[32]
But grant that these absurdities of
Democritus are true—when do we ever
consult entrails to learn about crops or health, or
when have we acquired information on these partiticulars from a soothsayer after he had made an
inspection of entrails? The soothsayers warn us of
dangers by fire and flood and sometimes they prophesy the inheritance, sometimes the loss, of money;
they discuss the favourable and the unfavourable
cleft; they view the head of the liver with the
utmost care from every side. If, perchance, the
liver's head should be wanting they regard it as the
most unpropitious sign that could have happened.
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