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| The Heathen Gods from Heathen Authorities. Varro Has Written a Work on the Subject. His Threefold Classification. The Changeable Character of that Which Ought to Be Fixed and Certain.
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Book II.773
| 773 In this part of his work
the author reviews the heathen mythology, and exposes the absurdity of
the polytheistic worship in the various classes of the gods, according
to the distribution of Varro. |
Chapter I.—The Heathen Gods from
Heathen Authorities. Varro Has Written a Work on the Subject. His
Threefold Classification. The Changeable Character of that Which Ought
to Be Fixed and Certain.
Our defence requires that
we should at this point discuss with you the character of your gods, O
ye heathen, fit objects of our pity,774
appealing even
to your own conscience to determine whether they be truly gods, as you
would have it supposed, or falsely, as you are unwilling to have
proved.775
Now this is the material part of human error,
owing to the wiles of its author, that it is never free from the
ignorance of error,776
| 776 i.e., it does not know
that it is error. | whence your guilt is
all the greater. Your eyes are open, yet they see not; your ears
are unstopped, yet they hear not; though your heart beats, it is yet
dull, nor does your mind understand777
that of which it
is cognizant.778
If indeed the
enormous perverseness (of your worship) could779
be
broken up780
| 780 Discuti, or, in the
logical sense, “be tested.” | by a single demurrer,
we should have our objection ready to hand in the declaration781
| 781 Nunciatio (legally, this
is “an information lodged against a wrong.”) | that, as we know all those gods of yours to
have been instituted by men, all belief in the true Deity is by this
very circumstance brought to nought;782
| 782 Excidere, “falls
through.” | because, of
course, nothing which some time or other had a beginning can rightly
seem to be divine. But the fact is,783
there are many
things by which tenderness of conscience is hardened into the
callousness of wilful error. Truth is beleaguered with the vast force
(of the enemy), and yet how secure she is in her own inherent strength!
And naturally enough784
when from her very
adversaries she gains to her side whomsoever she will, as her friends
and protectors, and prostrates the entire host of her assailants. It is
therefore against these things that our contest lies—against the
institutions of our ancestors, against the authority of
tradition,785
the laws of our
governors, and the reasonings of the wise; against antiquity, custom,
submission;786
| 786 Necessitatem, answering
to the “leges dominantium.” | against precedents,
prodigies, miracles,—all which things have had their part in
consolidating that spurious787
system of your gods.
Wishing, then, to follow step by step your own commentaries which you
have drawn out of your theology of every sort (because the authority of
learned men goes further with you in matters of this kind than the
testimony of facts), I have taken and abridged the works of
Varro;788
| 788 St. Augustine, in his
de Civit. Dei, makes similar use of Varro’s work on the
heathen gods, Liber Divinarum. | for he in his treatise Concerning Divine
Things, collected out of ancient digests, has shown himself a
serviceable guide789
| 789 Scopum, perhaps
“mark.” | for us. Now, if I
inquire of him who were the subtle inventors790
of
the gods, he points to either the philosophers, the peoples, or the
poets. For he has made a threefold distinction in classifying the gods:
one being the physical class, of which the philosophers treat;
another the mythic class, which is the constant burden
of791
the poets; the third, the gentile
class, which the nations have adopted each one for itself. When,
therefore, the philosophers have ingeniously composed their physical
(theology) out of their own conjectures, when the poets have
drawn their mythical from fables, and the (several) nations have forged
their gentile (polytheism) according to their own will, where in the
world must truth be placed? In the conjectures? Well, but these are
only a doubtful conception. In the fables? But they are at best an
absurd story. In the popular accounts?792
This
sort of opinion,793
however, is only
promiscuous794
and municipal. Now
all things with the philosophers are uncertain, because of their
variation with the poets all is worthless, because immoral; with the
nations all is irregular and confused, because dependent on their mere
choice. The nature of God, however, if it be the true one with
which you are concerned, is of so definite a character as not to be
derived from uncertain speculations,795
nor contaminated
with worthless fables, nor determined by promiscuous conceits. It ought
indeed to be regarded, as it really is, as certain, entire, universal,
because it is in truth the property of all. Now, what god shall I
believe? One that has been gauged by vague suspicion? One that
history796
| 796 Historia. This
word seems to refer to the class of mythical divinity above
mentioned. It therefore means “fable” or “absurd
story” (see above). | has divulged? One that a community has
invented? It would be a far worthier thing if I believed no god, than
one which is open to doubt, or full of shame, or the object of
arbitrary selection.797
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