Therefore they ought to honor this goddess above other gods, even by dignity of place.For, as we read in their own authors, the ancient Romans paid greater honors to I know not what Summanus, to whom they attributed nocturnal thunderbolts, than to Jupiter, to whom diurnal thunderbolts were held to pertain.But, after a famous and conspicuous temple had been built to Jupiter, owing to the dignity of the building, the multitude resorted to him in so great numbers, that scarce one can be found who remembers even to have read the name of Summanus, which now he cannot once hear named.But if Felicity is not a goddess, because, as is true, it is a gift of God, that god must be sought who has power to give it, and that hurtful multitude of false gods must be abandoned which the vain multitude of foolish men follows after, making gods to itself of the gifts of God, and offending Himself whose gifts they are by the stubbornness of a proud will.For he cannot be free from infelicity who worships Felicity as a goddess, and forsakes God, the giver of felicity;just as he cannot be free from hunger who licks a painted loaf of bread, and does not buy it of the man who has a real one.
CHAP.24.--THE REASONS BY WHICH THE PAGANS ATTEMPT TO DEFEND THEIR WORSHIPPINGAMONG THE GODS THE DIVINE GIFTS THEMSELVES.
We may, however, consider their reasons.Is it to be believed, say they, that our forefathers were besotted even to such a degree as not to know that these things are divine gifts, and not gods?
But as they knew that such things are granted to no one, except by some god freely bestowing them, they called the gods whose names they did not find out by the names of those things which they deemed to be given by them; sometimes slightly altering the name for that purpose, as, for example, from war they have named Bellona, not bellum; from cradles, Cunina, not cunoe;from standing corn, Segetia, not seges; from apples, Pomona, not pomum; from oxen, Bubona, not bos.Sometimes, again, with no alteration of the word, just as the things themselves are named, so that the goddess who gives money is called Pecunia, and money is not thought to be itself a goddess:
so of Virtus, who gives virtue; Honor, who gives honor; Concordia, who gives concord; Victoria, who gives victory.So, they say, when Felicitas is called a goddess, what is meant is not the thing itself which is given, but that deity by whom felicity is given.
CHAP.25.--CONCERNING THE ONE GOD ONLY TO BE WORSHIPPED, WHO, ALTHOUGHHIS NAME IS
UNKNOWN, IS YET DEEMED TO BE THE GIVER OF FELICITY.
Having had that reason rendered to us, we shall perhaps much more easily persuade, as we wish, those whose heart has not become too much hardened.For if now human infirmity has perceived that felicity cannot be given except by some god; if this was perceived by those who worshipped so many gods, at whose head they set Jupiter himself; if, in their ignorance of the name of Him by whom felicity was given, they agreed to call Him by the name of that very thing which they believed He gave;--then it follows that they thought that felicity could not be given even by Jupiter himself, whom they already worshipped, but certainly by him whom they thought fit to worship under the name of Felicity itself.I thoroughly affirm the statement that they believed felicity to be given by a certain God whom they knew not: let Him therefore be sought after, let Him be worshipped, and it is enough.Let the train of innumerable demons be repudiated, and let this God suffice every man whom his gift suffices.For him, I say, God the giver of felicity will not be enough to worship, for whom felicity itself is not enough to receive.But let him for whom it suffices (and man has nothing more he ought to wish for) serve the one God, the giver of felicity.This God is not he whom they call Jupiter.For if they acknowledged him to be the giver of felicity, they would not seek, under the name of Felicity itself, for another god or goddess by whom felicity might be given; nor could they tolerate that Jupiter himself should be worshipped with such infamous attributes.
For he is said to be the debaucher of the wives of others;he is the shameless lover and ravisher of a beautiful boy.
CHAP.26.--OF THE SCENIC PLAYS, THE CELEBRATION OF WHICH THE GODS HAVEEXACTED
FROM THEIR WORSHIPPERS.
