t of
all passed into the world, and were then transmitted to the animals.
While the world was aided by the pilot in nurturing the animals, the
evil was small, and great the good which he produced, but after the
separation, when the world was let go, at first all proceeded well
enough; but, as time went on, there was more and more forgetting, and
the old discord again held sway and burst forth in full glory; and at
last small was the good, and great was the admixture of evil, and there
was a danger of universal ruin to the world, and to the things contained
in him. Wherefore God, the orderer of all, in his tender care, seeing
that the world was in great straits, and fearing that all might be
dissolved in the storm and disappear in infinite chaos, again seated
himself at the helm; and bringing back the elements which had fallen
into dissolution and disorder to the motion which had prevailed under
his dispensation, he set them in order and restored them, and made the
world imperishable and immortal. And this is the whole tale, of which
the first part will suffice to illustrate the nature of the king. For
when the world turned towards the present cycle of generation, the age
of man again stood still, and a change opposite to the previous one was
the result. The small creatures which had almost disappeared grew in and
stature, and the newly-born children of the earth became grey and
died and sank into the earth again. All things changed, imitating and
following the condition of the universe, and of necessity agreeing with
that in their mode of conception and generation and nurture; for no
animal was any longer allowed to come into being in the earth through
the agency of other creative beings, but as the world was ordained to be
the lord of his own progress, in like manner the parts were ordained
to grow and generate and give nourishment, as far as they could, of
themselves, impelled by a similar movement. And so we have arrived at
the real end of this discourse; for although there might be much to tell
of the lower animals, and of the condition out of which they changed
and of the causes of the change, about men there is not much, and that
little is more to the purpose. Deprived of the care of God, who had
possessed and tended them, they were left helpless and defenceless, and
were torn in pieces by the beasts, who were naturally fierce and had
now grown wild. And in the first ages they were still without skill or
resource;