As for the oracles, it is certain in the era before the arrival of Jesus Christ, they had begun to lose their credit: for we see that Cicero takes pains to find the cause of their failure:
Why are the oracles no longer published in this way at Delphi, not only in our time but for a long time now, so that nothing could be more contemptible?
But as for the other prognostications, which were drawn from the anatomy of the sacrificial animals, to which Plato partly attributes the natural constitution of their internal members, from the trampling of chickens, from the flight of birds,
We think that certain birds were born for the sake of augury. (Cicero),
from lightning, from the swirling of rivers,
Many things do soothsayers see, many things do augurs foresee, many things are declared by oracles, many things are declared by prophecies, many things by dreams, many things by portents. (Cicero)
and others on which antiquity supported most undertakings, both public and private, our religion has abolished them. And even if there remain among us some means of divination by the stars, by spirits, by bodily signs, by dreams, and elsewhere, – -a notable example of the compulsive curiosity of our nature, amusing itself by worrying about future things, as if it did not have enough business to digest the present:
Why do you, ruler of Olympus, take this care to show mortals, Let them know that dire disasters are coming, as by omens. Let whatever you prepare be sudden, let the future be blind; Let the mind of men’s fate, let the fearful hope be permitted. (Lucan)
–if it is of much lesser authority.
That is why the example of François Marquis de Sallusse seemed remarkable to me. He was a lieutenant of King Francis in his army beyond the mountains. And he was infinitely favored by our court, indebted to the King for the Marquisate itself. This territory had been confiscated from his brother, and with no opportunity to do so, his affection even contradicting it, he allowed himself to be so greatly frightened (as has been observed) by the beautiful prognostications that were being made on all sides to the advantage of the Emperor Charles V, and to our disadvantage. Even in Italy, these wild prophecies found much favor. In Rome, a large sum of money was exchanged for this foretelling of French ruin. And after often sympathizing with his subjects for the evils he saw inevitably in store for the crown of France, and with the friends he had there, the Marquis revolted and changed sides, to his great detriment, however, whatever the constellation. But he conducted himself as a man torn by various passions. For having both cities and forces in his hands, the enemy army under Antoine de Leve three paces away from him, and us having no suspicion of his actions, he was capable of doing worse than he did. For, because of his treason, we lost neither man nor city except Fossan: even after having contested it for a long time.
God, who is careful about the future, presses on the dark night, and laughs if mortals are no longer fate is in fear. (Horace)
He who is powerful and happy in his own way, who is allowed to live a day to have said, “I have lived,” tomorrow, whether it is dark with a father’s cloud occupying the sky or pure sun. (Horace)
The mind, happy in the present, will hate to care about what is beyond. (Horace)
And those who believe the following remark to the contrary are wrong:
These are reciprocal in such a way that if there is divination, there are gods; and if there are gods, there is divination. (Cicero).
Pacuvius writes, much more wisely:
For to those who understand the language of birds, and are wiser more from another’s liver than from their own, I think it is better to listen than to listen.
This much-celebrated art of divination of the Tuscans was born in this way. A plowman, deeply piercing the earth with his coulter, saw Tages emerge, a demigod with a childlike face, but elderly prudence. Everyone rushed to him, and his words and knowledge were collected and preserved for several centuries, containing the principles and methods of this art. I would much rather have settled my affairs by the casting lots than by these dreams. And indeed in all republics, a good part of authority has always been left to fate.
Plato attributes to the lottery he has devised at his discretion the decision of several important effects, and wants among other things that marriages be made by lot among the good; and gives so much weight to this fortuitous election that the children who are born of it, he orders to be nourished in the country: those born of the wicked are to be cast out: however, if by chance any of these banished should show some good hope of himself as he grows up, he may be recalled, and also banished is he among the restrained who shows little hope in his adolescence. I see some of them studying and glossing their almanacs, and using their authority to support what is happening. Having said so much, they must tell both the truth and a lie:
For who is there who, shooting all day long, does not sometimes get tired? (Cicero)
I esteem them no better, to see them fall into some encounter: it would be more certain, if there were a rule and truth to always lie. It is said that no one keeps a record of their errors and slanders, especially since they are so plentiful and regular. Divinations are valued for being rare, incredible and prodigious. Thus responded Diagoras, who was nicknamed the Atheist, being in Samothrace, to the one who, pointing out to him in the temple many oaths and paintings of those who had escaped the shipwreck, said to him: “Well, you who think that the gods take no notice of human affairs, what do you say of so many men saved by their grace?” “It is done thus,” he replied, ”those are not painted who have remained drowned, in much greater numbers.”
Cicero says that the one and only Xenophanes Colophonius, among all the philosophers who have acknowledged the gods, has attempted to uproot all manner of divination. All the less wonder, then, if we have seen, to their damage, some of our principled souls dwell on these vanities. I would very much like to have witnessed these two marvels: the book of Joachim, written by a Calabrian abbot predicting all the future popes, their names and forms; and that of Leo the Emperor, who predicted the emperors and patriarchs of Greece. I have seen this with my own eyes: amid public confusion, men astonished by their turns of luck turn away from each other and towards superstition to seek the causes and ancient threats of their misfortune in the astrological signs of the heavens. And they are so strangely happy in my time that they have persuaded me that, since it is an amusement for sharp and idle minds, those who are given to this subtlety of star reading would be capable of finding whatever they ask for in all the writings. But above all, they are at their ease with the obscure, ambiguous and fantastic language of prophetic jargon, to which their authors give no clear meaning, so that posterity can apply it as it pleases.
Socrates’ daimonion was certainly an impulse his will presented to him, arriving before his thoughts could enter into speech. In a well-purified soul such as his, so thoroughly trained and versed in wisdom and virtue, the inner voice is wise and worth following. Each of us feels within us some agitating inner critic espousing prompt, vehement and fortuitous opinion. The authority we give them is entirely up to us, authority we take away from our prudence. Some are similarly weak in reason and violent in persuasion or dissuasion, as in the case of Socrates. I let myself be carried so usefully and happily by Socrates that I judge him to have held some divine inspiration.