But I wonder very much, that while they assigned to separate gods single things, and (well nigh) all movements of the mind; that while they invoked the goddess Agenoria, who should excite to action;the goddess Stimula, who should stimulate to unusual action; the goddess Murcia, who should not move men beyond measure, but make them, as Pomponius says, murcid--that is, too slothful and inactive; the goddess Strenua, who should make them strenuous; and that while they offered to all these gods and goddesses solemn and public worship, they should yet have been unwilling to give public acknowledgment to her whom they name Quies because she makes men quiet, but built her temple outside the Colline gate.Whether was this a symptom of an unquiet mind, or rather was it thus intimated that he who should persevere in worshipping that crowd, not, to be sure, of gods, but of demons, could not dwell with quiet; to which the true Physician calls, saying, "Learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls?"CHAP.17.--WHETHER, IF THE HIGHEST POWER BELONGS TO JOVE, VICTORIA ALSOOUGHT TO BE
WORSHIPPED.
Or do they say, perhaps, that Jupiter sends the goddess Victoria, and that she, as it were acting in obedience to the king of the gods, comes to those to whom he may have despatched her, and takes up her quarters on their side? This is truly said, not of Jove, whom they, according to their own imagination, feign to be king of the gods, but of Him who is the true eternal King, because he sends, not Victory, who is no person, but His angel, and causes whom He pleases to conquer; whose counsel may be hidden, but cannot be unjust.For if Victory is a goddess, why is not Triumph also a god, and joined to Victory either as husband, or brother, or son? Indeed, they have imagined such things concerning the gods, that if the poets had reigned the like, and they should have been discussed by us, they would have replied that they were laughable figments of the poets not to be attributed to true deities: And yet they themselves did not laugh when they were, not reading in the poets, but worshipping in the temples such doating follies.Therefore they should entreat Jove atone for all things, and supplicate him only.For if Victory is a goddess, and is under him as her king, wherever he might have sent her, she could not dare to resist and do her own will rather than his.
CHAP.18.--WITH WHAT REASON THEY WHO THINK FELICITY AND FORTUNE GODDESSESHAVE
DISTINGUISHED THEM.
What shall we say, besides, of the idea that Felicity also is a goddess?
She has received a temple; she has merited an altar;suitable rites of worship are paid to her.She alone, then, should be worshipped.For where she is present, what good thing can be absent? But what does a man wish, that he thinks Fortune also a goddess and worships her? Is felicity one thing, fortune another? Fortune, indeed, may be bad as well as good; but felicity, if it could be bad, would not be felicity.Certainly we ought to think all the gods of either *** (if they also have ***) are only good.This says Plato; this say other philosophers; this say all estimable rulers of the republic and the nations.How is it, then, that the goddess Fortune is sometimes good, sometimes bad?
Is it perhaps the case that when she is bad she is not a goddess, but is suddenly changed into a malignant demon? How many Fortunes are there then? Just as many as there are men who are fortunate, that is, of good fortune.But since there must also be very many others who at the very same time are men of bad fortune, could she, being one and the same Fortune, be at the same time both bad and good--the one to these, the other to those?
She who is the goddess, is she always good? Then she herself is felicity.Why, then, are two names given her? Yet this is tolerable; for it is customary that one thing should be called by two names.But why different temples, different altars, different rituals? There is a reason, say they, because Felicity is she whom the good have by previous merit; but fortune, which is termed good without any trial of merit, befalls both good and bad men fortuitously, whence also she is named Fortune.How, therefore, is she good, who without any discernment comes-both to the good and to the bad? Why is she worshipped, who is thus blind, running at random on any one whatever, so that for the most part she passes by her worshippers, and cleaves to those who despise her? Or if her worshippers profit somewhat, so that they are seen by her and loved, then she follows merit, and does not come fortuitously.What, then, becomes Of that definition of fortune? What becomes of the opinion that she has received her very name from fortuitous events? For it profits one nothing to worship her if she is truly fortune.But if she distinguishes her worshippers, so that she may benefit them, she is not fortune.Or does, Jupiter send her too, whither he pleases? Then let him alone be worshipped; because Fortune is not able to resist him when he commands her, and sends her where he pleases.
Or, at least, let the bad worship her, who do not choose to have merit by which the goddess Felicity might be invited.
CHAP.19.--CONCERNING FORTUNA MULIEBRIS.(1)To this supposed deity, whom they call Fortuna, they ascribe so much, indeed, that they have a tradition that the image of her, which was dedicated by the Roman matrons and called Fortuna Muliebris, has spoken, and has said, once and again, that the matrons pleased her by their homage; which, indeed, if it is true, ought not to excite our wonder.For it is not so difficult for malignant demons to deceive, and they ought the rather to advert to their wits and wiles, because it is that goddess who comes by haphazard who has spoken, and not she who comes to reward merit.