The heaving sea oft warns of coming storms,8. "Your book, Prognostics, is full of such warning signs, but who can fathom their causes? And yet I see that the Stoic Boëthus has attempted to do so and has succeeded to the extent of explaining [p. 239] the phenomena of sea and sky.
When suddenly its depths begin to swell;
And hoary rocks, o'erspread with snowy brine,
To the sea, in boding tones, attempt reply;
Or when from lofty mountain-peak upsprings
A shrilly whistling wind, which stronger grows
With each repulse by hedge of circling cliffs.
[13]
We
may wonder at the variety of herbs that have
been observed by physicians, of roots that are good
for the bites of wild beasts, for eye affections, and
for wounds, and though reason has never explained
their force and nature, yet through their usefulness
they have won approval for the medical art and for
their discoverer.
"But come, let us consider instances, which
although outside the category of divination, yet
resemble it very closely1
1 The following verses and those in §§ 14, 15 are from Cicero's translation of the Diosemeia of Aratus.
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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