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of enthusiasm, the Gods; for the material cause, the enthusiastically
energizing soul itself, or the external symbols; for the formal cause,
the inspiration of the Gods about the one of the soul; and for the final
cause, good.
“If, however, the Gods always wish the soul what is good, why does
not the soul always energize enthusiastically? May we not say, that
the Gods indeed always wish the soul what is good, but they are also
willing that the order of the universe should prevail, and that the
soul, through many causes, is not always adapted to enthusiasm, on
which account it does not always enthusiastically energize? But some
say that the telestic art extends as far as to the sublunary region. If,
therefore, they mean that no one of the superlunary and celestial
natures energizes in the sublunary region, they evidently assert what
is absurd. But if they mean that the Telestæ, or mystic operators, are
not able to energize above the lunar sphere, we say, that if all the
allotments of souls are sublunary, their assertion will be true; but if
there are also allotments of souls above the moon, as there are (for
some are the attendants of the sun, others of the moon, and others of
Saturn, since the Demiurgus disseminated some of them into the
earth, others into the moon, and others elsewhere), this being the
case, it will be possible for the soul to energize above the moon. For
what the whole order of things impacts to the soul for a very
extended period of time, this the soul is also able to impart to itself
for a short space of time, when assisted by the Gods through the
telestic art. For the soul can never energize above its own allotment,
but can energize to the extent of it. Thus, for instance, if the
allotment of the soul was as far as to philosophy, the soul would be
able, though it should not choose a philosophic but some other life,
to energize in that life somewhat philosophically. There are also said
to be certain supermundane souls. And thus we have shown how the
soul energizes enthusiastically.
But how are statues said to have an enthusiastic energy? May we
not say, that a statue being inanimate, does not itself energize about
divinity, but the telestic art, purifying the matter of which the statue
consists, and placing round it certain characters and symbols, in the
first place renders it, through these means, animated, and causes it
to receive a certain life from the world; and, in the next place, after
this, it prepares the statue to be illuminated by a divine nature,
through which it always delivers oracles, as long as it is properly
adapted. For the statue, when it has been rendered perfect by the
telestic art, remains afterwards [endued with a prophetic power] till
it becomes entirely unadapted to divine illumination; but he who
receives the inspiring influence of the Gods receives it only at certain
times, and not always. But the cause of this is, that the soul, when
filled with deity, energizes about it. Hence, in consequence of
energizing above its own power, it becomes weary. For it would be a
God, and similar to the souls of the stars, if it did not become weary.
But the statue, conformably to its participations, remains
illuminated. Hence the inaptitude of it entirely proceeds into
privation, unless it is again, de novo, perfected and animated by the
mystic operator. We have sufficiently shown, therefore, that
enthusiasm, properly so called, is effected about the one of the soul,
and that it is an illumination of divinity.
“In the next place, let us discuss the order and the use of the four
manias, and show why the philosopher makes mention of these
alone. Is it because there are no other than these, or because these
were sufficient for his purpose? That there are, therefore, many other
divine inspirations and manias Plato himself indicates as he
proceeds, and prior to this, he makes mention of the inspiration from
the Nymphs. But there are also inspirations from Pan, from the
mother of the Gods, and from the Corybantes, which are elsewhere
mentioned by Plato. Here, however, he alone delivers these four
manias; in the first place, because these alone are sufficient to the
soul, in the attainment of its proper apocatastasis, as we shall
afterwards show; and in the next place, because he delivers the
proximate steps of ascent to the soul. For the gifts of the Gods to all
beings are many and incomprehensible. But now he delivers to us the
energies of the Gods which are extended to souls. He delivers,
however, these four manias, not as if one of them was not sufficient,
and especially the amatory, to lead back the soul to its pristine
felicity; but at present the series and regular gradation of them, and
the orderly perfection of the soul, are unfolded. As, therefore, it is
possible for the tyrannic life, when suddenly changed, to become
aristocratic, through employing strenuous promptitude and a divine
allotment, but the gradual ascent is from a tyrannic to a democratic,
and from this to an oligarchic life, afterwards to a timocratic, and at
last to an aristocratic life, but the descent and lapse are vice versa;
thus also here, the soul being about to ascend, and be restored to its
former felicity, is in the first place possessed with the musical mania,
afterwards with the telestic, then with the prophetic, and, in the last
place, with the amatory mania. These inspirations, however;
conspire with, and are in want of, each other; so abundant is their
communion. For the telestic requires the prophetic[159] mania; since
the latter[160] interprets many things pertaining to the former. And
again, the prophetic requires the telestic mania. For the telestic
mania perfects and establishes oracular predictions. Farther still, the
prophetic uses the poetic and musical mania. For prophets, as I may
say, always speak in verse. And again, the musical uses the prophetic
mania spontaneously, as Plato says. But what occasion is there to
speak about the amatory and musical manias? For nearly the same
persons exercise both these, as, for instance, Sappho, Anacreon, and
the like, in consequence of these not being able to subsist without
each other. But it is very evident that the amatory mania contributes
to all these, since it is subservient to enthusiasm of every kind: for no
enthusiasm can be effected without amatory inspiration. And you
may see how Orpheus appears to have applied himself to all these, as
being in want of, and adhering to, each other. For we learn that he
was most telestic, and most prophetic, and was excited by Apollo;
and besides this, that he was most poetic, on which account he is said
to have been the son of Calliope. He was likewise most amatory, as
he himself acknowledges to Musæus, extending to him divine goods,
and rendering him perfect. Hence he appears to have been possessed
with all the manias, and this by a necessary consequence. For there is
an abundant union, conspiration, and alliance with each other, of the
Gods who preside over these manias, viz. of the Muses, Bacchus,
Apollo, and Love.
“It remains, therefore, that we should unfold the nature of each of
the manias, previously observing that those which are internal, and
originate from the soul itself, and give perfection to it, are of one
