[102]
But it is not true that the gods
do not love us (for they are the friends and benefactors of the human race); nor is it true that they
do not know what they themselves have determined
and planned; nor is it true that it is of no advantage
to us to know what is going to happen (for man
would be more prudent if he knew); nor is it true
that the gods think it inconsistent with their dignity
to give forecasts of the future (for there is no more
excellent quality than kindness); nor is it true that
they have not the power to know the future; therefore, it is not true that there are gods and yet that
[p. 487]
they do not give us signs of the future; but there
are gods; therefore they give us such signs; and
it is not true, if they give us such signs, that
they give us no means of understanding those signs,
otherwise their signs would be useless; nor, if they
give us the means, is it true that there is no divination: therefore divination exists.'
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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