Quod ipsum explorare et eruere sine universitatis inquisitione non possumus, cum ita cohaerentia, conexa, concatenata sint, ut nisi divinitatis rationem diligenter excusseris, nescias humanitatis, nec possis pulchre gerere rem civilem, nisi cognoveris hanc communem omnium mundi civitatem, praecipue cum a feris beluis hoc differamus, quod illa prona in terramque vergentia nihil nata sint prospicere nisi pabulum, nos, quibus vultus erectus, quibus suspectus in caelum datus est, sermo et ratio, per quae deum adgnoscimus, sentimus, imitamur, ignorare nec fas nec licet ingerentem sese oculis et sensibus nostris caelestem claritatem: sacrilegii enim vel maxime instar est, humi quaerere quod in sublimi debeas invenire.
But this is the very thing we cannot investigate and unravel without inquiry into the universe; things are so coherent, so closely combined and interconnected that, without careful investigation of the nature of deity, you cannot know that of man; just as you cannot manage civic affairs successfully without some knowledge of the wider world-society of men; all the more that our distinction from the beasts is this, that their downward earthbound gaze is fixed only on their food: we, with countenance erect and heavenward gaze, endowed with speech and reason, enabling us to recognize, perceive and imitate God, neither may nor can ignore the heavenly sheen which thrusts itself upon our eyes and senses; for it is next door to sacrilege to seek upon the ground that which you ought to find on high.
final_alignments\Minucius_Felix_Octavius.json