The company remaining a while in silence, Ammonius, addressing himself to me, said: Prithee, Lamprias,
let us take care of what we say, and not be rash in our
assertions; for we do not well when we make the God to
be little or no cause of these oracles ceasing; for he that
attributes the failing of them to any other cause than the
will and decree of the God gives occasion to suspect him
of believing that they never were nor are now by his disposition, but by some other means. For there is no other
more excellent and noble cause and power which can destroy and abolish divination, if it be the work of a God.
And as for Plantiades's discourse, it does not at all please
me, as well for the inequality and inconstancy which he attributes to the God, as for other reasons. For he makes
him sometimes rejecting and detesting vice, and sometimes
admitting and receiving it, just as a king, or rather a tyrant, who drives wicked people out of one gate, and receives them through another, and negotiates with them.
But the greatest and most perfect work, that will admit of
no additions, is that which agrees best with the dignity of
the Gods. By supposing this, we may in my judgment
affirm that in this common scarcity of men, occasioned by
the former wars and seditions over all the world, Greece
has most suffered; so that she can with much difficulty
[p. 12]
raise three thousand men, which number the single city of
Megara sent heretofore to Plataea. Wherefore if the
God now forsakes several oracles which anciently were
frequented, what is this but a sign that Greece is at this
time very much dispeopled, in comparison of what it was
heretofore; and he that will affirm this shall not want for
arguments. For of what use would the oracle be now,
which was heretofore at Tegyra or at Ptoum? For scarcely shall you meet, in a whole day's time, with so much as
a herdsman or shepherd in those parts. We find also in
writing, that this place of divination where we now are,
and which is as ancient as any, and as famous and renowned
as any in all Greece, was for a considerable time deserted
and inaccessible, by means of a dangerous creature that
resorted hither, namely a dragon. Yet those that have
written this did not well comprehend the occasion of the
oracle's ceasing; for the dragon did not make the place
solitary, but rather the solitude of the place occasioned
the dragon to repair hither. Since that time, when Greece
became populous and full of towns, they had two women
prophetesses, who went down one after another into the
cave. Moreover, there was a third chosen, if need were;
whereas now there is but one, and yet we do not complain
of it, because she is sufficient. And therefore we do not
well to repine at Providence, seeing there is no want
of divinations, where all that come are satisfied in whatever they desire to know. Homer tells us, Agamemnon had nine heralds, and yet with these could he
hardly keep in order the Greeks, they being so many in
number; but you will find here that the voice of one man
is sufficient to be heard all over the theatre. The oracles
then spake by more organs or voices, because there were
then a greater number of men. So that we should think
it strange, if the God should suffer the prophetical divination to be spilt and run to waste like water, or everywhere
[p. 13]
to resound, as in solitary fields we hear the rocks echoing
the voices of shepherds and bleating cattle.
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