Opuscula logica, physica, allegorica, alia De vita philosophica You ask which of the lives the philosopher must choose, so that in having that one he
and in part, and as each happened to have the capacity, they devised their arts but just as head and thorax and heart and liver are parts of the whol
superfluous, but the mind is distracted and divided by particular things. If, then, someone of those who have attained a state of knowledge brought th
he thinks like the Egyptians, automatic horses are fashioned and well-reined chariots of gods and the sprouting of wings and again their falling off,
But the Egyptians [possess] wisdom in a pre-eminent way, as the account also says. For these were the first to immortalize the soul, and by indescriba
Semaram and this is a city of the Babylonians for the name means confusion for there first the division of tongues occurred. And having rejected th
we hold that they are of bodies, but to oracles and divinations and whatever they say about theurgy, we pay no heed, as they are forbidden. But the ci
to feel no pain nor misfortune, but in the possession of the true good for one must grasp this alone, which is both ultimate and most honorable and w
of rational offspring, nor despairing of us for so great a birth, which Aristotle himself alone might have conceived and brought forth. For if you hav
Heracles could not have fled to Eurystheus for neither was the one of such power, nor did the other require little addition, and for this reason Iola
definitions. But their names are three, therefore also their definitions are three. And let Socrates be posited in the argument as defined in three wa
But some who have said in places in their own writings that they are synonymous, have fallen far from the greatness of the truth, fearing a fear there
“Substance is a self-subsistent thing.” Then, indeed, the more serious and noble of the philosophers are at a loss, how can this be self-subsistent, w
the ultimate cause for all things need the good, and nothing better than goodness comes to us. This, then, which is called God by us, but is called t
and moved only, but since it is near to the soul, it is also self-moved. I have enumerated all these things, at once leading you to great learning, an
if you go up to the former beginning. Therefore none of existing things is self-subsistent, as having its generation from itself. But we call substanc
For affective motion is a path to the form, as is any other motion but when it arrives at the form, it stands still and ceases to be affected and alt
a part has its being in relation to a whole for the part is a part of a whole, and the whole is a whole of parts. For substance is defined as existin
of animate beings, and color they say is the superficial appearance. And that I may again speak to you summarily about the species of quality, state i
11 Concerning the second book of the Prior Analytics You asked what is the purpose of the second book of the Prior Analytics. Its purpose, then, is to
True. However, the universal affirmative is proved in the middle and third figures, but in the first it is not proved. But opposed propositions are fo
of coordinate terms, if they follow alike in demolition and in establishment for it belongs or does not belong to one and all at the same time for i
the land animal and that difference always signifies a quality of the genus, but the genus does not of the difference for one who says 'land animal'
a different taking and placement of the premises. For one of them is in the first, another in the second, and another in the third figure. Concerning
learning is teaching therefore, to learn is to teach.” These, then, are the fallacies dependent on expression but of the fallacies outside of expres
to make the premise the problem for example, the soul is incorruptible the incorruptible is immortal therefore, the soul is immortal. Nothing has
apostolic or otherwise patristic is not in our accounts but some of those among us who are too exalted have dared to say that the seed, having taken
the head of the animal ruling all the meninges and the brain, whence it radiates from there into this part, if, with the star being well-situated and
held the generative parts within and fashioned the conceived thing female. For the right cavity of the uterus from above receives the beginning of the
powers come into being, and sometimes very foolishly but for the more licentious, they are both stronger and bolder, and more precise in practical in
as if making a song for it, he both makes his voice brilliant and crows loudly. And what is more wondrous, the lion fears this one when it sees it, be
10. What is the cause for which falling bodies make larger and smaller circles on still waters? You are puzzled how on still waters any small body tha
Easily crushed, but the crushing does not remain, as with wool or a sponge not crushable but compressible. And those things are compressed which have
of the power by which we live, that is, of the nutritive and augmentative, but different in principle for it is not in respect to that by which it no
it as much as is sufficient, and secretes the rest. He did not say that the stomach does not process the food, but that it is processed by the lower b
its being consists in becoming. For it might be like water from melting snow, as one part after another is generated, and just as in this case water i
when they fall on dry land, when they gasp. Further, when all breathing creatures die by drowning in liquid, bubbles are formed from the breath exitin
the fire. Generation is the first participation in the hot of the nutritive life, life is its persistence. youth is the increase of the first cooling
they leap out. Therefore, one must begin with hoarfrost and first discuss its nature. This, accordingly, hardly ever occurs in warm places and in summ
It is indeed warm, as we know, not however a self-acting fire, but it is ignited when moved. Since, then, such is the nature of the fuel, and it is mo
being torn apart, the rain immediately came down as if from a burst sack, and the sound of the bursting produced the thunder. But in that case the clo
of paradise, but now, envying the earth as well, he tries to drive us out. You, therefore, seem to me to think that I have extended the discourse more
of vapor but hail of something colder, I mean of water. Just as snow is colder than hail, so too is frost than ice but because of the opposition, ha
the matter of the winds being gathered together in a single action, but it comes into being continuously as the vapor changes. And while there are fou
blows, but from the summer tropic. 22 By the same author, concerning thunder, lightning, thunderbolt, fiery whirlwind, cloud-burst wind, and typhoon.
