47 as, for instance, earth with heaven, and pro- duces one connexion and concord of wholes with wholes.
Will not, therefore, he who surveys this con- spicuous statue of the Gods, thus united to itself, be ashamed to have a different opinion of the Gods, who are the causes of it, so as to introduce among them sections, and separa- tions, and corporeal-formed circumscriptions? 1, indeed, should think, that every one would be thus disposed. For if there is no ratio, no habitude of symmetry, no communion of es- sence, nor a connexion either in capacity or in energy, between that which is adorned and the adorning cause; if this be the case, there will neither be found in the world a certain exten- sion according to interval, nor local compre- hension, nor partible interception, nor any other such like connascent equalization in the pre- sence of the Gods [with mundane natures]. For in things which are of a kindred nature, according to essence and power, or which are, in a certain respect, of the same species, or homogeneous, a certain comprehension, or con- servation, may be discovered. But in such things as are entirely exempt from all mundane wholes, what opposing circumstance, or tran- sition through all things, or partible circum- scription, or local comprehension, or any thing 48 48 else of this kind can justly be perceived? I think, therefore, that the several participants of the divinities are of such a nature, that some partake of them etherially, others aerially, and others aquatically; which also, the art of divine wmrks perceiving, employs adaptations and invocations, conformable to such a division. And thus much concerning the distribution of the more excellent genera into the world.
CHAP. X.
After these things, you again subjoin another division for yourself, “m which you separate the essences of the more excellent genera hy the difference of passive and impassive!' But neither do I admit this division. For no one of the more excellent genera is passive, nor yet im- passive in such a way as to be contradistin- guished from that which is passive; nor is naturally adapted to receive passions, but libe- rated from them through virtue, or some other worthy condition of being. But because they are entirely exempt from the contrariety of action and passion; and because they are not at all adapted to suffer, and have essentially an 49 immutable firmness, on this account I place the impassive and the immutable in all the divine genera.
For consider, if you are willing, the last of divine natures, viz. a soul purely liberated from bodies. What does such a soul want with the generation which is in pleasure, or the restitu- tion which is in it to a natural condition, since such a soul is above nature, and lives an un- begotten life? Why, also, should it participate of the pain which leads to corruption and dis- solves the harmony of the body, since it is be- yond all body, and the nature which is divided about body, and is entirely separate from the harmony which descends from the soul into the body? But neither is it in want of the passions which precede sensation: for neither is it detained in body, nor inclosed by it, so as to require corporeal organs, in order to appre- hend certain other bodies which are external to these organs. And, in short, being imparti- ble, and abiding in one and the same form, and also being essentially incorporeal, and having no communication with a generated and pas- sive body, it cannot suffer any thing either according to division, or according to a change in quality, nor can have any thing which is allied to any kind of mutation or passion.
But neither does the [rational] soul, when it E 50 accedes to body, either itself suffer, or the reasons which it imparts to the body. For these reasons are forms, and being simple and uniform, they receive no perturbation in them- selves, and no departure from their proper mode of subsistence. That which remains, therefore [or the participant of the rational soul], becomes the cause of suffering to the composite. Cause, however, is not the same with its effect. Hence, as soul is the first origin of generable and corruptible composite animals, but is itself by itself ingenerable and incorruptible; thus, also, though the partici- pants of the soul suffer, and do not wholly p. e. truly] possess life and existence, but are complicated with the indefiniteness and diver- sity of matter, yet the soul is itself by itself immutable, as being essentially more excellent than that which suffers, and not as possessing impassivity, in a certain deliberate choice, which verges both to the impassive and the passive, nor as receiving an adscitious immu- tability in the participation of habit or power.
Since, therefore, we have demonstrated that it is impossible for even the last genus of the more excellent order of beings, viz. the soul, to participate of suffering, how can it be proper to adapt this participation to daemons and heroes, who are perpetual, and the attendants 51 of the Gods, and who always invariably pre- serve the same divine order, and never desert it? For we know this indeed, that passion is something disorderly, confused, and unstable, never having any proper authority of its own, but being devoted to that by which it is de- tained, and to which it is subservient for the purposes of generation. This, therefore, rather pertains to some other genus, than to that which always exists, and is suspended from the Gods, and which, in conjunction with them, observes the same order, and accomplishes the same period. Hence daemons are impassive, and all the more excellent genera which follow them [and the Gods] CHAP. XI.
