After this, Celsus, desirous of maintaining that Providence created the
products of the earth, not more on our account than on that of the most
savage animals, thus proceeds: “We indeed by labour and suffering earn a
scanty and toilsome subsistence,[776] while all things are produced for
them without their sowing and ploughing.” He does not observe that God,
wishing to exercise the human understanding in all countries (that it
might not remain idle and unacquainted with the arts), created man a
being full of wants,[777] in order that by virtue of his very needy
condition he might be compelled to be the inventor of arts, some of
which minister to his subsistence, and others to his protection. For it
was better that those who would not have sought out divine things, nor
engaged in the study of philosophy, should be placed in a condition of
want, in order that they might employ their understanding in the
invention of the arts, than that they should altogether neglect the
cultivation of their minds, because their condition was one of
abundance. The want of the necessaries of human life led to the
invention on the one hand of the art of husbandry, on the other to that
of the cultivation of the vine; again, to the art of gardening, and the
arts of carpentry and smithwork, by means of which were formed the tools
required for the arts which minister to the support of life. The want of
covering, again, introduced the art of weaving, which followed that of
wool-carding and spinning; and again, that of house-building: and thus
the intelligence of men ascended even to the art of architecture. The
want of necessaries caused the products also of other places to be
conveyed, by means of the arts of sailing and pilotage,[778] to those
who were without them; so that even on that account one might admire the
Providence which made the rational being subject to want in a far higher
degree than the irrational animals, and yet all with a view to his
advantage. For the irrational animals have their food provided for them,
because there is not in them even an impulse[779] towards the invention
of the arts. They have, besides, a natural covering; for they are
provided either with hair, or wings, or scales, or shells. Let the
above, then, be our answer to the assertions of Celsus, when he says
that “we indeed by labour and suffering earn a scanty and toilsome
subsistence, while all things are produced for them without their sowing
and ploughing.”
Footnote 776:
μόλις καὶ ἐπιπόνως.
Footnote 777:
ἐπιδεῆ.
Footnote 778:
διὰ ναυτικῆς καὶ κυβερνητικῆς.
Footnote 779:
ἀφορμήν.