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The interest of the gods in human affairs is keen, and on the whole beneficent; but they
become angry if neglected, and punish rather the first they come upon than the actual
person who has offended them; their fury being blind when it is raised, though never
raised without reason. They will not punish with any less severity when people sin
against them from ignorance and without the chance of having had knowledge ; they will
take no excuses of this kind, but are even as the law, which assumes itself to be known
to every one.