quamquam, si tantus amor est et cura vetusti moris et a prisco placet haud discedere ritu, exstat in antiquis exemplum nobile libris, iam tunc diluvii sub tempore vel prius uni inservisse Deo gentem quae prima recentes incoluit terras vacuoque habitavit in orbe; unde genus ducit nostrae porrecta propago stirpis et indigenae pietatis iura reformat.
And yet, if there is such fondness and solicitude for the old-established way and such reluctance to depart from former usage, there is the famous instance in the ancient books which shows that even at the time of the flood, or before it, the people which first inhabited the young earth, dwelling in an empty world, already served one God. From them our stock in long descent draws its birth, and now it restores the rule of their native devotion.
final_alignments\Prudentius_Reply_to_Symmachus_Book2.json