45. But let this monstrous
and impious fancy be put
3718
far
from us
, that Almighty
God, the creator and framer, the author
3719
of things great and invisible, should
be believed to have begotten souls so fickle, with no seriousness,
firmness, and steadiness, prone to vice, inclining to all kinds of
sins; and while He knew that they were such and of this character, to
have bid
3720
them enter into
bodies, imprisoned in which,
3721
they should live exposed to the storms
and tempests of fortune every day, and now do mean things, now submit
to lewd treatment; that they might perish by shipwreck, accidents,
destructive conflagrations; that poverty might oppress some, beggary,
others; that some might be torn in pieces by wild beasts, others perish
by the venom of flies;
3722
that some might limp in walking,
others lose their sight, others be stiff with cramped
3723
joints; in fine, that they should be
exposed to all the diseases which the wretched and pitiable human race
endures with agony caused by
3724
different sufferings; then that,
forgetting that they have one origin, one father and head, they should
shake to their foundations and violate the rights of kinship, should
overthrow their cities, lay waste their lands as enemies, enslave the
free, do violence to maidens and to other men’s wives, hate each
other, envy the joys and good fortune of others; and further, all
malign, carp at, and tear each other to pieces with fiercely biting
teeth.
3718
Lit., “go.”
3719
By
Hildebrand and Oehler,
procreator
is with reason regarded as a
gloss.
3720
The
ms.
, both Roman edd., and Hildebrand
read
jussisset
; but this would throw the sentence into
confusion, and the other edd. therefore drop
t.
3721
LB., Hildebrand, and Oehler read
quorum indu-c-tæ
carceribus
—“led into the prisons of which,” all
other edd. omitting
c
as above. According to Oehler,
the
ms.
has the former reading.
3722
The
ms.
and both Roman edd. read
in-f-ernarum paterentut aliæ laniatus muscularum
, which has
no meaning, and is little improved by Galenius changing
ut
into
ur
, as no one knows what “infernal flies” are.
LB. and Orelli, adopting a reading in the margin of Ursinus, change
intern.
into
ferarum
, and join
musc.
with the
words which follow as above. Another reading, also suggested by
Ursinus, seems preferable, however,
internorum…musculorum
—“suffer rendings (i.e.,
spasms) of the inner muscles.”
3723
Lit., “bound.”
3724
Lit., “dilaceration of.”