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| A Refutation on the Ground of the Constitution of the Universe.
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III. A Refutation on
the Ground of the Constitution of the Universe.
Or who can bear to hear it maintained, that this
mighty habitation, which is constituted of heaven and earth, and which
is called “Cosmos” on account of the magnitude and the
plenitude of the wisdom which has been brought to bear upon it, has
been established in all its order and beauty by those atoms which hold
their course devoid of order and beauty, and that that same state of
disorder has grown into this true Cosmos, Order? Or who can
believe that those regular movements and courses are the products of a
certain unregulated impetus? Or who can allow that the perfect
concord subsisting among the celestial bodies derives its harmony from
instruments destitute both of concord and harmony? Or, again, if
there is but one and the same substance654
in all things, and if there is the same
incorruptible nature655
in
all,—the only elements of difference being, as they aver, size
and figure,—how comes it that there are some bodies divine and
perfect,656
and
eternal,657
as they would
phrase it, or lasting,658
as some one may prefer to express it; and among these some that are
visible and others that are invisible,—the visible including such
as sun, and moon, and stars, and earth, and water; and the invisible
including gods, and demons, and spirits? For the existence of
such they cannot possibly deny however desirous to do so. And
again, there are other objects that are long-lived, both animals and
plants. As to animals, there are, for example, among birds, as
they say, the eagle, the raven, and the phœnix; and among
creatures living on land, there are the stag, and the elephant, and the
dragon; and among aquatic creatures there are the whales, and such like
monsters of the deep. And as to trees, there are the palm, and
the oak, and the persea;659
| 659
περσέα, a sacred tree of
Egypt and Persia, the fruit of which grew from the stem. | and
among trees, too, there are some that are evergreens, of which kind
fourteen have been reckoned up by some one; and there are others that
only bloom for a certain season, and then shed their leaves. And
there are other objects, again—which indeed constitute the vast
mass of all which either grow or are begotten—that have an early
death and a brief life. And among these is man himself, as a
certain holy scripture says of him: “Man that is born of
woman is of few days.”660
Well, but I suppose they will reply
that the varying conjunctions of the atoms account fully for
differences661
| 661 The text
gives διαφθορᾶς,
for which Viger suggests διαφορᾶς. | so great in the
matter of duration. For it is maintained that there are some
things that are compressed together by them, and firmly interlaced, so
that they become closely compacted bodies, and consequently exceedingly
hard to break up; while there are others in which more or less the
conjunction of the atoms is of a looser and weaker nature, so that
either quickly or after some time they separate themselves from their
orderly constitution. And, again, there are some bodies made up
of atoms of a definite kind and a certain common figure, while there
are others made up of diverse atoms diversely disposed. But who,
then, is the sagacious discriminator,662
that brings certain atoms into
collocation, and separates others; and marshals some in such wise as to
form the sun, and others in such a way as to originate the moon, and
adapts all in natural fitness, and in accordance with the proper
constitution of each star? For surely neither would those solar
atoms, with their peculiar size and kind, and with their special mode
of collocation, ever have reduced themselves so as to effect the
production of a moon; nor, on the other hand, would the conjunctions of
these lunar atoms ever have developed into a sun. And as
certainly neither would Arcturus, resplendent as he is, ever boast his
having the atoms possessed by Lucifer, nor would the Pleiades glory in
being constituted of those of Orion. For well has Paul expressed
the distinction when he says: “There is one glory of the
sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the
stars: for one star differeth from another star in
glory.”663
And if the
coalition effected among them has been an unintelligent one, as is the
case with soulless664
objects,
then they must needs have had
some sagacious artificer; and if their union has been one without the
determination of will, and only of necessity, as is the case with
irrational objects, then some skilful leader665
must have brought them together and taken
them under his charge. And if they have linked themselves
together spontaneously, for a spontaneous work, then some admirable
architect must have apportioned their work for them, and assumed the
superintendence among them; or there must have been one to do with them
as the general does who loves order and discipline, and who does not
leave his army in an irregular condition, or suffer all things to go on
confusedly, but marshals the cavalry in their proper succession, and
disposes the heavy-armed infantry in their due array, and the
javelin-men by themselves, and the archers separately, and the slingers
in like manner, and sets each force in its appropriate position, in
order that all those equipped in the same way may engage
together. But if these teachers think that this illustration is
but a joke, because I institute a comparison between very large bodies
and very small, we may pass to the very smallest.
