7. But if, say my opponents, no damage is done to human affairs by you, whence arise those evils by which wretched mortals are now oppressed and overwhelmed? You ask of me a decided statement,18    The ms. here inserts a mark of interrogation.    Lit., “is contained in a form of its own kind.” which is by no means necessary to this cause. For no immediate and prepared discussion regarding it has been undertaken by me, for the purpose of showing or proving from what causes and for what reasons each event took place; but in order to demonstrate that the reproaches of so grave a charge are far removed from our door. And if I prove this, if by examples and19    So the ms. si facto et, corrected, however, by a later copyist, si facio ut, “if I cause that,” etc.    i.e., manliness. by powerful arguments the truth of the matter is made clear, I care not whence these evils come, or from what sources and first beginnings they flow.

VII. Sed si per vos, inquiunt, nihil rebus incommodatur humanis, unde sunt haec mala, quibus urgetur 0730A et premitur jamdudum miseranda mortalitas? Sententiam me poscis huic necessariam nihil causae. Neque enim praesens atque in manibus posita disceptatio in id sumpta est a me, ut ostenderem, vel probarem, quibus unaquaeque res causis et rationibus fieret: sed ut maledicta criminis tanti procul esse ab nobis ostenderem. Quod si praesto, si facto et argumentis insignibus rei veritas explicatur, unde sint haec mala, vel ex quibus profluant fontibus principiisque, non curo.