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| A Refutation of the Same on the Grounds of the Human Constitution.
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IV. A Refutation
of the Same on the Grounds of the Human Constitution.
Further, those men understand neither themselves
nor what is proper to themselves. For if any of the leaders in
this impious doctrine only considered what manner of person he is
himself, and whence he comes, he would surely be led to a wise
decision, like one who has obtained understanding of himself, and would
say, not to these atoms, but to his Father and Maker, “Thy hands
have made me and fashioned me.”674
And he would take up, too, this
wonderful account of his formation as it has been given by one of
old: “Hast Thou not poured me out as milk, and curdled me
as cheese? Thou hast clothed me with skin and flesh, and hast
fenced me with bones and sinews. Thou hast granted me life and
favour, and Thy visitation hath preserved my spirit.”675
| 675
Job x. 10–12. [The milky element
(sperma) marvellously changed into flesh, and the
embroidery of the human anatomy, are here admirably brought
out. Compare Ps.
cxxxix. 12–16; also p.
86, note 1, supra.] | For of what quantity and of what
origin were the atoms which the father of Epicurus gave forth from
himself when he begat Epicurus? And how, when they were received
within his mother’s womb, did they coalesce, and take form and
figure? and how were they put in motion and made to increase? And
how did that little seed of generation draw together the many atoms
that were to constitute Epicurus, and change some of them into skin and
flesh for a covering, and make bone of others for erectness and
strength, and form sinews of others for compact contexture? And
how did it frame and adapt the many other members and parts—heart
and bowels, and organs of sense, some within and some without—by
which the body is made a thing of life? For of all these things
there is not one either idle or useless: not even the meanest of
them—the hair, or the nails, or such like—is so; but all
have their service to do, and all their contribution to make, some of
them to the soundness of bodily constitution, and others of them to
beauty of appearance. For Providence cares not only for the
useful, but also for the seasonable and beautiful.676
| 676
[Eccles. iii. 11. Note the force of the word
Cosmos. Coleridge’s Aids to Reflection,
p. 251, ed. New York, 1840. Also, Coleridge’s fancy about
the τὸ
καλόν quasi καλοῦν. | Thus the hair is a kind of
protection and covering for the whole head, and the beard is a seemly
ornament for the philosopher. It was Providence, then, that
formed the constitution of the whole body of man, in all its necessary
parts, and imposed on all its members their due connection with each
other, and measured out for them their liberal supplies from the
universal resources. And the most prominent of these show
clearly, even to the uninstructed, by the proof of personal experience,
the value and service attaching to them: the head, for example,
in the position of supremacy, and the senses set like a guard about the
brain, as the ruler in the citadel; and the advancing eyes, and the
reporting ears; and the taste which, as it were, is the
tribute-gatherer;677
| 677
ἐδωδὴ ωσπερ
φορολογοῦσα. | and the
smell, which tracks and searches out its objects: and the touch,
which manipulates all put under it.
Hence we shall only run over in a summary way, at
present, some few of the works of an all-wise Providence; and after a
little we shall, if God grant it, go over them more minutely, when we
direct our discourse toward one who has the repute of greater
learning. So, then, we have the ministry of the hands, by
which all kinds of works are wrought, and all skilful professions
practised, and which have all their various faculties furnished them,
with a view to the discharge of one common function; and we have the
shoulders, with their capacity for bearing burdens; and the fingers,
with their power of
grasping; and the elbows, with their faculty of bending, by which they
can turn inwardly, upon the body, or take an outward inclination, so as
to be able either to draw objects toward the body, or to thrust them
away from it. We have also the service of the feet, by which the
whole terrestrial creation is made to come under our power, the earth
itself is traversed thereby, the sea is made navigable, the rivers are
crossed, and intercourse is established for all with all things.
The belly, too, is the storehouse of meats, with all its parts arranged
in their proper collocations, so that it apportions for itself the
right measure of aliment, and ejects what is over and above that.
