144 l/-23
be maintained despite the uniform revolution of the entire heavens?
These things, and the mutual harmony of the parts of the cosmos,
certainly could not happen as they do unless they were bound together
by one divine and continuously connected pneumaY
- When these doctrines are expounded in a fuller and more flowing
fashion, as I intend to do, they more easily escape the captious criticisms
of the Academy; but when they are demonstrated in the manner of Zeno,
in shorter and more cramped syllogisms, then they are more open to
attack; for just as a flowing river is virtually free of the risk of pollution
while a confined body of water is polluted quite readily, in the same way
the reproaches of a critic are diluted by a flowing oration while a cramped
syllogistic demonstration cannot easily protect itself.
Zeno used to compress the arguments which we expand upon, in the
following manner. 21. "That which is rational is better than that which
is not rational; but nothing is better than the cosmos; therefore, the
cosmos is rational." It can be proven in a similar manner that the cosmos
is wise, happy and eternal, since all of these are better than things which
lack them, and nothing is better than the world. From all of this it will
be proven that the cosmos is a god. Zeno also used this argument: 22.
"If something lacks the ability to perceive, no part of it can have the
ability to perceive; but some parts of the cosmos have the ability to
perceive; therefore, the cosmos does not lack the ability to perceive." He
goes on and presses his point even more compactly. He says, "nothing
which lacks life and reason can produce from itself something which is
alive and rational; but the cosmos produces from itself things which are
alive and rational; therefore, the cosmos is alive and rational." He also
argues by means of a comparison, as he often does, as follows: "If flutes
playing tunefully grew on olive trees, surely you would not doubt that
the olive tree possessed some knowledge of flute playing? What if plane
trees bore lyres playing melodiously? surely you would also decide that
there was musical ability in plane trees. Why, then, is the cosmos not
judged to be alive and wise, when it produces from itself creatures which
are alive and wise?" - But since I have already begun to digress from the mode of discus-
sion which I announced at the beginning-for I said that this first part
of [our theme] did not require discussion, since it was obvious to everyone
that there are gods-well, despite this I want to support the same point
by proofs drawn from physics, i.e., from the study of nature. For the - Cicero uses the term spiritus, but the Greek term he has in mind is obviously pneuma,
which has been transliterated where it occurs in Greek sources. Similarly, Cicero's mundus
has been rendered by 'cosmos' for the sake of uniformity with the Greek sources.