[61]
"If I were to ask Chrysippus the causes of all
the phenomena just mentioned, that distinguished
writer on divination would never say that they
happened by chance, but he would find an explanation for each of them in the laws of nature. For he
would say: ' Nothing can happen without a cause;
nothing actually happens that cannot happen; if
that has happened which could have happened, then
it should not be considered a portent; therefore
there are no such things as portents.' Now if a
thing is to be considered a portent because it is
seldom seen, then a wise man is a portent; for,
as I think, it oftener happens that a mule brings
forth a colt than that nature produces a sage. Chrysippus, in this connexion, gives the following
syllogism: 'That which could not have happened
never did happen; and that which could have
[p. 441]
happened is no portent; therefore, in any view,
there is no such thing as a portent.'
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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