by certain images of demons seen in the water._
For Numa himself also, to whom no prophet of God, no holy angel
was sent, was driven to have recourse to hydromancy, that he might
see the images of the gods in the water (or, rather, appearances
whereby the demons made sport of him), and might learn from them
what he ought to ordain and observe in the sacred rites. This kind
of divination, says Varro, was introduced from the Persians, and
was used by Numa himself, and at an after time by the philosopher
Pythagoras. In this divination, he says, they also inquire at the
inhabitants of the nether world, and make use of blood; and this
the Greeks call νεκρομαντείαν. But whether it be called necromancy
or hydromancy it is the same thing, for in either case the dead are
supposed to foretell future things. But by what artifices these
things are done, let themselves consider; for I am unwilling to say
that these artifices were wont to be prohibited by the laws, and to
be very severely punished even in the Gentile states, before the
advent of our Saviour. I am unwilling, I say, to affirm this, for
perhaps even such things were then allowed. However, it was by these
arts that Pompilius learned those sacred rites which he gave forth
as facts, whilst he concealed their causes; for even he himself was
afraid of that which he had learned. The senate also caused the
books in which those causes were recorded to be burned. What is it,
then, to me, that Varro attempts to adduce all sorts of fanciful
physical interpretations, which if these books had contained, they
would certainly not have been burned? For otherwise the conscript
fathers would also have burned those books which Varro published
and dedicated to the high priest Cæsar.[289] Now Numa is said to
have married the nymph Egeria, because (as Varro explains it in the
forementioned book) he carried forth[290] water wherewith to perform
his hydromancy. Thus facts are wont to be converted into fables
through false colourings. It was by that hydromancy, then, that that
over-curious Roman king learned both the sacred rites which were
to be written in the books of the priests, and also the causes of
those rites,--which latter, however, he was unwilling that any one
besides himself should know. Wherefore he made these causes, as it
were, to die along with himself, taking care to have them written by
themselves, and removed from the knowledge of men by being buried in
the earth. Wherefore the things which are written in those books were
either abominations of demons, so foul and noxious as to render that
whole civil theology execrable even in the eyes of such men as those
senators, who had accepted so many shameful things in the sacred
rites themselves, or they were nothing else than the accounts of dead
men, whom, through the lapse of ages, almost all the Gentile nations
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.
[262] John x. 9.
[263] _Georgic_, ii. 470.
[264] _Summa_, which also includes the meaning "last."
[265] Virgil, _Eclog._ iii. 60, who borrows the expression from the
_Phænomena_ of Aratus.
[266] Soranus lived about B.C. 100. See Smith's _Dict._
[267] Tigillus.
[268] Ruma.
[269] "Pecunia," that is, property; the original meaning of "pecunia"
being property in cattle, then property or wealth of any kind. Comp.
Augustine, _De discipl. Christ._ 6.
[270] Sallust, _Catil._ c. 11.
[271] Quasi medius currens.
[272] Nuncius.
[273] Enunciantur.
[274] Cœlo.
[275] Cœlum.
[276] Sc. Χρόνος.
[277] See c. 16.
[278] Varro, _De Ling. Lat._ v. 68.
[279] Nourisher.
[280] Returner.
[281] In the book _De Ratione Naturali Deorum_.
[282] Mundum.
[283] Immundum.
[284] Mundus.
[285] Mundum.
[286] Virgil, _Æneid_, viii. 319-20.
[287] In the _Timæus_.
[288] Plutarch's _Numa_; Livy, xl. 29.
[289] Comp. Lactantius, _Instit._ i. 6.
[290] Egesserit.
BOOK EIGHTH.
ARGUMENT.
AUGUSTINE COMES NOW TO THE THIRD KIND OF THEOLOGY, THAT IS, THE
NATURAL, AND TAKES UP THE QUESTION, WHETHER THE WORSHIP OF THE
GODS OF THE NATURAL THEOLOGY IS OF ANY AVAIL TOWARDS SECURING
BLESSEDNESS IN THE LIFE TO COME. THIS QUESTION HE PREFERS TO
DISCUSS WITH THE PLATONISTS, BECAUSE THE PLATONIC SYSTEM IS
"FACILE PRINCEPS" AMONG PHILOSOPHIES, AND MAKES THE NEAREST
APPROXIMATION TO CHRISTIAN TRUTH. IN PURSUING THIS ARGUMENT, HE
FIRST REFUTES APULEIUS, AND ALL WHO MAINTAIN THAT THE DEMONS
SHOULD BE WORSHIPPED AS MESSENGERS AND MEDIATORS BETWEEN GODS
AND MEN; DEMONSTRATING THAT BY NO POSSIBILITY CAN MEN BE
RECONCILED TO GOOD GODS BY DEMONS, WHO ARE THE SLAVES OF VICE,
AND WHO DELIGHT IN AND PATRONIZE WHAT GOOD AND WISE MEN ABHOR
AND CONDEMN,--THE BLASPHEMOUS FICTIONS OF POETS, THEATRICAL
EXHIBITIONS, AND MAGICAL ARTS.