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
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 irrational animals it is sensation; but in truth the appetitive is the cause of local motion. To live is said in many ways: according to intellect, according to sensation, according to the rest. whence also plants, having a nutritive power, are said to live. we say these things are nourished and grow which are nourished and grow in every part. But for things not in every part it is called addition, as in the case of a heap of wheat, another is an addition. We call animals not things simply living, but those in which life is clearer and more manifest, just as we call runners not those who are simply running, but those who are running vigorously. 47 In the p[l]ant there is one soul, but being divided into many branches and growing its own power, they become many in number, but in form it is one. From the brain proceeds every sensation and motion. whence if this suffers anything, the animal remains completely insensible and motionless. Aristotle in On the Soul: the appetitive and the imaginative are inseparable, likewise also the sensitive and that which moves in a circular manner according to place. Of the intellect, one part is theoretical, the other is practical, which has a relation to the body, released from which it is not practical. both differ in their end; for to that one the end is the apprehension of truth, but to this one, of the good. The intellect seems to be another kind of soul and to have a separable substance, but the whole soul is inseparable. of the soul, only the part that is intellect is eternal. the soul has also activities from its relation to the body, which it puts aside after its liberation from here. It also has its own [activities] concerning intelligible things, to which the body is more of an impediment. It is clear then that it will also have a separable substance, being and being called then intellect, no longer soul, however, except in potentiality, just as also when it is in a body it is intellect in potentiality. For those having only touch, appetite according to desire exists, but for those with [senses] also that according to spirit; but will belongs to reason alone. Appetite is spoken of commonly for both spirit and desire; for it is homonymous like desire. The other senses also use touch (for sight perceives by touching the transparent, and smell the thing conveyed by the odor), but accidentally. The soul predicated in common of the others is divided like things from one and to one. The senses are affected oppositely to the intellect: for these, grasping greater things, destroy the lesser, as sight looking at the sun is unable to see letters, one who has heard great noises is insensible to lesser ones, and the others, but the intellect becomes more sharp-sighted by the perception of greater things. Potencies are prior to activities in time, but second in definition, but activities are the reverse, if the end is prior in definition, and activity 48 is the end of potency and is prior. further, the 'for the sake of which' is prior to the 'for the sake of something'. vision is the perception of colors. the same thing is both as an end and as a relative, as building is to the buildable, a relative and an end, and the opposition is not strange. and of generation, that which is being generated is an object insofar as it is being generated, but an end insofar as it has already been generated. the same also in the case of growth and of what is capable of growth <and> of what has grown. If all things desire to be and for this reason animals have the generative power by choice, and plants have it automatically, how is it not for the sake of this that the same is also in inanimate things and in these such a power is diminished? For even metals, when they perish, are given back again, even if not this particular stone. And according to the prevalence of the elements, inanimate things also come to an increase. There are three things in nutrition, namely that which nourishes, that which is nourished, and the nourishment. that by which
λοιπά, αὕτη δὲ περὶ θερμὸν καὶ μαλακόν, βαρὺ καὶ κοῦφον, μανὸν καὶ πυκνόν, καὶ πολλὰς ἀντιθέσεις. Ἐν τοῖς ἀνθρώποις αἴτιον
τῆς κατὰ τόπον κινήσεως νοῦς, ἐν τοῖς ἀλόγοις ἡ αἴσθησις· τῇ ἀληθείᾳ δὲ τὸ ὀρεκτικὸν τῆς κατὰ τόπον κινήσεως αἴτιον. Τὸ ζῆν
πολλαχῶς λέγεται· κατὰ νοῦν, κατ' αἴσθησιν, κατὰ τὰ λοιπά. ὅθεν καὶ τὰ φυτὰ θρεπτικὴν ἔχοντα δύναμιν ζῆν λέγεται. ταῦτα τρέφεσθαι
καὶ αὔξεσθαι λέγομεν τὰ κατὰ πᾶν μόριον τρεφόμενα καὶ αὐξόμενα. εἰς δὲ τὰ μὴ κατὰ πᾶν μόριον πρόσθεσις λέγεται, ὡς ἐπὶ τὸν
σωρὸν τοῦ σίτου πρόσθεσις ὁ ἕτερος. Ζῷα λέγομεν οὐ τὰ ἁπλῶς ζῶντα, ἀλλ' ἐν οἷς ἡ ζωὴ τρανέστερον καὶ περιφανέστερον, ὥσπερ
δρομέας οὐ τοὺς ἁπλῶς τρέχοντας, ἀλλὰ σφοδρῶς. 47 Ἐν τῷ φ[υ]τῷ μία μὲν ἡ ψυχή, διαιρεθεῖσα δὲ εἰς πολλοὺς κλάδους καὶ αὔξουσα
τὴν οἰκείαν δύναμιν πολλαὶ γίνονται τῷ ἀριθμῷ, τῷ δὲ εἴδει ἐστὶ μία. Ἐκ τοῦ ἐγκεφάλου πρόεισι πᾶσα αἴσθησις καὶ κίνησις. ὅθεν
εἰ πάθῃ τι οὗτος, ἀναίσθητον πάντῃ καὶ ἀκίνητον ἀπομένει τὸ ζῷον. Ἀριστοτέλης ἐν τῷ Περὶ ψυχῆς· τὸ ὀρεκτικὸν καὶ φανταστικὸν
ἀχώριστά εἰσιν, ὁμοίως καὶ τὸ αἰσθητικὸν καὶ τὸ κατὰ τόπον κυκλικόν. Τοῦ νοῦ τὸ μὲν θεωρητικόν, τὸ δὲ πρακτικὸν ὃ σχέσιν ἔχει
πρὸς τὸ σῶμα, οὗ ἀπολυθὲν οὐκ ἔστι πρακτικός. ἄμφω τῷ τέλει διαφέρουσιν· ἐκείνῳ γὰρ τέλος ἡ ἀληθείας κατάληψις, τούτῳ δὲ τοῦ
ἀγαθοῦ. Ὁ νοῦς γένος ἕτερον δοκεῖ τῆς ψυχῆς καὶ χωριστὴν ἔχων τὴν οὐσίαν, ἡ δὲ πᾶσα ψυχὴ ἀχώριστος. τῆς ψυχῆς μόνον μέρος
ὁ νοῦς ἀίδιον. ἡ ψυχὴ ἔχει μὲν καὶ ἐνεργείας ἐκ τῆς σχέσεως τῆς πρὸς τὸ σῶμα, ἃς μετὰ τὴν ἐντεῦθεν ἐλευθερίαν ἀποτίθεται.
