The Testimony of Cicero 51
of activity which characterizes his life, and the mode of operation of
his intellect.
- Nature tells us part of what we need to know about the form of
the gods, and the rest is the instruction of reason. For by nature all of
us, men of all races, have no other view of the gods but that they have
human form; for what other form ever appears to anyone either waking
or sleeping? But so that every point will not be referred to the primary
notions, reason herself reveals the same thing. 47. For it seems appropriate
that the most excellent nature, excellent either for its blessedness or for
its eternity, should also be the most beautiful. So what configuration
of the limbs, what arrangement of features, what shape, what general
appearance can be more beautiful than the human? ... 48. But if the
human shape is superior to the form of all living things, and a god is a
living thing, then certainly he has that shape which is most beautiful of
all. And since it is agreed that the gods are most blessed, but no one can
be blessed without virtue, nor can virtue exist without reason, nor can
reason exist except in a human form, one must concede that the gods
have human appearance. 49. But that appearance is not [really] a body,
but a quasi-body, nor does a god have blood, but quasi-blood.
Although Epicurus was so acute in the discovery of these truths and
expounded them so subtly that not just anyone could grasp them, still
I can rely on your intelligence and expound them more briefly than the
subject matter actually demands. Epicurus, then, who not only has a
mental vision of hidden and deeply abstruse matters but even manipulates
them as though they were tangible, teaches us that the force and nature
of the gods is as follows. First, they are perceived not by the senses but
by the intellect, and not in virtue of some solidity or numerical identity
(like those things which because of their resistance he calls 'solids' [sterem-
nia]), but rather because the images [of the gods] are perceived by virtue
of similarity and transference; and since an unlimited series of very similar
images arises from innumerable atoms and flows to^24 the gods, our intellect
attends to those images and our intelligence is fixed on them with the
greatest possible pleasure, and so it grasps the blessed and eternal nature
[of the gods]. 50. It is most worthwhile to reflect long and hard on the
tremendous power of infinity, which we must understand is such as to
make it possible that all [classes of] things have an exact and equal
correspondence with all other [classes of] things. Epicurus calls this
isonomia, i.e., equal distribution. In virtue of this it comes about that if - This is the reading of the manuscripts. Many editors accept the simple and attractive
emendation "from the gods."