it is the god himself who not only gives, but also takes away the oracles?' 'No, indeed,' replied I, 'on the contrary, I assert that the god has taken away neither oracle nor sacred shrine. But just as the god bestows upon us many other things which are subject to decay and destruction by natural processes—or, rather, the original substance, containing a principle of change and movement in its own nature, often dissolves itself and reshapes itself without the intervention of the original creator—so in like manner, I think, the oracles undergo darkenings and declines, being included in the truth of the statement that the god bestows many fair gifts on men, but not one of them to last for ever; or, as Sophocles has it, "the gods immortal are, but not their works"'"—"The foundation of oracles is rightly assigned to God," continues Plutarch, "but the law of their existence and its operation we must seek for in nature and in matter. For it is nothing but the most childish folly to look upon God as a sort of ventriloquist: like the fellows once called Eurycleis and nowadays Pythons, inserting Himself into the bodies of the prophets, using their mouths and vocal chords as instruments of His messages. For he who puts God into this personal contact with human weaknesses and necessities, sins against His glory, and deprives Him of the excellence and grandeur of His Virtue." This strong insistence upon the splendour of the Divine Nature is, as we know, one of the most characteristic elements of Plutarch's philosophy, and, so long as he can preserve this intact, he is not careful of consistency in his arguments on less important points of doctrine.
