Philo, The Eternity of the World 75
“If no unending form of nature could be seen, then those who believe in the destruction of the world might have a good reason to be grumpy, since they have no example of eternal existence.
But since what is fated has neither beginning nor end–at least according to the best natural philosophers–why shouldn’t we also believe that the universe is naturally everlasting, since it is the ordering of what is disordered, the fixing of the unfixed, the harmony of the dissonant, the unity of the divisive, like the fitting of wood and stone, the growth of planted crops and trees, the soul of all living things, reason and thought in human beings, and the complete excellence of the good?
If the nature of the universe is uncreated and cannot be destroyed, then the world itself is the same, bound together by the power of the eternal chain.”
Ἔτι τοίνυν, εἰ μὲν μηδεμία φύσις ἀίδιος ἑωρᾶτο, ἧττον ἂν ἐδόκουν οἱ φθορὰν εἰσηγούμενοι τοῦ κόσμου, μηδὲν γὰρ ἔχοντες παράδειγμα ἀιδιότητος, [ἐδόκουν οἱ φθορὰν εἰσηγούμενοι τοῦ κόσμου ἂν] εὐπροφάσιστα ἀδικεῖν.1 ἐπεὶ δὲ εἱμαρμένη κατὰ τοὺς ἄριστα φυσιολογοῦντας ἄναρχος καὶ ἀτελεύτητός ἐστιν, εἴρουσα τὰς ἑκάστων ἀνελλιπῶς καὶ ἀδιαστάτως αἰτίας, τί δήποτ᾿ οὐχὶ καὶ τὴν τοῦ κόσμου φύσιν λεκτέον εἶναι μακραίωνα, τὴν τάξιν τῶν ἀτάκτων, τὴν ἁρμονίαν τῶν ἀναρμόστων, τὴν συμφωνίαν τῶν ἀσυμφώνων, τὴν ἕνωσιν τῶν διεστηκότων, τὴν ξύλων μὲν καὶ λίθων ἕξιν, σπαρτῶν δὲ καὶ δένδρων φύσιν, ψυχὴν δὲ ζῴων ἁπάντων, ἀνθρώπων δὲ νοῦν καὶ λόγον, ἀρετὴν δὲ σπουδαίων τελειοτάτην; εἰ δ᾿ ἡ τοῦ κόσμου φύσις ἀγένητός τε καὶ ἄφθαρτος, δῆλον ὅτι καὶ ὁ κόσμος, αἰωνίῳ συνεχόμενος καὶ διακρατούμενος δεσμῷ.
NASA astronaut Scott Kelly took this photograph of a moonrise over the western united states.
