[7]
At any rate,
this praiseworthy tendency of the Academy to doubt
has been approved by the solemn judgement of a
most eminent philosopher.1
4. Accordingly, since I, too, am in doubt as to
the proper judgement to be rendered in regard to
divination because of the many pointed and exhaustive arguments urged by Carneades against the
Stoic view, and since I am afraid of giving a too
hasty assent to a proposition which may turn out
either false or insufficiently established, I have
determined carefully and persistently to compare
argument with argument just as I did in my three
books On the Nature of the Gods. For a hasty acceptance of an erroneous opinion is discreditable in any
case, and especially so in an inquiry as to how
much weight should be given to auspices, to sacred
rites, and to religious observances; for we run the
risk of committing a crime against the gods if we
disregard them, or of becoming involved in old
women's superstition if we approve them.
1 i.e. Panaetius.
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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