Complete Works of Lactantius, Vol. I

they live as is fitting for the wise, and hide their vices under the pretense of the name, vices which they ought either to have cured, or to have avoided entirely, so that they might present the blessed and incorrupt name of wisdom with a life itself that agrees with its precepts. I, however, so that I may instruct ourselves and others at the same time, refuse no labor. For I cannot be unmindful of myself, especially at a time when there is the greatest need to remember; just as I hope and pray you are not unmindful of yourself. For although the necessity of public affairs may divert you from true and just works: yet it cannot happen that you do not look toward heaven from time to time.

A mind conscious of what is right. A line from Virgil's Aeneid.

I certainly rejoice that all things which are considered good are flowing prosperously for you; but only if they do not change the state of your mind. For I fear that gradually, the habit and pleasure of those things (as is wont to happen) may creep into your soul. And therefore I warn you,

And repeating it, I shall warn you again

that you should not believe that you possess those delights of the earth as great or true goods; for they are not only deceptive because they are uncertain, but also insidious because they are sweet. For that wrestler and our adversary, you know how cunning he is, and likewise violent, just as we see now. He holds all these things, which can entice, as snares,

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NOTES OF VARIOUS AUTHORS.

Illos [Those]. Missing in the Bov. manuscript, and quite fittingly so.

Sicut [Just as]. I restored this from the excellent Regio-Pat., Goth., Em., Merton., Christ., 2 Colb., Brun., Bov. manuscripts and the Graph. and Cellar. editions, with the approval of Walch. In eleven recent manuscripts and almost all printed copies, it was sic [so].

In. Missing in the Bov. manuscript, and correctly so.

Mens [A mind]. Virgil, Aeneid I, v. 608.

Prosperare fluere [To flow prosperously]. Thus in Cicero, Book I On Duties, concerning fortitude: And further, in prosperous matters which flow according to our will, let us greatly avoid pride, disdain, and arrogance.

Repat [May creep]. For irrepat [creep into], a simple verb for a compound one, which is familiar to Lactantius: therefore irrepat was substituted incorrectly in six recent manuscripts and was gradually intruded into five, and I have expunged it from the recent edition, as an unnecessary adverb, since paulatim [gradually] already preceded it, which means the same thing. In the Bov. manuscript, it reads manum tuam repat [may creep into your hand]: but that is an error. There, sensim [gradually] was also removed, and correctly so.

Et repetens iterumque iterumque monebo [And repeating it, I shall warn you again and again]. Lips. 2 and some editions, for example, Ven. 1493, 97: et repetens iterum iterumque moneo [I warn], in the present tense, as Cellarius wants. Parri., Ald., Crat., Fas., Gryph., Torn., Thomas., Thys., Gall.: Repetens iterumque monebo [Repeating it, I shall warn again]. Ven. 1471 and Rost. omit all of these. BUN.

Habere te credas [Believe that you possess]. Aptly from Seneca, ep. 8: Stand suspicious and fearful against every fortuitous good. Do you think they are gifts of fortune? They are snares. Buneman. — Habere te credas. Here Erasmus notes Lactantius with a censorious quill, as if he had spoken this harshly; in that habere te credas sounds the same as credere te credas [to believe that you believe]. But with the permission of such a great man, I think Lactantius uses the verb habere [to have/possess] in its common meaning, for possidere [to possess]. SPARKIUS.

Pedetentim [Step by step]. That is, cautiously. It was preceded by, Therefore the greatest prudence is. Donatus on Terence's Phormio III, 3, 19: Pedetentim, cautiously, from feet and testing. Cicero in Against Verres Act I, chapter 7: Step by step and cautiously; in For Cluentius, cautiously and step by step.

Procedere [To proceed]. Thus I have restored it from the best and oldest manuscripts of Bon. and Regio-Pat., Bov., and eleven others.

and indeed so subtle, that they escape the eyes of the mind, so that they cannot be avoided by human foresight. Therefore, the greatest prudence is to proceed step by step; since it lies in wait for your safety on both sides, and secretly places obstacles for your feet. Therefore, I advise that you either despise your prosperous affairs, in which you now act, according to your virtue, if you can, or that you do not admire them greatly. Remember also your true parent, and in what city you have given your name, and of what order you have been. You surely understand what I am saying. For I do not accuse you of pride, of which there is not even any suspicion in you: but these things that I say must be referred to the mind, not to the body, whose whole purpose is established so that it might serve the soul, as a master, and be ruled by its nod. The body is indeed a vessel, in a way made of clay, in which the soul, that is, the true man himself, is contained, and indeed not fashioned by Prometheus (as the poets speak), but by that supreme creator and artificer of all things, God; whose divine providence and most perfect virtue it is not possible to comprehend with the senses, nor to describe with words.

I shall try, however, since mention has been made of body and soul, to explain the nature of both, as far as the smallness of my intelligence perceives it. I think this duty should be undertaken for this reason, because Marcus Tullius, a man of singular talent, in his fourth book On the Republic

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In 2 recent ones and in the common ones, it is incedere [to walk]. In 4 recent manuscripts, ambulare [to walk]; in 2 other recent ones, the verb is missing.

Saluti insidet [It lies in wait for safety]. Thus the manuscripts 2 Bonon., Erasm., Em., and almost all editions read: which is a good reading, and pleases learned men. In 21 manuscripts and 2 editions, it is saltus insidet [it lies in wait in the woods]. In 4 Reg. and Bov. and the Graph. edition, saltus incidet [it will fall into the woods].

Offensacula [Obstacles]. Used for offensa [a stumbling block/offense]: here it is taken actively.

Latenter [Secretly]. A small word used by Cicero and Ovid. Appropriately, Cyprian in On the Unity of the Church, Oxford and Brem. edition, fol. 804: The enemy is to be feared and guarded against more when he creeps in secretly, when, deceiving through the image of peace, he creeps in by hidden paths... Such is always his cunning, such is the blind and dark deception of circumventing man. Thus from the beginning... he deceived naive souls with mendacious words through incautious credulity: thus he approached the Lord himself... secretly.

Prosperas [Prosperous]. I corrected this from 4 Oxford manuscripts and Bov. and the Crat., Graph., Gymnic., Tornes., and Walch editions. In 7 Reg., Clarom. and Brun., 4 Colb. and 7 editions, it is proprias [one's own]. See the following, but prospera res [a prosperous matter] is found in Cicero's Brutus 12.

In qua civitate nomen dederis [In what city you have given your name]. That is, in which you have been initiated by baptism. In the manuscripts 2 Bonon., 2 Reg. recent, Tax., 2 Colb. and Baluz., it is in quam civitatem [into which city].

Ratio ita comparata [The purpose thus established]. All editions read ideo comparata [established for that reason]. I wrote ita comparata from Goth. Heumann also conjectured this correctly. Regarding the matter, compare Book II, chapter 12; Book VI, chapter 1.

Vas est quidem corpus quodammodo, etc. [The body is indeed a vessel, in a way, etc.]. Thus the Bov. manuscripts, but others read Vas est enim quodammodo fictile [For the body is in a way a vessel of clay], but less well.

Fictum [Fashioned]. Bon., Tax., Bun., fictus [fashioned].

Pusillitas [Smallness]. A word not very common among approved authors.

De Republica libro [In his book On the Republic]. This book has been lost: which Cicero wrote in imitation of Plato. But Basil the Great and Ambrose in the Hexameron, and Theodoret of Cyrrhus in his treatises discuss the same subject as Lactantius.