11. But, supposing
that these things do not at all hinder or prevent your being bound
to believe and hearken to them in great measure;3468
| 3468
Heraldus has well suggested that plurimum is a gloss arising out
of its being met with in the next clause. |
and what
reason is there
either that you should have more
liberty in this respect, or
that we
should have less? You believe Plato,
3469
| 3469
So the ms. and edd., reading
Platoni; but Ursinus suggested Plotino, which Heraldus
thinks most probably correct. There is, indeed, an evident
suitableness in introducing here the later rather than the earlier
philosopher, which has great weight in dealing with the next name, and
should therefore, perhaps, have some in this case also. |
Cronius,
3470
| 3470
The ms. and both Roman edd. give
Crotonio, rejected by the others because no Crotonius is known
(it has been referred, however, to Pythagoras, on the ground of his
having taught in Croton). In the margin of Ursinus Cronius
was suggested, received by LB. and Orelli, who is mentioned by
Eusebius (Hist. Eccl., vi. 19, 3) with Numenius and others as an
eminent Pythagorean, and by Porphyry (de Ant. Nymph., xxi.), as
a friend of Numenius, and one of those who treated the Homeric poems as
allegories. Gelenius substitutes Plotinus, followed by most
edd. |
Numenius, or
any one you please; we believe and confide in
Christ.
3471
| 3471
[Thus everywhere he writes as a Christian.] |
How unreasonable it is, that when
we both
abide3472
| 3472
Stemus, the admirable correction of Gelenius for the
ms. tem-p-us. |
by
teachers,
and have one and the same thing, belief, in common, you should wish it
to be granted to you to receive what is so
3473
| 3473
Orelli, following Stewechius, would omit ita. |
said by them,
but should be
unwilling to hear and see what is brought forward by
Christ! And
yet, if we chose to compare cause with cause, we are better able to
point out what we have followed in
Christ, than
you to point out
what you
have followed in the
philosophers. And we,
indeed, have followed in him these things—those glorious works
and most potent
virtues which he manifested and displayed in diverse
miracles, by which any one might be led to
feel the necessity of
believing, and
might decide with
confidence that they were not
such as might be regarded as man’s, but
such as showed
some
divine and unknown
power. What
virtues did you follow in the
philosophers, that
it was more reasonable for you
to believe them than for us to
believe
Christ? Was any one of them ever able by one word, or by
a single command, I will not say to restrain, to check
3474
| 3474
Hildebrand thinks compescere here a gloss, but it must be
remembered that redundancy is a characteristic of Arnobius. |
the madness
of the
sea or the fury of the
storm; to restore their sight to the
blind, or give it to men
blind from their
birth; to call the dead back
to
life; to put an end to the sufferings of years; but—and this
is much easier
3475
| 3475 The
superlative is here, as elsewhere, used by Arnobius instead of the
comparative. |
—to
heal by one
rebuke a boil, a scab, or a
thorn fixed in the
skin?
Not that we deny either that they are worthy of
praise for the
soundness of their
morals, or that they are skilled in all kinds of
studies and learning; for we know that they both speak in the most
elegant
language, and
that their words flow in polished periods;
that they reason in syllogisms with the utmost acuteness; that they
arrange their inferences in due order;
3476
| 3476
i.e., so as to show the relations existing between them. |
that they express, divide, distinguish
principles by definitions; that they say many things about the
different kinds of numbers, many things about
music; that by
their maxims and
precepts3477
| 3477
Perhaps “axioms and postulates.” |
they settle the problems of geometry
also. But what
has that to
do with the case?
Do enthymemes, syllogisms, and other such things, assure us that these
men know what is true? or are they therefore such that credence
should necessarily be given to them with regard to very obscure
subjects? A comparison of persons must be decided, not by vigour
of eloquence, but by the excellence of the works
which they have
done. He must not
3478
| 3478
According to Crusius, non is not found in the ms. |
be called a good teacher who has
expressed himself clearly,
3479
| 3479
White and Riddle translate candidule, “sincerely,”
but give no other instance of its use, and here the reference is
plainly to the previous statement of the literary excellence of the
philosophers. Heraldus suggests callidule,
“cunningly,” of which Orelli approves; but by referring the
adv. to this well-known meaning of its primitive, all necessity for
emendation is obviated. |
but he who accompanies his promises
with the guarantee of divine works.
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