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
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 which it certainly had its growth as something growing, by this it will have its nature follow it as it decays. But indeed, in old age, as the body decays, the power of the soul appears more brilliant, for which reason also the old are wiser than the young. But if they should say that the soul decays or decays along with the body, weaving absurdities onto absurdities and always saying more absurd things, they seem to me to have suffered the same thing as those who are thrown from a cliff; for just as they, once pushed and having slipped, are always carried downwards to what is lower and more hollow and cannot stop their downward momentum and motion, so these, having fallen away from the truth, attach falsehoods to falsehoods and bolt together impossibilities with impossibilities and always speak nonsense more impossible than the previous things. This is what they have now suffered no less, having conceded that the soul decays along with the body. For everything that decays must at some point be destroyed, either by another or by itself; therefore, according to them, the soul is not incorruptible. Do you see to what absurdity we have been led by following this fine dogma? 80 But may this, along with its falsity, not also be laughable; however, Gregory of Nyssa, by taking the term of growth in reference to the soul, becomes a stumbling block for those who examine his works carelessly. In order, then, that we may resolve this too, know that the father has spoken of growth instead of manifestation. For he himself interprets this clearly below, if we should pay attention to his words (for he says that the hidden energies of the soul are manifested along with the body as it grows and is perfected), and the absurdity of growth gives one to understand this. Do not be afraid, then, O you wise one, that infants might not have the same energies as adults; for it is not because of the soul, but because of the body's imperfection. For if in sickness and drunkenness the body often becomes useless even after its perfection, and no one then transfers and shifts the defect concerning energy onto the soul, let us not blame the soul for this before its perfection either. But if even the divine Plato says, "those in deep old age decline also in mind," and does not permit us, having dismissed the body, to vote that nonsense from there, for what reason will we blame the soul in the case of infant bodies? For now the instrument is not yet suitable; if, therefore, someone should say it is necessary now, in this case, to assign this cause for the imperfect or