Eusebius, Preparation of the Gospels

§ 15.22.3 Wherefore I think it necessary for me also to collect their opinions on these subjects, and to review their disputes and their vain conceit.

§ 15.22.4 These matters also I will quote from the work of Plutarch, in which he collected the opinions thereon of all the philosophers both ancient and modern, writing in the following manner:

§ 15.23.1 — OF THE SUN. [PLUTARCH]' Anaximander: that there is a circle twenty-eight times as large as the Earth, having its circumference like a chariot-wheel, hollow, and full of fire, and partly showing the fire through an opening, as through a bellows-pipe: and this is the Sun.' Xenophanes: it is formed from the sparks which are seen to be collected from watery vapour, and which compose the Sun out of burning clouds.'The Stoics: a flame out of the sea, endowed with intelligence.' Plato: out of an immense fire.' Anaxagoras, Democritus, Metrodorus: a fiery mass of metal or stone.' Aristotle: a globe of the fifth corporeal element.' Philolaus the Pythagorean: a disk as of glass, which receives the reflected radiance of the fire in the cosmos, and transmits the light to us; so that the Sun's fiery appearance in the heaven is like the light which comes to us dispersed by reflexion from the mirror: for this light also we call the Sun, being as it were an image of an image.' Empedocles: there are two Suns; the one archetypal, a fire in the other hemisphere of the cosmos, which, has filled that hemisphere, being always opposite to its own reflected light; and the other which we see is the reflected light in this other hemisphere which is filled with air mixed with heat, formed by reflexion from the spherical surface of the Earth and failing upon the crystalline Sun, and carried round with the motion of the fiery Sun: but to express it more shortly, the Sun is the reflexion of the fire that surrounds the Earth.' Epicurus: a compact mass of earth, resembling pumice or sponge in its pores, and kindled by the fire.'

§ 15.24.1 — OF THE SUN'S MAGNITUDE.' Anaximander: the Sun itself is equal to the Earth, but the orbit from which it breathes out its fire, and by which it is carried round, is twenty-seven times as large as the Earth.' Anaxagoras: many times as large as Peloponnesus.' Heracleitus: the breadth of a man's foot.' Epicurus again says that the aforesaid descriptions are all possible: or else that it is of the same size as it appears, or a little greater or less.'

§ 15.25.1 — OF THE SHAPE OF THE SUN.'ANAXIMENES: the Sun is flat like a plate.' Heracleitus: like a boat, concave.'The Stoics: spherical, like the universe and the stars.' Epicurus: the aforesaid descriptions are all possible.'

§ 15.25.2 Such is their Sun, the mighty god of all things visible in heaven. But Moses and the Hebrew oracles waste no labour on any of these matters.

§ 15.26.1 — OF THE MOON.' Anaximander: it is a circle nineteen times as large as the Earth, full of fire, as in the case of the Sun, and is eclipsed in consequence of the rotation of its disk. And it is like a chariot wheel, having its circumference hollow, and full of fire, with only one vent.' Xenophanes: a cloud condensed.'The Stoics: a mixture of fire and air.' Plato: of earth for the more part.' Anaxagoras, Democritus: a fiery solid, having in itself plains, and mountains, and ravines.' Heracleitus: earth surrounded with mist.' Pythagoras: a mirror-like body.'

§ 15.27.1 — OF THE MOON'S MAGNITUDE.'THE Stoics represent it as larger than the Earth, as they also say of the Sun.' Parmenides: equal to the Sun, for it is illumined from it.'

§ 15.28.1 — OF THE MOON'S SHAPE.'THE Stoics: it is spherical, as the Sun.' Heracleitus: like a boat.' Empedocles: like a disk (or quoit).'Others like a cylinder.'

§ 15.29.1 — OF THE MOON'S ILLUMINATION.' Anaximander: it has light of its own, but somewhat scanty.' Antiphon: the Moon shines by its own light; but the portion of it which is partially hidden is obscured by the Sun's light falling upon it, as it is the nature of the stronger fire to obscure the weaker: which happens also with the other heavenly bodies.' Thales and his followers: the Moon is illumined from the Sun.' Heracleitus: the Sun and Moon are affected in the same way: for the heavenly bodies being boat-like in shape, and receiving the products of the watery evaporation, become luminous in appearance; the Sun more brilliantly, because it moves in a purer atmosphere, but the Moon moving in a turbid atmosphere therefore also appears more dim.'

