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

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 some things are also in our power. And indeed it also appears useful for the study of nature; for the student of nature also will inquire, 156 whether all things that come to be do so by necessity or whether some also come from chance and spontaneity. And similarly for the logical method; This very thing, therefore, is what is now being sought by you, whether every contradiction divides the true and the false in a determinate way or whether there is also some that divides them in an indeterminate way. And you will find the theory extending also to first philosophy; for the theologian too will inquire, in what manner the affairs in the world are governed by providence and whether all things that come to be do so determinately and by necessity, just as things that exist eternally, or whether some things also result from contingent events, whose origin it is necessary to trace back to particular causes that are evidently different at different times. And the opposing argument is complex and hard to face, so that many of those who seem to be more knowledgeable are led away to the opinion that abolishes the contingent; it proceeds from a division such as this. God, it says, either knows the outcome of contingent events determinately or has no concept of them at all or has an indeterminate knowledge of them, as we do. But it is not possible for him who produces and orders all things to be ignorant of any of the things that exist; for we will not say that the nature and order of things is spontaneous, nor is it reasonable for God either to be ignorant of what he produces or to neglect the knowledge of them and their ordering. For to suppose that we make God laborious and busy belongs to those who have not comprehended his superiority and his power. Since these things, therefore, are acknowledged to exist and are clearly demonstrated according to the common and unperverted notions of souls, it is possible for God neither to be ignorant of our affairs nor to have an indeterminate knowledge of them, as if conjecturing about what will come to pass. For how could it be reasonable for him to be ignorant of his own creations? And if these things are impossible and refuted by experience itself, it is clear that it must be said that contingent events are both ordered by God and their outcome is known. But if God knows contingent events, he knows them determinately, lest we make his knowledge indeterminate, and it is not possible for these things not to occur. But if it is not possible for these things not to occur, the contingent is gone; and if all our affairs are determined by the knowledge and foreknowledge of God, all things come to be by necessity, and there is for us a determination not only of death, but also of a death of such-and-such a kind and of every action and knowledge in us. For all things are known to God; and if 157 they are known, they are also foreordained and simply determined, and the determination with God is in every way unalterable. If, therefore, it is known by God that I will become evil and the knowledge is determinate, I become evil by necessity. To this argument, therefore, which is hard to face and seems to be strengthened by its very clarity, we in response will deem it right to distinguish the different measures of knowledge, saying, that knowledge, being intermediate between the knower and the known, being an activity of the knower about the known, sometimes knows the known in a manner superior to the nature of the known object itself, sometimes in an inferior manner, and sometimes in a corresponding manner. For example, our mind, when undertaking political actions and knowing particulars, by referring them to the universal knows the knowledge of such a known object in a superior manner, but when contemplating itself it necessarily understands in a corresponding manner, and when observing the divine orders and investigating the particular property of each substance, it necessarily has here a knowledge inferior to the known. And God, therefore, knowing all things with one and determinate and unchangeable knowledge, has the science of existing things; wherefore he has also comprehended the

