Minucius Felix, Octavius 5
V. Then Caecilius began thus: "Although for you, brother Marcus, what we are chiefly asking about is not ambiguous—seeing that, carefully versed in each way of living, you have repudiated the one and approved the other—still for the present your mind must be so formed that you hold the balance of a most equitable judge and do not lean inclined into either side, lest the opinion seem born not so much from our disputations as brought forth from your feelings. Accordingly, if you sit with me as someone new and as it were ignorant of either party, there is no difficulty in laying open that all things in human affairs are doubtful, uncertain, suspended, and all more probable than true: which makes it the more wondrous that some, weary of investigating the truth thoroughly, rashly sink into any opinion rather than persevere in exploring with stubborn diligence.
Therefore all ought to be indignant and to grieve that certain persons dare—and these untrained in studies, profane to letters, even without experience of sordid arts—to decide something certain about the summit of things and about majesty, concerning which through so many ages philosophy itself of very many sects is still deliberating. And not without reason, since human mediocrity is so far from divine exploration that neither what is hung aloft above us in heaven, nor what is plunged deep below the earth, is either given to know or religious to poke into, and we may justly seem blessed enough and prudent enough if, according to that old oracle of the wise, we know ourselves more familiarly.
But insofar as, indulging an insane and unfit labor, we wander beyond the bounds of our humility and, cast upon the earth, with bold desire transcend heaven itself and the very stars, at least let us not entangle this error with empty and fearful opinions. Let seeds of all things at the start be packed by nature gathering into itself—who here is the author God? Let the members of the whole world have coalesced, been arranged, been formed by chance collisions—who is God the machinist? Granted fire kindled the stars and heaven hung by its own matter, granted it founded the earth by weight and the sea flowed in from liquid—whence this religion, whence dread, what superstition is it?
The human and every animal that is born, inspired, raised up is as it were a voluntary concretion of elements, into which again the human and every animal is divided, dissolved, scattered: so all things flow back into the source and roll back upon themselves, with no craftsman nor judge nor author. So, when seeds of fires are gathered, other and still other suns always shine; so, when vapors of earth are exhaled, clouds always grow, and when these are thickened and driven together clouds rise higher; when the same slip, rains flow, winds blow, hail crashes, or when storm-clouds collide thunders bellow, lightnings flash, thunderbolts leap: they fall everywhere, rush upon mountains, run into trees, touch sacred and profane places without selection, strike guilty humans and often the religious.
Why speak of various and uncertain storms, by which with no order or weighing the onset of all things is rolled? In shipwrecks the fates of good and bad mixed, merits confused? In fires the ruin of the innocent and the guilty meeting together? And when a tract of sky is infected with pestilential wasting, all perish without distinction? And when it rages with the heat of war, the better rather fall? Even in peace wickedness is not only leveled with the better, but even cultivated, so that in most you do not know whether their detestable depravity or their desirable happiness should be chosen. But if the world were ruled by divine providence and the authority of some divinity, Phalaris and Dionysius would never have earned kingship, Rutilius and Camillus never exile, Socrates never poison. See fruit-bearing orchards, see already the white crop, already the drunken vintage corrupted by rain, cut down by hail. So either uncertain truth is hidden from us and pressed down, or—what is more to be believed—fortune, loosed from laws by various and slippery chances, holds dominion.
Latin
V. Tum sic Caecilius exorsus est: "Quamquam tibi, Marce frater, de quo cum maxime quaerimus non sit ambiguum, utpote cum diligenter in utroque vivendi genere versatus repudiaris alterum, alterum conprobaris, in praesentiarum tamen ita tibi informandus est animus, ut libram teneas aequissimi iudicis nec in alteram partem propensus incumbas, ne non tam ex nostris disputationibus nata sententia quam ex tuis sensibus prolata videatur. Proinde, si mihi quasi novus aliqui et quasi ignarus partis utriusque considas, nullum negotium est patefacere, omnia in rebus humanis dubia, incerta, suspensa magisque omnia verisimilia quam vera: quo magis mirum est nonnullos taedio investigandae penitus veritatis cuilibet opinioni temere succumbere quam in explorando pertinaci diligentia perseverare. Itaque indignandum omnibus, indolescendum est audere quosdam, et hoc studiorum rudes, litterarum profanos, expertes artium etiam sordidarum, certum aliquid de summa rerum ac maiestate decernere, de qua tot omnibus saeculis sectarum plurimarum usque adhuc ipsa philosophia deliberat. Nec inmerito, cum tantum absit ab exploratione divina humana mediocritas, ut neque quae supra nos caelo suspensa sublata sunt, neque quae infra terram profunda demersa sunt, aut scire sit datum aut ruspari religiosum, et beati satis satisque prudentes iure videamur, si secundum illud vetus sapientis oraculum nosmet ipsos familiarius noverimus. Sed quatenus indulgentes insano atque inepto labori ultra humilitatis nostrae terminos evagamur et in terram proiecti caelum ipsum et ipsa sidera audaci cupiditate transcendimus, vel hunc errorem saltem non vanis et formidulosis opinionibus implicemus. Sint principio omnium semina natura in se coeunte densata, quis hic auctor deus? Sint fortuitis concursionibus totius mundi membra coalita, digesta, formata, quis deus machinator? Sidera licet ignis accenderit et caelum licet sua materia suspenderit, licet terram fundaverit pondere et mare licet influxerit e liquore unde haec religio, unde formido, quae superstitio est? Homo et animal omne quod nascitur, inspiratur, attollitur, elementorum ut voluntaria concretio est, in quae rursum homo et animal omne dividitur, solvitur, dissipatur: ita in fontem refluunt et in semet omnia revolvuntur, nullo artifice nec iudice nec auctore. Sic congregatis ignium seminibus soles alios atque alios semper splendere, sic exhalatis terrae vaporibus nebulas semper adolescere, quibus densatis coactisque nubes altius surgere, isdem labentibus pluvias fluere, flare ventos, grandines increpare, vel nimbis conlidentibus tonitrua mugire, rutilare fulgora, fulmina praemicare: adeo passim cadunt, montes inruunt, arboribus incurrunt, sine dilectu tangunt loca sacra et profana, homines noxios feriunt et saepe religiosos. Quid tempestates loquar varias et incertas, quibus nullo ordine vel examine rerum omnium impetus volutatur? in naufragiis bonorum malorumque fata mixta, merita confusa? in incendiis interitum convenire insontium nocentumque? et cum tabe pestifera caeli tractus inficitur, sine discrimine omnes deperire? et cum belli ardore saevitur, meliores potius occumbere? In pace etiam non tantum aequatur nequitia melioribus, sed et colitur, ut in pluribus nescias, utrum sit eorum detestanda pravitas an optanda felicitas. Quod si mundus divina providentia et alicuius numinis auctoritate regeretur, numquam mereretur Phalaris et Dionysius regnum, numquam Rutilius et Camillus exilium, numquam Socrates venenum. Ecce arbusta frugifera, ecce iam seges cana, iam temulenta vindemia imbri corrumpitur, grandine caeditur. Adeo aut incerta nobis veritas occultatur et premitur, aut, quod magis credendum est, variis et lubricis casibus soluta legibus fortuna dominatur.