Chapter V.—The Physical Theory Continued. Further Reasons Advanced Against the Divinity of the Elements.

Why, then, do we not resort to that far more reasonable392    See The Apology, c. iii.    Humaniorem. opinion, which has clear proof of being derived from men’s common sense and unsophisticated deduction?393    Plectitur.    Conjectura. Even Varro bears it in mind, when he says that the elements are supposed to be divine, because nothing whatever is capable, without their concurrence,394    Tradux.    Suffragio. of being produced, nourished, or applied to the sustenance395    Retinere.    Sationem. of man’s life and of the earth, since not even our bodies and souls could have sufficed in themselves without the modification396    At nunc.    Temperamento. of the elements. By this it is that the world is made generally habitable,—a result which is harmoniously secured397    Elatrent.    Fœderata. by the distribution into zones,398    Libertatem suam, “their liberty of speech.”    Circulorum conditionibus. except where human residence has been rendered impracticable by intensity of cold or heat. On this account, men have accounted as gods—the sun, because it imparts from itself the light of day, ripens the fruit with its warmth, and measures the year with its stated periods; the moon, which is at once the solace of the night and the controller of the months by its governance; the stars also, certain indications as they are of those seasons which are to be observed in the tillage of our fields; lastly, the very heaven also under which, and the earth over which, as well as the intermediate space within which, all things conspire together for the good of man. Nor is it from their beneficent influences only that a faith in their divinity has been deemed compatible with the elements, but from their opposite qualities also, such as usually happen from what one might call399    Denique.    Tanquam. their wrath and anger—as thunder, and hail, and drought, and pestilential winds, floods also, and openings of the ground, and earthquakes: these are all fairly enough400    Porro.    Jure. accounted gods, whether their nature becomes the object of reverence as being favourable, or of fear because terrible—the sovereign dispenser,401    Gravem, “earnest.”    Domina. in fact,402    Comp. The Apology, c. iii.    Scilicet. both of help and of hurt. But in the practical conduct of social life, this is the way in which men act and feel: they do not show gratitude or find fault with the very things from which the succour or the injury proceeds, so much as with them by whose strength and power the operation of the things is effected. For even in your amusements you do not award the crown as a prize to the flute or the harp, but to the musician who manages the said flute or harp by the power of his delightful skill.403    Pro.    Vi suavitatis. In like manner, when one is in ill-health, you do not bestow your acknowledgments on the flannel wraps,404    i.e., the Christian.    Lanis. or the medicines, or the poultices, but on the doctors by whose care and prudence the remedies become effectual.  So again, in untoward events, they who are wounded with the sword do not charge the injury on the sword or the spear, but on the enemy or the robber; whilst those whom a falling house covers do not blame the tiles or the stones, but the oldness of the building; as again shipwrecked sailors impute their calamity not to the rocks and waves, but to the tempest. And rightly too; for it is certain that everything which happens must be ascribed not to the instrument with which, but to the agent by whom, it takes place; inasmuch as he is the prime cause of the occurrence,405    De commercio.    Caput facti. who appoints both the event itself and that by whose instrumentality it comes to pass (as there are in all things these three particular elements—the fact itself, its instrument, and its cause), because he himself who wills the occurrence of a thing comes into notice406    Unum atque alium. The sense being plural, we have so given it all through.    Invenitur. prior to the thing which he wills, or the instrument by which it occurs. On all other occasions therefore, your conduct is right enough, because you consider the author; but in physical phenomena your rule is opposed to that natural principle which prompts you to a wise judgment in all other cases, removing out of sight as you do the supreme position of the author, and considering rather the things that happen, than him by whom they happen. Thus it comes to pass that you suppose the power and the dominion to belong to the elements, which are but the slaves and functionaries.  Now do we not, in thus tracing out an artificer and master within, expose the artful structure of their slavery407    Captivitatis (as if theirs was a self-inflicted captivity at home).    Servitutis artem. “Artem” Oehler explains by “artificiose institutum.” out of the appointed functions of those elements to which you ascribe (the attributes) of power?408    Omnem uxorem patientiam obtulisse (comp. Apology, middle of c. xxxix.).    We subjoin Oehler’s text of this obscure sentence: “Non in ista investigatione alicujus artificis intus et domini servitutis artem ostendimus elementorum certis ex operis” (for “operibis,” not unusual in Tertullian) “eorum quas facis potestatis?” But gods are not slaves; therefore whatever things are servile in character are not gods.  Otherwise409    In ergastulum.    Aut. they should prove to us that, according to the ordinary course of things, liberty is promoted by irregular licence,410    Radiant.    De licentia passivitatis libertas approbetur. despotism by liberty, and that by despotism divine power is meant. For if all the (heavenly bodies) overhead forget not411    He means the religion of Christ, which he in b. ii. c. ii. contrasts with “the mere wisdom” of the philosophers.    Meminerunt. to fulfil their courses in certain orbits, in regular seasons, at proper distances, and at equal intervals—appointed in the way of a law for the revolutions of time, and for directing the guidance thereof—can it fail to result412    Num non. from the very observance of their conditions and the fidelity of their operations, that you will be convinced both by the recurrence of their orbital courses and the accuracy of their mutations, when you bear in mind how ceaseless is their recurrence, that a governing power presides over them, to which the entire management of the world413    Universa negotiatio mundialis. is obedient, reaching even to the utility and injury of the human race? For you cannot pretend that these (phenomena) act and care for themselves alone, without contributing anything to the advantage of mankind, when you maintain that the elements are divine for no other reason than that you experience from them either benefit or injury to yourself. For if they benefit themselves only, you are under no obligation to them.

