conformable to nature. Sometimes, likewise, parts are compressed and weighed down, though at the same time wholes, remain impassive to a molestation of this kind.
CHAP. X.
We shall collect, therefore, what happens from these conclusions. For if certain invocators employ the physical or corporeal powers* of the universe, an involuntary gift of energy [from these powers], and which is without vice, takes place. He, likewise, who uses this gift [sometimes] perverts it to things of a contrary nature, and to base purposes. And the gift, indeed, is moved contrarily together with the passions, and sympathetically through simili- tude; but he who uses the thing which is im- parted, deliberately draws it, contrary to justice, to what is evil and base. And the gift, indeed, causes things which are most remote to co- operate through the one harmony of the world. But if some one understanding this to be the case should iniquitously endeavour to draw certain portions of the universe to other parts, * See cap. 40, 41, 42, of Eunead iv. lib. iv. of Plotinus, from which the doctrine of this chapter is derived.
t these parts are not the cause of the evil that ensues; but the audacity of men, and the transgression of the order in the world, pervert things that are beautiful and legal. Hence neither do the Gods effect what appears to be base, but this is accomplished by the natures and bodies that proceed from them; nor do these very natures and bodies impart improbity from themselves, as it is thought they do; hut they send their proper effluxions to places about the earth, for the salvation of wholes, and those who receive them transmute them by their commixture and perversion, and transfer what is given to a purpose different from that for which it was imparted. From all these par- ticulars, therefore, it is demonstrated that a - divine nature is not the cause of evils and un- just deeds.
CHAP. XI.
Moeeover, you inquire, and at the same time doubt, “ hoiv it comes to pass that the Gods do not hear him who invokes them, if he is impure from venereal connexions; hut, at the same time, they do not refuse to lead any one to illegal venery” You have, indeed, a clear solution of these things from what has been before said; if they are done contrary to [human] laws, but are effected according to another order and cause more excellent than laws. Or if it hap- pens that things of this kind are conformable to the mundane harmony and friendship, yet produce a conflict in parts through a certain sympathy. Or if the communication of good, which is beautifully imparted, is perverted by those that receive it to the conti*aiy.
CHAP. XII.
It is necessary, however, to discuss these things particularly, and to show how they sub- sist, and what reason they possess. It is requi- site, therefore, to understand that the universe is one animal; and that the parts in it are, in- deed, separated by places, but through the possession of one nature hasten to each other.'* The whole collective power, however, and the cause of mixture, spontaneously draws the * Agreeably to this, Plotinus, also, in Eunead iv. lib. iv. cap. 32, says, 7rav tovto to €v, Kai os ^wov ev* fcoov re 0VT09, Kai €69 ev TeA.owT09, ovSei/ ovroi Troppo) tottov <09 ey‘yv9 universe is one, and is as one animal. But being an animal and completely effecting one thing, nothing in it is so distant in place as not to be near to the nature of the one animal, on account of its sympathy with the whole of itself."
parts to a mingling with each other. But it is also possible for this spontaneous attraction to be excited and extended by art more than is fit. The cause itself, therefore, of this mixture extending from itself to the whole world, is good, and the source of plenitude; has the power of harmonically procuring communion, consent, and symmetry; and inserts, by union, the indissoluble principle of love, which prin- ciple retains and preserves both things that are in existence, and such as are becoming to be. But in the parts, through their sepa- ration from each other and from wholes, and because, from their own proper nature, they are imperfect, indigent, and