Chapter 22.—Concerning the
Knowledge of the Worship Due to the Gods, Which Varro Glories in
Having Himself Conferred on the Romans.
What is it, then, that Varro boasts
he has bestowed as a very great benefit on his fellow-citizens,
because he not only recounts the gods who ought to be worshipped by
the Romans, but also tells what pertains to each of them? “Just
as it is of no advantage,” he says, “to know the name and
appearance of any man who is a physician, and not know that he is a
physician, so,” he says, “it is of no advantage to know well
that Æsculapius is a god, if you are not aware that he can bestow
the gift of health, and consequently do not know why you ought to
supplicate him.” He also affirms this by another comparison,
saying, “No one is able, not only to live well, but even to live
at all, if he does not know who is a smith, who a baker, who a
weaver, from whom he can seek any utensil, whom he may take for a
helper, whom for a leader, whom for a teacher;” asserting,
“that in this way it can be doubtful to no one, that thus the
knowledge of the gods is useful, if one can know what force, and
faculty, or power any god may have in any thing. For from this we
may be able,” he says, “to know what god we ought to call to,
and invoke for any cause; lest we should do as too many are wont to
do, and desire water from Liber, and wine from Lymphs.” Very
useful, forsooth! Who would not give this man thanks if he could
show true things, and if he could teach that the one true God, from
whom all good things are, is to be worshipped by men?