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What is it, then, that Varro boasts he has bestowed as a very great
benefit on his fellow-citizens, because he not only recounts the gods
who ought to be worshipped by the Romans, but also tells what pertains
to each of them? "Just as it is of no advantage," he says, "to
know the name and appearance of any man who is a physician, and not
know that he is a physician, so," he says, "it is of no advantage
to know well that Æsculapius is a god, if you are not aware that he
can bestow the gift of health, and consequently do not know why you
ought to supplicate him." He also affirms this by another
comparison, saying, "No one is able, not only to live well, but
even to live at all, if he does not know who is a smith, who a baker,
who a weaver, from whom he can seek any utensil, whom he may take for
a helper, whom for a leader, whom for a teacher;" asserting, "that
in this way it can be doubtful to no one, that thus the knowledge of
the gods is useful, if one can know what force, and faculty, or power
any god may have in an thingFor from this we may be able," he says,
"to know what god we ought to call to, and invoke for any cause; lest
we should do as too many are wont to do, and desire water from Liber,
and wine from Lymphs." Very useful, forsooth! Who would not give
this man thanks if he could show true things, and if he could teach
that the one true God, from whom all good things are, is to be
worshipped by men?
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