imbecile, their mutual connection is accompanied with pas- sion; by which, in most of them, desire and a connascent appetite are inherent. Art * there- * This art is no other than magic, of which the following account, from a very rare Greek manuscript of Psellus, On Dcemons according to the Dogmas of the Greeks, will, I doubt not, be acceptable to the reader, as it illustrates what is here said by lamblichus, and shows that magic is not an empty name, but possesses a real power, though at present this art seems to be totally lost. Ficinus published some extracts from this manuscript in Latin; but Gale does not appear to have had it in his possession. H yorjTeLa Se e<^i rexvr) TL<s 7rep6 Tovs cvvA-Ovs Kai x^ovcovi Sai/jLOvas (^avracriocTKOTrovcra rots CTTOTTrats ra tovtcov etScoAa. Kat tous pev (ocnrep aSov avayovcra, tovs 5e v\po6ev Karayovcra, Kac tovtovs Ka/cwTi- Kovs. Kai etSwAa arra (^avracrpara rots t(dv fore, perceiving this innate desire thus im- planted by nature, and distributed about it TOVTWV. Kai T06S fi€V jOcv/xara Ttva CKeiOev KVfxaivovra eira- (jurja-L' Tois- Se Sea-fuov avea-ets Kai rpv(f>a<s, Kai )(ap6Tas eTray- yeAAcrat. eTrayerai Se ra<s rotavras 8vvafxei<;, Kai acrpacri Kai eiracrfiaa-iv. t] Sc fiayeia 7roAvSwajU,ov T6 yj)ripa roi<s EAAi^crtv eSo^e. fiepiSa yovv eivai ravTrjv ^ouriv €cr)(aTrjv rrjs lepaTiKrjg iTTK^rjprjs. avi^yevovcra yap riov vtto rrjv creXrjvrjv xavTtov rrjv T€ ovo-av Kai <j)V(riv, Kai Svvapiv Kai Troior^Ta. Aeyco Sc <^Ol)(€l(i)V Kai TCOV TOVT(J)V p.epiS(i)V, ^(OOiV, TraVToSaTTtUV <l>VTlt)V, Kai TCOV cvrevdev Kapiroiv, Xi6(x)v, /Soravdiv, Kai aTrAcos ecTTCiv, TTtti'TOs TTpaypaTO<s, viro>^acriv re Kai Svvapiv. evrcv^ev a/aa ra €avrrj<s epya^erai. ayaXpara re vffHt^rjcriv vyeias Trepnroir]- Tt/ca, Kai (T')(7]para Troicirai TravToSaira' Kai vocroiroia Sepi- ovpyrjpara erepa. Kai acTOi peVf Kai SpaKovres, fiuncripoi avroi<s Tpo^ vyeiav VTVodecris' aiXovpoi Se Kai Kwes, Kai KopaKe<s aypvTTvqriKa (jvpfSoXa. K7]po<s Se Kai tttjAos eis ras TCOV popidiv crvpTrXacreis TrapaXapfSavovrai, c^avTa^et Se ttoA- XaKi<s, Kai 7Tvpo<5 ovpaviov evSccrets, Kai 8iapeiSioicri ctti tov- Tcov ayaXpara’ irvpl Sc avTopario XapTra8e<s avairrovTai. i. e. “ Goeteia, or witchcraft, is a certain art respecting material and terrestrial daemons, whose images it causes to become visible to the spectators of this art. And some of these daemons it leads up, as it were from Hades, but others it draws down from on high; and these, too, such as are of an evil species. This art, therefore, causes certain phan- tastic images to appear before the spectators. And before the eyes of some, indeed, it pours exuberant streams; but to others it promises freedom from bonds, delicacies, and fa- vours. They draw down, too, powers of this kind by songs and incantations. But magic, according to the Greeks, is a thing of a very powerful nature. For they say that this forms the last part of the sacerdotal science. Magic, indeed, investigates the nature, power, and quality of every thing sublunary; viz. of the elements, and their parts, of animals, all various plants and their fruits, of stones, and herbs: and (art itself also being multiformly distributed about nature), variously attracts and derives it as through a channel. Hence it transfers that which in itself is orderly and arranged into the privation of order, and fills that which is beau- tiful and commensurate with deformity. But the venerable end in each particular thing, which is connascent with union, it transfers to another indecorous plenitude, which is an in short, it explores the essence and power of every thing. From hence, therefore, it produces its effects. And it forms statues which procure health, makes all various figures, and things which become the instruments of disease. It asserts, too, that eagles and dragons contribute to health; but that cats, dogs, and crows are symbols of vigilance, to which, therefore, they contribute. But for the fashioning of certain parts wax and clay are used. Often, too, celestial fire is made to appear through magic; and then statues laugh, and - lamps are spontaneously enkindled.”
