Chap. I.—The Introduction, and Exhortation to Demetrianus.1    [Of whom, infra.]  

How disturbed I am, and in the greatest necessities, you will be able to judge from this little book which I have written to you, Demetrianus, almost in unadorned words, as the mediocrity of my talent permitted, that you might know my daily pursuit, and that I might not be wanting to you, even now an instructor, but of a more honourable subject and of a better system. For if you afforded yourself a ready hearer in literature, which did nothing else than form the style, how much more teachable ought you to be in these true studies, which have reference even to the life! And I now profess to you, that I am hindered by no necessity of circumstance or time from composing something by which the philosophers of our sect2    [Nostræ sectæ. Perhaps adopted pleasantly from Acts xxviii. 22.] i.e., Christians.   which we uphold may become better instructed and more learned for the future, although they now have a bad reputation, and are commonly reproved, as living otherwise than is befitting for wise men, and as concealing their vices under the covering of a name; whereas they ought either to have remedied them, or to have altogether avoided them, that they might render the name of wisdom happy and uncorrupted, their life itself agreeing with their precepts. I, however, shrink from no labour that I may at once instruct ourselves and others. For I am not able to forget myself, and especially at that time when it is most necessary for me to remember; as also you do not forget yourself, as I hope and wish. For although the necessity of the state may turn you aside from true and just works, yet it is impossible that a mind conscious of rectitude should not from time to time look to the heaven.  

I indeed rejoice that all things which are esteemed blessings turn out prosperously to you, but only on condition of their changing nothing of your state of mind. For I fear lest custom and the pleasantness of these subjects should, as usually happens, creep by degrees into your mind. Therefore I advise you,  

not to believe that you have these enjoyments of the earth as great or true blessings, since they are not only deceitful because they are doubtful, but also treacherous because they are pleasant. For you know how crafty that wrestler and adversary of ours is, and also often violent, as we now see that he is. He employs all these things which are able to entice as snares, and with such subtilty that they escape the notice of the eyes of the mind, so that they cannot be avoided by the foresight of man. Therefore it is the highest prudence to advance step by step, since he occupies the passes on both sides, and secretly places stumbling-blocks for our feet. Accordingly I advise you, either to disregard, if you are able according to your virtue, your prosperity in which you live, or not to admire it greatly. Remember your true parent, and in what4    i.e., have been initiated by baptism. [Philipp. iii. 20. Greek.]   city you have given your name, and of what rank you have been. You understand assuredly what I say. For I do not charge you with pride, of which there is not even a suspicion in your case; but the things which I say are to be referred to the mind, not to the body, the whole system of which has been arranged on this account, that it may be in subjection to the soul as to a master, and may be ruled by its will. For it is in a certain manner an earthen vessel in which the soul, that is, the true man himself, is contained, and that vessel indeed not made by Prometheus, as the poets say, but by that supreme Creator and Artificer of the world, God, whose divine providence and most perfect excellence it is neither possible to comprehend by the perception, nor to express in word.  

I will attempt, however, since mention has been made of the body and soul, to explain the nature of each, as far as the weakness of my understanding sees through; and I think that this duty is especially to be undertaken on this account, because Marcus Tullius, a man of remarkable talent, in his fourth book on the Republic, when he had attempted to do this, concluded a subject of wide extent within narrow limits, lightly selecting the chief points. And that there might be no excuse, because he had not followed up this subject, he testified that neither inclination nor attention had been wanting to him. For in his first book concerning the Laws, when he was concisely summing up the same subject, he thus spoke: “Scipio, as it appears to me, has sufficiently expressed this subject in those books which you have read.” Afterwards, however, in his second book concerning the Nature of the Gods, he endeavoured to follow up the same subject more extensively. But since he did not express it sufficiently even there, I will approach this office, and will take upon myself boldly to explain that which a man of the greatest eloquence has almost left untouched. Perhaps you may blame me for attempting to discuss something in matters of obscurity, when you see that there have been men of such rashness who are commonly called philosophers, that they scrutinized those things which God willed to be abstruse and hidden, and investigated the nature of things in heaven and on earth, which are far removed from us, and cannot be examined5    Contrectari.   by the eyes, nor touched by the hand, nor perceived by the senses; and yet they so dispute concerning the nature of these things, as to wish that the things which they bring forward may appear to be proved and known. What reason is there, I pray, why any one should think it an invidious thing in us, if we wish to look into and contemplate the system of our body,6    [The argument from design is unanswerable, and can never be obsolete. The objections are frivolous, and belong to Cicero’s “minute philosophers.”] Of whom, see Tuscal. Quæst., book i. cap. 23.]   which is not altogether obscure, because from the very offices of the limbs, and the uses of the several parts, it is permitted us to understand with what great power of providence each part has been made?  

0009A CAPUT PRIMUM. Prooemium et adhortatio ad Demetrianum.

