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
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-dimensional, but not the reverse. for both place and quality are incorporeal in themselves, but by accident are quantified in bulk. and the soul in itself is without dimension, but is considered three-dimensional in relation to that in which it is. Every body is moved either from without, like inanimate things, or from within, like animate things. if the soul is a body, it is either animate or inanimate. Furthermore, the soul is nourished by words; but no body is nourished by an incorporeal thing. If the soul is blood, when a part of the blood flows away, a part of the soul flows away. And if the liver and the brain should fail, they bring an end to the animal; therefore these too are souls. Nor is water soul; for an eagle and a partridge are able to live even without drinking. Nor is it breath; for many things do not breathe and yet live, like those that do not have lungs. Chrysippus says, “an incorporeal thing does not touch a body, and therefore {not} the soul is a body”. But the <line>, being incorporeal, touches a body, and likewise whiteness. Simmias says the soul is a harmony. But harmony does not admit of harmony and disharmony, whereas the soul admits of virtue and vice. Furthermore, if the soul is a mixture, and mixtures are altered, then souls too would be altered. The ruling thing is different from the ruled thing, therefore a mixture is different from a soul. The first entelechy of the eye is {the first} sight, the second is the activity by which it sees. For as sight perfects the eye, <so> also the soul perfects the animal. If lightness and heaviness are motion, light and heavy things would never stand still. That which moves according to nature does not thereby also rest according to nature. For indeed the sun and the cosmos do not rest according to nature. 25 The soul is not a number. For the soul is a substance, but a number is a quantity. Furthermore, the soul is continuous, but a number is not continuous. Plato says there is one soul of the universe, but the particular souls are different; he speaks of a form of soul corresponding to the form of an animal. <If> the soul is neither body nor accident, it remains <that> it is incorporeal and incorruptible according to the divine fathers. In the case of intelligible things, it is called a union, but not an alteration. Just as the sun changes the air into light while itself remaining unmingled, so also the soul is in the body; but the difference is this much, that the sun is circumscribed in place. The soul is not controlled by the body, but rather it controls. And the body is in the