This curious passage throws light on the following extract from the first book of the Metaphorsis of Apuleius: " Magico susurranime, amnes agiles reverti, mare pigrum coUigari, ventos inanimes expirare, solem inhiberi, lunam despumari, Stellas evelli, diem tolli, noctem teneri.” i. e. “ By magical incantation rapid rivers may be made to run back to their fountains, the sea be congealed, winds become destitute ot spirit, the sun be held back in his course, the moon be forced to scatter her foam, the stars be torn from their orbits, the day be taken away, and the night be detained.” For it may be inferred from Psellus, that witches formerly were able to cause the appearance of all this to take place. It must also be observed, that this MS. of Psellus On Dcemons forms no part of his treatise On the Energy of Dcemons, published by Gaulminus; for it never was published.
assemblage of different things according to a common passion. It likewise imparts a matter from itself, which is unadapted to the whole veneration of what is beautful, either because it does not entirely receive it, or because it transfers it to other things. It also mingles many different physical powers, which it ma- nages as it pleases for the purposes of genera- tion. Hence we have universally shown, that the apparatus of a venereal connexion of this kind proceeds from a certain human art, and not from a certain dsemoniacal or divine ne- cessity.
CHAP. XIII.
Consider, therefore, also another genus of causes; how a stone or a herb frequently possess from themselves a nature corruptive, or again collective of generated natures. For this is not only the case with these, but this physical power is also in greater natures and greater things, which those who are not able to infer by a reasoning process, will perhaps transfer the works and energies of nature to more excellent beings \i. e. to Gods, angels, and dsemons]. Now, therefore, it is acknowledged that the tribe of evil daemons has a very extended power in generation, in human affairs, and in such things as subsist about the earth. Hence, why is it wonderful that a tribe of this kind should ejffect such works as these? For every man is not able to distinguish a good from an evil daemon, or by what peculiarities the one is separated from the other. Hence those, who are not able to perceive the difference between the two, absurdly reason concerning the cause of them, and refer this cause to genera superior to nature and the daemoniacal order. If, also, certain powers of a partial soul are assumed in order to effect these things, whether such a soul is detained in body, or has left the testaceous and terrestrial body, but wanders about the places of generation in a turbid and humid spirit; this, indeed, will be a true opinion, but separates the cause of these things at the greatest distance from more excellent natures. By no means, therefore, is that which is divine, or any good daemon, subservient to the illegal desires of men in venereal concerns. For of these things there are many other causes.
SECTION V.
CHAP. I.
The doubt mentioned by you in the next place, is, as I may say, an inquiry which is made in common both by the learned and the unlearned, I mean concerning sacrifices, “ what utility or power they possess in the 'universe, and ivith the Gods, and on what account they are performed, appropriately indeed to the powers ivho are honoured hy them, hut usefully to those hy ivhom the gifts are offered^’ In the same place, also, another objection occurs, viz. ^^that the inter- preters of prophecies and oracles ought to abstain from animals, lest the Gods should he polluted hy the vapours arising from them. For this is contrary to the assertion, that the Gods are especially allured hy the vapours of animals'' CHAP. II.
The hostile opposition, therefore, in the things that are now proposed, may be easily dissolved by demonstrating the dignity of wholes with Q respect to parts, and by recalling to your recollection the exempt transcendency of the Gods above men. But what I mean is this, that the soul, which ranks as a whole, presides over all the mundane body,* and that the * Hence lamblichus (apud Stob. Eclog. Phys. p. 114), says, rj avTi^ e«^t Tracrajv \pvyoiv KOtvovLa Trpo? ra cruifxaTa. (xX.\ T] fiev oX.7j oxTTTep ITA.cotiv'w 8o/cet, irpocriov eavTrj to (roijxa, e)(€L ev (avTrj, aXX ovk avTt] TTpoareicri T(j) o-to/xart, ov8e rrepLexe- rat vtt’ avTOv. ai Se pepif^ai Trpo(T€pyovTa.L roi<; croipmTL, Kai Twv (Tiaparuiv yiyvovrai. i. e. ” There is not the same com- munion of all souls with bodies; but the soul which ranks as a whole (as it also appeared to Plotinus), approaching to itself, contains body in itself, but does not itself approach to body, nor is comprehended by it. Partible souls, however, accede to bodies, and give themselves up to them.”
