Testimonia

{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p>Cicero says that the famous physician Hippocrates has left\r\nin writing that he had suspected that a certain pair of brothers\r\nwere twins, from the fact that they both took ill at once, and\r\ntheir disease advanced to its crisis and subsided in the same\r\ntime in each of them.<a id=\"FNanchor_185_185\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_185_185\">[185]</a> Posidonius the Stoic, who was much\r\ngiven to astrology, used to explain the fact by supposing that\r\nthey had been born and conceived under the same constellation.\r\nIn this question the conjecture of the physician is by<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_180\">[Pg 180]</a></span>\r\nfar more worthy to be accepted, and approaches much nearer\r\nto credibility, since, according as the parents were affected in\r\nbody at the time of copulation, so might the first elements of\r\nthe fœtuses have been affected, so that all that was necessary\r\nfor their growth and development up till birth having been\r\nsupplied from the body of the same mother, they might be\r\nborn with like constitutions. Thereafter, nourished in the\r\nsame house, on the same kinds of food, where they would have\r\nalso the same kinds of air, the same locality, the same quality\r\nof water,—which, according to the testimony of medical science,\r\nhave a very great influence, good or bad, on the condition of\r\nbodily health,—and where they would also be accustomed to\r\nthe same kinds of exercise, they would have bodily constitutions\r\nso similar that they would be similarly affected with sickness\r\nat the same time and by the same causes. But, to wish\r\nto adduce that particular position of the stars which existed\r\nat the time when they were born or conceived as the cause of\r\ntheir being simultaneously affected with sickness, manifests the\r\ngreatest arrogance, when so many beings of most diverse kinds,\r\nin the most diverse conditions, and subject to the most diverse\r\nevents, may have been conceived and born at the same time,\r\nand in the same district, lying under the same sky. But we\r\nknow that twins do not only act differently, and travel to very\r\ndifferent places, but that they also suffer from different kinds\r\nof sickness; for which Hippocrates would give what is in my\r\nopinion the simplest reason, namely, that, through diversity\r\nof food and exercise, which arises not from the constitution of\r\nthe body, but from the inclination of the mind, they may have\r\ncome to be different from each other in respect of health.\r\nMoreover, Posidonius, or any other asserter of the fatal influence\r\nof the stars, will have enough to do to find anything\r\nto say to this, if he be unwilling to impose upon the minds of\r\nthe uninstructed in things of which they are ignorant. But,\r\nas to what they attempt to make out from that very small\r\ninterval of time elapsing between the births of twins, on account\r\nof that point in the heavens where the mark of the\r\nnatal hour is placed, and which they call the \"horoscope,\" it\r\nis either disproportionately small to the diversity which is\r\nfound in the dispositions, actions, habits, and fortunes of twins,<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_181\">[Pg 181]</a></span>\r\nor it is disproportionately great when compared with the estate\r\nof twins, whether low or high, which is the same for both of\r\nthem, the cause for whose greatest difference they place, in\r\nevery case, in the hour on which one is born; and, for this\r\nreason, if the one is born so immediately after the other that\r\nthere is no change in the horoscope, I demand an entire similarity\r\nin all that respects them both, which can never be found\r\nin the case of any twins. But if the slowness of the birth of\r\nthe second give time for a change in the horoscope, I demand\r\ndifferent parents, which twins can never have.</p>","headings":["THE WORKS OF AURELIUS AUGUSTINE,","BOOK FIFTH.","ARGUMENT."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg45304-paragraph-349"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"d2b7368728e608184846558a2d2b61c96d0ff402c6faffdc35fbd52cab8c89ed","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_185_185","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_185_185","source_ebook":45304,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\">\n<p><a id=\"Footnote_185_185\"></a><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#FNanchor_185_185\"><span class=\"label\">[185]</span></a> This fact is not recorded in any of the extant works of Hippocrates or Cicero.\r\nVives supposes it may have found place in Cicero's book, <i>De Fato</i>.</p></div>","source_sha256":"d89e9a2b80bb59f394f0fb1bf313b39fab162f06af6642166d62c5912c1195f1","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/45304/pg45304-images.html#Footnote_185_185","text_sha256":"773ae579ddfda890f6766479cfa80b3d19579281a9648b68a87b8d790f08cafb","verified":false,"work_id":null}

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