Complete Works of Lactantius, Vol. I

summit he had covered with a natural garment, he both equipped and adorned the front part, which is called the face, with the necessary ministries of the limbs.

And first, that He enclosed the orbs of the eyes in concave holes, from which drilling Varro thought the forehead original: "frons" was named; and He wished them to be neither less nor more than two, because for appearance no number is more perfect than two: just as also two ears, the doubleness of which it is incredible how much beauty it carries, because each part is adorned with resemblance, and because sounds coming from opposite directions are gathered more easily; for the shape itself is fashioned in a wonderful way, because He did not wish their openings to be naked and unobstructed, which would have been less becoming and less useful, since a sound could fly past the narrowness of simple caverns, unless

VARIOUS NOTES.

Hipparchus and Heraclitus, from fire; Hippon and Thales, from water, etc. Cicero, Tusculans, book 1: To Zeno the Stoic, the soul seems to be fire. And On the Nature of the Gods, book III: The Stoics refer all things to an igneous nature, following Heraclitus, I think. Thus also Ennius in Epicharmus, cited by Priscian, book VI, prologue:

The body is earth; but the fire is of the mind.

Virgil, Aeneid, book VI:

A fiery vigor is in them, and a heavenly origin.

Hence also that delirium, concerning which Servius on book I of the Aeneid. It is grave to die by shipwreck, because the soul is fiery. GATAKER. — Hence the ancients said to be extinguished for to die, and with the heat extinguished, we ourselves die, says Cicero, On the Nature of the Gods, book II, chapter 9.

And equipped equally, etc. Thus all. See the note on book IV of the Institutes, chapter 1. Here I add Ovid, book IV, Tristia 2, 15:

And mothers alike, and those who without crime
Preserve chaste hearths in perpetual virginity.

Sulpicius Severus, Life of Martin, chapter 9: And the enemy was shown and destroyed alike. BUN.

Because. Rejected by Heumann according to the editions of 1472, 1478, 1497, 1513.

Enclosed. 1 Bologna manuscript ancient and Sangerm. read included.

From which drilling. Thus manuscripts and editions. I would prefer to read with Francius, From whose drilling.

Doubleness. Again chapter 10: By doubleness. Walchius says, who, besides Lactantius, has placed this word, I do not know. I myself have read it in Tertullian, book 5 against Marcion, chapter 11: When their doubleness intervenes. BUN.

Carries beauty. That is, carries before itself, which is in many vulgate editions; however, in all manuscripts and older editions it is carries, as in Pliny, book 1, epistle 22: who carry the study of wisdom before them in the habit of the body. FROM CELLARIUS.

He did not wish to be naked. Thus read Janus, Guillelmus, and Isaeus. 2 rec. manuscripts with the Roman and Paris editions read he wished, erroneously. In the others, he did not wish.

Unobstructed. Reimmann, wrongly, inobcepta. Ven. 1497, inobsepta. This adjective inobseptus has not yet been observed from others. BUN.

A sound could fly past the narrowness. 2 Royal, 3 Colbertine, Baluze manuscripts and many editions add and be scattered, which words I have deleted as useless and corrupting the sense. They are absent from the other manuscripts and old ROMAN editions.

Caught. Thus I restored from 2 Bologna, 2 Royal, Tax, and Baluze manuscripts, favored by 1 Colbertine and 1 Clermont in the margin, in which it is inexceptam mistakenly written; in 1 Col-

A caught through the hollow bays, and retarded by the repercussion, the openings themselves might restrain it: similar to those vessels by which, when placed, vessels of narrow mouth are wont to be filled.

Therefore, those ears (to which the name was given from the drawing in of sounds, whence Virgil:

...... And I drew in the sound with these ears;)

or because the Greeks call the sound itself αὐδὴν voice/sound, from ear original: "aure", by the mutation of a letter, ears were named as if audes hearings) God the Artificer did not wish to form with soft skins, which would take away from beauty by themselves and hang limp, nor with hard and solid bones, which, useless for utility, would be immobile and rigid: but He devised a middle way for these, that a softer cartilage might bind them, and they might have a flexible firmness B suitable for them. In these, only the hearing