Such springs have usually been deemed oracular, not only in the East, but in almost every section of the globe.
At first, by the murmuring of waters, and afterward by noises among the trees, the sacred impostors interpreted the voice of the god.

It is an old truth, that mystery is always imposing and often convenient.
To plain questions were given dark answers, which might admit of interpretation according to the event.

The importance attached to the oracle, the respect paid to the priest, and the presents heaped on the altar, indicated to craft and ambition a profitable profession.

And that profession became doubly alluring to its members, because it proffered to the priests an authority in serving the oracles which they could not obtain in the general religion of the people.

Oracles increased then, at first slowly, and afterward rapidly, until they grew so numerous that the single district of Boeotia contained no less than twenty-five.