{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p class=\"c006\">And wishing to show at greater length that even the thoughts\r\nof God entertained by the human race are not superior to those\r\nof all other mortal creatures, but that certain of the irrational\r\nanimals are capable of thinking about Him regarding whom\r\nopinions so discordant have existed among the most acute of\r\nmankind—Greeks and Barbarians—he continues: “If, because\r\nman has been able to grasp the idea of God, he is deemed\r\nsuperior to the other animals, let those who hold this opinion\r\nknow that this capacity will be claimed by many of the other\r\nanimals; and with good reason: for what would any one maintain\r\nto be more divine than the power of foreknowing and predicting\r\nfuture events? Men accordingly acquire the art from\r\nthe other animals, and especially from birds. And those who\r\nlisten to the indications furnished by them, become possessed of\r\nthe gift of prophecy. If, then, birds, and the other prophetic\r\nanimals, which are enabled by the gift of God to foreknow\r\nevents, instruct us by means of signs, so much the nearer do\r\nthey seem to be to the society of God, and to be endowed with\r\n<span class=\"pageno\" id=\"Page_255\">255</span>greater wisdom, and to be more beloved by Him. The more\r\nintelligent of men, moreover, say that the animals hold meetings\r\nwhich are more sacred than our assemblies, and that\r\nthey know what is said at these meetings, and show that in\r\nreality they possess this knowledge, when, having previously\r\nstated that the birds have declared their intention of departing\r\nto some particular place, and of doing this thing or the other,\r\nthe truth of their assertions is established by the departure of\r\nthe birds to the place in question, and by their doing what was\r\nforetold. And no race of animals appears to be more observant\r\nof oaths than the elephants are, or to show greater devotion to\r\ndivine things; and this, I presume, solely because they have\r\nsome knowledge of God.” See here now how he at once lays\r\nhold of, and brings forward as acknowledged facts, questions\r\nwhich are the subject of dispute among those philosophers, not\r\nonly among the Greeks, but also among the Barbarians, who have\r\neither discovered or learned from certain demons some things\r\nabout birds of augury and other animals, by which certain\r\nprophetic intimations are said to be made to men. For, in the\r\nfirst place, it has been disputed whether there <i>is</i> an art of\r\naugury, and, in general, a method of divination by animals, or\r\nnot. And, in the second place, they who admit that there is an\r\nart of divination by birds, are not agreed about the manner of\r\nthe divination; since some maintain that it is from certain\r\ndemons or gods of divination<a id=\"r812\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f812\"><sup>[812]</sup></a> that the animals receive their\r\nimpulses to action—the birds to flights and sounds of different\r\nkinds, and the other animals to movements of one sort or\r\nanother. Others, again, believe that their souls are more\r\ndivine in their nature, and fitted to operations of that kind,\r\nwhich is a most incredible supposition.</p>","headings":["The writings of Origen, Vol. 2 of 2","BOOK IV.","Chapter LXXXVIII."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg70693-paragraph-311"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"c9abc70271f8a70b65abf873829038c07425120bf2880c3de7ebce501c34ceff","edition_title":"The writings of Origen, Vol. 2 (of 2)","edition_translators":["Frederick Crombie","W. H. Cairns"],"edition_year":1872,"explicit_reference_candidates":[],"headings":[],"id":"pg70693-f812","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 1872 English edition; listed translators died 1889 and 1872. Electronic transcription subject to Project Gutenberg reuse terms.","source_anchor":"f812","source_ebook":70693,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\" id=\"f812\">\n<p class=\"c007\"><span class=\"label\"><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#r812\">812</a>. </span><span lang=\"grc\">θεῶν μαντικῶν.</span></p>\n</div>","source_sha256":"76ed9a9fd752c1d5095189e38fe3dcbbea0fd23d6be719db17360e4da14552fa","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/70693/pg70693-images.html#f812","text_sha256":"b5cd8803fcfc6c9c5e9985902345799d9b4313b608c45a0086102994222eb008","verified":false,"work_id":null}