Chapter XXIV.—Earth Does Not Mean Matter as Hermogenes Would Have It.

I now return to the several points226    Articulos. by means of which he thought that Matter was signified. And first I will inquire about the terms. For we read only of one of them, Earth; the other, namely Matter, we do not meet with. I ask, then, since Matter is not mentioned in Scripture, how the term earth can be applied to it, which marks a substance of another kind? There is all the greater need why mention should also have been made of Matter, if this has acquired the further sense of Earth, in order that I may be sure that Earth is one and the same name as Matter, and so not claim the designation for merely one substance, as the proper name thereof, and by which it is better known; or else be unable (if I should feel the inclination), to apply it to some particular species of Matter, instead, indeed,227    Nec utique. of making it the common term228    Communicare. of all Matter. For when a proper name does not exist for that thing to which a common term is ascribed, the less apparent229    We have construed Oehler’s reading: “Quanto non comparet” (i.e., by a frequent ellipse of Tertullian, “quanto magis non comparet”). Fr. Junius, however, suspects that instead of “quanto” we should read “quando”: this would produce the sense, “since it is not apparent to what object it may be ascribed,” etc. is the object to which it may be ascribed, the more capable will it be of being applied to any other object whatever. Therefore, even supposing that Hermogenes could show us the name230    Nominatam. Matter, he is bound to prove to us further, that the same object has the surname231    Cognominatam. Earth, in order that he may claim for it both designations alike.

CAPUT XXIV.

0219A

Revertor nunc ad singulos articulos, per quos putavit significatam esse materiam. Et primo de nominibus expostulabo. Horum enim alterum legimus, quod est terrae: alterum non invenimus, quod est materiae. Quaero ergo, cum materiae nominatio non exstet in Scriptura, quomodo ei etiam terrae appellatio accommodetur in alio jam genere substantiae nota? Quo magis materiae quoque nominatio extitisse debuerat, consecuta etiam terrae appellationem, ut scirem terram commune cum materia esse nomen, ne illud ei soli substantiae vindicarem, cujus et proprium, in qua magis notum est , vel ne illud in quamcumque aliam speciem, nec utique omni materiae communicare possem, si vellem. Cum enim non 0219B exstat proprium vocabulum ejus rei cui commune vocabulum adscribitur, quanto non comparet cui adscribatur, cuicumque alii poterit adscribi. Ita Hermogenes, etsi materiam ostenderet nominatam, deberet eamdem probare terram quoque cognominatam, ut ita utrumque illi vocabulum vindicaret.