ld be wrong capriciously
to reject that of the hazel rod which has become so famous."

Having extinguished the skeptics, as one snuffs a candle, by means of
this admirable tale of the golden tooth, the learned author asserts
that "it must denote great ignorance of France, and even of books,
never to have heard of the divining rod. For I can say with certainty
that I have met quite by chance, both in Paris and the provinces, more
than fifty persons who have used this simple instrument in order to
find water, precious metals and hidden treasure, and in whose hands it
has actually turned. 'It is more reasonable,' says Father Malebranche,
'to believe one man who says, _I have seen_, than a million others who
talk at random.'

"It is somewhat difficult to determine exactly the period at which the
divining rod first came into use. I have discovered no reference to it
by writers previous to the middle of the Fifteenth century. It is
frequently referred to in the Testament de Basile Valentin, a
Benedictine monk who flourished about 1490,[2] and I observe that he
speaks of it in a way which might lead one to suppose that the use of
this rod was known before that period.

"Might we venture to advance the theory that the Divine Rod was known
and used nearly two thousand years ago?[3] Are we to count for naught
Cicero's illusion to divination by means of the rod, at the end of the
first book of his 'De Officiis,' 'If all that we need for our
nourishment and clothing comes to us, as people say, by means of some
divine rod, then each of us should relinquish public affairs and devote
all his time to the study.'

"Varro, according to Vetranius Maurus, left a satire called 'Virgula
Divina,' which was often quoted by Nonius Marcellus in his book
entitled _de Proprietate sermonum_. But what serves to convince me
that Cicero had in his mind the hazel twig, and that it was known at
that period, is the passage he quotes from Ennius, in the first half of
his 'De Divinatione,' in which the poet, scoffing at those who for a
drachma profess to teach the art of discovering hidden treasure, says
to them, 'I will give it you with pleasure, but it will be paid out of
the treasure found according to your method.'"

And so this seventeenth century Frenchman, his manner as wise as a
tree-full of owls, drones along from one musty authority to another in
defense of the mystic powers of the divining rod. He marshals them in
batteries of hea