CHAP. XI.
'' Hoiv therefore,'' you ask, “arc many things performed to them in sacred operations, as if they were passive? " I reply, that this is asserted through an ignorance of sacerdotal mysticism. For of the things which are perpetually effected in sacred rites, some have a certain arcane cause, and which is more excellent than reason; others are consecrated from eternity to the 52 superior genera, as symbols; others preserve a certain other image, just as nature, which is effective of invisible reasons, expresses certain visible formations; others are adduced for the sake of honour, or have for their end some kind of similitude, or familiarity and alliance; and some procure what is useful to us, or in a certain respect purify and liberate our human passions, or avert some other of those dire circumstances which happen to us. It must not, however, be on this account granted, that a certain portion of sacred institutions is em- ployed in the service of Gods or daemons, as if they were passive. For an essence which is by itself perpetual and incorporeal, is not natu- rally adapted to receive a certain mutation from bodies.
Nor, even though we should admit that this essence is especially in want of such things, will it require the aid of men to a sacred worship of this kind; since it is itself filled from itself, and from the nature of the world, and the perfection which is in generation; and, if it be lawful so to speak, prior to being in want it receives the self-sutficient, through the never failing wholeness of the world and its own proper plenitude, and because all the more excellent genera are full of appropriate good. Let this, therefore, be a lenitive for us 53 in common, concerning the worship of the nnde- filed genera, as being appropriately coadapted to the beings that are more excellent than we, and because pure things are introduced to pure, and impassive things to impassive, na- tures.
But directing our attention to particulars, we say that the erection of the 'phalli is a cer- tain sign of prolific power, which, through this, is called forth to the generative energy of the world. On which account, also, many phalli are consecrated in the spring, because then the whole world receives from the Gods the power which is productive of all generation. But I am of opinion, that the obscene language which then takes place, affords an indication of the privation of good about matter, and of the de- formity which is in material subjects, prior to their being adorned. For these being indigent of ornament, by so much the more aspire after it, as they in a greater degree despise their own deformity. Again therefore, they pursue the causes of forms, and of what is beautiful and good, recognizing baseness from base language. And thus, indeed, the thing itself, viz. tui’pi- tude, is averted, but the knowledge of it is rendered manifest through words, and those that employ them transfer their desire to that which is contrary to baseness.
54 54 Another reason, also, of these things may be assigned. The powers of the human passions that are in us, when they are entirely restrained, become more vehement; but when they are called forth into energy, gradually and com- mensurately, they rejoice in being moderately gratified, are satisfied; and from hence, be- coming purified, they are rendered tractable, and are vanquished without violence. On this account, in comedy and tragedy, by surveying the passions of others, we stop our own pas- sions, cause them to be more moderate, and are purified from them. In sacred ceremonies, likewise, by. certain spectacles and auditions of things base, we become liberated from the injury which happens from the works effected by them.t Things of this kind, therefore, are introduced for the sake of our soul, and of the diminution of the evils which adhere to it * What is here asserted by lamblichus is perfectly true, and confirmed by experience, viz. that the passions, when moderately gratified, are vanquished without violence. But Gale, not understanding this, says, “ Hoc adeo verum est, ac si dixisset, ignem extingues, oleum addendo camino.” For a moderate gratification of the passions does not re- semble the pouring of oil on fire; since this simihtude is only applicable to them when they are immoderately in- dulged.
t See my Dissertation on the Eleusinian and Bacchic Mysteries.
55 through generation, and of a solution and libe- ration from its bonds. On this account, also, they are very properly called by Heraclitus remedies, as healing things of a dreadful nature, and saving souls from the calamities with which the realms of generation are replete.
CHAP. XII.
CHAP. XII.