kind; but the external energies of them, and which preserve the
outward man, and our nature, are of another. The four external,
however, are analogous to the four internal manias. Let us consider,
therefore, in the first place, the internal, and which alone originate
from the soul itself, and let us see what they effect in the soul. In
order, likewise, that this may become manifest, and also their
arrangement, let us survey from on high, the descent, as Plato says,
and defluxion of the wings of the soul. From the beginning,
therefore, and at first, the soul was united to the Gods, and its unity
to their one. But afterwards the soul departing from this divine union
descended into intellect, and no longer possessed real beings
unitedly, and in one, but apprehended and surveyed them by simple
projections, and, as it were, contacts of its intellect. In the next place,
departing from intellect, and descending into reasoning and dianoia,
it no longer apprehended real beings by simple intuitions, but
syllogistically and transitively, proceeding from one thing to another,
from propositions to conclusions. Afterwards, abandoning true
reasoning, and the dissolving peculiarity, it descended into
generation, and became filled with much irrationality and
perturbation. It is necessary, therefore, that it should recur to its
proper principles and again return to the place from whence it came.
To this ascent and apocatastasis, however, these four manias
contribute. And the musical mania, indeed, leads to symphony and
harmony, the agitated and disturbed nature of the parts of the soul,
which were hurried away to indefiniteness and inaptitude, and were
filled with abundant tumult. But the telestic mania causes the soul to
be perfect and entire, and prepares it to energize intellectually. For
the musical mania alone harmonizes and represses the parts of the
soul; but the telestic causes the whole of it to energize, and prepares
it to become entire, so that the intellectual part of it may energize.
For the soul, by descending into the realms of generation, resembles
a thing broken and relaxed. And the circle of the same, or the
intellectual part of it, is fettered; but the circle of the different, or the
doxastic part, sustains many fractures and turnings. Hence, the soul
energizes partially, and not according to the whole of itself. The
Dionysiacal inspiration, therefore, after the parts of the soul are
coharmonized, renders it perfect, and causes it to energize according
to the whole of itself, and to live intellectually. But the Apolloniacal
mania converts and coexcites all the multiplied powers, and the
whole of the soul, to the one of it. Hence Apollo is denominated as
elevating the soul from multitude to the one. And the remaining
mania, the amatory, receiving the soul united, conjoins this one of
the soul to the Gods, and to intelligible beauty. As the givers,
therefore, of these manias are transcendently united, and are in each
other, the gifts also on this account participate of, and communicate
with, each other, and the recipient, which is the soul, possesses an
adaptation to all the gifts. This, therefore, is the order, and these are
the energies and powers within the soul itself, of these four manias.
“But let us also consider their external energies on man, and what
they outwardly effect about us. The musical mania, therefore, causes
us to speak in verse, and to act and be moved rythmically, and to sing
in metre, the splendid deeds of divine men, and their virtues and
pursuits; and, through these, to discipline our life, in the same
manner as the inward manias coharmonize our soul. But the telestic
mania, expelling every thing foreign, contaminating, and noxious,
preserves our life perfect and innoxious, and banishing an insane
and diabolical phantasy, causes us to be sane, entire, and perfect, just
as the internal telestic mania makes the soul to be perfect and entire.
Again, the prophetic mania contracts into one the extension and
infinity of time, and sees, as in one present now, all things, the past,
the future, and the existing time. Hence it predicts what will be,
which it sees as present to itself. It causes us, therefore, to pass
through life in an irreprehensible manner; just as the internal
prophetic mania contracts and elevates all the multiplied and many
powers and lives of the soul to the one, in order that it may in a
greater degree be preserved and connected. But the amatory mania
converts young persons to us, and causes them to become our
friends, being instructive of youth, and leading them from sensible
beauty to our psychical beauty, and from this sending them to
intelligible beauty; in the same manner as the internal amatory
mania conjoins the one of the soul to the Gods.
“All the above mentioned manias, therefore, are superior to the
prudent and temperate energies of the soul. Nevertheless, there is a
mania which is coordinate with temperance, and which we say has in
a certain respect a prerogative above[161] it. For certain inspirations
are produced, according to the middle and also according to the
doxastic reasons of the soul, conformably to which artists effect
certain things, and discover theorems beyond expectation, as
Asclepius, for instance, in medicine, and Hercules in the practic[162]
life.”
Afterwards, in commenting on what Plato says of the mania from
the Muses, viz. “that it adorns the infinite deeds of the ancients,”
Hermeas observes, “that the inward energy in the soul of the poetic
mania, by applying itself to superior and intelligible natures, imparts
to subordinate natures harmony and order; but that the external
divinely-inspired poetry celebrates the deeds of the ancients, and
instructs both its contemporaries and posterity, extending its
energies every where.” But Plato says, “that he who without the
divinely-inspired mania of the Muses expects to become a divine
poet, will, by thus fancying, become himself imperfect, and his poetry
will be vanquished and concealed by the poetry which is the progeny
of mania.” Hermeas adds, “For what similitude is there between the
poetry of Chærilus and Callimachus, and that of Homer and Pindar?
For the divinely-inspired poets, as being filled from the Muses,
always invoke them, and extend to them all that they say.” For a
fuller and most admirable account of the poetic mania, and of the
different species of poetry by Proclus, see the notes on the tenth book
of the Republic, in my translation of Plato, and also the Introduction
to my translation of the Rhetoric, Poetic, and Nicomachean Ethics of
Aristotle.
From what is here said by Hermeas about enthusiasm, the
intelligent reader will easily see that none of the Roman poets, whose
works have been transmitted to us, possessed that which is
primarily, properly, and truly enthusiasm, or that highest species of
it in which the one of the soul is illuminated by a divine nature, and
through transcendent similitude is united to it. As to Virgil, indeed,
the prince of these poets, though he invokes the Muse in the
beginning of the Æneid, yet his invocation of her is but a partial and
secondary thing. For he only calls on her to unfold to him the causes
that involved a man of such remarkable piety as Æneas in so many
misfortunes:
Musa, mihi causa memora, &c.

