18. They have not learned,
I will be told, to make clothing, seats, ships, and ploughs,
nor, in fine, the other furniture which family life requires.
These are not the gifts of science, but the suggestions of most
pressing necessity; nor did the arts descend with men’s
souls from the inmost heavens, but here on earth have they all been
painfully sought out and brought to light,3527
and gradually acquired in process of
time by careful thought. But if the
soul3528
| 3528
Throughout this discussion, Arnobius generally uses the plural,
animæ—“souls.” |
had
in itself the
knowledge
which it is fitting that a race should have indeed
which is
divine and
immortal, all men would from the first know everything; nor
would there be an age unacquainted with any art, or not furnished with
practical
knowledge. But now a
life of want and in need of many
things, noticing some things happen accidentally to its
advantage,
while it
imitates, experiments, and tries, while it
fails, remoulds,
changes, from continual failure has procured for itself
3529
| 3529 So
Elmenhorst, Oberthür, and Orelli, reading par-a-v-it sibi
et for the ms. parv-as
et, “from continual failure has wrought out indeed slight
smattering of the arts,” etc., which is retained in both Roman
edd., LB., and Hild.; while Gelenius and Canterus merely substitute
sibi for et, “wrought out for itself slight,”
etc. |
and wrought out
some slight acquaintance with the arts, and brought to one issue the
advances of many ages.
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