faulty energy—I mean, the imperfection of the soul—let him give the same reason in that case too and hold the soul accountable, having dismissed the body, if there should be anyone of such a sort as to blame not only the blameless, according to Homer, but also to absolve the guilty of blame; but if not there then, neither here now. And would we, then, if we should see someone blind or lame or otherwise immobile, be so simple-minded as to say that not even the faculty of sight or of motion has been affected, but the organ of sense and the feet and the sensory and motor nerves? Nor in the case of those who smell poorly do we blame the olfactory faculty, having dismissed the nose and the ethmoid bone, unless we are drunk. And if some cithara player stood beside you, having mastered the work and the laws of the art very well, but for him a cithara either was not present or was not a suitable one, would you transfer the fault of the instrument onto the artist and the cithara player? Or if someone were exceedingly skilled in horsemanship, but was still using a delicate and young foal and was not able to perform the action of a horseman, but, relaxed in his age and his 81 time, he passed the time not demonstrating his horsemanship, surely when you see him riding the foal when it has grown, you would not say that the equestrian art and power grew along with it? I think not. According to these same things, then, the body is an instrument of the soul, even if it has grown together with and is always dependent on it. Therefore, just as if someone, having brought a perfect horse to the horseman and a well-conditioned cithara to the cithara player, gave it to them, there was nothing further hindering them from
αὐξανόμενον καὶ φθίνειν πέφυκε, πάντως τῷ ἑτέρῳ συμφυῶς συναυξανόμενον καὶ συμφθίνειν ἀναγκαῖον αὐτῷ· δι' ὃ γὰρ πάντως αὖξον
εἶχε τὴν αὔξησιν, διὰ τοῦτο φθίνον ἕξει τὴν φύσιν ἀκόλουθον· ἀλλὰ μὴν ἐν γήρᾳ τοῦ σώματος φθίνοντος ἡ τῆς ψυχῆς λαμπροτέρα
διαφαίνεται δύναμις, διὸ καὶ τῶν νέων οἱ γέροντες συνετώτεροι. εἰ δὲ καὶ φθίνειν ἢ συμφθίνειν φαῖεν τῷ σώματι τὴν ψυχήν, ἀτόποις
ἄτοπα προσυφαίνοντες καὶ ἀεὶ ἀτοπώτερα λέγοντες, ταὐτόν μοι δοκοῦσι τοῖς κρημνιζομένοις παθεῖν· ὡς γὰρ ἐκεῖνοι ἅπαξ ἀπωσθέντες
καὶ ὀλισθήσαντες ἐπὶ τὸ κάτω καὶ τὸ κοιλότερον ἀεὶ καταφέρονται καὶ οὐ δύνανται στῆναι τῆς ἐπὶ τὸ κάτω φορᾶς καὶ κινήσεως,
οὕτως οὗτοι τἀληθοῦς ἀποπεπτωκότες ψευδῆ ψευδέσι προσπερονῶσι καὶ ἀδυνάτοις συγγομφοῦσιν ἀδύνατα καὶ ἀεὶ ἀδυνατώτερα τῶν προτέρων
κενολογοῦσιν. ὅπερ καὶ νῦν οὐχ ἧττον πεπόνθασι συμφθίνειν τῷ σώματι τὴν ψυχὴν συγχωρήσαντες. πᾶν γὰρ τὸ φθίνον ἢ δι' ἄλλο
ἢ δι' αὑτὸ ἀνάγκη φθαρῆναί ποτε, οὐκ ἄρα ἄφθαρτος κατ' αὐτοὺς ἡ ψυχή. ὁρᾷς ᾗ προήχθημεν ἀτοπίας τῷ καλῷ τούτῳ συνεπόμενοι