And, confiding in his own genius, he begins his poem without

soliciting supernal inspiration,
Arma, virumque cano, &c.

To which may be added, that this placing himself before the Muse,
resembles the ego et meus rex of Wolsey. On the contrary, divinely-
inspired poets, as Hermeas well observes, knock, as it were, at the
gates of the Muses, and thus being filled from thence exclaim,
 Εσπετε νυν μοι Μουσαι

And,
Μηνιν αειδε θεα—

And,
Ανδρα μοι εννεπε Μουσα.

For being always extended to them, they dispose the whole of what
they afterwards say as derived from their inspiring influence. With
an arrogance too, peculiar to the Romans, who, as a certain Greek
poet[163] says, were a people
Beyond measure proud.

He associates himself, in his fourth Eclogue, with the Muses, as their

equal:
Sicelides Musæ, paulo majora canamus.

Which reminds me of what Suetonius relates of Caligula, that he

would place himself between the statues of Castor and Pollux, and
confer privately with Jupiter Capitolinus, fancying that he was
intimate with, and of equal dignity with, these divinities. And as to
the poets that have lived since the fall of the Roman empire, it would
be ridiculous to suppose that they possessed this highest enthusiasm,
as they did not believe in the existence of the sources from whence it
is alone genuinely derived.

P. 67. The attentive power of the soul. This is that part or power of
the rational soul which primarily apprehends the operations of the
senses. For the rational soul not only has intellect in capacity, the
dianoetic power, will, and choice, but another power, which is called
by the best of the Greek interpreters of Aristotle, as well as by
Iamblichus, το προσεκτικον, the attentive. This power investigates
and perceives whatever is transacted in man; and says, I understand,
I think, I opine, I am angry, I desire. And, in short, this attentive part
of the rational soul passes through all the rational, irrational,
vegetable, or physical powers. If, therefore, it is requisite it should
pass through all these powers, it will also proceed through the
senses, and say, I see, I hear; for it is the peculiarity of that which
apprehends energies thus to speak. Hence if it is the attentive power
which says these things, it is this power which apprehends the energy
of sensibles; for it is necessary that the nature which apprehends all
things should be one, since man also is one. For if one part of it
should apprehend these, and another those things, it is just, as
Aristotle says, as if you should perceive this thing, and I that. It is
necessary, therefore, that the attentive power should be one
indivisible thing.
P. 74. For the human soul is on all sides darkened by body, which
he who denominates the river of Negligence, or the water of
Oblivion, &c.——will not by such appellations sufficiently express its
turpitude. “The whole of generation, as well as the human body,”
says Proclus in Tim. lib. v. p. 339, “may be called a river, through its
rapid, impetuous, and unstable flux. Thus also in the Republic, Plato
calls the whole genesiurgic nature the river of Lethe; in which are
contained, as Empedocles says, Oblivion, and the meadow of Ate; the
voracity of matter, and the light-hating world, as the Gods say; and
the winding streams under which many are drawn down, as the
Chaldean oracles assert.”

P. 105. But there are a certain few who by employing a certain

supernatural power of intellect, are removed from nature, &c. The
class to which these few belong is beautifully unfolded, as follows, by
Plotinus, in the beginning of his Treatise on Intellect, Ideas, and real
Being. “Since all men from their birth employ sense prior to intellect,
and are necessarily first conversant with sensibles, some proceeding
no farther, pass through life, considering these as the first and last of
things, and apprehending that whatever is painful among these is
evil, and whatever is pleasant is good; thus thinking it sufficient to
pursue the one and avoid the other. Those, too, among them who
pretend to a greater share of reason than others, esteem this to be
wisdom, being affected in a manner similar to more heavy birds, who
collecting many things from the earth, and being oppressed with the
weight, are unable to fly on high, though they have received wings for
this purpose from nature. But others are in a small degree elevated
from things subordinate, the more excellent part of the soul recalling
them from pleasure to a more worthy pursuit. As they are, however,
unable to look on high, and as not possessing any thing else which
can afford them rest, they betake themselves, together with the name
of virtue, to actions and the election of things inferior, from which
they at first endeavoured to raise themselves, though in vain. In the
third class is the race of divine men, who, through a more excellent
power, and with piercing eyes, acutely perceive supernal light, to the
vision of which they raise themselves above the clouds and darkness,
as it were, of this lower world, and there abiding despise every thing
in these regions of sense; being no otherwise delighted with the place
which is truly and properly their own, than he who after many
wanderings is at length restored to his lawful country.” See my
translation of the whole of this treatise.

P. 117. By mire, therefore, understand every thing corporeal-

formed and material. “Matter,” says Simplicius in his Commentary
on the first book of Aristotle’s Physics, “is nothing else than the
mutation of sensibles, with respect to intelligibles, deviating from
thence, and carried downwards to nonbeing. Those things, indeed,
which are the properties of sensibles are irrational, corporeal,
distributed into parts, and passing into bulk and divulsion, through
an ultimate progression into generation, viz. into matter; for matter
is always truly the last sediment. Hence, also, the Egyptians call the
dregs of the first life, which they symbolically denominate water,
matter, being as it were a certain mire. And matter is, as it were, the
receptacle of generated and sensible natures, not subsisting as any
definite form, but as the state or condition of subsistence; just as the
impartible, the immaterial, true being, and things of this kind, are
the constitution of an intelligible nature; all forms, indeed, subsisting
both in sensibles and intelligibles, but in the former materially, and
in the latter immaterially; viz. in the one impartibly and truly, but in
the other partibly and shadowy. Hence every form is in sensibles
distributed according to material interval.”

