[111]
"However, there is a certain class of men, though
small in number, who withdraw themselves from
carnal influences and are wholly possessed by an
ardent concern for the contemplation of things
divine. Some of these men make predictions, not
as the result of direct heavenly inspiration, but by
the use of their own reason. For example, by means
of natural law, they foretell certain events, such as
a flood, or the future destruction of heaven and
earth by fire Others, who are engaged in public
life, like Solon of Athens,1 as history describes him,
discover the rise of tyranny long in advance. Such
men we may call 'foresighted'—that is, 'able to
foresee the future'; but we can no more apply the
term 'divine' to them than we can apply it to
Thales of Miletus, who, as the story goes, in order
to confound his critics and thereby show that even
a philosopher, if he sees fit, can make money, bought
up the entire olive crop in the district of Miletus
[p. 345]
before it had begun to bloom.2
Cicero: De Senectute De Amicitia De Divinatione. With An English Translation. William Armistead Falconer. Cambridge. Harvard University Press; Cambridge, Mass., London, England. 1923.
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