Complete Works of Lactantius, Vol. I (1844) - Page 15

But if any animals yield in prey to larger ones, lest their stock perish entirely, they are either relegated to a region where larger ones cannot exist; or they have received a rich fertility of generating, so that the sustenance for those beasts which are nourished by blood might be supplied from them, and the multitude itself might overcome the slaughter inflicted, for the preservation of the race. But man, with reason granted, and the power of sensing and speaking given, He made exempt from those things which were attributed to other animals, because wisdom could restore what the condition of nature had denied to him; He established him naked and unarmed, because he could both be armed by talent and clothed by reason. But those very things, which were given to the mute animals and denied to man, how wonderfully they contribute to beauty for man, cannot be expressed. For if He had added to man bestial teeth, or horns, or claws, or hooves, or a tail, or fur of various colors; who would not feel how shameful an animal he would be, just as the mute ones would be, if they were fashioned naked and unarmed? If you were to take away from them either the natural clothing of their body or those things by which they are armed from themselves, they could neither be beautiful nor safe; so that, if you consider their utility, they seem wonderfully instructed, and if you consider their appearance, they seem adorned: in such a marvelous way does utility agree with beauty.

But man, whom He was fashioning as an eternal and immortal animal, He armed not from the outside, like the rest, but from the inside; and He did not place his defense in his body,

NOTES OF VARIOUS AUTHORS.

Brun., and Bov. In the recent 3 Reg., 2 Colb., and in the printed ones, however, it is to sustain the force of frosts and colds. But in Cicero it is the force of cold.

C They are relegated to that region. Thus many manuscripts and editions. And thus elsewhere Lactantius uses the sixth case for the fourth, and vice versa. Some have bound to a region; some bound to a religion, like the Bov. manuscript, but wrongly. — They are relegated into that region. Erasmus in the Frob. edition of 1529, Gymn., Torn., Betul., Paris., 1561: They are relegated into that region. Rost. erroneously: left behind. Goth., Lips., Reimmann., 1465-1524, Thomasius and those following: They are relegated to that region. Relegare means to banish, to remove, to segregate. It is more often joined with the dative. Thus from Virgil, Læt. book 1, ch. 17:

The kindly one recondites in secret
Seats, and relegates to the grove of the nymph Egeria, etc.
BUN.

If in man. Thus I restored it from the very old and best manuscripts 2 Bonon., Reg.-Put., and others 2 Reg., Tax., 2 Colb., Baluz. In eleven recent ones and in the printed editions it is, if to man.

Who would not feel. Thus I restored it from all manuscripts and old editions. Rom., Gymnic., Graph. In eleven recent editions it is read, he feels. The former Lactantian reading is correct.

Whom. It must be rewritten thus, as Heumann testifies from the editions of 1472, 1478, 1513, and 1515; in others since (quoniam) is read, which seems less good.

Of the philosophers. Namely of Leucippus and Democritus, whom Epicurus followed, and Lucretius who followed Epicurus.

Insecable, etc. Namely, the atoms.

Born and have been born. Thus, and most excellently, the Bov. manuscripts and the editions of 1472, 1476, 1478.

Which pertain to the world itself. Thus with almost all editions, manuscripts 2 Bonon., Regio-Put., Tax., Ultr., Em., Clarom. from the first hand. But Erasmus, in a manuscript codex seen by himself, reads pertaining to the world itself, with which deleted. But in six Colbertines, Marm.,

A but in his mind: since it was superfluous, when He had bestowed upon him that which was greatest, to cover him with bodily defenses; especially since they would hinder the beauty of the human body. Whence I am wont to wonder at the madness of the philosophers who follow Epicurus, who criticize the works of nature so that they may show that the world is governed and instructed by no providence; but they assign the origin of things to insecable indivisible/atomic and solid bodies, from whose fortuitous collisions all things are born and have been born. Furthermore, what they find fault with pertaining to the world itself, that is where they are ridiculously insane; I take what pertains to the matter of which we are now treating.

CHAPTER III.

On the condition of beasts and man.

B They complain that man is born too imbecile and fragile compared to how other animals are born; which, as they emerge from the womb, immediately stand up on their feet and revel in running, and are immediately fit for enduring the air, because they have come forth into the light protected by natural coverings: but man, on the contrary, is naked and unarmed, as if cast out from a shipwreck into the miseries of this life; who can neither move himself from the place where he has been poured forth, nor seek the nourishment of milk, nor endure the injury of the weather; and so they say that nature is not the mother of the human race, but a stepmother, who with evils—

Brun., and in three printed editions, pertaining to is missing.

They complain that man is born too imbecile and fragile. Namely Lucretius V, near the beginning, Pliny preface VII, though undeservedly and foolishly, as Aristotle says, IV on parts, ch. 10, Seneca IV on Benefits, ch. 18, Galen I, ch. 2 and following, Plutarch on Fortune, Basil Homily 10 of the Hexameron, Gregory of Nyssa on the Making of Man. Is.

Too imbecile... compared to other animals. That is, compared to other animals, an unusual form of speaking which you will hardly find in any author. — Born too imbecile..., than. Sparkius also calls this form of speaking unusual. Reiherus the same in his Theatre of Plautus, too much than I desire, posits it as more than I desire; but it signifies rather exceedingly. More also on the formula too much than by Gronovius on Gellius book V, chapter 14, page 328 and Heumann on Quintilian book IV Institutes, chapter 2, page.
BUN.

D As they are brought forth... immediately. Elegantly as... immediately just as in Cicero, Caesar, and Livy: as... instantly; as... straightaway; as... continuously; as... at once; as... suddenly. See Tursell. on the particles, 2nd ed., Schwartz, p. 1099; foll. BUN.

Immediately... fit to be, because. Subl., Rost., V 1471, 72, both 78-1515, Paris., Crat., Frob., Gymn.: immediately... fit to be, than. Again, for he says, Erasmus, he used this word immediately than for as soon as. They would not scorn it, although the little word used by Erasmus, mindful, our author says in book VII of the Institutes, chapter 5: not immediately, than they were born.
BUN.

Man, on the contrary, naked, etc. Tertullian on the Flesh of Christ: You shudder surely at an infant poured forth with its own rudiments and covered in filth. Seneca to Marcia: What is man? An imbecile and fragile body, and by its own nature unarmed. PRI...

Where he has been poured forth. Birth is elegantly called "being poured forth." Book III Inst., ch. 19: the place, in which he was poured forth from the womb.