ἔχει καὶ ἰδίας τὰς περὶ τῶν νοητῶν, εἰς ἃς μᾶλλον ἐμποδίζει τὸ σῶμα. πρόδηλον τοίνυν ὅτι καὶ τὴν οὐσίαν ἕξει χωριστήν, νοῦς
τότε οὖσα καὶ λεγομένη, οὐκέτι ψυχὴ μέντοι εἰ μὴ δυνάμει, ὡς καὶ ἐν σώματι οὖσα δυνάμει ἐστὶ νοῦς. Τοῖς τὴν ἁφὴν μόνην ἔχουσιν
ἡ κατ' ἐπιθυμίαν ὑπάρχει ὄρεξις, τοῖς δὲ [αἰσθήσεις] καὶ ἡ κατὰ θυμόν· ἡ δὲ βούλησις μόνου τοῦ λόγου. ἡ ὄρεξις κοινῶς ἐπί
τε θυμοῦ καὶ ἐπιθυμίας λέγεται· ὁμώνυμος γάρ ἐστιν ὡς ἡ ἐπιθυμία. Τῇ ἁφῇ χρῶνται καὶ αἱ λοιπαὶ αἰσθήσεις (ἡ ὄψις γὰρ ἁπτομένη
τοῦ διαφανοῦς ἀντιλαμβάνεται καὶ ἡ ὄσφρησις τοῦ διακονουμένου τῇ ὀσμῇ), ἀλλὰ κατὰ συμβεβηκός. Ἡ κοινῶς κατηγορουμένη τῶν ἄλλων
ψυχὴ ὡς τὰ ἀφ' ἑνὸς καὶ πρὸς ἓν διῄρηται. Αἱ αἰσθήσεις ἀντιπεπόνθασι τῷ νοΐ· αὗται γὰρ μειζόνων δραττόμεναι ἀπολλύουσι τὸ
ἔλαττον, ὡς ἡ ὄψις βλέπουσα τὸν ἥλιον ἀδυνατεῖ πρὸς τὰ γράμματα, ὁ μεγάλων ψόφων ἀκούσας τῶν ἐλαττόνων ἐστὶν ἀνεπαίσθητος,
καὶ αἱ ἄλλαι, νοῦς δὲ τῇ τῶν μειζόνων ἀντιλήψει ὀξυδερκέστερον γίνεται. Αἱ δυνάμεις τῷ χρόνῳ μὲν τῶν ἐνεργειῶν πρότεραι, τῷ
δὲ λόγῳ δεύτεραι, αἱ δὲ ἐνέργειαι ἀνάπαλιν, εἰ τὸ τέλος τῷ λόγῳ πρότερον, ἡ δ' ἐνέργεια 48 τέλος τῆς δυνάμεώς ἐστι καὶ προτέρα.
ἔτι τὸ οὗ ἕνεκα πρότερον τοῦ ἕνεκά του. ὅρασίς ἐστι ἀντίληψις χρωμάτων. τὸ αὐτό ἐστι καὶ ὡς τέλος καὶ ὡς πρός τι, ὡς οἰκοδόμησις
πρὸς τὸ οἰκοδομητόν, πρός τι καὶ τέλος, καὶ οὐκ ἔστι ξένη ἡ ἀντίθεσις. καὶ τῆς γεννήσεως τὸ γεννώμενον ὡς μὲν γεννώμενον ἀντικείμενον,
ὡς δὲ ἤδη γεγονὸς τέλος. τὸ αὐτὸ καὶ ἐπὶ αὐξήσεως καὶ αὐξητοῦ <καὶ> ηὐξημένου. Εἰ πάντα τοῦ εἶναι ἐφίεται καὶ διὰ τοῦτό ἐστι
τοῖς ζῴοις ἡ γεννητικὴ κατὰ προαίρεσιν δύναμις, ἐν δὲ τοῖς φυτοῖς ἡ αὐτόματος, πῶς οὐ τούτου χάριν τὸ αὐτὸ καὶ ἐν τοῖς ἀψύχοις
ἐστὶ καὶ ἐν τούτοις ἡ τοιαύτη δύναμις ὑφειμένη; καὶ γὰρ τὰ μέταλλα φθειρόμενα πάλιν ἀνταποδίδοται, εἰ καὶ μὴ ὅδε ὁ λίθος.
καὶ κατὰ τὴν ἐπικράτειαν δὲ τῶν στοιχείων γίνονται καὶ τὰ ἄψυχα εἰς ἐπίδοσιν. Τρία εἰσὶν ἡ θρεπτική, ἤγουν τὸ τρέφον καὶ τὸ
τρεφόμενον καὶ ἡ τροφή. τὸ ᾧ