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are able to push away; the service of the feet, through which the whole terrestrial creation has been subjected to us, the earth is walkable, the sea navigable, the rivers crossable, and the mingling of all with all; the belly a storeroom of food, distributing from itself in measure the provision to all the members arranged with it and expelling the excess; and the other things through which the governance of human continuation is clearly devised, of which the wise have the use just like the foolish, but do not possess the knowledge. For some refer this most scientific and most beneficent economy of all things and for themselves to what they might think is godlessness, being convinced that it is the work of a greater and truly divine intelligence and power, while others attribute this most wondrous cultivation aimlessly to the chance and coincidence of 14.26.9 atoms. A still more evident examination of these things and the disposition of the internal organs, physicians have indeed investigated accurately and, being astonished, have deified nature, while we 14.26.10 will review them later as we are able, even if superficially. And generally and summarily, this whole tabernacle, who fashioned it so, tall, upright, well-proportioned, sensitive, agile, beneficent, all-working? The irrational multitude of atoms, they say. But they could not even come together and mold a clay image, nor carve a stone statue, nor melt and produce a silver or 14.26.11 golden idol; but arts and crafts for making these bodies have been invented by men. And if the copies and sketches of these things could not be made without wisdom, how have the true and original things themselves come about 14.26.12 spontaneously? But from where did soul and mind and reason come into being in the philosopher? Did he borrow these from soulless and mindless and irrational atoms, 14.26.13 and did each of them breathe some thought and dogma into him? And just as Hesiod’s myth says Pandora was made by the gods, was the wisdom of the man in this way accomplished by the atoms? And all poetry and all music, astronomy and geometry and the other sciences, will the Greeks no longer say that they are inventions and teachings of the gods, but that the Atom-Muses alone have become experienced and 14.26.14 wise in all things? For Epicurus's theogony from atoms is an exile from the infinite worlds, and has been banished into infinite disorder.”

14.27.1 27. THAT IT IS NOT LABORIOUS FOR GOD TO WORK

“To work, indeed, and to govern and to do good and to be provident and such things are perhaps burdensome to the idle and foolish and weak and wicked, among whom Epicurus has numbered himself, by thinking such things about the gods; but to the diligent and intelligent and powerful and temperate, such as philosophers ought to be, how much more so the gods?, these things are not only not unpleasant and offensive, but also most delightful and of all things most welcome, for whom neglect and delaying to do some good thing is a reproach, as the poet admonishes them, advising: 'do not put it off until tomorrow,' and adding a threat: 'for the man who puts off his work is always wrestling with ruin'; 14.27.2 and a prophet instructs us more solemnly, saying that works of virtue are truly befitting of God, and that he who disregards these is accursed; “For he says, ‘Cursed is 14.27.3 he who does the works of the Lord negligently.’” Then too, for the unlearned in any art and the less perfect, fatigue arises in their undertakings because of their inexperience and lack of practice in the works; but those who are making progress, and even more those who are perfect, accomplishing with ease what they pursue, rejoice and would rather choose to accomplish and complete their accustomed 14.27.4 tasks than to have all the good things among men. Democritus himself, at any rate, as they say, used to say

