6. But perhaps those seem to
you weak-minded and silly, who even now are uniting all over the world,
and joining together to assent with that readiness of belief at
which you mock.3429
| 3429
Lit., “to the assent of that credulity.” |
What then? Do you alone,
imbued
3430
| 3430
So the ms., reading conditi vi
mera, for which Orelli would read with Oudendorp,
conditæ—“by the pure force of
recondite wisdom.” The ms.,
however, is supported by the similar phrase in the beginning of chap.
8, where tincti is used. |
with the true
power of
wisdom and understanding, see something wholly
different
3431
| 3431
So the ms., reading aliud,
for which Stewechius, adopting a suggestion of Canterus, conjectures,
altius et profundius—“something deeper and
more profound.” Others propose readings further removed
from the text; while Obbarius, retaining the ms. reading, explains it as “not
common.” |
and
profound? Do you alone perceive that all these things are
trifles? you alone, that those things are mere words and childish
absurdities which we declare
are about to come to us from the
supreme Ruler? Whence,
pray, has so much
wisdom been given to
you? whence so much
subtlety and wit? Or from what scientific
training have you been able to
gain so much
wisdom, to derive so much
foresight? Because you are skilled in declining verbs and nouns
by cases and tenses,
and3432
| 3432
Lit., “because you are,” etc. |
in avoiding barbarous words and
expressions; because you have
learned either to express yourselves
in
3433
| 3433
Lit., “either yourselves to utter,” etc. |
harmonious,
and orderly, and fitly-disposed
language, or to know when it is rude
and unpolished;
3434
| 3434
Incomptus, for which Heraldus would read
inconditus, as in opposition to
“harmonious.” This is, however, unnecessary, as the
clause is evidently opposed to the whole of the preceding
one. |
because
you have stamped on your memory the Fornix of Lucilius,
3435
| 3435 No
trace of either of these works has come down to us, and therefore,
though there has been abundance of conjecture, we can reach no
satisfactory conclusion about them. It seems most natural to
suppose the former to be probably part of the lost satires of Lucilius,
which had dealt with obscene matters, and the author of the latter to
be the Atellane poet of Bononia. As to this there has been some
discussion; but, in our utter ignorance of the work itself, it is as
well to allow that we must remain ignorant of its author also.
The scope of both works is suggested clearly enough by their
titles—the statue of Marsyas in the forum overlooking nightly
licentious orgies; and their mention seems intended to suggest a covert
argument against the heathen, in the implied indecency of the knowledge
on which they prided themselves. For Fornicem Lucilianum
(ms. Lucialinum) Meursius
reads Cæcilianum. |
and Marsyas of
Pomponius; because
you know what the issues to be proposed in
lawsuits are, how many kinds of cases there are, how many ways of
pleading, what the genus is, what the species, by what methods an
opposite is distinguished from a contrary,—do you therefore think
that you know what is false, what true, what can or cannot be done,
what is the
nature of the lowest and highest? Have the well-known
words never rung in
3436
| 3436
Lit., “Has that thing published never struck,”
etc. There is clearly a reference to 1 Cor. iii. 19, “the wisdom of this
world.” The argument breaks off here, and is taken up from
a different point in the next sentence, which is included, however, in
this chapter by Orelli. |
your ears, that the wisdom of man is
foolishness with God?
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