Further, to say that for the sake of men      They willed to prepare this world's magnificence,      And that 'tis therefore duty and behoof      To praise the work of gods as worthy praise,      And that 'tis sacrilege for men to shake      Ever by any force from out their seats      What hath been stablished by the Forethought old      To everlasting for races of mankind,      And that 'tis sacrilege to assault by words      And overtopple all from base to beam,--      Memmius, such notions to concoct and pile,      Is verily--to dote.

Dicere porro hominum causa voluisse parare praeclaram mundi naturam proptereaque adlaudabile opus divom laudare decere aeternumque putare atque inmortale futurum, nec fas esse, deum quod sit ratione vetusta gentibus humanis fundatum perpetuo aevo, sollicitare suis ulla vi ex sedibus umquam nec verbis vexare et ab imo evertere summa, cetera de genere hoc adfingere et addere, Memmi, desiperest.