Chapter 8
8. And since all who think about God think of Him as living, they only can
form any conception of Him that is not absurd and unworthy who think of Him as
life itself; and, whatever may be the bodily form that has suggested itself to
them, recognize that it is by life it lives or does not live, and prefer what
is living to what is dead; who understand that the living bodily form itself,
however it may outshine all others in splendour, overtop them in size, and
excel them in beauty, is quite a distinct thing from the life by which it is
quickened; and who look upon the life as incomparably superior in dignity and
worth to the mass which is quickened and animated by it. Then, when they go on
to look into the nature of the life itself, if they find it mere nutritive
life, without sensibility, such as that of plants, they consider it inferior
to sentient life, such as that of cattle; and above this, again, they place
intelligent life, such as that of men. And, perceiving that even this is
subject to change, they are compelled to place above it, again, that
unchangeable life, which is not at one time foolish, at another time wise, but
on the contrary is wisdom itself. For a wise intelligence, that is, one that
has attained to wisdom, was, previous to its attaining wisdom, unwise. But
wisdom itself never was unwise, and never can become so. And if men never
caught sight of this wisdom, they could never with entire confidence prefer a
life which is unchangeably wise to one that is subject to change. This will be
evident, if we consider that the very rule of truth by which they affirm the
unchangeable life to be the more excellent, is itself unchangeable: and they
cannot find such a rule, except by going beyond their own nature; for they
find nothing in themselves that is not subject to change.
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