The City of God, Volume IIAugustine, of Hippo, Saint
ReligionChristian
The City of God, Volume II
Augustine, of Hippo, Saint
Apologetics -- Early works to 1800; Kingdom of God -- Early works to 1800
it, so that both they and virtue are desired for their own sakes,--we
must multiply the four by three, and thus we get twelve sects. But
from those four things Varro eliminates three--pleasure, repose,
pleasure and repose combined--not because he thinks these are not
worthy of the place assigned them, but because they are included in
the primary objects of nature. And what need is there, at any rate, to
make a threefold division out of these two ends, pleasure and repose,
taking them first severally and then conjunctly, since both they, and
many other things besides, are comprehended in the primary objects of
nature? Which of the three remaining sects must be chosen? This is the
question that Varro dwells upon. For whether one of these three or
some other be chosen, reason forbids that more than one be true. This
we shall afterwards see; but meanwhile let us explain as briefly and
distinctly as we can how Varro makes his selection from these three,
that is, from the sects which severally hold that the primary objects
of nature are to be desired for virtue's sake, that virtue is to be
desired for their sake, and that virtue and these objects are to be
desired each for their own sake.
3. _Which of the three leading opinions regarding the chief good
should be preferred, according to Varro, who follows Antiochus
and the Old Academy._
Which of these three is true and to be adopted he attempts to show in
the following manner. As it is the supreme good, not of a tree, or
of a beast, or of a god, but of man, that philosophy is in quest of,
he thinks that, first of all, we must define man. He is of opinion
that there are two parts in human nature, body and soul, and makes
no doubt that of these two the soul is the better and by far the
more worthy part. But whether the soul alone is the man, so that
the body holds the same relation to it as a horse to the horseman,
this he thinks has to be ascertained. The horseman is not a horse
and a man, but only a man, yet he is called a horseman, because he
is in some relation to the horse. Again, is the body alone the man,
having a relation to the soul such as the cup has to the drink? For
it is not the cup and the drink it contains which are called the
cup, but the cup alone; yet it is so called because it is made to
hold the drink. Or, lastly, is it neither the soul alone nor the
body alone, but both together, which are man, the body and the soul
being each a part, but the whole man being both together, as we
call two horses yoked together a pair, of which pair the near and
the off horse is each a part, but we do not call either of them, no
matter how connected with the other, a pair, but only both together?
Of these three alternatives, then, Varro chooses the third, that man
is neither the body alone, nor the soul alone, but both together.
And therefore the highest good, in which lies the happiness of man,
is composed of goods of both kinds, both bodily and spiritual. And
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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