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of the things being sought, He Himself led us to the arts, and by the principle of causality, everything that is discovered and accomplished is referred back to the originator of this power; thus also life discovered medicine, but nevertheless 2.1.186 anyone who calls medicine a gift of God will not be wrong. And everything whatever that has been discovered in human life, in peace and in war, which is suitable for some useful purpose, has not come to us from anywhere else, but from the mind conceiving and discovering each thing suitably for us; and mind is a work of God; therefore, all things are from God that have been provided for us through the 2.1.187 mind. But as for the assertion by our opponents that mythical fictions and false wonders are fabricated and fashioned by the imagination, I myself do not deny it; for their argument also agrees with our purpose. For we too say that the knowledge of opposites is the same, of both the beneficial and of those that are otherwise, such as medicine and navigation and whatever else is of such a kind; for he who knows how to help the sick through medicine would also know, if he were to use his art for evil, how to administer poison to the healthy; 2.1.188 and he who steers the ship to the harbor with the rudder could also steer it onto reefs or rocks, if it pleased him to destroy the sailors through treachery; and the painter with the same art has depicted the most beautiful form on the panel and again has clearly imitated the ugliest; so the trainer has set the dislocated limb through his experience in anointing, and the healthy one, if he wished, he has dislocated through the same art. 2.1.189 And why is it necessary, by mentioning each particular, to bring a great crowd into the argument? As, therefore, in the cases mentioned, no one would dispute that one who has learned some art for acting for the better could also use the same art for things that are not right, so we say also that the power of the imagination was implanted by God in human nature for a good purpose, but that some, having misused this inventive power, it often becomes a servant and co-worker of unhelpful 2.1.190 discoveries. Therefore, it is not because the imagination is able to plausibly fashion false and non-existent things, that for this reason it is unable to investigate things that really are and truly subsist, but its aptitude for the one becomes, for the fair-minded, a testimony to its power for the other. For that the mind, proposing to contrive some astonishment or pleasure for the onlookers, should not be at a loss for the invention of what it pursues, but should form