[130]
And
while it is difficult, perhaps, to apply this principle
of nature to explain that kind of divination which
we call artificial, yet Posidonius, who digs into the
question as deep as one can, thinks that nature gives
certain signs of future events. Thus Heraclides
of Pontus records that it is the custom of the
people of Ceos, once each year, to make a careful
observation of the rising of the Dog-star and from
such observation to conjecture whether the ensuing
year will be healthy or pestilential. For if the star
rises dim and, as it were enveloped in a fog, this
indicates a thick and heavy atmosphere, which will
give off very unwholesome vapours; but if the star
appears clear and brilliant, this is a sign that the
atmosphere is light and pure and, as a consequence,
will be conducive to good health.
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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