Book 5
9.14
However, I fear that this line of reasoning will carry us too far. For if it is an indication of adultery that a woman bathes with men, the fact that she revels with young men or even an intimate friendship will also be indications of the same offence. Again depilation, a voluptuous gait, or womanish attire may be regarded as indications of effeminacy and unmanliness by anyone who thinks that such symptoms are the result of an immoral character, just as blood is the result of a wound: for anything, that springs from the matter under investigation and comes to our notice, may properly be called an indication.
9.15
Similarly it is also usual to give the names of signs to frequently observed phenomena, such as prognostics of the weather which we may illustrate by the Vergilian For wind turns Phoebe's face to ruddy gold Verg. G. i. 431. and The crow With full voice, good-for-naught, invites the rain. ib. i. 388. If these phenomena are caused by the state of the atmosphere, such an appellation is correct enough.
