Natural History, by Pliny the Elder, Reading 1
Boring Books for Bedtime Readings to Help You Sleep
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The Origins of the Gods
I consider it an indication of human weakness to inquire into the figure and form of God. To believe that there are a number of gods derived from the virtues and devices of man indicates still greater folly. Human nature, weak and frail as it is, mindful of its own infirmity, has made these divisions so that everyone might have recourse to that which he supposed himself to stand more particularly in need of. The inferior deities are arranged in classes, and diseases and plagues are deified for our anxious wish to propitiate them.
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