Then we have what follows:—But if neither
the word, nor the choice, nor the order of a ruler is laid upon them,
and if by their own act they keep themselves right in the vast
commotion of the stream in which they move, and convey themselves
safely through the mighty uproar of the collisions, and if like atoms
meet and group themselves with like, not as being brought together by
God, according to the poet’s fancy, but rather as naturally
recognising the affinities subsisting between each other, then truly we
have here a most marvellous democracy of atoms, wherein friends welcome
and embrace friends, and all are eager to sojourn together in one
domicile; while some by their own determination have rounded themselves
off into that mighty luminary the sun, so as to make day; and others
have formed themselves into many pyramids of blazing stars, it may be,
so as to crown also the whole heavens; and others have reduced
themselves into the circular figure, so as to impart a certain solidity
to the ether, and arch it over, and constitute it a vast graduated
ascent of luminaries, with this object also, that the various
conventions of the commoner atoms may select settlements for
themselves, and portion out the sky among them for their habitations
and stations.
Then, after certain other matters, the discourse
proceeds thus:—But inconsiderate men do not see even
things that are apparent, and certainly they are far from being
cognisant of things that are unapparent. For they do not seem
even to have any notion of those regulated risings and settings of the
heavenly bodies,—those of the sun, with all their wondrous glory,
no less than those of the others; nor do they appear to make due
application of the aids furnished through these to men, such as the day
that rises clear for man’s work, and the night that overshadows
earth for man’s rest. “For man,” it is said,
“goeth forth unto his work, and to his labour, until the
evening.”666
Neither do
they consider that other revolution, by which the sun makes out for us
determinate times, and convenient seasons, and regular successions,
directed by those atoms of which it consists. But even though men
like these—and miserable men they are, however they may believe
themselves to be righteous—may choose not to admit it, there is a
mighty Lord that made the sun, and gave it the impetus667
| 667
[Our author touches with sagacity this crux of
theory: whence comes force, the origin and the
perpetuation of impetus? Christianity has thus anticipated
the defects of “modern science.”] | for its course by His words. O ye
blind ones, do these atoms of yours bring you the winter season and the
rains, in order that the earth may yield food for you, and for all
creatures living on it? Do they introduce summertime, too, in
order that ye may gather their fruits from the trees for your
enjoyment? And why, then, do ye not worship these atoms, and
offer sacrifices to them as the guardians of earth’s
fruits?668
Thankless
surely are ye, in not setting solemnly apart for them even the most
scanty first-fruits of that abundant bounty which ye receive from
them.
After a short break he proceeds
thus:—Moreover, those stars which form a community so
multitudinous and various, which these erratic and ever self-dispersing
atoms have constituted, have marked off by a kind of covenant the
tracts for their several possessions, portioning these out like
colonies and governments, but without the presidency of any founder or
house-master; and with pledged fealty and in peace they respect the
laws of vicinity with their neighbours, and abstain from passing beyond
the boundaries which they received at the outset, just as if they
enjoyed the legislative administration of true princes in the
atoms. Nevertheless these atoms exercise no rule. For how
could these, that are themselves nothing, do that? But listen to
the divine oracles: “The works of the Lord are in judgment;
from the beginning, and from His making of them, He disposed the parts
thereof. He garnished His works for ever, and their
principles669
unto their
generations.”670
Again, after a little, he proceeds thus:—Or
what phalanx ever traversed the plain in such perfect order, no trooper
outmarching the others, or falling out of rank, or obstructing the
course, or suffering himself
to be distanced by his comrades in the array, as is the case with that
steady advance in regular file, as it were, and with close-set shields,
which is presented by this serried and unbroken and undisturbed and
unobstructed progress of the hosts of the stars? Albeit by side
inclinations and flank movements certain of their revolutions become
less clear. Yet, however that may be, they assuredly always keep
their appointed periods, and again bear onward determinately to the
positions from which they have severally risen, as if they made that
their deliberate study. Wherefore let these notable anatomizers
of atoms,671
these dividers of
the indivisible, these compounders of the uncompoundable, these adepts
in the apprehension of the infinite, tell us whence comes this circular
march and course of the heavenly bodies, in which it is not any single
combination of atoms that merely chances all unexpectedly to swing
itself round in this way;672
| 672
οὕτω
σφενδονισθέντος. |
but it is one vast circular choir that moves thus, ever equally and
concordantly, and whirls in these orbits. And whence comes it
that this mighty multitude of fellow-travellers, all unmarshalled by
any captain, all ungifted with any determination of will, and all
unendowed with any knowledge of each other, have nevertheless held
their course in perfect harmony? Surely, well has the prophet
ranked this matter among things which are impossible and
undemonstrable,—namely, that two strangers should walk
together. For he says, “Shall two come to the same lodging
unless they know each other?”673
| 673 This
sentence, which is quoted as from the Scriptures, is found nowhere
there, at least verbatim et ad litteram. [Amos iii. 3.] | E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
|
