That is, we can foreknow, if not control, the results of the processes of universal nature. Since it is through the forces of nature that we do this, augury, oracular utterances, oneiromancy and astrology all become for Ammianus but subdivisions of physical science. He admits that there are persons who disagree with him, who object that predictions are often erroneous; but against such persons he employs the old refutation that occasional mistakes are to be attributed to man's imperfect knowledge and faulty observation, and that by such mistakes the validity of divination is no more disproved than is grammar forever discredited because a grammarian speaks incorrectly, or music because a musician sings out of tune.[1] Opposition to the arts of divination he calls "vanities plebeia," and upon such loud-mouthed ignorance of the vulgar he looks down with much the same superior smile that the lover of speculative philosophy to-day bestows upon the man in the street who irritably disputes the utility of that subject.
Indeed, the strength of Ammianus's attachment to divination is so great that he quotes its arch-opponent, Cicero, in its support. For he concludes his discussion of the subject in these words: "Wherefore in this as in other matters Tully says most admirably, ’Signs of future events are shown by the gods.'"[2] Unless perchance Ammianus was
- ↑ Bk. xxi, ch. i, sec. 13.
- ↑ Bk. xxi, ch. i, sec. 14. "Unde praeclare hoc quoque ut alia Tullius 'signa ostenduntur' ait 'a dis rerum futurarum.'" "Dis" seem to be practically identical in Ammianus's mind with natural forces.
omnium principi malivoli praenoscendi futura pravas artes adsignant, advertendum est breviter unde sapienti viro hoc quoque accidere potent doctrinae genus haud leve. Elementorum omnium spiritus, utpote perennium corporum praesentendi motu semper et ubique vigens ex his quae per discipHnas varias aflfectamus, participat nobiscum munera divinandi; et substantiales potestates ritu diverse placatae, velut ex perpetuis fontitmi venis vaticina mortalitati subpeditant verba."
