Cleanthes, you have said, attributes the idea that men have of the Gods to four causes.

In the first place (as I have already sufficiently mentioned), to a foreknowledge of future events; secondly, to tempests, and other shocks of nature; thirdly, to the utility and plenty of things we enjoy; fourthly, to the invariable order of the stars and the heavens.

The arguments drawn from foreknowledge I have already answered.

With regard to tempests in the air, the sea, and the earth, I own that many people are affrighted by them, and imagine that the immortal Gods are the authors of them.
But the question is, not whether there are people who believe that there are Gods, but whether there are Gods or not.

As to the two other causes of Cleanthes, one of which is derived from the great abundance of desirable things which we enjoy, the other from the invariable order of the seasons and the heavens, I shall treat on them when I answer your discourse concerning the providence of the Gods--a point, Balbus, upon which you have spoken at great length.