It is cold by nature, but becomes warm in a warm season. The Etesian winds blow especially in summer because the sun, going towards the north, melts t
the color in the purple dye but the halo has only the color white. and the <halo is formed on smooth and uniform clouds, but the> rainbow is formed o
since from a dense surface vision is more easily and quickly reflected, but from a smooth surface one and the same color is preserved. Since, therefor
the great generation of the smoky exhalation. And the milky way, which is what the comet is around one star and what the halo is around the moon or su
and brastae. Epicliniae are those that shake sideways in a wave-like manner, brastae those that shake and move up and down. Among them are some that a
of water, it showed that which contained it unharmed, but that which was contained within it disappeared. And not least of all, falling upon vessels h
with many swellings and hollows and all sorts of shapes, it sends forth every kind of sound. And already waters have burst forth when earthquakes happ
The entire support of the universe has been shaken, and the secure seat of our nature needs a supporting hand and foundation. Thus our affairs have co
directing the parts of creation concerned with becoming is borne more disorderly. And indeed this: unusual stars are made new in the super-terrestrial
of all things, however, that some are divided from each other, but He has harmonized all things melodiously, or rather, He has received them harmonize
we assign the entire power of what is done to more immediate causes. But just as we derive other things and nature itself from God, so indeed do we re
not only the sword, but it has also been brought upon us, and terrible arrows, truly full of deadly poison, have been shot into our hearts, and the fi
having conceived of what was to be, he worked for whatever purpose, but it turned out, along with the other need, also into what is now admired. One m
The ceiling also contributes to the matter, not being too high, but as if lying upon and not dissipating the voice. But, one might say, these are powe
he calls certain things paradoxes. And he makes a certain detection of unseen thieves, by cutting off and salting the tongues of tadpoles, then at the
for three whole days. A smith's anvil will be most easily dissolved when smeared with goat's blood. And a rooster would never crow if its nostrils are
if a crow caws twice, it indicates a share in good and pleasant deeds but if once or three or five times, it portends the opposite for you but if it
we know, but we do not encounter them, I will begin from those more familiar to us. For example, the diamond this has a glassy and gleaming color, an
it cures ulcers when drunk with milk, and it is desiccative and astringent and an antidote to acute fevers. Sardonyx: this stone has a white line in i
of the so-called elements I have undertaken for you an explanation. And I am not unaware that all who repay someone for the good they have received fr
they are fitting, and the nature above the all, which in being participated in guards that which is unparticipated, is symbolically and ineffably hidd
for these too show that from every side the first cause is equal and similar to itself and has in nothing departed from its own nature, but it is most
echoing the diphthongs, it draws along much sound from the breath, and for this reason those are suitable for lamentations, but these simple vowels, p
the soul might know, it is goaded and maddened and is somehow unrestrained in its impulses, whence it proceeds towards all things with full speed, run
of the second is divided in the middle and the split of the divided parts, beginning from the same impulse, proceeds to the greatest distance. For ju
for the active principle comes from close attention. But to close the eyes to such an extent as not to seem to “dwell in a small body” according to th
and you have become like ˉo, a perfected and pure intellect, both turning back into itself and restored to itself, and you have been freed from the na
of the stream as was possible, but you have not yet drawn up the whole, but an immense sea is what has been left, which indeed is undiminished forever
admonishing symbolically to grasp the things that appear. But the chi suggests a philosophy greater than the phi, for since that which appears often a
From there we shall also find the continuity of the preceding things in relation to this. For since the phi indicated that which appears, the chi that
but we have also set beside it something of the perfect, we have stamped this in a type and image and have fashioned the body of the discourse twofold
and this in dreams, if the soul follows the things seen, if it knows that it has been initiated, if it seems to see a light, if it supposes an intangi
it passes over places or comes to be in places, but that it undertakes relationships with bodies that are by nature adapted to change places. And as i
in that. And this was said, I think, by Plato well and with deep thought. Therefore, you will not give extension to eternity, nor unfold it, nor stret
