes Labbei, S. S. Coucilia, Tom. iv. p. 1057... 2 Ibid. Tom. v. p. 958.* 3 Ibid. Tom. vii. p. 989. 4 Wilkins. Concil. Mag. Brit. Vol. i. p. 306 5 Ibid. Vol. i. pp. 363-403. Sanctorum during the ages emphatically called dark. I shall produce two of them. The first is of Francis of Assise, the founder of the order of Franciscans, who being tempted, as he relates of himself, to have a book, which seemed contrary to his vow, that denied him the possession of any thing but Coats, and a Cord, and Hose (Femoralia), and in case of necessity only Shoes, resorted for advice to the GOSPELS, and having first prayed, casually opened upon Mark, ch. iv. v. 11. "Unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God: but unto them that are without, all these things are done in parables;" from which he drew the conclusion that books were not necessary for him. The other is of one Peter of Tholouse, who being accused of Heresy, and having denied it upon oath, one of those who stood by, in order to judge of the truth of his oath, seized the book upon which he had sworn, and opening it hastily, met with the words of the devil to our Saviour, "What have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth," Mark, ch. i. v. 24. and from thence concluded that the accused was guilty, and had nothing to do with Christ! The extraordinary instance also of King Charles I. and Lord Viscount Falkland, is so applicable to divinations of this kind, that it deserves to be related. Being together at Oxford, they went one day to see the public library, where they were shown, among other books, a Virgil, finely printed and exquisitely bound. Lord Falkland, to divert the King, proposed that he should make a trial of his fortune by the Sortes Virgiliana. The King opening the book, the passage which he happened to light upon was part of Dido's imprecation against Æneas: At bello audacis populi vexatus et armis, Sed cadat ante diem, mediâque inhumatus arena. King Charles seeming concerned at this accident, Lord Falkland would likewise try his own fortune, hoping he might fall upon some passage that could have no relation to his case, and thus divert the King's thoughts from any impression the other might make upon him: but the place Lord Falkland stumbled upon was still more suited to his destiny, being the following expressions of Evander upon the untimely death of his son Pallas: Non hæc, ô Palla, dederas promissa parenti : n. xi. 1. 152. &C. The gallant Falkland fell in the battle of Newbury, in 1644; and the unfortunate Charles was beheaded in 1649. The kind of divination in use among the Jews, and termed by them pn (Bath-Kol), or the Daughter of the Voice, was not very dissimilar to the Sortes Sanctorum of the Christians. The mode of practising it, was by appealing to the first words accidentally heard from any one speaking or reading. The following is an instance from the Talmud. Rabbi Jochanan and Rabbi Simeon ben Lachish, desiring to see the face of R. Samuel, a Babylonish doctor: "Let us follow," said they, "the hearing of Bath Kol." Travelling therefore near a school, they heard the voice of a boy reading these words out of the First Book of Samuel; "And Samuel died." They observed this, and inferred from hence that their friend Samuel was dead; and so they found it, for Samuel of Babylon was then dead.' It is probable that from the Bath-Kol of the Jews was derived the practice of some of the ancient Christians, of going to church with a purpose of receiving, as a declaration of the will of heaven, the words of Scripture which were singing at the instant of entrance. A species of Rhapsodomaney, similar to the Sortes Sanctorum is in use among the Mohammedans in the East. Sir William Jones in his Traité sur la Poésie Orientale, speaking of his selections from the Odes of the celebrated Hafiz, observes, "Comme il étoit difficile de faire un choix dans l'excellent recueil des odes d'Hafiz, on en a pris celles-ci au hasard, à l'imitation des Orientaux, qui, pour se décider dans les moindres comme dans les plus considérables occasions, ouvrent fortuitement un livre, et s'en remettant au sort, s'en tiennent a ce qui d'abord a frappé leur vue. On a pu remarquer la confiance que ces peuples ont dans cette espèce de divination, lorsque dans l'histoire de Nader Chah, on a vu ce prince se résoudre à deux sièges fameux, sur deux vers de ce même Hafiz." J. T. REMARKS ON THE BUCHANAN ROLL OF THE PENTATEUCH. It was with some surprise that I read the following passage in the Preliminary Remarks, prefixed to Mr. Yeates's Collation of the Buchanan Roll of the Pentateuch: "It ought to be a satisfaction to know, that herein (viz. in the Buchanan Roll) are ample specimens of at least three ancient copies of the Pentateuch, whose testimony is found to unite in the integrity and pure conservation of the sacred text, acknowledged by Christians and Jews in these parts of the world. The following collation confirms the truth of 2 Lewis's Origines Hebrææ, vol. i. b. ii. ch. xv. p. 198. this remark, and if such specimens, furnished by this MS. are allowed their proper weight and importance, we can have little room to doubt of the general purity of the entire copies; so that we now have no reason to expect from Hebrew MSS. obtained from the Oriental Jews, any new or extraordinary emendation of the Hebrew text of the Pentateuch." Prel. Rem. pp. 8, 9. If by the integrity and pure conservation of the sacred text," Mr. Yeates means, that "the printed copies of the Hebrew Bible are free from such corruptions as affect faith and morals," I would most cordially agree with him; but if he means that the various readings of the Buchanan Roll afford a fair specimen of the present state of the Hebrew text, I imagine he will find some difficulty in supporting such an hypothesis. The Buchanan Roll exhibits a very striking conformity to the text of Athias's edition: so striking indeed, as to lead any one who is conversant with the various readings of the collated MSS. to suspect a common origin at no remote period. The various readings of this MS. compared with Athias's text, amount, according to Mr. Yeates, only to 18! None of these are at all important they consist chiefly in the omission or insertion of which, after the introduction of the Masoretic punctuation, which supplies the want of as a vowel, seems to have been nearly discretionary. Four readings are peculiar to this Roll: namely, Gen. xxii. 1. M. Gen. xli. 45. . Numb. xi. 26. 1, is evidently an error of the התלך וקריב .5 .and Numb. xvi יקריב for וקריב and ויתן is for ויתין as התהלך transcriber for TN is the reading, not only of all the other collated MSS. but likewise of the LXX. and Vulg. versions, both in the 26th and 27th verses. The other ancient versions I have not examined. The four readings, therefore, which are peculiar to this MS. seem to have arisen from the negligence of the transcriber. Now it may fairly be asked, if this collation gives a just idea of the present state of the Hebrew text, of what use are the mighty labors of Kennicott? If the received Hebrew copies are nearly perfect, and vary merely in a few letters of little or no consequence, what benefit is to be expected from the magnificent collation of the Septuagint now proceeding at Oxford? Of what use is it to collate the MSS. of the Vulgate, as warmly recommended by Kennicott, or of the ancient and faithful Syriac, as recommended by Mr. Yeates himself? But let us examine whether the received Hebrew text is in so pure and uncorrupt a state as the collation of the Buchanan Roll would lead us to suppose. The Buchanan Roll varies from the text of Athias in eighteen instances, and from that of Vander Hooght in thirty-nine. (Yeates's Collation, p. 41.) Now let us compare the text of Vander Hooght with |