[26]
But this introductory part of my discussion has been
mere skirmishing with light infantry; now let me
come to close quarters and see if I cannot drive in
both wings of your argument.
11. "You divided divination into two kinds, one
artificial and the other natural.1 'The artificial,' you
said, 'consists in part of conjecture and in part of
long-continued observation; while the natural is that
which the soul has seized, or, rather, has obtained,
from a source outside itself—that is, from God,
whence all human souls have been drawn off,
received, or poured out.' Under the head of artificial divination you placed predictions made from
the inspection of entrails, those made from lightnings and portents, those made by augurs, and
by persons who depend entirely upon premonitory
signs. Under the same head you included practically every method of prophecy in which conjecture
was employed.
1 That which has been decreed by Fate to be Almighty Jove himself cannot prevent.
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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