BOOK I CH. It § 4. 71

tollunt etiam adversus deos impii sunt. Ab his enim constitutam inter homines societatem evertunt. In Fin. Iv 11, the knowledge of the Deity gained through the observation of nature is said to produce moderation, magnanimity and justice ; in Leg. 1 15 seq. the moral influence of religion is based more on the sanctity of oaths, and the fear of divine vengeance ; elsewhere it is the aspiration to imitate the divine life which is morally influential, Z’usc. 1 72, v 70: in Rep. vI 13 seq. we read that nothing is more pleasing to God than a life devoted to the good of our fellow men, that it is the path of justice and piety which leads to heaven’. If such sentiments as these were in any degree fostered by the ancient religions, —and what reader of Herodotus can doubt that this was the case even before they had undergone the rationalizing and purifying influence of philosophy?—I think it must be allowed that Bp. Lightfoot (note on Galatians iv 11) has taken too narrow a view in confining their propae- deutic influence to their ritual. There is of course another side which is well shown in Tholuck’s tract on the Moral Influence of Heathenism, but in judging of this we must not forget the crimes and the immoralities which have resulted from the antinomian and the ecclesiastical spirit in Christianity itself, in spite of the stress which it has always laid on good works as the test and fruit of religious faith.
una excellentissima: ‘the most preeminent of all’, see Mayor See. Phil. p. 127. So Aristotle Hth. v 115 justice in the wide sense dpery uév €ate Tedela, GAN ovx amAa@s GANA mpos Erepov" Kal id TODTO mOAAdKLS KpaTioTn tov dapetav Soxet 7 Sixacoovyn, x.t.A. Cf. Off. 1 20 justitia, in qua virtutis splendor est maximus, ex qua viri boni nominantur; 1 28 omniwm est domina et regina virtutum.
nobiles : i.e. the Stoics, as taking an exalted view of human nature, in opposition to the Epicureans whom he calls plebei, T'use. 1 55.
ab isdem vitae consuli: as an intransitive verb, consulo has to be used impersonally m the passive, like noceo, persuadeo, &c., see Roby § 1422.
fruges et reliqua, quae terra pariat : a periphrasis for ‘ plants’, the Romans having no single word corresponding to the Gr. dura. So just below quae terra gignat, Div. 1 30 gq. t. procreet. Cf. Beier Off. 17 22, Mady. Fin. Iv 13, Niagels. Std. § 36, 2.
tempestates : ‘changes of weather’. Like the Germ. wetter, temp. has a neutral as well as a bad sense.
temporum varietates: ‘the alternations of the seasons’.
caeli mutationes: ‘the varying phenomena of the heavens’, cf. Tuse. I 68.
- maturata pubescant : ‘ripened by which all that the earth produces
bursts into leaf.’ :
1 See more on this subject in Nigelsbach aah Homerische Theologie pp. 191—318, Plut. M. 1128.
72 BOOK I CH. UI § +.
colligunt : ‘adduce’; so Div. 11 33 multa Stoici colligunt.
his libris : see 11 151—168.
fabricati paene: ‘one might almost say, to have constructed these precise things for the good of man’. The word is used with a sneer at any thing which implies personal agency on the part of the Creator in § 19, where see n., and Acad. If 87 (see too $$ 30 and 119) natura quae finzerit, vel ut tuo verbo utar, quae fabricata sit, hominem. Cf. NV. D. 120 mundum manu paene factum.
ita: to be taken with disseruit, not with multa, ‘alleged many argu- ments so as to stimulate men’s inquiry after truth’, see Of. 18. This was the proper use of the Socratic elenchus (see the admirable chapter on Socrates in Grote’s Greece, also his Plato 1 241 foll.) but it had been mis- applied by the later Academics. For the collocation tta multa, see ita late § 54, and Sch. here. [So in Senect. 12 ta cupide where ta refers to quasi below. J.S. R.J
§ 5. docti: ‘educated’ memadevpevor, used esp. of philosophers; a learned man [rather ‘one who makes his livelihood by his learning’. J.S. R.] is litteratus, Holden on Off. 11 2.
alterum fieri—vera sit: We find the same thought, Acad. 1 115, 147, Plut. Pl. Q@. p. 1000. It 'is an Academic common-place, incon- sistent with C.’s own belief, cf. Leg. 147 perturbat nos opinionum varietas, hominumque dissensio, et quia non idem contingit in sensibus, hos natura certos putamus, illa, quae aliis sic, alits secus nec isdem semper uno modo videntur, ficta esse dicimus. Quod est longe aliter. Though none of the theories propounded were perfect, yet any one of them was better either than blank ignorance and indifference, or than a dilettantist scepticism. A fairer view of the varieties of belief is taken by Aristotle, Metaph. 1 992 B, and even by the Epicurean Philodemus wept evoeBeias p. 109 Gomp. ‘those who have written about the Gods deserve admiration for their in- tention, cat py dia THY advvapiay avoc.os vopifecOar’ mavras b€ avOperovs popia A€éyev dvocious, éreOnmep ovdeis ikvoupévas wept Tos Oeods Umapyes éxov amodeifets...... dpos b€ ceBovrat martes ef xy Tapaxorol tives’. Similarly the Christian Lactantius, vit 7 Facile est docere paene universam veritatem per philosophorum sectas esse divisam. Non enim sic philosophiam nos ever- timus ut Academic solent, quibus ad omnia respondere propositum est, quod est potius calumniari et iludere...Quod si eaxtitisset aliquis qui veritatem sparsam per singulos, per sectas diffusam colligeret in unum, is profecto non dissentiret a nobis, as he then proceeds to show in detail.
b. Cicero's defence against his critics. He had always been a student of philosophy, but had only lately begun to write upon it, partly by way of useful employment in his enforced absence from public life, partly as a solace under his heavy loss. His manner of expounding the different tenets of each school, without stating his own opinion, was intentionally adopted in order to provoke thought. The Academic