You also say, “ that invocations are directed to the Gods as to beings that are 'passive, so that not only dcemons are passive, but likewise the Gods.” This, however, is not the case. For the illumination which takes place through in- vocations, is spontaneously visible and self- perfect; is very remote from all downward attraction; proceeds into visibility through di- vine energy and perfection, and as much sur- passes our voluntary motion as the divine will of the good, transcends a deliberately chosen life. Through this will, therefore, the Gods, being benevolent and propitious, impart their light to theurgists in unenvying abundance, calling upwards their souls to themselves, pro- curing them a union with themselves, and accustoming them, while they are yet in body, 56 to be separated from bodies, and to be led round to their eternal and intelligible prin- ciple.
But it is evident, from the effects themselves, that what we now say is the salvation of the soul. For the soul in contemplating blessed spectacles, acquires another life, energizes ac- cording to another energy, and is then rightly considered as no longer ranking in the order of man. Frequently, likewise, abandoning her own life, she exchanges it for the most blessed energy of the Gods. If, therefore, the ascent through invocations imparts to the priests puri- fication from passions, a liberation from gene- ration, and a union with a divine principle, how is it possible to connect with it any thing of passion? For an invocation of this kind does not draw down the impassive and pure Gods, to that which is passive and impure; but, on the contrary, it renders us, who have become passive through generation, pure and immutable.
Neither do the invocations which implore the Gods to incline to us, conjoin the priests to them through passion; but procure for them the communion of an indissoluble connexion, through the friendship which binds all things together. Hence, it does not, as the name seems to imply, incline the intellect of the 57 57 Gods to men; but, according to the decision of truth, renders the will of man adapted to the participation of the Gods, elevates it to them, and coharmonizes the former with the latter, through the most appropriate persua- sion. On this account also, such names of the Gods as are adapted to sacred concerns, and other divine symbols, are able, as they are of an anagogic or elevating nature, to connect in- vocations with the Gods themselves.
CHAP. XIII.
Moreover, “ the pacifications of anger ” will become manifest, if we understand what the anger of the Gods is.^*^ This, therefore, is not, as it appears to be to some, a certain ancient and inveterate rage, but an abandonment of the beneficent care of the Gods, from which we turn ourselves away, withdrawing, as it were, * In the original, Kai hr], Kai “ at [xrjvthos e^iAacreis ” ecrovrat cra<^ets, eav Tr]v fir]VLV t(i)v Secjv Kara]ia6io[ji€v, which Gale most erroneously translates as follows: “ Sed et ratio possit reddi mpplicationum, quihus divinam iram procura- mus, si recte intelligamus, qualis sit deorura ira.”
58 58 from meridian light, hiding ourselves in dark- ness, and depriving ourselves of the beneficent gift of the Gods. Hence 'pacification is able to convert ns to the participation of divinity and the providential care of the Gods, from which we were divulsed, and to bind together, commensurately, participants and the partici- pated natures. So far, therefore, is pacification from accomplishing its work through passion, that it separates us from the passive and tumultuous abandonment of the Gods.
But “ the ohlation of victims,’’ when some evil is present in places about the earth, pro- cures a remedy for the evil, and secures us from the incursion of any mutation or passion. Hence, whether a thing of this kind is effected through Gods or daemons, it invokes these as the expellers of evil, and [our true] saviours, and through them exterminates all the injury which may accede from the calamities. Those powers, also, who avert genesiurgic * and physi- cal punishments, do not expel them through passions. And if some one should think that the suppression of the guardian care of the Gods, introduces a certain spontaneous injury, in this case the persuasion arising from paci- * Viz. Punishments produced by the realms of genera- tion, or the sublunary region.
59 fication recalls the benevolence of the more excellent genera, to a providential attention to our affairs, and takes away our privation of good, being itself perfectly pure and immu- table.
CHAP. XIV.
