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and the natural properties of the decad, how the triad is produced, what its procession is, how it extends through all the divine genera. But music with its ineffable charms draws me to itself, and somehow I have a natural disposition towards it and am suited to it; I do not stand on the surface of it, nor have I been concerned only with the forms of words, of meters, of artistic movements, but I have also sought its powers and its activities and its causes and the essence of rhythms, which of these are correct and which are not so, and what kind of beauty they have and what is congenial to the life of the soul. I seek not only the genera of the sciences, but also if any streams have flowed from there. But the supreme wisdom, which holds precedence over the others and “gives the first principles” and explains the axioms and is purely immaterial and is ranked after natural science, I not only seek, but also honor and revere, whether one wishes to call it dialectic, which from above beholds “the logical treatise,” or simply wisdom; for the other name the more recent of the wise have dragged down to a part of logic. 28. I also admire proof through syllogisms, not only those which are concluded from things in themselves, but also those which have an inductive and later handling. I use sophisms only so far as not to be caught by them nor to agree that “knowledge and wisdom are the same thing,” or that the wise are knowledgeable by knowledge, and the knowledgeable wise by wisdom, nor that only “man” is an animal if only “laughing” is, and every laughing thing is an animal. These things attract me, and even more the comprehension of more hidden things: what is providence and fate, and if the second exists at all in reality; what is the unmoved, and what the self-moved, and whether the soul admits anything into itself from generation, or “not at all”. And I am also in doubt concerning the common animal, if it always partakes of these kinds of knowledge, and if immortality is the essence of the soul or is an accident in another way. But concerning its being immortal, I have philosophized very much from its assimilation to the Divine, from its not admitting contraries, from its reversion, from its movement in sleep and <its> illumination. I also seek if there is for it some bond with the body, upon which it has indeed first embarked as on a second life; what is the mixture of the irrational with it; what is the highest end in the restoration; what is the judgment, what the cessation; whence it comes, what it is, what it can do, how many things it activates, what is its mixture with the intellect, what is its reversion, and, so that I may not speak about it in every detail, I am wholly carried away by these questions. But I do not stop my curiosity even at this point, but hearing some of those who have spoken of the stars as it were insulting them, and others almost sacrificing to them, I am at a loss as to whence the difference comes to each, or how generation is measured and established in relation to their configuration. At any rate, these things have been spat out by me, as being neither clear nor true, and I have gained this much from my curiosity: from the knowledge concerning these things, to accuse them. At any rate, it is forbidden for me for certain things to be fashioned and refashioned from there, and the characters and the passwords have been slandered by me, both the ingressions and the drawing down of the more divine bodies. But telling the truth about the future I grant neither to configurations nor to fabrications, not to the cries of birds, not to their flights nor their calls nor their movements, not to indistinct sounds, not to external words, not to as many things as the Hellenic discourse has wandered about; but if I am curious about the precision of the canons of the astronomical sphere, this at least is both a love of beauty and a love of wisdom; and if I seek concerning principles and sources, this too is desirable for souls that love contemplation. I know what the hieratic art is, but “having crowned it with wool” I drove it out. And I have learned the ineffable powers in stones and herbs, but I have pushed far away the meddlesome use of them.

