BOOK II. VI. 27-VII. 6
"Would you like to have me read you paeans?" "Why bother me? Do you not know the trouble that I am in? What, is it possible for me in this condition?" In what condition, then? "I am about to die." But will other men be immortal?
CHAPTER VII
How should one employ Divination?
Because we employ divination when there is no occasion for it, many of us neglect many of the duties of life. For what can the diviner see that is of greater import than death,[1] or danger, or illness, or in general such things as these? If, then, it becomes necessary for me to risk my life for my friend, and if it becomes my duty even to die for him, where do I find beyond that any occasion to employ divination? Have I not within me the diviner that has told me the true nature of good and of evil, that has set forth the signs characteristic of both of them? What further use have I, then, of entrails, or of birds? But when he says, "It is expedient for you," do I accept it? Why, does he know what is expedient? Does he know what is good? 5Has he learned the signs characteristic of things good and things evil, as he has the signs characteristic of entrails? For if he knows the signs characteristic of these, he knows also those of things honourable and base, and right and wrong. Man, it is for you to tell me what is indicated by signs—life or death, poverty or wealth; but whether
- ↑ The idea seems to be: We go to a diviner in order to find out what acts to avoid if we would escape evils to ourselves. But the things in life that are accounted our chief ills are death, danger, illness, and the like. These evils one must sometimes, in self-respect, accept, and they are in fact, not evils at all. Hence the petty things about which men consult the diviner fall into insignificance.