Fakther still, with respect to ''what are called the necessities of the Gods” the whole truth of this is, that necessities are peculiar to, and subsist in such a way as accords with the nature of, the Gods.* Hence they do not subsist as if they were externally derived, or were the effect of violence, but after such a manner as the good ought to be from necessity, so the Gods entirely exist, and are by no means other- wise disposed. This necessity, therefore, is mingled with beneficent will, and is the friend of love; through an order adapted to the Gods, possesses identity and immutability; and be- cause it is contained in one boundary, abides in this, and never departs from it. Hence, * It is well observed by Proclus, "that divine necessity concurs with the divine will.” 0eia avayKt] (rvvTpe-)(^£L -n/ 6€t(f. (3ovXri(T€i. Prod, in Tim. lib. i.
60 through all these particulars, the contrary to what you infer takes place. For it happens that a divine nature is incapable of being allured, is impassive and uncompelled, if there are in reality such powers in theurgy, as we have demonstrated there are.
CHAP. XV.
After this, you pass on to another division into contraries, viz. the division of Gods with reference to daemons. For you say, “ that the Gods are pure intellects; ” but you propose this opinion as an hypothesis, or you narrate it as a dogma adopted by certain persons. And you infer, that dsemons are psychical essences participating of intellect.” Neither, therefore, am I ignorant that this is the opinion of many philosophers; but to you, I do not think it is proper to conceal what appears to me to be the truth. For all such opinions are full of confusion; since they wander from daemons to souls, which also participate of intellect; and from the Gods to an immaterial intellect in energy, which the Gods entirely excel by a priority of nature. Why, therefore, is it re- 61 61 quisite to attribute to them these peculiarities, which are by no means appropriate? And thus much concerning this division, for it would be superfluous to make any further mention of it. But it is requisite that your doubts re- specting this distinction should be properly considered, as the discussion of them pertains to the sacerdotal province.
Farther still, having said “ that pure intellects are inflexible^ [i. e. not to he changed or altered^ and unmingled with sensihles’’ you doubt, “ whether it is requisite to pray to them.” But I think it is necessary to pray to no others than these. For that in us which is divine, in- tellectual,* and one, or intelligible, if you are willing so to call it, is most clearly excited in prayer; and, when excited, vehemently seeks that which is similar to itself, and becomes copulated to perfection itself. But if it should appear to you to be incredible, that an incor- poreal nature can be capable of hearing sounds, and it should be urged by you, that for this purpose the sense of hearing is requisite, that it may apprehend what is said by us in prayer; you willingly forget the excellency of primary causes, which consists in both knowing and * For vorjTov here, it is obviously necessary to read voepov.
62 comprehending in themselves at once the whole of things. The Gods, therefore, do not receive prayers in themselves, through any corporeal powers or organs, but rather contain in them- selves the energies of pious invocations; and especially of such as, through sacred ceremo- nies, are established in, and united to, the Gods. For then, in reality, a divine nature is present with itself, and does not communicate with the intellectual conceptions in prayer, as different from its own.
‘‘ Supplications, however,^' you say, “ are too foreign to the purity of intellect to he offered to the GodsT But this is by no means the case. For on this very account, because we fall short of the Gods in power, purity, and every thing else, we shall act in the most opportune man- ner, by invoking them with the most vehement supplications. For the consciousness of our own nothingness, when we compare ourselves with the Gods, causes us to betake ourselves spontaneously to suppliant prayer. But from supplication, we are in a short time led to the object of supplication, acquire its similitude from intimate converse, and gradually obtain divine perfection, instead of our own imbecility and imperfection.
If, indeed, it is considered that sacred prayers G3 are sent to men from the Gods themselves, that they are certain symbols of the divinities, and that they are only known to the Gods, with whom, in a certain respect, they possess the same power, — how can it any longer be justly apprehended, that a supplication of this kind is sensible, and not divine and intellectual? Or what passion can accede to a thing of this kind, the purity of which the most worthy human manners cannot easily equal?