of an artful discourse, having the quality of transformation, just as if someone were to make salt waters drinkable. But Moses indeed worked this wond
he makes the discourse, some reporting the service they have administered, others receiving a providential power from him. And what a truly golden flo
For having received from God the administration of things here, they both govern the things here and are not separated from divine things. Therefore,
he adds the better things. Such is the second opinion of the Greeks concerning Zeus. The third is perhaps more historical and more true for they gene
The tongue is unruly with fire, because this alone of the elements naturally bubbles and resounds continually for the earth, being stationary and unm
And true opinion, the conclusion of the intellect, is all rational and divine but imagination and sensation and all that needs a body for its existen
flew away, it became a fair-faced virgin, like an incorruptible and pure mind, naked of its outer covering, but what was held back is a beast, hairy a
The theologians of the Greeks, Cancer and Capricorn, but Plato said two openings of these, Cancer is the one through which souls descend, and Caprico
investigating things above heaven and things below the earth. And one of you nibbles at the golden chain, another at the swinging, and simply another
the better things, but the better things are not turned towards the worse, so long as it maintains its own order. Thus, therefore, body ascends to sou
that through loving-kindness, having placed himself in the middle of the universe, according to Plato, as a kind of paradigm he draws us to himself th
flowing along with time, die and perish, but the word alone blossoms and grows young again and becomes mightier. But since it comes to us who have bee
a hollow sound, but not of something that has already been moved and has stopped. But Homer does the opposite in his verses for he says, when he had
of thought under a sober Bacchic frenzy—so that I may say something of the more secret things—, but in order to show that for Homer the bow has been n
forms are forerunners of tracks, but now the form upon the forms, so indeed for the poet all things are at once, the bending, the stretching, the twa
Of existing things, some have a disputed existence, like a starless sphere, like the antipodes—for these are disputed, whether they exist or not—, whi
the subject is private and public problems, and its end is to persuade, while for grammar, the subject is all Greek words, and its end is to never mak
it has as its subject matter things that simply are, but as its remote subject matter things that are of a certain kind, such as divine and human affa
he wills, he is able. upon which the fourth definition also follows. After Plato and Pythagoras, then, who defined philosophy in two ways, comes the w
a certain property having come into being for species, this they called a property, for example, to laugh belongs to man alone. Seeing that some thing
it is likewise thus for the rest. Synopsis of the ten categories The ancients, seeing that of things from nature some are self-subsistent, while other
differing in number, and makes the species, such as man but if the utterance is super-substantial, that is, contemplated upon the substance, it is ei
reads, but also he himself differs from himself when he is a child and when he has grown up, and sometimes when he is sitting, and sometimes when he i
let us discuss. Homonyms are things of which the name alone is common, but the account of the substance corresponding to the name is different, for ex
but it is in no subject, for example, man. It is predicated of some subject, that is, it is categorized, but it is in no subject, which he understands
For genera that are not subordinate to one another, the differentiae, both constitutive and divisive, are different, as for example animal and knowled
signifying, which is also predicated of accidents, insofar as these too are called substances as having their existence in it. Substance is also the n
a property. Therefore he also says, it is common to every substance not to be in a subject. For as we have already said above, that which is 'in a s
they brought on the battle for the moist and cold quality, having fallen upon the hot and dry quality, destroyed the other quality. But it is not a p
were the contraries in the same thing—, but he said receptive in order to show its potentiality. And having stated this property of substance, he ad
of it as if some cornerstone for you say three and three are six and having said the three only, you are silent, and again you add another three,
such a one, but if perhaps a quality of the soul for it is a certain disposition or state having its constitution. But it is necessary to know that A
have quantity, nothing is contrary to them. But if straightness and curvedness are found concerning the line, and odd and even concerning number, yet
a little, and these are among the relatives for the great is said in relation to the small and the little is known in relation to the much. But he en
admits of contrariety and the things concerning it will admit of relation, {for like is said more and less and} <for instance> vice is contrary to vir
