Chap. 5.] ACCOUNT OF THE WOELD. 23 



Can we believe, or rather can there be any doubt, that it is 

 not polluted by stieh a disagreeable and complicated office ? 

 It is not easy to determine which opinion would be most 

 for the advantage of mankind, since we observe some who 

 have no respect for the Gods, and others who carry it to a 

 scandalous excess. They are slaves to foreign ceremonies ; 

 they carry on their fingers the Gods and the monsters whom 

 they worship*; they condemn and they lay great stress on 

 certain kinds of food ; they impose on themselves dreadful 

 ordinances, not even sleeping quietly They do not marry 

 or adopt children, or indeed do anything else, without the 

 sanction of their sacred rites. There are others, on the con- 

 trary, who will cheat in the very Capitol, and ^^iil forswear 

 themselves even by Jupiter Tonans^^ and while these thrive 

 in their crimes, the others torment themselves with their 

 superstitions to no purpose. ^o^ 



Among these discordant opinions mankind naKg discovered i 

 for thfiMiselves a kind of intermediate deity, by which our / 

 scepticism concerning God is still increased. For all over i 

 the world, in all places, and at all times. Fortune is the only 

 god whom every one invokes-, she alone is spoken of, she 

 alone is accused and is supposed to be guilty ; she alone is 

 in our thoughts, is praised and blamed^! and is loaded with 

 reproaches ; wavering as she is, conceived by the generality 

 of mankind to be blind, wandering, incoijstant, uncertain, 

 variable, and often favouring the unworthy. ^ To her are re- 

 ferred all our losses and all our gains, and in casting up the 

 accounts of mortals she alone balances the two pages of our 

 sheet^. We are so much in the power of chance, that chaiile ^ 

 itself is considered as a God, and the existence of God be- 

 comes doubtful. 



But there are others who reject this principle and assign 

 events to the influence of the stars \ and to the laws of our 



quam, noc exhibere alteri ; itaque neque ira neque gratia teneri, quod, quae 

 talia essent, imbecilla essent omnia." Cicero, De Nat. Deor. i. 45. 



* The author here alludes to the figures of the Egyptian deities that 

 were engraTen on rings. 



2 His specific office was to execute vengeance on the impious. 



* " sola utramque paginam facit." The words utraque pagina gene- 

 rally refer to the two sides of the same sheet, but, in this passage, they 

 probably mean the contiguous portions of the same surface. 



* " astroque suo eventu assignat j " the word astrum appears to be 



