458 THE OCTAVIUS OF are better,but itisalsoregardedin such esteem,1that,in the caseof many people,you know not whether theirdepravityis most tobe detested,or theirfelicityto be desired.But ifthe world were governed by divineprovidenceand by the autho rityof any deity,Phalarisand Dionysiuswould never have deserved to reign,Rutiliusand Camilluswould never have meritedbanishment,Socrateswould never have merited the poison. Behold the fruit-bearingtrees,behold the harvest alreadywhite,the vintage,alreadydropping,isdestroyedby the rain,isbeaten down by the hail. Thus eitheran uncer taintruth is hidden from us, and kept back ; or,which is ratherto be believed,in thesevariousand wayward chances, fortune,unrestrainedby laws,isrulingoverus. CHAPTER VI. Argument. — The objectof allnations,and especiallyof the Romans, in worshippingtheirdivinities,has beentoattain for theirworship the supreme dominion over the whole earth. " Since, then,eitherfortuneiscertainor natureisuncertain, how much more reverentialand betterit is,as the high priestsof truth,to receivethe teachingof your ancestors,to cultivatethe religionshanded down to you, to adorethe gods whom you were firsttrainedby your parentsto fearrather than to know* with familiarity; not toassertan opinioncon cerningthe deities,but tobelieveyour forefathers,who, while the age was stilluntrainedin the birth-timesof the world itself,deservedto have gods eitherpropitiousto them, or as theirkings.8 Thence, therefore,we seethrough allempires, and provinces,and cities,that each people has itsnational ritesof worship,and adoresitslocalgods : as the Eleusinians lOr, " itisextolled." 2 " To thinkofratherthantoknow " insometexts. 3Neanderquotesthispassageas illustratingthedissatisfiedstateof thepaganmindwiththeprevailinginfidelityatthattime.