P. 120. Through the innovation and illegality of the Greeks.

Iamblichus says, that through this innovation and illegality, both
names and prayers have at present lost their efficacy. For during his
time, and forborne centuries prior to it, the genuine religion of the
Greeks was rapidly declining, through their novelty and volatility, of
which he here complains. Hence the Emperor Julian, in the
fragments of his treatise against the Christians, preserved by Ciryl,
says, speaking of the Christians, “If any one wishes to consider the
truth respecting you, he will find that your impiety consists of the
Judaic audacity, and the indolence and confusion of the heathens.
For deriving from both, not that which is most beautiful, but the
worst, you have fabricated a web of evils.——Hence, from the
innovation of the Hebrews, you have seized blasphemy towards the
venerable Gods; but from our religion you have cast aside reverence
to every nature more excellent than man, and the love of paternal
institutes.” Το γαρ αληθες ει τις υπερ υμων εθελοι σκοπειν, ευρησει
την υμετεραν ασεβειαν, εκ τε της Ιουδαϊκης τολμης και της παρα
τοις εθνεσιν αδιαφοριας και χυδαιοτητος συγκειμενην. εξ αμφοιν
γαρ ουτι το καλλιστον αλλα το χειρον ελκυσαντες, παρυφην κακων
ειργασασθε.——Απο μεν ουν της Εβραιων καινοτομιας το
βλασφημειν τιμωμενους θεους ηρπασατε· απο δε της παρ’ ημιν
θρησκειας το μεν ευλαβες τε ομου προς απασαν την κρειττονα
φυσιν, και των πατριων αγαπητικον, απολελοιπατε.

P. 122. Prior to truly existing beings, and total principles, &c. Of

the two most ancient principles of all things mentioned in this
chapter, as celebrated by Hermes, the first corresponds to the one
itself of Plato, and the second to being itself, or superessential being,
the summit of the intelligible triad; which two principles are
beautifully unfolded by Proclus in the second and third books of his
treatise on the Theology of Plato.
P. 122. He arranges the God Eneph prior to, and as the leader of,
the celestial Gods.—But prior to this he arranges the impartible one,
which he says is the first paradigm, and which he denominates
Eicton. It appears to me that the former of these two divinities is the
same with Saturn, who is the summit of the intellectual order of
Gods; and that the latter is the animal itself of Plato, or the Phanes of
Orpheus, who subsists at the extremity of the intelligible triad. For
the God Eneph is said by Iamblichus to be an intellect intellectually
perceiving itself, and converting intellections to itself; and these are
the characteristics of Saturn. And the God Eicton is said to be the
first paradigm, and this is also asserted of Phanes.

P. 123. For the books which are circulated under the name of
Hermes, contain Hermaic opinions, though they frequently employ
the language of the philosophers: for they were translated from the
Egyptian tongue by men who were not unskilled in philosophy. A
few only of these books are now extant, but what is here said by
Iamblichus sufficiently proves their authenticity, and that they
contain the genuine doctrines of Hermes. They have doubtless,
however, been occasionally interpolated by some of the early
Christians, though not to that extent which modern critics, and that
mitred sophist Warburton, suppose.

P. 123. And such as have written concerning the decans. The

twelve parts, mentioned in the preceding chapter, into which the
Egyptians divide the heavens, are the twelve signs of the zodiac. But
the thirty-six parts are the twelve houses of the planets, divided into
three other portions, which they call decans. Ptolemy, however, in
his Quadripartite, subverts this doctrine of the Egyptians.
Concerning these decans, see Scaliger ad Manilium, Kircher II. parte
Oedipi, and Salmasius de Annis climactericis. Gale also gives the
following extract from Hermes relative to the decans, which had not
been before published, and which he derived from a MS. copy of
Stobæus in the possession of Vossius. Φαμεν ω τεκνον, περιεκτικον
των απαντων ειναι το σωμα. εννοησον ουν αυτο ωσπερ κυκλοειδες
σχημα——υπο δε τον κυκλον του σωματος τουτου τεταχθαι τους λϛ
δεκανους, μεσους του παντος κυκλου του ζωδιακου.——νοησωμεν
ωσπερει φυλακας αυτους προϊστασθαι των εν κοσμῳ απαντων
παντα συνεχοντας——και τηρουντας την των παντων ευταξιαν.——
ετι δε νοησον ω Τατ, οτι απαθεις εισιν ων οι αλλοι αστερες
πασχουσιν. ουτε γαρ επεχομενοι τον δρομον στηριζουσιν, ουτε
κωλυομενοι αναποδιζουσιν, αλλ’ ουδε μην απο του φωτος του ηλιου
σκεπονται, απερ πασχουσιν οι αλλοι αστερες. ελευθεροι δε οντες
υπερανω παντων, ωσπερ φυλακες και επισκοποι ακριβεις του
παντος, περιεχονται τῳ νυχθημερῳ το παν.——εχουσι προς ημας την
μεγιστην δυναμιν. i. e. “We say, O son, that the body [of the universe]
is comprehensive of all things. Conceive, therefore, this to be as it
were of a circular form.——But under the circle of this body the
thirty-six decans are arranged, as the media of the whole circle of the
zodiac.——These, likewise, must be understood to preside as
guardians over every thing in the world, connecting and containing
all things——and preserving the established order of all things.——
Farther still, understand, O Tat, that these decans are impassive to
the things which the other stars suffer. For neither being detained,
do they stop their course, nor being impeded do they recede, nor are
they, like the other stars, concealed as with a veil by the light of the
sun. But being liberated above all things, they comprehend the
universe as the guardians and accurate inspectors of it, in the
Nycthemeron [or the space of night and day].——They also possess,
with respect to us, the greatest power.”

