Page:The Cry of Nature.pdf/165

 by frequent repetition an unfeeling habit, and the practice of deſtroying our fellow creatures ſurvived the calamity by which it was occaſioned.

(23.) "This being done, they made trial whether the victim was willing to be ſacrificed to the gods by drawing a knife from its forehead to the tail, as Servius has obſerved, to which, if the victim ſtruggled, it was rejected as not acceptable to the gods; but if it ſtood quiet at the altar then they thought the gods were pleaſed with it; yet a bare non-refiſtance was not thought ſufficient, except it would alſo give its conſent as it were by a gracious nod, (which was the antient manner of approving or granting, whence the word among