[121]
59. "By applying conjecture to the countless
delusions of drunk or crazy men we may sometimes
deduce what appears to be a real prophecy; for who,
if he shoots at a mark all day long, will not occasionally hit it? We sleep every night and there is
scarcely ever a night when we do not dream; then
do we wonder that our dreams come true sometimes?
Nothing is so uncertain as a cast of dice and yet there
is no one who plays often who does not sometimes
make a Venus-throw and occasionally twice or thrice in
succession. Then are we, like fools, to prefer to say
that it happened by the direction of Venus rather
than by chance? And if we are to put no trust in
false visions at other times I do not see what especial
virtue there is in sleep to entitle its false visions to
[p. 509]
be taken as true.
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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