images of certain many-handed or many-headed beings, or fire-breathing ones, or ones coiled up in the folds of serpents, or should exaggerate symmetry to a greater size, or should mutilate the measures of nature for the sake of ridicule, or should relate how men become springs and trees and birds through transformation, through which it is possible for those who are pleased by such things to find some amusement, I say is the clearest proof that it would also be able to comprehend the better subjects of study through its inventive 2.1.191 power. For our mind has not been implanted in us complete by its Giver for the fashioning of non-existent things, while for the discovery of soul-profiting things it has been allotted no power to provide what is advantageous; but just as the impulsive and volitional power of our soul was originally established in our nature for the desire of things noble and good, but one might also use such a motion for things that are not right, and no one would say that its having an inclination at times towards base things is a proof that the will inclines toward no good, so also the motion of the imagination concerning vain and unprofitable things is not an accusation of its inability for what is useful, but it becomes a proof that it is not inactive towards things both soul-profiting and necessary. For as it discovered there what brings pleasure or astonishment, so also here it will not fail in its approaches to the truth. 2.1.192 And one of the questions was, whether the first cause, which is God, exists without beginning or of some

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ζητου μένων δύναμιν αὐτὸς ἡμᾶς πρὸς τὰς τέχνας προήγαγε, καὶ τῷ τῆς αἰτίας λόγῳ πᾶν τὸ εὑρισκόμενόν τε καὶ κατορθού μενον εἰς τὸν ἀρχηγὸν τῆς δυνάμεως ταύτης ἐπαναφέρεται· οὕτω καὶ τὴν ἰατρικὴν ὁ βίος εὕρατο, ἀλλ' ὅμως θεοῦ 2.1.186 δῶρον τὴν ἰατρικὴν εἰπών τις οὐχ ἁμαρτήσεται. καὶ πᾶν ὅτιπέρ ἐστι κατὰ τὴν ἀνθρωπίνην ζωὴν ἐξευρημένον κατ' εἰρήνην καὶ πόλεμον πρός τι τῶν χρησίμων ἐπιτηδείως ἔχον, οὐδαμόθεν ἡμῖν ἔσχε τὴν πάροδον, ἀλλὰ τοῦ νοῦ τὰ καθ' ἕκαστον ἡμῖν καταλλήλως νοοῦντος καὶ ἐφευρίσκοντος· νοῦς δὲ ἔργον θεοῦ· οὐκοῦν ἐκ θεοῦ πάντα ὅσα διὰ τοῦ 2.1.187 νοῦ ἡμῖν πεπόρισται. τὸ δὲ λέγεσθαι παρὰ τῶν ὑπεναν τίων τὰ μυθώδη πλάσματα καὶ τὰ ψευδῆ τερατεύματα παρὰ τῆς ἐπινοίας λογοποιεῖσθαι καὶ πλάσσεσθαι, οὐδὲ αὐτὸς ἀντιλέγω· πρὸς γὰρ τὸν ἡμέτερον σκοπὸν καὶ ὁ ἐκείνων λόγος συμφέρεται. φαμὲν γὰρ καὶ ἡμεῖς τὴν αὐτὴν εἶναι τῶν ἐναντίων τὴν ἐπιστήμην τῶν τε ἐπωφελῶν καὶ τῶν ὡς ἑτέρως ἐχόντων οἷον τὴν ἰατρικὴν καὶ τὴν κυβερνητικὴν καὶ εἴ τι ἄλλο τοιοῦτόν ἐστιν· ὁ γὰρ εἰδὼς βοηθῆσαι τοῖς ἀρρωστοῦσι διὰ φαρμάκου ἐπιγνοίη ἄν, εἴπερ ἐπὶ κακῷ χρῷτο τῇ τέχνῃ, καὶ τοῖς ὑγιαίνουσιν ἐντρῖψαι τὸ δηλητή 2.1.188 ριον· καὶ ὁ πρὸς τὸν λιμένα διευθύνων τῷ πηδαλίῳ τὸ σκάφος εὐθύνειεν ἂν καὶ ἐπὶ χοιράδας ἢ σκοπέλους, εἰ τοῦτο γένοιτο φίλον αὐτῷ τὸ δι' ἐπιβουλῆς διαφθεῖραι τοὺς πλέοντας· καὶ ὁ ζῳγράφος τῇ αὐτῇ τέχνῃ τήν τε καλλίστην μορφὴν ἐπὶ τοῦ πίνακος ἔδειξε καὶ τὴν αἰσχίστην πάλιν ἐν αργῶς ἐμιμήσατο· οὕτως ὁ παιδοτρίβης τὸ ἐξηρθρωμένον μέλος διὰ τῆς ἀλειπτικῆς ἐμπειρίας ἐνήρμοσε καὶ τὸ ὑγι αῖνον, εἰ βούλοιτο, διὰ τῆς αὐτῆς τέχνης ἐξήρμοσε. 2.1.189 Καὶ τί χρὴ τὰ καθ' ἕκαστον λέγοντα πολὺν ὄχλον ἐπεισάγειν τῷ λόγῳ; ὡς τοίνυν ἐπὶ τῶν εἰρημένων οὐκ ἄν τις ἀντείποι τὸν πρὸς τὸ κρεῖττον ἐνεργεῖν μεμαθηκότα τέχνην τινὰ δύνασθαι ἂν τῇ αὐτῇ καὶ πρὸς τὰ μὴ δέοντα χρήσασθαι, οὕτως φαμὲν καὶ τῆς ἐπινοίας τὴν δύναμιν ἐπ' ἀγαθῷ μὲν ἐντεθεῖσθαι παρὰ τοῦ θεοῦ τῇ ἀνθρωπίνῃ φύσει, κατακεχρημένων δέ τινων τῇ ἐφευρετικῇ δυνάμει διάκονον πολλάκις καὶ συνεργὸν γίνεσθαι τῶν ἀνωφελῶν 2.1.190 εὑρημάτων. οὐκοῦν οὐκ ἐπειδὴ δύναται τὰ ψευδῆ καὶ ἀνύπαρκτα πιθανῶς ἡ ἐπίνοια διαπλάσσειν, διὰ τοῦτο τὰ ὄντως ὄντα καὶ ἀληθῶς ὑφεστῶτα διερευνᾶσθαι οὐ δύναται, ἀλλ' ἡ πρὸς τὸ τοιοῦτον ἐπιτηδειότης μαρτυρία τοῖς εὐγνώ μοσι τῆς πρὸς ἐκεῖνο δυνάμεως γίνεται. τὸ γὰρ προθέ μενον κατάπληξιν τοῖς ὁρῶσιν ἢ θυμηδίαν τινὰ μηχανή σασθαι τῆς πρὸς τὸ σπουδαζόμενον ἐπινοίας μὴ ἀπορῆσαι, ἀλλ' ἢ πολύχειράς τινας ἢ πολυκεφάλους ἢ πῦρ πνέοντας ἢ δρακόντων ὁλκοῖς συνεσπειραμένους εἰδοποιῆσαι ἢ πρὸς τὸ μεῖζον ἐξᾶραι τὴν συμμετρίαν ἢ διακολοβῶσαι πρὸς τὸ γελοῖον τὰ μέτρα τῆς φύσεως ἢ πηγὰς τοὺς ἀνθρώπους καὶ δένδρα καὶ ὄρνεα γενέσθαι διὰ μεταβολῆς διηγήσασθαι, δι' ὧν ἔστι ψυχαγωγίαν τινὰ τοὺς διὰ τῶν τοιούτων ἡδο μένους εὑρεῖν, ἐναργεστάτην ἀπόδειξιν εἶναί φημι τοῦ καὶ τὰ κρείττω τῶν μαθημάτων δύνασθαι ἂν διὰ τῆς εὑρετικῆς 2.1.191 δυνάμεως κατανοῆσαι. οὐ γὰρ πρὸς μὲν τὴν τῶν ἀνυπάρ κτων διάπλασιν ἐντελὴς ἡμῖν ὁ νοῦς παρὰ τοῦ δεδωκότος ἐμπέφυκε, πρὸς δὲ τὴν τῶν ψυχωφελῶν εὕρεσιν οὐδεμίαν δύναμιν ποριστικὴν τῶν λυσιτελούντων κεκλήρωται· ἀλλὰ καθάπερ ἡ ὁρμητικὴ καὶ προαιρετικὴ τῆς ψυχῆς ἡμῶν δύναμις κατὰ μὲν τὸ προηγούμενον πρὸς τὴν τῶν καλῶν τε καὶ ἀγαθῶν ἔφεσιν ἐγκατεσκευάσθη τῇ φύσει, χρήσαιτο δ' ἄν τις καὶ πρὸς τὰ μὴ δέοντα τῇ τοιαύτῃ κινήσει, καὶ οὐκ ἄν τις εἴποι τοῦ πρὸς μηδὲν ἀγαθὸν τὴν προαίρεσιν ῥέπειν τεκμήριον εἶναι τὸ πρὸς τὰ φαῦλά ποτε τὴν ῥοπὴν ἔχειν, οὕτως καὶ ἡ περὶ τὰ μάταιά τε καὶ ἀνόνητα τῆς ἐπινοίας κίνησις οὐ κατηγορία τῆς πρὸς τὸ χρήσιμον ἀδυνα μίας ἐστίν, ἀλλ' ἀπόδειξις γίνεται τοῦ καὶ πρὸς τὰ ψυχω φελῆ τε καὶ ἀναγκαῖα μὴ ἄπρακτος εἶναι. ὡς γὰρ ἐξεῦρεν ἐκεῖ τὸ πρὸς ἡδονὴν ἢ κατάπληξιν, οὕτω καὶ ἐνταῦθα τῶν πρὸς τὴν ἀλήθειαν ἐφόδων οὐχ ἁμαρτήσεται. 2.1.192 Ἓν δὲ τῶν ζητουμένων ἦν, εἰ τὸ πρῶτον αἴτιον, ὅ ἐστιν ὁ θεός, ἀνάρχως ἔστιν ἤ τινος