Arnobius — Against the Nations 2.49
49.1. "But," you will say, "there are also good men in human affairs, wise, just, of blameless and most corrected morals."
2. — We raise no question whether there ever were any such in whom that very integrity which is spoken of would desire absolutely nothing. Granted they be most honorable and have been praiseworthy, have held the highest peak of perfection, and their life never stumbled in any lapse: but we demand to hear how many they are or have been in number, that from the greatness of the multitude we may measure whether the objection has been made justly and whether it is balanced by a compensation of equality.
3. One, two, three, four, ten, twenty, a hundred—certainly defined by number and perhaps bounded by comprehensions of names. But the human race is fittingly estimated and weighed not from a few little good ones but from all the rest. For the part is in the whole, not the whole in the part, and the universe ought to draw the portions, not the universe be applied to the portions. 4. For what if you should say a man seized in all his limbs and wailing from harsh tortures is therefore healthy because he suffers no pain of one little nail: or that the earth is golden because in a little wart of one hill there are tiny flecks from which, when melted, gold is born and is sought by more careful gathering? The universe of the element proves the quality of the material, not breathable dust-specks, nor is the sea straightway sweet if you add and send in drops of milder water of some number: for that smallness is consumed by the immense; and what perishes diffused through all and is intercepted in the vastness of a great body must be judged not only of small but of no name.
Latin
49.1. ''Sed et boni, dicetis, sunt in rebus humanis viri, sapientes, iusti, inculpatis atque emendatissimis moribus''.
2. - Nullam referimus quaestionem, an ulli aliquando fuerint tales in quibus omnino nihil ista ipsa quae dicitur desideraret integritas. Sint licet perhonesti fuerintque laudabiles, tenuerint apicem perfectionis summum, nec in aliquo lapsu eorum aliquando claudicaverit vita: sed audire deposcimus quot sint aut fuerint numero, ut ex multitudinis magnitudine metiamur, an oppositio iusta sit facta et an aequalitatis conpensatione librata.
3. Unus duo tres quattuor decem viginti centum, certe numero definiti et nominum forsitan conprehensionibus terminati. Set genus humanum non ex bonis pauculis sed ex ceteris omnibus aestimari convenit et ponderari. In toto enim pars est, non totum in parte, et universitas debet adtrahere portiones, non portionibus universitas adplicari. | f. 51 / 4.Quid enim, si hominem dicas captum membrisomnibus et heiulantem ex cruciatibus asperis idcirco esse sanum, quod unius unguiculi nullum perpetiatur dolorem: aut esse auream terram, quod in verrucula collis unius insint exiguae miculae, quibus nascitur colliquefactis aurum et adcuratiore congregatione conquiritur? Qualitatem materiae universitas elementi probat, non pulvisculi flabiles, nec mare continuo dulce est, si mitioris aquae guttas alicuius adieceris atque inmiseris numeri: consumitur enim minuties ista inmenso; et <non> modo [non] parvi sed esse nullius existimandum est nominis quod per omnia diffusum perit et in magni corporis intercipitur vastitate.