Bad Advertisement?
Are you a Christian?
Online Store:Visit Our Store
| Wherein is a partial inquiry into the nature of the world, and a more minute exposition of the things which preceded the genesis of man.
PREVIOUS SECTION - NEXT SECTION - HELP 
I. Wherein is a partial
inquiry into the nature of the world, and a more minute exposition of
the things which preceded the genesis of man1589
| 1589 A
Bodleian ms. of the Latin version, cited by
Forbes, which gives independent titles, has here:—“Of the
perfection and beauty of the world and of the harmonious discord of the
four elements.” |
1. “This is the book of
the generation of heaven and earth1590
,” saith
the Scripture, when all that is seen was finished, and each of the
things that are betook itself to its own separate place, when the body
of heaven compassed all things round, and those bodies which are heavy
and of downward tendency, the earth and the water, holding each other
in, took the middle place of the universe; while, as a sort of bond and
stability for the things that were made, the Divine power and skill was
implanted in the growth of things, guiding all things with the reins of
a double operation (for it was by rest and motion that it devised the
genesis of the things that were not, and the continuance of the things
that are), driving around, about the heavy and changeless element
contributed by the creation that does not move, as about some fixed
path, the exceedingly rapid motion of the sphere, like a wheel, and
preserving the indissolubility of both by their mutual action, as the
circling substance by its rapid motion compresses the compact body of
the earth round about, while that which is firm and unyielding,
by reason of its
unchanging fixedness, continually augments the whirling motion of those
things which revolve round it, and intensity1591
| 1591 ὑπερβόλη apparently means “intensity” or “a high degree
of force,” not “excess of force,” since,
though the force in each is augmented, it does not exceed that in the
other, which is augmented also pari passu. | is
produced in equal measure in each of the natures which thus differ in
their operation, in the stationary nature, I mean, and in the mobile
revolution; for neither is the earth shifted from its own base, nor
does the heaven ever relax in its vehemence, or slacken its
motion.
2. These, moreover, were first
framed before other things, according to the Divine wisdom, to be as it
were a beginning of the whole machine, the great Moses indicating, I
suppose, where he says that the heaven and the earth were made by God
“in the beginning1592
” that all
things that are seen in the creation are the offspring of rest and
motion, brought into being by the Divine will. Now the heaven and the
earth being diametrically opposed to each other in their operations,
the creation which lies between the opposites, and has in part a share
in what is adjacent to it, itself acts as a mean between the extremes,
so that there is manifestly a mutual contact of the opposites through
the mean; for air in a manner imitates the perpetual motion and
subtlety of the fiery substance, both in the lightness of its nature,
and in its suitableness for motion; yet it is not such as to be
alienated from the solid substance, for it is no more in a state of
continual flux and dispersion than in a permanent state of immobility,
but becomes, in its affinity to each, a kind of borderland of the
opposition between operations, at once uniting in itself and dividing
things which are naturally distinct.
3. In the same way, liquid
substance also is attached by double qualities to each of the
opposites; for in so far as it is heavy and of downward tendency it is
closely akin to the earthy; but in so far as it partakes of a certain
fluid and mobile energy it is not altogether alien from the nature
which is in motion; and by means of this also there is effected a kind
of mixture and concurrence of the opposites, weight being transferred
to motion, and motion finding no hindrance in weight, so that things
most extremely opposite in nature combine with one another, and are
mutually joined by those which act as means between them.
4. But to speak strictly, one
should rather say that the very nature of the contraries themselves is
not entirely without mixture of properties, each with the other, so
that, as I think, all that we see in the world mutually agree, and the
creation, though discovered in properties of contrary natures, is yet
at union with itself. For as motion is not conceived merely as local
shifting, but is also contemplated in change and alteration, and on the
other hand the immovable nature does not admit motion by way of
alteration, the wisdom of God has transposed these properties, and
wrought unchangeableness in that which is ever moving, and change in
that which is immovable; doing this, it may be, by a providential
dispensation, so that that property of nature which constitutes its
immutability and immobility might not, when viewed in any created
object, cause the creature to be accounted as God; for that which may
happen to move or change would cease to admit of the conception of
Godhead. Hence the earth is stable without being immutable, while the
heaven, on the contrary, as it has no mutability, so has not stability
either, that the Divine power, by interweaving change in the stable
nature and motion with that which is not subject to change, might, by
the interchange of attributes, at once join them both closely to each
other, and make them alien from the conception of Deity; for as has
been said, neither of these (neither that which is unstable, nor that
which is mutable) can be considered to belong to the more Divine
nature.
5. Now all things were already
arrived at their own end: “the heaven and the earth1593
,” as Moses says, “were
finished,” and all things that lie between them, and the
particular things were adorned with their appropriate beauty; the
heaven with the rays of the stars, the sea and air with the living
creatures that swim and fly, and the earth with all varieties of plants
and animals, to all which, empowered by the Divine will, it gave birth
together; the earth was full, too, of her produce, bringing forth
fruits at the same time with flowers; the meadows were full of all that
grows therein, and all the mountain ridges, and summits, and every
hillside, and slope, and hollow, were crowned with young grass, and
with the varied produce of the trees, just risen from the ground, yet
shot up at once into their perfect beauty; and all the beasts that had
come into life at God’s command were rejoicing, we may suppose,
and skipping about, running to and fro in the thickets in herds
according to their kind, while every sheltered and shady spot was
ringing with the chants of the songbirds. And at sea, we may suppose,
the sight to be seen was of the like kind, as it had just settled to
quiet and calm in the gathering together of its depths, where havens
and harbours spontaneously hollowed out on the coasts made the sea
reconciled with the land; and the gentle motion of the waves vied in
beauty with the meadows, rippling delicately with light
and harmless breezes that skimmed the surface; and all the wealth of
creation by land and sea was ready, and none was there to share
it.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
|