Quam minime sim quietus et in summis necessitatibus, ex hoc libello poteris existimare; quem ad te rudibus pene verbis, prout ingenii mediocritas tulit, Demetriane, perscripsi, ut quotidianum studium meum et nosses, et non deessem tibi, praeceptor etiamnunc, sed honestioris rei meliorisque 0010A doctrinae. Nam si te in litteris, nihil aliud quam linguam instruentibus, auditorem satis strenuum praebuisti: quanto magis in his veris, et ad vitam pertinentibus, docilior esse debebis? Apud quem nunc profiteor, nulla me necessitate vel rei, vel temporis impediri, quominus aliquid excudam, quo philosophi nostrae sectae, quam tuemur, instructiores doctioresque in posterum fiant; quamvis nunc male audiant, castigenturque vulgo, quod aliter 0011A quam sapientibus convenit vivant, et vitia sub obtentu nominis celent, quibus illos aut mederi oportuit, aut ea prorsus effugere, ut beatum atque incorruptum sapientiae nomen vita ipsa cum praeceptis congruente praestarent. Ego tamen, ut nos ipsos simul et caeteros instruam, nullum laborem recuso. Neque enim possum oblivisci mei, tum praesertim, cum maxime opus sit meminisse; sicut ne tu quidem tui, ut spero, et opto. Nam licet te publicae rei necessitas a veris et justis operibus avertat: tamen fieri non potest, quin subinde in coelum aspiciat. Mens sibi conscia recti.

Ego quidem laetor omnia tibi, quae pro bonis habentur, prospere fluere; sed ita, si nihil de statu mentis immutent. Vereor enim ne paulatim consuetudo, 0011B et jucunditas earum rerum (sicut fieri solet) in animum tuum repat. Ideoque te moneo, Et repetens iterumque monebone oblectamenta ista terrae, pro magnis aut veris bonis habere te credas; quae sunt non tantum fallacia, quia dubia, verum etiam insidiosa, quia dulcia. Nam ille colluctator et adversarius noster scis quam sit astutus, et idem ipse violentus, sicuti nunc videmus. Is haec omnia, quae illicere possunt, pro laqueis habet, 0012A et quidem tam subtilibus, ut oculos mentis effugiant, ne possint hominis provisione vitari. Summa ergo prudentia est, pedetentim procedere; quoniam utrobique saluti insidet, et offensacula pedibus latenter opponit. Itaque res tuas prosperas, in quibus nunc agis, suadeo ut pro tua virtute aut contemnas, si potes, aut non magnopere mireris. Memento et veri parentis tui, et in qua civitate nomen dederis, et cujus ordinis fueris. Intelligis profecto quid loquar. Nec enim te superbiae arguo, cujus in te ne suspicio quidem ulla est: sed ea quae dico, ad mentem referenda sunt, non ad corpus, cujus omnis ratio ideo comparata est, ut animo tanquam domino serviat, et regatur nutu ejus. Vas est quidem corpus quodammodo fictile, quo animus, id est homo ipse verus continetur, 0012B et quidem non a Prometheo fictum (ut poetae loquuntur), sed a summo illo rerum conditore atque artifice Deo; cujus divinam providentiam perfectissimamque virtutem, nec sensu comprehendere, nec verbo enarrare possibile est.

Tentabo tamen, quoniam corporis et animi facta mentio est, utriusque rationem, quantum pusillitas intelligentiae meae pervidet, explicare. Quod officium hac de causa maxime suscipiendum puto, quod M. Tullius, vir ingenii singularis, in quarto de Republica 0013A libro, cum id facere tentasset, nihil prorsus effecit; nam materiam late patentem angustis finibus terminavit, leviter summa quaeque decerpens. Ac ne ulla esset excusatio, cur eum locum non fuerit executus, ipse testatus est, nec voluntatem sibi defuisse, nec curam. In libro enim de Legibus primo, cum hoc idem summatim stringeret, sic ait: Hunc locum satis (ut mihi videtur) in iis libris, quos legistis, expressit Scipio. Postea tamen in libro de Natura deorum secundo, hoc idem latius exequi conatus est. Sed quoniam ne ibi quidem satis expressit, aggrediar hoc munus et sumam mihi audacter explicandum, quod homo disertissimus pene omisit intactum. Forsitan reprehendas, quod in rebus obscuris coner aliquid disputare; cum videas tanta temeritate homines extitisse, 0013B qui vulgo philosophi nominantur, ut ea, quae abstrusa prorsus atque abdita Deus esse voluit, scrutarentur, ac naturam rerum coelestium terrenarumque conquirerent, quae a nobis longe remotae, neque oculis contrectari, neque tangi manu, neque percipi sensibus possunt: et tamen de illarum omnium ratione sic disputant, ut ea, quae afferunt, probata et cognita videri velint. Quid est tandem, cur nobis invidiosum quisquam putet, si rationem corporis nostri dispicere et contemplari velimus? Quae plane obscura 0014A non est; quia ex ipsis membrorum officiis, et usibus partium singularum, quanta vi providentiae quidque factum sit, intelligere nobis licet.