Hellenistic Philosophy Introductory

(Marvins-Underground-K-12) #1

The Testimony of Cicero 51


of activity which characterizes his life, and the mode of operation of
his intellect.



  1. 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

  2. This is the reading of the manuscripts. Many editors accept the simple and attractive
    emendation "from the gods."

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