5. Quin ergo ad humaniorem aliquanto . . . . imur opinionem, quae de communi omnium sensu et simplici cog. . . . deducta videatur ? Nam et Varro meminit ejus, creditam praeterea dicens elementorum divinitatem, quod nihil omnino sine suffragio illorum gigni, ali, provehi possit ad vitae humanae et terrae sationem, quando ne ipsa quidem corpora aut animas 0592B sufficere licuisset sine elementorum temperamento, quo hahitatio ista mundi circulorum conditionibus foederata praestatur, nisi quod hominum incolatui denegavit enormitas frigoris aut caloris. Itaque deos credi: solem, qui diei de suo cumulet, fruges caloribus, p. . . . . . et annum stationibus servet; lunam, solatium noctium, patrocinium mensium gubernaculis, item sidera, signacula quaedam temporum ad mutationem notandorum; ipsum denique coelum, sub quo omnia; terram, super quam omnia, et quicquid illorum inter se ad commoda humana conspirat. Nec tantum beneficiis fidem divinitatis elementis convenire, sed etiam de diversis, quae tanquam de ira et offensa eorum incidere soleant, ut fulmina, ut grandines, ut ardores, ut aurae 0592C pestilentes, item diluvia, item hiatus motusque terrarum. Et jure credi deos, quorum natura honoranda sit in secundis, metuenda sit in adversis, domina scilicet juvandi et nocendi. Porro, si ita sentiuntur in. . . . . conversatione, non perinde rebus ipsis, quibus juvantur sive laeduntur aut gratias referunt aut querelas intendunt, sed his, sub quorum ducatu et potestate operatio rerum decurrit. Nam in voluptatibus vestris non tibiae aut citharae coronam ad praemium adjudicatis, sed artifici, qui tibiam et citharam suavitatis temperet vi. Aeque cum quis valetudine male est, non lanis nec antidotis aut malagmatis ipsis gratiam meministis, sed medicis, quorum opera atque prudentia remedia proveniunt. Item in adversis qui ferro sociantur, non gladium ipsum aut 0593A lanceam accusant, sed hostem vel latronem. Et quos . . . tegulas aut imbrices arguunt, sed vetustatem; sicut et naufragi non petris et fluctibus imputant, sed procellae. Merito. Certum enim est, quodcumque est, ei adscribendum, non per quod fit, sed a quo fit, quia is est caput facti, qui et ut fiat et per quid fiat, instituit. Et sunt in omnibus rebus tres tituli isti: quod est, per quod est, et a quo est; quia prius est, qui quid velit fieri, et quod possit, inveniri. Et ita recte in caeteris agitis, auctorem considerantes. At in physicis contra naturam regula vestra, qua in caeteris sapientiam judicatis, auferendo summum gradum auctoris et quae fiunt, non a quo fieri. . . ita credere contingit elementorum potestates et ar . . . esse, quae sunt servitutes et officia. Non in ista investigatione ali. . . . us 0593B artificis intus et domini, servitutis autem non tendimus elementorum . . . . operis eorum quas facis potestatis. Sed Dei non serviunt; ea igitur, quae serviunt, Dei non sunt. Aut doceant vulgo fieri, ut de licentia passivitatis libertas approbetur, de libertate dominatio de dominatione divinitas intelligatur. Nam si omnia haec super nos certis curriculis, legitimis decursibus, propriis spatiis, aequis vicibus sub legis instar constituta volvendis temporibus et exercendis temporibus et exercendis temporum ducatibus occurrere meminerunt, ex ipsa observatione conditionum suarum et fide operum et instantia. . . . . . . . et cura demutationum, memoria reciprocatorum, aliquam dominationem sibi praeesse persuadeant vobis, cui apparere videatur universa negotiatio mundialis perveniens 0593C ad humani generis utilitatem et . . . . . onem? Non enim potest dicere, ea sibi agere ista ac sibi curare nec quicquam hominum caussa disponere, cum propterea defendas elementis divinitatem, quod ab aliis aut juvari te aut laedi sentias; nam si sibi praestant, nihil eis debes.