You say, however, “ that the things ivhich are offered in supplications are offered as to sensitive and psychical natures” And, indeed, if the offerings consisted of corporeal and com- posite powers alone, or of such things as are merely subservient to corporeal organs, your assertion would he true. But as the offerings participate of incorporeal forms, of certain rea- sons, and more simple measures, the aptitude of them is to be surveyed according to this alone. And if a certain alliance, or similitude, is present, which is either proximate or re- mote, it is sufficient to effect the contact of which we are now speaking. For there is not any thing which in the smallest degree is adapted totheGods, to which the Gods are not immediately present, and with ivhich they are not conjoined. The connexion, therefore, of supplications with the Gods, is not as with sensitive or psychical 64 natures, but as with divine forms, and with the Gods themselves [as Gods, e. as superessen- tial hyparxes]. So that we have sufficiently spoken in opposition to this division.
CHAP. XVI.
The difference which separates “ Gods from daemons hy the corporeal a?id incorporeal is the next thing that follows in what you have written; this being much more common than the former difference, and yet it is so far from expressing the peculiarities of their essence, that it does not afford a conjectural knowledge of them, nor of any accidents which pertain to them. For neither is it possible from these things to apprehend whether they are animals or not, and whether they are deprived of life, or are not at all in want of it. Farther still, neither is it easy to conjecture how these names are predicated, whether in common, or of many different things. For if in common, it is absurd that a line and time, God and daemons, fire and water, should be under the same incor- poreal genus. But if of many things, what reason is there when you speak of the incor- 65 65 poreal, that you should rather manifest by it Gods than points; or when you speak of the corporeal, that you should not be thought to speak of the earth rather than of dmmons? For neither is this very thing defined, whether Gods and daemons have bodies, or are carried in bodies, as in a vehicle, or use them, or com- prehend them, or are alone the same * with body. But, perhaps, it is not proper to examine this distinction very minutely. For you do not propose it as your own decision, but you ex- hibit it as the opinion of others.
CHAP. XYIL We will exchange, therefore, this division for the doubt which may be adduced by you against the present opinion. ‘"For” it may be said' by you, “ how, conformably to what we assert, can the sun and moon, and the visible natures in the heavens, be Gods, if the Gods are alone in- corporeal?'^ To this we reply, that the celes- tial divinities are not comprehended by bodies, but contain bodies in their divine lives and * For TO vTo here, it is necessary to read ravTo.
F 66 energies; that they are not themselves con- verted to body, but they have a body which is converted to its divine cause; and that body does not impede their intellectual and incor- poreal perfection, nor occasion them any mo- lestation by its intervention. Hence it does not require an abundant attention, but follows the divinities spontaneously, and after a certain manner, self-motively, not being in want of manual direction; but, through an anagogic tendency, being itself uniformly coelevated by itself, to the one of the Gods.
It may also, if requisite, be said that a celes- tial body is most allied to the incorporeal essence of the Gods. For as the latter is one, so the former is simple; as the latter is imparti- ble, so the former is indivisible; and as that is immutable, so this is unchanged in quality. If, likewise, it is admitted that the energies of the Gods are uniform, a celestial body also, has one circulation. To which may be added, that it imitates the sameness of the Gods, by a perpetual motion, which is invariably the same, and which subsists according to one reason * For as a celestial body consists of light so pure and simple, that, compared with a terrestrial body, it may be said to be immaterial; hence, like the light of the sim, it cannot be divided, or in other words, one part of it cannot be sepa- rated from another.
67 67 and one order. It also imitates a divine life, by the life which is connascent with etherial bodies. Hence, this celestial body does not consist of things contrary and different, as is the case with our body; nor does the soul of the celestial Gods coalesce with the body into one animal from two things; but the celestial animals of the Gods are entirely similar and counited, and are throughout wholes, uniform, and incomposite. For things of a more excel- lent nature are always transcendent in them, after the same manner; and things of an in- ferior nature are suspended from the dominion of such as are prior, yet so as never to draw down this dominion to themselves. But all these are congregated into one coarrangement and perfection; and, after a certain manner, all things in the celestial Gods are incorporeal, and wholly Gods; because the divine form which is in them predominates, and inserts every where throughout one total essence. Thus, therefore, the visible celestials are all of them Gods, and after a certain manner incor- poreal.
