Οὗτοι μὲν δὴ ταῦτα· ἡμᾶς δὲ ὁ λόγος δεξάμενος ἐφιεμένους θεοῦ, καὶ μὴ ἀνεχομένους τὸ ἀνηγεμόνευτόν τε καὶ ἀκυβέρνητον, εἶτα τοῖς ὁρωμένοις προσβάλλων καὶ τοῖς ἀπαρχῆς ἐντυγχάνων, οὔτε μέχρι τούτων ἔστησεν,— οὐ γὰρ ἦν λόγου δοῦναι τὴν ἡγεμονίαν τοῖς ὁμοτίμοις κατὰ τὴν αἴσθησιν,—καὶ διὰ τούτων ἄγει πρὸς τὸ ὑπὲρ ταῦτα, καὶ δι’ οὗ τούτοις τὸ εἶναι περίεστιν. τί γὰρ τὸ τάξαν τὰ οὐράνια καὶ τὰ ἐπίγεια, ὅσα τε δι’ ἀέρος καὶ ὅσα καθ’ ὕδατος, μᾶλλον δὲ τὰ πρὸ τούτων, οὐρανόν, καὶ γῆν, καὶ ἀέρα, καὶ φύσιν ὕδατος; τίς ταῦτα ἔμιξε καὶ ἐμέρισεν; τίς ἢ κοινωνία τούτων πρὸς ἄλληλα, καὶ συμφυία, καὶ σύμπνοια; ἐπαινῶ γὰρ τὸν εἰρηκότα, κἂν ἀλλότριος ᾖ. τί τὸ ταῦτα 1 ἔφεσιν] αἴσθησιν e 16. 6 προσβάλλων] προβαλὼν ‘Reg. a, Or. I’ || 8 ἡγεμονίαν] ὁμοτιμίαν b || 13 τις η κοινωνία] om η c 1. ἔφεσιν] ‘desire,’ from ἐφίεσθαι § 13). 16. We, on the other hand, are led by reason to worship, not nature, but the Author of nature and its wonderful order. 4. ὁ λόγος] ‘reason.’ When Rea- son is said to have taken us in hand, Gr. means both the reasonable in- struction given by the Church, and our own reasonable reflexion upon it. It is, of course, contrasted with ὁ πονηρός of the previous section. 6. προσβάλλων] intrans., as in § 6. ib. κ. τοῖς ἀπαρχῆς ἐντ.] Passing over the more ephemeral objects, its attention was arrested by those which are coeval with creation, like sun and moon: but it did not allow us to stop ἔστησεν) there. Μέχρι as in ἑ 9. We should have expected οὐδὲ μ.; if οὔτε is right, Gr. must intend to connect the clause closely with κα διὰ τούτων. 8. κάτα τὴν αἴσθ.] things as much subject to the senses as we are. 10. περίεστιν] ‘they still exist’; or perhaps, ‘they have existence in abundance’; cp. § 25. 11. δι’ ἀέρος] sc. φέρεται. Καθ’ ὕδατος sc. ἐστίν, ’under the water’; like κατὰ γῆς ’underground’: cp. § 24. 13. τίς ἡ κοινωνία] If this is the right reading, of course it is ‘what is this partnership?’ i.e. came it? If we read τίς κ., κοίν’. κ. συμφ. κ. συμπν. must be in ap- position to the τίς before ἔμιξε, ‘who combined and distributed them? what partnership and union and concord between them? 15. τὸν εἰρηκότα] ‘him who said it: There is no reason to think that the words which follow are a direct quotation. Nor indeed are the foregoing, but they seem more likely to have had their origin in a reminiscence of something that Gr. had read than the comparatively colourless words which follow. It is harder, however, to say, whom Gr. means by τὸν εἰρ. Elias refers to Oppian Halieut. i 412 οἵῃ σὺν φιλό- διακρίνας ἐκέδασσας αἰθέρα τε, κτλ. Jahn prefers Plato Tim. 35 A foil. The resemblance is not very close; but in Τἰm. 32 c occur words which come somewhat nearer. The ‘body of the world,’ Plato there says, was formed of the various elements δι’ ἀναλογίας ὁμολογῆσαν, φιλίαν τε ἔσχεν...εἰς ταὐτὸν αὑτῷ ξυνελθόν. Perh. Opp. comes the nearer to Gr's language. κεκινηκὸς καὶ ἄγον τὴν ἄληκτον φορὰν καὶ ἀκώλυτον; ἀρ’ οὐχ ὁ τεχνίτης τούτων, καὶ πᾶσι λόγον ἐνθείς, καθ’ ὃν τὸ πᾶν φέρεταί τε καὶ διεξάγεται; τίς δὲ ὁ τεχνίτης τούτων; ἀρ’ οὐχ ὁ πεποιηκὼς ταῦτα καὶ εἰς τὸ εἶναι παραγαγών; οὐ γὰρ δὴ τῷ αὐτομάτῳ δοτέον τοσαύτην δύναμιν. ἔστω γὰρ τὸ γενέσθαι τοῦ αὐτομάτου. τίνος τὸ τάξαι; καὶ τοῦτο, εἰ δοκεῖ, δῶμεν. τίνος τὸ τηρῆσαι καὶ φυλάξαι καθ’ οὓς πρῶτον ὑπέστη λόγους; ἑτέρου τινός, ἢ τοῦ αὐτομάτου; ἑτέρου δηλαδὴ παρὰ τὸ αὐτόματον. τοῦτο δὲ τί ποτε ἄλλο πλὴν θεός; οὕτως ὁ ἐκ θεοῦ λόγος, καὶ πᾶσι σύμφυτος, καὶ πρῶτος ἐν ἡμῖν νόμος, καὶ πᾶσι συνημμένος, ἐπὶ θεὸν ἡμᾶς ἀνήγαγεν ἐκ τῶν ὁρωμένων. καὶ δὴ λέγωμεν ἀρξάμενοι πάλιν.