[83]
What a
conflict this is! In view, then, of the differences
between different nations in the responses, in the
manner in which observations are made and in
the kinds of birds and signs employed, need I
assert that divination is compounded of a little
error, a little superstition, and a good deal of
fraud?
40. "And to these superstitions you have actually
joined omens! For example: ' Aemilia told Paulus
that Persa was dead and her father accepted this
as an omen.'1 ' Caecilia said that she surrendered
her seat to her sister's daughter.' Then you go
on and speak of the order of silence, favete linguis2
and the 'prerogative,' or omen of the elections.3
This is indeed turning the artillery of one's eloquence
and learning against oneself! For while on the
watch for these 'oracles' of yours could you be so
free and calm of mind that you would have reason
and not superstition to guide your course? Now, if a
person in the course of his own business or conversation should make some remark, and a word spoken
by him happened to apply to what you were doing
or thinking, do you really believe that such an
accident should cause you either fear or joy?
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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