69. But our name is new, we are told, and the religion which we follow arose but a few days ago. Granting for the present that what you urge against us is not untrue, what is there, I would ask, among the affairs of men that is either done by bodily exertion and manual labour, or attained by the mind’s learning and knowledge, which did not begin at some time, and pass into general use and practice since then? Medicine,639    The ms. reads edi in filosophia; the first four edd., Philos.; Elmenh. and Orelli, Etenim phil.—“For were phil.;” LB., Ede an phil.—“say whether phil.,” which is, however faulty in construction, as the indicative follows. Rigaltius, followed by Oehler, emended as above, Medicina phil. philosophy, music, and all the other arts by which social life has been built up and refined,—were these born with men, and did they not rather begin to be pursued, understood, and practised lately, nay, rather, but a short time since? Before the Etruscan Tages saw the640    Lit., “reached the coasts of.” light, did any one know or trouble himself to know and learn what meaning there was in the fall of thunderbolts, or in the veins of the victims sacrificed?641    Lit., “of the intestines”—extorum. When did the motion of the stars or the art of calculating nativities begin to be known? Was it not after Theutis642    In both Roman edd., Theutatem, i.e., Theutas. Cf. Plato, Phædrus, st. p. 274. the Egyptian; or after Atlas, as some say, the bearer, supporter, stay, and prop of the skies?

LXIX. Sed novellum nomen est nostrum, et ante dies paucos religio est nata, quam sequimur. Ut interim concedam, id quod nobis objicitur intentionis esse non falsae: quid est enim in negotiis hominum, quod vel opere corporis et manibus fiat, vel solius animi disciplina et cognitione teneatur, quod non ex aliquo coeperit tempore, et in usum exierit experientiamque mortalium? Etenim philosophia, musica, caeteraeque omnes artes, quibus vita est exculta et expolita communis, cum hominibus natae sunt, et non potius nuper, quinimmo pene paulo ante, agitari, intelligi, celebrarique coeperunt? Antequam Tages 0922B Thuscus oras contingeret luminis, quisquam hominum sciebat, aut esse noscendum, condiscendumque curabat in fulminum casibus, aut extorum quid significaretur 0923A in venis? Quando siderum motus, aut ratio coepta est genethliaca sciri? non post Theutin Aegyptium, aut post Atlantem, ut quidam ferunt, gestatorem, bajulum, tibicinem illum ac destinam coeli?