36.4942
You say that some of them
cause dissensions, that there are others who
inflict
pestilences, others who
excite love and madness, others,
even, who preside over
wars, and are
delighted by the shedding of
blood; but we, indeed, on the contrary,
judge that
these things
are remote
4943
| 4943
It is important to notice the evidence in this one sentence of haste
and want of revision. In the first line we find a genitive
(discordiarum—“dissensions”), but not the noun
on which it depends; and in the apodosis a verb (disjunctas
esse—“have been removed,” i.e., “are
remote”) has no subject, although its gender imperatively
requires that has res, or some such words, be
supplied. One omission might have been easily ascribed to a slip
on the part of the copyist; but two omissions such as these occurring
so closely, must, it would seem, be assigned to the impetuous disregard
of minutiæ with which Arnobius blocked out a conclusion
which was never carefully revised. (Cf. Appendix, note 1, and p.
539, n. 8.) The importance of such indications is manifest in
forming an opinion on the controversy as to this part of the
work. |
from the
dispositions of the deities; or if there are any who
inflict and bring
these ills on
miserable mortals, we maintain that they are
far from the
nature of the gods, and should not be spoken of under this name.
You
judge that the deities are
angry and perturbed, and given over and
subject to the other mental affections; we think that such emotions are
alien from them, for
these suit savage beings, and those who
die
as
mortals.
4944
| 4944
Lit., “are of…those meeting the functions of
mortality,” obeunti-um, corrected by Gelenius
(according to Orelli) for the ms.
-bus, retained, though unintelligible, by Canterus, Oberth., and
Hild. |
You
think that they
rejoice, are made
glad, and are
reconciled to men,
their offended feelings being soothed by the
blood of
beasts and the
slaughter of victims; we hold that there is in the celestials no
love
of
blood, and that they are not so
stern as to lay aside their
resentment only when glutted with the
slaughter of
animals. You
think that, by
wine and
incense, honour is given to the gods, and their
dignity increased; we
judge it marvellous and monstrous that any man
thinks that the
deity either becomes more venerable by reason of
smoke,
4945
| 4945
[See p. 519, note 1, and p. 528, cap. 26, supra.] |
or thinks
himself supplicated by men with sufficient awe and respect when they
offer
4946
| 4946
Lit., “of.” [Cap. 29, p. 529, supra.] |
a few drops
of
wine. You are
persuaded that, by the crash of
cymbals and the
sound of
pipes, by
horse-races and theatrical plays, the gods are both
delighted and affected, and that their resentful feelings conceived
before
4947
are
mollified by the satisfaction which these things give; we hold it
to
be out of place, nay more, we
judge it incredible, that those who
have
surpassed by a
thousand degrees every
kind of excellence in the
height of their
perfection, should be pleased and delighted with those
things which a wise man laughs at, and which do not seem to have any
charm except to little children, coarsely and vulgarly
educated.
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