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| Some Hair-Splitting Use of Words in Which His Opponent Had Indulged. PREVIOUS SECTION - NEXT SECTION - HELP
Chapter XXVII.—Some
Hair-Splitting Use of Words in Which His Opponent Had
Indulged.
But you next praise your eyebrows, and toss back
your head, and beckon with your finger, in characteristic
disdain,6385
6385 Implied in the
emphatic tu. | and say: There is
the was, looking as if it pointed to an eternal
existence,—making its subject, of course, unbegotten and unmade,
and on that account worthy of being supposed to be Matter. Well now,
for my own part, I shall resort to no affected protestation,6386
6386 Sine u lo lenocinio
pronunciationis. | but simply reply that
“was” may be predicated of everything—even of
a thing which has been created, which was born, which once was not, and
which is not your Matter. For of everything which has being,
from whatever source it has it, whether it has it by a beginning or
without a beginning, the word “was” will be
predicated from the very fact that it exists. To whatever thing the
first tense6387
6387 Prima positio:
the first inflection perhaps, i.e. the present tense. | of the verb is
applicable for definition, to the same will be suitable the
later form6388
6388 Declinatio: the past
tense. | of the verb, when
it has to descend to relation. “Est” (it is) forms
the essential part6389 of a definition,
“erat” (it was) of a relation. Such are the trifles
and subtleties of heretics, who wrest and bring into question the
simple meaning of the commonest words. A grand question it is, to be
sure,6390 whether “the earth was,”
which was made! The real point of discussion is, whether “being
without form, and void,” is a state which is more suitable to
that which was created, or to that of which it was created, so that the
predicate (was) may appertain to the same thing to which the
subject (that which was) also belongs.6391
6391 This seems to be the
meaning of the obscure passage, “Ut ejusdem sit Erat
cujus et quod erat.” | E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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