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45. There is also a species of narrative resembling description, in
which not a past but an existing state of things is made known to those
who are ignorant of it. To this species belongs all that has been
written about the situation of places, and the nature of animals,
trees, herbs, stones, and other bodies. And of this species I have
treated above, and have shown that this kind of knowledge is
serviceable in solving the difficulties of Scripture, not that these
objects are to be used conformably to certain signs as nostrums or the
instruments of superstition; for that kind of knowledge I have already
set aside as distinct from the lawful and free kind now spoken of. For
it is one thing to say: If you bruise down this herb and drink it, it
will remove the pain from your stomach; and another to say: If you
hang this herb round your neck, it will remove the pain from your
stomach. In the former case the wholesome mixture is approved of, in
the latter the superstitious charm is condemned; although indeed,
where incantations and invocations and marks are not used, it is
frequently doubtful whether the thing that is tied or fixed in any way
to the body to cure it, acts by a natural virtue, in which case it may
be freely used; or acts by a sort of charm, in which case it becomes
the Christian to avoid it the more carefully, the more efficacious it
may seem to be. But when the reason why a thing is of virtue does not
appear, the intention with which it is used is of great importance, at
least in healing or in tempering bodies, whether in medicine or in
agriculture.
46. The knowledge of the stars, again, is not a matter of
narration, but of description. Very few of these, however, are
mentioned in Scripture. And as the course of the moon, which is
regularly employed in reference to celebrating the anniversary of our
Lord's passion, is known to most people; so the rising and setting
and other movements of the rest of the heavenly bodies are thoroughly
known to very few. And this knowledge, although in itself it involves
no superstition, renders very little, indeed almost no assistance, in
the interpretation of Holy Scripture, and by engaging the attention
unprofitably is a hindrance rather; and as it is closely related to the
very pernicious error of the diviners of the fates, it is more
convenient and becoming to neglect it. It involves, moreover, in
addition to a description of the present state of things, something
like a narrative of the past also; because one may go back from the
present position and motion of the stars, and trace by rule their past
movements. It involves also regular anticipations of the future, not
in the way of forebodings and omens, but by way of sure calculation;
not with the design of drawing any information from them as to our own
acts and fates, in the absurd fashion of the genethliaci, but only as
to the motions of the heavenly bodies themselves. For, as the man who
computes the moon's age can tell, when he has found out her age
today, what her age was any number of years ago, or what will be her
age any number of years hence, in just the same way men who are skilled
in such computations are accustomed to answer like questions about every
one of the heavenly bodies. And I have stated what my views are about
all this knowledge, so far as regards its utility.
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