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other human bodies to pass into, as the animals that have been fed on these in the meantime convey the nourishment from which they were fed to those humans for whom they became food. Then to these they tragically add the instances of child-eating dared in famines and madnesses, and the children eaten by their own parents through the plotting of enemies, and that Median banquet and the tragic feasts of Thyestes, and they string together certain such calamities newly devised among Greeks and barbarians, and from these they construct, as they suppose, the impossibility of the resurrection, on the grounds that the same parts cannot rise again with different bodies, but either the bodies of the first cannot be constituted, since the parts that complete them have passed over to others, or, if these are given back to the first, the bodies of the later ones will be deficient. But to me, such people seem, first, to be ignorant of the power and wisdom of the one who created and governs this universe, who has fitted to the nature and kind of each animal its suitable and appropriate nourishment, and who has neither judged that every nature should proceed to union or mixture with every body, nor is at a loss for the separation of things that have been united, but who both permits each nature among created things to do or to suffer what it is its nature to do or suffer, and who prevents another thing, and allows or diverts everything that he wills and to what he wills, and, in addition to what has been said, they seem not to have considered the power and nature of each of the things that nourish or are nourished. For they would have known that not everything one takes in, yielding to external necessity, becomes suitable nourishment for the animal; but some things are naturally destroyed as soon as they come into contact with the enfolding parts of the stomach, being vomited or excreted or otherwise disposed of, so as not even for a short time to undergo the first and natural digestion, let alone assimilation into the one being nourished. Just as, then, not everything that has been digested and undergone the first change necessarily approaches the parts being nourished, with some things being separated from the nutritive power in the stomach itself, and others being separated during the second change and the digestion that occurs in the liver, and passing into something else that has departed from the power of nourishing. And of the change that takes place in the liver itself, not all of it proceeds to become nourishment for humans, but it is separated into the waste products it is its nature to become; and sometimes the remaining nourishment in the very parts and particles being nourished changes into something else according to the dominance of what is excessive or superfluous and is accustomed to corrupt in some way or to convert to itself that which comes near. Since, therefore, there is great natural diversity among all animals and in the natural nourishment itself for each kind of animal and
