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
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 itself to the body, but by establishing a second life, from which the product of both is also said to belong to the body. To such a mixture, then, the philosopher also attributes the passions, which has its subsistence from the second life and the body; for this is also the living creature in which the passions have their existence. This, then, is the thing that suffers, while the thing that suffers with it is the soul which uses the body. For, intending to distinguish the living creature and the man, he places pleasures and pains and the scene of the passions in the living creature, but opinion and thought and intellection in the true man. And that thought and opinion, properly so called, are an activity of the soul, but that which is occupied with sensible things and is composed from sense perception, being imagination, belongs to the thing that suffers. For we say that the living creature thinks and opines in a different manner than we say the soul itself does. And speaking precisely about the seeker, the seeker in us, he says, is thought, but that which is conscious that it seeks is the attentive part of the soul, carried up and down, which is also arranged with all the lives in us. 75 Exposition of the dogma of the Origenists concerning the resurrection of the bodies and a partial refutation of it You seem to me to marvel at those around Evagrius and Origen who, while teaching the resurrection of bodies, yet metamorphose them into other forms and shapes. You asked, therefore, whether, using the autonomy of reason, they vomited forth such a dogma against the church, or whether, having supposed for themselves certain principles according to the form of the original creation, they deduced what follows. I, at any rate, having encountered their books, found such things of their dogma, which are called axioms by them. They say that the organization of bodies has been fashioned by nature in accordance with the powers of the souls established in the bodies. For the spirited animals are armed with claws and teeth, as if with defensive organs, for the service of their spirit; while, on the other hand, the cowardly and weak animals serve the passion of their soul with swiftness of foot; but man alone is adorned with the form of hands for the service of reason. "For," says Aristotle too, "art must use instruments, and the soul must use the body." And any given soul will not use any given body, but it is entirely necessary for the body that is to receive its activities to be prepared in accordance with the particularity of the soul's activities. If, therefore, they say, the constitution of this world has come to be in a manner suitable to the activities of the rational beings in the world (and they obviously are active in those things for which they also have an appetite), if, then, another life should be conceived for those now living here who are askew, with their appetite obviously having been turned in either direction, it is absolutely necessary that, in accordance with the change of their appetites and activities, the nature of the bodies which received their activities must also change along with them. From such a hypothesis, which we have already stated, they then deduced the whole impiety. But such an impiety is altogether irrational. For if we were to grant that the organs are re-formed for our different lives, how is it that in the very 76 time in which we are appointed by God to live, when different states of soul occur in us, the bodily organ subject to the soul is not altered in accordance with each form? But the same philosopher uses the same body, now pursuing the practical virtues, now being purified, now ascending to contemplation and again having gone beyond the intellect and
