Arnobius — Against the Nations 2.48
48.1. So likewise here also, when we refuse that souls are offspring of the chief God, it does not immediately follow that we must explain by what parent they were brought forth and by what sorts of causes procreated. For who forbids us either not to know whence they were born and came forth, or to know that they are not God's progeny?
2. "By what reason," you say, "by what way?" — Because it is truest of every true thing and most certain of the certain that nothing of things is done, made, established by the Prince, as has been said often, except what ought and is fitting to be done, except what is full and whole and finished in the perfection of its own nature and integrity. But we see humans—that is, the souls themselves (for what are humans except souls bound in bodies?)—by innumerable crookedness of vices indicate of themselves that they are not of patrician stock but begotten from middling families.
3. For we see some harsh, criminal, bold, rash, headlong, blind, feigned, dissemblers, liars, proud, arrogant, greedy, lustful, inconstant, weak and unable to keep even their own decrees: which they certainly would not be if a principal nobility claimed them and they drew the honors of birth from those descending from the head of things.
Latin
48.1. Sic consimiliter hic quoque, cum animas rennuamus dei esse principis prolem, non continuo sequitur, ut explicare debeamus, quonam parente sint editae et causis cuiusmodi procreatae. Quis enim nos prohibet, aut unde enatae sint prodierintque nescire aut eas non esse dei progeniem scire?
2. ''Quanam, inquitis, ratione, qua via?''. - Quia omni vero verissimum est certoque certissimum, nihil rerum a principe, sicut saepius dictum est, agi fieri statui nisi quod oporteat et conveniat fieri, nisi quod sit plenum et integrum et in suae <naturae> et integritatis perfectione finitum. Porro autem conspicimus homines, id est animas ipsas - quid enim sunt homines nisi animae corporibus inligatae? - scaevitate innumerabili vitiorum ipsos se indicare non esse patricii generis, sed ex mediocribus familiis procreatos.
3. Namque alios videmus inmites facinerosos audaces temerarios praecipites caecos fictos dissimulatores mendaces superbos adrogantes avaros cupidos libidinosos inconstantes invalidos et sua ipsos decreta conservare nequeuntes: quod utique non essent, si generositas eos adsereret principalis et ab rerum capite descendentium ducerent honestamenta natalium.