Both of one line, both of one country boast,where he declares Jupiter's prerogative in wisdom and science to be the more honorable, by terming it the elder. I, for my own part, do believe that the felicity of eternal living which the Gods enjoy lies mainly in this, that nothing escapes their cognizance that passes in the sphere of generation, and that, should we set aside wisdom and the knowledge of true beings,3 immortality itself would not be life, but merely a long time. [p. 66]
But royal Jove's the eldest and knows most;
2
IT becomes wise men, dame Clea,1 to go to the Gods
for all the good things they would enjoy. Much more
ought we, when we would aim at that knowledge of them
which our nature can arrive at, to pray that they themselves would bestow it upon us; truth being the greatest
good that man can receive, and the goodliest blessing that
God can give. Other good things he bestows on men as
they want them, they being not his own peculiars nor of
any use to himself. For the blessedness of the Deity consists not in silver and gold, nor yet his power in lightnings
and thunders, but in knowledge and wisdom. And it was
the best thing Homer ever said of Gods, when he pronounced thus:
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