αἰνίττεται ὡς μὴ συμπληρούμενον ἀπ' ἀμφοτέρων τῶν μιχθέντων, ἀλλ' ἐν τῇ συνόδῳ τῆς ψυχῆς καὶ τοῦ σώματος ἀπεργασθέν, οὐκ αὐτῆς
ἐπιδούσης ἑαυτὴν τῷ σώματι τῆς ψυχῆς, ἀλλὰ ζωὴν δευτέραν ὑποστησάσης, ἀφ' ἧς καὶ τοῦ σώματος λέγεται εἶναι τὸ ἐξ ἀμφοῖν. τῷ
τοιούτῳ γοῦν μίγματι καὶ τὰ πάθη προστρίβεται ὁ φιλόσοφος, ὅπερ ὑφέστηκεν ἐκ τῆς δευτέρας ζωῆς καὶ τοῦ σώματος· τοῦτο γὰρ
εἶναι καὶ τὸ ζῷον ἐν ᾧ τοῖς πάθεσιν ἡ ὕπαρξις. τὸ μὲν οὖν πάσχον τοῦτο, τὸ δὲ συμπάσχον ἡ χρωμένη τῷ σώματι ψυχή. μέλλων γὰρ
διακρίνειν τὸ ζῷον καὶ τὸν ἄνθρωπον ἡδονὰς μὲν καὶ λύπας καὶ τὴν σκηνὴν τῶν παθῶν ἐν τῷ ζῴῳ τίθεται, δόξαν δὲ καὶ διάνοιαν
καὶ νόησιν ἐν τῷ ἀληθινῷ ἀνθρώπῳ. καὶ τὴν μὲν κυρίως λεγομένην διάνοιαν καὶ δόξαν τῆς ψυχῆς εἶναι ἐνέργειαν, τὴν δὲ περὶ τὰ
αἰσθητὰ καταγινομένην καὶ ἐξ αἰσθήσεως συνισταμένην, φαντασίαν οὖσαν, τοῦ πάσχοντος εἶναι. καὶ γὰρ διανοεῖσθαι καὶ δοξάζειν
λέγομεν τὸ ζῷον ἕτερον τρόπον ἢ ὅν φαμεν αὐτὴν τὴν ψυχήν. Περὶ δὲ τοῦ ζητοῦντος ἀκριβούμενος, τὸ μὲν δὴ ζητοῦν, φησίν, ἐν
ἡμῖν ἡ διάνοια, τὸ δὲ παρακολουθοῦν ὅτι ζητεῖ τὸ προσεκτικὸν μέρος τῆς ψυχῆς ἄνω καὶ κάτω φερόμενον, <ὃ> καὶ πάσαις συντάττεται
ταῖς ἐν ἡμῖν ζωαῖς. 75 Ἔκθεσις τοῦ δόγματος τῶν Ὠριγενιαστῶν περὶ τῆς τῶν σωμάτων ἀναστάσεως καὶ μερικὴ τούτου ἀνατροπή Θαυμάζειν
μοι ἔοικας τῶν περὶ Εὐάγριον καὶ Ὠριγένην ἀνάστασιν μὲν τῶν σωμάτων δογματισάντων, μεταμορφούντων δὲ ταῦτα εἰς ἕτερα εἴδη
καὶ σχήματα. ἐζήτησας οὖν πότερον αὐτονομίᾳ λόγου χρησάμενοι τὸ τοιοῦτον ἐξήμεσαν δόγμα κατὰ τῆς ἐκκλησίας, ἢ ἀρχάς τινας
ἑαυτοῖς ὑποθέμενοι κατὰ τὸ εἶδος τοῦ ἀρχικοῦ πλάσματος τὰ ἑξῆς συνεπέραναν. ἐγὼ γοῦν τοῖς βιβλίοις αὐτῶν ἐντετυχηκὼς τοιαῦτα
τοῦ δόγματος αὐτῶν εὗρον τὰ καλούμενα παρ' αὐτῶν ἀξιώματα. Πρὸς τὰς δυνάμεις φασὶ τῶν ἐνιδρυμένων ψυχῶν ἐν τοῖς σώμασιν ἡ
τῶν σωμάτων διοργάνωσις παρὰ τῆς φύσεως πέπλασται. τὰ μὲν γὰρ θυμικὰ τῶν ζῴων ὄνυξι καὶ ὀδοῦσιν ὥσπερ ἀμυντηρίοις ὀργάνοις
εἰς ὑπηρεσίαν τοῦ θυμοῦ καθώπλισται· τὰ δ' αὖ δειλὰ καὶ ἀνάλκι<δα> ταχυτῆτι ποδῶν τῷ τῆς ψυχῆς ἐξυπηρετεῖται παθήματι· μόνος
δὲ ὁ ἄνθρωπος εἰς ὑπηρεσίαν τοῦ λόγου τῷ τῶν χειρῶν κεκόσμηται σχήματι. «δεῖ γάρ» φησὶ καὶ Ἀριστοτέλης «τὴν μὲν τέχνην τοῖς
ὀργάνοις χρῆσθαι, τὴν δὲ ψυχὴν τῷ σώματι.» καὶ οὐ τῷ τυχόντι σώματι ἡ τυχοῦσα ψυχὴ χρήσεται, ἀλλ' ἀνάγκη πᾶσα πρὸς τὴν ἰδιότητα
τῶν τῆς ψυχῆς ἐνεργειῶν καὶ τὸ δεξόμενον τὰς ἐνεργείας αὐτῆς σῶμα διασκευάζεσθαι. εἰ τοίνυν, φασί, καταλλήλως ταῖς ἐνεργείαις
τῶν ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ λογικῶν οὐσιῶν ἡ τοῦ κόσμου τοῦδε σύστασις γέγονεν (ἐνεργοῦσι δὲ δηλονότι ταῦτα ὧν καὶ τὴν ὄρεξιν ἔχουσιν),
εἴ τις ἄρα ἐπινοηθείη βίος ἕτερος ταῖς ἐνταῦθα νῦν διαιτωμέναις λοξαῖς οὔσαις, τῆς ὀρέξεως αὐτῶν ἐφ' ἑκάτερα δηλονότι τραπείσης,
ἀνάγκη πάντως πρὸς τὴν τῶν ὀρέξεων αὐτῶν καὶ ἐνεργειῶν μετάστασιν καὶ τὴν τὰς ἐνεργείας αὐτῶν δεξαμένην τῶν σωμάτων φύσιν
συμμεταβάλλεσθαι. ἀπὸ τῆς τοιαύτης γοῦν ὑποθέσεως ἧς φθάσαντες εἰρήκαμεν τὸ ὅλον ἀσέβημα συνεπέραναν. Ἔστι δὲ παντάπασιν ἀλόγιστος
ἡ τοιαύτη δυσσέβεια. εἰ γὰρ ταῖς διαφόροις ζωαῖς ἡμῶν δοίημεν τὰ ὄργανα μεταπλάττεσθαι, πῶς ἐν αὐτῷ τῷ 76 χρόνῳ ᾧ ζῆν παρὰ
θεοῦ τετάγμεθα, διαφόρων ἡμῖν γινομένων καταστάσεων τῆς ψυχῆς, οὐ πρὸς ἕκαστον εἶδος καὶ τὸ ὑποβεβλημένον τῇ ψυχῇ σωματικὸν
ὄργανον μετηλλοίωται; ἀλλ' ὁ αὐτὸς φιλόσοφος τῷ αὐτῷ χρῆται σώματι, νῦν μὲν τὰς πρακτικὰς ἀρετὰς μετιών, νῦν δὲ καθαιρόμενος,
νῦν δὲ ἀναβαίνων εἰς θεωρίαν καὶ αὖθις ὑπὲρ νοῦν γεγονὼς καὶ
