diversity of opinion[1] concerning the Deity, as to His essence or nature. For some affirm Him to be fire, and some spirit, and some water, while others say that He is earth. And each of the elements labours under some deficiency, and one is worsted by the other. To the wise men of the world, this, however, has occurred, which is obvious to persons possessing intelligence; [I mean] that, beholding the stupendous works of creation, they were confused respecting the substance of existing things, supposing that these were too vast to admit of deriving generation from another, and at the same time [asserting] that neither the universe itself is God. As far as theology was concerned, they declared, however, a single cause for things that fall under the cognizance of vision, each supposing the cause which he adjudged the most reasonable; and so, when gazing on the objects made by God, and on those which are the most insignificant in comparison with His overpowering majesty, not, however, being able to extend the mind to the magnitude of God as He really is, they deified these [works of the external world].
But the Persians,[2] supposing that they had penetrated more within the confines of the truth, asserted that the Deity is luminous, a light contained in air. The Babylonians, however, affirmed that the Deity is dark, which very opinion also appears the consequence of the other; for day follows night, and night day. Do not the Egyptians, however,[3] who suppose themselves more ancient than all, speak of the power of the Deity? [This power they estimate by] calculating these intervals of the parts [of the zodiac; and, as if] by a most
- ↑ See Aristotle's Metaphysics, book i.; Cicero, De Naturâ Deorum, book i. (both translated in Bohn's Classical Library); and Plutarch, De Placitis Philosophorum, lib. i.
- ↑ The mention of the Persians, Babylonians, and Egyptians shows the subject-matter of the lost books to have been concerning the speculative systems of these nations.
- ↑ This rendering follows Miller's text. Schneidewin thinks there is an hiatus, which the Abbe Cruice fills up, the latter translating the passage without an interrogation: "The Egyptians, who think themselves more ancient than all, have formed their ideas of the power of the Deity by calculations and computing," etc.
