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‘But, just as in those days there were people
who complained of the obliquity and vagueness of
the oracles, so to-day there are people who make
an unwarranted indictment against their extreme
[p. 345]
simplicity. Such an attitude of mind is altogether
puerile and silly. It is a fact that children take more
delight and satisfaction in seeing rainbows, haloes, and
comets than in seeing moon and sun ; and so these
persons yearn for the riddles, allegories, and metaphors which are but reflections of the prophetic art
when it acts upon a human imagination. And if
they cannot ascertain to their satisfaction the reason
for the change, they go away, after pronouncing
judgement against the god, but not against us nor
against themselves for being unable by reasoning to
attain to a comprehension of the god's purpose.’
Plutarch. Moralia. with an English Translation by. Frank Cole Babbitt. Cambridge, MA. Harvard University Press. London. William Heinemann Ltd. 1936. 5.
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