And so is it with all the other things by which manifestly the due
administration of the constitution of man is wisely secured.678
| 678 The
text is, καὶ τὰ
ἄλλα δι᾽ ὅσων
ἐμφανῶς ἡ
διοίκησις
τῆς
ἀνθρωπείου
μεμηχάνηται
διανομῆς. Viger
proposes διαμονῆς for
διανομῆς, and
renders the whole thus: “ac cætera quorum vi
humanæ firmitatis et conservationis ratio continetur.” | Of all these, the intelligent and
the unintelligent alike enjoy the same use; but they have not the same
comprehension of them.679
| 679 The
text is, ὧν ὁμοίως
τοῖς ἄφροσιν
ἔχοντες οἱ
σοφοὶ τὴν
κρίσιν, οὐκ
ἴσχουσι τὴν
γνῶσιν. We adopt
Viger’s suggestion, and read χρῆσιν for κρίσιν. | For there are some who refer this
whole economy to a power which they conceive to be a true
divinity,680
| 680 We read,
with Viger, θεότητα for
ἀθεότητα. The
text gives οἱ
μὲν γὰρ εἰς
ἣν ἂν
οἰηθῶσιν
ἀθεότητα, etc., which
might possibly mean something like this: There are some who refer
the whole economy to a power which these (others) may deem to be no
divinity (but which is) the highest intelligence in all things, and the
best benefactor, etc. Or the sense might be = There are some who
refer this most intelligent and beneficent economy to a power which
they deem to be no divinity, though they believe the same economy to be
the work of a wisdom, etc. | and which they
apprehend as at once the highest intelligence in all things, and the
best benefactor to themselves, believing that this economy is all the
work of a wisdom and a might which are superior to every other, and in
themselves truly divine. And there are others who aimlessly
attribute this whole structure of most marvellous beauty to chance and
fortuitous coincidence. And in addition to these, there are also
certain physicians, who, having made a more effective examination into
all these things, and having investigated with utmost accuracy the
disposition of the inward parts in especial, have been struck with
astonishment at the results of their inquiry, and have been led to
deify nature itself. The notions of these men we shall review
afterwards, as far as we may be able, though we may only touch the
surface of the subject.681
| 681 The
text is, ἡμεῖς δὲ
ὕστερον ὡς ἂν
οἶοί τε
γενώμεθα, κἂν
ἐπιπολῆς,
ἀναθεωρήσομεν.
Viger renders it thus: “Nos eam postea, jejune fortassis et
exiliter, ut pro facultate nostra, prosequemur.” He
proposes, however, to read ἐπὶ
πολλοῖς
(sc. ῥήμασι or λόγοις) for ἐπιπολῆς. | Meantime, to deal with this matter
generally and summarily, let me ask who constructed this whole
tabernacle of ours, so lofty, erect, graceful, sensitive, mobile,
active, and apt for all things? Was it, as they say, the
irrational multitude of atoms? Nay, these, by their conjunctions,
could not mould even an image of clay, neither could they hew and
polish a statue of stone; nor could they cast and finish an idol of
silver or gold; but arts and handicrafts calculated for such operations
have been discovered by men who fabricate these objects.682
| 682 The
text is, χειρουργίαι
τούτων ὑπ᾽
ἀνθρώπων
εὕρηνται
σωματουργῶη.
Viger proposes σωματουργοί,
“handicrafts for the construction of such bodies have been
discovered by men.” | And if, even in these,
representations and models cannot be made without the aid of wisdom,
how can the genuine and original patterns of these copies have come
into existence spontaneously? And whence have come the soul, and
the intelligence, and the reason, which are born with the
philosopher? Has he gathered these from those atoms which are
destitute alike of soul, and intelligence, and reason? and has each of
these atoms inspired him with some appropriate conception and
notion? And are we to suppose that the wisdom of man was made up
by these atoms, as the myth of Hesiod tells us that Pandora was
fashioned by the gods? Then shall the Greeks have, to give up
speaking of the various species of poetry, and music, and astronomy,
and geometry, and all the other arts and sciences, as the inventions
and instructions of the gods, and shall have to allow that these atoms
are the only muses with skill and wisdom for all subjects. For
this theogony, constructed of atoms by Epicurus, is indeed something
extraneous to the infinite worlds of order,683
| 683
κόσμων. [See note 6,
p. 88, supra.] | and finds its refuge in the infinite
disorder.684
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