The noble lines in which Cato refuses to consult the Libyan oracle—Non exploratum populis Ammona relinquens—are well known, and express a highly ethical view of the divine administration of the world:—
“Hæremus cuncti superis, temploque tacente
Nil facimus non sponte Dei: nec vocibus ullis
Numen agit: dixitque semel nascentibus auctor
Quicquid scire licet: steriles nec legit arenas
Ut caneret paucis, mersitque hoc pulvere verum.
Estne Dei sedes nisi terra et pontus et aer
Et cælum et virtus? Superos quid quærimus ultra?
Juppiter est quodcunque vides quocunque moveris.”[117]
His biting sarcasms on those who exercise the art of Magic are conceived in the same spirit of lofty reverence for the Divine Nature,[118] and he would fain believe in the immortality of the soul as a stimulus to virtue and self-abnegation in the present life.[119]