133

from his words it is possible for those who wish to learn; but what we suppose concerning the use of names, we have stated in what follows, that while things have their nature as it is, the interpretive sounds of existing things were discovered by the rational power placed <in> our nature by God 2.1.396. If someone should refer the cause of these things to the one who gave the power, we do not contradict, just as we say that moving and seeing and acting in other ways through the senses come from him, from whom we have received such a power. Thus therefore, also of naming God who is by nature what he is, the cause, according to the common account, has its reference back to him, but the authority of naming all things understood in this way or in another lies in nature; which, whether someone should wish to call it invention or something else, we will not differ. 2.1.397 And we make this a proof of our argument, that the divine is not named in the same way by all, but the thing understood is interpreted according to what seems best to each. Therefore, keeping silent about all his worthless nonsense concerning invention, we shall hold to the doctrines, noting only this much from some of the things inserted by him in the middle of his empty talk, where he thinks that God sat beside the first-formed humans like some tutor or grammarian, dictating instruction in verbs 2.1.398 and nouns; in which he says 2.1.398 20that those very first ones formed by God or those born immediately from them, if they had not been taught how each of the things is spoken of and named, would live together in irrationality and speechlessness, and would have accomplished nothing20, he says, 20useful for life, the thought of each person being unclear through a lack of signifiers, that is, of verbs 2.1.399 and nouns20. So great <is> the madness of the writer, that he thinks the power placed in nature by God is not sufficient for every method of rational activity, but unless they were to learn the individual things, just like those being taught the Hebrew or the Roman language through words, they would be ignorant of what things are, not recognizing fire, not water, not air, not the rest of existing things, if they did not acquire the knowledge of these things through the names assigned to them. 2.1.400 But we say that he who made all things in wisdom and formed this rational creature into a living being, by merely bestowing reason on its nature, 2.1.401 deposited all rational power within it. And just as, possessing in our nature the power in the sense organs from the one who formed the eye and