Testimonia

{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p>However, any one who eagerly seeks for celebrity and renown,\r\nmight congratulate those select gods, and call them\r\nfortunate, were it not that he saw that they have been selected\r\nmore to their injury than to their honour. For that low\r\ncrowd of gods have been protected by their very meanness<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_265\">[Pg 265]</a></span>\r\nand obscurity from being overwhelmed with infamy. We\r\nlaugh, indeed, when we see them distributed by the mere\r\nfiction of human opinions, according to the special works\r\nassigned to them, like those who farm small portions of the\r\npublic revenue, or like workmen in the street of the silversmiths,<a id=\"FNanchor_254_254\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_254_254\">[254]</a>\r\nwhere one vessel, in order that it may go out perfect,\r\npasses through the hands of many, when it might have been\r\nfinished by one perfect workman. But the only reason why\r\nthe combined skill of many workmen was thought necessary,\r\nwas, that it is better that each part of an art should be learned\r\nby a special workman, which can be done speedily and easily,\r\nthan that they should all be compelled to be perfect in one\r\nart throughout all its parts, which they could only attain\r\nslowly and with difficulty. Nevertheless there is scarcely to\r\nbe found one of the non-select gods who has brought infamy\r\non himself by any crime, whilst there is scarce any one of the\r\nselect gods who has not received upon himself the brand of\r\nnotable infamy. These latter have descended to the humble\r\nworks of the others, whilst the others have not come up to\r\ntheir sublime crimes. Concerning Janus, there does not\r\nreadily occur to my recollection anything infamous; and\r\nperhaps he was such an one as lived more innocently than\r\nthe rest, and further removed from misdeeds and crimes. He\r\nkindly received and entertained Saturn when he was fleeing;\r\nhe divided his kingdom with his guest, so that each of them\r\nhad a city for himself,<a id=\"FNanchor_255_255\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_255_255\">[255]</a>—the one Janiculum, and the other\r\nSaturnia. But those seekers after every kind of unseemliness\r\nin the worship of the gods have disgraced him, whose life they\r\nfound to be less disgraceful than that of the other gods, with an\r\nimage of monstrous deformity, making it sometimes with two\r\nfaces, and sometimes, as it were, double, with four faces.<a id=\"FNanchor_256_256\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_256_256\">[256]</a> Did\r\nthey wish that, as the most of the select gods had lost shame<a id=\"FNanchor_257_257\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_257_257\">[257]</a>\r\nthrough the perpetration of shameful crimes, his greater innocence\r\nshould be marked by a greater number of faces?<a id=\"FNanchor_258_258\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_258_258\">[258]</a></p>","headings":["THE WORKS OF AURELIUS AUGUSTINE,","BOOK SEVENTH.","ARGUMENT."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg45304-paragraph-478"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"6e5b04c138fb33e0205231647f823b03cfc4eebe9faa2f7cd7f61313d4f85482","edition_title":"The City of God, Volume I","edition_translators":["Marcus Dods","George Wilson (Book IV)","J. J. Smith (Books V-VIII)"],"edition_year":1871,"explicit_reference_candidates":[],"headings":[],"id":"pg45304-Footnote_255_255","license_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html","public_import_allowed":false,"record_kind":"original-editor-translator-note","review_required":["work and recension attribution","original-work chronology","Bible reference numbering and citation kind","English edition rights and attribution"],"review_status":"needs_review","rights_evidence":"Provider catalog reports public domain in the USA. Original transcription title leaves state T. & T. Clark, Edinburgh, 1871; printed translator allocation retained. Gutenberg credits Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries without an exact scan identifier. Full provider license preserved with acquired original; republication and per-work metadata remain unreviewed.","source_anchor":"Footnote_255_255","source_ebook":45304,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\">\n<p><a id=\"Footnote_255_255\"></a><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#FNanchor_255_255\"><span class=\"label\">[255]</span></a> Virgil, <i>Æneid</i>, viii. 357, 358.</p></div>","source_sha256":"d89e9a2b80bb59f394f0fb1bf313b39fab162f06af6642166d62c5912c1195f1","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/45304/pg45304-images.html#Footnote_255_255","text_sha256":"782afc6fa8fd83571977efbd0263113666392eba97656c950823c2e8e332e985","verified":false,"work_id":null}

references: [] | work_id: | origin: existing-private-derived-record | source: https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/45304/pg45304-images.html#Footnote_255_255