Oracle

“ The boy of fourteen used to sit like an oracle amid his council of learned prelates and practical statesmen, and deliver his opinions and decisions with a grave propriety, which was rather that of a hoary king, than of a mere youth. ”

“ All I shall then presume to say is, that I very readily leave the decision of the question to Reason, that inward oracle in every one’s breast; an oracle, which, in a cause so interesting to human Nature, can never return a false answer, where consulted by those who deserve to find the truth by sincerely seeking it, with a firm design to sacrifice to it the poor vanity of defending a prejudice, or any other interest of the passions. ”

“ Yet the story of the ancient oracle charms us still and when a name was sought for a national organization, that had for its avowed purpose the promotion of educational interests in a continent, none was deemed more suitable than that which for so many years cast its gracious spell from one sea to another. ”

“ But I may tell you that if you want to consult the oracle you have to go a long way between rows of round pillars, rather like those in Egyptian tombs. And as you go it gets darker and darker, and when it is quite dark you see a little, little light a very long way off, and you hear very far away, a beautiful music, and you smell the scent of flowers that do not grow in any wood or field or garden of this earth. ”

“ The person consulting the oracle is a stray leaf standing to the one side of it. If the face of the leaf is towards the grounds, that person is to come to a great fortune; if very positively its back, then farewell even to the hope “that keeps alive despair.” A small speck by itself is a letter, and other specks are envious people struggling to get to the top, followers, etc. ”

“ Just at this crisis the oracle entered, who, having authority by a few spoken words, to join together those whom no man may put asunder, these poor people simply imagine him gifted with equal power to annul the contract with a breath of his mouth. ”

“ I am conscious of no gap in my soul, but it would seem that, now the entrance to the oracle has been enlarged, the more rare and commonplace the responses that issue from it. I have felt cheap, and hardly dared hold up my head among men, ever since this accident happened. Nothing can I do as well and freely as before ”

“ Finding themselves oracles they first consult the oracle by aid of looking glasses, analyse in this way their own actions, and then the one who parts his fingers lays it down as a law that the fingers should be parted, and the one with the peculiar movement of the elbow will not rest until all his pupils have acquired the same eccentricity. ”

“ Fable, much more true than ancient history, for eyes prepared, comes in to strengthen the demonstration. It is always an oracle, which founds cities; it is always an oracle, which announces the Divine protection, and successes of the heroic founder. Kings, especially, the chiefs of rising empires, are constantly designated, and, as it were, marked, by Heaven, in some extraordinary manner. ”

“ The authoritative oracle, which is to decide our path, is something more searching and manifold than such jejune generalizations as treatises can give, which are most distinct and clear when we least need them. It is seated in the mind of the individual, who is thus his own law, his own teacher, and his own judge in those special cases of duty which are personal to him. ”

“ When they made peace or war, enacted laws, reformed states, or changed the constitution, they had in all these cases recourse to the oracle by public authority. Also, in private life, if a man wished to marry, if he proposed to take a journey, or to engage in any business of importance, he repaired to the oracle for counsel. ”

“ The voyaging quest is long and perilous; in each island at which the adventurers touch, some social or ecclesiastical abuse is exhibited for ridicule; the word of the oracle is in the end the mysterious "Drink"—drink, that is, if one may venture to interpret an oracle, of the pure water of wisdom and knowledge, and let the unknown future rest. ”

“ The second way of consulting the oracle was by a party of men, who first retired to solitary places, remote from any house, and then singling out one of their number, wrapt him in a large cow’s hide, which they folded about him, covering all but his head, in which posture they left him all night until his invisible friends relieved him by giving a proper answer to the question put ”

“ ORACLE (Lat. oraculum, from orare, to pray; the corresponding Greek word is μαντεῖον or χρηστήριον) , a special place where a deity is supposed to give a response, by the mouth of an inspired priest, to the inquiries of his votaries; or the actual response. The whole question of oracles—whether in the sense of the response or the sacred place—is bound up with that of magic, divination and omens, to the articles on which the reader is referred. They are commonly found in the earlier stages of religious culture among different nations. ”