Conformably to this Porphyry also, in his A^op/xat Trpo? ra vor]Ta, No. 30, says, No whole and perfect essence is converted to its own progeny; but all perfect natures are led ' back to the causes by which they were generated, even as far as to the mundane body. For this body, being perfect, is elevated to the mundane soul which is intellectual, and through this is circularly moved. But the soul of this body is elevated to intellect, and intellect to that which is first. All things, therefore, extend themselves to this, beginning from that which is last, according to the peculiar ability of each. But the reduction to that which is first is either proximate or remote. Hence these are not only said to aspire after divinity, but also to enjoy him as far as they are able. But in partial natures, and which are able to verge to many things, a conversion to their progeny belongs. Hence in these guilt, in these disgraceful perfidy, is found. Matter, therefore, defiles these, because they decline to it, at the same time that they possess the power of converting them- selves to a divine nature.”
celestial Gods ascend, as into a vehicle, into a celestial body, neither receiving any injury from thence, nor any impediment in their in- tellections. But to a partial soul, the com- munion with body is noxious in both these respects. If, therefore, some one perceiving this, should nevertheless introduce such a doubt as the following, that if the body is a bond to our soul, it will also be a bond to the soul of the universe, and that if a partial soul is con- verted to the body on account of generation, in a similar manner the power of the Gods is con- verted to generation; in answer to this every one may reply, that he who thus doubts does not know how much superior beings transcend men, and wholes parts. Since, therefore, the objections pertain to things different from each other, they do not produce any ambiguity.
CHAP. III.
Here, therefore, the same reasoning is like- wise sufficient. Bor with us the enjoyment of bodies which once were united to soul, im- presses in us heaviness and defilement, ingene- rates in us voluptuousness, and produces many other diseases in the soul. But with the Gods, and with mundane and total causes, this is by no means the case. For the exhalation which ascends after a divine manner from animals that are sacrificed, as it is comprehended by, and does not comprehend, the Gods, and as it is also connected with the universe, but does not conjoin wholes and the Gods to itself, is in consequence of this coadapted to superior be- ings and to total causes, but does not restrain them and coadapt them to itself.
CHAP. IV.
Nor is that which so greatly disturbs you, and for which you so strenuously contend, attended with any difficulty, I mean abstinence from animals,* if it is rightly understood. For those who worship the Gods do not abstain from ani- mals, lest the Gods should be defiled by the vapours arising from them. For what exhala- tion from bodies can approach those who, be- fore any thing material can come into contact with their power, intangibly amputate matter? Nor is it the power of the Gods only that abolishes all bodies, and causes them to vanish, * lamblichus here alludes to the excellent treatise of Por- phyry, Trept rr]s rcov en\pv)(jjiv aTro)(^q, On Abstinence from Animal Food, from which work the English reader will find several admirable extracts in one of the Introductory Disser- tations prefixed to my translation of Proclus on Euclid.
without any approximation to them; but a celestial body, also, is unmingled with all the material elements; * nor does it receive into itself any thing extraneous, nor impart any portion of itself to things of a foreign nature. How, therefore, can any terrestrial vapour, which is not elevated five stadia from the earth before it again flows down to the earth, either nourish a circulating and immaterial body, or, in short, produce in it a certain defilement, or any other passion? For it is acknowledged that an etherial body is void of all contrariety, is liberated from all mutation, is entirely pure from the possibility of being transmuted into any thing else, and is perfectly free from a ten- dency to, and from the middle, because it is either without any tendency, or is convolved in a circle. Hence, it is not possible that bodies, which consist of different powers and motions, which are all-variously changed, and are moved either upwards or downwards, should have any communion of nature or power with celestial bodies, or that any exhalation of the former should be mingled with the latter. As the former, therefore, are entirely separated * A celestial body, as is beautifully shown by Proclus in Tim. lib. iii. contains the summits of all the elements, but is characterized by vivific unbuming fire; so that, in short, it is vitalized extension.
from the latter, they will not effect any thing in them. For celestial bodies being unbegotten, are not capable of receiving any mutation from generated natures. Flow, therefore, can the Gods be defiled by such like vapours, who suddenly, as I may say, at one stroke, ampu- tate the vapours ascending from all matter and material bodies?
This, therefore, it is not fit to suspect of the Gods [vis. that they can be defiled by vapours]; but it is much more requisite to think that things of this kind are foreign to us and to our nature. For things which are divided, and also material and kindred natures, are able to have a certain communion with each other in acting and suffering; but things which are - essentially different, and such as are entirely transcendent, and which employ other natui’es and powers, these cannot act on or receive any thing from each other. The defilement, there- fore, produced by material natures, falls on things which are detained by a material body; and from these it is necessary those should be purified who are capable of being defiled by matter. But how can those beings be defiled by material essences who neither have a divisi- ble nature nor possess the power of receiving in themselves the passions of matter? How, likewise, can divinity, who has nothing in comraon with us, in consequence of antecedently existing superior to human imbecility, be pol- luted by my passions, or by those of any other man?
