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But against this great gift of God, these reasoners, "whose
thoughts the Lord knows that they are vain" bring arguments from the
weights of the elements; for they have been taught by their master
Plato that the two greatest elements of the world, and the furthest
removed from one another, are coupled and united by the two
intermediate, air and water. And consequently they say, since the
earth is the first of the elements, beginning from the base of the
series, the second the water above the earth, the third the air above
the water, the fourth the heaven above the air, it follows that a body
of earth cannot live in the heaven; for each element is poised by its
own weight so as to preserve its own place and rank. Behold with what
arguments human infirmity, possessed with vanity, contradicts the
omnipotence of God! What, then, do so many earthly bodies do in the
air, since the air is the third element from the earth? Unless
perhaps He who has granted to the earthly bodies of birds that they be
carried through the air by the lightness of feathers and wings, has not
been able to confer upon the bodies of men made immortal the power to
abide in the highest heaven. The earthly animals, too, which cannot
fly, among which are men, ought on these terms to live under the
earth, as fishes, which are the animals of the water, live under the
water. Why, then, can an animal of earth not live in the second
element, that is, in water, while it can in the third? Why, though
it belongs to the earth, is it forthwith suffocated if it is forced to
live in the second element next above earth, while it lives in the
third, and cannot live out of it? Is there a mistake here in the
order of the elements, or is not the mistake rather in their
reasonings, and not in the nature of things? I will not repeat what
I said in the thirteenth book, that many earthly bodies, though heavy
like lead, receive from the workman's hand a form which enables them
to swim in water; and yet it is denied that the omnipotent Worker can
confer on the human body a property which shall enable it to pass into
heaven and dwell there.
But against what I have formerly said they can find nothing to say,
even though they introduce and make the most of this order of the
elements in which they confide. For if the order be that the earth is
first, the water second, the air third, the heaven fourth, then the
soul is above all. For Aristotle said that the soul was a fifth
body, while Plato denied that it was a body at all. If it were a
fifth body, then certainly it would be above the rest; and if it is
not a body at all, so much the more does it rise above all. What,
then, does it do in an earthly body? What does this soul, which is
finer than all else, do in such a mass of matter as this? What does
the lightest of substances do in this ponderosity? this swiftest
substance in such sluggishness? Will not the body be raised to heaven
by virtue of so excellent a nature as this? and if now earthly bodies
can retain the souls below, shall not the souls be one day able to
raise the earthly bodies above?
If we pass now to their miracles which they oppose to our martyrs as
wrought by their gods, shall not even these be found to make for us,
and help out our argument? For if any of the miracles of their gods
are great, certainly that is a great one which Varro mentions of a
vestal virgin, who, when she was endangered by a false accusation of
unchastity, filled a sieve with water from the Tiber, and carried it
to her judges without any part of it leaking. Who kept the weight of
water in the sieve? Who prevented any drop from falling from it
through so many open holes? They will answer, Some god or some
demon. If a god, is he greater than the God who made the world? If
a demon, is he mightier than an angel who serves the God by whom the
world was made? If, then, a lesser god, angel, or demon could so
sustain the weight of this liquid element that the water might seem to
have changed its nature, shall not Almighty God, who Himself
created all the elements, be able to eliminate from the earthly body
its heaviness, so that the quickened body shall dwell in whatever
element the quickening spirit pleases?
Then, again, since they give the air a middle place between the fire
above and the water beneath, how is it that we often find it between
water and water, and between the water and the earth? For what do
they make of those watery clouds, between which and the seas air is
constantly found intervening? I should like to know by what weight and
order of the elements it comes to pass that very violent and stormy
torrents are suspended in the clouds above the earth before they rush
along upon the earth under the air. In fine, why is it that
throughout the whole globe the air is between the highest heaven and the
earth, if its place is between the sky and the water, as the place of
the water is between the sky and the earth?
Finally, if the order of the elements is so disposed that, as Plato
thinks, the two extremes, fire and earth, are united by the two
means, air and water, and that the fire occupies the highest part of
the sky, and the earth the lowest part, or as it were the foundation
of the world, and that therefore earth cannot be in the heavens, how
is fire in the earth? For, according to this reasoning, these two
elements, earth and fire, ought to be so restricted to their own
places, the highest and the lowest, that neither the lowest can rise
to rITe place of the highest, nor the highest sink to that of the
lowest. Thus, as they think that no particle of earth is or shall
ever be in the sky so we ought to see no particle of fire on the earth.
But the fact is that it exists to such an extent, not only on but even
under the earth, that the tops of mountains vomit it forth; besides
that we see it to exist on earth for human uses, and even to be
produced from the earth, since it is kindled from wood and stones,
which are without doubt earthly bodies. But that [upper] fire, they
say, is tranquil, pure, harmless, eternal; but this [earthly]
fire is turbid, smoky, corruptible, and corrupting. But it does not
corrupt the mountains and caverns of the earth in which it rages
continually. But grant that the earthly fire is so unlike the other as
to suit its earthly position, why then do they object to our believing
that the nature of earthly bodies shall some day be made incorruptible
and fit for the sky, even as now fire is corruptible and suited to the
earth? They therefore adduce from their weights and order of the
elements nothing from which they can prove that it is impossible for
Almighty God to make our bodies such that they can dwell in the
skies.
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