§ 15.30.1 — WHAT IS THE SUBSTANCE OF THE PLANETS AND FIXED STARS?' Thales: the heavenly bodies are of earth, but on fire.' Empedocles: of fire, from the fiery element, which the air contained in itself and thrust out at the first separation of the elements.' Anaxagoras: the surrounding atmosphere is in its substance fire, but by the energy of its revolution catches up stones from the earth, and having set them on fire has made stars of them.;' Diogenes: the heavenly bodies are porous like pumice, and are the breathing-holes of the universe. But again the same author thinks that they are stones, which, though at first invisible, often fall upon the Earth and are extinguished, just as the stony meteor which fell in a fiery form at Aegospotamoi.' Empedocles: the fixed stars are fastened to the crystalline sphere, but the planets are free.' Plato: for the most part they are of fire, but partake also of the other elements as a cement.' Xenophanes: they consist of clouds on fire, but are extinguished every day, and re-kindled in the night, just like live coals: for their risings and settings are their kindlings and quenchings.' Heracleides and the Pythagoreans think that each of the stars is a world, including an Earth, and an atmosphere and an ether in the infinite space. These doctrines are introduced in the Orphic Hymns, for they make each star a world.' Epicurus rejects none of these opinions, but adheres to his “possible.”'

§ 15.31.1 — OF THE SHAPE OF THE STARS.'THE Stoics: the stars are spherical, like the universe, Sun; and Moon.' Cleanthes: conical.' Anaximenes: like studs fastened in the crystalline sphere.'But some say that they are plates of fire, as it were pictures.'

§ 15.31.2 Such are the discoveries of the wonderful philosophers concerning what they call visible gods. But learn also from the same Plutarch's voice, what decisions they have pronounced concerning the universe:

§ 15.32.1 — HOW THE WORLD WAS CONSTRUCTED.'THE world, therefore, has been fashioned in a rounded form, in the following manner. As the corporeal atoms have an undesigned and fortuitous motion, and move continuously and very swiftly, many of them were collected together, and from this cause had great variety of shapes and sizes.'And when these were all gathered in the same place, all the larger and heaviest settled down: but as many as were small, and round, and smooth, and easily moved, were thrust out in the collision of the bodies, and carried up on high.'When, therefore, the propelling force ceased to carry them upward, and the propulsion no longer tended towards the height, while on the other hand they were prevented from sinking downward, they were compressed into the places which were able to admit them; and these were the places around them.'So the multitude of the bodies were turned round towards these places, and becoming intermingled one with another in the turning they generated the heaven. But the atoms retaining the same natural tendency, and being of various kinds, as I have said, were thrust out towards the upper region, and produced the nature of the stars.'But the multitude of the bodies which were exhaled kept striking upon the air and thrusting it away; and the air in its motion being turned into wind and encompassing the stars carried them round with it, and maintained the revolution which they now have on high. Afterwards out of the particles which settled down the Earth was produced, and out of those which were carried upward the heaven, and fire, and air.'And as there was still much matter included in the Earth, which became condensed in consequence of the blows from the winds and the currents from the stars, all of its shape that was formed by minute particles was further compressed, and generated the watery element.'And this having a fluid tendency was carried down into the hollow places which were able to receive and hold it; or the water settled down of itself and gradually hollowed out the places below it.'

§ 15.32.2 Such is their wonderful cosmogony! And with, this is connected much other disputation, as they started questions about problems of all kinds; whether we ought to regard the universe as one or many; and the cosmos as one or more; and whether it has a soul, and is administered by a divine providence, or the contrary: also whether it is imperishable or perishable; and from what source it is sustained; and from what kind of material God began to make the world: also concerning the order of the world; and what is the cause of its inclination; also concerning what is outside the circumference of the world; and which is the right and which the left side of the world; also concerning the heaven, and, besides all this, concerning daemons and heroes; and about matter, and about ideas: about the arrangement of the universe: yet more, about the course and motion of the stars: and besides this, from what source the stars derive their light: also about the so-called Dioscuri, and the eclipses of the Sun and Moon, and her aspect, and why she has an earthlike appearance; also concerning her distances; and moreover concerning the years.

