{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p class=\"c006\">After this, Celsus, desirous of maintaining that Providence\r\ncreated the products of the earth, not more on our account\r\nthan on that of the most savage animals, thus proceeds: “We\r\nindeed by labour and suffering earn a scanty and toilsome\r\nsubsistence,<a id=\"r776\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f776\"><sup>[776]</sup></a> while all things are produced for them without\r\ntheir sowing and ploughing.” He does not observe that God,\r\nwishing to exercise the human understanding in all countries\r\n(that it might not remain idle and unacquainted with the arts),\r\ncreated man a being full of wants,<a id=\"r777\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f777\"><sup>[777]</sup></a> in order that by virtue\r\nof his very needy condition he might be compelled to be the\r\ninventor of arts, some of which minister to his subsistence, and\r\nothers to his protection. For it was better that those who\r\nwould not have sought out divine things, nor engaged in the\r\nstudy of philosophy, should be placed in a condition of want,\r\nin order that they might employ their understanding in the\r\ninvention of the arts, than that they should altogether neglect\r\nthe cultivation of their minds, because their condition was one\r\nof abundance. The want of the necessaries of human life led to\r\nthe invention on the one hand of the art of husbandry, on the\r\nother to that of the cultivation of the vine; again, to the art of\r\ngardening, and the arts of carpentry and smithwork, by means\r\nof which were formed the tools required for the arts which minister\r\nto the support of life. The want of covering, again, introduced\r\nthe art of weaving, which followed that of wool-carding\r\nand spinning; and again, that of house-building: and thus the\r\nintelligence of men ascended even to the art of architecture. The\r\nwant of necessaries caused the products also of other places to be\r\nconveyed, by means of the arts of sailing and pilotage,<a id=\"r778\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f778\"><sup>[778]</sup></a> to those\r\nwho were without them; so that even on that account one\r\nmight admire the Providence which made the rational being\r\n<span class=\"pageno\" id=\"Page_243\">243</span>subject to want in a far higher degree than the irrational\r\nanimals, and yet all with a view to his advantage. For the\r\nirrational animals have their food provided for them, because\r\nthere is not in them even an impulse<a id=\"r779\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f779\"><sup>[779]</sup></a> towards the invention\r\nof the arts. They have, besides, a natural covering; for they\r\nare provided either with hair, or wings, or scales, or shells.\r\nLet the above, then, be our answer to the assertions of Celsus,\r\nwhen he says that “we indeed by labour and suffering earn a\r\nscanty and toilsome subsistence, while all things are produced\r\nfor them without their sowing and ploughing.”</p>","headings":["The writings of Origen, Vol. 2 of 2","BOOK IV.","Chapter LXXVI."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg70693-paragraph-297"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"5b9f3d8386ef8af576d6912608d418f1cc0d6b89435f82225a1be901d0655963","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-f779","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":"f779","source_ebook":70693,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\" id=\"f779\">\n<p class=\"c007\"><span class=\"label\"><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#r779\">779</a>. </span><span lang=\"grc\">ἀφορμήν.</span></p>\n</div>","source_sha256":"76ed9a9fd752c1d5095189e38fe3dcbbea0fd23d6be719db17360e4da14552fa","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/70693/pg70693-images.html#f779","text_sha256":"8cd941a06453e4410f34cd25426a0fd4dafedc6c9c626167e63c63a296016d71","verified":false,"work_id":null}