To the Nations 2.5

Why, then, do we not turn to a somewhat more humane opinion, which seems drawn from the common sense of all and from simple conjecture? For Varro too mentions it, saying that the divinity of the elements was believed besides because nothing at all could be born, nourished, or brought forward for human life and the sowing of the earth without their support, since not even bodies or souls could have sufficed without the tempering of the elements, by which this dwelling-place of the world, bound by the conditions of its zones, is provided, except where excessive cold or heat has denied it to human habitation; and that therefore the sun is believed a god, because he adds to the day from his own store, ripens the crops by his heat, and keeps the year by his stations; the moon, the comfort of the nights, the patron of the months by her guidance; likewise the stars, signs of the seasons to be marked for husbandry; and finally heaven itself, under which are all things, and earth, on which are all things, and whatever among them works together for human benefit. Nor, he says, does the belief in the divinity of the elements rest only on their benefits, but also on the contrary things that usually befall as if from their anger and offense, such as thunderbolts, hail, scorching heat, pestilential winds, likewise floods, likewise chasms and earthquakes; and rightly are those believed gods whose nature is to be honored in prosperity and feared in adversity, being, of course, masters of helping and harming. But if that is so, in the dealings of citizens people do not likewise return thanks or bring complaints to the very things by which they are helped or harmed, but to those under whose force and power the working of the things runs its course. For in your pleasures too you do not award the crown as a prize to the flute or the lyre, but to the artist who by his skill tunes the flute and the lyre to sweetness. Likewise, when someone is ill, you do not remember to thank the wool, or the antidotes or poultices themselves, but the physicians, by whose work and skill the remedies come. Again, in adversity, those wounded by iron do not accuse the sword itself or the lance, but the enemy or the robber; and those crushed by a house do not blame the tiles or gutters but its age; just as shipwrecked men do not impute their wreck to the rock and the waves but to the storm. And rightly. For it is certain that whatever happens is to be ascribed not to that through which it happens but to him by whom it happens, because he is the head of the deed who has determined both that it be done and by what means it be done (and in all things there are these three titles: what it is, through what it is, and by whom it is), since he who wills something to be done comes first, and then that by which it can be brought about. And so in other matters you act rightly, considering the author; but in natural things your rule, by which you judge wisdom in other matters, runs against nature, taking away the highest rank, that of the author, and considering the things done and not by whom they are done. So it happens that you believe to be the powers and free choices of the elements what are in fact services and duties. Have we not, in this investigation, shown from the fixed works of the elements, which you take for works of power, the art of some artificer within them and master of their service? But gods do not serve; therefore the things that serve are not gods. Or let them show that it commonly happens that from the license of wandering freedom is proved, from freedom dominion, and from dominion divinity is understood. For if all these things above us, established as under a law in fixed courses, lawful runs, proper spaces, and equal alternations, are mindful to meet their appointments for the rolling of the seasons and the exercise of the seasons' guidance, would they not, by the very observance of their conditions, the faithfulness of their works, the persistence of their courses, the care of their changes, and the memory of their returns, persuade you that some dominion presides over them, to whom the whole business of the world seems to be subject, reaching to the benefit and the harm of the human race? For you cannot say that they do these things for themselves and care for themselves and arrange nothing for the sake of men, since the very reason you claim divinity for the elements is that you feel yourselves helped or harmed by them. For if they serve only themselves, you owe them nothing.