[229]Ecclus. xvi. 26 f.
[230]The natural motion of atoms was downwards, but there was also a slight sideward motion, and when they impinged a motion upwards by blows and tossings, and this produced the shape of things. But Dionysius here says, how is that theory consistent with the orderly march of the stars?
[231]Dionysius here plays on the derivation of ἄτομοι, from τέμνειν (= to cut).
[232]Amos iii. 3 (LXX). The A.V. and R.V. give the more exact meaning “agreed” to the last word.
[233]Hesiod, Works and Days, iv. 408 and 411.
[234]Viz. the heathen, to whom the poets were to some extent what the prophets are to us Christians.
[235]Jer. xlviii. 10.
[236]The happiness of the King of Persia was proverbial: see Hor., Od. ii. 12, 21, iii. 9, 4.
[237]By “Necessity” here Dionysius means not “Fate” in the fatalist’s sense, but that supreme Will and Purpose of God, which is opposed to the Epicurean doctrine of chance.
[238]The title here given (ὑποθῆκαι) is not given in the list of Democritus’s works, but the ὑπομνήματα ἠθικά may be meant.