Octavius 17.4

Minucius Felix · Octavius · ca. 197–250 · Rome · Read in context

Summary: Looking at the world shows plainly that a supreme mind governs it.

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Latin text · CSEL 2:21–22

quid enim potest esse tam apertum, tam confessum tamque perspicuum, cum oculos in caelum sustuleris et quae sunt infra circaque lustraueris, quam esse aliquod numen praestantissimae mentis, quo omnis natura inspiretur, moueatur, alatur, gubernetur?

English · Claude translation

For what can be so plain, so acknowledged, and so clear, when you have raised your eyes to heaven and surveyed what is below and around, as that there is some divine power of surpassing mind, by which all nature is inspired, moved, nourished, and governed?

About this passage

Source: CSEL 2:21–22 · Karl Halm, ed., M. Minucii Felicis Octavius; Iulii Firmici Materni Liber de errore profanarum religionum, CSEL 2 (Vienna: Gerold, 1867), 1–56 · Latin text: K. Halm (CSEL 2, 1867), digitized by Open Greek and Latin, University of Leipzig (csel-dev), CC BY-SA 4.0
Text: As printed in CSEL 2. Manuscript variants and the editor's apparatus are not reproduced; no textual problem is noted in this passage.
Translation: Claude translation (claude-opus-5-5), 2026-09-27 · Translated by Claude from the Latin text of CSEL 2; made independently of existing English translations.
Compare: Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 4 (1885) (an older public-domain English translation, whole volume at CCEL; checked against ours only after ours was made) · Divided there by chapter only.

Cite this passage

Minucius Felix, Oct. 17.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/minucius-octavius/17/4/).

Plain text

Minucius Felix, Oct. 17.4 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/minucius-octavius/17/4/).

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