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
distinction. Two kinds of air according to Aristotle, the vaporous from the exhalation of water and the smoky from the extinguishing of fire. The latter is hot; the former is hot at first, but later is cooled. All things are from the four elements and are resolved into them. Plato says the three elements change into one another, but not, however, the earth. For a pyramid and an octahedron and an icosahedron, being composed of scalene triangles, can be resolved and again be combined, but a cube when resolved does not change into any other of the three shapes; for it is composed of equilateral triangles. To fire belong sharpness, rarity, motion; to earth, bluntness, density, rest. As sharpness is to bluntness, so air is to water; as motion is to re[st], so water is to earth; as fire then is to air, so air is to water. The sense organs are five, but sensation is one, that of the soul. Touch is in the earthy nature, sight of bright things in the brightest element, affections of the air in the airy element. There are not four senses corresponding to the four elements, but five; for the class of smells is intermediate between air and water. Of the parts of the soul, some are attendant and ruling, that is, the intellectual and scientific, and others are subservient, such as the faculties of sensation and movement according to impulse. Hipparchus says that rays are stretched out from the eyes and, just like hands, apprehend the visible object. The geometers say that the right eye extends rays to the left, and the left eye to the right, and from the incidence a cone is formed. The Epicureans say that images of things seen fall upon the eyes. The light of the sun, touching the upper limit of the air, transmits power. The air is an instrument for the eye for the discernment of visible things. As the brain 27 is to the nerve, so is the eye to air animated by the power of sunlight. Porphyry says that the soul encounters visible things and recognizes them as containing all things. Sight sees in straight lines. It perceives colors first, then also numbers and movements and rests, then smooth and uneven, rough and smooth, sharp and blunt, common to touch and sight. Of all the sense organs, [each is] two. The tongue is twofold, divided only in snakes. The anterior ventricles of the brain are twofold, whence twofold nerves are sent down to the senses. When touch is destroyed, the living creature is destroyed; for this reason it is also common, that it may be guarded from all sides. As sight sees through the medium of air, <so> too touch perceives hard and moist things by means of a staff. The hands are devoid of hair, so that they might better apprehend tangible things. Sight sees in straight lines, smell and hearing both this way and from all directions; but the others apprehend only by the proximity of the subjects, the nerves <in> the palate reporting the perception to the ruling faculty. The qualities of taste are