Chap. VIII.—Of the Parts of Man: the Eyes and Ears.

Now I will show the plan of the whole man, and will explain the uses and habits of the several members which are exposed to view in the body, or concealed. When, therefore, God had determined of all the animals to make man alone heavenly, and all the rest earthly, He raised him erect45    Rigidum.   to the contemplation of the heaven, and made him a biped, doubtless that he might look to the same quarter from which he derives his origin; but He depressed the others to the earth, that, inasmuch as they have no expectation of immortality, being cast down with their whole body to the ground, they might be subservient to their appetite and food. And thus the right reason and elevated position of man alone, and his countenance, shared with and closely resembling God his Father, bespeak his origin and Maker.46    [An amusing persistency in the enforcement of this idea.]   His mind, nearly divine, because it has obtained the rule not only over the animals which are on the earth, but even over his own body, being situated in the highest part, the head, as in a lofty citadel, looks out upon and observes all things. He formed this its palace, not drawn out and extended, as in the case of the dumb animals, but like an orb and a globe, because all47    Omnis. Others read “orbis.”   roundness belongs to a perfect plan and figure. Therefore the mind and that divine fire is covered with it,48    i.e., the head.   as with a vault;49    Cœlo. Some believed that the soul was of fire.   and when He had covered its highest top with a natural garment, He alike furnished and adorned the front part which is called the face, with the necessary services of the members.  

And first, He closed the orbs of the eyes with concave apertures, from which boring50    Foratu, “the process of boring;” foramen, “the aperture thus made.”  Varro thought that the forehead51    Frontem.   derived its name; and He would have these to be neither less nor more than two, because no number is more perfect as to appearance than that of two: as also He made the ears two, the doubleness52    Duplicitas.   of which bears with it an incredible degree of beauty, both because each part is adorned with a resemblance, and that voices coming from both sides53    Altrinsecus.   may more easily be collected. For the form itself is fashioned after a wonderful manner: because He would not have their apertures to be naked and uncovered, which would have been less becoming and less useful; since the voice might fly beyond the narrow space of simple caverns, and be scattered, did not the apertures themselves confine it, received through hollow windings and kept back from reverberation, like those small vessels, by the application of which narrow-mouthed vessels are accustomed to be filled.  

These ears, then, which have their name from the drinking54    Hauriendis, from which “aures” is said to be formed.   in of voices, from which Virgil says,55    Æneid, iv. 359. [The English verb bother (= both ear) is an amusing comment on the adaptation of ears to unwelcome voices.]    

or because the Greeks call the voice itself αὐδήν, from hearing,—the ears (aures) were named as though audes by the change of a letter,—God would not form of soft skins, which, hanging down and flaccid, might take away beauty; nor of hard and solid bones, lest, being stiff and immoveable, they should be inconvenient for use. But He designed that which might be between these, that a softer cartilage might bind them, and that they might have at once a befitting and flexible firmness. In these the office of bearing only is placed, as that of seeing is in the eyes, the acuteness of which is especially inexplicable and wonderful; for He covered their orbs, presenting the similitude of gems in that part with which they had to see, with transparent membranes, that the images of objects placed opposite them, being refracted56    Refulgentes.   as in a mirror, might penetrate to the innermost perception. Through these membranes, therefore, that faculty which is called the mind sees those things which are without; lest you should happen to think that we see either by the striking57    Imaginum incursione.   of the images, as the philosophers discuss, since the office of seeing ought to be in that which sees, not in that which is seen; or in the tension of the air together with the eyesight; or in the outpouring of the rays: since, if it were so, we should see the ray towards which we turn with our eyes, until the air, being extended together with the eyesight, or the rays being poured out, should arrive at the object which was to be seen.  

But since we see at the same moment of time, and for the most part, while engaged on other business, we nevertheless behold all things which are placed opposite to us, it is more true and evident that it is the mind which, through the eyes, sees those things which are placed opposite to it, as though through windows covered with pellucid crystal or transparent stone;58    According to some, “talc.”   and therefore the mind and inclination are often known from the eyes. For the refutation of which Lucretius59    iii. 368.   employed a very senseless argument. For if the mind, he says, sees through the eye, it would see better if the eyes were torn out and dug up, inasmuch as doors being torn up together with the door-posts let in more light than if they were covered. Truly his eyes, or rather those of Epicurus who taught him, ought to have been dug out, that they might not see, that the torn-out orbs, and the burst fibres of the eyes, and the blood flowing through the veins, and the flesh increasing from wounds, and the scars drawn over at last can admit no light; unless by chance he would have it that eyes are produced resembling ears, so that we should see not so much with eyes as with apertures, than which there can be nothing more unsightly or more useless. For how little should we be able to see, if from the innermost recesses of the head the mind should pay attention through slight fissures of caverns; as, if any one should wish to look through a stalk of hemlock, he would see no more than the capability of the stalk itself admitted! For sight, therefore, it was rather needful that the members should be collected together into an orb, that the sight might be spread in breadth and the parts which adjoined them in the front of the face, that they might freely behold all things. Therefore the unspeakable power of the divine providence made two orbs most resembling each other, and so bound them together that they might be able not only to be altogether turned, but to be moved and directed with moderation.60    Cum modo: “in a measured degree.”   And He willed that the orbs themselves should be full of a pure and clear moisture, in the middle part of which sparks of lights might be kept shut up, which we call the pupils, in which, being pure and delicate, are contained the faculty and method of seeing. The mind therefore directs itself through these orbs that it may see, and the sight of both the eyes is mingled and joined together in a wonderful manner.  

0033B CAPUT VIII. De hominis partibus, oculis et auribus.

