22. You err, my opponent
says, and are deceived; for the gods are not themselves artificers,
but suggest these arts to ingenious men, and teach mortals what they
should know, that their mode of life may be more civilized. But
he who gives any instruction to the ignorant and unwilling, and strives
to make him intelligently expert in some kind of work, must himself first
know that which he sets the other to practise. For no one can be
capable of teaching a science without knowing the rules of that which
he teaches, and having grasped its method most thoroughly. The
gods are, then, the first artificers; whether because they inform the
minds of men with knowledge, as you say yourselves, or because,
being immortal and unbegotten, they surpass the whole race of earth by
their length of life.3982
| 3982
Lit., “by the long duration of time.” |
This, then, is the
question;
there being no occasion for these arts among the gods, neither their
necessities nor
nature requiring in them any ingenuity or mechanical
skill, why you should say that they are skilled,
3983
| 3983
Lit., “skilled in notions”—perceptionibus; for
which præceptionibus, i.e., “the precepts of the
different arts,” has been suggested in the margin of Ursinus. |
one in one
craft, another in
another, and that individuals are pre-eminently expert
3984
| 3984
Lit., “and have skill (sollertias) in which individuals
excel.” |
in
particular departments in which they are distinguished by acquaintance
with the several branches of science?
E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
