Opuscula psychologica, theologica, daemonologica
After the judgment of the thoughts, an exact discernment of how the thoughts happen to be, whether they are good or otherwise but imagination is the
to divide for us, by the established terms, the sesquitertian ratios into both the sesquioctave ratios and the leimmata, we would have stopped at thes
having split it, he bent each one into a circle, bringing them together middle to middle with each other like a chi, having joined 7 them both to them
left, or rather the one is an image of mind, the other of soul. And in the soul itself, the right is that which is turned toward the intelligible thin
regarding the explanation of the Platonic psychogony, this we now discharge for you as a kind of debt. For Plato's statement that the division of thes
and of exegesis. And there is a letter of mine placed among my books that has traced out and carefully examined the meaning in the sayings. But it is
a ruler drives a team of two then of the 14 horses, one of them is noble and good and of such stock, but the other is from opposite stock and is oppo
a body from one of the seeing things, such that it is able to be extended as far as the stars. But it was better, he says, than to say that the extern
through which it is not swept into material disorder, but is joined to the divine light, holds it in its own place and makes it unmixed with matter, l
of knowledge. For there is something intelligible, which you must understand with the flower of the intellect. And he says that the one in us is twofo
agrees, but among them the salty is more than the drinkable. They say, for example, that every soul is either divine or changing from intellect to min
to be deemed worthy of pardon in repenting. If the soul is a body according to some of the ancients, what is it that contains it? every body is three-
distinction. Two kinds of air according to Aristotle, the vaporous from the exhalation of water and the smoky from the extinguishing of fire. The latt
Plato. Pleasure is not a coming-to-be for coming-to-be is of things that are not, while pleasure is of things that are. And coming-to-be is swift and
is natural, while habit is acquired and taught. Providence is the care for existing things that comes from God. Epicurus says: the blessed and incorr
but such powers are simply and imperceptibly desired. What then? Do we have three souls? Solution: just as the soul, when united to the body, seems to
When this is dimmed they also are dimmed the soul flourishes when this 34 withers. Further, everything desires to preserve its own substrate. If the
actuality, as physicians, others in relation to something, others a double or one-and-a-half ratio. Potentiality is found in substance, as a man in th
concerning form, matter and cause, for example the matter of the celestial bodies is not the four elements, but a certain fifth, spherical one, as be
as knowledge (for knowledge is a transition from defined things to defined things for this reason it is also knowledge, as leading the mind to a stat
this, for indeed the flesh also moves downwards and is none of the elements. Aporia: but matter, that is the element, is not soul, but the form that c
definitions have as their beginning the most general things, as their end the most specific things. If, then, these are finite, so are the definitions
and it acts according to one part and another. It seems to act in these ways as being one. For if it is divided, it is necessary for the parts to be e
the rest, but this is about hot and soft, heavy and light, rare and dense, and many opposites. In humans, the cause of local motion is intellect, in i
is nourished {which} is twofold: either as Matter or as an instrument. And the instrument is twofold: either moving and being moved, like the innate h
is equal in distance to the zodiac signs. Light is not a body. for if it were a body, how would it be possible for it to have instantaneous movement,
we see the introduction of the forms of things seen entering the sight, but how do we see the interval of the air in between? Solution: It is not that
with a violent collision. In soft things no sound is produced, because the air is broken up in their pores and dispersed as in sponges. In things that
a buzzing which is conveyed back to the sense of hearing. Others say that the sound occurring in the ears after the blockage is of the external air th
For instance, fish, not having this, are cooled through their gills. Those that have a windpipe also have a lung. Fish have neither these nor a heart.
