There were those who, to acquire an influence over the people, pretended to possess the confidence, and enjoy the friendship and counsel, of some one or more deities.  Such was Numa, the early lawgiver of the Roman State.  In order to induce the people to adopt the regulations, institutions, and religious rites he proposed, he made them believe that he had access to a divinity, and received all his plans and ideas as a communication from on high.

Persons who, in consequence of their superior acquirements, were enabled to excel others in any pursuit, or who could foresee and avail themselves of events in the natural world, were liable, without any intention to deceive, to be classed under some of these denominations.  For instance, a Roman farmer, Furius Cresinus, surpassed all his neighbors in the skill and success with which he managed his agricultural affairs.  He was accordingly accused of using magic arts in the operations of his farm.  So far were his neighbors carried by their feelings of envy and jealousy, that they explained the fact of his being able to derive more produce from a small lot of land than they could from large ones, by charging him with attracting and drawing off the productions of their fields into his own by the employment of certain mysterious charms.  For his defence, as we are informed by Pliny, he produced his strong and well-constructed ploughs, his light and convenient spades, and his sun-burnt daughters, and pointing to them exclaimed:  “Here are my charms; this is my magic; these only are the witchcraft I have used.”  Zoroaster, the great philosopher and astronomer of the ancient East, was charged with divination and magic, merely, it is probable, because he possessed uncommon acquirements.

There were persons who had acquired an extraordinary amount of natural knowledge, and, for the sake of being regarded with wonder and awe by the people, pretended to obtain their superior endowments from supernatural beings.  They affected the name and character of sorcerers, diviners, and soothsayers.  It is easy to conceive of the early existence and the great influence of such impostors.  Patient observation, and often mere accident, would suggest discoveries of the existence and operation of natural causes in producing phenomena before ascribed to superhuman agency.  The knowledge thus acquired would be cautiously concealed, and cunningly used, to create astonishment and win admiration.  Its fortunate possessors were enabled to secure the confidence, obedience, and even reverence, of the benighted and deceived people.

Every one, indeed, who could discover a secret of nature, and keep it secret, was able to impose himself on the world as being allied with supernatural powers.  Hence arose the whole host of diviners, astrologers, soothsayers, and oracles.  After having once acquired possession of the credulous faith of the people, they could impose upon them almost without limit.