P. 125. So that what you add from Homer, “that the Gods are
flexible,” it is not holy to assert. The words of Homer are στρεπτοι δε
τε και θεοι αυτοι, and are to be found in Iliad ix. v. 493. But when
Iamblichus says, it is not holy to assert the Gods are flexible, he
means that it is not holy according to the literal signification of the
words; divine flexibility indicating nothing more than this, that those
who through depravity were before unadapted to receive the
illuminations of the Gods, and in consequence of this were subject to
the power of avenging dæmons; when afterwards they obtain pardon
of their guilt through prayers and sacrifices, and through methods of
this kind apply a remedy to their vices, again become partakers of the
goodness of the Gods. So that divine flexibility is a resumption of the
participation of divine light and goodness by those who through
inaptitude were before deprived of it.

P. 130. Dæmons preside over the parts of our body. Proclus in the
fragments of his Ten Doubts concerning Providence, preserved by
Fabricius in the eighth vol. of his Bibliotheca Græca, observes, “That
the Gods, with an exempt transcendency, extend their providence to
all things, but that dæmons, dividing their superessential
subsistence, receive the guardianship of different herds of animals,
distributing the providence of the Gods, as Plato says, as far as to the
most ultimate division. Hence some of them preside over men,
others over lions or other animals, and others over plants; and still
more partially, some are the inspective guardians of the eye, others
of the heart, and others of the liver.” He adds, “all things, however,
are full of Gods, some of whom exert their providential energies
immediately, but others through dæmons as media: not that the
Gods are incapable of being present to all things, but that ultimate
are themselves unable to participate primary natures.” Hence it must
be said that there is one principal dæmon, who is the guardian and
governor of every thing that is in us, and many dæmons subordinate
to him, who preside over our parts.

P. 134. Hence it is requisite to consider how he may be liberated

from these bonds. “The one salvation of the soul herself,” says
Proclus in Tim. lib. v. p. 330, “which is extended by the Demiurgus,
and which liberates her from the circle of generation, from abundant
wanderings, and an inefficacious life, is her return to the intellectual
form, and a flight from every thing which naturally adheres to us
from generation. For it is necessary that the soul, which is hurled like
seed into the realms of generation, should lay aside the stubble and
bark, as it were, which she obtained from being disseminated into
these fluctuating realms; and that purifying herself from every thing
circumjacent, she should become an intellectual flower and fruit,
delighting in an intellectual life, instead of doxastic nutriment, and
pursuing the uniform and simple energy of the period of sameness,
instead of the abundantly wandering motion of the period which is
characterized by difference. For she contains each of these circles,
and twofold powers. And of her horses one is good, but the other the
contrary [as is said in the Phædrus]. And one of these leads her to
generation, but the other from generation to true being. The one also
leads her round the genesiurgic, but the other round the intellectual
circle. For the period of the same and the similar elevates to intellect,
and an intelligible nature, and to the first and most excellent habit.
But this habit is that according to which the soul being winged
governs the whole world, becoming assimilated to the Gods
themselves. And this is the universal form of life in the soul, just as
that is the partial form, when she falls into the last body, and
becomes something belonging to an individual, instead of belonging
to the universe. The middle of these, also, is the partial universal,
when she lives in conjunction with her middle vehicle, as a citizen of
generation. Dismissing, therefore, her first habit, which subsists
according to an alliance to the whole of generation, and laying aside
the irrational nature which connects her with generation, likewise
governing her irrational part by reason, and extending opinion to
intellect, she will be circularly led to a happy life from the
wanderings about the regions of sense; which life those that are
initiated by Orpheus in the mysteries of Bacchus and Proserpine,
pray that they may obtain, together with the allotments of the
[celestial] sphere, and a cessation of evil. But if our soul necessarily
lives well, when living according to the circle of sameness, much
more must this be the case with divine souls. It is, however, possible
for our soul to live according to the circle of sameness, when purified,
as Plato says. Cathartic virtue, therefore, alone must be called the
salvation of souls; since this cuts off, and vehemently obliterates,
material natures, and the passions which adhere to us from
generation; separates the soul and leads it to intellect; and causes it
to leave on earth the vehicles with which it is invested. For souls in
descending receive from the elements different vehicles, aerial,
aquatic, and terrestrial; and thus at last enter into this gross bulk.
For how, without a medium, could they proceed into this body from
immaterial spirits?”

THE END.

Printed by Ballantyne, Hanson & Co.