unless the correspondence is proper and exact and related to that of which it is said for example, if slave is rendered not as of a master but o
perception, neither falling under perception nor being receptive of perception. But if perception is removed, it will not remove the perceptible objec
And these simple utterances, in turn, differ from each other by certain generic differences. For some of them signify substance, such as the utterance
and it is properly its own characteristic for substance alone, while remaining incorruptible, changes, for example, a man, altering nothing of his hu
the shape of a quality and the form existing around each thing. It differs in that shape is properly applied to inanimate things, while form is proper
into the future like tomorrow. On Position There are three kinds of position: reclining, standing, sitting for if it has all its parts upright, it
of that which is for even when Socrates is sick we say that “Socrates is not healthy”. it applies also to that which is not we are able to say that
to the 'some' and the 'no one' to the 'not all' is called subaltern. Therefore, with so many pairs arising from the quantified propositions, we pass o
a particle from the simple negation that says a man is not just to the predicate, to just, and to make another affirmation which is called by tran
can also be separated, but others not, for example you can say of one who has died at the same time a dead man, but separately it is not possible to c
negative and again if a syllogism is found composed of a universal premise and a particular one, the conclusion also becomes particular in proportion
otherwise his heat is contradicted but Zeus is the aether, an active element mixed with the quality of both dryness and heat. Therefore, these elemen
to Zeus. for which reason he does not linger much in the upper regions, but is cast down «from the divine threshold,» as the poet says a little later.
and produces milk. Honey is not pungent of itself but well-tempered, but the tongue makes it more pungent by its own heat. There is a honey called gal
mother of Pentheus, because many when exceedingly drunk turned to murder. Dionysus is naked because of the revealing of the drinker's reasoning. He de
A straightened intestine presses therefore when it is relaxed, the retained pneuma slips out. When we yawn or urinate we shiver, because some part of
and of belching <***>, is sneezing sacred? Because flatulence is of the lower belly, belching of the upper, and sneezing of the head, which is most di
by a principle of heat. From diseased nourishment, reddish hair, from healthy, black. The Ethiopians have woolly hair, because the hair, being dried b
The voices of irrational animals were found by imitation, for instance children call an ox from its mooing and a dog from its barking. Those who are s
strength is taken away. But the yellow bile is from the system of badly constructed flesh, so that it makes no difference to remove much bile and fles
purges downwards, but the white one does the opposite and purges upwards. Of the viviparous quadrupeds, none is suffocated by the uterus, because for
If they do not make a sound while suckling, they do not release milk, because they force everything with their breath, and they make a sound while hol
they use up moisture both in flight and in the sprouting of their feathers from then on, the dung also comes out with moisture. Children form stones
the brain. Perfect men do not tolerate this. Some drunkards see double the muscles <of the> eyes, being filled by the great moisture and becoming sla
has given a cure. Why does still water make circles when a stone is thrown? The stone, by the tension of its throw, pushes away the water from afar be
grow hair, because being of a cleansing nature they wipe away the phlegmatic excess. Why do scars not also grow hair on humans as they do on irrationa
is brought down. Therefore the humor, having been carried into the bronchi of the lung and having filled it, generates the affection. but from peripne
because of the perpetual motion of the lung and of the heart and because of the cough being cleansed by the sputum. When the fevers diminish, hairs an
of the one grieving, or through weakness and incidentally as in the case of a stumbling of the toe, a bubo for when nature rushes with the blood, the
to which the ancients also gave their right hands, setting forth the perfection of the number. In the case of ringing ears, we insert the finger, beca
they have the greater part in potentiality and in actuality in the belly and liver, the alterative [power], in the sp<l>een, stomach, gall bladder an
For in the liver, as the blood is concocted by commensurate heat and moisture, a spirit is generated this, ascending through the hollow vein with the
is spread out, that of the mouth of the stomach is wrapped around, but that of the belly becomes spherical. The same is also true for a cithara, which
to exercise reason with experience, [then] if by chance some condition befalls you, applying the reason and exercising it and finding it to be true.”
