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12 A common question among the Epicureans; urged by Velleius in Cic. De. Nat. Deor. i. 9, adopted by the Manichasas and spoken to by Augustin in the Conf. xi. 10, 12, also in De Gen. contra Man. i. 3.
14 Number begins at one, but runs on infinitely.
17 Comp. de Gen. ad Lit. i. and iv.
21 Vives here notes that the Greek theologians and Jerome held, with Plato, that spiritual creatures were made first, and used by God in the creation of things material. The Latin theologians and Basil held that God made all things at once.
23 Mali enim nula natura est: sed amissio boni, mall nomen accepit.
24 Plutarch (De Plac. Phil. i. 3, and iv. 3) tells us that this opinion was held by Anaximenes of Miletus, the followers of Anaxagoras, and many of the Stoics. Diogenes the Cynic, as well, as Diogenes of Appollonia seems to have adopted the same opinion. See Zeller's Stoics, pp. 121 and 199.
25 Ubi lux non est, tenebroe sunt, non quia aliquid sunt tenebrae, sed ipsa; icis absentia tenbroe dicuntur.-Aug. De. Gen. contra Man. 7.
27 The strongly Platonic tinge of this language is perhaps best preserved in a bare literal translation.
28 Vives remarks that the ancients defined blessedness as an absolutely perfect state in all good, peculiar to God. Perhaps Augustin had a reminiscence of the remarkable discussion in the Tusc. Disp. lib. v., and the definition, Neque ulla alia huic verbo, quum beatum dicimus, subjecta natio est, nisi, secretis malis omnibus, cumulata bonorum complexio.
29 With this chapter compare the books De Dono Persever, and De Correp. et Gratia
33 Cf. Gen. ad Lit. xl. 27 et seqq.
42 It must be kept in view that "vice" has, in this passage, the meaning of sinful blemish.
44 Quintilian uses it commonly in the sense of antithesis.
48 The reference is to the Timaeus, p. 37 C, where he says, "When the parent Creator perceived this created image of the eternal Gods in life and motion, He was delighted, and in His joy considered how He might make it still liker its model."
50 The passage referred to is in the Timaeus p. 29 D: "Let us say what was the cause of the Creator's forming this universe. He was good: and in the good no envy is ever generated about anything whatever. Therefore, being free from envy, He desired that all things should, as much as possible, resemble Himself."