Nunc rationem totius hominis ostendam, singulorumque 0034A membrorum, quae in corpore aperta, aut operta sunt, utilitates et habitus explicabo. Cum igitur statuisset Deus ex omnibus animalibus solum hominem facere coelestem, caetera universa terrena, hunc ad coeli contemplationem rigidum erexit, bipedemque constituit, scilicet ut eodem spectaret, unde illi origo est; illa vero depressit ad terram, ut quia nulla his immortalitatis expectatio est, toto corpore in humum projecta ventri pabuloque servirent. Hominis itaque solius recta ratio, et sublimis status, et vultus Deo patri communis ac proximus, originem suam, fictoremque testatur. Ejus prope divina mens, quia non tantum animantium, quae sunt in terra, sed etiam sui corporis est sortita dominatum, in summo capite collocata, tanquam in arce sublimis speculatur omnia, et contuetur. Hanc ejus aulam, non obductam 0034B porrectamque formavit, ut in mutis animalibus, sed orbi et globo similem; quod omnis rotunditas perfectae rationis est, ac figurae. Eo igitur mens et ignis ille divinus tanquam coelo tegitur: cujus cum summum 0035A fastigium naturali veste texisset, priorem partem, quae dicitur facies, necessariis membrorum ministeriis et instruxit pariter et ornavit.

Ac primum, quod oculorum orbes concavis foraminibus conclusit, a quo foratu frontem nominatam Varro existimavit; et eos, neque minus, neque amplius, quam duos esse voluit, quod ad speciem nullus est perfectior numerus, quam duorum: sicut et aures duas, quarum duplicitas incredibile est quantam pulchritudinem praeferat, quod tum pars utraque similitudine ornata est, tum ut venientes altrinsecus voces facilius colligantur; nam et forma ipsa mirandum in modum ficta, quod earum foramina noluit esse nuda et inobsepta, quod et minus decorum et utile minus fuisset, quoniam simplicium 0035B cavernarum angustias praetervolare vox posset, nisi 0036A exceptam per cavos sinus, et repercussu retentam foramina ipsa cohiberent: illis similia vasculis, quibus impositis solent angusti oris vasa compleri.

Eas igitur aures (quibus est inditum nomen a vocibus hauriendis, unde Virgilius: . . . . . . Vocemque his auribus hausi;aut quia vocem ipsam Graeci αὐδὴν vocant, ab auditu, per immutationem litterae, aures velut audes sunt nominatae) noluit Deus artifex mollibus pelliculis informare, quae pulchritudinem demerent pendulae atque flaccentes, neque duris ac solidis ossibus, ne ad usum inhabiles essent immobiles ac rigentes: sed quod esset horum medium excogitavit, ut eas cartilago mollior alligaret, et haberent aptam simul et 0036B flexibilem firmitatem. In his audiendi tantum officium 0037A constitutum est, sicut in oculis videndi; quorum praecipue inexplicabilis est ac mira subtilitas, quia eorum orbes gemmarum similitudinem praeferentes, ab ea parte qua videndum fuit, membranis perlucentibus texit, ut imagines rerum contra positarum tanquam in speculo refulgentes, ad sensum intimum penetrarent. Per eas igitur membranas sensus ille, qui dicitur mens, ea quae sunt foris transpicit. Ne forte existimes, aut imaginum incursione nos cernere (ut philosophi dixerunt) quoniam videndi officium in eo debet esse quod videt, non in eo quod videtur: aut intentione aeris, cum acie aut effusione radiorum, quoniam, si ita esset, radium quem oculis advertimus, videremus, donec intentus aer cum acie, aut effusi radii ad id quod videndum esset 0037B pervenirent.

Cum autem videamus eodem momento temporis, plerumque vero aliud agentes, nihilominus tamen universa quae contra sunt posita intueamur, verius et 0038A manifestius est mentem esse, quae per oculos ea quae sunt opposita, transpiciat, quasi per fenestras lucente vitro, aut speculari lapide obductas. Et idcirco mens, et voluntas ex oculis saepe dignoscitur. Quod quidem ut refelleret Lucretius, ineptissimo usus est argumento. Si enim mens (inquit) per oculos videt, erutis et effossis oculis magis videret; quoniam evulsae cum postibus fores plus inferunt luminis, quam si fuerint obductae. Nimirum ipsi, vel potius Epicuro, qui eum docuit, effossi oculi erant, ne viderent, effossos orbes, et ruptas oculorum fibras, et fluentem per venas sanguinem, et crescentes ex vulneribus carnes, et obductas ad ultimum cicatrices nihil posse lucis admittere, nisi forte auribus oculos similes nasci volebat; ut non tam oculis, quam foraminibus 0038B cerneremus: quo nihil ad speciem foedius, ad usum inutilius fieri potest. Quantulum enim videre possemus, si mens ab intimis penetralibus capitis per exiguas cavernarum rimulas attenderet; ut 0039A si quis velit transpicere per cicutam, non plus profecto cernat, quam cicutae ipsius capacitas comprehendat. Itaque ad videndum membris potius in orbem conglobatis opus fuit, ut visus in latum spargeretur, et quae in primori facie adhaererent, ut libere possent omnia contueri. Ergo ineffabilis divinae providentiae virtus fecit duos simillimos orbes, eosque ita devinxit, ut non in totum converti, sed moveri tamen ac flecti cum modo possent. Orbes autem ipsos humoris puri ac liquidi plenos esse voluit, in quorum media parte scintillae luminum conclusae tenerentur, quas pupillas nuncupamus, in quibus puris ac subtilibus cernendi sensus ac ratio continetur, Per eos igitur orbes seipsam mens intendit ut videat, miraque ratione in unum miscetur et conjungitur 0039B amborum luminum visus.