but to be prone to sweat and quick to move. Older men protrude the lower lip, because their nature is relaxed, and the lower lip is larger and fleshie
of thick-parted bodies, but of the sensitive pneuma it is a thickener and for this reason productive of sleep. If an ulcer forms on the meninx, it is
flowing along with time, die and perish, but the word alone blossoms and grows young again and becomes mightier. But since it comes to us who have been embodied, nature acts as its midwife, making it an offering to certain higher and greater powers, which, concealing its infancy, arm it against its father Cronus when they see it has grown to manhood. For our nature is too weak to swaddle and bring to birth the innate word that is born from it. For this reason, the natures ordained after God, receiving it from the more imperfect nature, nurse and rear it. And Rhea substitutes for Cronus an image instead of the true Zeus, because the word is twofold: the one properly both being and being so called, I mean the innate one bubbling up from the hollows of the soul below, and the other flowing out and uttered through the tongue, which is indeed an image of the true Zeus, and is not so soft and pliable as to yield to the intelligible seals, but is as it were stony and resistant, of which alone time has the power to partake. For time, which withers all beautiful things, consumes words in writing, which are images of the innate word, but this alone it has not been able to seize, but has often feared it and suspects its own offspring. But when it has come to maturity and has become nobler than itself, it destroys its father and leaps beyond both time and nature. For as an infant the word is in swaddling clothes and somewhere whimpers and needs the breast, but having come to maturity and knowing whence it has come, it lets go of the downward-flowing river and is poured out towards eternal life. This rejuvenation, then, was understood by the riddler as the destruction of time; for the soul, being a bond of things sensible and intelligible and placed in the middle of both natures, communes with both in turn, and now is born of time, and now destroys its begetter. But for now, Cronus, being destroyed, is not yet destroyed; for the Zeuses who destroy him have not yet had so much power, but while they have leaped beyond him, he still turns the long pole for events. But the divine and first Word will destroy him completely, whenever, according to his unfailing promise, he should wish to reorder the universe and to change our being from motion to rest. For time is the measure