sweetness, sourness, pungency, astringency, harshness, bitterness, saltiness, oiliness; according to these, water is without quality. To the intellectual part belong judgments, assents, avoidances, impulses, the deliberative faculty, thoughts and virtues, the sciences. The soul apprehends sensible things through the sense organs and opinion comes to be, and it apprehends intelligible things through the intellect and intellection comes to be. When it preserves these, then there is memory. Intelligible things are remembered accidentally, but sensible things in themselves. A natural notion is that [which is present in all without teaching]. Some of those suffering from frenzy preserve their senses, with only the intellect being harmed. The irrational part of the soul is called passive and appetitive. For a passion is a motion in one thing from another. Activity is motion according to nature, 28 passion is motion contrary to nature; activity is the motion of the pulse, passion is that of palpitations. Passion must also have vehemence. Of pleasures, some are of the soul, others are of the body with the participation of the soul. The only passions of the body without the soul are cuts, fluxes. Further, pleasures <in> good actions are not passions, but affections according to
διάκρισιν. δύο γένη ἀέρος κατὰ τὸν Ἀριστοτέλην, τὸ ἀτμῶδες τὸ ἐκ τῆς ἀναθυμιάσεως τοῦ ὕδατος καὶ τὸ καπνῶδες τὸ ἐξ ἀποσβέσεως
πυρός. τοῦτο θερμόν· ἐκεῖνο τὰ πρῶτα μέν ἐστι θερμόν, ὕστερον δὲ ψύχεται. ἐκ δὲ τῶν τεττάρων στοιχείων τὰ πάντα καὶ εἰς ταῦτα
ἀναλύεται. Πλάτων φησὶ τὰ τρία στοιχεῖα μεταβάλλειν εἰς ἄλληλα, οὐ μὴν δὲ καὶ τὴν γῆν. πυραμὶς γὰρ καὶ ὀκτάεδρον καὶ εἰκοσάεδρον
ἐκ σκαληνῶν συγκείμενα δύνανται διαλύεσθαι καὶ αὖθις συνίστασθαι, κύβος δὲ διαλυθεὶς εἰς ἄλλο τι τῶν τριῶν σχημάτων οὐ μεταβάλλει·
ἐξ ἰσοπλεύρων γὰρ τριγώνων συνίσταται. τῷ πυρὶ ὀξύτης, μανότης, κίνησις· τῇ γῇ ἀμβλύτης, πυκνότης, στάσις. ἔστιν ὡς ὀξύτης
πρὸς ἀμβλύτητα ἀὴρ πρὸς ὕδωρ, ὡς κίνησις πρὸς στά[σιν] ὕδωρ πρὸς γῆν, ὡς ἄρα πῦρ πρὸς ἀέρα ἀὴρ πρὸς ὕδωρ. Αἰσθητήρια μὲν πέντε,
αἴσθησις δὲ μία, ἡ ψυχική. ἡ ἁφὴ ἐν τῇ γεώδει φύσει, τῷ αὐγοειδεστάτῳ ἡ ὄψις τῶν αὐγοειδῶν, τῷ ἀερώδει τὰ παθήματα τοῦ ἀέρος.
οὐ πρὸς τὰ τέτταρα στοιχεῖα τέτταρες καὶ αἱ αἰσθήσεις, ἀλλὰ πέντε· τὸ γὰρ τῶν ὀσμῶν γένος μέσον ἀέρος καὶ ὕδατος. τῶν ψυχικῶν
τὰ μὲν δορυφορικὰ καὶ ἀρχικά, ἤγουν τὸ διανοητικὸν καὶ ἐπιστημονικόν, τὰ δὲ ὑπουργικὰ ὡς τὰ αἰσθητικὰ καὶ ἡ καθ' ὁρμὴν κίνησις.
Ἵππαρχος ἀκτῖνάς φησιν ἀπὸ τῶν ὀφθαλμῶν ἀποτείνεσθαι καὶ καθάπερ χεῖρας ἀντιλαμβάνεσθαι τοῦ ὁρατοῦ. οἱ δὲ γεωμέτραι τὸν μὲν
δεξιὸν ὀφθαλμὸν τείνειν φασὶν ἀκτῖνας ἐπὶ τὰ ἀριστερά, τὸν δ' ἀριστερὸν ἐπὶ τὰ δεξιά, καὶ ἀπὸ τῆς ἐμπτώσεως ἀποτελεῖσθαι κῶνον.
οἱ Ἐπικούρειοι εἴδωλα τῶν φαινομένων φασὶ προσπίπτειν τοῖς ὀφθαλμοῖς. ἡ αὐγὴ τοῦ ἡλίου ψαύουσα τοῦ ἄνω πέρατος τοῦ ἀέρος διαδίδωσι
δύναμιν. ὁ ἀὴρ ὄργανον τῷ ὀφθαλμῷ πρὸς τὴν τῶν ὁρωμένων διάγνωσιν. ὡς ὁ ἐγκέφαλος 27 πρὸς τὸ νεῦρον, οὕτως ὀφθαλμὸν πρὸς ἀέρα
ἐμψυχωμένον δυνάμει ἡλιακῆς αὐγῆς. Πορφύριός φησιν ὡς ἡ ψυχὴ ἐντυγχάνει τοῖς ὁρατοῖς καὶ ἐπιγινώσκει αὐτὰ ὡς συνέχουσα πάντα.
