{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p>The following is the reason Varro gives when he confesses\r\nthat he had written first concerning human things, and afterwards\r\nof divine things, because these divine things were instituted\r\nby men:—\"As the painter is before the painted\r\ntablet, the mason before the edifice, so states are before those\r\nthings which are instituted by states.\" But he says that he\r\nwould have written first concerning the gods, afterwards concerning\r\nmen, if he had been writing concerning the whole\r\nnature of the gods,—as if he were really writing concerning\r\nsome portion of, and not all, the nature of the gods; or as if,\r\nindeed, some portion of, though not all, the nature of the gods\r\nought not to be put before that of men. How, then, comes it\r\nthat in those three last books, when he is diligently explaining\r\nthe certain, uncertain, and select gods, he seems to pass\r\nover no portion of the nature of the gods? Why, then, does\r\nhe say, \"If we had been writing on the whole nature of the\r\ngods, we would first have finished the divine things before we<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_237\">[Pg 237]</a></span>\r\ntouched the human?\" For he either writes concerning the\r\nwhole nature of the gods, or concerning some portion of it,\r\nor concerning no part of it at all. If concerning it all, it is\r\ncertainly to be put before human things; if concerning some\r\npart of it, why should it not, from the very nature of the case,\r\nprecede human things? Is not even some part of the gods\r\nto be preferred to the whole of humanity? But if it is too\r\nmuch to prefer a part of the divine to all human things, that\r\npart is certainly worthy to be preferred to the Romans at\r\nleast. For he writes the books concerning human things, not\r\nwith reference to the whole world, but only to Rome; which\r\nbooks he says he had properly placed, in the order of writing,\r\nbefore the books on divine things, like a painter before the\r\npainted tablet, or a mason before the building, most openly\r\nconfessing that, as a picture or a structure, even these divine\r\nthings were instituted by men. There remains only the third\r\nsupposition, that he is to be understood to have written concerning\r\nno divine nature, but that he did not wish to say\r\nthis openly, but left it to the intelligent to infer; for when\r\none says \"not all,\" usage understands that to mean \"some,\"\r\nbut it <i>may</i> be understood as meaning <i>none</i>, because that which\r\nis <i>none</i> is neither all nor some. In fact, as he himself says,\r\nif he had been writing concerning all the nature of the gods,\r\nits due place would have been before human things in the\r\norder of writing. But, as the truth declares, even though\r\nVarro is silent, the divine nature should have taken precedence\r\nof Roman things, though it were not <i>all</i>, but only <i>some</i>. But\r\nit is properly put after, therefore it is <i>none</i>. His arrangement,\r\ntherefore, was due, not to a desire to give human things priority\r\nto divine things, but to his unwillingness to prefer false things\r\nto true. For in what he wrote on human things, he followed\r\nthe history of affairs; but in what he wrote concerning those\r\nthings which they call divine, what else did he follow but\r\nmere conjectures about vain things? This, doubtless, is what,\r\nin a subtle manner, he wished to signify; not only writing\r\nconcerning divine things after the human, but even giving\r\na reason why he did so; for if he had suppressed this, some,\r\nperchance, would have defended his doing so in one way, and\r\nsome in another. But in that very reason he has rendered,<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_238\">[Pg 238]</a></span>\r\nhe has left nothing for men to conjecture at will, and has sufficiently\r\nproved that he preferred men to the institutions of\r\nmen, not the nature of men to the nature of the gods. Thus\r\nhe confessed that, in writing the books concerning divine\r\nthings, he did not write concerning the truth which belongs\r\nto nature, but the falseness which belongs to error; which\r\nhe has elsewhere expressed more openly (as I have mentioned\r\nin the fourth book<a id=\"FNanchor_234_234\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_234_234\">[234]</a>), saying that, had he been founding a new\r\ncity himself, he would have written according to the order of\r\nnature; but as he had only found an old one, he could not\r\nbut follow its custom.</p>","headings":["THE WORKS OF AURELIUS AUGUSTINE,","BOOK SIXTH.","ARGUMENT."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg45304-paragraph-435"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"ef7cc513b309c7b24e41bf2bd7c53f7ebccb7c6016ecac48ec0bb902532fb565","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_234_234","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_234_234","source_ebook":45304,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\">\n<p><a id=\"Footnote_234_234\"></a><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#FNanchor_234_234\"><span class=\"label\">[234]</span></a> Ch. <a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#chap31\">31</a>.</p></div>","source_sha256":"d89e9a2b80bb59f394f0fb1bf313b39fab162f06af6642166d62c5912c1195f1","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/45304/pg45304-images.html#Footnote_234_234","text_sha256":"cae4b8b96fccc8a9bbe86ae8f12a977c00f4ed472b1b8f58ef357f65ef755527","verified":false,"work_id":null}