{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p>But let us suppose a man such as poetry and mythology\r\nspeak of,—a man so insociable and savage as to be called rather<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_317\">[Pg 317]</a></span>\r\na semi-man than a man.<a id=\"FNanchor_640_640\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_640_640\">[640]</a> Although, then, his kingdom was\r\nthe solitude of a dreary cave, and he himself was so singularly\r\nbad-hearted that he was named Κακός, which is the Greek\r\nword for <i>bad</i>; though he had no wife to soothe him with endearing\r\ntalk, no children to play with, no sons to do his bidding, no\r\nfriend to enliven him with intercourse, not even his father\r\nVulcan (though in one respect he was happier than his father,\r\nnot having begotten a monster like himself); although he gave\r\nto no man, but took as he wished whatever he could, from\r\nwhomsoever he could, when he could; yet in that solitary den,\r\nthe floor of which, as Virgil<a id=\"FNanchor_641_641\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_641_641\">[641]</a> says, was always reeking with\r\nrecent slaughter, there was nothing else than peace sought, a\r\npeace in which no one should molest him, or disquiet him with\r\nany assault or alarm. With his own body he desired to be at\r\npeace; and he was satisfied only in proportion as he had this\r\npeace. For he ruled his members, and they obeyed him; and\r\nfor the sake of pacifying his mortal nature, which rebelled when\r\nit needed anything, and of allaying the sedition of hunger which\r\nthreatened to banish the soul from the body, he made forays,\r\nslew, and devoured, but used the ferocity and savageness he\r\ndisplayed in these actions only for the preservation of his own\r\nlife's peace. So that, had he been willing to make with other\r\nmen the same peace which he made with himself in his own\r\ncave, he would neither have been called bad, nor a monster,\r\nnor a semi-man. Or if the appearance of his body and his\r\nvomiting smoky fires frightened men from having any dealings\r\nwith him, perhaps his fierce ways arose not from a desire to\r\ndo mischief, but from the necessity of finding a living. But he\r\nmay have had no existence, or, at least, he was not such as the\r\npoets fancifully describe him, for they had to exalt Hercules,\r\nand did so at the expense of Cacus. It is better, then, to\r\nbelieve that such a man or semi-man never existed, and that\r\nthis, in common with many other fancies of the poets, is mere\r\nfiction. For the most savage animals (and he is said to have\r\nbeen almost a wild beast) encompass their own species with a\r\nring of protecting peace. They cohabit, beget, produce, suckle,\r\nand bring up their young, though very many of them are not\r\ngregarious, but solitary,—not like sheep, deer, pigeons, starlings,<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_318\">[Pg 318]</a></span>\r\nbees, but such as lions, foxes, eagles, bats. For what tigress\r\ndoes not gently purr over her cubs, and lay aside her ferocity\r\nto fondle them? What kite, solitary as he is when circling\r\nover his prey, does not seek a mate, build a nest, hatch the\r\neggs, bring up the young birds, and maintain with the mother\r\nof his family as peaceful a domestic alliance as he can? How\r\nmuch more powerfully do the laws of man's nature move him\r\nto hold fellowship and maintain peace with all men so far as\r\nin him lies, since even wicked men wage war to maintain the\r\npeace of their own circle, and wish that, if possible, all men\r\nbelonged to them, that all men and things might serve but one\r\nhead, and might, either through love or fear, yield themselves\r\nto peace with him! It is thus that pride in its perversity apes\r\nGod. It abhors equality with other men under Him; but,\r\ninstead of His rule, it seeks to impose a rule of its own upon\r\nits equals. It abhors, that is to say, the just peace of God,\r\nand loves its own unjust peace; but it cannot help loving peace\r\nof one kind or other. For there is no vice so clean contrary\r\nto nature that it obliterates even the faintest traces of nature.</p>","headings":["THE CITY OF GOD.","BOOK NINETEENTH.","ARGUMENT."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg45305-paragraph-517"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"8e1a463425b2a30cfed6527470e1af4541e306babc174eb2c7e38b45c8c9a452","edition_title":"The City of God, Volume II","edition_translators":["Marcus Dods","George Wilson (Books XVII-XVIII)"],"edition_year":1871,"explicit_reference_candidates":[],"headings":[],"id":"pg45305-Footnote_640_640","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_640_640","source_ebook":45305,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\">\n<p><a id=\"Footnote_640_640\"></a><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#FNanchor_640_640\"><span class=\"label\">[640]</span></a> He refers to the giant Cacus.</p></div>","source_sha256":"7e0ced9e70512f3cf050b53c9d548e36b70d468d875153869f95d8aff5bbb530","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/45305/pg45305-images.html#Footnote_640_640","text_sha256":"80138d767bdab4f05d92a3a8a50e407021f354a24a1cc33ec42cb253ad7b9b91","verified":false,"work_id":null}