Physics 159
this topic, I wish, Cotta, that I had your eloquence. How [wonderfully]
you could describe, first of all, human understanding; and then our ability
to link conclusions with premisses and grasp the result, i.e., the ability
by which we judge what follows from what and prove it in the form of
a syllogism, and define in a compact description each kind of thing. And
from this we can grasp the power and characteristics of knowledge, a
thing whose excellence even the gods cannot surpass. How extraordinary,
indeed, are those powers which you Academics try to undermine and
even to destroy: the ability to perceive and grasp external objects with
our senses and mind. 148. It is by comparing and contrasting these with
each other that we can produce the crafts, some of which are necessary
for the practicalities of life and some for the sake of pleasure.
Indeed, the mistress of all, as you call it, is the power of eloquence-
how wonderful and divine it is! First, it enables us to learn what we do
not know and to teach others what we do know; next, we use it to exhort
and persuade, to comfort the unfortunate and to distract the timid from
their fears, to calm those who are passionate and dampen their desires
and anger; it is the bond which unites us in law, legislation and civil
society; it is eloquence which has raised us from a state of uncouth
savagery ....
- What then? Does human reason not penetrate even to the heavens?
For we are the only animals who know the risings, settings and courses
of the heavenly bodies; it is the human race which has defined the day,
the month and the year, has learned about solar and lunar eclipses and
predicted their dates of occurrence and degree for all time to come. By
contemplating these things our mind attains to knowledge of the gods,
and that is the origin of piety, which is closely linked with justice and
the other virtues, which are in turn the source of a life which is happy
and similar, even equivalent, to that of the gods-yielding to the heavenly
beings only in respect to immortality, which is quite irrelevant to the
good life. After explaining this, I think that I have shown clearly enough
by how much human nature is superior to the [other] animals. And from
that one ought to see that chance could never have created the form and
arrangement of our limbs or the power of our mind and intelligence. - It remains for me to come to my conclusion at last by showing
that everything in this cosmos which is of use to men was in fact made
and provided for their sake. First of all, the cosmos itself was made for
the sake of gods and men, and the things in it were provided and
discovered for the use of men. For the cosmos is like a common home
for gods and men, or a city which both [gods and men] inhabit. For only
creatures who use reason live by law and justice. So just as one must
hold that Athens and Sparta were founded for the sake of the Athenians