the unholy stains impressed from these things to those enlightened ones they deem worthy to speak? Do you not hear the one who says, "cast away for me the ideas of Plato," certain impressions and pre-meditations in the mind before the works, being neither without passion and befitting men who build rather, fearing the failure that sometimes comes upon them from want of foresight, than to God, whose work is also His thought? But if the work is also the thought, then before this there will be need of other paradigms and impressions, therefore there will be ideas of ideas, and this to infinity, unless he assigns something more to the aforesaid ideas, and more wrongly so.

But let us leave this; but I would add for you, saying, 'cast away not only the ideas, but also the theories and his falsely named lights, through which he was yoked to the deceitful demons and through which he was initiated, not only that there are evil but also good demons, and a soul of the aether and periods of souls and the not-good loves for them through beautiful bodies'. And what of the first and second gods and those yet lesser than these in nature and in power, of whom some travel upon the convex of the heavenly sphere, while others wander beneath its concave, and others are terrestrial and subterranean, these no longer being rulers of mortals, but of the dead? For all things have been divided in three, as they would say, who are both poets and inheritors of their own gods. And what of the (p. 504) elaborate sacrifices, evocations of souls and of gods and theurgies and the praise of the mad and, to put it all together, the broad nonsense concerning such things, which is plain rather than mystical? Are these things, then, about those who have fallen from above and those illumined by them, that is, whose intellect of the soul is darkened, and which has come about from the sight below, or about those above us and from above.

But why, so that we may again disparage the falsely named and illegitimate things from the true and aptly named and holy and genuine voice of theology, "what then of Aristotle's petty providence and his mortal discourses on the soul and the human quality of his doctrines?". Is this of one 'who has understood the pre-eminence of God; and who has discovered a voice worthy, more than any, of the divine nature, this which is beyond proof'? Or is this too a clear error of the human mind, and this one darkened and opposed to God and hunting for a reputation as if attaining it, but trying to escape the refutation of falsehood, as being unable to prove and to impart to others the supernatural and wondrous knowledge and by seeming to exalt it, dragging down that inconceivable and unhumbled height? But if we should grant that the teacher, having feigned this, did not hold this opinion, although this argument might have some force, let it be granted nevertheless; but he himself also clearly esteems a multitude of gods and to the first of the gods, as he himself says, he by no means gives universal authority, and he attempts to enumerate the powers which move the bodies that seem divine to him, and he places the whole demonic race above us, and the most venerable and god-befitting thing alone, this which is beyond proof, he bestows on such divinities, and because of this he reckons these things to be above us.

We should have done a great thing indeed and one common and graceful to our lot, if according to Aristotle (p. 506) and his teacher we should consider the divine to be beyond proof, a thing which their knowledge and theory also attribute to the demons; and you yourself would not say otherwise, just as neither would we, as long as we should choose to live under teachers like Aristotle and Plato. But our own proof and that of our teachers shows the whole demonic race not only to be fallen and ultimate and wicked, wicked because of its flight from the good and its into

τάς ἀποματτομένας ἐκ τούτων ἀνιέρους κηλῖδας τοῖς πεφωτισμένους ἐκείνους ἀξιοῦσι λαλεῖν; Οὐκ ἀκούεις τοῦ λέγοντος, «βάλλε μοι Πλάτωνος τάς ἰδέας», ἀνατυπώσεις δή τινας καί μελέτας πρό τῶν ἔργων ἐν διανοίᾳ, οὔτε ἄνευ πάθους οὔσας καί πρεπούσας ἀνθρώποις μᾶλλον οἰκοδομοῦσι, δεδιόσι τήν ἐξ ἀπερισκέπτου τούτοις ἔσθ᾿ ὅτε προσγινομένην ἀποτυχίαν, ἤ τῷ Θεῷ, οὗπερ ἔργον καί τό ἐννόημα; Εἰ δ᾿ ἔργον καί τό ἐννόημα, καί πρό τούτου δεήσει παραδειγμάτων τε καί ἀνατυπώσεων ἄλλων, οὐκοῦν καί τῶν ἰδεῶν ἔσονται ἰδέαι, καί τοῦτο ἐπ᾿ ἄπειρον, εἰ μή τι καί πλέον ἐκεῖνος νέμει ταῖς εἰρημέναις ἰδέαις, καί πλέον κακῶς.

