1b. [Migne 7.1] What, then,1529    So the ms., Stewechius, Hild., and Oehler, while the first four edd. and Oberthür merely add m to dolore, and join with the preceding pati—“suffer pain, are weakened.”    [In the Edin. edition this is the opening sentence, but the editor remarks]: “By some accident the introduction to the seventh book has been tacked on as a last chapter to the sixth, where it is just as out of place as here it is in keeping.” [I have restored it to its place accordingly.] some one will say, do you think that no sacrifices at all should be offered? To answer you not with our own, but with your Varro’s opinion—none. Why so? Because, he says, the true gods neither wish nor demand these; while those1530    Lit., “those, moreover.” which are made of copper, earthenware, gypsum, or marble, care much less for these things, for they have no feeling; and you are not blamed1531    Lit., “nor is any blame contracted.” if you do not offer them, nor do you win favour if you do. No sounder opinion can be found, none truer, and one which any one may adopt, although he may be stupid and very hard to convince. For who is so obtuse as either to slay victims in sacrifice to those who have no sense, or to think that they should be given to those who are removed far from them in their nature and blessed state?

1219C I. Quid ergo, dixerit quispiam, sacrificia censetis nulla esse omnino facienda? Ut vobis non nostra, sed Varronis vestri sententia respondeamus, nulla. 1220A Quid ita? Quia, inquit, dii veri neque desiderant ea, neque deposcunt: ex aere autem facti, testa, gypso, vel marmore multo minus haec curant; carent enim sensu: neque ulla contrahitur, si ea non feceris, culpa: neque ulla, si feceris, gratia. Sententia reperiri nulla potest integrior, verior, et quam quivis possit, quamvis ille sit scaevus et difficillimus, occupare. Quis est enim pectoris tam obtusi, qui aut rebus nullum habentibus sensum hostias caedat et victimas, aut eis existimet dandas, qui sunt ab his longe natura et beatitudine disjugati?