of motion, and when this is destroyed, time is a useless consequence. For then God will be, according to the Apostle, all in all: heaven, sun, breath of air, the whole of life and nourishment. Such a spring the myth has given forth, like a precipitous rock. Let us not, therefore, pass by lightly anything that lies on the paths of the tablets, but let us also quarry the rock and clear away the bush, imitating those who have settled in the interior, among whom certain friable and crumbly rocks smoke with a wondrous salt, which a short sort of film covers, and scraping this away they till the depth and dig it up, and from there their cakes are not unsalted. But while they dedicate this very salt to Ammon, we shall dedicate what is dug up from the rock to God, from whom every perfect gift is wont to descend to us. 48 An exegesis by the same on 'the bow twanged, and the string sang out loudly' What I said immediately when asked by you about the bow of Pandarus is not far from poetic precision and the arrangement of the argument, but it is now possible to be more precise and to make a beautiful thing more beautiful. But before the detailed explanation, I will say to you, my friends, what I later experienced while reading the verses: The phenomenon, even on first consideration, that it was not in the drawing of the bow that the bow twanged, the string sang out loudly, and the arrow leaped, but after the circular bow and the string and the bow were drawn that the sounds were produced; for as the sea is moved, both the roar and the
χρόνῳ συμπαραρρέοντα θνῄσκει τε καὶ διόλλυται, μόνος δὲ ὁ λόγος ἀνθεῖ τε καὶ ἀνηβᾷ καὶ κραταιότερος γίνεται. ἐπεὶ δὲ σωματωθεῖσιν
ἡμῖν παραγίνεται, μαιεύεται τοῦτον ἡ φύσις, ἔκδοτον ποιοῦσα δυνάμεσί τισιν ὑψηλοτέραις καὶ κρείττοσιν, αἳ δὴ καὶ τὸ νηπιῶδες
τούτου ἐπικαλύπτουσαι, ἐπειδὰν ἀνδρυνθέντα θεάσωνται, κατὰ τοῦ πατρὸς Κρόνου ὁπλίζουσιν· ἀσθενὴς γάρ ἐστιν ἡ καθ' ἡμᾶς φύσις
τὸν ἔμφυτον λόγον ἀπογεννηθέντα παρ' αὐτῆς σπαργανοῦν καὶ μαιεύεσθαι. διὰ ταῦτα αἱ μετὰ θεὸν τεταγμέναι φύσεις, παραλαβοῦσαι
τοῦτον ἀπὸ τῆς ἀτελεστέρας φύσεως, τιθηνοῦνται καὶ ἀνατρέφουσιν. Ὑποτίθησι δὲ τῷ Κρόνῳ ἡ Ῥέα εἴδωλον ἀντὶ τοῦ ἀληθοῦς ∆ιός,
ὅτι διττὸς ὁ λόγος, ὁ μὲν κυρίως καὶ ὢν καὶ καλούμενος, τὸν ἔμφυτόν φημι τὸν κάτωθεν ἀπὸ τῶν κοιλάδων τῆς ψυχῆς ἀναβλύζοντα,
ὁ δὲ διὰ γλώττης ῥέων ἔξω καὶ προφερόμενος, ὃς δὴ καὶ εἴδωλόν ἐστι τοῦ κυρίως ∆ιὸς καὶ οὐδ' οὕτω μαλακός τε καὶ εὔεικτος,
ὥστε ταῖς νοηταῖς σφραγίσιν ὑφίεσθαι, ἀλλὰ λιθώδης ὡσανεὶ καὶ ἀντίτυπος, οὗ δὴ καὶ μόνου ἀπογεύεσθαι ὁ χρόνος ἰσχύει. τοὺς