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καὶ δεκάδος φυσικὰ ἰδιώματα, πῶς ἡ τριὰς παράγεται, τίς ἡ πρόοδος, πῶς δι' ὅλων διατείνει τῶν θείων γενῶν. Ἡ δέ γε μουσικὴ θελγήτροις ἀρρήτοις πρὸς ἑαυτὴν ἐπισπᾶται καί πως ἀναπέφυκα πρὸς αὐτὴν καὶ ᾠκείωμαι· οὐκ ἐπιπολῆς δὲ ταύτης ἵσταμαι οὐδὲ τοὺς τύπους μόνους τῶν λέξεων, τῶν μέτρων, τῶν ἐντέχνων κινήσεων περιείργασμαι, ἀλλὰ καὶ τὰς δυνάμεις ταύτης ἐζήτηκα καὶ τὰς ἐνεργείας καὶ τὰ αἴτια καὶ τὴν τῶν ῥυθμῶν οὐσίαν, τίνες τε τούτων οἱ ὀρθοὶ καὶ τίνες οἱ μὴ οὕτως ἔχοντες, ποδαπὸν δὲ αὐτῶν τὸ κάλλος καὶ ὅ τι συμφυὲς τῇ ζωῇ τῆς ψυχῆς. Οὐ τὰ γένη δὲ μόνον ζητῶ τῶν ἐπιστημῶν, ἀλλὰ καὶ εἴ τινες ἐκεῖθεν ἐρρύησαν ῥύακες. τὴν δέ γε ὑπερκειμένην σοφίαν, ἥτις ταῖς ἄλλαις πρεσβεύει καὶ «δίδωσι τὰς ἀρχὰς» καὶ ἑρμηνεύει τὰ ἀξιώματα καὶ καθαρῶς ἐστιν ἄϋλος καὶ μετὰ τὴν φυσικὴν τέτακται, οὐ ζητῶ μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ τιμῶ καὶ σεβάζομαι, εἴτε διαλεκτικήν τις ταύτην καλεῖν βούλοιτο ἄνωθεν ὁρῶσαν «τὴν λογικὴν πραγματείαν», εἴτε σοφίαν ἁπλῶς· τὸ γὰρ ἕτερον ὄνομα ἐπί τι μέρος τῆς λογικῆς κατέσπασαν οἱ νεώτεροι τῶν σοφῶν. 28. Ἄγαμαι δὲ καὶ τὴν διὰ τῶν συλλογισμῶν ἀπόδειξιν, οὐ μόνον ὅσοι ἐκ τῶν καθ' αὑτὰ συμπεραίνονται, ἀλλὰ καὶ ὅσοι ἐπαγωγικὴν καὶ ὑστέραν τὴν προχείρισιν ἔχουσι. τοῖς δὲ σοφίσμασι τοσοῦτον χρῶμαι ὅσον μὴ τούτοις ἁλίσκεσθαι μηδὲ συντίθεσθαι ὅτι «ταὐτὸν ἐπιστήμη τε καὶ σοφία» ἢ ἐπιστήμῃ μὲν ἐπιστήμονες οἱ σοφοί, σοφοὶ δὲ σοφίᾳ οἱ ἐπιστήμονες, οὐδ' ὅτι μόνος ὁ «ἄνθρωπος» ζῶον εἰ μόνος «γελαστικόν», πᾶν δὲ γελαστικὸν ζῶον. ταῦτά με ἕλκει καὶ ἔτι μᾶλλον ἡ τῶν κρυφιωτέρων κατάληψις, τί πρόνοια καὶ εἱμαρμένη καὶ εἰ ὅλως ἐν οὐσίᾳ τὸ δεύτερον, τί τὸ ἀκίνητον, τί δὲ τὸ αὐτοκίνητον καὶ πότερον εἰσδέχεταί τι ἀπὸ τῆς γενέσεως εἰς ἑαυτὴν ἡ ψυχή, ἢ «οὐδ' ὁπωστιοῦν». ∆ιαπορεῖται δέ μοι καὶ περὶ τοῦ κοινοῦ ζῴου εἰ ἀντιλαμβάνεται ἐσαεὶ ταύτης