Cicero's Tusculan Disputations
in tilling the fallow ground that no violence was ever offered them,
and it was even thought a crime to eat them:
The Iron Age began the fatal trade
Of blood, and hammer'd the destructive blade;
Then men began to make the ox to bleed,
And on the tamed and docile beast to feed[238].
LXIV. It would take a long time to relate the advantages which we
receive from mules and asses, which undoubtedly were designed for our
use. What is the swine good for but to eat? whose life, Chrysippus
says, was given it but as salt[239] to keep it from putrefying; and as
it is proper food for man, nature hath made no animal more fruitful.
What a multitude of birds and fishes are taken by the art and
contrivance of man only, and which are so delicious to our taste that
one would be tempted sometimes to believe that this Providence which
watches over us was an Epicurean! Though we think there are some
birds--the alites and oscines[240], as our augurs call them--which were
made merely to foretell events.
The large savage beasts we take by hunting, partly for food, partly to
exercise ourselves in imitation of martial discipline, and to use those
we can tame and instruct, as elephants, or to extract remedies for our
diseases and wounds, as we do from certain roots and herbs, the virtues
of which are known by long use and experience. Represent to yourself
the whole earth and seas as if before your eyes. You will see the vast
and fertile plains, the thick, shady mountains, the immense pasturage
for cattle, and ships sailing over the deep with incredible celerity;
nor are our discoveries only on the face of the earth, but in its
secret recesses there are many useful things, which being made for man,
by man alone are discovered.
LXV. Another, and in my opinion the strongest, proof that the
providence of the Gods takes care of us is divination, which both of
you, perhaps, will attack; you, Cotta, because Carneades took pleasure
in inveighing against the Stoics; and you, Velleius, because there is
nothing Epicurus ridicules so much as the prediction of events. Yet the
truth of divination appears in many places, on many occasions, often in
private, but particularly in public concerns. We receive many
intimations from the foresight and presages of augurs and auspices;
from oracles, prophecies, dreams, and prodigies; and it often happens
that by these means events have proved happy to men, and imminent
dangers have been avoided. This knowledge, therefore--call it either a
kind of transport, or an art, or a natural faculty--is certainly found
only in men, and is a gift from the immortal Gods. If these proofs,
when taken separately, should make no impression upon your mind, yet,
when collected together, they must certainly affect you.
Besides, the Gods not only provide for mankind universally, but for
particular men. You may bring this universality to gradually a smaller
number, and again you may reduce that smaller number to individuals.
LXVI. For if the reasons which I have given prove to all of us that the
Gods take care of all men, in every country, in every part of the world
separate from our continent, they take care of those who dwell on the
same land with us, from east to west; and if they regard those who
inhabit this kind of great island, which we call the globe of the
earth, they have the like regard for those who possess the parts of
this island--Europe, Asia, and Africa; and therefore they favor the
parts of these parts, as Rome, Athens, Sparta, and Rhodes; and
particular men of these cities, separate from the whole; as Curius,
Fabricius, Coruncanius, in the war with Pyrrhus; in the first Punic
war, Calatinus, Duillius, Metellus, Lutatius; in the second, Maximus,
Marcellus, Africanus; after these, Paullus, Gracchus, Cato; and in our
fathers' times, Scipio, Laelius. Rome also and Greece have produced many
illustrious men, who we cannot believe were so without the assistance
of the Deity; which is the reason that the poets, Homer in particular,
joined their chief heroes--Ulysses, Agamemnon, Diomedes, Achilles--to
certain Deities, as companions in their adventures and dangers.
Besides, the frequent appearances of the Gods, as I have before
mentioned, demonstrate their regard for cities and particular men. This
is also apparent indeed from the foreknowledge of events, which we
receive either sleeping or waking. We are likewise forewarned of many
things by the entrails of victims, by presages, and many other means,
which have been long observed with such exactness as to produce an art
of divination.
There never, therefore, was a great man without divine inspiration. If
a storm should damage the corn or vineyard of a person, or any accident
should deprive him of some conveniences of life, we should not judge
from thence that the Deity hates or neglects him. The Gods take care of
great things, and disregard the small. But to truly great men all
things ever happen prosperously; as has been sufficiently asserted and
proved by us Stoics, as well as by Socrates, the prince of
philosophers, in his discourses on the infinite advantages arising from
virtue.
LXVII. This is almost the whole that hath occurred to my mind on the
nature of the Gods, and what I thought proper to advance. Do you,
Cotta, if I may advise, defend the same cause. Remember that in Rome
you keep the first rank; remember that you are Pontifex; and as your
school is at liberty to argue on which side you please[241], do you
rather take mine, and reason on it with that eloquence which you
acquired by your rhetorical exercises, and which the Academy improved;
for it is a pernicious and impious custom to argue against the Gods,
whether it be done seriously, or only in pretence and out of sport.
* * * * *
BOOK III.
