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But that I might speak of the static state of the triad? But certain absurdities follow from both arguments. For if there is some beginning of the monadic movement, the divine had a beginning, and also a passion, the movement, it has found and had an involuntary stop, and God appeared to us as in a drama, having taken a beginning and shared in passion and being involuntarily stopped from its forward course. What could be more ridiculous than this? But if, while the monad was moving infinitely, some external power came upon it, restraining it from its impulse, leading it into division and number and hindering it from its monadic forward course, then again, as on a stage, another god was found, who was at once opposite to and stronger than the one contemplated in the infinitely and primarily moving monad, and, so to speak, of the non-stopping monadic flux. But this is most absurd, that two first and opposite gods should stand.»

4 That God exists, then, is acknowledged by almost all, I mean Greeks and barbarians; for Epicurus may be dismissed from the discussion, and any other atheist, who believes in automaton and chance or some other delirium. But that God exists, all know; but no one has been able, nor would be able, to make a demonstration of God's existence. For demonstrations prove particulars from universals, but no one could ever say or imagine anything more universal than the first being. For that would in every way be the first, which would be first and as far as it could proceed; for wherever one might stop and posit something unhypothetical, there one would find the primary being. For these reasons, it is not easy to discover a demonstration establishing that God exists. But theologians have invented and handed down a certain consolation, as it were, from an inductive method, from the orderly motion of the universe, from the spherical revolution of the stars established in it, both those having their own motion and those carried along with the vault of heaven, and they have used other such things for their construction, and not least also by taking into account the animal harmony within us. But let us, leaving such things aside, proceed on a different, shorter path, as I think, and a more compelling one, and demonstrate, almost with geometrical proofs, that God exists.

5 We must begin, then, in this way, making the points of our demonstration from common and acknowledged facts or concepts. Substance exists, and no one seeing or in any way perceiving will deny it; for there exist stone and wood and horse and man, coexisting in some substance. In this there is also sensation, and everyone would agree to this; for the living creature touches and sees and hears and smells. So there is substance, and above it a greater power, sensation. There is also knowing through imagination in some of the sensing animals, through which those that partake of it also display a trace of reason, such as spiders, bees, ants; from this also memory arises in some, as in dogs and horses and other such animals. Therefore, along with the things mentioned, substance and sensation, there is also the faculty of imagination, much greater than what has been said. But beyond all these there is also a better cognitive power, I mean that of the rational soul, which both begets internal reason and composes spoken reason and creates arts, being by a great measure greater than the aforementioned; for it bears in itself also the inferior powers in a greater way than in those things in which these alone naturally exist. Since, then, these things are so and are acknowledged, it is altogether necessary that there be something superior, 5 from which these composite things also derive. For if a house, fitted together from stones and wood and lime, could not come to be without a craftsman, nor could a ship ever be built without some shipwright, how could all things here, so exceedingly well-ordered in their diverse compositions, subsist without some demiurge and maker? And since these things had a beginning in time, it is necessary for that one to be timeless; and since these things suffer corruption, that one

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τῆς δὲ τριάδος ἵν' εἴπω τὴν στατικήν; ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐν ἀμφοῖν τοῖν λόγοιν ἄτοπα ἄττα ἀκολουθεῖ. εἰ μὲν γὰρ ἔστι τις ἀρχὴ τῆς μοναδικῆς κινήσεως, ἔσχε τὸ θεῖον ἀρχήν, ἀλλὰ καὶ πάθος, τὴν κίνησιν, εὕρηκε καὶ ἀκούσιον ἔσχηκε στάσιν, καὶ ὡς ἐπὶ δράματος ἡμῖν ἀνεφάνη θεός, ἀρχὴν λαβὼν καὶ πάθους μετασχὼν καὶ τῆς πρόσω φορᾶς ἀκουσίως ἱστάμενος. οὗ τί ἂν εἴη γελοιωδέστερον; εἰ δὲ ἀπείρως τῆς μονάδος κινουμένης ἔξωθεν ἐπῆλθέ τις δύναμις, ἀναχαιτίζουσα μὲν αὐτὴν τῆς ὁρμῆς, εἰς διαίρεσιν δὲ καὶ ἀριθμὸν ἐπάγουσα καὶ τῆς πρόσω φορᾶς τῆς μοναδικῆς κωλύουσα, καὶ πάλιν ὡς ἐπὶ σκηνῆς εὑρέθη ἄλλος θεός, τοῦ ἐν τῇ μονάδι τῇ ἀπείρως καὶ πρώτως κινουμένῃ θεωρουμένου καὶ οἷον εἰπεῖν μὴ ἱσταμένου τοῦ μοναδικοῦ χύματος ἐναντίος τε ἅμα καὶ ἰσχυρότερος. ἀλλὰ καὶ τοῦτο δὴ ἀτοπώτατον δύο πρώτους καὶ ἐναντίους στῆναι θεούς.»