soul; for intelligible things pass through every body unhindered. The soul is in itself when it reasons, in the intellect when it thinks, but in the body as in relation and {in} presence, just as God is also said to be in us. We say the soul is bound by the body as a lover is by his beloved. The soul is not bound to the body corporeally or locally, but according to relation; for that which is without parts is not in a place. Eunomius says that the divine powers were united with the powers of the body, that is, with the senses, and this he considers to be incarnation. But one must understand that according to the proper nature of incorporeal things, the union of substances occurs without confusion, with the more divine nature not being harmed by the inferior one. For the pure incorporeal nature passes through all things unhindered, but nothing passes through it. The mode of union, therefore, is not by good pleasure; for the taking of a body is of good pleasure, but the not becoming a confusion is of divine nature. Sanguineous animals are from the <four> humors, but bloodless animals from the other humors and from that which is analogous to blood. Aristotle says that animals come to be, are nourished, and grow directly from blood, and that the seed is from blood. But Hippocrates says from the four, so that the more solid parts come from the earthier parts, and the soft parts from the softer parts. Sometimes the four are also found in the blood in phlebotomies, whence they also seem to agree on this. 26 The four qualities are in the elements and not by themselves. The element is a simple body having the extreme qualities in actuality. Each of the elements, having cast off one of its qualities, becomes something else by combination and
συγγνώμης ἐν τῷ μετανοεῖν ἀξιοῦσθαι. Εἰ σῶμα ἡ ψυχὴ κατά τινας τῶν παλαιῶν, τί ἐστὶ τὸ συνέχον αὐτήν; πᾶν σῶμα τριχῇ διαστατόν,
οὐ μὴν καὶ ἀνάπαλιν. καὶ γὰρ ὁ τόπος καὶ τὸ ποιὸν ἀσώματα μέν εἰσι καθ' αὑτά, κατὰ συμβεβηκὸς δ' ἐν ὄγκῳ ποσοῦται. καὶ ἡ ψυχὴ
καθ' αὑτὴν μὲν ἀδιάστατος, κατὰ τὸ δ' ἐν ᾧ ἐστι συνθεωρεῖται τριχῇ διαστατή. πᾶν σῶμα ἢ ἔξωθεν κινεῖται, ὡς τὰ ἄψυχα, ἢ ἔνδοθεν,
ὡς τὰ ἔμψυχα. εἰ σῶμα ἡ ψυχή, ἢ ἔμψυχόν ἐστιν ἢ ἄψυχον. ἔτι ἡ ψυχὴ λόγοις τρέφεται· οὐδὲν δὲ σῶμα ἀσωμάτῳ τρέφεται. εἰ αἷμα
ἡ ψυχή, ὅταν μέρος ἀπορρυῇ τοῦ αἵματος, μέρος ἀπορρεῖ τῆς ψυχῆς. καὶ τὸ ἧπαρ καὶ ὁ ἐγκέφαλος εἰ ἐκλείψουσι τέλος ἐπάγουσι
τῷ ζῴῳ· λοιπὸν καὶ ταῦτα ψυχαί. οὐδὲ τὸ ὕδωρ ψυχή· ἀετὸς γὰρ καὶ πέρδιξ καὶ μὴ πίνοντες δύνανται ζῆν. οὐδὲ πνεῦμα· πολλὰ γὰρ
οὐκ ἀναπνεῖ καὶ ζῇ, ὡς τὰ μὴ πνεύμονα ἔχοντα. Χρύσιππος «οὐκ ἐφάπτεται» φησίν «ἀσώματον σώματος, καὶ λοιπὸν {οὐ} σῶμα ἡ ψυχή».