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ἀπωθεῖσθαι δύνωνται· ποδῶν ὑπηρεσία, δι' ὧν πᾶσα ἡμῖν ὑποπέπτωκεν ἡ περίγειος κτίσις, βάσιμος ἡ γῆ, πλωτὴ ἡ θάλασσα, περάσιμοι οἱ ποταμοὶ καὶ πάντων πρὸς πάντας ἐπιμιξία· γαστὴρ ταμεῖον τροφῶν, πᾶσι τοῖς συντεταγμένοις μέλεσιν ἐξ ἑαυτῆς ἐν μέτρῳ τὸ σιτηρέσιον διανέ μουσα καὶ τὸ περιττεῦον ἐκτιθεμένη· καὶ τἄλλα δι' ὅσων ἐμφανῶς ἡ διοίκησις τῆς ἀνθρωπείου μεμηχάνηται διαμονῆς, ὧν ὁμοίως τοῖς ἄφροσιν ἔχοντες οἱ 14.26.8 σοφοὶ τὴν χρῆσιν οὐκ ἴσχουσι τὴν γνῶσιν. οἱ μὲν γὰρ εἰς ἣν ἂν οἰηθῶσιν ἀθεότητα τὴν ἐπιστημονικωτάτην περὶ πάντων καὶ εἰς ἑαυτοὺς εὐεργετικωτάτην ἀναφέρουσιν οἰκονομίαν, κρείττονος καὶ θείας ὄντως φρονήσεώς τε καὶ δυνάμεως ἔργον αὐτὴν εἶναι πιστούμενοι, οἱ δὲ συντυχίᾳ καὶ συμπτώσει τῶν 14.26.9 ἀτόμων ἀσκόπως τὴν θαυμασιωτάτην καλλιεργίαν ἀνατιθέασι. τὴν δὲ ἐναργεστέραν ἔτι τούτων ἐπίσκεψιν καὶ τὴν τῶν ἐνδοσθίων διάθεσιν ἰατροὶ μὲν ἀκριβῶς διερευνησάμενοι καὶ καταπλαγέντες ἐξεθείασαν τὴν φύσιν, ἡμεῖς 14.26.10 δὲ ὕστερον ὡς ἂν οἷοί τε γενώμεθα κἂν ἐπιπολῆς ἀναθεωρήσωμεν. καθόλου δὲ καὶ συλλήβδην ὅλον τοῦτο τὸ σκῆνος τίς τοιοῦτον ἐσκηνοποίησεν, ὑψηλόν, ὀρθόν, εὔρυθμον, εὐαίσθητον, εὐκίνητον, εὐεργόν, παντουργόν; ἡ τῶν ἀτόμων ἄλογος, φασί, πληθύς. ἀλλ' οὐδ' ἂν εἰκόνα πηλίνην ἐκεῖναι συνελθοῦσαι πλάσαιεν οὐδ' ἀνδριάντα λίθινον ξέσαιεν οὐδ' ἂν εἴδωλον ἀργυροῦν ἢ 14.26.11 χρυσοῦν χωνεύσασαι προαγάγοιεν· ἀλλὰ τέχναι καὶ χειρουργίαι τούτων ὑπ' ἀνθρώπων εὕρηνται σωματουργοί. ὧν δὲ ἀπεικασίαι καὶ σκιαγραφίαι δίχα σοφίας οὐκ ἂν γένοιντο, πῶς τὰ ἀληθῆ καὶ πρωτότυπα τούτων αὐτο14.26.12 μάτως συμβέβηκε; ψυχὴ δὲ καὶ νοῦς καὶ λόγος πόθεν ἐγγέγονε τῷ φιλοσόφῳ; παρὰ τῶν ἀψύχων καὶ ἀνοήτων καὶ ἀλογίστων ἀτόμων ταῦτ' ἠρανί14.26.13 σατο κἀκείνων αὐτῷ τι ἑκάστη νόημα καὶ δόγμα ἐνέπνευσε; καὶ ὥσπερ ὁ Ἡσιόδου μῦθος τὴν Πανδώραν φησὶν ὑπὸ τῶν θεῶν, οὕτως ἡ σοφία τἀνδρὸς ὑπὸ τῶν ἀτόμων συνετελέσθη; καὶ ποίησιν δὲ πᾶσαν καὶ πᾶσαν μουσικὴν ἀστρονομίαν τε καὶ γεωμετρίαν καὶ τὰς ἄλλας ἐπιστήμας οὐκέτι θεῶν εὑρέματα καὶ παιδεύματα φήσουσιν Ἕλληνες εἶναι, μόναι δὲ γεγόνασιν ἐμπειρικαὶ καὶ 14.26.14 σοφαὶ πάντων αἱ Ἄτομοι Μοῦσαι; ἡ γὰρ ἐκ τῶν ἀτόμων Ἐπικούρου θεογονία τῶν μὲν ἀπείρων κόσμων ἐξόριός ἐστιν, εἰς δὲ τὴν ἄπειρον ἀκοσμίαν πεφυγάδευται.»

14.27.1 κζʹ. ΟΤΙ ΟΥΚ ΕΠΙΠΟΝΟΝ ΤΩΙ ΘΕΩΙ ΤΟ ΕΡΓΑΖΕΣΘΑΙ

«Ἐργάζεσθαι δέ γε καὶ διοικεῖν καὶ εὐεργετεῖν τε καὶ προκήδεσθαι καὶ τὰ τοιαῦτα τοῖς μὲν ἀργοῖς καὶ ἄφροσι καὶ ἀσθενέσι καὶ κακούργοις ἴσως ἐπαχθῆ, οἷς ἐγκατέλεξεν ἑαυτὸν Ἐπίκουρος, τοιαῦτα φρονήσας περὶ τῶν θεῶν· τοῖς δὲ σπουδαίοις καὶ συνετοῖς καὶ δυνατοῖς καὶ σώφροσιν, οἵους εἶναι χρὴ τοὺς φιλοσόφους πόσῳ γε μᾶλλον τοὺς θεούς;, οὐχ ὅπως ἀηδῆ ταῦτα καὶ προσάντη, ἀλλὰ καὶ τερπνότατα καὶ πάντων μᾶλλον ἀσπαστότατα, οἷς τὸ ἀμελὲς καὶ τὸ μέλλειν τι πράττειν τῶν χρηστῶν ὄνειδος, ὡς ἐκείνους τε ποιητὴς νουθετεῖ συμβουλεύων· μηδ' ἀναβάλλεσθαι ἔς τ' αὔριον καὶ προσεπαπειλῶν· αἰεὶ δ' ἀμβολιεργὸς ἀνὴρ ἄτῃσι παλαίει· 14.27.2 ἡμᾶς τε σεμνότερον παιδεύει προφήτης, θεοπρεπῆ μὲν ὄντως ἔργα τὰ κατ' ἀρετὴν ὑπάρχειν λέγων, τὸν δὲ ὀλιγωροῦντα τούτων ἐξάγιστον· «Ἐπι14.27.3 κατάρατος γὰρ φησίν ὁ ποιῶν τὰ ἔργα κυρίου ἀμελῶς.» εἶτα καὶ τοῖς μὲν ἀμαθέσιν ἡστινοσοῦν τέχνης καὶ ἀτελεστέροις διὰ τὸ τῆς πείρας ἄηθες καὶ τὸ τῶν ἔργων ἀτριβὲς κάματος ἐγγίνεται ταῖς ἐπιχειρήσεσιν· οἱ δὲ προκόπτοντες, καὶ μᾶλλον ἔτι οἱ τέλειοι, ῥᾳδίως ἃ μετίασι κατορθοῦντες γάννυνται καὶ μᾶλλον ἂν ἕλοιντο τὰ εἰωθότα πράττοντες ἀνύειν καὶ τελεσιουρ14.27.4 γεῖν ἢ πάντα σφίσιν ὑπάρξαι τὰ ἐν ἀνθρώποις ἀγαθά. ∆ημόκριτος γοῦν αὐτός, ὥς φασιν, ἔλεγε