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[8] The spirit pervading all the elements, seeing that they are eternal bodies, is always and everywhere strong in the power of prescience, and as the result of the knowledge which we acquire through varied studies makes us also sharers in the gifts of divina- tion; and the elemental powers, 1 when propitiated by divers rites, supply mortals with words of prophecy, as if from the veins of inexhaustible founts. These prophecies are said to be under the control of the divine Themis, so named because she reveals in advance [p. 95] decrees determined for the future by the law of the fates, which the Greeks call τεθειμένα; 2 and therefore the ancient theologians gave her a share in the bed and throne of Jupiter, the life-giving power.

1 Demons, in the Greek sense of the word δαίμονες; of. xiv. 11, 25, substantialis tutela.

2 Things fixed and immutable.

Ammianus Marcellinus. With An English Translation. John C. Rolfe, Ph.D., Litt.D. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1935-1940.

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