BOOK I CH. XXVII § 76. a i

seems to men the most beautiful, that is merely the prejudice of race. If it is said that experience shows rationality to be confined to that form, on the same ground we might attribute all the properties of man to the Gods ; but reason shows the danger of drawing negative conclu- sions from our limited experience, and it shows also that a body which is suitable for man is unsuitable for such a being as God is supposed tobe. Ch. xxvit § 76—xxxvu § 102.
§ 76. hoc loco—velitis : ‘here you are at no loss for arguments by which you would fain make out’, cf. guo loco § 13 n.
primum quod—occurrat humana: cf. § 46. ‘Such is the shaping of our minds (i.e. the mpdAnis, cf. §§ 43, 45, 100) that in thinking of God a human form presents itself to us’.
nec esse—pulchriorem: for the loose infinitive after non deest copia rationum cf. res esse after dicemus just above; the infinitive clause here represents a parenthetic clause in the original direct sentence, thus huma- nae sunt formae, quod ita est informatum ;...quod forma esse pulcherrima debet (pulchrior autem humana nulla est). This argument is given § 47.
domicilium mentis: cf. § 48; and, for the phrase, § 99 domicilia vitae.
§ 77. primum quicque: ‘each in turn ’, lit. ‘as it comes to the front’ ; cf. m1 7, Ac. 11 49 with Reid’s n., Madv. Fin. 11 105 ; most mss have the archaic guicquid, which is used by Lucretius in this sense, see Munro’s n. on I 389.
arripere—vestro jure rem nullo modo probabilem: ‘you act as if none could dispute your right to snatch up an hypothesis which is in no way to be allowed’. Arr. stronger than sumo in § 89: Lucr. uses corripio in the same way V 247 dlud in his rebus ne corripuisse rearis | me mthi quod terram atque ignem mortalia sumpsi, which Munro illustrates from Sext. Emp. Hyp. 1 90 mptv dpEacOa tis kpicews Ta Hhaivopeva ovvaprafovew, €avtois THY Kpiow émitpemovtes. The phrase suo jure (nearly equivalent to suo arbitrio) means properly ‘of his own right’, i.e. on his own authority, without asking leave or being liable to be called to account by another, and then, uncontrolled, without hindrance, as in Florus 117 a subjectos suo jure detonuit, where see var. nn.
species istas—converterent. So Arist. Met. x1 8 p. 1074 b. (of the origin of religion) ra d€ Aouad pubikds dn mpoonkrat mpos THY melOa Tov moAAGv Kal mpos Thy els TOUS Vouous Kal TO Guppéepov xpyaw* avOpwroedeis TE yap tovrous kal Tav GArwv (dev dpoiovs tiot A€youver, and Critias quoted on § 118. No one in the present day, theist or atheist, would assign an arti- ficial cause for so primitive and general a phenomenon. The highest personality being involved in the idea of God, it was natural to attribute to him the form in which personality was most clearly shown, more parti- cularly if Mr Herbert Spencer is right in supposing that ancestor-worship was the earliest form of the heathen religions, cf. Sociology, p. 440.