μὲν γὰρ ἐν γράμμασι λόγους ὁ πάντα τὰ καλὰ μαραίνων χρόνος ἀπαναλίσκει, οἳ δὴ εἴδωλά εἰσι τοῦ ἐμφύτου λόγου, τοῦτον δὲ μόνον
ἑλεῖν οὐ δεδύνηται, ἀλλὰ καὶ πυκνὰ πεφόβηται καὶ τὴν οἰκείαν ὑποπτεύει γονήν. ὁ δὲ ἡβήσας καὶ γεγονὼς ἑαυτοῦ γενναιότερος
ἀναιρεῖ μὲν τὸν πατέρα, ὑπεράλλεται δὲ καὶ χρόνον καὶ φύσιν. νπιάζων μὲν γὰρ ὁ λόγος ὑπὸ σπαργάνοις ἐστὶ καί που καὶ κλαυθμυρίζει
καὶ θηλῆς δέεται, εἰς δὲ ἥβην ἐληλυθὼς καὶ γνοὺς ὅθεν οὗ παραγέγονε, τὸν μὲν κάτω ῥέοντα μεθίησι ποταμόν, ἀναχεῖται δὲ πρὸς
τὴν αἰωνίαν ζωήν. ἡ τοίνυν ἀνήβησις αὕτη χρόνου τῷ αἰνιγματιστῇ ἐνοήθη ἀναίρεσις· ἡ γάρ τοι ψυχή, αἰσθητῶν οὖσα καὶ νοητῶν
σύνδεσμος καὶ ἑκατέρων ἐν μεσότητι ταχθεῖσα τῶν φύσεων, ἀμφοτέραις παρὰ μέρος προσομιλεῖ, καὶ νῦν μὲν χρόνου ἀποτίκτεται,
νῦν δὲ ἀναιρεῖ τὸν γεννήσαντα. Ἀλλὰ νῦν μὲν ἀναιρούμενος ὁ Κρόνος οὔπω ἀνῄρηται· οἱ γὰρ ἀναιροῦντες αὐτὸν Ζῆνες οὔπω τοσοῦτον
δεδύνηνται, ἀλλ' οἱ μὲν ὑπερπεπηδήκασι τοῦτον, ὁ δὲ ἔτι τὸν μακρὸν ἑλίττει πόλον τοῖς πράγμασιν· ἀναιρήσει δὲ τοῦτον ἐς τὸ
παντελὲς ὁ θεῖος καὶ πρῶτος λόγος, ὁπότε κατὰ τὴν ἀψευδῆ αὐτοῦ ἐπαγγελίαν μετακοσμήσειν βουληθείη τὸ σύμπαν καὶ ἀπὸ κινήσεως
εἰς στάσιν μετατρέψειν τὴν οὐσίαν ἡμῶν· ὁ γάρ τοι χρόνος μέτρον κινήσεως, ἧς ἀναιρεθείσης μάταιον ὁ χρόνος παρακολούθημα·
τηνικαῦτα γὰρ ἔσται ὁ θεὸς κατὰ τὸν ἀπόστολον τὰ πάντα ἐν πᾶσιν, οὐρανός, ἥλιος, ἀέρος πνεῦσις, ἡ σύμπασα ζωὴ καὶ τροφή. Τοιαύτην
ὁ μῦθος ὥσπερ ἀκρότομος πέτρα ἀνέδωκε τὴν πηγήν· μηδὲν οὖν παραμείβωμεν ῥᾳδίως τῶν ἐν ταῖς ὁδοῖς τῶν δέλτων κειμένων, ἀλλὰ
καὶ τὴν πέτραν ὀρύττωμεν καὶ τὴν θάμνον ἀνακαθαίρωμεν, μιμούμενοι τοὺς ἐν μεσογείᾳ καθιδρυμένους, παρ' οἷς ψαφαραί τινες πέτραι
καὶ εὔθρυπτοι ὑποτύφουσιν ἅλας θαυμάσιον, ὃ δὴ βραχεῖα οἷον ἐφολκὶς κατακαλύπτει, καὶ ταύτην παραξύσαντες ἀροῦσι τὸ βάθος
καὶ ἀνορύττουσι, κἀντεῦθεν οὐκ ἀνάλατα αὐτοῖς τὰ πέμματα γίνεται. ἀλλ' ἐκεῖνοι μὲν Ἄμμωνι τοὺς ἅλας δὴ τούτους ἀνατιθέασιν,
ἡμεῖς δὲ τὸ ἐκ τῆς πέτρας ἀναχωσθὲν θεῷ ἀναθήσομεν, παρ' οὗ πᾶν δώρημα τέλειον καταβαίνειν εἰς ἡμᾶς εἴωθεν. 48 Τοῦ αὐτοῦ ἐξήγησις
εἰς τὸ «λίγξε βιός, νευρὴ δὲ μεγάλ' ἴαχεν» Ἔστι μὲν οὐδ' ὅπερ εἰρήκειν εὐθὺς ἐρωτηθεὶς ὑφ' ὑμῶν περὶ τοῦ Πανδαρικοῦ τόξου
πόρρω τῆς ποιητικῆς ἀκριβείας καὶ τῆς τοῦ λόγου διασκευῆς, ἀλλ' ἔστι νῦν ἀκριβοῦν τι καὶ καλοῦ κάλλιον. πρὸ δὲ τῆς τῶν καθ'
ἕκαστα ἐπιλύσεως, ὅπερ ἐπεπόνθειν ὕστερον τὰ ἔπη ἀναγινώσκων, ἐρῶ δὴ καὶ πρὸς φίλους ἄνδρας· τὸ γοῦν φαινόμενον καὶ κατὰ τὰς
πρώτας ἐπιβολάς, τὸ μὴ ἐν τῷ τείνεσθαι τὸ τόξον λίγξαι μὲν τὸν βιόν, ἠχῆσαι δὲ τὴν νευρὰν μέγα, πηδῆσαι δὲ τὸ βέλος, ἀλλὰ
μετὰ τὸ τετάσθαι τὸ κυκλοτερὲς τόξον καὶ τὴν νευρὰν καὶ τὸν βιὸν τὰς πεποιημένας ἐπιγενέσθαι φωνάς· κινουμένης γὰρ τῆς θαλάσσης
καὶ ὁ φλοῖσβος καὶ ὁ
