SECTION VI.

CHAP. I.
It is now, however, time for me to pass on to the next doubt which you propose, viz. “ Why it is requisite that the inspector [who presides over sacred rites'] ought not to touch a dead body, though most sacred operations are performed through dead bodies?'' Again, therefore, that we may dissolve this doubt, we shall direct our attention to this apparent opposition ; for there is not in reality any, but these things alone seem to subsist contrarily. For if the laws of sacred rites ordered that the same dead bodies should not be touched and should be touched, this would be a thing contrary to itself But if they order that some dead bodies should be abstained from as impure, but that others which are consecrated should be touched, this is not attended with any contrariety. Far- ther still, it is not lawful to touch human bodies when the soul has left them, since a cer- tain vestige, image, or representation of divine
2 T
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life is extinguished in the body by death. But it is no longer unholy to touch other dead bodies, because they did not [when living] par- ticipate of a more divine life. To other Gods, therefore, who are pure from matter, our not touching dead bodies is adapted ; but to those Gods who preside over animals, and are proxi- mately connected with them, invocation through animals is properly made. According to this, therefore, no contrariety takes place.
CHAP. II.
After another manner, also, this doubt may be dissolved. For in men, indeed, who are de- tained in matter, bodies deprived of life pro- duce a certain stain ; because that which is not alive inserts a certain defilement in that which is living, in the same manner as the im- pure in that which is pure, and that which is in privation in that which is in habit ; and also because that which is dead produces a certain pollution, through a physical aptitude to a worse condition, in consequence of having pos- sessed the power of dying. But a dead body cannot produce any defilement in a daemon who is perfectly incorporeal, and does not re- ceive any corruption. For it is necessary that
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he should transcend a corruptible body, and not participate of any representation of cor- ruption from it. And thus much in answer to the contrariety of the doubt.
CHAP. III.
In the next place we shall explain how divi- nation is effected through sacred animals, such, for instance, as hawks. We must never say, therefore, that the Gods accede through bodies that are thus procured, being employed. For they do not preside over animals, either parti- bly, or proximately, or materially, or with a certain habitude towards them. But to daemons and these such as are very much divided, to different orders of whom different animals are allotted, and who proximately exercise a govern- ment of this kind, and do not obtain their proper dominion in a way perfectly indepen- dent and immaterial, such a contact with the organs of divination must be ascribed. Or, if some one is willing so to admit, a seat must be attributed to them, through which we may be able to associate with and employ them. It is necessary, therefore, to think that this seat should be pure from bodies. For there can be no communion whatever between the pure
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and its contrary ; but it is reasonable to admit that this seat is conjoined with men, through^ the soul of animals. For this soul has a certain alliance to men, through homogeneity of life ; but it is allied to daemons, because, being libe- rated from body, it has in a certain respect a separate subsistence. Hence, being a medium between both, it is subservient to its presiding daemon, but announces to those who are yet detained in body that which its prefect com- mands. And it imparts to both these a com- mon bond with each other.
CHAP. lY.
It is necessary, however, to think that the soul which uses divination of this kind, not only becomes an auditor of the prediction, but also contributes in no small degree from itself to the consummation of it, and of what pertains to its operations. For this soul is coexcited and cooperates, and at the same time fore- knows, through a certain necessary sympathy. Such a mode, therefore, of divination as this is entirely different from the divine and true mode, being alone able to predict respecting small and diurnal concerns, viz. respecting such as being placed in a divided nature, are borne
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along about generation, and which impart mo- tions from themselves to those things that are able to receive them, and produce multiform passions in things which are naturally adapted to be copassive. Perfect foreknowledge, how- ever, can never be effected through passion. For that which is itself especially immutable, immaterial, and entirely pure, is accustomed to apprehend the future ; but that which is mingled with the most irrational and dark nature of a corporeal-form ed and material essence is filled with abundant ignorance. An artificial apparatus, therefore, of this kind does not deserve to be called divination ; nor is it proper to bestow much attention upon it, nor to believe in any other person who uses it, as if it possessed in itself a certain clear and known indication of truth. And thus much concerning divination of this kind.