Neither of these, therefore, at all pertains to the Gods; neither our being filled with mate- rial bodies; (for there is nothing, in short, of this kind with them, nor are they defiled by our stains, since they are entirely pure and incor- ruptible), nor if there are certain material vapours of bodies which are emitted about the earth; for these vapours are most remote from the essence and power of the Gods. Hence the whole hypothesis of contrariety is subverted if no part of it pertains to the Gods. For how, in short, can that which is not possess in itself a certain contest [with any thing]? You in vain, therefore, suspect things of this kind to be absurd, and you adduce doubts unworthy of the Gods, since they cannot be reasonably applied even to good men. For no man who possesses intellect, and is free from passion, would ever permit himself to be allured by the exhalation of vapours, and much less would any one of the beings more excellent than man suffer himself to be thus allured. These things, however, will be discussed shortly after. But now, since this contrariety is, through many solutions, subverted, we shall here finish what we have to say about the first doubt.
CHAP. V.
CHAP. V.
Your next inquiry is of greater consequence, and is concerning things of a greater nature. How, therefore, shall I be able, briefly and sufficiently, to give you an answer to a question which is extremely difficult, and requires a long explanation? Nevertheless I will answer it, and without failing in alacrity. I will also endeavour to follow what you have concisely indicated and tacitly signified. But I will un- fold to you my dogma concerning sacrifices [which is as follows]. It is by no means requi- site that sacrifices should be oflfered for the sake of honour alone, in the same manner as. we honour benefactors; nor for the sake of returning thanks for the goods imparted to us by the Gods; nor yet for the sake of first fruits, or as a remuneration by certain gifts of more venerable goods bestowed on us by the Gods. For these things are also common to men, and are assumed from the common polity of mankind, but by no means preserve the transcendency of the Gods and the order of them as exempt causes.
CHAP. YL CHAP. YL But the greatest thing in sacrifices, viz. their eificacious power, and why especially they are so very beneficial that without them we are neither liberated from pestilence, nor famine, nor sterility of fruits, nor obtain seasonable showers of rain, nor things of much greater consequence than these, I mean such as con- tribute to the purification of the soul, or an emancipation from generation; these are not at all indicated by such modes of sacrifices as you adduce. Hence no one can justly approve of them, because they assign a cause of the works performed in sacrifices unadapted to their dig- nity. And if some one should approve of them it will be only in a secondary way, and as sus- pended from primary, more ancient, and vener- able causes.
CHAP. YII.
The discussion therefore requires that we should show what it is through which sacri- fices are effective of things, and are suspended from the Gods, the precedaneous causes of effects. If then we say that the communion of similar powers, or the dissension of contra- ries, or a certain aptitude of the agent to the patient in the universe, as in one animal, every where possessing one and the same life, co- excites adapted similars, pervading with in- variable sameness according to one sympathy, and existing most near in things most remote: if we should say this, we should thus assert something of what is true, and which neces- sarily accompanies sacrifices, yet we should not demonstrate the true mode of their sub- sistence. For the essence of the Gods is not placed in nature and in physical necessities, so as to be coexcited by physical passions, or by the powers which extend through all nature;. but independently of these, it is defined by itself, having nothing in common with them, neither according to essence, nor according to power, nor any thing else.
CHAP. YIIL The same absurdities likewise happen from assigning, as the causes of what is effected by sacrifices, either certain numbers that are with us, such, for instance, as assuming the number sixty in the crocodile,'* as adapted to the sun; or physical reasons, as the powers and ener- gies of animals, for instance, of the dogt, the The number sixty is no less manifest in the crocodile than in the sun. For according to Aristotle (in Hist. Anim. lib. V.) the crocodile brings forth sixty eggs of a white colour and sits on them for sixty days.