the sense organs of touch, it is clear for every sense organ is both separated and known. Aristotle speaks of the senses both as one each and as many
Aristotle in On the Soul : if sensation ceased, the sense-organ would also cease. But if the second is not, neither is the first. Sensation and sense-
Some add also a sixth, the attentive [faculty], as when a man says, I perceived, I thought, I opined. To this part they also add the activities of t
We can say ten, but not indeed opine it, so that opinion is not up to us. But neither do we imagine what we wish for we see at night what we do not w
in the case of children, the one according to state, and the one in act, as the one governing all things or the one entering from without. Plato says
theoretical versus the practical. The theoretical corresponds to a vision discerning of forms, while the practical corresponds to a vision not only kn
organs. Moreover, at night the nutritive faculty is more active, but the locomotive faculty is not at all. A difficulty: the vegetative faculty produc
simpler, or rather the things inherent in the matter, into which the matter is also divided, which are also prop[erly] called its elements. I say then
he hints that it is not completed from both of the things mixed, but is produced in the union of the soul and the body, not by the soul itself giving
closing the senses, so as to know unknowingly the transcendent substance of that which is. For according to their own opinions, the philosopher who ha
he himself will also pardon his own student for the apparent 78 opposition to him and others will come here again to bear witness for us, the philoso
it grows and is naturally constituted to decay, must in every way grow along with and decay along with the other in a connate manner for that by whic
a demonstration, so also the soul in an infant's body and a more imperfect one, if it were in another, perfect body, would immediately have shown its
I shall use the argument. In what do you say virtue is inherent? or again, is it superimposed on the formless and incorporeal and uncompounded nature,
Porphyry has philosophized in harmony with this. For in discussing the soul, he says: “Just as insomniacs, by the very act of wanting to sleep and wat
have they cast off? Perhaps those who hold the contrary opinion will vex us with these things. But their objection is like a spider's web, which will
to have received watchwords from the first father, nor that they possess the fullness of many bosoms, nor would I accept that they stand before the bo
both the Sibylline and the Orphic ones, and those according to which the Berytian Bulls came to be and Amous the Egyptian, and Socrates and Plato (for
of the bonds by which they were bound, and after this, turning their minds upward, they will approach God. And if the account told about the Sibyl wer
has the front part? What then do you think? a mind scattered in so great a size is from this cause for him both slack and weak, and the soul is simply
would remember any of the things here. But as many of the souls as were allotted to more humble portions and their whole mind has not been snatched aw
Let us not altogether reject the analogy of the eye in the case of the soul, let it be and be called a more precise substance of the soul but if some
The manner of the entry of souls, and likewise of their release or separation from hence, both are most difficult or hard to explain for of the first
but by such powers the soul is led like some kind of thing moved by another, being drawn towards whatever the leaders happen to lead it, but then rath
For that which is according to reason, knowledge is readily at hand, but that which is contrary to reason, is so because it has received such a nature
of beasts, but perhaps the matter which reason has shown not to exist. Therefore our bodies will be resurrected, and there will be nothing to prevent
