Arnobius — Against the Nations 2.59
59.1. If what one may wish to know is at hand and the knowledge of things is set in the open, explain to us and say by what modes and reasons rains are made, how in the upper parts and in this middle of the air water is held suspended—a thing by nature slippery and always so prone to flowing and running down.
2. Explain, I say, and say what it is that whirls hail, that makes rain slip drop by drop, that pours showers, that spreads feathers and little leaves of snow; whence wind arises and what it is; why the turns of seasons were set, when one state and one appearance of heaven could have been fixed so that the integrity of things would lack nothing.
3. What is the cause, what the reason, that seas are salty or that these waters of lands are sweet or warm, others bitter or cold? From what kind of matter were the innards of human bodies compacted and made firm, whence bones solidified, what made intestines, what made veins tubular and passable? Why, when it would have been more useful to light us with many eyes against the danger of blindness, are we applied to the narrowness of two?
4. Of what thing are the so infinite and innumerable kinds of beasts and snakes a cause, either shaped or brought forth? What do owls, bats, buzzards do in the world? What other birds and flying things? What kinds of ants and worms arising into various blights and destructions? What fleas, what shameless flies, spiders, shrews, mice, leeches, water-bugs? What thorns, what briars, what wild oats, what darnel, what seeds of herbs or shrubs either sweet-smelling to nostrils or sad in odors?
5. Nay, if you judge that something can be known or grasped, say what wheat is, spelt, barley, millet, chickpea, bean, lentil, melon, cumin, leek, garlic, onion. For it is not, if they are for your use and set among the kinds of foods, ready or easy to know what each is, why they were shaped in such forms, whether there was some necessity that individual things should have no other tastes, other odors, other colors than those they have, or whether they could have taken others.
6. Then what these very things themselves are—I mean taste and the rest—from what reasons they draw the distances of qualities. "From the elements," you say, "and from the principal origins of things." — For are the elements bitter or sweet, of some odor, of some color, so that from their compacting we should believe qualities were allotted in things being born, by which either sweetness is born or offense is prepared for the senses?
Latin
59.1. Si praesto est quod libuerit scire et in aperto rerum est scientia constituta, edissertate nobis et dicite, quibus modis fiant et rationibus pluviae, ut in superis partibus atque in aeris hoc medio suspensa aqua teneatur, natura res labilis et ad fluorem semper decursionemque tam prona?
2. Edissertate, inquam, et dicite, quid sit quod grandinem torqueat, quod guttatim faciat pluviam labi, quod imbres ruat, nivis plumas et foliola dilatarit, ventus unde oriatur et quid sit, cur temporum vicissitudines institutae, cum statui unum posset et una esse species caeli, nihil ut rerum desideraret integritas?
3. quae est causa, quae ratio, ut maria salsa sint aut terrae aquarum hae dulces <vel calidae>, aliae sint amarae vel frigidae? quo ex materiae genere humanorum corporum concreta, et stabilita sunt viscera, unde ossa solidata, quid intestina, quid venas fistulatas et conmeabiles fecerit? cur cum esset utilius oculis nos inluminare conpluribus ad periculum caecitatis, duorum sumus angustiis adplicati?
4. beluarum et anguium tam infinita atque innumerabilia genera cuius rei sunt causa vel informata vel prodita? quid in mundo faciunt bubones inmussili buteones? quid alites et volucres ceterae? quid formicarum et vermium genera in varias labes perniciesque nascentia? quid pulices, quid inpudentes muscae, araneae sorices mures scunguisugae tippulae? quid spinae, quid sentes, quid avenae, quid lolium, quid herbarum aut fruticum aut adolentia naribus aut tristia in odoribus semina?
5. Immo si aliquid sciri, comprehendi aut aliquid si posse censetis, quid sit triticum dicite, far hordeum milium cicer faba lenticula melo cuminum porrina ulpicum caepe. Non enim, si fructui vobis sunt et ciborum mediis in generibus constituta, expeditum aut promptum est quid sint singula scire, cur talibus figurata sint formis, fuerit necessitas aliqua, ut non alios sapores alios odores alios colores quam quos habent singulae res habere debuerint, an et alios potuerint sumere.
6. Ipsa deinde haec quid sint, sapor dico [id est sapor] et cetera, qualitatum distantias quibus ex rationibus ducunt. ''Ex elementis, inquitis, et ex principalibus originibus rerum''. - Amara sunt enim elementa vel dulcia, odoris sunt alicuius, <alicuius> coloris, ut ex eorum concretione credamus partitas esse in nascentibus qualitates quibus aut suavitas nascitur aut sensibus offensio comparatur.