[44]
For if he had but one bolt
his hurling it so often would be strange Nor would
he be able to give men so many advices by thunderbolts as to what they should or should not do. But
the Stoics account for the thunderbolt thus: 'When
the cold exhalations from the earth begin to circulate they become winds; when these winds enter a
cloud they begin to break-up and scatter its thinnest
portions; if they do this very rapidly and with great
violence, thunder and lightning are thereby produced.
Again, when clouds collide their heat is forcibly
driven out and the thunderbolt is the result.' Realizing, then, that these phenomena are due to natural
causes, and happen without regularity and at no
certain time, shall we look to them for signs of future
events? It is passing strange, if Jupiter warns us
by means of thunderbolts, that he sends so many
to no purpose!
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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