§ 15.32.3 Now all these questions have been treated in numberless ways by the philosophers of whom we speak, but since Plutarch collected them in a few concise words, by bringing together the opinions of them all and their contradictions, I think it will not be unprofitable to us if they are presented with a view to their rejection on reasonable grounds. For since they stood in diametrical opposition one to another, and stirred up battles and wars against each other, and nothing better, each with jealous strife of words confuting their neighbours' opinions, must not every one admit that our hesitation on these subjects has been reasonable and safe?

§ 15.32.4 Next in order to the aforesaid subjects I will add all their disquisitions upon matters nearer to the Earth; concerning the figure of the Earth, and its position and inclination: also concerning the sea; that so you may know that the noble sages differed not only about things high and lofty, but that they have disagreed also in matters terrestrial. And to increase yet more your admiration of this wisdom of the wise, I will add also all the controversies they waged about the soul and the ruling faculty therein, unable as they were to discover what their own nature was. But now let us go back to the first of the aforesaid subjects.

§ 15.33.1 WHETHER THE ALL IS ONE.'THE Stoics then represented the world as one, which they also affirmed to be the All, including the corporeal elements.'But Empedocles said that, though the world was one, yet it was not the All, but only a small part of the All, and the rest useless matter.' Plato derives his opinion that the world is one, and the All one, by inference from three arguments: from the notion that it will not be perfect, unless it comprehends all things; that it will not be like its pattern, unless it be unique; that it will not be indestructible, if there be anything outside it. But in answer to Plato it must be said, that the world is not perfect, for it does not include all things; for man also is perfect, but does not include all things: and there are many examples, as in the case of statues, and houses, and pictures: and how can it be perfect, if it is possible for anything to revolve outside it? And indestructible it is not, and cannot be, since it is created.'But Metrodorus says it is as absurd that there should be but one world generated in infinite space, as that there should be but one head of corn in a great plain: and that the world is one of an infinite multitude is manifest from the infinity of causes. For if the world is finite, while the causes from which the world has come are all infinite, the number of worlds must be infinite. For where they all have been causes, there must also be effects: and causes they are, whether the atoms or the elements.'

§ 15.34.1 WHETHER THE WORLD HAS A SOUL, AND IS ADMINISTERED BY PROVIDENCE. THE others all say that it has a soul, and is administered by providence.'But Democritus and Epicurus, and all who are for bringing in the atoms and vacuum, say that it neither has a soul, nor is administered by providence, but by some irrational kind of nature.' Aristotle says that, as a whole and throughout, it has neither a soul, nor reason, nor intelligence, nor is it administered by providence. For while the heavenly regions partake of all these properties, because they include spheres which are endowed with a soul and life, the terrestrial regions have none of them, but share in the orderly arrangement by accident and not directly.'

§ 15.35.1 WHETHER THE WORLD IS IMPERISHABLE.' Pythagoras, and Plato, and the Stoics say that the world was created by God; and that, so far as it depends on its nature, it is perishable, because it is perceptible by sense through being corporeal; nevertheless it will not be destroyed, through the providence and support of God.' Epicurus says that it is perishable, because created, like an animal or a plant.' Xenophanes: the world is uncreated, and eternal, and imperishable.' Aristotle: the part of the world beneath the Moon may be affected by change, and the things terrestrial therein are doomed to perish.'

§ 15.36.1 FROM WHAT SOURCE THE WORLD IS SUSTAINED.'ARISTOTLE: if the world receives sustenance, it will also perish; but in fact it needs no sustenance, and therefore is also eternal.' Plato: the world supplies its own sustenance out of its waste, by a change.' Philolaus: the decay is twofold, sometimes by fire fallen from heaven, and sometimes from the water of the Moon being thrown off by the revolution of its atmosphere: and the exhalations from these are the sustenance of the world.'

