42. It is a vast and endless
task to examine each kind separately, and make it evident even from
your religious books that you neither hold nor believe that there is
any god concerning whom you have not4064
| 4064
The ms. and first ed. omit
non. |
brought forward doubtful and
inconsistent statements, expressing a
thousand different beliefs.
But, to be brief, and
avoid prolixity,
4065
| 4065 Lit.,
“because of aversion.” |
it is enough to have said what has been
said; it is, further, too troublesome to
gather together many things
into one mass, since it is made manifest and evident in different ways
that you waver, and say nothing with certainty of these things which
you assert. But you will perhaps say, Even if we have no personal
knowledge of the Lares, Novensiles, Penates, still the very
agreement
of our
authors proves their existence, and that such a race
4066
| 4066
Lit., “the form of their race.” |
takes rank
among the celestial gods. And how can it be known whether there
is any
god, if what he is shall be wholly unknown?
4067
| 4067
i.e., ignorabitur et nescietur. |
or how can it avail even to ask for
benefits, if it is not settled and determined who should be invoked at
each inquiry?
4068
| 4068
The ms. reads
consolationem—“for each consolation,” i.e., to
comfort in every distress. |
For
every one who
seeks to obtain an answer from any
deity, should of
necessity know to whom he makes
supplication, on whom he calls, from
whom he asks help for the affairs and occasions of human life;
especially as you yourselves declare that all the gods do not have all
power, and
4069
that the wrath
and anger of each are appeased by different rites.
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