Having now treated of this greater world and of its principal parts, it follows that we now treat of the fabric of the lesser world and of its parts, which is man, which serves no less for the knowledge of our Lord God than the past one. For which first we must presuppose that the beginning and foundation of all our goods is this knowledge. And since there are many things that we can know of him, the one that most matters for our salvation and consolation is the knowledge of his providence, which (as has already been said) includes those three signal perfections of his, which are goodness, wisdom, and omnipotence. Then all that up to here has been said of the fabric of this greater world gives us clear testimony of this providence and of these divine perfections that go in its company, and no less serves for this what is said of the fabric of the lesser world, which is man. For which Theodoret, in twelve sermons that he wrote On Divine Providence, makes use of the admirable artifice of the parts of our bodies to prove this providence. And the reason why man is called the lesser world is because all that there is in the greater world is found in him, although in briefer form. For in him is found being as in the elements, and life as in the plants, and sense as in the animals, and understanding and free will as in the angels. For which Saint Gregory calls him “every creature,” because the nature and properties of all creatures are found in him. And for that reason God created him on the sixth day, after they had been created, wishing to make in him a summary of all that he had fabricated, as those do who give or take accounts in writing, who at the end of them summarize in one line the sum of all of them, so that that single line comprehends all that is explained in many leaves. And the same in its manner the Creator seems to have done in the formation of man, in whom he recapitulated and summed all that he had created. From here
it is that with greater ease we know by this way the divine perfections than if we extended our eyes through all the world, which is a thing that asks a very long term. And for this cause the cosmographers make a map, in which they paint all the principal parts and nations of the world, so that with one brief view there may be seen drawn what in its own nature could not be seen in many years. Then thus we can say that man is like a brief map that that sovereign artificer traced, where not by figures, but by the very truth he represented to us as much as there was in the world. And the more this map is smaller and more familiar and more known to us, since it goes in our company, so much the clearer knowledge it gives us of the Creator.
We place further on, among the marvels and works of God, the virtue that he placed in the seeds of the plants, because in a small pip of an orange he placed virtue so that from it an orange tree might be born, and in a little pine nut, so that from it a great pine might be born. But this is very little in comparison with the virtue that he placed in the matter of which the human body is formed, because from one of these seeds no more is fabricated than the roots and the trunk and branches of the tree, with its leaves and fruit. But from the matter of which the human body is forged, although it is a simple substance, there comes to be formed so great a variety of members, of bones, of veins, of arteries, of nerves, and of other innumerable organs, and these so accommodated to the use of life, that if some wit should come to know all the particularities and minute things and providences that there are in this, a thousand times it would remain astonished and frightened at the wisdom and providence of the Creator, who from so simple a matter could and knew how to form so many and so different things. For there is none that is not crying out and saying: who could do this except God? who could, within the entrails of a woman, without placing in her anything of his industry, fabricate a house for the soul with so many chambers and inner chambers, with so many halls and retreats, and with so many offices and officers, except God? Which manifestly declares this to be a work traced by an infinite wisdom, which in nothing fails nor errs. Which the physicians and philosophers prove by this demonstration. They say that in all the body of man there are more than three hundred bones between great and small. And thus on each side there are more than one hundred and fifty bones, and each one of them has ten properties (which the anatomists call “scopos”), namely: such figure, such site, such connection, such roughness, such softness, and other similar ones. So that multiplying these ten properties, and attributing them to each one of the one hundred and fifty bones, there result one thousand five hundred properties in the bones of one side, and as many more in the other.
Then in these bones there are three works and marvels of God to contemplate. The first is the fitting and linking of the bones one with another, with their cords and ligaments, as perfectly made as we already said. The second is the likeness that the bones of the one side have with those of the other, not only in size, but also in these ten properties that we here said, so that, when the bones grow with age (I put for example) of one hand, with that same compass and measure those of the other grow, and with those same properties that they have, without there being difference from one part to another. And the same is understood of the ribs, and of the shanks of the arms, and of the legs of the one side and of the other. The third marvel, which frightens me more than the aforesaid ones, is to see the making and the properties that each of these bones has for the place where it is, and for the office that it exercises. Let us declare this with an example from artificial things, so that by
it we may come into knowledge of natural works through those of art, which seeks to imitate them, because these are better known. We see, then, that in the house of a carpenter there is a saw for sawing, and an adze for rough-hewing, and a plane for smoothing, and a jointer for leveling, and a compass for measuring and compassing, and other such instruments. And we see how proportioned they are, and how well fabricated these instruments are for their offices. Then this same we find fabricated with greater perfection in these three hundred bones of our body, each one of which has all those ten properties that we said, so proportioned and so accommodated to the places where they are, and to the offices that they have to exercise, that all the understandings of men and angels could not form them with greater perfection than they have. And if the Creator himself, as a manner of speaking, were a thousand years thinking on the fabric of each one of these bones for the aforesaid end, he would not make them in another manner than they are.
