THE DIVINE INSTITUTES. [BOOK I.]

greatness that formed heaven and earth. For he could not say that Jupiter was the author of all things, since he was born of Saturn; nor could he say that Saturn himself was their author, since it was reported that he was born from Heaven. Yet, he did not venture to establish Heaven as the primeval god, because he saw that it was an element of the universe and must itself have had an author. This consideration led him to that first-born god, to whom he assigns and gives the first place.

Homer was able to give us no information regarding the truth, for he wrote of human rather than divine matters. Hesiod was able, for he comprised in the work of one book the generation of the gods; but yet he gave us no information, for he began not with God the Creator, but with chaos—a confused mass of rude and unarranged matter. He ought first to have explained from what source, at what time, and in what manner chaos itself began to exist or to have consistency. Without doubt, as all things were placed in order, arranged, and made by some artificer, so matter itself must of necessity have been formed by some being. Who, then, made it except God, to whose power all things are subject? But he shrinks from admitting this, fearing the unknown truth. For, as he wished it to appear, it was by the inspiration of the Muses that he poured forth that song on Helicon; yet he had arrived there after previous meditation and preparation.

Maro Virgil was the first of our poets to approach the truth, who thus speaks respecting the highest God, whom he calls Mind and Spirit:¹—

"Know first, the heaven, the earth, the main,
The moon's pale orb, the starry train,
Are nourished by a Soul,
A Spirit, whose celestial flame
Glows in each member of the frame,
And stirs the mighty whole."

And lest anyone should happen to be ignorant of what that Spirit was which had so much power, he declared it elsewhere, saying:² "For the Deity pervades all lands, the tracts of sea and depth of heaven; the flocks, the herds, and men, and all the race of beasts, each at its birth, derive their slender lives from Him."

Ovid also, in the beginning of his remarkable work, without any disguising of the name, admits that the universe was arranged by God, whom he calls the Framer of the world, the Artificer of all things.³ But if either Orpheus or these poets of our country had always maintained what they perceived under the guidance of nature, they would have comprehended the truth and gained the same learning which we follow.⁴

But enough of the poets. Let us come to the philosophers, whose authority is of greater weight and whose judgment is more to be relied upon, because they are believed to have paid attention not to matters of fiction, but to the investigation of the truth. Thales of Miletus, who was one of the seven wise men and is said to have been the first to inquire into natural causes, said that water was the element from which all things were produced, and that God was the mind which formed all things from water. Thus, he placed the material of all things in moisture; he fixed the beginning and cause of their production in God. Pythagoras defined the being of God "as a soul passing to and fro, and diffused through all parts of the universe, and through all nature, from which all living creatures derive their life." Anaxagoras said that God was an infinite mind, which moves by its own power. Antisthenes maintained that the gods of the people were many, but that the God of nature was one only—the Fabricator of the whole universe. Cleanthes and Anaximenes assert that the air is the chief deity, and to this opinion our poet has assented:⁵ "Then almighty father Ether descends in fertile showers into the bosom of his joyous spouse; and great himself, mingling with her great body, nourishes all her offspring." Chrysippus speaks of God as a natural power endowed with divine reason, and sometimes as a divine necessity. Zeno also speaks of Him as a divine and natural law. The opinion of all these, however uncertain, has reference to one point—their agreement in the existence of one providence. For whether it be nature, or ether, or reason, or mind, or a fatal necessity, or a divine law, or whatever else you term it, it is the same that we call God. Nor does the diversity of titles prove an obstacle, since by their very meaning they all refer to one object. Aristotle, although he is at variance with himself, and utters sentiments opposed to one another, yet on the whole bears witness that one Mind presides over the universe. Plato, who is judged the wisest of all, plainly and openly maintains the rule of one God; he does not name Him Ether, or Reason, or Nature, but, as He truly is, God, and that this universe, so perfect and wonderful, was fabricated by Him. And Cicero, following and imitating him in many instances, frequently acknowledges God, and calls Him supreme, in those books which he wrote on the subject of laws.