The Religion of Nature Delineated by William Wollaston (mystery books to read .txt) 📕

Ὅλως δέ πᾶσα ἀργία καὶ τῆς τυχούσης πράξεώς ἐστιν ἐυμαρεστέρα· οἷον, Οὐ φονεύσεις, οὐ μοιχεύσεις, κ.τ.λ.: “In general, the forbearing to do a thing is very easy: as thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not commit adultery.” (Basil of Caesarea, Homily on Psalm 1.) ↩

Z + Y + X, that is, Z, Y, and X added together. ↩

One might with the Στασιῶται, “stationary philosophers,” (so called by Aristotle, in Sextus Empiricus, in opposition to those philosophers who maintained that nothing continued fixed, but everything was in motion) as well deny that there is any such thing as motion, as say there is motion without a mover; or, which is the same, a First mover. ↩

Ηρῶτον μεταβάλλον: “Something that first emits any alteration to be made in a thing.” (Plato.) Ἀρχὴ κινήσεωσ ἁπάσης: “The principle of all motion.” (Plato.) Πρῶτον κινοῶν: “The First mover.” (Aristotle.) ↩

The greatest men among the ancients denied the possibility of such an ascent. Οὔτε γὰρ τόδ᾿ ἐκ τοῦδε δυνατὸν ἰέναι εἰς ἄπειρον: “it is impossible for one thing to proceed from another and so on forever.” If there could be such a process, then all the parts of it but the last would be μέσα, “intermediate ones”; and then εἴπερ μηδέν ἐστι τὸ πρῶτον, ὅλως αἴτιον οὐδέν ἐστι, κ.τ.λ.: “if there be no first, there can be no cause at all.” (Aristotle, Metaphysics.) To suppose one thing moved by another, this by another, and so on ἐπ᾿ ἄπειον, “infinitely,” is to suppose ὅπερ ἐστὶν ἀδυνατὸν᾿ οὐδὲν γὰρ οὕτως οὔτε κινοῦν ἔσται οὔτε κινού μενον, μὴ οὔσης ἀρχῆς τῆς κινούσης: “a thing that is impossible; for nothing can either move or be moved in this manner, without any beginning of motion.” (Simplicius, On Aristotle’s On The Heavens.) Not only those Arabian philosophers called מדברים (Hebrew) אלמחכלמון (Arabic), “the rational” (a sect who maintained that the world was eternal), but many of the elder Jews have agreed with the Greeks in this matter, and added arguments of their own. Of the former see The Guide for the Perplexed I (Maimonides) et. al. and particularly Sefer ha-Kuzari V (Jehudah Ha-Levi): where their first argument seems to be strong (and much the same with the fourth in Emunoth ve-Deoth I, Saadya Gaon) אם היה חולף אין לו ראשית הנה האישים הנמצאים בזמן החולף עד העת הזאת אין תכלית להם ומה שאין לו תכלית לא יצא אל הפועל: “If there be any succession which has no beginning, then the number of those men, who existed during that whole succession down to the present time, must be infinite, and that which is infinite cannot be the effect of any other thing.” For though, as Joseph Moscato observes, these reasonings of the Medabberim לא לרצון היו לפניו [המורה], “rational philosophers, were not agreeable to him” (Kol Jehudah); yet most certainly, let the series of causes and effects be what it will, it is just as long downward as upward; and if they are infinite and inexhaustible one way, they must be so the other too: and then what Saadya Gaon says, takes place אם לא תגיע ההויה אלינו נהיה וכו: “If we had no beginning, we could not now exist.” There is another argument of this kind in [Pseudo-]Justin Martyr, which deserves notice, what stress soever may be laid upon it. Εἰ τὸ μέλλον μέρος τοῦ χρόνου, οὔπω ἐστίν᾿ ἦν δὲ καὶ τὸ γελονὸς μέρος τοῦ χρόνου πρὸ τοῦ γενέσθαι μέλλον᾿ ἦν ἄρα ὅτε οὐκ ἦν τὸ γεγονὸς μέρος τοῦ χρόνου: “If the future part of time, says he, has no existence, and the part of time that is past was future before it was present, then there was a time when that part of time which is past had no existence.” (Confutatio Dogmatum Quorundam Asistotelicorum.) ↩

Aristotle himself, who asserts the eternity of motion, asserts also the necessity of a first and eternal mover. ↩

Σειρὴν χρυσείην ἐξ οὐρανόθεν: “A golden chain hanging down from heaven⁠ ⁠…” (Homer, Iliad.) Aurea de cœlo⁠ ⁠… funis: “a golden rope reaching down from heaven” is mentioned too by Lucretius. (De Rerum Natura.) ↩

אי אפשר שישתלשל ענין מעלה ועלול אל בלתי תכלית: “It is impossible that causes and effects can be connected with each other without end.” (Joseph Albo, Sefer ha-Ikkarim II, 11.) Where more may be seen of this השתלשלות, “concatenation,” out of Ibn Sinai, Maimonides, etc. ↩

The chain must be fastened περί ῥίον Οὐλύμποιο: “to the top of Olympus.” Invenietur pressius intuenti à summo Deo usque ad ultimam rerum fæcem⁠ ⁠… connexio: et hæc est Homeri catena aurea, quam pendere de cœlo in terras Deum jussisse commemorat: “Whoever considers the thing closely (says Macrobius in his Commentary on Somnium Scipionis) will see that there is a connection of things from the supreme God to the lowest dregs that are⁠ ⁠… : and this is Homer’s golden chain, which he tells you God commanded to hang down from heaven to the earth.” This matter might be illustrated by other similitudes (even שלשלת הקבלה, “the chain of the Kabbalah,” might serve for one): but I shall set down but one more: and in that indeed the motion is inverted, but the thing is the same taken either way. It occurs in Hobot Ha-Lebabot I, and afterward in Reshit Hokmah. Suppose a