4 Ὅτι μὲν οὖν ἔστι θεὸς παρὰ πᾶσι σχεδὸν ὡμολόγηται, Ἕλλησί φημι καὶ βαρβάροις· Ἐπίκουρος γὰρ ἀποπεμπέσθω τοῦ λόγου καὶ εἴ τις ἕτερος ἄθεος, αὐτόματον δοξάζων καὶ τυχὸν ἢ ἄλλο τι παραλήρημα. ἀλλ' ὅτι μὲν ἔστι θεός, πάντες οἰδασιν· ἀπόδειξιν δὲ τοῦ εἶναι θεὸν οὔτε τις δεδύνηται οὔτ' ἂν δυνηθείη ποιήσασθαι. αἱ γὰρ ἀποδείξεις ἐκ τῶν καθόλου τὰ ἐπὶ μέρους ἀποδεικνύουσι, καθολικώτερον δὲ ὂν τοῦ πρώτου ὄντος οὐκ ἄν τις ἐρεῖ οὐδ' ἀναπλάσειε πώποτε. πάντως γὰρ ἐκεῖνο ἂν εἴη τὸ πρῶτον, ὅπερ ἂν εἴη πρῶτον καὶ μέχρις ὅτου δύναιτο ἂν προβαίνειν· ὅπου γὰρ ἂν σταίη καὶ ἀνυπόθετον θείη, ἐκεῖνο ἂν εὕρῃ τὸ πρώτως ὄν. διὰ ταῦτα ἀπόδειξιν κατασκευάζουσαν, ὅτι ἔστι θεός, οὐ ῥᾷόν ἐστιν ἐφευρεῖν. παραμυθίαν δέ τινα ἐξ ἐπαγωγικῆς οἷον μεθόδου οἱ θεολογήσαντες ἐφεῦρόν τε καὶ παρέδωκαν ἔκ τε τῆς εὐτάκτου τοῦ παντὸς κινήσεως τῆς σφαιρικῆς τε περιπολήσεως τῶν ἐν αὐτῇ καθιδρυμένων ἄστρων, τῶν τε ἰδίαν ἐχόντων κίνησιν καὶ τῶν συμπεριφερομένων τοῦ οὐρανοῦ κύτει, καὶ ἄλλοις τοιούτοις εἰς κατασκευὴν κατεχρήσαντο, οὐχ ἧττον δὲ καὶ τὴν καθ' ἡμᾶς ζωικὴν ἁρμονίαν εἰς λόγους παραλαβόντες. ἀλλ' ἡμεῖς τὰ τοιαῦτα ἀφέντες ἄλλην τινὰ συντομωτέραν ὡς οἶμαι καὶ ἀναγκαστικωτέραν βαδίσαιμεν, καὶ μόνον οὐχὶ γεωμετρικαῖς ἀποδείξεσιν ἀποδείξαιμεν, ὅτι ἔστι θεός.

5 Ἀρκτέον οὖν ὧδε ἀπὸ κοινῶν καὶ ὁμολογουμένων πραγμάτων ἢ νοημάτων τὰ τῆς ἀποδείξεως ποιουμένοις. ἔστι μὲν ἡ οὐσία, καὶ οὐδεὶς ὁρῶν ἀντερεῖ ἢ ὁπωσοῦν αἰσθανόμενος· ἔστι γὰρ καὶ λίθος καὶ ξύλον καὶ ἵππος καὶ ἄνθρωπος ἐν οὐσίᾳ τινὶ συνυπάρχοντα. ἔστιν ἐν ταύτῃ καὶ αἴσθησις, καὶ τοῦτο σύμπας ὁμολογήσειεν· ἅπτεται γὰρ καὶ ὁρᾷ τὸ ζῶον ἀκούει τε καὶ ὀσφραίνεται. ἔστι γοῦν οὐσία, καὶ ἐπὶ ταύτῃ κρείττων δύναμις αἴσθησις. ἔστι καὶ τὸ φανταστικῶς γινώσκειν ἔν τισι τῶν αἰσθανομένων ζώων, δι' οὗ καὶ τὸ χνοειδὲς τὰ τούτου μετέχοντα ὑπεμφαίνουσιν, οἷον ἀράχναι μέλιτται μύρμηκες· ἐντεῦθεν καὶ μνήμη ἐνίοις ἐγγίνεται, ὡς κυσὶ καὶ ἵπποις καὶ ἄλλοις τοιούτοις. ἔστιν οὖν σὺν τοῖς εἰρημένοις, οὐσίᾳ τε καὶ αἰσθήσει, καὶ φανταστικὴ δύναμις, τῶν λελεγμένων κρείττων πολύ. ἀλλ' ἔστιν ἐπὶ πᾶσι τούτοις καὶ βελτίων γνωστικὴ δύναμις, τὴν τῆς νοερᾶς λέγω ψυχῆς, ἣ καὶ λόγον γεννᾷ ἐνδιάθετον καὶ συντίθησι τὸν προφορικὸν καὶ τέχνας ποιεῖ, κρείττων τῶν προλελεγμένων πολλῷ τῷ μέτρῳ τυγχάνουσα· φέρει γὰρ ἐν ἑαυτῇ καὶ τὰς ὑποδεεστέρας δυνάμεις κρειττόνως ἢ ἐν οἷς καὶ μόνον αὗται πεφύκασιν. ἐπεὶ γοῦν ταῦθ' οὕτως ἔχει καὶ ὡμολόγηται, ἀνάγκη πᾶσα καί τι εἶναι τὸ ὑπερκείμενον, 5 ἐξ οὗ καὶ ταῦτα τὰ σύνθετα. εἰ γὰρ οἰκία οὐκ ἂν γένοιτο τεχνίτου χωρὶς ἐκ λίθων καὶ ξύλων καὶ ἀσβέστου συνηρμοσ μένη, ἀλλ' οὔτε ναῦς πηχθείη ἄν ποτε ἄνευ τινὸς ναυπηγοῦ, πῶς ἂν τὰ τῇδε πάντα ὑπερκάλως ἐρρυθμισμένα τοῖς δια φόροις συγκρίμασι συσταίη δημιουργοῦ τινος ἄτερ καὶ ποιητοῦ; ἐπεὶ δὲ ταῦτα ἔσχεν ἀρχὴν χρονικήν, ἀνάγκη ἐκεῖνο ἄχρονον εἶναι· ἐπεὶ δὲ ταῦτα πάσχει φθοράν, ἐκεῖνο