planted the hearing, we of ourselves use each one for that to which it is naturally suited, and we use it for this purpose and we do not need the one who named the colors, which sight has the perception of (for the eye is sufficient to be its own teacher of such things), nor do we need external teachers for the knowledge of the things we perceive through hearing or through taste or through touch, having from within ourselves the means of judgment for each of the things that come to us through sensation; so we say that the intellectual power of the soul also, having become such from God, is henceforth moved of itself and looks to things, and so that knowledge should suffer no confusion, it imposes notations through sounds on each of the things, like certain seals. 2.1.402 And such a doctrine is confirmed also by the great Moses when he says that the names were imposed on the irrational animals by Adam, writing thus in these words: And God formed still out of the ground all the beasts of the field and all the birds of the heaven and he brought them to Adam to see what he would call them; and whatever Adam called it, a living soul, that was its name; and Adam called names for all the cattle and for all the beasts of the field. 2.1.403 But the nonsense composed by him against invention seems, like some sticky and tenacious clay, to hold us back and not permit us to take up more useful things. For how could one pass over that serious and

133

τῶν ἐκείνου πάρεστι λόγων τοὺς βουλομένους διδάσκεσθαι· ἃ δὲ ἡμεῖς ὑπολαμβάνομεν περὶ τῆς τῶν ὀνο μάτων χρήσεως, ἐν τοῖς κατόπιν εἰρήκαμεν, ὅτι τῶν πραγ μάτων ἐχόντων ὡς ἔχει φύσεως τὰς ἑρμηνευτικὰς τῶν ὄν των φωνὰς ἡ <ἐν>τεθεῖσα παρὰ τοῦ θεοῦ τῇ φύσει ἡμῶν 2.1.396 λογικὴ δύναμις εὕρατο. ὧν εἰ μέν τις τὴν αἰτίαν εἰς τὸν δεδωκότα τὴν δύναμιν ἀναφέροι, οὐδὲ ἡμεῖς ἀντιλέγομεν, ὥσπερ καὶ τὸ κινεῖσθαι καὶ τὸ ὁρᾶν καὶ τὰ λοιπὰ διὰ τῶν αἰσθήσεων ἐνεργεῖν παρ' ἐκείνου λέγομεν γίνεσθαι, παρ' οὗ τὴν τοιαύτην ἐσχήκαμεν δύναμιν. οὕτως οὖν καὶ τοῦ ὀνομάζειν τὸν θεὸν τὸν ὄντα κατὰ τὴν φύσιν ὅπερ ἐστὶν ἡ μὲν αἰτία κατὰ τὸν κοινὸν λόγον εἰς αὐτὸν ἐκεῖνον τὴν ἀναφορὰν ἔχει, ἡ δὲ ἐξουσία τοῦ τὰ νοηθέντα πάντα τοι ῶσδε ἢ ὡς ἑτέρως κατονομάζειν ἐν τῇ φύσει κεῖται· ἣν εἴτε τις ἐπίνοιαν εἴτε ἄλλο τι βούλοιτο λέγειν, οὐ διοισόμεθα. 