In reply to these, we ask of those who accept such aspersions as are
scattered against us, Do you regard all men as a collection of bats, or
as frogs, or as worms, in consequence of the pre-eminence of God? or do
you not include the rest of mankind in this proposed comparison, but on
account of their possession of reason, and of the established laws,
treat _them_ as men, while you hold cheap[556] _Christians_ and _Jews_,
because their opinions are distasteful to you, and compare them to the
animals above mentioned? And whatever answer you may return to our
question, we shall reply by endeavouring to show that such assertions
are most unbecoming, whether spoken of all men in general, or of us in
particular. For, let it be supposed that you say justly that all men, as
compared with God, are [rightly] likened to these worthless[557]
animals, since their littleness is not at all to be compared with the
superiority of God, what then do you mean by littleness? Answer me, good
sirs. If you refer to littleness of body, know that superiority and
inferiority, if truth is to be judge, are not determined by a bodily
standard.[558] For, on such a view, vultures[559] and elephants would be
superior to us men; for they are larger, and stronger, and longer-lived
than we. But no sensible person would maintain that these irrational
creatures are superior to rational beings, merely on account of their
bodies: for the possession of reason raises a rational being to a vast
superiority over all irrational creatures. Even the race of virtuous and
blessed beings would admit this, whether they are, as ye say, good
demons, or, as we are accustomed to call them, the angels of God, or any
other natures whatever superior to that of man, since the rational
faculty within them has been made perfect, and endowed with all virtuous
qualities.[560]
Footnote 556:
ἐξευτελίζοντες.
Footnote 557:
εὐτελέσι.
Footnote 558:
οὐκ ἐν σώματι κρίνεται.
Footnote 559:
γύπες; γρύπες?
Footnote 560:
καὶ κατὰ πᾶσαν ἀρετὴν πεποίωται.