τῶν γνώσεων, καὶ εἴ ἐστιν οὐσία τῆς ψυχῆς ἡ ἀθανασία ἢ ἄλλως ἐπισυμβέβηκε. περὶ δέ γε τοῦ ἀθάνατον αὐτὴν εἶναι καὶ πλεῖστά μοι πεφιλοσόφηται ἀπὸ τῆς πρὸς τὸ Θεῖον ἀφομοιώσεως, ἀπὸ τοῦ τἀναντία μὴ ἐπιδέχεσθαι, ἀπὸ τῆς ἐπιστροφῆς, ἀπὸ τῆς ἐν τοῖς ὕπνοις κινήσεως καὶ <τῆς> ἐλλάμψεως. ζητῶ δὲ καὶ εἴ τις ἐστὶν αὐτῇ σύνδεσμος πρὸς τὸ σῶμα οὗ δὴ πρῶτον ὡς δευτέρας ζωῆς ἐπιβέβηκε, τίς ἡ μίξις πρὸς αὐτὴν τοῦ ἀλόγου, τί τὸ ἀκρότατον ἐν τῇ ἀποκαταστάσει τέλος, τίς ἡ κρίσις, τίς ἡ λῆξις, πόθεν γίνεται, τί ποτέ ἐστι, τί δύναται, πόσα ἐνεργεῖ, τίς ἡ πρὸς τὸν νοῦν αὐτῆς μίξις, τίς ἡ ἐπιστροφὴ καί, ἵνα μὴ καθέκαστον λέγω περὶ αὐτῆς, ὅλος ὑπὸ τῶν ζητημάτων ὑφήρπασμαι. Ἀλλ' οὐδὲ μέχρι τούτου τὴν πολυπραγμοσύνην ἱστῶ, ἀλλὰ τῶν ἀστρολογησάντων ἀκούων τοὺς μὲν τῶν ἀστέρων ὥσπερ ἐξυβριζόντων, τοῖς δὲ μονονουχὶ θυόντων, διαποροῦμαι πόθεν ἑκατέροις τὸ παραλλάττον ἐφήκει ἢ πῶς πρὸς τὸν ἐκείνων σχηματισμὸν μετρεῖται ἡ γένεσις καὶ καθίσταται. ἀπέπτυσται γοῦν μοι ταῦτα, ὡς μήτε σαφῆ μήτε ἀληθῆ καὶ τοσοῦτον ἀπὸ τῆς περιεργίας ἐκέρδησα ὅσον ἀπὸ τῆς περὶ αὐτὰ γνώσεως ἐκείνων κατηγορεῖν. ἀπείρηται γοῦν μοι τὸ ἐκεῖθέν τινας πλάττεσθαί τε καὶ μεταπλάττεσθαι, διαβέβληνται δέ μοι καὶ οἱ χαρακτῆρες καὶ τὰ συνθήματα, αἵ τε εἰσκρίσεις καὶ ἡ τῶν θειοτέρων σωμάτων καταγωγή. τὸ δ' ἀληθεύειν περὶ τοῦ μέλλοντος οὔτε σχηματισμοῖς δίδωμι οὔτε πλάσεσιν, οὐ φωναῖς ὀρνίθων, οὐ πτήσεσιν οὐ κλαγγαῖς οὐ κινήσεσιν, οὐκ ἀσήμοις ἤχοις, οὐ λόγοις θυραίοις, οὐχ ὅσοις ὁ Ἑλληνικὸς λόγος περιπεπλάνηται· εἰ δέ μοι ἡ τῶν κανόνων πολυπραγμονεῖται ἀκρίβεια τῆς ἀστρονομουμένης σφαίρας, ἀλλά γε τοῦτο φιλόκαλον ὁμοῦ καὶ φιλόσοφον· κἂν εἰ περὶ ἀρχῶν ζητῶ καὶ πηγῶν, καὶ τοῦτο ψυχαῖς φιλοθεάμοσιν ἐφετόν. Ἱερατικὴν δὲ τέχνην οἶδα μὲν ἥτις ἐστίν, «ἐρίῳ» δὲ «στέψας» ἐξήλασα. λίθοις δὲ καὶ πόαις δυνάμεις μὲν ἀρρήτους καταμεμάθηκα, τὴν δὲ περίεργον τούτων χρῆσιν μακρὰν ἀπωσάμην.