Edinburgh and London

1. According to this theology, as I have elsewhere shown, in every order of

things, a triad is the immediate progeny of a monad. Hence the intelligible triad
proceeds immediately from the ineffable principle of things. Phanes, or intelligible
intellect, who is the last of the intelligible order, is the monad, leader, and
producing cause of a triad, which is denominated νοητος και νοερος, i. e.
intelligible, and at the same time intellectual. In like manner the extremity of this
order produces immediately from itself the intellectual triad, Saturn, Rhea, and
Jupiter. Again, Jupiter, who is also the Demiurgus, is the monad of the
supermundane triad. Apollo, who subsists at the extremity of the supermundane
order, produces a triad of liberated Gods. (Θεοι απολυτοι.) And the extremity of
the liberated order becomes the monad of a triad of mundane Gods. This theory,
too, which is the progeny of the most consummate science, is in perfect conformity
with the Chaldean theology. And hence it is said in one of the Chaldean oracles, “In
every world a triad shines forth, of which a monad is the ruling principle.” (Παντι
γαρ εν κοσμῳ λαμπει τριας ης μονας αρχει). I refer the reader, who is desirous of
being fully convinced of all this, to my translation of Proclus on the Theology of
Plato.
2. Viz. The Philosophical Works of Proclus, together with those of Plotinus,
Porphyry, Iamblichus, Syrianus, Ammonius, Damascius, Olympiodorus, and
Simplicius.
3. Ενα ιδοις αν εν πασα γῃ ομοφωνον νομον και λογον, οτι θεος εις παντων
βασιλευς και πατηρ, και θεοι πολλοι, θεου παιδες, συναρχοντες θεῳ. ταυτα και ο
ελλην λεγει, και ο βαρβαρος λεγει, και ο ηπειρωτης και ο θαλαττιος, και ο σοφος
και ο ασοφος. κᾳν επι του ωκεανου ελθῃς τας ηϊονας, κᾳκει θεοι, τοις μεν
ανισχοντες αγχου μαλα, τοις δε καταδυομενοι. Dissert. i. Edit. Princ.
4. “Diogenes Laertius says of Pythagoras, that he charged his disciples not to
give equal degrees of honour to the Gods and heroes. Herodotus (in Euterpe) says
of the Greeks, That they worshiped Hercules two ways, one as an immortal deity,
and so they sacrificed to him; and another as a Hero, and so they celebrated his
memory. Isocrates (Encom. Helen.) distinguishes between the honours of heroes
and Gods, when he speaks of Menelaus and Helena. But the distinction is no where
more fully expressed than in the Greek inscription upon the statue of Regilla, wife
to Herodes Atticus, as Salmasius thinks, which was set up in his temple at
Triopium, and taken from the statue itself by Sirmondus; where it is said, That she
had neither the honour of a mortal nor yet that which was proper to the Gods.
Ουδε ιερα θνητοις, αταρ ουδε θεοισιν ομοια. It seems by the inscription of
Herodes, and by the testament of Epicteta, extant in Greek in the Collection of
Inscriptions, that it was in the power of particular families to keep festival days in
honour of some of their own family, and to give heroical honours to them. In that
noble inscription at Venice, we find three days appointed every year to be kept, and
a confraternity established for that purpose with the laws of it. The first day to be
observed in honour of the Muses, and sacrifices to be offered to them as deities.
The second and third days in honour of the heroes of the family; between which
honour and that of deities, they showed the difference by the distance of time
between them, and the preference given to the other. But whereinsoever the
difference lay, that there was a distinction acknowledged among them appears by
this passage of Valerius, in his excellent oration, extant in Dionysius Halicarnass.
Antiq. Rom. lib. ii. p. 696. I call, says he, the Gods to witness, whose temples and
altars our family has worshiped with common sacrifices; and next after them, I
call the Genii of our ancestors, to whom we give δευτερας τιμας, the second
honours next to the Gods, (as Celsus calls those, τας προσηκουσας τιμας, the due
honours that belong to the lower dæmons.) From which we take notice, that the
Heathens did not confound all degrees of divine worship, giving to the lowest
object the same which they supposed to be due to the celestial deities, or the
supreme God. So that if the distinction of divine worship will excuse from idolatry,
the Heathens were not to blame for it.” See Stillingfleet’s Answer to a book entitled
Catholics no Idolaters, p. 510, 513, &c.
5. See the extracts from Plutarch, in which this is shown, in the Introduction
to my translation of Proclus on the Theology of Plato.
6. Answer to Catholics no Idolaters. Lond. 1676. p. 211.
7. Arrian. de Exped. Alex. l. iv. et Curt. lib. viii.
8. Vit. Artaxerx. Ælian. Var. Hist. lib. i. c. 21.
9. Justin. lib. vi.
10. Panegyr.
11. Lib. vii.
12. Lib. vi. cap. iii.
13. Και κολασεως δε ειδος ειναι αθειαν ουκ απεικος. τους γαρ γνοντας θεους,
και καταφρονησαντας, ευλογον εν ετερῳ βιῳ και της γνωσεως στερεσθαι, και τους
εαυτων βασιλεας ως θεους τιμησαντας, εδει την δικην αυτων ποιησαι των θεων
εκπεσειν. Cap. xviii.
14. και χρη τον επι τας αρχας αναβαινοντα ζητειν, ει δυνατον ειναι τι κρειττον
της υποτεθεισης αρχης κᾳν ευρεθῃ, παλιν επ’ εκεινου ζητειν, εως αν εις τας
ακροτατας εννοιας ελθωμεν, ων ουκετι σεμνοτερας εχομεν· και μη στησαι την
αναβασιν. ουδε γαρ ευλαβητεον μη κενεμβατωμεν, μειζονα τινα και υπερβαινοντα
τας πρωτας αρχας περι αυτων εννοουντες. ου γαρ δυνατον τηλικουτον πηδημα
πηδησαι τας ημετερας εννοιας, ως παρισωθηναι τῃ αξιᾳ των πρωτων αρχων, ου
λεγω και υπερπτηναι. μια γαρ αυτη προς θεον ανατασις αριστη, και ως δυνατον
απταιστος. και ων εννοουμεν αγαθων τα σεμνοτατα, και αγιωτατα, και
πρωτουργα, και ονοματα και πραγματα αυτῳ ανατιθεντας ειδεναι βεβαιως, οτι
μηδεν ανατεθεικαμεν αξιον. αρκει δε ημιν εις συγγνωμην, το μηδεν εχειν εκεινων
υπερτερον. Simplic. in Epict. Enchir. p. 207. Lond. 1670. 8vo.
15. Of the first principles, says Damascius in MS. περι αρχων, the Egyptians
said nothing, but celebrated it as a darkness beyond all intellectual conception, a
thrice unknown darkness. Πρωτην αρχην ανυμνηκασιν, σκοτος υπερ πασαν
νοησιν, σκοτος αγνωστον τρις τουτο επιφημιζοντες.
16. For farther particulars respecting this most extraordinary man, see the
introduction to my translation of his Life of Pythagoras, and my History of the
Restoration of the Platonic Theology.
17. Iliad, lib. x. v. 493.
 18. Gale has omitted to give the original of the sentence contained in the
brackets; the translation of which I have added from the answer of Iamblichus to
this epistle.
19. Here also the original is omitted by Gale, and the translation of it is given
by me from the text of Iamblichus.
20. The paragraph within the brackets is omitted in the original; but I have
supplied it from the following answer of Iamblichus to this Epistle. This omission
is not noticed by Gale.
21. Here likewise the words within the brackets, which are omitted in the
original, are added from Iamblichus; but the omission is not noticed by Gale.
22. The following testimony of an anonymous Greek writer, prefixed to the
manuscript of this treatise, which Gale published, proves that this work was
written by Iamblichus: Ιστεον οτι ο φιλοσοφος Προκλος υπομνηματιζων τας του
μεγαλου Πλωτινου εννεαδας, λεγει οτι ο αντιγραφων εις την προκειμενην του