CHAP. Y.
Let us, therefore, now discuss another species of doubts, the cause of which is occult, and which, as you say, is accompanied with “ vio- lent threats’' But it is variously divided about the multitude of threats. ''For it threatens either to hurst the heavens, or to unfold the
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secrets of Isis, or to point out the ai'canum in the adytum,^ or to stop Baris, or to scatter the memhe7's of Osiris to Typhon, or to do something else of the like kind I Men do not, however, as you think, threaten by such words as these the sun or the moon, or any of the celestial Gods ; for if they did, more dire absurdities would ensue than those which you lament. But, as we before observed, there is a certain genus of powers in the world which is partible, inconsiderate, and most irrational, and which receives reason from another, and is obedient to it ; neither itself employing a proper intelli- gence, nor distinguishing what is true and false, or what is possible or impossible. A genus, therefore, of this kind, when threatenings are extended, is immediately coexcited and asto- nished, because, as it appears to me, it is natu- rally adapted to be led by representations, and to allure other things, through an astounded and unstable phantasy.
* The conjecture of Gale, that for to ev Af^vSia in this place, we should read to ev aSvrq), is, I have no doubt, right. For the highest order of intelligibles is denominated by Orpheus the adytum, as we are informed by Proclus in Tim. By the arcanum in the adytum, therefore, is meant the deity who subsists at the extremity of the intelligible order (i. e. Phanes) ; and of whom it is said in the Chaldean Oracles, “ that he remains in the paternal profundity, and in the adytum, near to the god-nourished silence.”
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CHAP. YI.
These things also admit of another explanation of the following kind. The theurgist, through the power of arcane signatures, commands mundane natures, no longer as man, nor as employing a human soul; but as existing supe- rior to them in the order of the Gods, he makes use of greater mandates than pertain to him- self, so far as he is human. This, however, does not take place as if he effected every thing which he vehemently threatens to accom- plish ; but he teaches us by such a use of words the magnitude and quality of the power which he possesses through a union with the Gods, and which he obtains from the knowledge of arcane symbols. This, likewise, may be said, that the daemons who are distributed ac- cording to parts, and who guard the parts of the universe, pay so much attention to the parts over which they preside, that they cannot endure a word contrary [to the safety of these], but they preserve the permanency of mundane natures immutable. They preserve this per- manency, therefore, in an unchanged condition, because the order of the Gods remains invaria- bly the same. Hence they cannot endure even to hear that threatened in which the aerial and teiTestrial daemons have their existence.
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CHAP. VII.
Oil this thing may likewise be explained as follows : Daemons preside with a guardian
power over arcane mysteries, and this in so remarkable a degree, because the orderly dis- tribution of things in the universe is primarily contained in daemons. For the parts of the universe remain in order, because the benefi- cent power of Osiris continues sacred and un- defiled, and is not mingled with any opposing error and perturbation. The life of all things likewise remains pure and incorruptible, be- cause the occult vivific beauties of the produc- tive principles in Isis do not descend into body which is born along,* and is the object of sight. But all things continue immoveable and perpetual, because the course of the sun is never stopped. And all things remain perfect and entire, because the arcana in the adytum f are never disclosed. Hence, in those particu- lars in which the whole of things possesses its safety, I mean in arcana being always preserved occult, and in the ineffable essence of the Gods, never receiving a contrary condition ; in these, terrestrial daemons cannot endure, even
* For €ts TO epop,evov k. t. X.
t Here too for A/3vSo) I read aSuTc^o.
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in words, to hear that they subsist otherwise than they do, or that they become profaned ; and on this account threatening language has a certain power when employed against them. No one, however, threatens the Gods, nor is such a mode of invocation addressed to them. Hence with the Chaldeans, by whom words used to the Gods alone are preserved distinct and pure, no threats are employed. But the Egyptians, mingling dsemoniacal words with divine signatures, sometimes employ threats. You have, therefore, an answer to these doubts, concise indeed, but I think sufficiently free from error.