fitting and gluing it to that by means of a suitable analogy, not placing the rational and intellectual substance into any of the animals for this is
are generated from these powers alone, for this reason, having abandoned the others, they divided the substance of the soul into these alone. But if y
it is in fourths, when one might contemplate these both in the third order of the intellectual virtues and in the fourth of the paradigmatic virtues,
and so interpreting the Platonic opinion, but they do not seem to me to have grasped the precise meaning of his doctrine. But if I shall clarify for y
and with nothing separating them, it is necessary for the one to be ordered, and the other to order and the one which is ordered has its form divided
what is hard and resistant in them has been smoothed out by me. But what follows from this must be attributed to them alone for, proposing to speak a
proceeds from it and returns to it.” Then indeed he works out the point by division. For if it only remained, it would in no way differ from its cause
in our sacred writings, neither a whole soul nor any whole nature, apart from the partial ones, has been dogmatically established1. I for my part reje
by the energy, then also the substance is perfected according to it, and these things stand in each other according to one energy. For he who does not
having a life activated according to intellect and reason the psychic is defined according to reason 124 and takes care of divisible souls the physi
tormenting them. But there are, they say, both on earth divine daimons and in the air, guardians of the animals there, and <in> the water, extending t
make it superior to the confusion of life, but, if possible, may you not even leave behind in the terrestrial world the very body which you have put o
cast under your mind: for there is no plant of truth on earth» that is: do not busy your mind with the great measures of the earth, as the geographer
Gregory by reason and contemplation leads the soul up to the more divine things by reason that is according to us, the more intellectual and better,
such a lion-bearing fount of heaven and the stars, but the ruling part of its own existence conceals the vision of them. Chaldaean Oracle. From all si
often appearing, they feign the semblance of some goodness towards the one being initiated. Chaldean Oracle. The soul of mortals will draw God into it
they can. Whence everything they say and show is false and insubstantial for they know existing things through forms but that which knows future thi
and fear is the holding back of his goodness towards us for the sake of the economy. Chaldean Oracle. The Father snatched himself away, not even enclo
they are possessed by passions. Therefore, it is necessary for these also to receive their part of the whole judgment and, having been filled up with
for it is higher than being venerated, than being uttered, and than being conceived. A Chaldean Oracle. The Iynges, being conceived by the Father, the
an unknown password, spoken and unspoken. And they often bring the soul down 148 into the world for many reasons, either through the shedding of its w
of truth and of love. After which are the demiurgic fountains, such as that of the ideas, according to which the cosmos and the things in it have shap
enclosing the triad towards itself and they call these also intelligible. After these, another order of the intelligible and at the same time intelle
to the setting [sun], and the pit to the one just at mid-heaven. And thus, gently separating the membrane of the liver, [which is placed] upon the org
parts of philosophy is necessary. For according to moral philosophy it is necessary to assume that not all things are and come to be by necessity, but
