[60]
28. "Are we going to be frightened at these
tales of portents, whether of animal or of human
birth? Not to be too verbose, all portents have one
and the same explanation and it is this: whatever
comes into existence, of whatever kind, must needs
find its cause in nature; and hence, even though it
may be contrary to experience, it cannot be contrary to nature. Therefore, explore the cause, if
you can, of every strange thing that excites your
astonishment. If you do not' find the cause be
assured, nevertheless, that nothing could have
happened without a cause, and employ the principles
of natural philosophy to banish the fear which the
novelty of the apparition may have occasioned.
Then no earthquake or opening of the heavens, no
showers of stones or blood, no shooting stars, or
comets, will fill you with alarm.
Cicero: De Senectute De Amicitia De Divinatione. With An English Translation. William Armistead Falconer. Cambridge. Harvard University Press; Cambridge, Mass., London, England. 1923.
The Annenberg CPB/Project provided support for entering this text.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.