ἡ <δὲ> γραμμὴ ἀσώματος οὖσα ἐφάπτεται σώματος, ὁμοίως καὶ ἡ λευκότης. Σιμμίας φησὶ τὴν ψυχὴν ἁρμονίαν. ἀλλ' ἡ ἁρμονία οὐ δέχεται
ἁρμονίαν καὶ ἀναρμοστίαν, ἡ δὲ ψυχὴ ἀρετὴν καὶ κακίαν. ἔτι δὲ εἰ ἡ ψυχὴ κρᾶσις, ἐναλλάττονται δὲ αἱ κράσεις, ἐναλλαγεῖεν μὲν
καὶ αἱ ψυχαί. ἄλλο τὸ κρατοῦν καὶ ἄλλο τὸ κρατούμενον, ἄλλο ἄρα κρᾶσις καὶ ἄλλο ψυχή. Πρώτη ἐντελέχεια ὀφθαλμοῦ ἡ {πρώτη}
ὄψις, δευτέρα ἡ ἐνέργεια καθ' ἣν ὁρᾷ. ὡς γοῦν ἡ ὄψις τελειοῖ τὸν ὀφθαλμόν, <οὕτως> καὶ ἡ ψυχὴ τὸ ζῷον. Εἰ ἡ κουφότης καὶ ἡ
βαρύτης κίνησις, οὐδέποτ' ἂν ἵστατο τὰ κοῦφα καὶ τὰ βαρέα. οὐ τὸ κατὰ φύσιν κινούμενον ἤδη καὶ κατὰ φύσιν ἠρεμεῖ. καὶ γὰρ
ἥλιος καὶ κόσμος οὐ κατὰ φύσιν ἠρεμεῖ. 25 Οὐκ ἔστιν ἡ ψυχὴ ἀριθμός. ἡ γὰρ ψυχὴ οὐσία, ὁ δὲ ἀριθμὸς ποσόν. ἔτι ἡ ψυχὴ συνεχής,
ὁ δ' ἀριθμὸς οὐ συνεχής. μίαν φησὶν τοῦ παντὸς ψυχὴν ὁ Πλάτων, τὰς δὲ κατὰ μέρος διαφόρους· κατ' εἶδος ζῴου καὶ ψυχῆς εἶδος
λέγει. <εἰ> ἡ ψυχὴ οὔτε σῶμα οὔτε συμβεβηκός, λείπει <ὅτι> ἀσώματός ἐστι καὶ ἄφθαρτος κατὰ τοὺς θείους πατέρας. Ἐπὶ δὲ τῶν
νοητῶν ἕνωσις μὲν λέγεται, οὐκ ἀλλοίωσις δέ. ὥσπερ ὁ ἥλιος τὸν ἀέρα εἰς φῶς μεταβάλλει ἀσύγχυτος αὐτὸς μένων, οὕτω καὶ ἡ ψυχὴ
ἐν τῷ σώματι· παρὰ τοσοῦτον δὲ τὸ διάφορον, ὅτι ὁ ἥλιος ἐν τόπῳ περιγράφεται. οὐ κρατεῖται ἡ ψυχὴ ὑπὸ τοῦ σώματος, ἀλλὰ μᾶλλον
κρατεῖ. καὶ τὸ σῶμα ἐν τῇ ψυχῇ ἐστι· διὰ παντὸς γὰρ σώματος χωροῦσι τὰ νοητὰ ἀκωλύτως. ἡ ψυχὴ ἐν ἑαυτῇ μέν ἐστιν ὅταν λογίζηται,
ἐν τῷ νοῒ ὅταν νοῇ, ἐν τῷ σώματι δὲ ὡς ἐν σχέσει καὶ {ἐν} τῷ παρεῖναι, ὡς λέγεται καὶ ὁ θεὸς ἐν ἡμῖν. δεδέσθαι φαμὲν ὑπὸ τοῦ
σώματος τὴν ψυχὴν ὡς ὑπὸ τῆς ἐρωμένης τὸν ἐραστήν. οὐ σωματικῶς οὐδὲ τοπικῶς, ἀλλὰ κατὰ σχέσιν δέδεται ἡ ψυχὴ τῷ σώματι· τὸ
γὰρ ἀμερὲς οὐκ ἐν τόπῳ. λέγει Εὐνόμιος ὡς αἱ θεῖαι δυνάμεις ἡνώθησαν ταῖς δυνάμεσι τοῦ σώματος ἤγουν ταῖς αἰσθήσεσι, καὶ τοῦτο
δοξάζει σάρκωσιν. χρὴ δὲ νοεῖν ὡς κατὰ τὴν οἰκείαν φύσιν τῶν ἀσωμάτων ἀσυγχύτως γίνεται ἡ ἕνωσις τῶν οὐσιῶν, μὴ καταβλαπτομένης
τῆς θειοτέρας ἐκ τῆς ὑποδεεστέρας. ἡ γὰρ καθαρὸς ἀσώματος φύσις ἀκωλύτως χωρεῖ διὰ πάντων, δι' αὐτῆς δ' οὐδέν. οὐκ εὐδοκία
τοίνυν ὁ τρόπος τῆς ἑνώσεως· τὸ γὰρ ἀναλαβεῖν σῶμα εὐδοκίας, τὸ δὲ μὴ σύγχυσιν γενέσθαι φύσεως θείας. Τὰ ἔναιμα ἐκ τῶν <τεττάρων>
χυμῶν, τὰ δ' ἄναιμα ἐκ τῶν ἄλλων χυμῶν καὶ ἐκ τοῦ ἀναλογοῦντος αἵματι. Ἀριστοτέλης τὰ ζῷα προσεχῶς ἐξ αἵματός φησι γίνεσθαι
καὶ τρέφεσθαι καὶ αὔξεσθαι καὶ τὸ σπέρμα ἐξ αἵματος. ὁ δ' Ἱπποκράτης λέγει ἐκ τῶν τεττάρων, ἵν' ἐκ τῶν γεωδεστέρων τὰ στερεώτερα
γίνωνται, ἐκ δὲ τῶν μαλακωτέρων τὰ μαλακά. ποτὲ καὶ οἱ τέτταρες εὑρίσκονται ἐν τῷ αἵματι ἐν ταῖς φλεβοτομίαις, ὅθεν καὶ δοκοῦσιν
ἐν τούτῳ συμφωνεῖν. 26 Αἱ τέτταρες ποιότητες ἐν τοῖς στοιχείοις εἰσὶ καὶ οὐ καθ' αὑτάς. τὸ στοιχεῖον ἁπλοῦν σῶμά ἐστιν κατ'
ἐνέργειαν ἔχον ἄκρας τὰς ποιότητας. ἕκαστον τῶν στοιχείων ἀποβαλὸν μίαν τῶν ποιοτήτων ἕτερόν τι γίνεται κατὰ σύγκρισιν καὶ
