Or, born in ignorance, must we despair
To reach events, and read the future there?”
Assuredly, says Cicero, the ignorance of evils to come is of more advantage than the knowledge of them: certe ignoratio futurorum malorum utilior est quam scientia. And Horace, in a celebrated passage:
“Prudens futuri temporis exitum
Caliginosâ nocte premit Deus:
Ridetque, si mortalis ultra
Fas trepidat.”...
Caliginosa nox forms a thick black curtain.
“What hangs behind that curtain?—would’st thou learn?