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Surely the earth, which we see full of its own living creatures, is
one; but for all that, it is but a mighty mass among the elements,
and the lowest part of the world. Why, then, would they have it to
be a goddess? Is it because it is fruitful? Why, then, are not men
rather held to be gods, who render it fruitful by cultivating it; but
though they plough it, do not adore it? But, say they, the part of
the soul of the world which pervades it makes it a goddess. As if it
were not a far more evident thing, nay, a thing which is not called in
question, that there is a soul in man. And yet men are not held to be
gods, but (a thing to be sadly lamented), with wonderful and pitiful
delusion, are subjected to those who are not gods, and than whom they
themselves are better, as the objects of deserved worship and
adoration. And certainly the same Varro, in the book concerning the
select gods, affirms that there are three grades of soul in universal
nature. One which pervades all the living parts of the body, and has
not sensation, but only the power of life, that principle which
penetrates into the bones, nails and hair. By this principle in the
world trees are nourished, and grow without being possessed of
sensation, and live in a manner peculiar to themselves. The second
grade of soul is that in which there is sensation. This principle
penetrates into the eyes, ears, nostrils, mouth, and the organs of
sensation. The third grade of soul is the highest, and is called
mind, where intelligence has its throne. This grade of soul no mortal
creatures except man are possessed of. Now this part of the soul of
the world, Varro says, is called God, and in us is called Genius.
And the stones and earth in the world, which we see, and which are
not pervaded by the power of sensation, are, as it were, the bones
and nails of God Again, the sun, moon, and stars, which we
perceive, and by which He perceives, are His organs of perception.
Moreover, the ether is His mind; and by the virtue which is in it,
which penetrates into the stars, it also makes them gods; and because
it penetrates through them into the earth, it makes it the goddess
Tellus, whence again it enters and permeates the sea and ocean,
making them the god Neptune.
Let him return from this, which he thinks to be natural theology,
back to that from which he went out, in order to rest from the fatigue
occasioned by the many turnings and windings of his path. Let him
return, I say, let him return to the civil theology. I wish to
detain him there a while. I have somewhat to say which has to do with
that theology. I am not yet saying, that if the earth and stones are
similar to our bones and nails, they are in like manner devoid of
intelligence, as they are devoid of sensation. Nor am I saying
that, if our bones and nails are said to have intelligence, because
they are in a man who has intelligence, he who says that the things
analogous to these in the world are gods, is as stupid as he is who
says that our bones and nails are men. We shall perhaps have occasion
to dispute these things with the philosophers. At present, however,
I wish to deal with Varro as a political theologian. For it is
possible that, though he may seem to have wished to lift up his head,
as it were, into the liberty of natural theology, the consciousness
that the book with which he was occupied was one concerning a subject
belonging to civil theology, may have caused him to relapse into the
point of view of that theology, and to say this in order that the
ancestors of his nation, and other states, might not be believed to
have bestowed on Neptune an irrational worship. What I am to say is
this: Since the earth is one, why has not that part of the soul of
the world which permeates the earth made it that one goddess which he
calls Tellus? But had it done so, what then had become of Orcus,
the brother of Jupiter and Neptune, whom they call Father Dis?
And where, in that case, had been his wife Proserpine, who,
according to another opinion given in the same book, is called, not
the fecundity of the earth, but its lower part? But if they say that
part of the soul of the world, when it permeates the upper part of the
earth, makes the god Father Dis, but when it pervades the nether
part of the same the goddess Proserpine; what, in that case, will
that Tellus be? For all that which she was has been divided into
these two parts, and these two gods; so that it is impossible to find
what to make or where to place her as a third goddess, except it be
said that those divinities Orcus and Proserpine are the one goddess
Tellus, and that they are not three gods, but one or two, whilst
notwithstanding they are called three, held to be three, worshipped as
three, having their own several altars, their own shrines, rites,
images, priests, whilst their own false demons also through these
things defile the prostituted soul. Let this further question be
answered: What part of the earth does a part of the soul of the world
permeate in order to make the god Tellumo? No, says he; but the
earth being one and the same, has a double life, the masculine, which
produces seed, and the feminine, which receives and nourishes the
seed. Hence it has been called Tellus from the feminine principle,
and Tellumo from the masculine. Why, then, do the priests, as he
indicates, perform divine service to four gods, two others being
added, namely, to Tellus, Tellumo, Altor, and Rusor? We have
already spoken concerning Tellus and Tellumo. But why do they
worship Altor? Because, says he, all that springs of the earth is
nourished by the earth. Wherefore do they worship Rusor? Because
all things return back again to the place whence they proceeded.
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