§ 15.37.1 FROM WHAT MATERIAL FIRST GOD BEGAN TO FORM THE WORLD.'THE physicists say that the creation of the world began from Earth, as from a centre; and the centre is the beginning of a sphere.' Pythagoras: from fire, and the fifth element.' Empedocles: the ether was first separated, and next the fire, and after it the Earth, out of which, when very closely compressed by the rush of the sphere, the water gushed up, and the air was formed from it by evaporation. Then the heaven was produced from the ether, and the Sun from the fire: and the terrestrial parts were formed by condensation out of the other elements.' Plato: the world was made visible according to the pattern of the intelligible world: and of the visible world first the soul, and after this the corporeal element, first the part produced from fire and earth, and secondly that from water and air.' Pythagoras says that, whereas there are five solid figures which are also called mathematical, out of the cube the earth was produced; out of the pyramid the fire; out of the octahedron the air; out of the eicosahedron the water; and out of the dodecahedron the sphere of the universe.'And herein again Plato follows Pythagoras.'

§ 15.38.1 OF THE ARRANGEMENT OF THE WORLD.'PARMENIDES: there are wreaths twisted round one upon the other, one of the rare matter, and the other of the dense; and between them others of light and darkness mixed; and that which surrounds them all like a wall is solid.' Leucippus and Democritus extend a tunic and a membrane in a circle round the world.' Epicurus: the boundary of some worlds is thin, and of others dense: and of these part are in motion, and part immovable.' Plato: fire first, then ether, after that air, next water, and earth last: but sometimes he combines the ether with the fire.' Aristotle: first impassible ether, that is a fifth body; after that passibles, fire, air, water, and earth last. Of these the celestial portions have the circular motion assigned to them: and of the portions ranged beneath them the light have the upward, and the heavy the downward motion.' Empedocles: the places of the elements are not entirely fixed and limited, but they all in a certain way partake one of another.'

§ 15.39.1 WHAT IS THE CAUSE OF THE INCLINATION OF THE WORLD.'DIOGENES, Anaxagoras: after the world was established, and had brought forth the living beings out of the earth, the world was somehow spontaneously inclined towards its southern side, perhaps from design, in order that some parts of the world might be uninhabitable and some habitable, in consequence of cold, and torrid heat, and a temperate climate.' Empedocles: when the air yielded to the impulse of the Sun, the polar Bears became inclined, and the northern regions were elevated, and the southern depressed, and the whole world accordingly.'

§ 15.40.1 OF THE OUTSIDE OF THE WORLD, WHETHER IT IS A VACUUM.'THE Pythagoreans: outside the world there is a vacuum, into and out of which the world breathes.'The Stoics: infinite (vacuum), into which the world is also dissolved by the conflagration.' Poseidonius: not infinite, but sufficiently large for the dissolution.' Plato, Aristotle: no vacuum either outside the world or inside.'

§ 15.41.1 — WHICH ARE THE RIGHT AND WHICH THE LEFT SIDES OF THE WORLD.' Pythagoras, Plato, Aristotle: the right parts of the world are the eastern, from which the motion begins, and the left are the western.' Empedocles: the right is the region of the summer solstice, and the left the region of the winter solstice.'

§ 15.42.1 OF THE HEAVEN; WHAT IS ITS SUBSTANCE.'ANAXIMENES: it is the circumference of the outer zone.' Empedocles: the heaven is solid, formed from air compressed by fire into a crystallized form, and encompassing the whole elements of fire and air in each of the hemispheres.

§ 15.43.1 OF DAEMONS AND HEROES.'IN connexion with the discourse concerning gods we must inquire into that which concerns daemons and heroes.' Thales, Pythagoras, Plato, the Stoics: daemons are beings of the nature of souls: heroes also are souls which have been separated from their bodies; and the good souls are good daemons, and the bad souls evil daemons.'But Epicurus admits none of these opinions.'

§ 15.44.1 OF MATTER.'Matter is the substratum to generation and decay and the other changes.'The Schools of Thales and Pythagoras, and the Stoics: matter is wholly and thoroughly subject to change and alteration and flux.'The School of Democritus: the primary elements are impassible, namely, the atom, the vacuum, and the incorporeal.' Aristotle and Plato say that matter is corporeal, without form, specific character, shape, or quality, so far as it depends on its own nature, but receptive of the specific forms, as it were a nurse, and a mould, and a matrix. But those who say that matter is water, or fire, or air, or earth, no longer speak of it as without form, but as body: while those who say that it is the indivisible bodies and atoms, do regard it as without form.'

