"If there are gods and they do not declare the future to men; then _either_ they do not love men; _or_ they are ignorant of what is to happen; _or_ they think it of no importance to men to know it; _or_ they do not think it consistent with their majesty to tell men; _or_ the gods themselves are unable to indicate it. But _neither_ do they not love men, for they are benefactors and friends to mankind; _nor_ are they ignorant of what they themselves appoint and ordain; _nor_ is it of no importance to us to know the future--for we shall be more careful if we do; _nor_ do they count it alien to their majesty, for there is nothing nobler than kindness; _nor_ are they unable to foreknow. _Therefore_ no {17} gods, no foretelling; but there are gods; therefore they foretell. Nor, if they foretell, do they fail to give us ways to learn what they foretell; nor, if they give us such ways, is there no divination; therefore, there is divination."[62] [Sidenotes: Omens] All this reasoning comes after the fact. The whole world believed in divination, and the Stoics found a reason for it.[63] The flight of birds, the entrails of beasts, rain, thunder, lightning, dreams, everything was a means of Divination. Another passage from the same Dialogue of Cicero will suffice. Superstition, says the speaker, "follows you up, is hard upon you, pursues you wherever you turn. If you hear a prophet, or an omen; if you sacrifice; if you catch sight of a bird; if you see a Chaldaean or a _haruspex_; if it lightens, if it thunders, if anything is struck by lightning; if anything like a portent is born or occurs in any way--something or other of the kind is bound to happen, so that you can never be at ease and have a quiet mind. The refuge from all our toils and anxieties would seem to be sleep. Yet from sleep itself the most of our cares and terrors come."[64] How true all this is will be seen by a moment's reflexion on the abundance of signs, omens and dreams that historians so different as Livy and Plutarch record. Horace uses them pleasantly enough in his Odes--like much else such things are charming, if one does not believe in them.[65] But it is abundantly clear that it took an effort to be rid of such belief. A speaker in Cicero's _Tusculans_ remarks on the effrontery of philosophers, who _boast_ that by Epicurus' aid "they are freed from those most cruel of tyrants, eternal terror and fear by day and by night."[66] When a man boasts of moral progress, of his freedom from avarice, what, asks Horace, of other like matters? You're not a miser. Good--but prithee say, Is every vice with avarice flown away? ... Does Superstition ne'er your heart assail Nor bid your soul with fancied horrors quail? {18} Or can you smile at magic's strange alarms, Dreams, witchcraft, ghosts, Thessalian spells and charms?[67] Horace's "conversion" is recorded in one of his odes, but it may be taken too seriously.