knowledge and sees not only the essences themselves, but also their powers and their activities, both those according to nature and those contrary to
he acquired. For even before the birth of both, God knew that the one would be good, and the other would turn out bad and this knowledge is an unchan
from the one who knows, and it revolves around the thing known and is made like the one who knows. I mean something like this: the knowledge of the so
they fabricate. For I too had a certain little man, ignoble in soul, but by no means the least of storytellers to him, at any rate, such phantoms pre
left, or rather the one is an image of mind, the other of soul. And in the soul itself, the right is that which is turned toward the intelligible things, and the left is that which is for the care of perceptible things. And just as in the cosmos it leads the fixed sphere along the side, but the wandering sphere along the diameter, so indeed also in the soul it leads the circle of the Same along the side, but that of the Other along the diameter. And the properties of the diameter are the oblique, the irrational, the contained, the divisive of angles; and of the side, the non-oblique, the rational, the containing, the cohesive. It is fitting, therefore, that the one is said to be led along the side, the better circle of the soul, and the other along the diameter, as rejoicing in progression and multiplications. 9 The remaining parts of the passage are easy to discern and are set out for the circles carried in the heavens, but for the psychic ones it requires a deep mind; for the soul has both the uniform power and the multiform, and the circle of the Same contains the causes of all things, but it is indivisible, because the entire multitude is held by the bond of Sameness. And if one letter cannot contain all the arguments, and that a short and abridged one, one must not be surprised; for neither could the Atlantic sea ever be contained in a ladle, nor the secrets of the immeasurable Platonic thought in the measure of a letter. Therefore one must be content, if we have been able to gaze upon even something of the inner sanctuaries with him. A more complete explanation concerning the leimma You have asked what the leimma is and how it is less than the semitone. Let the number ˉ#ˉ2ˉ2ˉαˉφˉλˉϛ be taken for you; its epogdoos becomes
ˉ#ˉ2ˉ2ˉαˉψˉκˉη; and the epogdoos of this is ˉ#ˉ2ˉ2ˉαˉϠˉμˉδ, which clearly will have the ratio of a ditone to ˉ#ˉ2ˉ2ˉαˉφˉλˉϛ. And there is also the epitritos of ˉ#ˉ2ˉ2ˉαˉφˉλˉϛ, which is
ˉβˉμˉη. The leimma, therefore, is in the ratio of ˉβˉμˉη to ˉ#ˉ2ˉ2ˉαˉϠˉμˉδ. But if we also take the epogdoos of ˉ#ˉ2ˉ2ˉαˉϠˉμˉδ, we will have the number ˉ#ˉ2ˉ2ˉβˉρˉπˉζ. And the ratio of ˉ#ˉ2ˉ2ˉβˉρˉπˉζ to ˉβˉμˉη is greater than that
of ˉβˉμˉη to ˉ#ˉ2ˉ2ˉαˉϠˉμˉδ; for ˉ#ˉ2ˉ2ˉβˉρˉπˉζ exceeds ˉβˉμˉη by more than their fifteenth part, but by less than their fourteenth;
while ˉβˉμˉη exceeds ˉ#ˉ2ˉ2ˉαˉϠˉμˉδ by more than their nineteenth part, but by less than their eighteenth. The smaller part of the third tone is therefore contained within the fourth with the ditone, so that the magnitude of the leimma is concluded to be less than a semitone, and the whole fourth 10 is less than two and a half
tones. And the ratio of ˉβˉμˉη to ˉ#ˉ2ˉ2ˉαˉϠˉμˉδ is the same as that of ˉσˉνˉϛ to ˉσˉμˉγ. But neither the epogdoos nor any other of the superparticulars is divided into two equal ratios. But the epogdoos ratio is made most nearly equal by both the episixteenth and the episeventeenth. The semitone therefore exists according to a ratio somehow between these, that is, one greater than the 17th, but less than the episixteenth. And 15 of 243 is a part greater than a seventeenth, but less than a sixteenth, so that when 243 and 15 are put together, the semitone comes to be in the ratio most nearly of ˉσˉνˉη to ˉσˉμˉγ. And the ratio of the leimma was shown to be that of ˉσˉνˉϛ to ˉσˉμˉγ. And so the semitone will differ from the leimma by the ratio of ˉσˉνˉη to ˉσˉνˉϛ, which is an epi-one hundred and eighth and twentieth . You have, therefore, from this what the leimma means and how it is less than a semitone and in what it differs from the semitone itself, and that neither the epogdoos nor any other of the superparticulars is divided into two equal ratios. And if we have left anything out for you, as you reproached us when you wrote,