I. When Balbus had ended this discourse, then Cotta, with a smile,
rejoined, You direct me too late which side to defend; for during the
course of your argument I was revolving in my mind what objections to
make to what you were saying, not so much for the sake of opposition,
as of obliging you to explain what I did not perfectly comprehend; and
as every one may use his own judgment, it is scarcely possible for me
to think in every instance exactly what you wish.
You have no idea, O Cotta, said Velleius, how impatient I am to hear
what you have to say. For since our friend Balbus was highly delighted
with your discourse against Epicurus, I ought in my turn to be
solicitous to hear what you can say against the Stoics; and I therefore
will give you my best attention, for I believe you are, as usual, well
prepared for the engagement.
I wish, by Hercules! I were, replies Cotta; for it is more difficult to
dispute with Lucilius than it was with you. Why so? says Velleius.
Because, replies Cotta, your Epicurus, in my opinion, does not contend
strongly for the Gods: he only, for the sake of avoiding any
unpopularity or punishment, is afraid to deny their existence; for when
he asserts that the Gods are wholly inactive and regardless of
everything, and that they have limbs like ours, but make no use of
them, he seems to jest with us, and to think it sufficient if he allows
that there are beings of any kind happy and eternal. But with regard to
Balbus, I suppose you observed how many things were said by him, which,
however false they may be, yet have a perfect coherence and connection;
therefore, my design, as I said, in opposing him, is not so much to
confute his principles as to induce him to explain what I do not
clearly understand: for which reason, Balbus, I will give you the
choice, either to answer me every particular as I go on, or permit me
to proceed without interruption. If you want any explanation, replies
Balbus, I would rather you would propose your doubts singly; but if
your intention is rather to confute me than to seek instruction for
yourself, it shall be as you please; I will either answer you
immediately on every point, or stay till you have finished your
discourse.
II. Very well, says Cotta; then let us proceed as our conversation
shall direct. But before I enter on the subject, I have a word to say
concerning myself; for I am greatly influenced by your authority, and
your exhortation at the conclusion of your discourse, when you desired
me to remember that I was Cotta and Pontifex; by which I presume you
intimated that I should defend the sacred rites and religion and
ceremonies which we received from our ancestors. Most undoubtedly I
always have, and always shall defend them, nor shall the arguments
either of the learned or unlearned ever remove the opinions which I
have imbibed from them concerning the worship of the immortal Gods. In
matters of religion I submit to the rules of the high-priests, T.
Coruncanius, P. Scipio, and P. Scaevola; not to the sentiments of Zeno,
Cleanthes, or Chrysippus; and I pay a greater regard to what C. Laelius,
one of our augurs and wise men, has written concerning religion, in
that noble oration of his, than to the most eminent of the Stoics: and
as the whole religion of the Romans at first consisted in sacrifices
and divination by birds, to which have since been added predictions, if
the interpreters[242] of the Sibylline oracle or the aruspices have
foretold any event from portents and prodigies, I have ever thought
that there was no point of all these holy things which deserved to be
despised. I have been even persuaded that Romulus, by instituting
divination, and Numa, by establishing sacrifices, laid the foundation
of Rome, which undoubtedly would never have risen to such a height of
grandeur if the Gods had not been made propitious by this worship.
These, Balbus, are my sentiments both as a priest and as Cotta. But you
must bring me to your opinion by the force of your reason: for I have a
right to demand from you, as a philosopher, a reason for the religion
which you would have me embrace. But I must believe the religion of our
ancestors without any proof.
III. What proof, says Balbus, do you require of me? You have proposed,
says Cotta, four articles. First of all, you undertook to prove that
there "are Gods;" secondly, "of what kind and character they are;"
thirdly, that "the universe is governed by them;" lastly, that "they
provide for the welfare of mankind in particular." Thus, if I remember
rightly, you divided your discourse. Exactly so, replies Balbus; but
let us see what you require.
Let us examine, says Cotta, every proposition. The first one--that
there are Gods--is never contested but by the most impious of men; nay,
though it can never be rooted out of my mind, yet I believe it on the
authority of our ancestors, and not on the proofs which you have
brought. Why do you expect a proof from me, says Balbus, if you
thoroughly believe it? Because, says Cotta, I come to this discussion
as if I had never thought of the Gods, or heard anything concerning
them. Take me as a disciple wholly ignorant and unbiassed, and prove to
me all the points which I ask.
Begin, then, replies Balbus. I would first know, says Cotta, why you
have been so long in proving the existence of the Gods, which you said
was a point so very evident to all, that there was no need of any
proof? In that, answers Balbus, I have followed your example, whom I
have often observed, when pleading in the Forum, to load the judge with
all the arguments which the nature of your cause would permit. This
also is the practice of philosophers, and I have a right to follow it.
Besides, you may as well ask me why I look upon you with two eyes,
since I can see you with one.
IV. You shall judge, then, yourself, says Cotta, if this is a very just
comparison; for, when I plead, I do not dwell upon any point agreed to