2.1.397 τεκμήριον δὲ τοῦ λόγου τοῦτο ποιούμεθα, τὸ μὴ παρὰ πᾶσιν ὁμοίως τὸ θεῖον κατονομάζεσθαι, ἀλλὰ κατὰ τὸ δοκοῦν ἑκάστοις τὸ νοηθὲν ἑρμηνεύεσθαι. οὐκοῦν πᾶσαν τὴν συρ φετώδη περὶ τῆς ἐπινοίας αὐτοῦ φλυαρίαν σιγήσαντες τῶν δογμάτων ἑξόμεθα, τοσοῦτον μόνον παρασημηνάμενοι ἔκ τινων τῶν κατὰ τὸ μέσον αὐτῷ τῆς κενοφωνίας παρεντε θέντων, ὅπου οἴεται τὸν θεὸν τοῖς πρωτοπλάστοις καθάπερ τινὰ παιδαγωγὸν ἢ γραμματιστὴν παρακαθήμενον ῥημάτων 2.1.398 τε καὶ ὀνομάτων ὑφηγεῖσθαι διδασκαλίαν· ἐν οἷς φησιν 2.1.398 20αὐτοὺς τοὺς πρώτους ὑπὸ τοῦ θεοῦ πλασθέν τας ἢ τοὺς προσεχῶς ἐξ ἐκείνων φύντας, εἰ μὴ ἐδιδάχθησαν ὡς ἕκαστα τῶν πραγμάτων λέ γεταί τε καὶ ὀνομάζεται, ἀλογίᾳ καὶ ἀφωνίᾳ συζῆν, καὶ οὐδὲν ἄν20, φησίν, 20τῶν βιωφελῶν κατε πράξαντο, ἀδήλου τῆς ἑκάστου διανοίας ὑπαρ χούσης δι' ἀπορίαν τῶν σημαινόντων, ῥημά 2.1.399 των δηλαδὴ καὶ ὀνομάτων20. τοσαύτη <ἡ> παρα φροσύνη τοῦ λογογράφου, ὡς μὴ ἐξαρκεῖν ἡγεῖσθαι τὴν ἐντεθεῖσαν τῇ φύσει παρὰ τοῦ θεοῦ δύναμιν πρὸς πᾶσαν μέθοδον λογικῆς ἐνεργείας, ἀλλ' εἰ μὴ τὰ καθ' ἕκαστον μάθοιεν, καθάπερ οἱ τὴν Ἑβραίων ἢ τὴν Ῥωμαίων φωνὴν διὰ λέξεων διδασκόμενοι, ἀγνοεῖν τὰ πράγματα ὅ τι ἐστί, μὴ τὸ πῦρ, μὴ τὸ ὕδωρ, μὴ τὸν ἀέρα, μὴ τὰ λοιπὰ τῶν ὄντων ἐπιγινώσκοντας, εἰ μὴ διὰ τῶν ἐπικειμένων αὐτοῖς 2.1.400 ὀνομάτων τὴν περὶ τούτων γνῶσιν ἐκτήσαντο. ἡμεῖς δέ φαμεν ὅτι ὁ τὰ πάντα ἐν σοφίᾳ ποιήσας καὶ τὸ λογικὸν τοῦτο πλάσμα ζῳοπλαστήσας μόνῳ τῷ ἐφεῖναι τῇ φύσει 2.1.401 τὸν λόγον πᾶσαν τὴν δύναμιν τὴν λογικὴν ἐναπέθετο. καὶ ὥσπερ τὴν ἐν τοῖς αἰσθητηρίοις δύναμιν παρὰ τοῦ πλά σαντος τὸν ὀφθαλμὸν καὶ φυτεύσαντος τὴν ἀκοὴν ἐν τῇ φύσει ἔχοντες ἀφ' ἑαυτῶν πρὸς ὃ πέφυκε τῶν αἰσθητηρίων ἓν ἕκαστον, πρὸς τοῦτο κεχρήμεθα καὶ οὐ δεόμεθα οὔτε τοῦ τὰ χρώματα κατονομάσαντος, ὧν ἡ ὅρασις τὴν ἀντίληψιν ἔχει (ἀρκεῖ γὰρ ὁ ὀφθαλμὸς ἑαυτῷ γενέσθαι τῶν τοιούτων διδά σκαλος) οὔτε ὧν διὰ τῆς ἀκοῆς ἢ διὰ τῆς γεύσεως ἢ διὰ τῆς ἁφῆς αἰσθανόμεθα ἀλλοτρίων πρὸς τὴν γνῶσιν διδασκάλων δεόμεθα, οἴκοθεν ἔχοντες ἑκάστου τῶν κατ' αἴσθησιν ἐγγινο μένων ἡμῖν τὸ κριτήριον· οὕτω φαμὲν καὶ τὴν διανοητικὴν τῆς ψυχῆς δύναμιν τοιαύτην παρὰ τοῦ θεοῦ γενομένην ἀφ' ἑαυτῆς τὸ λοιπὸν κινεῖσθαι καὶ πρὸς τὰ πράγματα βλέπειν, καὶ ὡς ἂν μηδεμίαν σύγχυσιν ἡ γνῶσις πάθοι, καθάπερ σήμαντρά τινα τὰς διὰ τῶν φωνῶν ἐπισημειώσεις ἑκάστῳ 2.1.402 τῶν πραγμάτων ἐπιβάλλειν. πιστοῦται δὲ τὸ τοιοῦτον δόγμα καὶ ὁ μέγας Μωϋσῆς εἰπὼν παρὰ τοῦ Ἀδὰμ ἐπιτεθεῖσθαι τοῖς ἀλόγοις τῶν ζῴων τὰς ἐπωνυμίας, οὑτωσὶ γράψας τῷ ῥήματι· Καὶ ἔπλασεν ὁ θεὸς ἔτι ἐκ τῆς γῆς πάντα τὰ θηρία τοῦ ἀγροῦ καὶ πάντα τὰ πετεινὰ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ καὶ ἤγαγεν αὐτὰ πρὸς τὸν Ἀδὰμ ἰδεῖν τί καλέσει αὐτά· καὶ πᾶν ὃ ἐκάλεσεν αὐτὸ Ἀδὰμ ψυχὴν ζῶσαν, τοῦτο ὄνομα αὐτῷ· καὶ ἐκάλεσεν Ἀδὰμ ὀνόματα πᾶσι τοῖς κτήνεσι καὶ πᾶσι τοῖς θηρίοις τοῦ ἀγροῦ. 2.1.403 Ἀλλ' ἔοικε καθάπερ τις γλοιώδης πηλὸς καὶ ἐχέ κολλος ὁ κατὰ τῆς ἐπινοίας αὐτῷ συντεθεὶς λῆρος παρα κατέχειν ἡμᾶς καὶ μὴ ἐᾶν τῶν χρησιμωτέρων προσάψασθαι. πῶς γὰρ ἄν τις παραδράμοι τὴν σπουδαίαν ἐκείνην καὶ