Testimonia

{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p class=\"c006\">7. If there are any now who think that the mind itself\r\nand the soul is a body, I wish they would tell me by way of\r\nanswer how it receives reasons and assertions on subjects\r\nof such importance—of such difficulty and such subtlety?\r\nWhence does it derive the power of memory? and whence\r\ncomes the contemplation of invisible<a id=\"r33\"></a><a class=\"c007 pginternal\" href=\"#f33\"><sup>[33]</sup></a> things? How does the\r\nbody possess the faculty of understanding incorporeal existences?\r\nHow does a bodily nature investigate the processes\r\nof the various arts, and contemplate the reasons of things?\r\nHow, also, is it able to perceive and understand divine truths,\r\nwhich are manifestly incorporeal? Unless, indeed, some\r\nshould happen to be of opinion, that as the very bodily shape\r\nand form of the ears or eyes contributes something to hearing\r\nand to sight, and as the individual members, formed by God,\r\nhave some adaptation, even from the very quality of their\r\n<span class=\"pageno\" id=\"Page_15\">15</span>form, to the end for which they were naturally appointed;\r\nso also he may think that the shape of the soul or mind is to\r\nbe understood as if created purposely and designedly for perceiving\r\nand understanding individual things, and for being\r\nset in motion by vital movements. I do not perceive, however,\r\nwho shall be able to describe or state what is the colour\r\nof the mind, in respect of its being mind, and acting as an\r\nintelligent existence. Moreover, in confirmation and explanation\r\nof what we have already advanced regarding the\r\nmind or soul—to the effect that it is better than the whole\r\nbodily nature—the following remarks may be added. There\r\nunderlies every bodily sense a certain peculiar sensible substance,<a id=\"r34\"></a><a class=\"c007 pginternal\" href=\"#f34\"><sup>[34]</sup></a>\r\non which the bodily sense exerts itself. For example,\r\ncolours, form, size, underlie vision; voices and sound, the\r\nsense of hearing; odours, good or bad, that of smell; savours,\r\nthat of taste; heat or cold, hardness or softness, roughness or\r\nsmoothness, that of touch. Now, of those senses enumerated\r\nabove, it is manifest to all that the sense of mind is much the\r\nbest. How, then, should it not appear absurd, that under\r\nthose senses which are inferior, substances should have been\r\nplaced on which to exert their powers, but that under this\r\npower, which is far better than any other, <i>i.e.</i> the sense of\r\nmind, nothing at all of the nature of a substance should be\r\nplaced, but that a power of an intellectual nature should be\r\nan accident, or consequent upon bodies? Those who assert\r\nthis, doubtless do so to the disparagement of that better substance\r\nwhich is within them; nay, by so doing, they even do\r\nwrong to God Himself, when they imagine He may be understood\r\nby means of a bodily nature, so that according to their\r\nview He is a body, and that which may be understood or\r\nperceived by means of a body; and they are unwilling to\r\nhave it understood that the mind bears a certain relationship\r\nto God, of whom the mind itself is an intellectual image, and\r\nthat by means of this it may come to some knowledge of the\r\nnature of divinity, especially if it be purified and separated\r\nfrom bodily matter.</p>","headings":["The Writings of Origen, Vol. 1 of 2","ORIGEN DE PRINCIPIIS.","BOOK I.","CHAPTER I. ON GOD."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg70561-paragraph-72"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"0bb7dcc1f7d1eec08a156a33f328d086dec05cf8c10d2029a513c5373afae2b3","edition_title":"The writings of Origen, Vol. 1 (of 2)","edition_translators":["Frederick Crombie"],"edition_year":1869,"explicit_reference_candidates":[],"headings":[],"id":"pg70561-f33","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":"Project Gutenberg metadata: Public domain in the USA. Existing 1869 English translation; translator died 1889. Electronic transcription subject to Project Gutenberg reuse terms.","source_anchor":"f33","source_ebook":70561,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\" id=\"f33\">\n<p class=\"c006\"><span class=\"label\"><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#r33\">33</a>.  </span>Some read “visible.”</p>\n</div>","source_sha256":"de125e213d16053354f22b34a1c8d477ac23f201e660e4f4841b2ed7e05bb367","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/70561/pg70561-images.html#f33","text_sha256":"434ff7a2b5b04f31b524fa3de93eb76230133a523e479a3d102750a0fca2ca81","verified":false,"work_id":null}

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