{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p>Moreover, even in the body, though it dies like that of the\r\nbeasts, and is in many ways weaker than theirs, what goodness\r\nof God, what providence of the great Creator, is apparent!\r\nThe organs of sense and the rest of the members, are not they\r\nso placed, the appearance, and form, and stature of the body\r\nas a whole, is it not so fashioned, as to indicate that it was\r\nmade for the service of a reasonable soul? Man has not been\r\ncreated stooping towards the earth, like the irrational animals;\r\nbut his bodily form, erect and looking heavenwards, admonishes\r\nhim to mind the things that are above. Then the marvellous\r\nnimbleness which has been given to the tongue and\r\nthe hands, fitting them to speak, and write, and execute so\r\nmany duties, and practise so many arts, does it not prove the\r\nexcellence of the soul for which such an assistant was provided?<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_527\">[Pg 527]</a></span>\r\nAnd even apart from its adaptation to the work\r\nrequired of it, there is such a symmetry in its various parts,\r\nand so beautiful a proportion maintained, that one is at a loss\r\nto decide whether, in creating the body, greater regard was\r\npaid to utility or to beauty. Assuredly no part of the body\r\nhas been created for the sake of utility which does not also\r\ncontribute something to its beauty. And this would be all\r\nthe more apparent, if we knew more precisely how all its\r\nparts are connected and adapted to one another, and were not\r\nlimited in our observations to what appears on the surface;\r\nfor as to what is covered up and hidden from our view, the\r\nintricate web of veins and nerves, the vital parts of all that\r\nlies under the skin, no one can discover it. For although,\r\nwith a cruel zeal for science, some medical men, who are\r\ncalled anatomists, have dissected the bodies of the dead, and\r\nsometimes even of sick persons who died under their knives,\r\nand have inhumanly pried into the secrets of the human body\r\nto learn the nature of the disease and its exact seat, and how\r\nit might be cured, yet those relations of which I speak, and\r\nwhich form the concord,<a id=\"FNanchor_1020_1020\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_1020_1020\">[1020]</a> or, as the Greeks call it, \"harmony,\"\r\nof the whole body outside and in, as of some instrument, no\r\none has been able to discover, because no one has been audacious\r\nenough to seek for them. But if these could be known,\r\nthen even the inward parts, which seem to have no beauty,\r\nwould so delight us with their exquisite fitness, as to afford a\r\nprofounder satisfaction to the mind—and the eyes are but its\r\nministers—than the obvious beauty which gratifies the eye.\r\nThere are some things, too, which have such a place in the\r\nbody, that they obviously serve no useful purpose, but are\r\nsolely for beauty, as <i>e.g.</i> the teats on a man's breast, or the\r\nbeard on his face; for that this is for ornament, and not for\r\nprotection, is proved by the bare faces of women, who ought\r\nrather, as the weaker sex, to enjoy such a defence. If, therefore,\r\nof all those members which are exposed to our view,\r\nthere is certainly not one in which beauty is sacrificed to\r\nutility, while there are some which serve no purpose but only\r\nbeauty, I think it can readily be concluded that in the creation<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_528\">[Pg 528]</a></span>\r\nof the human body comeliness was more regarded than\r\nnecessity. In truth, necessity is a transitory thing; and the\r\ntime is coming when we shall enjoy one another's beauty\r\nwithout any lust,—a condition which will specially redound\r\nto the praise of the Creator, who, as it is said in the psalm,\r\nhas \"put on praise and comeliness.\"<a id=\"FNanchor_1021_1021\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_1021_1021\">[1021]</a></p>","headings":["THE CITY OF GOD.","BOOK TWENTY-SECOND.","ARGUMENT."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg45305-paragraph-830"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"6936bf88d3cf4dc6a70656f715b62b348fb8142f60d09883abed02b6dc5ddb3b","edition_title":"The City of God, Volume II","edition_translators":["Marcus Dods","George Wilson (Books XVII-XVIII)"],"edition_year":1871,"explicit_reference_candidates":[{"book":"PSA","chapter":104,"kind":"unreviewed","source_notation":"Ps. civ. 1","verse":1,"verse_end":1}],"headings":[],"id":"pg45305-Footnote_1021_1021","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_1021_1021","source_ebook":45305,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\">\n<p><a id=\"Footnote_1021_1021\"></a><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#FNanchor_1021_1021\"><span class=\"label\">[1021]</span></a> Ps. civ. 1.</p></div>","source_sha256":"7e0ced9e70512f3cf050b53c9d548e36b70d468d875153869f95d8aff5bbb530","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/45305/pg45305-images.html#Footnote_1021_1021","text_sha256":"9a07d3649cc6d2d172cf2654c0bee2b749f53b3678e01f6d3d2a2fe01781d9cd","verified":false,"work_id":null}