μόρια τῆς φιλοσοφίας ἐστὶν ἀναγκαῖον. κατά τε γὰρ τὴν ἠθικὴν φιλοσοφίαν ἀνάγκη προσλαμβάνειν, ὡς οὐ πάντα ἐστὶ καὶ γίνεται ἐξ ἀνάγκης, ἀλλ' ἔστι τινὰ καὶ ἐφ' ἡμῖν. καὶ μέντοι καὶ πρὸς φυσιολογίαν φαίνεται χρήσιμον· ζητήσει γὰρ καὶ ὁ 156 φυσιολόγος, εἴτε πάντα ἐξ ἀνάγκης γίνεται τὰ γινόμενα εἴτε καί τινα ἀπὸ τύχης καὶ ἐκ ταὐτομάτου. καὶ πρὸς τὴν λογικὴν μέθοδον ὡσαύτως· αὐτὸ οὖν τοῦτό ἐστι τὸ νῦν ζητούμενον παρὰ σοῦ, εἴτε πᾶσα ἀντίφασις διωρισμένως διαιρεῖ τὸ ἀληθὲς καὶ τὸ ψεῦδος εἴτε ἔστι τις καὶ ἀορίστως ταῦτα διαιροῦσα. ἐκτεινόμενον δὲ τὸ θεώρημα καὶ ἐπὶ τὴν πρώτην φιλοσοφίαν εὑρήσεις· ζητήσει γὰρ καὶ ὁ θεολόγος, κατὰ τίνα τρόπον ὑπὸ τῆς προνοίας διακυβερνᾶται τὰ ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ πράγματα καὶ εἴτε πάντα ὡρισμένως καὶ ἐξ ἀνάγκης γίνεται τὰ γινόμενα, καθάπερ τὰ ἐπὶ τῶν ἀιδίων ὑπάρχοντα, ἢ ἔστι τινὰ καὶ ἐπὶ τῶν ἐνδεχομένων ἐκβαίνοντα, ὧν τὴν γένεσιν ἐπὶ μερικὰς δηλονότι ἄλλοτε ἄλλως ἐχούσας αἰτίας ἀνάγειν ἀνάγκη. Καὶ ἔστιν ὁ ἐνιστάμενος λόγος πραγματειώδης καὶ δυσαντίβλεπτος, ὥστε καὶ πολλοὺς τῶν ἐπιστατικωτέρων εἶναι δοκούντων ἀπάγεσθαι πρὸς τὴν ἀναιροῦσαν τὸ ἐνδεχόμενον δόξαν· πρόεισι δὲ ἐκ διαιρέσεως τοιαύτης. ὁ θεός, φησίν, ἢ ὡρισμένως οἶδε τὴν ἔκβασιν τῶν ἐνδεχομένων ἢ οὐδεμίαν αὐτῶν ἔχει ἔννοιαν ἢ καθάπερ ἡμεῖς ἀόριστον αὐτῶν ἔχει τὴν γνῶσιν. ἀλλ' ἀγνοεῖν μὲν οὐδὲν τῶν ὄντων αὐτὸν ἐνδέχεται τὰ πάντα παράγοντα καὶ ἀνακοσμοῦντα· οὔτε γὰρ αὐτόματον τῶν ὄντων ἐροῦμεν τὴν φύσιν εἶναι καὶ τάξιν, οὔτε τὸν θεὸν εὔλογον ἢ ἀγνοεῖν ἅπερ παράγει ἢ κατολιγωρεῖν τῆς γνώσεως αὐτῶν καὶ τῆς διακοσμήσεως. τὸ γὰρ ὑπολαμβάνειν, ὡς ἐργώδη τε καὶ ἄσχολον ποιοῦμεν τὸν θεόν, μὴ συνεωρακότων ἐστὶ τὴν ὑπεροχὴν αὐτοῦ καὶ τὴν δύναμιν. τούτων οὖν κατά τε τὰς κοινὰς καὶ ἀδιαστρόφους τῶν ψυχῶν ἐννοίας ὁμολογουμένων ὄντων καὶ ἐναργῶς ἀποδεδειγμένων, οὔτε ἀγνοεῖν τὰ ἡμέτερα τὸν θεὸν δυνατὸν οὔτε ἀόριστον αὐτῶν γνῶσιν ἔχειν ὥσπερ εἰκάζοντα περὶ τῶν ἐκβησομένων. πῶς γὰρ ἂν ἔχοι λόγον ἀγνοεῖν αὐτὸν τὰ οἰκεῖα γεννήματα; καὶ εἰ ταῦτα ἀδύνατα καὶ ὑπ' αὐτῆς ἐλεγχόμενα τῆς πείρας, δῆλον ὅτι καὶ διατάττεσθαι ὑπὸ θεοῦ τὰ ἐνδεχόμενα ῥητέον καὶ γινώσκεσθαι αὐτῶν τὴν ἔκβασιν. εἰ δὲ γινώσκει ὁ θεὸς τὰ ἐνδεχόμενα, ὡρισμένως ταῦτα γινώσκει, ἵνα μὴ ἀόιστον αὐτοῦ ποιῶμεν τὴν γνῶσιν, καὶ οὐχ οἷόν τε ταῦτα μὴ ἐκβαίνειν. εἰ δὲ οὐχ οἷόν τε ταῦτα μὴ ἐκβαίνειν, φροῦδον τὸ ἐνδεχόμενον· καὶ εἰ τὰ καθ' ἡμᾶς ἅπαντα πράγματα τῇ γνώσει καὶ προγνώσει τοῦ θεοῦ ὥρισται, ἐξ ἀνάγκης ἅπαντα γίνεται, καὶ ἔστιν ὅρος ἡμῖν οὐ θανάτου μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ τοῦ τοιοῦδε θανάτου καὶ πάσης ἐν ἡμῖν πράξεώς τε καὶ γνώσεως. ἔγνωσται γὰρ ἅπαντα τῷ θεῷ· εἰ 157 δὲ ἔγνωσται, καὶ προώρισται καὶ ἁπλῶς ὥρισται, καὶ ἀναλλοίωτος ὁ παρὰ θεῷ πάντως ὅρος ἐστίν. εἰ τοίνυν ἔγνωσται παρὰ θεῷ τὸ πονηρόν με γενήσεσθαι καὶ ὡρισμένη ἐστὶν ἡ γνῶσις, ἐξ ἀνάγκης ἐγὼ πονηρὸς γίνομαι. Πρὸς τοῦτον οὖν τὸν λόγον δυσαντίβλεπτον ὄντα καὶ ὑπ' αὐτῆς δοκοῦντα τῆς ἐναργείας κρατύνεσθαι ἀπαντῶντες ἡμεῖς τὰ διάφορα μέτρα τῶν γνώσεων διαιρεῖν ἀξιώσομεν λέγοντες, ὡς ἡ γνῶσις μέση οὖσα τοῦ τε γινώσκοντος καὶ τοῦ γινωσκομένου, ἐνέργεια οὖσα τοῦ γινώσκοντος περὶ τὸ γινωσκόμενον, ποτὲ μὲν κρειττόνως γινώσκει τὸ γινωσκόμενον τῆς αὐτοῦ τοῦ γνωστοῦ φύσεως, ποτὲ δὲ χειρόνως, ποτὲ δὲ συστοίχως. οἷον ὁ νοῦς ὁ ἡμέτερος τὰς πολιτικὰς πράξεις προχειριζόμενος καὶ τὰ καθέκαστα γινώσκων, ἀναφέρων εἰς τὸ καθόλου κρειττόνως οἶδε τὴν γνῶσιν τοῦ τοιούτου γνωστοῦ, ἑαυτὸν δὲ θεωρῶν συστοίχως ἐξ ἀνάγκης νοεῖ, τὰς δὲ θείας ἐποπτεύων διακοσμήσεις καὶ τίς ἑκάστης τῶν οὐσιῶν ἡ ἰδιότης πολυπραγμονῶν χείρονα ἐξ ἀνάγκης ἐνταῦθα ἔχει τὴν γνῶσιν τοῦ γινωσκομένου. καὶ ὁ θεὸς οὖν γινώσκων πάντα μιᾷ καὶ ὡρισμένῃ καὶ ἀμεταβάτῳ γνώσει τὴν ἐπιστήμην τῶν ὄντων ἔχει· διόπερ καὶ τῶν ἐνδεχομένων περιείληφε τὴν