ὁρᾷ ἡ ὄψις κατ' εὐθείας γραμμάς. αἰσθάνεται χρωμάτων μὲν πρῶτον, εἶτα καὶ ἀριθμῶν καὶ κινήσεων καὶ στάσεων, ἔπειτα ὁμαλὸν
ἀνώμαλον, τραχὺ λεῖον, ὀξὺ καὶ ἀμβλύ, κοινὰ ἁφῆς καὶ ὄψεως. Ἁπάντων αἰσθητηρίων [ἕκαστον] δύο. γλῶττα διττή, τοῖς ὄφεσι μόνοις
διῃρημένη. διτταὶ αἱ ἐμπρόσθιοι κοιλίαι τοῦ ἐγκεφάλου, ὅθεν διττὰ νεῦρα καταπέμπονται ταῖς αἰσθήσεσιν. ἁφῆς ἀπολλυμένης ἀπόλλυται
τὸ ζῷον· διὰ τοῦτο καὶ κοινή, ἵνα φυλάττηται πανταχόθεν. ὡς ἡ ὄψις διὰ μέσου ἀέρος ὁρᾷ, <οὕτω> καὶ ἡ ἁφὴ διὰ βακτηρίας σκληρῶν
καὶ ὑγρῶν αἰσθάνεται. τριχῶν ἀμοιροῦσι χεῖρες, ἵνα μᾶλλον τῶν ἁπτῶν ἀντιλαμβάνωνται. Ἡ ὄψις κατ' εὐθείας γραμμὰς ὁρᾷ, ὄσφρησις
καὶ ἀκοὴ καὶ τοῦτο καὶ πανταχόθεν· αἱ δ' ἄλλαι μόνῳ τῷ πλησιασμῷ τῶν ὑποκειμένων ἀντιλαμβάνονται, <τὰ ἐν> τῇ ὑπερώᾳ νεῦρα
ἀπαγγέλλοντα τῷ ἡγεμονικῷ τὴν ἀντίληψιν. γευστικαὶ ποιότητες γλυκύτης, ὀξύτης, δριμύτης, στρυφνότης, αὐστηρότης, πικρότης,
ἁλμυρότης, λιπαρότης· κατὰ ταύτας τὸ ὕδωρ ἄποιον. Τοῦ διανοητικοῦ εἰσὶν αἱ κρίσεις, αἱ συγκαταθέσεις, αἱ ἀποφυγαί, αἱ ὁρμαί,
τὸ βουλευτικόν, αἱ νοήσεις καὶ ἀρεταί, αἱ ἐπιστῆμαι. ἡ ψυχὴ διὰ τῶν αἰσθητηρίων τῶν αἰσθητῶν ἀντιλαμβάνεται καὶ γίνεται δόξα,
διὰ τοῦ νοῦ τῶν νοητῶν καὶ γίνεται νόησις. ὅταν ταῦτα διασῴζῃ, τότε ἐστὶ μνήμη. τὰ νοητὰ μνημονεύεται κατὰ συμβεβηκός, καθ'
ἑαυτὰ δὲ τὰ αἰσθητά. φυσικὴ ἔννοια ἡ [ἀδιδάκτως πᾶσι προσοῦσα]. τινὲς τῶν φρενιτιζόντων τὰς αἰσθήσεις διασῴζουσι, τῆς διανοίας
μόνης βλαβείσης. Τὸ ἄλογον μέρος τῆς ψυχῆς παθητικὸν καλεῖται καὶ ὀρεκτικόν. πάθος ἐστὶ γὰρ κίνησις ἐν ἑτέρῳ ἐξ ἑτέρου. ἐνέργεια
ἡ κατὰ φύσιν κίνησις, 28 πάθος ἡ παρὰ φύσιν· ἐνέργεια ἡ κατὰ τὸν σφυγμὸν κίνησις, πάθος ἡ περὶ τοὺς παλμούς. τὸ πάθος ὀφείλει
ἔχειν καὶ σφοδρότητα. Τῶν ἡδονῶν αἱ μὲν ψυχικαὶ, αἱ δὲ σωματικαὶ μετὰ κοινωνίας τῆς ψυχῆς. μόνα σώματος πάθη χωρὶς ψυχῆς τομαί,
ῥεύσεις. ἔτι <ἐπὶ> ταῖς καλαῖς πράξεσιν ἡδοναὶ οὐ πάθη εἰσίν, ἀλλὰ πείσεις κατὰ