And the marvel does not end here, because all that we have here said of the proportion and likeness of the bones of one side with those of the other, that same is in the cartilages, and in the ligaments and bindings of the bones, in the little muscles, and in the nerves and veins and arteries of the one side in relation to those of the other. And all these are instruments necessary for the conservation of our life, which come so accommodated to the offices for which they are deputed, that neither a ring for the finger, nor a sheath for its sword comes so measured nor so compassed as each one of these parts for the office that it serves. Then what thing declares to us more the wisdom of that sovereign artificer, who fabricated so great a number of instruments with so great perfection and artifice for their offices, that not even in one single hair did he swerve or disagree from what was fitting for this end?
In which is seen how bestial was that Epicurus, who said that our bodies had been fabricated by chance. For things that are made by chance seldom succeed in coming out well and, at most, this could be in three or four things. But to succeed in so many thousand parts, and all so perfectly fabricated, that they surpass all the faculty of human understandings, it is not possible to be made by chance, but by a sovereign understanding. For I ask now: what so great madness would it be to say that, throwing a great mass of iron into a blacksmith’s forge, by chance a clock should come out concerted with all its wheels, or some very well made braided harness? Then much greater madness without comparison is it to say that the human body was made by chance from that matter of which it is fabricated in the entrails of the mother, as well because the number of the bones and of the other parts of which they are composed is much greater, as because all of them are more perfectly fabricated than those of a clock or harness. For if this artifice were found in one hundred or two hundred parts of our body, it would not be so much: but to be found in so great a number of parts, and all of them so perfectly fabricated for their offices, this is a thing that surpasses all admiration and that singularly declares to us the wisdom and omnipotence of him who could give so great efficacy to the formative virtue of our bodies.
Then for this cause the students of this science of anatomy say very well that it is to us a most certain guide and teacher to lead us to the knowledge of our Maker and of those so principal perfections of his that here we go tracing by means of his creatures. For which with much reason some call this science, and the very fabric of our body, “book of God,” because in each little part of it, however
small it may be, the highest artifice and wisdom of God is read and seen. And although the fabric and the things of the greater world help us to this same knowledge, as is already declared, yet these we see at intervals in some rare and extraordinary things, which give us clearer testimony of him: but in this lesser world, which is man, and particularly in the house of him, which is the body, there is nothing so minute, there is no vein, nor artery, nor little bone so small, that it is not with voices preaching the refinement and artifice of him who fabricated it.
Then what shall I say of the greater parts? What things the anatomists say of the fabric of our eyes! What of the frame, and bones, and little bones, and brains, and admirable net of our brain! What of the artifice and fabric of our hands, from which another new artificial world has proceeded, where there is found almost as much variety and multitude of things as in the natural world that God created! For which I hold in part as happy those who have given themselves to this part of philosophy that treats of the composition of our bodies, because if they wish to lift their eyes a little to God, and look in his work at the wisdom and omnipotence of the Maker, they will not be able to fail to remain a thousand times amazed at seeing so many subtleties and providences and marvels. David says that “those who descend to the sea in their ships see the greatness of the works of God, and the marvels that he does in the deep.” Then no less, I say, those who enter within themselves, and know how to contemplate what the Maker worked in them, will see just as many marvels, with which he provided man with all the instruments necessary for the conservation of his life, and this with so much perfection, that there is in him no superfluous thing, nor is the necessary lacking.
