Moreover, having said in his book of Exhortations,
[p. 452]
that the having carnal commerce with our mothers, daughters, or sisters, the eating forbidden food, and the going
from a woman's bed or a dead carcass to the temple, have
been without reason blamed, he affirms, that we ought for
these things to have a regard to the brute beasts, and from
what is done by them conclude that none of these is absurd or contrary to Nature; for that the comparisons of
other animals are fitly made for this purpose, to show that
neither their coupling, bringing-forth, nor dying in the
temples pollutes the Divinity. Yet he again in his Fifth
Book of Nature says, that Hesiod rightly forbids the making
water into rivers and fountains, and that we should rather
abstain from doing this against any altar. or statue of the
Gods; and that it is not to be admitted for an argument,
that dogs, asses, and young children do it, who have no
discretion or consideration of such things. It is therefore
absurd to say in one place, that the savage example of
irrational animals is fit to be considered, and in another,
that it is unreasonable to allege it.
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