Ἀλλά τοῦτο μέν ἀφῶμεν˙ ἐγώ δ᾿ ἄν σοι προσθείην εἰπών ὡς 'βάλλε μή τάς ἰδέας μόνον, ἀλλά καί τάς θεωρίας καί τά ψευδώνυμα τούτου φῶτα, δι᾿ ὧν ἐκεῖνος τοῖς ἀπατηλοῖς δαίμοσι συνεζύγη καί δι᾿ ὧν ἐμυήθη, μή ὅτι κακούς ἀλλά καί ἀγαθούς εἶναι δαίμονας, καί ψυχήν αἰθέρος καί ψυχῶν περιόδους καί τούς ἐπ᾿ αὐτάς διά τῶν καλῶν σωμάτων οὐ καλούς ἔρωτας'. Τί δ᾿ οἱ πρῶτοι θεοί καί δεύτεροι καί τούτων ἔτι μείους τήν φύσιν τε καί τήν δύναμιν, ὧν οἱ μέν τό κυρτόν τῆς οὐρανίου σφαίρας ἐπιπορεύονται, οἱ δ᾿ ὑπό τό κοῖλον περινοστοῦσιν, οἱ δ᾿ ἔγγειοι καί ὑπόγειοι, μηκέθ᾿ οὗτοι θνητῶν, ἀλλά τεθνηκότων αὐτοκράτορες ὄντες; Τριχθά γάρ πάντα δέδασται κατ᾿ αὐτούς φάναι, τούς καί ποιητάς καί κληροδότας τῶν οἰκείων θεῶν. Τί δ᾿ αἱ (σελ. 504) περίεργοι θυσίαι, ψυχαγωγίαι τε καί θεαγωγίαι καί θεουργίαι καί ὁ τῶν μαινομένων ἔπαινος καί, τό σύμπαν εἰπεῖν, ὁ περί τά τοιαῦτα πλατύς λῆρος καί σαφής μᾶλλον ἤ μυστικός; Ταῦτ᾿ ἄρα περί τῶν διαπεπτωκότων ἄνωθεν καί τῶν ἀπό τούτων ἐλλαμπομένων, τουτέστι σκοτιζομένων τό τῆς ψυχῆς νοερόν, καί ἀπό τῆς κάτωθεν θέας παραγεγενημένης, ἤ περί τῶν ὑπέρ ἡμᾶς καί ἀπό τῆς ἄνωθεν.

Τί δ᾿ ἵνα πάλιν ἀπό τῆς ἀληθοῦς καί φερωνύμου καί ἱερᾶς καί γνησίας τῇ θεολογίᾳ φωνῆς τά ψευδώνυμα καί νόθα φαυλίσωμεν, «τί τοίνυν Ἀριστοτέλους ἡ μικρόλογος πρόνοια καί οἱ θνητοί περί ψυχῆς λόγοι καί τἀνθρωπικόν τῶν δογμάτων;». Ἆρα 'κατανενοηκότος τήν ὑπεροχήν τοῦ Θεοῦ˙ καί τήν ἀξίαν ἐξευρηκότος παντός μᾶλλον τῇ θείᾳ φύσει φωνήν τό ὑπέρ ἀπόδειξιν τοῦτο; Ἤ καί τοῦτο πλάνη σαφής ἀνθρωπίνης διανοίας τυγχάνον, καί ταύτης ἐσκοτισμένης καί ἀντιθέου καί θηρωμένης μέν δόξαν ὡς ἐφικνουμένης, πειρωμένης δέ διαφυγεῖν τοῦ ψεύδους τόν ἔλεγχον, ὡς ἀποδεῖξαι μή δυναμένης καί τοῖς ἄλλοις μεταδιδόναι τῆς ὑπερφυοῦς καί θαυμαστῆς ἐπιστήμης καί τῷ δοκεῖν ἐξαίρειν κατασπώσης τό ἀπερινόητον ὕψος ἐκεῖκνο καί ἀταπείνωτον; Εἰ δέ τῷ διδασκάλῳ τοῦθ᾿ ὑποκριναμένῳ μή συμβαίνειν τοῦτον τήν γνώμην δοίημεν, καίτοι τινά ἄν ἔχοι τουτί τόν λόγον, δεδόσθω δ᾿ ὅμως˙ ἀλλά θεῶν πλῆθος σαφῶς καί αὐτός πρεσβεύει καί τῷ τῶν θεῶν, ὡς αὐτός φησι, πρώτῳ τῆς κυρείας ἥκιστα τό πᾶν δίδωσι, καί τάς δυνάμεις ἐπιχειρεῖ καταλέγειν, αἵ κινοῦσι τά θεῖα δοκοῦντά οἱ σώματα, καί τό δαιμόνιον φῦλον ὑπέρ ἡμᾶς ἅπαν τίθεται, καί τό ὑπέρσεμνον καί θεοπρεπές μόνον, τό ὑπέρ ἀπόδειξιν τοῦτο, τοῖς τοιούτοις θείοις δωρεῖται, καί παρά τοῦτο ταῦθ᾿ ὑπέρ ἡμᾶς λογίζεται.

Μέγα μέντ᾿ ἄν εἴημεν πεποιηκότες καί τοῖς ἡμετέρας μοίρας ὡς κοινόν τε καί χάριεν, εἰ κατ᾿ Ἀριστοτέλην (σελ. 506) καί τόν τούτου διδάσκαλον ὑπέρ ἀπόδειξιν τό θεῖον νομίσαιμεν, ὅπερ ἡ κατ᾿ αὐτούς ἐπιστήμη τε καί θεωρία καί τοῖς δαίμοσιν ἀποδίδωσι˙ καί σέ γε αὐτός οὐκ ἄν ἄλλως φαίης, ὥσπερ οὐδ᾿ ἡμεῖς, ἕως ἄν ὑπό διδασκάλοις Ἀριστοτέλεσί τε καί Πλάτωσι προαιροίμεθα ζῆν. Ἀλλ᾿ ἡ καθ᾿ ἡμᾶς ἀπόδειξις καί τῶν καθ᾿ ἡμᾶς διδασκάλων οὐ μόνον ἔκπτωτόν τε καί ἔσχατον καί πονηρόν τό δαιμόνιον ἅπαν ἀποδείκνυσι γένος, πονηρόν μέν διά τήν ἐκ τἀγαθοῦ φυγήν καί τήν εἰς