68 CHAP. XVIII.
68 CHAP. XVIII.
Youe next inquiry doubts, “ how some of the Gods are beneficent, but others malefic.” This opinion, therefore, is assumed from the pre- dictors of nativities. It is, however, entirely remote from the truth. For all the Gods are good, and invariably the causes of good; and all of them are uniformly convolved to one good, according to the beautiful and good alone. The bodies, likewise, which are subject to them possess immense powers; some of which are firmly established in the divine bodies them- selves, but others proceed from them into the nature of the world, and into the world itself, descending in an orderly manner through the whole of generation, and extending without impediment as far as to things which have a partial subsistence.
With respect to the powers, therefore, which remain in the heavens in the divine bodies themselves, there can be no doubt that all of them are similar. Hence, it remains that we should discuss those powers which are thence transmitted to us, and are mingled with gene- ration. These, therefore, descend with invaria- ble sameness for the salvation of the universe, 69 69 and connectedly contain the whole of genera- tion after the same manner. They are like- wise impassive and immutable, though they proceed into that which is mutable and passive. For generation being multiform, and consisting of different things, receives the one of the Gods, and that in them which is without differ- ence, with hostility and partibility, conformably to its own contrariety and division. It also receives that which is impassive, passively; and, in short, participates of them according to its own proper nature, and not according to their power. As, therefore, that which is generated [or has a subsistence in becoming to be,] participates of being generatively, and body participates of the incorporeal, corpo- really; thus, also, the physical and material substances which are in generation, participate of the immaterial aud etherial bodies, which are above nature and generation, in a confused and disorderly manner. Hence they are ab- surd who attribute colour, figure, and contact to intelhgible forms, because the participants of them are things of this kind; as likewise are those who ascribe depravity to the celes- tial bodies, because their participants some- times produce evils. For the participation from the first could not be a thing of this kind, unless the recipient had some mutation.
70 But if that which is participated is received as in another and different thing, this other thing in terrene natures is evil and disorderly. The participation, therefore, becomes the cause of the abundant difference in secondary natures, and also the commixture of material sub- stances with immaterial effluxions; and be- sides these, another cause is this, that what is imparted in one way, is received in another by terrestrial substances. Thus, for instance, the efflux of Saturn is constipative, but that of Mars is motive; but the passive genesiurgic receptacle in material substances receives the former according to congelation and refrigera- tion, but the latter according to an inflam- mation which transcends mediocrity. Do not, therefore, the corruption and privation of sym- metry arise from an aberration which is effec- tive of difference, and which is material and passive? Hence the imbecility of material and terrene places, not being able to receive the genuine power and most pure life of the ethe- rial natures, transfers its own passion to first causes. Just as if some one having a diseased body, and not being able to bear the vivific heat of the sun, should falsely dare to say, in consequence of looking to his own maladies, that the sun is not useful to health or life.
A certain thing of this kind also may take 71 place in the harmony and crasis of the universe: for the same things may be the salvation of the whole, through the perfection of the things inherent and the recipients; but may be noxious to the parts, through their partible privation of symmetry. In the motion, therefore, of the universe, all the circulations preserve the whole world invariably the same; but some one of the parts is frequently injured by another part, which we see is sometimes the case in a dance.
Again, therefore, corruptibility and muta- bility are passions connascent with partial na- tures. But it is not proper to ascribe these to wholes and first causes, either as if they existed in them, or as if they proceeded to terrestrial substances from them. Hence, through these things it is demonstrated, that neither the celestial Gods, nor their gifts, are effective of evil.
CHAP. XIX.
In the next place, therefore, we shall answer your question, ‘^What it is which conjoins the Gods that have a body in the heavens with the incorporeal Gods'' What this is, therefore, is evident from what has been before said. For 72 if these Gods, as incorporeal, intelligible, and united, ride in the celestial spheres, they have their principles in the intelligible world, and intellectually perceiving the divine forms of themselves, they govern all heaven according to one infinite energy. And if they are present with the heavens in a separate manner, and lead the perpetual circulations of them by their will alone, they are themselves unmingled with a sensible nature, and exist together with the intelligible Gods.