10. But if you urge that
bones, different kinds of honey, thresholds, and all the other
things which we have either run over rapidly, or, to avoid prolixity,
passed by altogether, have4131
| 4131
The ms. reading is quid si
haberet in sedibus suos, retained by the first five edd., with the
change of -ret into -rent—“what if in their
seats the bones had their own peculiar guardians;” Ursinus in the
margin, followed by Hild. and Oehler, reads in se divos
suos—“if for themselves the bones had gods as their own
peculiar,” etc.; the other edd. reading, as above, si habere
insistitis suos. |
their own
peculiar guardians, we may in
like manner introduce a
thousand other gods, who should care for and
guard innumerable things. For why should a
god have charge of
honey only, and not of gourds, rape, cunila, cress,
figs, beets,
cabbages? Why should the
bones alone have found protection, and
not the nails, hair, and all the other things which are placed in the
hidden parts and members of which we feel ashamed, and are exposed to
very many accidents, and stand more in need of the care and attention
of the gods? Or if you say that these parts, too, act under the
care of their own tutelar deities, there will begin to be as many gods
as there are things; nor will the cause be stated why the divine care
does not protect all things, if you say that there are certain things
over which the deities preside, and for which they
care>
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