ἀριστερά, ἢ μᾶλλον τὸ μὲν νοῦ, τὸ δὲ ψυχῆς εἰκών. ἐπ' αὐτῆς δὲ τῆς ψυχῆς τὸ μὲν δεξιόν ἐστι τὸ πρὸς τὰ νοητὰ ἐστραμμένον,
τὸ δὲ ἀριστερὸν τὸ πρὸς ἐπιμέλειαν τῶν αἰσθητῶν. περιάγει δὲ ὥσπερ ἐν κόσμῳ τὴν μὲν ἀπλανῆ κατὰ πλευράν, τὴν δὲ πλανωμένην
κατὰ διάμετρον, οὕτω δὴ καὶ ἐν τῇ ψυχῇ τὸν μὲν ταὐτοῦ κύκλον κατὰ πλευράν, τὸν δὲ θατέρου κατὰ διάμετρον. ἰδιώματα δὲ τῆς
μὲν διαμέτρου τὸ πεπλαγιασμένον, τὸ ἄλογον, τὸ περιεχόμενον, τὸ διαιρετικὸν τῶν γωνιῶν, τῆς δὲ πλευρᾶς τὸ ἀπλαγίαστον, τὸ
ῥητόν, τὸ περιεκτικόν, τὸ συνεκτικόν. εἰκότως ἄρα ὁ μὲν λέγεται περιάγεσθαι κατὰ πλευράν, ὁ κρείττων τῆς ψυχῆς κύκλος, ὁ δὲ
κατὰ διάμετρον, ὡς προόδῳ χαίρων καὶ πολλαπλασιασμοῖς. 9 Τὰ δὲ λοιπὰ τῆς περικοπῆς ἐπὶ μὲν τῶν κατ' οὐρανὸν φερομένων κύκλων
εὐδιάγνωστα καὶ ἐκκείμενα, ἐπὶ δὲ τῶν ψυχικῶν βαθείας δεῖται φρενός· ἔχει γὰρ ἡ ψυχὴ καὶ τὴν μονοειδῆ δύναμιν καὶ τὴν πολυειδῆ,
καὶ ὁ ταὐτοῦ κύκλος περιέχει τὰς πάντων αἰτίας, ἀλλ' ἄσχιστός ἐστι, διότι πᾶν τὸ πλῆθος τῷ δεσμῷ κρατεῖται τῆς ταυτότητος.
εἰ δὲ μὴ πάντας τοὺς λόγους μία περιλαμβάνειν ἐπιστολὴ δύναται καὶ ταῦτα βραχεῖα καὶ ἐπιτετμημένη, θαυμάζειν οὐ χρή· οὔτε
γὰρ κυάθῳ χωρηθείη ἄν ποτε τὸ Ἀτλαντικὸν πέλαγος οὔτε μέτρῳ ἐπιστολῆς τὰ κρύφια τῆς ἀπλέτου Πλατωνικῆς διανοίας. ἀγαπᾶν οὖν
χρή, εἰ καί τι τῶν παρ' αὐτῷ ἀδύτων κατοπτεῦσαι δεδυνήμεθα. Ἐξήγησις τελεωτέρα περὶ τοῦ λείμματοσ Τί ποτέ ἐστι τὸ λεῖμμα ἠρώτηκας
καὶ πῶς ἔλαττον τοῦ ἡμιτονίου ἐστίν. εἰλήφθω οὖν σοι ἀριθμὸς ὁ ˉ#ˉ2ˉ2ˉαˉφˉλˉϛ· ἐπόγδοος μὲν αὐτοῦ γίνεται ὁ
ˉ#ˉ2ˉ2ˉαˉψˉκˉη· τούτου δέ ἐστιν ἐπόγδοος ὁ ˉ#ˉ2ˉ2ˉαˉϠˉμˉδ, ὃς δῆλον ὅτι πρὸς τὸν ˉ#ˉ2ˉ2ˉαˉφˉλˉϛ λόγον ἕξει διτόνου. ἔστι δὲ
καὶ ἐπίτριτος τοῦ τῶν ˉ#ˉ2ˉ2ˉαˉφˉλˉϛ ὁ
τῶν ˉβˉμˉη. τὸ ἄρα λεῖμμα ἐν λόγῳ ἐστὶ τῶν ˉβˉμˉη πρὸς τὰ ˉ#ˉ2ˉ2ˉαˉϠˉμˉδ. ἀλλ' ἐὰν καὶ τοῦ τῶν ˉ#ˉ2ˉ2ˉαˉϠˉμˉδ τὸν ἐπόγδοον
λάβωμεν, ἕξομεν ἀριθμὸν τὸν τῶν ˉ#ˉ2ˉ2ˉβˉρˉπˉζ. καί ἐστι μείζων ὁ λόγος ὁ τῶν ˉ#ˉ2ˉ2ˉβˉρˉπˉζ πρὸς τὰ ˉβˉμˉη τοῦ
τῶν ˉβˉμˉη πρὸς τὰ ˉ#ˉ2ˉ2ˉαˉϠˉμˉδ· τὰ μὲν γὰρ ˉ#ˉ2ˉ2ˉβˉρˉπˉζ τῶν ˉβˉμˉη μείζονι μὲν ὑπερέχει ἢ τῷ πεντεκαιδεκάτῳ αὐτῶν μέρει,
ἐλάττονι δὲ ἢ τῷ τετταρεσκαιδεκάτῳ·
τὰ δὲ ˉβˉμˉη τῶν ˉ#ˉ2ˉ2ˉαˉϠˉμˉδ μείζονι μὲν ὑπερέχει <ἢ> τῷ ἐννεακαιδεκάτῳ αὐτῶν μέρει, ἐλάττονι δὲ <ἢ> τῷ ὀκτωκαιδεκάτῳ.
τὸ ἔλαττον ἄρα τοῦ τρίτου τόνου τμῆμα ἐντὸς ἀπείληπται τοῦ διὰ τεττάρων πρὸς τῷ διτόνῳ, ὥστε τὸ μὲν τοῦ λείμματος μέγεθος
ἔλαττον ἡμιτονίου συνάγεσθαι, τὸ δὲ διὰ τεττάρων 10 ὅλον ἔλαττον δύο καὶ ἥμισυ
τόνων. καὶ ἔστι τῶν ˉβˉμˉη πρὸς τὰ ˉ#ˉ2ˉ2ˉαˉϠˉμˉδ λόγος ὁ αὐτὸς τῷ τῶν ˉσˉνˉϛ πρὸς τὰ ˉσˉμˉγ. εἰς ἴσους δὲ δύο λόγους οὔθ'
ὁ ἐπόγδοος οὔτε ἄλλος τις διαιρεῖται τῶν ἐπιμορίων. ἴσοι δ' ἔγγιστα ποιοῦσι λόγον τὸν ἐπόγδοον ὅ τε ἐπιεκκαιδέκατος καὶ ὁ
ἐπιεπτακαιδέκατος. ὑπάρχει τοιγαροῦν κατὰ τὸν μεταξύ πως τούτων λόγον τὸ ἡμιτόνιον, τουτέστι τὸν μείζονα μὲν τοῦ <ἐπι>ˉιˉζ,
ἐλάττονα δὲ τοῦ ἐπιεκκαιδεκάτου. ἔστι δὲ καὶ τῶν ˉσˉμˉγ τὰ ˉιˉε μεῖζον μὲν μέρος ἢ ἑπτακαιδέκατον, ἔλαττον δὲ ἢ ἑκκαιδέκατον,
ὥστε συντεθέντων αὐτῶν τοῦ τε ˉσˉμˉγ καὶ τοῦ ˉιˉε ἐν λόγῳ γίνεσθαι τὸ ἡμιτόνιον ἔγγιστα τῷ τῶν ˉσˉνˉη πρὸς τὰ ˉσˉμˉγ. ἐδείχθη
δὲ καὶ τοῦ λείμματος ὁ λόγος ὁ τῶν ˉσˉνˉϛ πρὸς τὰ ˉσˉμˉγ. καὶ τοῦ λείμματος ἄρα τὸ ἡμιτόνιον διοίσει τῷ τῶν ˉσˉνˉη λόγῳ πρὸς
τὰ ˉσˉνˉϛ, ὅς ἐστιν ἐπιεκατοστόγδοος <καὶ εἰκοστός>. Ἔχεις οὖν ἐντεῦθεν τί ποτε τὸ λεῖμμα δύναται καὶ πῶς ἔλαττον ἡμιτονίου
ἐστὶ καὶ τίνι διαφέρει αὐτοῦ τοῦ ἡμιτονίου καὶ ὅτι εἰς ἴσους δύο λόγους οὔτε ὁ ἐπόγδοος οὔτε ἄλλος τις διαιρεῖται τῶν ἐπιμορίων.
εἰ δέ τί σοι ἐλλελοίπαμεν, ὥσπερ ἐπιστείλας ἡμῖν ὠνείδισας,
