ABSTRACT
We may more readily grant that philosophic criticism was calculated to injure the old religious beliefs. But even here we must not exaggerate, for many Romans had advanced beyond primitive conceptions without waiting for Greek thought, making the sacred fowls drink, for example, when they would not eat. 1 On the other hand, we find cultivated men like Aemilius Paullus who continue to be the most scrupulous and convinced augurs. Even more than the philosophies of to-day, those of antiquity left many enigmas to be met by the answers which religion already provided. Reasoning might even serve to justify ancient religious practices. We find Cicero defending divination.
