had come to believe to be immortal gods; whilst those same demons were delighted even with such rites, having presented themselves to receive worship under pretence of being those very dead men whom they had caused to be thought immortal gods by certain fallacious miracles, performed in order to establish that belief. But, by the hidden providence of the true God, these demons were permitted to confess these things to their friend Numa, having been gained by those arts through which necromancy could be performed, and yet were not constrained to admonish him rather at his death to burn than to bury the books in which they were written. But, in order that these books might be unknown, the demons could not resist the plough by which they were thrown up, or the pen of Varro, through which the things which were done in reference to this matter have come down even to our knowledge. For they are not able to effect anything which they are not allowed; but they are permitted to influence those whom God, in His deep and just judgment, according to their deserts, gives over either to be simply afflicted by them, or to be also subdued and deceived. But how pernicious these writings were judged to be, or how alien from the worship of the true Divinity, may be understood from the fact that the senate preferred to burn what Pompilius had hid, rather than to fear what he feared, so that he could not dare to do that. Wherefore let him who does not desire to live a pious life even now, seek eternal life by means of such rites. But let him who does not wish to have fellowship with malign demons have no fear for the noxious superstition wherewith they are worshipped, but let him recognise the true religion by which they are unmasked and vanquished. FOOTNOTES: [245] Tert. _Apol._ 13, "Nec electio sine reprobatione;" and _Ad Nationes_, ii. 9, "Si dei ut bulbi seliguntur, qui non seliguntur, reprobi pronuntiantur." [246] Cicero, _De Nat. Deor._ ii., distinguishes this Liber from Liber Bacchus, son of Jupiter and Semele. [247] _Januam._ [248] _Vivificator._ [249] _Sensificator._ [250] As we say, "right-minded." [251] Ch. 21, 23. [252] The father Saturn, and the mother Ops, _e.g._, being more obscure than their son Jupiter and daughter Juno. [253] Sallust, _Cat. Conj._ ch. 8. [254] Vicus argentarius. [255] Virgil, _Æneid_, viii. 357, 358. [256] Quadrifrons. [257] Frons. [258] "Quanto iste innocentior esset, tanto frontosior appareret;" being used for the shamelessness of innocence, as we use "face" for the shamelessness of impudence. [259] Cicero, _Tusc. Quæst._ v. 13. [260] An interesting account of the changes made in the Roman year by Numa is given in Plutarch's life of that king. Ovid also (_Fasti_, ii.) explains the derivation of February, telling us that it was the last month of the old year, and took its name from the lustrations performed then: "Februa Romani dixere piamina patres." [261] Ennius, in Cicero, _De Nat. Deor._ ii. 18.