Nor is it a less admirable thing to see the site and the places of the body in which all these parts of it are situated with so much perfection. For no other can be imagined either more beautiful, or more fitting, or more proportioned for the end and office for which it was made. The ancients said of Plato’s eloquence that if some wise man should remove one word of his, and with much study put another in its place, he would take away from its elegance; and whoever should do this in the orations of a great orator by the name Lysias, would take away from the sentence, wishing by this to praise the elegance of the one and the propriety of the words of the other. Then thus we can say to this purpose (although the comparison be humble, comparing the things of human understanding with those of the divine) that if all the wise men of the world wished to trace the smallest part, or member, or sense of the human body, and form it in another manner, or set it in another place, they would take away not only the office and use of it, but also all its grace and beauty. For which Galen, disputing with that bestial philosopher Epicurus (who, denying divine providence, said that the fabric of our body had been made by chance and without counsel, as we already said), comes out with him to this bargain, that he will give him one hundred years of space so that he may change the figure or site of some one of these parts of our body, and fabricate and set it in another mode than it is, and he will clearly see how it is not possible for it to be disposed nor traced better than as it is fabricated and set. At which Solomon marveled, and seeing how low human understanding remained for understanding the refinement and subtlety of this divine artifice, he said: “Just as you do not know what the way of the air may be, and in what manner the members are fabricated in the womb of the pregnant woman, so you do not know the works of God, who is the Maker of all things.”
The holy king David knew the artifice of this work, not by study of human philosophy, which he did not learn, but by special revelation of God. And thus in Psalm 138, which all treats of the wisdom of God (which says that all things past and future are present to him, and that darkness is clearer than light before him), he comes to treat very particularly of this fabric of our bodies, where (according to the translation of other interpreters, which serves to understand ours) in sentence he says thus: “I shall praise you, Lord, because terribly you have magnified and declared the greatness of your wisdom in the fabric of my body. Marvelous are your works, and my soul knows it much. None of my bones was hidden from your eyes, when my body was being formed in the secret of the womb of my mother, and when they with marvelous artifice were being woven and linked in it. And even while I was there imperfect and yet to finish being organized, your eyes saw me, and all my members were written in the book of your wisdom, which little by little, as the days proceeded, were being fabricated, and there was none among them that was not known by you, even before it was formed. How precious are your thoughts and counsels to me, Lord, and how great is the number of them, which if I wished to count, I shall find that they surpass the sands of the sea!” Then in these words the Prophet declares the admirable wisdom of God, which shines forth in the fabric and singular artifice of our bodies. Among which it is much to note that word (terribly you have enlarged yourself) because this word, “terrible,” seemed more proper to magnify the works of divine justice than those of his wisdom, of which the Prophet is here speaking. But the reason is because, after he considered the depth of divine wisdom that was discovered in this work of so much variety and the greatness of the power that from a matter so simple could fabricate so many differences of members and organs (as we said), the Prophet remained so frightened and put in fear at the majesty and greatness of God that he saw in this work, that he came to use that word, “terribly.” Where it seems to have happened to him what is wont to happen to a man who is climbed upon some great cliff, or upon some very high tower, that if he looks downward, and sees that so great depth, it seems that his head grows faint, and he fears, although he is in a safe place. Then in this manner this Saint feared, knowing by the greatness of this work that of the artificer who made it.
But what great thing is it that a prophet full of God should marvel so much at this work, and be moved to praise him and honor him for it, since part of this we find in a gentile philosopher? For Galen, prince of the physicians, who wrote eighteen books on this admirable fabric of the human body, seeing how much the wisdom of God shone forth in it, says that this writing of his was a hymn and praise that he composed for the glory and honor of God. For his honor does not consist (he says) in our offering him incense and other similar fragrant species, nor in our offering him sacrifices of one hundred oxen, but in that, by the admirable artifice of this fabric, we know the greatness of the wisdom that knew how to trace such things, and the power that could execute all this, and the goodness that so fully provided creatures with all that was necessary for their conservation, without having envy of anything. All this is from Galen, who, convinced and taught by the admirable artifice of this work, attained this so high theology. For this was to say what God said by the prophet Hosea: “Knowledge of God I desire, more than sacrifice,” because this knowledge is beginning and foundation of all the virtues, as has already been said.
Then since this matter is so profitable for lifting our understandings to the knowledge of our Creator, it will not be outside the intent that we follow in this First Part, to treat a little of this work, so that by it we may see at least something of what this gentile philosopher saw, although this will not be by pursuing this matter at length, because this would be an infinite thing and foreign to our profession. It will suffice us to point out the most common things and the easiest to understand, and those in which the wisdom of this divine artifice shines forth most.