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| That the construction of man throughout signifies his ruling power.
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IV. That the construction of man throughout signifies his
ruling power1597
| 1597 The
title in the Bodleian Latin ms.
is:—“Of the kingly dignity of the human
form.” | .
1. For as in our own life
artificers fashion a tool in the way suitable to its use, so the best
Artificer made our nature as it were a formation fit for the exercise
of royalty, preparing it at once by superior advantages of soul, and by
the very form of the body, to be such as to be adapted for royalty: for the
soul immediately shows its royal and exalted character, far removed as
it is from the lowliness of private station, in that it owns no lord,
and is self-governed, swayed autocratically by its own will; for to
whom else does this belong than to a king? And further, besides these
facts, the fact that it is the image of that Nature which rules over
all means nothing else than this, that our nature was created to be
royal from the first. For as, in men’s ordinary use, those who
make images1598
| 1598 It is
not clear whether the reference here is to painting or to sculpture, of
which the product was afterwards painted. The combination of
ἀναμάσσονται
and συμπαραγράφουσι
suggests the latter. | of princes both mould the figure of
their form, and represent along with this the royal rank by the vesture
of purple, and even the likeness is commonly spoken of as “a
king,” so the human nature also, as it was made to rule the rest,
was, by its likeness to the King of all, made as it were a living
image, partaking with the archetype both in rank and in name, not
vested in purple, nor giving indication of its rank by sceptre and
diadem (for the archetype itself is not arrayed with these), but
instead of the purple robe, clothed in virtue, which is in truth the
most royal of all raiment, and in place of the sceptre, leaning on the
bliss of immortality, and instead of the royal diadem, decked with the
crown of righteousness; so that it is shown to be perfectly like to the
beauty of its archetype in all that belongs to the dignity of
royalty.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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