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Against Hermogenes

Tertullian

Chapter 41

About this work

Author: Tertullian

Chapter XLI.—Sundry Quotations from Hermogenes. Now Uncertain and Vague are His Speculations Respecting Motion in Matter, and the Material Qualities of Good and Evil.

I come back to the point of motion, that I

‹ Chapter 40 Chapter 42 ›

may

show

how

slippery

you

are

at

every

step

.

Motion

in

Matter

was

disordered

,

and

confused

,

and

turbulent

.

This

is

why

you

apply

to

it

the

comparison

of

a

boiler

of

hot

water

surging

over

.

Now

how

is

it

,

that

in

another

passage

another

sort

of

motion

is

affirmed

by

you

?

For

when

you

want

to

represent

Matter

as

neither

good

nor

evil

,

you

say

:

“

Matter

,

which

is

the

substratum

(

of

creation

)

possessing

as

it

does

motion

in

an

equable

impulse

,

tends

in

no

very

great

degree

either

to

good

or

to

evil

.

”

Now

if

it

had

this

equable

impulse

,

it

could

not

be

turbulent

,

nor

be

like

the

boiling

water

of

the

caldron

;

it

would

rather

be

even

and

regular

,

oscillating

indeed

of

its

own

accord

between

good

and

evil

,

but

yet

not

prone

or

tending

to

either

side

.

It

would

swing

,

as

the

phrase

is

,

in

a

just

and

exact

balance

.

Now

this

is

not

unrest

;

this

is

not

turbulence

or

inconstancy

;

but

rather

the

regularity

,

and

evenness

,

and

exactitude

of

a

motion

,

inclining

to

neither

side

.

If

it

oscillated

this

way

and

that

way

,

and

inclined

rather

to

one

particular

side

,

it

would

plainly

in

that

case

merit

the

reproach

of

unevenness

,

and

inequality

,

and

turbulence

.

Moreover

,

although

the

motion

of

Matter

was

not

prone

either

to

good

or

to

evil

,

it

would

still

,

of

course

,

oscillate

between

good

and

evil

;

so

that

from

this

circumstance

too

it

is

obvious

that

Matter

is

contained

within

certain

limits

,

because

its

motion

,

while

prone

to

neither

good

nor

evil

,

since

it

had

no

natural

bent

either

way

,

oscillated

from

either

between

both

,

and

therefore

was

contained

within

the

limits

of

the

two

.

But

you

,

in

fact

,

place

both

good

and

evil

in

a

local

habitation

,

when

you

assert

that

motion

in

Matter

inclined

to

neither

of

them

.

For

Matter

which

was

local

,

when

inclining

neither

hither

nor

thither

,

inclined

not

to

the

places

in

which

good

and

evil

were

.

But

when

you

assign

locality

to

good

and

evil

,

you

make

them

corporeal

by

making

them

local

,

since

those

things

which

have

local

space

must

needs

first

have

bodily

substance

.

In

fact

,

incorporeal

things

could

not

have

any

locality

of

their

own

except

in

a

body

,

when

they

have

access

to

a

body

.

But

when

Matter

inclined

not

to

good

and

evil

,

it

was

as

corporeal

or

local

essences

that

it

did

not

incline

to

them

.

You

err

,

therefore

,

when

you

will

have

it

that

good

and

evil

are

substances

.

For

you

make

substances

of

the

things

to

which

you

assign

locality

;

but

you

assign

locality

when

you

keep

motion

in

Matter

poised

equally

distant

from

both

sides

.

Notes

1
From which he has digressed since ch. xxxvi., p. 497.
2
Subjacens materia.
3
Æqualis momenti motum.
4
Passivitas.
5
Determinabilem.
6
In loco facis: “you localise.”
7
In loco.
8
Denique.
9
Cum corpori accedunt: or, “when they are added to a body.”
10
Loca: “places;” one to each.
11
Cum ab utraque regione suspendis: equally far from good and evil.