“ We may devoutly enter the temple of nature, we may reverently tread her emerald floor, and gaze on her blue, ‘star-pictured ceiling,’ but to our anxious inquiry, though proposed with heart-breaking intensity, the oracle is dumb, or like those of Delphi and Dodona, mutters only 9an ambitious reply that leaves us in utter bewilderment. ”

“ The Douay reads, 'And when Moses entered into the tabernacle of the covenant to consult the oracle, he heard the voice of one speaking to him from the propitiary that was over the ark, between the two cherubims, and from this place he spake to him.' Is not this similar to the oracle-consulting of other nations? It is admitted now, by all intelligent men, that the oracles of Delphos, of Ammon, and of Dodona, were only instances of jugglery and cunning, practised by the priest on the people. In what respects are the oracles of the Jews superior? ”

“ He put this engine into our ears, which made an incessant noise, like that of a water-mill: and we conjecture it is either some unknown animal, or the god that he worships; but we are more inclined to the latter opinion, because he assured us, (if we understood him right, for he expressed himself very imperfectly) that he seldom did any thing without consulting it. He called it his oracle, and said, it pointed out the time for every action of his life. ”

“ The lofty towers of Ashkelon lie scattered on the ground, and the ruins within its walls do not shelter a human being. How is the wrath of man made to praise his Creator! Hath he not said, and shall he not do it? The oracle was delivered by the mouth of the prophet more than five hundred years before the Christian era, and we beheld its accomplishment eighteen hundred years after that event. ”

“ And the oracle is above the grove on the mountain. And there is round it a circular wall of stone, the circumference of which is very small, and height rather less than two cubits. And there are some brazen pillars and girders that connect them, and through them are doors. And inside is a cavity in the earth, not natural, but artificial, and built with great skill. And the shape of this cavity resembles that of an oven: the breadth of which (measured diametrically) may be considered to be about 4 cubits, and the depth not more than 8 cubits. ”

“ The defender of the faith has no difficulty in quieting the suspicion. Even in the great ages we know that oracles were sometimes delivered in prose,2259 and in ancient times excited feeling ran naturally into verse.2260 The stately hexameter was the appropriate form of utterance when the oracle had to deal with great events affecting the fate of cities and of nations. ”

“ And he told them that, if they obeyed the injunctions given them by the oracle, and if in their banquets they paid the goddess the satisfaction to which she was entitled, they should be protected from injury: on which account the Carians, wishing to obey the commands laid on them by the oracle, abolished the use of those garlands which they had previously been accustomed to wear, but permitted all those who were employed in the service of the goddess still to wear the garland of bay-tree, which remains in use even to this day. ”

“ But by far the most striking instance of a tree-oracle, and perhaps one may even say the most signal vestige of the primitive tree-worship, was the oracle of the Pelasgic Zeus at Dodona in Epirus. Here in a grove of oaks there was a very ancient tree, believed to be the actual seat of the deity, whose responses were interpreted from the rustling of its branches, from the murmur of the sacred spring which welled forth at its foot, or from the drawing of the oracle lots kept in an urn beneath it. The origin of the oracle is lost in prehistoric gloom ”

“ It is significant that the place of the oracle was the topmost chamber of the tower. The god is conceived as coming down from heaven;350 it is there that he lives, not in the underground recesses of the mountain of the world or fathomless abysses of the sea. ”

“ Delphi was celebrated throughout the world, in ancient times, not only for the oracle itself, but for the magnificence of the architectural structures, the boundless profusion of the works of art, and the immense value of the treasures which, in process of time, had been accumulated there. The various powers and potentates that had resorted to it to obtain the responses of the oracle, had brought rich presents, or made costly contributions in some way, to the service of the shrine. ”

“ ZOO. Not here, Daddy. With us life is too long for telling lies. They all get found out. Youd better ask me questions while you have the chance.
THE ELDERLY GENTLEMAN. If I have occasion to consult the oracle I shall address myself to a proper one: to a tertiary: not to a primary flapper playing at being an oracle. If you are a nurserymaid, attend to your duties; and do not presume to ape your elders. ”