Πορφυριου επιστολην, ο θεσπεσιος εστιν Ιαμβλιχος· και δια το της υποθεσεως
οικειον και ακολουθον, υποκρινεται προσωπον Αιγυπτιου τινος Αβαμωνος· αλλα
και το της λεξεως κομματικον και αφοριστικον, και το των εννοιων πραγματικον,
και γλαφυρον, και ενθουν, μαρτυρει τον Προκλον καλως και κριναντα, και
ιστορησαντα. i. e. “It is requisite to know that the philosopher Proclus, in his
Commentary on the Enneads of the great Plotinus, says that it is the divine
Iamblichus who answers the prefixed Epistle of Porphyry, and who assumes the
person of a certain Egyptian of the name of Abammon, through the affinity and
congruity of the hypothesis. And, indeed, the conciseness and definiteness of the
diction, and the efficacious, elegant, and divine nature of the conceptions, testify
that the decision of Proclus is just.” That this, indeed, was the opinion of Proclus, is
evident from a passage in his Commentaries on the Timæus of Plato, which has
escaped the notice of Gale, and which the reader will find in a note on the fourth
chapter of the eighth section of the following translation.
23. In the original κατα τας κοινας εννοιας, which Gale erroneously translates
contra communes opiniones.
24. Damascius περι αρχων says, “that difference not existing, there will not be
knowledge.” And, “that the contact as of one with one is above knowledge.”
Likewise, “that the intellectual perception of the first intelligible is without any
difference or distinction. ετεροτητος μη ουσης, μηδε γνωσις εσται. Et συναφη ως
ενος προς εν, υπερ γνωσιν. Alibi, διακριτος η του πρωτου νοητου νοησις.
25. Between souls that always abide on high with purity, such as the souls of
essential heroes, and those that descend into the regions of mortality, and are
defiled with vice, such as the souls of the greater part of mankind, the class of
undefiled souls subsists. These descend into the realms of generation, partly from
that necessity by which all human souls are, at times, drawn down to the earth, and
partly for the benevolent purpose of benefiting those of an inferior class. But they
descend without being defiled with vice. They are also called heroes, κατα σχεσιν,
i. e. according to habitude, in order to distinguish them from essential heroes. And,
in the Pythagoric Golden Verses, they are denominated the terrestrial heroes.
26. For αυτην εαυτοις ουσαν in this place, it is necessary to read αυτην εαυτης
ουσαν.
27. For εποχη here, I read μετοχη.
28. Viz. In the plenitudes, or total perfections, of the Gods.
29. i. e. Without habitude, proximity, or alliance to the things which it
illuminates.
30. What is here asserted by Iamblichus is perfectly true, and confirmed by
experience, viz. that the passions, when moderately gratified, are vanquished
without violence. But Gale, not understanding this, says, “Hoc adeo verum est, ac
si dixisset, ignem extingues, oleum addendo camino.” For a moderate gratification
of the passions does not resemble the pouring of oil on fire; since this similitude is
only applicable to them when they are immoderately indulged.
31. See my Dissertation on the Eleusinian and Bacchic Mysteries.
32. In the original, Και δη, και “αι της μηνιδος εξιλασεις” εσονται σαφεις, εαν
την μηνιν των δεων καταμαθωμεν, which Gale most erroneously translates as
follows: “Sed et ratio possit reddi supplicationum, quibus divinam iram
procuramus, si recte intelligamus, qualis sit deorum ira.”
33. Viz. Punishments produced by the realms of generation, or the sublunary
region.
34. It is well observed by Proclus, “that divine necessity concurs with the
divine will.” Θεια αναγκη συντρεχει τῃ θειᾳ βουλησει. Procl. in Tim. lib. i.
35. For νοητον here, it is obviously necessary to read νοερον.
36. For τουτο here, it is necessary to read ταυτο.
37. For as a celestial body consists of light so pure and simple, that, compared
with a terrestrial body, it may be said to be immaterial; hence, like the light of the
sun, it cannot be divided, or in other words, one part of it cannot be separated from
another.
38. For προς αυτην in this place, I read προς αυτα.
39. The nature of the one, as it is all-receptive, and all-productive (πανδεχης
και παντοφυης) exhibits in itself a certain representation and indication of
multitude; for it is all things prior to all.
40. For the Gods are essentialized in the one; or, as Damascius observes,
speaking Chaldaically, in the paternal peculiarity. For in every God there is father,
power, and intellect; father being the same as hyparxis and the one.
41. Viz. According to the difference which there is between the invisibility of
Gods and the invisibility of dæmons.
 42. The cosmocrators, or governors of the world, are the planets. See the
fourth book of my translation of Proclus on the Timæus of Plato.
43. For πυριως in this place, I read εμπυριως. For the empyrean world,
according to the Chaldeans, is above the material worlds, and emits a
supermundane fire or light.
44. For περιουσια here, it is necessary to read παρουσια.
45. These are terrestrial dæmons, to whom the Chaldean oracle alludes, which
says, “The wild beasts of the earth shall inhabit thy vessel,” i. e. as Psellus explains
it, the composite temperature of the soul.
46. For πεπλανημενην here, it seems requisite to read πεπλασμενην. Gale also,
in his version, in this place has fictum.
47. i. e. The inexplicable theurgic signs or symbols.
48. For υπνος here, it is necessary to read αυπνος. For Iamblichus has before
shown that divine dreams are not produced in sleep, but either when sleep leaves
us, or between sleeping and waking, or when we are perfectly awake. The necessity
of this emendation is also evident from what Iamblichus shortly after adds, viz.
that we must take away from divine dreams the being asleep; i. e. the being in a
profound sleep.
49. In the original there is nothing more than λεγουσι δε ταδε in this place;
but the sense requires that we should read λεγουσι δε οι σοφοι ταδε. And this
emendation is confirmed by the versions of Scutellius and Gale.
50. For κατα τα μεταξυ διαλαμβανομενα κ. λ, I read μετα κ. λ.
51. “Among the deeds of Pythagoras,” says Iamblichus, in his Life of that
father of philosophy, (chap. xxv.) “it is said, that once through the spondaic [i. e.
Doric] song of a piper he extinguished the rage of a Tauromenian lad, who had
been feasting by night, and intended to burn the vestibule of his mistress, in
consequence of seeing her coming from the house of his rival. For the lad was
inflamed and excited [to this rash attempt] by a Phrygian song; which, however,
Pythagoras most rapidly suppressed. But Pythagoras, as he was astronomizing,
happened to meet with the Phrygian piper at an unseasonable time of night, and
persuaded him to change his Phrygian for a spondaic song; through which the fury
of the lad being immediately repressed, he returned home in an orderly manner,
though a little before this he could not be in the least restrained, nor would, in
short, bear any admonition; and even stupidly insulted Pythagoras when he met
him. When a certain youth, also, rushed with a drawn sword on Anchilus, the host
of Empedocles, because, being a judge, he had publicly condemned his father to
death, and would have slain him as a homicide, Empedocles changed the intention
of the youth, by singing to his lyre that verse of Homer,

