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And there are professors of rhetoric who teach the art of

persuading courts and assemblies; and so, partly by persuasion

and partly by force, I shall make unlawful gains and not be

punished. Still I hear a voice saying that the gods cannot be

deceived, neither can they be compelled. But what if there are no

gods? or, suppose them to have no care of human things-why in

either case should we mind about concealment? And even if there

are gods, and they do care about us, yet we know of them only

from tradition and the genealogies of the poets; and these are

the very persons who say that they may be influenced and turned

by 'sacrifices and soothing entreaties and by offerings.' Let us

be consistent then, and believe both or neither.