Ch. 7
How we ought to use divination.
THROUGH an unreasonable regard to divination many of
us omit many duties.258 For what more can the diviner
see than death or danger or disease, or generally things of
that kind? If then I must expose myself to danger for a
friend, and if it is my duty even to die for him, what need
have I then for divination? Have I not within me a
diviner who has told me the nature of good and of evil,
and has explained to me the signs (or marks) of both?
What need have I then to consult the viscera of victims or
the flight of birds, and why do I submit when he says, It
is for your interest? For does he know what is for my
interest, does he know what is good; and as he has
learned the signs of the viscera, has he also learned the
signs of good and evil? For if he knows the signs of
these, he knows the signs both of the beautiful and of the
ugly, and of the just and of the unjust. Do you tell me,
man, what is the thing which is signified for me: is it life
or death, poverty or wealth? But whether these things
are for my interest or whether they are not, I do not
intend to ask you. Why don't you give your opinion on
matters of grammar, and why do you give it here about
things on which we are all in error and disputing with
one another?259 The woman therefore, who intended to
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send by a vessel a month's provisions to Gratilla260 in her
banishment, made a good answer to him who said that
Domitian would seize what she sent, I would rather, she
replied, that Domitian should seize all than that I should
not send it.
What then leads us to frequent use of divination?
Cowardice, the dread of what will happen. This is the
reason why we flatter the diviners. Pray, master, shall I
succeed to the property of my father? Let us see: let us
sacrifice on the occasion.Yes, master, as fortune chooses.
When he has said, You shall succeed to the inheritance,
we thank him as if we received the inheritance from him.
The consequence is that they play upon us.261
What then should we do? We ought to come (to divination) without desire or aversion, as the wayfarer asks of
the man whom he meets which of two roads leads (to his
journey's end), without any desire for that which leads to
the right rather than to the left, for he has no wish to go by
any road except the road which leads (to his end). In the
same way ought we to come to God also as a guide; as we
use our eyes, not asking them to show us rather such
things as we wish, but receiving the appearances of
things such as the eyes present them to us. But now we
trembling take the augur (bird interpreter)262 by the hand,
and while we invoke God we intreat the augur, and say
Master have mercy on me;263 suffer me to come safe out of
this difficulty. Wretch, would you have then any thing
other than what is best? Is there then any thing better
than what pleases God? Why do you, as far as is in your
power, corrupt your judge and lead astray your adviser?
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