§ 15.45.1 OF THE IDEA.'AN “idea” is an incorporeal entity (οὐσία), subsisting itself, and by itself, but giving its image to portions of formless matter, and becoming the cause of their manifestation.' Socrates and Plato suppose the ideas to be separable from the matter, subsisting in the thoughts and in the presentations of god, that is, of the mind.' Aristotle allowed the specific forms and ideas to remain, not however as separate from the matter, having freed himself from the notion of its being done by god.'The Stoic followers of Zeno said that the ideas are thoughts of our own.'

§ 15.46.1 OF THE ORDER OF THE STARS.'XENOCRATES thinks that the stars move on one superficies.'The other Stoics that some are before others in height and depth.

§ 15.46.2 Democritus puts the fixed stars first, and next to these the planets, after which the Sun, the Day-star, the Moon.' Plato next to the position of the fixed stars sets first the planet called Phaenon, that is Saturn: second Phaethon, that is Jupiter; third the Fiery, Mars; fourth the Day-star, Venus; fifth Stilbon, Mercury; sixth the Sun; seventh the Moon.'Of the Mathematicians some agree with Plato, but some put the Sun in the centre of all.' Anaximander, and Metrodorus of Chios, and Crates think that the Sun is placed highest of all, next to him the Moon, and beneath them the fixed stars and planets.'

§ 15.47.1 OF THE COURSE AND MOTION OF THE STARS.'ANAXAGORAS, Democritus, Cleanthes: all the fixed stars pass from east to west.' Alcmaeon and the Mathematicians: the planets move in an opposite direction to the fixed stars; for theirs is the contrary course from west to east.' Anaximander: they are borne along by the circles and spheres on which they are each set.' Anaximenes: the stars do not revolve beneath the Earth, but around it.' Plato and the Mathematicians: the Sun, the Day-star, and Stilbon ( Venus and Mercury ) have equal orbits.'

§ 15.48.1 WHENCE THE STARS RECEIVE THEIR LIGHT.'METEODORUS: the fixed stars are all illumined by the Sun.' Heracleitus and the Stoics: the stars are fed from the exhalation of the Earth.' Aristotle: the heavenly bodies have no need of nourishment; for they are not perishable but eternal.' Plato: there is a common nourishment of the whole world and of the stars from themselves.'

§ 15.49.1 OF THE SO-CALLED DIOSCURI.'XENOPHANES: what appear like stars upon the ships are little clouds which shine in consequence of a certain kind of motion.' Metrodorus: they are flashes from the eyes which look at them with fear and amazement.'

§ 15.50.1 OF AN ECLIPSE OF THE SUN.' Thales was the first who said that the Sun is eclipsed from the Moon (which is of an earthy nature) coming perpendicularly under it; and that by reflexion in a mirror she is seen situated beneath the Sun's disk.' Anaximander: from the closing of the orifice of the breathing-hole of the Sun's fire.' Heracleitus: in consequence of the turning of the boat-like figure, so that the concavity is above, and the convexity below facing our eyes.' Xenophanes: by extinction, and then again there rises another Sun in the east. But he has incidentally mentioned an eclipse of the Sun lasting over the whole month, and again a total eclipse, so that the day seemed like night.'Some say that it is a condensation of the invisible clouds coming over the Sun's disk.' Aristarchus sets the Sun among the fixed stars, and makes the Moon move round the Sun's orbit, and the Sun's disk to be overshadowed in consequence of these inclinations.' Xenophanes: there are many suns and moons, corresponding to the climes, and sections, and zones of the Earth: and at a certain season the Sun's disk falls into some section of the Earth which is not inhabited by us, and thus, as if stepping into a hole, suffers eclipse. But the same author says that the Sun goes forward into infinity, but seems to revolve because of its distance.'

