Chapter 25.—In Human Institutions Which are Not Superstitious, There are Some Things Superfluous and Some Convenient and Necessary.

38.  But when all these have been cut away and rooted out of the mind of the Christian we must then look at human institutions which are not superstitious, that is, such as are not set up in association with devils, but by men in association with one another.  For all arrangements that are in force among men, because they have agreed among themselves that they should be in force, are human institutions; and of these, some are matters of superfluity and luxury, some of convenience and necessity.  For if those signs which the actors make in dancing were of force by nature, and not by the arrangement and agreement of men, the public crier would not in former times have announced to the people of Carthage, while the pantomime was dancing, what it was he meant to express,—a thing still remembered by many old men from whom we have frequently heard it.104    See Tylor’s Early History of Mankind, pp. 42, 43.  And we may well believe this, because even now, if any one who is unaccustomed to such follies goes into the theatre, unless some one tells him what these movements mean, he will give his whole attention to them in vain.  Yet all men aim at a certain degree of likeness in their choice of signs, that the signs may as far as possible be like the things they signify.  But because one thing may resemble another in many ways, such signs are not always of the same significance among men, except when they have mutually agreed upon them.

39.  But in regard to pictures and statues, and other works of this kind, which are intended as representations of things, nobody makes a mistake, especially if they are executed by skilled artists, but every one, as soon as he sees the likenesses, recognizes the things they are likenesses of.  And this whole class are to be reckoned among the superfluous devices of men, unless when it is a matter of importance to inquire in regard to any of them, for what reason, where, when, and by whose authority it was made.  Finally, the thousands of fables and fictions, in whose lies men take delight, are human devices, and nothing is to be considered more peculiarly man’s own and derived from himself than anything that is false and lying.  Among the convenient and necessary arrangements of men with men are to be reckoned whatever differences they choose to make in bodily dress and ornament for the purpose of distinguishing sex or rank; and the countless varieties of signs without which human intercourse either could not be carried on at all, or would be carried on at great inconvenience; and the arrangements as to weights and measures, and the stamping and weighing of coins, which are peculiar to each state and people, and other things of the same kind.  Now these, if they were not devices of men, would not be different in different nations, and could not be changed among particular nations at the discretion of their respective sovereigns.

40.  This whole class of human arrangements, which are of convenience for the necessary intercourse of life, the Christian is not by any means to neglect, but on the contrary should pay a sufficient degree of attention to them, and keep them in memory.

CAPUT XXV. In institutis humanis non superstitiosis quaedam superflua, quaedam commoda et necessaria.

38. Quibus amputatis atque eradicatis ab animo christiano, deinceps videndae sunt institutiones hominum non superstitiosae, id est, non cum daemonibus, sed cum ipsis hominibus institutae. Namque omnia quae ideo valent inter homines, quia placuit inter eos ut valeant, instituta hominum sunt: quorum partim superflua luxuriosaque instituta sunt, partim commoda et necessaria. Illa enim signa quae saltando faciunt histriones, si natura, non instituto et consensione hominum valerent; non primis temporibus, saltante pantomimo , praeco pronuntiaret populis Carthaginis quid saltator vellet intelligi. Quod adhuc multi meminerunt senes, quorum relatu haec solemus audire. Quod ideo credendum est, quia nunc quoque si quis theatrum talium nugarum imperitus intraverit, nisi ei dicatur ab altero quid illi motus significent, frustra totus intentus est. Appetunt tamen omnes quamdam similitudinem in significando, ut ipsa signa, in quantum possunt, rebus quae significantur similia sint. Sed quia multis modis simile aliquid alicui potest esse, non constant talia signa inter homines, nisi consensus accedat.

39. In picturis vero et statuis, caeterisque hujusmodi simulatis operibus, maxime peritorum artificum, nemo errat cum similia viderit, ut agnoscat quibus sint rebus similia. Et hoc totum genus inter superflua hominum instituta numerandum est, nisi cum interest quid eorum, qua de causa, et ubi, et quando, et cujus auctoritate fiat. Millia denique fictarum fabularum et falsitatum, quarum mendaciis homines delectantur, humana instituta sunt. Et nulla magis hominum propria, quae a seipsis habent, existimanda sunt, quam quaeque falsa atque mendacia. Commoda vero et necessaria 0055 hominum cum hominibus instituta sunt, quaecumque in habitu et cultu corporis ad sexus vel honores discernendos differentia placuit; et innumerabilia genera significationum sine quibus humana societas, aut non omnino, aut minus commode geritur; quaeque in ponderibus atque mensuris, et nummorum impressionibus vel aestimationibus, sua cuique civitati et populo sunt propria; et caetera hujusmodi, quae nisi hominum instituta essent, non per diversos populos varia essent, nec in ipsis singulis populis pro arbitrio suorum principum mutarentur.

40. Sed haec tota pars humanorum institutorum, quae ad usum vitae necessarium proficiunt, nequaquam est fugienda christiano; imo etiam quantum satis est, intuenda, memoriaque retinenda.