I have only one further remark on the point: an object may be consumed without being set on fire; it may also be set on fire without being consumed. XLI I pass on now to the kind of lightning that stains objects struck by 1 it. The staining is either discolouring or colouring, between which I draw a distinction. When the colour is spoiled, without being changed, there is discolouring. On the contrary, there is colouring when the aspect of an object becomes different in kind from what it was, for example, when it turns dark blue or black or pale. So far the Etruscans and the philosophers are in agreement. But disagreement begins when the former go on to assert that lightning is sent by Jupiter, to whom they assign three species of bolt. The first, according to their 2 statement, gives a peaceful warning, being sent by Jove’s own counsel. The second is, it is true, sent also by him, but by advice of his council, to which he summons the twelve gods as assessors. This bolt is no doubt beneficial, but not without doing damage to some extent. The third kind of bolt is still of Jove’s sending, but he summons into council the so-called supreme veiled gods. This bolt causes destruction of what it encounters, and in particular it changes the existing condition of private and public affairs that it finds. For fire allows nothing to remain as it is. XLII Taking a superficial view one would pronounce these old beliefs all 1 wrong. What could be more absurd than to believe that Jupiter hurls bolts from the clouds, aiming at pillars, trees, aye, and statues of himself sometimes, or that, passing by the sacrilegious unbelievers, he strikes sheep, sets fire to altars, and smites innocent flocks? or can one imagine that great Jove should call the gods into council, as if he were himself lacking in counsel? Or that those bolts bring promise of peace and joy that he hurls unaided, and those cause destruction in whose despatch a greater crowd of deities was concerned? If you ask my 2 opinion on the point, however, I may tell you that I do not for a moment suppose those people of old were so obtuse as to believe that Jupiter was evilly disposed or, to say the least of it, insufficiently prepared with his missiles. When he issued fiery bolts to pass over the heads of the wicked and strike the innocent, as is alleged, did he, do you suppose, refuse to send them with truer aim, or did he miss his shot? If that cannot be the explanation, what was the idea of those ancients in speaking as they did? Being men of profound wisdom 3 they were, in my opinion, of the settled conviction that fear was essential to restrain the passions of the ignorant; we must reverence something higher than ourselves. In a time of such audacious crime it was expedient that there be a belief in something which no criminal could seem powerful enough to resist. And so it was to terrify those wretches, against whose passions innocence is no protection unless