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ἕτερα τῶν ἀνθρώπων μεταχωρεῖν σώματα, τῶν μεταξὺ τούτοις τραφέντων ζῴων τὴν ἐξ ὧν ἐτράφησαν τροφὴν διαπορθμευόντων εἰς ἐκείνους τοὺς ἀνθρώπους ὧν ἐγένετο τροφή. εἶτα τούτοις ἐπιτραγῳδοῦσιν τὰς ἐν λιμοῖς καὶ μανίαις τολμηθείσας τεκνοφαγίας καὶ τοὺς κατ' ἐπιβουλὴν ἐχθρῶν ὑπὸ τῶν γεννησαμένων ἐδηδε- μένους παῖδας καὶ τὴν Μηδικὴν τράπεζαν ἐκείνην καὶ τὰ τρα- γικὰ δεῖπνα Θυέστου καὶ τοιαύτας δή τινας ἐπισυνείρουσι παρ' Ἕλλησιν καὶ βαρβάροις καινουργηθείσας συμφορὰς ἔκ τε τούτων κατασκευάζουσιν, ὡς νομίζουσιν, ἀδύνατον τὴν ἀνάστασιν, ὡς οὐ δυναμένων τῶν αὐτῶν μερῶν ἑτέροις τε καὶ ἑτέροις συναναστῆναι σώμασιν, ἀλλ' ἤτοι τὰ τῶν προτέρων συστῆναι μὴ δύνασθαι, μετ- εληλυθότων τῶν ταῦτα συμπληρούντων μερῶν πρὸς ἑτέρους, ἢ τούτων ἀποδοθέντων τοῖς προτέροις ἐνδεῶς ἕξειν τὰ τῶν ὑστέρων. Ἐμοὶ δὲ δοκοῦσιν οἱ τοιοῦτοι πρῶτον μὲν τὴν τοῦ δημιουργή- σαντος καὶ διοικοῦντος τόδε τὸ πᾶν ἀγνοεῖν δύναμίν τε καὶ σοφίαν, ἑκάστου ζῴου φύσει καὶ γένει τὴν προσφυῆ καὶ κατάλληλον συναρμόσαντος τροφὴν καὶ μήτε πᾶσαν φύσιν πρὸς ἕνωσιν ἢ κρᾶσιν παντὸς σώματος ἰέναι δικαιώσαντος μήτε πρὸς διάκρισιν τῶν ἑνωθέντων ἀπόρως ἔχοντος, ἀλλὰ καὶ τῇ καθ' ἕκαστον φύσει τῶν γενομένων τὸ δρᾶν ἢ πάσχειν ἃ πέφυκεν ἐπιτρέποντος ἄλλο δὲ κωλύοντος καὶ πᾶν ὃ βούλεται καὶ πρὸς ὃ βούλεται συγχωροῦντος ἢ μεταστρέφοντος, πρὸς δὲ τοῖς εἰρημένοις μηδὲ τὴν ἑκάστου τῶν τρεφόντων ἢ τρεφομένων ἐπεσκέφθαι δύναμίν τε καὶ φύσιν. ἦ γὰρ ἂν ἔγνωσαν ὅτι μὴ πᾶν ὃ προσφέρεταί τις ὑπενδόσει τῆς ἔξωθεν ἀνάγκης, τοῦτο γίνεται τῷ ζῴῳ τροφὴ προσφυής· ἀλλὰ τὰ μὲν ἅμα τῷ προσομιλῆσαι τοῖς περιπτυσσομένοις τῆς κοιλίας μέρεσι φθείρεσθαι πέφυκεν ἐμούμενά τε καὶ διαχωρούμενα ἢ τρόπον ἕτερον διαφορούμενα, ὡς μηδὲ κατὰ βραχὺ τὴν πρώτην καὶ κατὰ φύσιν ὑπομεῖναι πέψιν, ἦ που γε τὴν εἰς τὸ τρεφόμενον σύγκρασιν, ὥσπερ οὖν οὐδὲ πᾶν τὸ πεφθὲν καὶ τὴν πρώτην δεξάμενον μεταβολὴν τοῖς τρεφομένοις μορίοις προσπελάζει πάντως, τινῶν μὲν κατ' αὐτὴν τὴν γαστέρα τῆς θρεπτικῆς δυνάμεως ἀποκρινομένων, τῶν δὲ κατὰ τὴν δευτέραν μεταβολὴν καὶ τὴν ἐν ἥπατι γινομένην πέψιν διακρινομένων καὶ πρὸς ἕτερόν τι μεταχωρούντων ὃ τὴν τοῦ τρέφειν ἐκβέβηκεν δύναμιν, καὶ αὐτῆς γε τῆς ἐν ἥπατι γινομένης μεταβολῆς οὐ πάσης εἰς τροφὴν ἀνθρώποις χωρούσης, ἀλλ' εἰς ἃ πέφυκεν περιττώματα διακρινομένης τῆς τε καταλειφθείσης τροφῆς ἐν αὐτοῖς ἔσθ' ὅτε τοῖς τρεφομένοις μέρεσι καὶ μορίοις πρὸς ἕτερόν τι μεταβαλλούσης κατὰ τὴν ἐπικράτειαν τοῦ πλεονάζοντος ἢ περιττεύοντος καὶ φθείρειν πως ἢ πρὸς ἑαυτὸ τρέπειν τὸ πλησιάσαν εἰωθότος. Πολλῆς οὖν οὔσης ἐν πᾶσι τοῖς ζῴοις τῆς φυσικῆς διαφορᾶς καὶ αὐτῆς γε τῆς κατὰ φύσιν τροφῆς ἑκάστῳ γένει ζῴων καὶ