But to us he gives tokens brighter and stronger and more evident than these, in having, after the days of drought, of desertion and poverty, brought us plenty, splendour, and reputation. True, I am well pleased with myself for anything which my own [Sidenote: C] zeal or service may have contributed to this result in support of Polycrates and Petraeus, well pleased too with him who has been our leader in this policy, to whose thought and planning most of the improvements are due; but it is wholly impossible that so great, so vast a change could have been effected in this short time by merely human care, with no God present here or lending his Divinity to the place of the oracle. XXX. ‘But as in those days there were some who found fault with the responses for obliquity and want of clearness, so now there are those who criticize them as too simple, which is childishness indeed and rank stupidity! For as children show more glee and satisfaction at the sight of rainbows or haloes or comets than in that of the sun or of the moon, so do these [Sidenote: D] people regret the riddles, allegories, and metaphors which are so many modes of refraction of prophetic art in a mortal and fanciful medium. And if they do not fully inquire into the cause of the change, they go away having passed judgement against the God, rather than against ourselves or themselves, for having a power of thought which is too feeble to attain to his counsels.’ Footnote 84: Again quoted by Plutarch, p. 777 C. Footnote 85: _Od._ 7, 107. Footnote 86: Fr. 7. Footnote 87: In a lost ‘Hymn’, Fr. 32. Footnote 88: See H. Richards in _Classical Review_, vol. 29, p. 233. Footnote 89: Reading Ἑλλήνων as Ed. Teub. fr. Stegmann. Footnote 90: _Rhet._ 3, 11. Footnote 91: Puteoli. Footnote 92: πετρῶν καταφλεγομένων (J. H. W. Strijd in _Class. Rev._ vol. 28, p. 218). Footnote 93: Quoted by Menander, Fr. 243 (Meineke). Footnote 94: Quoted also in the _Life of Agesilaus_, c. 3, p. 597. Footnote 95: Palaea Kaumene, a volcanic island ejected in 196 B. C. See Tozer’s _Islands of the Aegean_, p. 97 foll. Footnote 96: _Od._ 3, 1. Footnote 97: _Tim._ 90. Footnote 98: See p. 283. Footnote 99: Xen. _Sympos._ c. 2. Footnote 100: Reading χώρας for δωρεᾶς with Emperius (ap. Ed. Teub.). Footnote 101: See Herod. 1, 51. Footnote 102: Fr. 44. Footnote 103: Here the text is defective. Footnote 104: Here the text is defective. Footnote 105: I, 118. Footnote 106: MSS. have ‘Pausanias’. Footnote 107: These words are supplied from the text of Thucydides, 5, 10. Footnote 108: The word ἀναγκαῖον is suggested by the Teubner Editor. Footnote 109: Fr. 11. Footnote 110: _Od._ 2, 372. Footnote 111: _Il._ 2, 169 foll. Footnote 112: _Il._ 4, 86 foll. Footnote 113: _Il._ 5, beg. Footnote 114: