Oracles, and that
oftentimes they were miraculously exact in those Answers; and they give
that of the _Delphic_ Oracle answering the Question which was given
about _Croesus_ for an Example, _viz._ what _Croesus_ was doing at
that time? _to wit_, that he was boiling a Lamb and the Flesh of a
Tortoise together, in a brass Vessel, or Boiler, with a Cover of the
same Metal; that is to say, in a Kettle with a brass Cover.

To affirm therefore, that they were all Cheats, a Man must encounter
with Antiquity, and set his private Judgment up against an establish'd
Opinion; but 'tis no matter for that; if I do not see any thing in that
receiv'd Opinion capable of Evidence, much less of Demonstration, I must
be allow'd still to think as I do; others may believe as they list; I
see nothing hard or difficult in the Thing; the Priests, who were always
historically inform'd of the Circumstances of the Enquirer, or at least
something about them, might easily find some ambiguous Speech to make,
and put some double _Entendre_ upon them, which upon the Event solv'd
the Credit of the Oracle, were it one way or other; and this they
certainly did, or we have room to think the DEVIL knows less of Things
now than he did in former Days.

It is true that by these Delusions the Priests got infinite Sums of
Money, and this makes it still probable that they would labour hard, and
use the utmost of their Skill to uphold the Credit of their Oracles; and
'tis a full Discovery, as well of the Subtlety of the Sacrists, as of
the Ignorance and Stupidity of the People, in those early Days of
_Satan_'s Witchcraft; to see what merry Work the _Devil_ made with the
World, and what gross Things he put upon Mankind: Such was the Story of
the _Dordonian_ Oracle in _Epirus_, _viz_. That two _Pigeons_ flew out
of _Thebes_ (_N. B._ it was the _Egyptian Thebes_) from the Temple of
_Belus_, erected there by the antient Sacrists, and that one of these
fled Eastward into _Lybia_, and the Desarts of _Africk_, and the other
into _Greece_, namely, to _Dordona_, and these communicated the divine
Mysteries to one another, and afterwards gave mystical Solutions to the
devout Enquirers; first the _Dordonian_ Pigeon perching upon an Oak
spoke audibly to the People there, that the Gods commanded them to build
an Oracle, or Temple, to _Jupiter_, in that Place; which was accordingly
done: The other Pigeon did the like on the Hill in _Africa_, where it
commanded them to build an