<SPAN name="THE_ROGUE_AND_THE_ORACLE"></SPAN>
<h2>THE ROGUE AND THE ORACLE</h2>
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<p>A Rogue laid a wager that he would prove the Oracle at Delphi to
be untrustworthy by procuring from it a false reply to an inquiry
by himself. So he went to the temple on the appointed day with a
small bird in his hand, which he concealed under the folds of his
cloak, and asked whether what he held in his hand were alive or
dead. If the Oracle said "dead," he meant to produce the bird
alive: if the reply was "alive," he intended to wring its neck and
show it to be dead. But the Oracle was one too many for him, for
the answer he got was this: "Stranger, whether the thing that you
hold in your hand be alive or dead is a matter that depends
entirely on your own will."</p>
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