§ 15.51.1 OF AN ECLIPSE OF THE MOON.' Anaximander: from the closing of the orifice of its circumference.' Berossus: because of the turning of the dark side towards us.' Heracleitus: because of the turning of the boat-like figure.'Of the Pythagoreans some say that it is an outshining and obstruction by our Earth or the counter-earth: but the more recent say that it is in consequence of the spreading of a flame which is gradually kindled in an orderly manner, until it produces the complete full moon, and decreases again in like manner until the conjunction, at which it is entirely extinguished.' Plato, Aristotle, the Stoics, and the Mathematicians agree that it effects its monthly obscurations by travelling round with the Sun and sharing its illumination; but the eclipses by falling into the shadow of the Earth when that comes between the two luminaries, or rather when it obstructs the light from the Moon.'

§ 15.52.1 OF THE MOON'S ASPECT, AND WHY IT HAS AN EARTHLIKE APPEARANCE.'THE Pythagoreans say that the Moon has an earthlike appearance, because it is inhabited like our Earth, but by larger animals and more beautiful plants. For the animals upon it are fifteen times as large, and emit no bodily secretion; and that the day is longer in the same proportion.' Anaxagoras: on account of an unevenness in the mixture, because of its being both cold and earthy: for the misty part is mingled with the fiery, whence the Moon is also said to shine with false light.'The Stoics: because of the admixture of air in its substance its composition is not pure.'

§ 15.53.1 OF THE MOON'S DISTANCES.' Empedocles: the Moon is distant from the Sun twice as far as from the Earth.'The Mathematical School: eighteen times as far.' Eratosthenes: the Sun's distance from the Earth is four millions and eighty thousand stades: but the Moon's distance from the Earth seven hundred and eighty thousand stades.'

§ 15.54.1 OF YEARS.'A YEAR of Saturn is a period of thirty years: of Jupiter twelve; of Mars two; of the Sun twelve months; and the same for Mercury and Venus, for they run an equal course. But the Moon's is thirty days: for this is the complete month from first appearance to conjunction.'The Great Year some suppose to consist in a period of eight years, but others in nineteen years, and others in fifty-nine. Heracleitus makes it consist of eighteen thousand solar years: Diogenes of three hundred and sixty-five years, as many as the year has days according to Heracleitus: but others of seven thousand, seven hundred, and seventy-seven years.'

§ 15.54.2 So widely do the aforesaid persons differ from each other in regard to things in the heavens above. But now look also at their opinions about the Earth.

§ 15.55.1 OF THE EARTH.' Thales and his followers say that the Earth is one.' Hicetas the Pythagorean says that there are two, this and the antipodal earth.'The Stoics: the Earth is one, and finite.' Xenophanes: from the lower part its roots reach into infinity, and it is composed of air and fire.' Metrodorus: the Earth is the deposit and sediment of the water, and the Sun of the air.'

§ 15.56.1 OF THE FIGURE OF THE EARTH.' Thales and the Stoics: the Earth is spherical.' Anaximander: it is like a stone pillar supporting the surfaces.' Anaximenes: like a table.' Leucippus: like a kettle-drum.' Democritus: like a disk in its extension, but hollow in the middle.'

§ 15.57.1 OF THE POSITION OF THE EARTH.'THE followers of Thales say the Earth is the centre.' Xenophanes: the Earth first, for its roots reach into infinity.' Philolaus the Pythagorean: first, fire in the centre; for this is the hearth of the universe: second, the antipodal Earth, and third, the Earth which we inhabit, opposite to the antipodal both in situation and revolution; in consequence of which the inhabitants of the antipodal Earth are not seen by those in this Earth.' Parmenides was the first to mark off the inhabited parts of the Earth under the two tropical zones.'

§ 15.58.1 OF THE EARTH'S MOTION.'ALL the others say that the Earth is at rest.'But Philolaus the Pythagorean says that it revolves round the fire in an oblique circle, in like manner as the Sun and Moon.' Heracleides of Pontus, and Ecphantus the Pythagorean make the Earth move, not however by change of place, but by rotation, turning like a wheel on an axle, from west to east, about its own centre.' Democritus: at first the Earth used to change its place, owing to its smallness and lightness; but as in the course of time it grew dense and heavy, it became stationary.'

§ 15.58.2 After the utterance of these different opinions by the noble philosophers concerning the Earth, hear now what they say of the Sea.