“ Oracles they became: as oracles they appeared in the early history of the Christian Church; and oracles they remained for centuries: eternal life or death, infinite happiness or agony, as well as ordinary justice in this world, being made to depend on shifting interpretations of a long series of dark and doubtful utterances—interpretations frequently given by men who might have been prophets and apostles, but who had become simply oracle-mongers. ”

“ Luitpold Wolkenstein did not wait for the quorum of domino players to arrive. They would all have read the article in the Freie Presse. And there are moments when an oracle finds its greatest salvation in withdrawing itself from the area of human questioning. ”

“ The reputation of oracles was greatly lessened when they became an artifice of politics. Themistocles, with a design of engaging the Athenians to quit Athens, in order to be in a better condition to resist Xerxes, made the Pythoness deliver an oracle, commanding them to take refuge in wooden walls. ”

“ A questioner having been selected, he calls on each individual to choose a number under the question proposed, and reads each answer aloud as the number is mentioned. If the party agree to the arrangement, the author of the Oracle can be demanded by the questioner, and a forfeit paid in case of ignorance, or a premium given for a correct answer.
If the person whose Oracle is read cannot tell the author, any one of the party may be allowed a trial in turn, and receive the premium.
[21]
WHAT IS YOUR CHARACTER?
GENTLEMAN.
All our knowledge is ourselves to know. ”

“ The ‘Oracle’ has in the centre a wheel of fortune with two winged Pg 256children on clouds, one of whom holds a scroll inscribed ‘Oracle.’ On the sides of the fan the names of the ten greater gods and goddesses, in ten columns, the names disposed differently in each. On the lower part of the fan the ‘Explication’ of the Oracle, and ‘examples’ together with the questions, as—‘Whether one is to get Riches; Whether one will be successful in Love ”

“ So much for a blind obedience to a blundering oracle, throwing the stones over their heads behind them, and not seeing where they fell. ”

“ The Tyrians consulted the oracle in consequence of the earthquakes which vexed their country (Book III., line 225) , and were told to found colonies. (11) See Herodotus, Book VII., 140-143. The reference is to the answer given by the oracle to the Athenians that their wooden walls would keep them safe; which Themistocles interpreted as meaning their fleet. (12) Cicero, on the contrary, suggests that the reason why the oracles ceased was this, that men became less credulous. ("De Div.", ii., 57) Lecky, "History of European Morals from Augustus to Charlemagne", vol. ”

“ Byron, English Bards and Scotch Reviewers (1809) .
Oracle of the Church (The) , St. Bernard (1091-1153) .
[127] Oracle of the Holy Bottle (The) , an oracle sought for by Rabelais, to solve the knotty point “whether Panurge (2 syl.) should marry or not.” The question had been put to sibyl and poet, monk and fool, philosopher and witch, but none could answer it. The oracle was ultimately found in Lantern-land.
This, of course, is a satire on the celibacy of the clergy and the withholding of the cup from the laity. Shall the clergy marry or not?—that was the moot point ”

“ If not so well organized, weaker numerically, or with an indifferent general, they would let fighting alone. The priests if well informed would give either a positive or a negative answer, but if they knew nothing about either party, they would deliver the answer of the oracle in such dubious expressions or terms, that let what would happen to the inquirer, the answer might be accommodated or explained to mean the event that came to pass. ”

“ Socrates was pronounced by the oracle of Delphos to be the wisest man of Greece, which he would put from himself ironically, saying, "there would be nothing in him to verify the oracle, except this; ”

“ Those who heard this answer laughed at it, not knowing what was in the billet: but the governor having opened it showed them these words written in it; shall I immolate to thee a black ox or a white one? and that the oracle had thus answered his question without opening the note. But who can answer for their not having deceived the bearer of the billet in this case, as did Alexander of Abonotiche, a town of Paphlagonia, in Asia Minor. ”