Nepenthe, without gall, o’er every ill

Oblivion spreads.
 Odyss. lib. 4.

And thus snatched his host Anchilus from death, and the youth from the crime
of homicide. It is also related, that the youth from that time became the most
celebrated of the disciples of Pythagoras. Farther still, the whole Pythagoric school
produced, by certain appropriate songs, what they called exartysis, or adaptation;
synarmoga, or elegance of manners; and epaphe, or contact, usefully conducting
the dispositions of the soul to passions contrary to those which it before possessed.
For when they went to bed, they purified the reasoning power from the
perturbations and noises to which it had been exposed during the day, by certain
odes and peculiar songs, and by this means procured for themselves tranquil sleep,
and few and good dreams. But when they rose from bed, they again liberated
themselves from the torpor and heaviness of sleep, by songs of another kind.
Sometimes, also, by musical sounds alone, unaccompanied with words, they healed
the passions of the soul and certain diseases, enchanting, as they say, in reality.
And it is probable that from hence this name epode, i. e. enchantment, came to be
generally used. After this manner, therefore, Pythagoras, through music, produced
the most beneficial correction of human manners and lives.”
Proclus also, in his MS. Commentary on the First Alcibiades of Plato, observes,
“that of musical instruments some are repressive, and others motive; some are
adapted to rest, and others to motion. The repressive, therefore, are most useful for
education, leading our manners into order, repressing the turbulency of youth, and
bringing its agitated nature to quietness and temperance. But the motive
instruments are adapted to enthusiastic energy; and hence, in the mysteries and
mystic sacrifices, the pipe is useful; for the motive power of it is employed for the
purpose of exciting the reasoning power to a divine nature. For here it is requisite
that the irrational part should be laid asleep, and the rational excited. Hence those
that instruct youth use repressive instruments, but initiators such as are motive.
For that which is disciplined is the irrational part; but it is reason which is
initiated, and which energizes enthusiastically.”
See, likewise, on this subject, Ptolem. Harmonic, lib. iii. cap. 7 and 8, who
observes among other things, “that our souls directly sympathize with the energies
of melody, recognizing, as it were, their alliance to them—and that at one time the
soul is changed to a quiet and repressed condition, but at another to fury and
enthusiasm. Ταις ενεργειαις της μελῳδιας συμπασχειν ημων αντικρυς τας ψυχας,
την συγγενειαν ωσπερ επιγινωσκουσας——et, ποτε μεν εις ησυχιαν και κατασολην
τρεπεσθαι, ποτε δε εις οἱσρον και ενθυσιασμον. And, in the last place, see Plato in
his Io, and Aristotle in his Politics.
52. Proclus in Polit. p. 865, says, “that the melodies of Olympus were the
causes of ecstasy.” Τα του Ολυμπου μελη εκσατικα.
53. The nature of the Corybantes, and the order to which they belong, is
unfolded as follows by Proclus, in Plat. Theol. lib. vi. cap. 13. “To what has been
said we shall add the theory pertaining to the unpolluted[54] Gods among the ruling