δόγματι; 80 Ἀλλὰ τοῦτο μὲν μετὰ τοῦ ψεύδους μὴ καὶ καταγέλαστον ᾖ· ὁ μέντοι Νύσσης Γρηγόριος τὸ τῆς αὐξήσεως ῥῆμα λαμβάνων
ἐπὶ ψυχῆς τοῖς παρέργως τὰ ἐκείνου σκοποῦσι πρόσκομμα γίνεται. ἵν' οὖν καὶ τοῦτο διαλύσωμεν, ἴσθι ὅτι ἀντὶ τῆς ἐκφάνσεως τὴν
αὔξησιν εἴρηκεν ὁ πατήρ. αὐτός τε γὰρ ἑρμηνεύει τοῦτο σαφῶς ὑποκατιών, εἰ τοῖς λόγοις προσέχοιμεν (συνεκφαίνεσθαι γὰρ τὰς
ὑποκεκρυμμένας λέγει τῆς ψυχῆς ἐνεργείας αὐξανομένῳ καὶ τελειουμένῳ τῷ σώματι), καὶ ἡ τῆς αὐξήσεως ἀτοπία τοῦτο δίδωσιν ἐννοεῖν.
μὴ τοίνυν δείσῃς, ὦ σοφὲ σύ, ὅτι μὴ τὰ βρέφη τὰ αὐτὰ τοῖς τελείοις ἐνεργεῖν ἔχοιεν· οὐδὲ γὰρ διὰ τὸ τῆς ψυχῆς, ἀλλὰ διὰ τὸ
τοῦ σώματος ἀτελές. εἰ γὰρ ἐν νόσοις καὶ μέθαις πολλάκις ἀχρεῖον καὶ μετὰ τὴν τελείωσιν γίνεται τὸ σῶμα καὶ οὐδεὶς ἐπὶ τὴν
ψυχὴν μετάγει τότε καὶ μετατίθησι τὸ περὶ τὴν ἐνέργειαν πλημμελές, μηδὲ πρὸ τῆς τελειώσεως τούτου τὴν ψυχὴν αἰτιώμεθα. εἰ
δὲ καὶ ὁ θεσπέσιος Πλάτων φησίν «οἱ πολὺ γήρως ἀπακμάζουσι καὶ τῷ νῷ» καὶ οὐκ ἐᾷ τὸ σῶμα παρέντας ἡμᾶς ἐκεῖθεν τὸν λῆρον ψηφίζεσθαι,
διὰ τίνα λόγον ἐπὶ τῶν νηπιωδῶν σωμάτων αἰτιασόμεθα τὴν ψυχήν; νῦν μὲν γὰρ οὔπω τὸ ὄργανον ἐπιτήδειον· εἰ οὖν νῦν ἐνταῦθα
ταύτην χρῆναί τις λέγοι τὴν αἰτίαν ἀποδιδόναι τῆς ἀτελοῦς ἐνεργείας ἢ πλημμελοῦς, λέγω δὴ τὴν ἀτέλειαν τῆς ψυχῆς, τὸν αὐτὸν
αἰτιολογείτω καὶ τότε τρόπον καὶ τὴν ψυχὴν εὐθυνέτω τὸ σῶμα παρείς, εἴ τίς που τοιοῦτος εἴη οἷος οὐκ ἀναίτιον μόνον καθ' Ὅμηρον
αἰτιάσασθαι, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἀπολύειν αἰτίας τὸν αἴτιον· εἰ δὲ μὴ ἐκεῖ τότε, μηδὲ ἐνταῦθα νῦν. ἡμεῖς δὲ ἄρα κἂν εἰ τυφλόν τινα ἢ
χωλὸν ἢ ἄλλως ἀκίνητον θεασώμεθα, οὕτως ἔχομεν εὐηθείας ὡς μηδὲ τὴν ὀπτικὴν πεπονθέναι δύναμιν λέγειν ἢ τὴν κινητικήν, ἀλλὰ
τὸ αἰσθητήριον καὶ τοὺς πόδας καὶ τὰ αἰσθητικὰ νεῦρα καὶ τὰ κινητικά; οὐδὲ ἐπὶ τῶν φαύλως ὀσμωμένων τὴν ὀσφραντικὴν κακίζομεν
δύναμιν, τὴν ῥῖνα καὶ τὸ ἰσθμοειδὲς ὀστοῦν ἀφέντες, εἰ μὴ μεθύομεν. σοὶ δὲ εἴ τις παρειστήκει κιθαρῳδὸς εὖ μάλα τὸ ἔργον καὶ
τοὺς νόμους τῆς τέχνης ἠκριβωκώς, κιθάρα δὲ ἐκείνῳ ἢ οὐ παρῆν ἢ οὐκ ἐπιτηδεία παρῆν, ἆρ' ἂν τὴν ὀργανικὴν κακίαν ἐπὶ τὸν τεχνίτην
μετῆγες καὶ τὸν κιθαρῳδόν; ἢ εἴ τις ἱππικῆς μὲν ἄκρως εἰδήμων εἴη, ἔτι δὲ ἁπαλῷ τινὶ πώλῳ καὶ νεάζοντι χρῷτο καὶ μὴ δύναιτο
τὴν τοῦ ἱππέως ἐνέργειαν ἐνεργεῖν, ἀλλὰ παρειμένος τὴν ἡλικίαν καὶ τὸν 81 χρόνον διατρίβοι τὴν ἱππηλασίαν οὐκ ἐνδεικνύμενος,
μῶν ὅταν ἴδῃς αὐξημένου τοῦ πώλου τοῦτον ἱππεύοντα, συναυξηθῆναι φαίης καὶ τὴν ἱππικὴν ἐκείνῳ τέχνην καὶ δύναμιν; οὐκ ἔγωγε
οἶμαι. κατὰ τὰ αὐτὰ δὴ ταῦτα ὄργανόν ἐστι τῆς ψυχῆς τὸ σῶμα, κἂν συμπέφυκέ τε καὶ ἀεὶ ταύτης ἐξήρτηται. ὥσπερ οὖν εἴ τις τῷ
ἱππεῖ τε καὶ τῷ κιθαρῳδῷ τῷ μὲν τέλειον ἵππον, τῷ δὲ κιθάραν ἔδωκε φέρων εὖ ἔχουσαν, οὐδὲν ἦν ἔτ' ἐμποδὼν αὐτοῖς εἰς
