Testimonia

{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p>What is the cause, therefore, which has driven so many\r\nselect gods to these very small works, in which they are\r\nexcelled by Vitumnus and Sentinus, though little known and<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_261\">[Pg 261]</a></span>\r\nsunk in obscurity, inasmuch as they confer the munificent\r\ngifts of life and sensation? For the select Janus bestows an\r\nentrance, and, as it were, a door<a id=\"FNanchor_247_247\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_247_247\">[247]</a> for the seed; the select\r\nSaturn bestows the seed itself; the select Liber bestows on\r\nmen the emission of the same seed; Libera, who is Ceres or\r\nVenus, confers the same on women; the select Juno confers\r\n(not alone, but together with Mena, the daughter of Jupiter)\r\nthe menses, for the growth of that which has been conceived;\r\nand the obscure and ignoble Vitumnus confers life, whilst the\r\nobscure and ignoble Sentinus confers sensation;—which two\r\nlast things are as much more excellent than the others, as\r\nthey themselves are excelled by reason and intellect. For as\r\nthose things which reason and understand are preferable to\r\nthose which, without intellect and reason, as in the case of\r\ncattle, live and feel; so also those things which have been\r\nendowed with life and sensation are deservedly preferred to\r\nthose things which neither live nor feel. Therefore Vitumnus\r\nthe life-giver,<a id=\"FNanchor_248_248\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_248_248\">[248]</a> and Sentinus the sense-giver,<a id=\"FNanchor_249_249\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_249_249\">[249]</a> ought to have\r\nbeen reckoned among the select gods, rather than Janus the\r\nadmitter of seed, and Saturn the giver or sower of seed, and\r\nLiber and Libera the movers and liberators of seed; which\r\nseed is not worth a thought, unless it attain to life and sensation.\r\nYet these select gifts are not given by select gods, but\r\nby certain unknown, and, considering their dignity, neglected\r\ngods. But if it be replied that Janus has dominion over all\r\nbeginnings, and therefore the opening of the way for conception\r\nis not without reason assigned to him; and that Saturn\r\nhas dominion over all seeds, and therefore the sowing of the\r\nseed whereby a human being is generated cannot be excluded\r\nfrom his operation; that Liber and Libera have power over the\r\nemission of all seeds, and therefore preside over those seeds\r\nwhich pertain to the procreation of men; that Juno presides\r\nover all purgations and births, and therefore she has also\r\ncharge of the purgations of women and the births of human\r\nbeings;—if they give this reply, let them find an answer to\r\nthe question concerning Vitumnus and Sentinus, whether they\r\nare willing that these likewise should have dominion over all\r\nthings which live and feel. If they grant this, let them<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_262\">[Pg 262]</a></span>\r\nobserve in how sublime a position they are about to place\r\nthem. For to spring from seeds is in the earth and of the\r\nearth, but to live and feel are supposed to be properties even\r\nof the sidereal gods. But if they say that only such things\r\nas come to life in flesh, and are supported by senses, are\r\nassigned to Sentinus, why does not that God who made all\r\nthings live and feel, bestow on flesh also life and sensation,\r\nin the universality of His operation conferring also on fœtuses\r\nthis gift? And what, then, is the use of Vitumnus and Sentinus?\r\nBut if these, as it were, extreme and lowest things\r\nhave been committed by Him who presides universally over\r\nlife and sense to these gods as to servants, are these select\r\ngods then so destitute of servants, that they could not find any\r\nto whom even they might commit those things, but with all\r\ntheir dignity, for which they are, it seems, deemed worthy to\r\nbe selected, were compelled to perform their work along with\r\nignoble ones? Juno is select queen of the gods, and the\r\nsister and wife of Jupiter; nevertheless she is Iterduca, the\r\nconductor, to boys, and performs this work along with a most\r\nignoble pair—the goddesses Abeona and Adeona. There they\r\nhave also placed the goddess Mena, who gives to boys a good\r\nmind, and she is not placed among the select gods; as if anything\r\ngreater could be bestowed on a man than a good mind.\r\nBut Juno is placed among the select because she is Iterduca\r\nand Domiduca (she who conducts one on a journey, and\r\nwho conducts him home again); as if it is of any advantage\r\nfor one to make a journey, and to be conducted home again, if\r\nhis mind is not good. And yet the goddess who bestows that\r\ngift has not been placed by the selectors among the select\r\ngods, though she ought indeed to have been preferred even to\r\nMinerva, to whom, in this minute distribution of work, they\r\nhave allotted the memory of boys. For who will doubt that\r\nit is a far better thing to have a good mind, than ever so great\r\na memory? For no one is bad who has a good mind;<a id=\"FNanchor_250_250\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_250_250\">[250]</a> but\r\nsome who are very bad are possessed of an admirable memory,\r\nand are so much the worse, the less they are able to forget\r\nthe bad things which they think. And yet Minerva is among\r\nthe select gods, whilst the goddess Mena is hidden by a worthless<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_263\">[Pg 263]</a></span>\r\ncrowd. What shall I say concerning Virtus? What concerning\r\nFelicitas?—concerning whom I have already spoken\r\nmuch in the fourth book,<a id=\"FNanchor_251_251\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_251_251\">[251]</a> to whom, though they held them\r\nto be goddesses, they have not thought fit to assign a place\r\namong the select gods, among whom they have given a place\r\nto Mars and Orcus, the one the causer of death, the other the\r\nreceiver of the dead.</p>","headings":["THE WORKS OF AURELIUS AUGUSTINE,","BOOK SEVENTH.","ARGUMENT."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg45304-paragraph-475"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"614f03b18512fe4039c0e5b2a6af489c9f96966c19f0d0806234c1120743d867","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_251_251","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_251_251","source_ebook":45304,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\">\n<p><a id=\"Footnote_251_251\"></a><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#FNanchor_251_251\"><span class=\"label\">[251]</span></a> Ch. <a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#chap21\">21</a>, <a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#chap23\">23</a>.</p></div>","source_sha256":"d89e9a2b80bb59f394f0fb1bf313b39fab162f06af6642166d62c5912c1195f1","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/45304/pg45304-images.html#Footnote_251_251","text_sha256":"4849335e9faf9fd3d95f648c1d49479879223ddf0ed48d2b2cd607d251508339","verified":false,"work_id":null}

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