Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 06.djvu/379

* DIVINATION. 323 DIVING. antiquity in the Kust, in E^ypt, Cyprus, and Elru- ria. it was I'aniiliar to the (Jrceks of the tiflli cenlviry D.C., but nut in HunitTii- days. It passed from Etruria to Ivonie, where it served the pur- poses of statesmen (Cioero, De Diviiiutione, ii. 12). The nearest approach to this in recent days is palmistry, or reading the lines of the hands, and the old 'reading of the speal-bone," called omoplatoseopy or scapiilimaney, which is the in- spection of the linos in the shoulder-blade. Diiinatioii by fire (empyromancy ) . This consists in observing the ctl'ect of tire from the altar on w iKid, or on the offering, or again in watching the movements of the smoke and the wine of a liba- tion. Divination by tcater (hydromancy) consist- ed in the observation of objects cast into water. Divination by lots (cleromancy) was a method which required a movement consciously begun and directed by chance. Here may be placed axinomancy, which is the consideration of the movements of an a.e placed on a post ; coscino- inancy, or the observing of the results of the turn- ing of a sieve hung on a thread: or again, dacty- Jomancy. or the interpretations of the oscillations of a ring hung over a circular vase against which it strikes. This is a method of great antiquity, and is found in Homeric days. Among the Ro- mans sortileciium. or easting of lots, belonged to this experimental form of divination. .Small tab- lets of wood, bone, or bronze were inscribed with various sayings, and when shuffled and drawn gave the prophecy. A nimiher of them have come down to our own times, and are described in Cor- pus Inscriptionum Latinariim. 1. pp. 268-70. The term sortex was also given to selections from books used for a similar purpose. Compare with this the chance reading of the Scriptures. Lines from the great poets, particularly Vergil, were also employed as sortes Verr/ilianw as mentioned by Spartianus in bis Hadrian II. In England, Charles I. is said to have opened to .Eneid iv. 61.5, when consulting Vergil in the Bodleian Li- brary at Oxford. Dice were also used by the Komans in this way. Divination by meteorol- ogy is represented by the study of lightning flashes and interpretation of them. Such were the signa ex cento interpreted by the augurs and haruspices. Divination by astrology was the most important in antiquity, and consisted of predictions made after obsering the heavenly bodies. It arose among the Chaldeans, then passed to the Greeks, and finally to the Romans, among whom the term for astrologers was Chal- dcvi or mathrmatici. BinuoGR.vpiiY. Consult: Cicero. De Divina- tione : Plutarch, De Pythiw Oraeulis. and De D'feetu Oracitlorum ; Mezger, "Divinatio," in Pauly. Realenryelopadie, ii. pp. 1113-118.5 (Stutt- gart. 1842) : Maury. Uistoire des religions de la (iriee antif/iie — La dirination et les oracles, vol. ii., pp. 4.31-539 (Paris. 1857) : Schneider. Die Divinationen der Alten init besonderer Riiehsieht ntif die Augurien der Riimcr (Kiilthen, 1862): Fontaine, De Divinationis Originc et Progressu (Rostock, 1867): Kiinig, Das Orahelivesen ini Alterthum. Programm (Crefeld, 1871): Hoff- mann. D«.s Oro/.f/ircscH im Alterthum (Stuttgart. 1877) : Bouchf-Leclercq. Uistoire de In divination dans I'antiquife (4 vols., Paris. 1870-1882) ; also article "Divination" in Darembcrg et Saglio. Die- tioniiaire des antiiiuiti's : Dechand)re et Thomas, article "Divination" in Dirlionnaire des sciences medicates, vol. xxx.. pp. 24-06 (1834). DIVINE RIGHT. A term of ancient origin, which came into general use in the seventeenth century during the factious contentions of Eng- lish Royalists and Parliamentarians. The Royal- ists maintained that as "the Lord's anointed,' and the innnediate representative of the Deity, all j)oer and government were vested in the King, who 'could do no wrong;' a doctrine which relieved liini from human responsibility. The Parliamcnt.irians contended that the exercise of political power sprang from the will of the people, by what was termed "the social contract.' The opponents of divine right included .Milton, Algernon Sydney, and Harrington, and its chief sujjporters were Hobbes. Salmasius. and Sir Robert Filmer, whose Patriareha contains a com- plete exposition of the theory. The idea can be traced through the Middle Ages and beyond, in the assumed divine authority' of the magistracy; in the history of the Roman Catholic Church it is found in the doctrine of the Pope's infallibil- ity. The settlement of the crown on William and Mary ended the British controversy, but a simi- lar controversy was revived in the discussions which caused the French Revolution. DIVINE TRAGEDY, The. A dramatic poem by Longfellow (1871), forming the first part of his trilogy Christus. DIVING (from dive, AS. dyfan, causative of di'ifan. to plunge). The act of working under water — either with or without mechanical aids to enable respiration — as in pearl and sponge fishing, the raising of sunken vessels, the laying of subaqueous foundations, or other operations under water. Formerly diving operations were confined mostly to pearl and sponge fisheries and were performed by divers who plunged beneath the water, remained as long as they were able to do without respiration, and then returned to the surface with their load. It has been asserted that the pearl-divers of the East acquired by practice the power to remain under water for fifteen or twenty minutes. There is absolutely no truth in such assertions, as no such endurance is possible; two, and sometimes three, minutes under water is the limit of endurance of the most skilltul divers unaided by mechanical means to support respiration. Most divers suffer se- verely from the continual eft'orts in holding the breath ; bloodshot eyes and the spitting of blood are common among them. This rude method of diving is but little u.sed now. even in the pearl and sponge fisheries, where it is particularly ap- plicable. Diving operations are now performed by means of diving-bells or special diving-dress. DmxG-BELL. The cncabus aquaticus. or aquatic kettle, described by Taisnier as having been used by two Greeks in Spain, at Toledo, in 1538, in the presence of the Emperor Charles V. and a multitude of spectators, is one of the earliest reliable accounts of a diving-bell. From his description, this must have been similar in principle and construction to the modern div- ing-bell, but of clumsy dimensions, and wanting in efficient means of renewing the supply of air. Dr. Halley's diving-bell, devised about 1720, was a wooden chamber, open at the liottom. where it was loaded with lead to keep it perpen- dicular in its descent. Strong pieces of glass were .set in the upper part to admit light. Casks filled with air. and loaded with lead, were let down with the bung-hole downward;