Testimonia

{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p>But let us hear their own physical interpretations by which\r\nthey attempt to colour, as with the appearance of profounder\r\ndoctrine, the baseness of most miserable error. Varro, in the\r\nfirst place, commends these interpretations so strongly as to say,\r\nthat the ancients invented the images, badges, and adornments\r\nof the gods, in order that when those who went to the mysteries\r\nshould see them with their bodily eyes, they might with the eyes\r\nof their mind see the soul of the world, and its parts, that is,\r\nthe true gods; and also that the meaning which was intended\r\nby those who made their images with the human form, seemed\r\nto be this,—namely, that the mind of mortals, which is in a\r\nhuman body, is very like to the immortal mind,<a id=\"FNanchor_259_259\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_259_259\">[259]</a> just as vessels\r\nmight be placed to represent the gods, as, for instance, a wine-vessel\r\nmight be placed in the temple of Liber, to signify wine,\r\nthat which is contained being signified by that which contains.\r\nThus by an image which had the human form the rational\r\nsoul was signified, because the human form is the vessel, as it\r\nwere, in which that nature is wont to be contained which they\r\nattribute to God, or to the gods. These are the mysteries of\r\ndoctrine to which that most learned man penetrated in order\r\nthat he might bring them forth to the light. But, O thou\r\nmost acute man, hast thou lost among those mysteries that\r\nprudence which led thee to form the sober opinion, that those\r\nwho first established those images for the people took away\r\nfear from the citizens and added error, and that the ancient\r\nRomans honoured the gods more chastely without images?\r\nFor it was through consideration of them that thou wast\r\nemboldened to speak these things against the later Romans.\r\nFor if those most ancient Romans also had worshipped images,\r\nperhaps thou wouldst have suppressed by the silence of fear\r\nall those sentiments (true sentiments, nevertheless) concerning\r\nthe folly of setting up images, and wouldst have extolled more\r\nloftily, and more loquaciously, those mysterious doctrines consisting\r\nof these vain and pernicious fictions. Thy soul, so\r\nlearned and so clever (and for this I grieve much for thee),\r\ncould never through these mysteries have reached its God; that<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_267\">[Pg 267]</a></span>\r\nis, the God by whom, not with whom, it was made, of whom\r\nit is not a part, but a work,—that God who is not the soul of\r\nall things, but who made every soul, and in whose light alone\r\nevery soul is blessed, if it be not ungrateful for His grace.</p>","headings":["THE WORKS OF AURELIUS AUGUSTINE,","BOOK SEVENTH.","ARGUMENT."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg45304-paragraph-480"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"c4136d54df524f6ebf49ebff9731225aa2e4ab410121904591990229fbf3d16e","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_259_259","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_259_259","source_ebook":45304,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\">\n<p><a id=\"Footnote_259_259\"></a><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#FNanchor_259_259\"><span class=\"label\">[259]</span></a> Cicero, <i>Tusc. Quæst.</i> v. 13.</p></div>","source_sha256":"d89e9a2b80bb59f394f0fb1bf313b39fab162f06af6642166d62c5912c1195f1","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/45304/pg45304-images.html#Footnote_259_259","text_sha256":"0916261a01b385b52531ed80dab8b7282e2d2cad8f888511bfc94dca772dbf4b","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_259_259