t Isis,” says Gale, " is the moon. And a dog attended Isis when she was diligently seeking her husband Osiris. But the moon perpetually seeks the sun, and therefore that sagacious animal, the dog, accords with Isis. In the solem- nities, also, of Isis, dogs preceded the procession.” After this manner others besides Gale} who have not penetrated the depths of the philosophy and theology of Plato, would doubtless explain what is fabulously said of Isis. In reality, however, Isis is not the moon, but one of the divinities that revolve in the lunar sphere as an attendant on the moon, and who, in modern language, is one of the satellites of that planet. For, as I have shown from Proclus, in the Intro- duction to my translation of the Timaeus of Plato, every planetary sphere is an oAorr^s, or a part of the universe having a total subsistence, i. e. ranking as a whole, and is surrounded with a number of satellites analogous to the choir of the fixed stars. Of these satellites, likewise, the leaders of which are the planets, the first in order are Gods; after these, daemons revolve in lucid orbicular bodies; and these are followed by partial souls, such as ours. See Proclus in Tim. p. 275 and p. 279* This theory, as I have elsewhere observed, is the grand key to the theology and mythology of the ancients, as it shows at one view why the same God is so often celebrated with the names of other Gods; which induced Macrobius to think that all the Gods were nothing more than different powers of the sun. The English reader will find an abundant confirmation of what is here said in the fourth book of my translation of the above mentioned admirable work of Proclus.
cynocephaliis,''' and the weasel t, these being common to the moon; or material forms, such as are seen in sacred animals J; according to * "The Egyptians/’ says Horapollo, lib. i. "wishing to signify the moon, paint a cynocephalus, because this animal is variously affected by the course of the moon.”
t In the original fivyaXr]. " This word,” says Gale, " is written variously, viz. as [j.vyaX^, and p.vya\yj. It is also variously translated, for it is either rallus, or mus araneus.” Plutarch, in the fourth book of his Symposiacs, Quest. 5, says, "that the Egyptians were of opinion that darkness was prior to light, and that the latter was produced from mice in the fifth generation, at the time of the new moon. And further still, they assert that the liver of the weasel diminishes in the wane of the moon.”
I With the Egyptians many animals were sacred; for the worship of which the following admirable apology is made by Plutarch in his treatise of Isis and Osiris: " It now remains that we should speak of the utility of these animals to man, and of their symbolical meaning; some of them partaking of one of these only, but many of them of both. It is evident, therefore, that the Egyptians worshiped the ox, the sheep, and the ichneumon, on account of their use and benefit, as the Lemnians did larks, for dis- covering the eggs of caterpillars and breaking them; and the Thessalians storks, because, as their land produced abun- dance of serpents, the storks destroyed all of them as soon as they appeared. Hence, also, they enacted a law, that who- ever killed a stork should be banished. But the Egyptians honoured the asp, the weasel, and the beetle, in consequence of observing in them certain dark resemblances of the power of the Gods, like that of the sun in drops of water. For at present, many believe and assert that the weasel engenders by the ear, and brings forth by the mouth, being thus an image of the generation of reason [or the productive princi- ple of things]. But the genus of beetles has no female; the colours, and^ all the forms of the body; and all the males emit their sperm into a sphericle piece of earth, which they roll about, thrusting it backwards with their hind feet, while they themselves move forward; just as the sun appears to revolve in a direction contrary to that of the heavens, in consequence of moving from west to east. They also assimilated the asp to a star, as being exempt from old age, and performing its motions, unassisted by organs, with agility and ease. Nor was the crocodile honoured by them without a probable cause; but is said to have been considered by them as a resemblance of divinity, as being the only animal that is without a tongue. For the divine reason is unindigent of voice, and proceeding through a silent path, and accompanied with* justice, conducts mortal affairs according to it. They also say it is the only animal living in water that has the sight of its eyes covered with a thin and transparent film, which descends from his forehead, so that he sees without being seen, which is likewise the case with the first God. But in whatever place the female crocodile may lay her eggs, this may with certainty be concluded to be the boundary of the increase of the Nile. For not being able to lay their eggs in the water, and fearing to lay them far from it, they have such an accurate presensation of futurity, that though they enjoy the benefit of the river in its access, during the time of their laying and hatching, yet they preserve their eggs dry and untouched by the water. They also lay sixty eggs, are the same number of days in hatching them, and those that are the longest lived among them live just so many years, which number is the first of the measures employed by those who are conversant with the heavenly bodies.