First Complete Latin Philo

modesty: one might hope that God, as a lover of what is good and honorable, and moreover of the human race, would of his own accord bestow an abundance of goods upon men. For it is clear that it is easier to supply a harvest of things abundantly without agriculture than to produce the things themselves out of nothing. And let this be called the second cause; but the third is this. God, wishing to fit together the beginning and the end as things joined by necessity and friendship, made heaven the beginning, but man the end: the former being the most perfect among sensible and incorruptible things, the latter the best among those born of the earth and corruptible—a small heaven (if the truth be told), bearing within himself images of many natures similar to the stars, in certain arts and sciences, and in the individual contemplations of celebrated virtues. For since they have contrary natures—that which is corruptible and that which is incorruptible—he attributed the most beautiful of each species to the beginning and the end: to the beginning heaven, as I said, and to the end man. Besides these, another cause is also usually given by some: it was necessary that man be produced last of all created things, so that appearing suddenly as the newest among the other living creatures, he might strike terror into them. For thus it would come to pass that, stupefied at the first sight of him, they would venerate him as a ruler and master given by nature. Therefore, upon seeing him, all were tamed at once, and even the most ferocious became gentle at the first glance, mitigating the rage with which they were maddened against each other toward man alone. Wherefore his maker and father appointed this animal, naturally endowed with reason, as king—not only in fact but also by the authority of words—over all things under the moon: the terrestrial, the aquatic, and the winged. For whatever is mortal in these three elements—earth, water, and air—he subjected entirely to him, excepting only celestial things, as having obtained a more divine portion. The proof of this kingdom appears most evidently when a vast multitude of cattle is led by some common man, neither equipped with arms, nor girded with iron, nor carrying any weapon, but having only a sheepskin for a covering, and a staff with which to direct them and on which to lean when tried by weariness on the way. And so the shepherd, the goatherd, and the herdsman drive before them the most crowded flocks of sheep, goats, and oxen—men not even robust or vigorous in body, such that they might at least be formidable to their cattle by their physical constitution; but those great strengths and forces equipped with weapons (for to most of them nature has added instruments with which to defend themselves) revere them as servants revere a master, and do what is commanded. Bulls sent under the yoke for the cultivation of the land cut deep furrows all day long, sometimes even over a long distance, with some farmer following; rams, hardly sustaining the burden of their fleeces, stand quiet in the springtime at the command of the shepherd and willingly offer themselves to be shorn, accustomed as a people to pay an annual tribute to their king appointed by nature. What of the horse, a most spirited animal? This also is easily ruled once the bit is received, lest it be wanton and so that it may obey the reins; and at the same time it aptly accommodates its back to the rider, and soon carries him aloft at a most swift pace, hastening wherever he desires to go with his ruler. And he, sitting without labor and quite still, completes the journey by means of another's body and another's feet. It would be possible to say many other things, if I chose to be prolix, by which it would become evident that no animal usurps liberty for itself by refusing the obedience due to man. Therefore we shall be content with the examples already mentioned. Nor, however, should one be igno-