§ 15.59.1 OF THE SEA, HOW IT WAS COMPOSED, AND WHY IT IS SALT.' Anaximander says that the Sea is the remnant of the original moisture, the greater part of which was dried up by the fire, and the remainder changed through its burning heat.' Anaxagoras: when the water, which in the beginning was a stagnant lake, was burnt up by the Sun's revolution, and the greasy part evaporated, the remainder subsided into saltness and bitterness.' Empedocles: the Sea is the sweat of the Earth when scorched by the Sun, because of the increased condensation.' Antiphon: the sweat of the hot part, from which the included moisture was separated, turned salt by being boiled down, which happens always in the case of sweat.' Metrodorus: from being drained through the earth it has partaken of its density, just as liquids which are strained through ashes.' Plato and his followers: of the elementary water the part formed out of air, being condensed by cooling, became sweet; but the part formed from earth, being evaporated by heat and burning, became salt.'

§ 15.59.2 So much, then, concerning the Sea. But as to those who professed to give physiological explanations about the whole world, and things celestial and ethereal, and the conception of the universe, how little they knew even of their own nature, you may learn from their discordant utterances on these points also, as follows.

§ 15.60.1 OF THE PARTS OF THE SOUL. Pythagoras, Plato: in the first analysis the Soul has two parts; for it has one part rational and another irrational. But in close and exact consideration, its parts are three: for they distinguish the irrational into the irascible and the appetitive.'The Stoics: it is composed of eight parts; five senses, sight, smell, hearing, taste, touch; and a sixth, speech; a seventh, generation; and an eighth, the actual ruling principle, from which proceeds the extension of all these through their proper organs, in a similar manner to the tentacles of the polypus.' Democritus, Epicurus: the Soul consists of two parts, its rational faculty being settled in the breast, and the irrational diffused over the whole complexity of the body.'But Democritus thought that all things, even dead bodies, naturally partake of a certain kind of soul, because in an obscure way they have some warmth and sensation, though the greater part is dissipated.'

§ 15.61.1 OF THE EXILING FACULTY.' Plato, Democritus: it is in the head as a whole.' Straton: between the eyebrows.' Erasistratus: about the membrane of the brain, which he calls the epicranis.' Herophilus: in the cavity of the brain, which is also its base.' Parmenides: in the breast as a whole.' Epicurus, and all the Stoics: in the heart as a whole.' Diogenes: in the arterial cavity of the heart, which is full of breath.' Empedocles in the composition of the blood.'Others in the membrane of the pericardium: and others in the diaphragm. Some of the more recent philosophers say that it reaches through from the head to the diaphragm.' Pythagoras: the vital power is around the heart; but the rational, and intelligent faculty in the region of the head.'

§ 15.61.2 So far, then, as to their opinions on these matters. Do you not think therefore that with judgement and reason we have justly kept aloof from the unprofitable and erroneous and vain labour of them all, and do not busy ourselves at all about the said subjects (for we do not see the utility of them, nor any tendency to benefit and gain good for mankind), but cling solely to piety towards God the creator of all things, and by a life of temperance, and all godly behaviour according to virtue, strive to live in a manner pleasing to Him who is God over all?

§ 15.61.3 But if even you from malice and envy hesitate to admit our true testimony, you shall be again anticipated by Socrates, the wisest of all Greeks, who has truthfully declared his votes in our favour. Those meteorological babblers, for instance, he used to expose in their folly, and say that they were no better than madmen, expressly convicting them not merely of striving after things unattainable, but also of wasting time about things useless and unprofitable to man's life. And this shall be testified to you by our former witness Xenophon, one of the best-known of the companions of Socrates, who writes as follows in his Memorabilia:

§ 15.62.1 [XENOPHON]'No one ever yet saw Socrates do or heard him say anything impious or unholy. For he did not discourse about the nature of the universe or the other subjects, like most of them, speculating upon the condition of the cosmos, as the Sophists call it, and by what forces of necessity the celestial phenomena severally are produced: rather he used to expose the foolishness of those who troubled themselves about such things.'And the first point he used to consider in regard to them was, whether they go on to study such matters, because they think that they have already an adequate knowledge of human affairs, or deem that they are doing their proper work in neglecting human interests and speculating on the divine.'And he used to wonder that they did not clearly see that it is impossible for men to discover these things, since even those who pride themselves most highly on the discussion of these matters do not agree in opinion with each other, but are just like madmen in their mutual feelings.'For as among madmen some have no fear even of things fearful, while others are afraid where no fear is; so some of these think it. no shame to say or do anything and everything even in a crowd, while others think it not right even to go out among men: and some honour neither temple, nor altar, nor anything else belonging to the gods, while others worship any casual stocks and stones and wild beasts. Also of those who study anxiously the nature of the universe some think that “being” is only one, others that it is infinite in multitude: some too think that all things are in perpetual motion, and others that nothing can ever be moved: and some that all things are being generated and perishing, but others that nothing could ever be generated or perish.'He also used to ask the following questions about them: whereas those who study human affairs think that whatever they have learned they will be able to practise both for themselves and for whomsoever they may wish, do those who search after things divine think in like manner that when they know by what forces of necessity phenomena are severally produced, they will be able whenever they please to make winds and rains and seasons, and whatever else of this kind they may need? Or, without even hoping for anything of this sort, are they satisfied merely to know how such phenomena are severally produced?'Such, then, was the nature of his remarks about those who busied themselves with these matters: but he himself was always discoursing of human interests, inquiring what was, pious, what impious; what noble, what base; what just, what unjust; what sanity, what madness.'

§ 15.62.2 These, then, were the opinions of Socrates. And next after him Aristippus of Cyrene, and then later Ariston of Chios, undertook to maintain that morals were the only proper subject of philosophy; for these inquiries were practicable and useful, but the discussions about nature were quite the contrary, neither being comprehensible, nor having any use, even if they were clearly understood.

§ 15.62.3 For it would be no advantage to us, not even if soaring higher in the air than Perseus,'O'er ocean's wave, and o'er the Pleiades,'

§ 15.62.4 we could with our very eyes survey the whole world, and the nature of all'beings,' of whatever kind that is.

§ 15.62.5 For we certainly shall not be on that account wiser, or more just or brave or temperate, nay, not even strong, or beautiful, or rich, without which advantages happiness is impossible.

§ 15.62.6 Wherefore Socrates was right in saying that of existing things some are above us, and others nothing to us: for the secrets of nature are above us, and the conditions after death nothing to us, but the affairs of human life alone concern us.

§ 15.62.7 And thus, he said, he also dismissed the physical theories of Anaxagoras and Archelaus, and studied only'Whate'er of good or ill our homes have known.'

§ 15.62.8 And he thought besides that their physical discussions were not merely difficult and even impossible, but also impious and opposed to the laws. For some maintained that gods do not exist at all, and others, that the Infinite, or Being, or the One, are gods, and anything rather than those who are generally acknowledged.

§ 15.62.9 Their dissension again, he said, was very great: for some represented the All as infinite, and others as finite; and some maintained that all things are in motion, and others that nothing at all moves.

§ 15.62.10 Moreover the following words of Timon of Phlius in his Silli seem to me the best of all on these very subjects:'Say then, who urged them to the fatal strife? Echo's attendant rout: who filled with wrath Against the silent, sent upon mankind A fell disease of talk, and many died.'

§ 15.62.11 Do you see how at last these noble sages scoff at each other? For instance, the same author, besides what I have quoted, describes their mutual jealousy and their battles and quarrels in the following style:'There baneful Discord stalks with senseless shriek, Of murderous Strife the sister and ally, Who, blindly stumbling round, anon her head, With ponderous weight set firm, uplifts to hope.'

§ 15.62.12 Since, however, we have now exhibited the dissension and fighting of these sages among themselves, and since the wholly superfluous, and unintelligible, and to us utterly unnecessary study and learning of all the other subjects in which the tribes of philosophers still take pride, have been refuted not by our demonstrations but by their own; nay more, since we have also plainly set forth the reason why we have rejected their doctrines and preferred the Hebrew oracles, let us at this point conclude our treatise on The Preparation for the Gospel; but the more complete treatise on The Demonstration of the Gospel it now remains for us to consider from a different basis of argument, which the question still needs for those who are to deal with its teaching.

§ 15.62.13 It remains, therefore, to make answer to those of the circumcision who find fault with us, as to why we, being foreigners and aliens, make use of their books, which, as they would say, do not belong to us at all; or why, if we gladly accept their oracles, we do not also render our life conformable to their law.