page 56, line 5. Two case studies.

Just for the heck of it, I decided to post the 5th sentence from page 56 of Gibbon. Not bad, not bad…

“When the throne was vacant by the murder of Caligula, the consuls convoked that assembly in the Capitol, condemned the memory of the Caesars, gave the watchword ‘liberty’ to the few cohorts who faintly adhered to their standard, and during eight and forty hours, acted as the independent chiefs of a free commonwealth.”

And here is the 5th sentence of page 56 of Suárez, the other book nearest me:

“[Albertus Magnus] opposes Avicenna, who affirms that it is the metaphysician’s task to demonstrate the existence of a first principle; meanwhile, according to the objection of Averroes, there is no science that demonstrates the existence of its object, and God, or the first principle, is the object of the whole of philosophy.”

The Straussians would probably have a field day with that last point by Averroes.