XXIV. (137) And wisdom, which, after the fashion of a mother, has conceived and brought fourth the self-taught race, points out that it is God who is the sower of it; for, after the offspring is brought forth, she speak magnificently, saying, “The Lord has caused me Laughter;”{49}{#ge 21:6.} an expression equivalent to, he has fashioned, he has made, he has begotten Isaac, since Isaac is the same with laughter. (138) But it does not belong to every one to hear this sound, since the evil of superstition is very widely spread among us, and has overwhelmed many unmanly and ignoble souls; on which account she adds, “For whoever hears this will not rejoice with me.” As if those persons were very few whose ears are opened and pricked up so as to be inclined to the reception of these sacred words, which teach that it is the peculiar employment of the only God to sow and to beget what is good; to which words all other persons are deaf. (139) And I know that this illustrious oracle was formerly delivered from the mouth of the prophet. “Thy fruit has been found from me: who is wise and will understand these things? who is prudent and will know Them?”{50}{#ho 14:9.} But I have observed, and comprehended, and admired him who causes to resound, and who himself, invisible as he is, does in an invisible manner strike the organ of the voice; being amazed also at the same time at what was uttered. (140) For if there be any good thing among existing things, that, or I should rather say the whole heaven and the whole world, if one must tell the truth, is the fruit of God; being preserved upon his eternal and everflourishing nature as upon a tree. But it belongs to wise and understanding men to understand and to confess such things as these, and not to the ignorant.
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