Psellus his exposition of the Oracles; conjectures upon the Greek text, part 2 of 2

The depth of the Soul is her threefold powers; the intellectual, the intelligent, the opiniative. Her Eyes are the threefold cognoscitive operations of these; for the Eye is the Symbol of Knowledg, as Life is of Appetite. Open therefore, saith he, the immortal Depth of the Soul, and extend thy cognoscitive Powers upwards, and even thy own self (to use our own Expression) transfer to the Lord.

Defile not the Spirit, nor deep not a Superficies.

The Chaldaeans cloath the Soul with two Garments: one they call Spiritual, woven for it by the sensible World; the other Luciform, tenuious and intangible, which is here termed Superficies: Defile not, saith he, the spiritual Garment of thy Soul with impurity; neither cause it's Superficies to grow deep by certain material Additions: but preserve both in their own Natures, one pure, the other undipt.

Seek Paradise.]

The Chaldaick Paradise is the whole Chorus of Divine powers about the Father, and the fiery Beauties of the creative fountains: The opening thereof by piety is the Participation of the Goods: The flaming Sword is the implacable power which withs[…]ands those that approach it unworthily; to such persons it is shut, for they are not capable of it's felicity. To the Pious it is open: to this place tend all the Theurgick Vertues.

This Vessel the Beasts of the Earth shall inhabit.]

The Vessel is the compounded mixture of the Soul, the Beasts of the Earth are the Daemons which rove about the Earth: our life therefore being ful of passions shall be inhabited by such Bea[…]s; for such kinds are essentiated in passions, and have a material Seat and Order. Wherefore such as are addicted to passions are glued to them by assimulation, for they attract what is like them, having a motive-faculty from the passions.

If thou extend the fiery mind to the work of Piety,
Thou shalt preserve the fluxible Body.]

That is, If thou extend thy illuminated Mind upwards, and the Work of fire to the Works of Piety, (the Works of Piety, with the Chaldaeans, are the Methods of rites), thou shalt not only render the Soul unvanquishable by Passions, but shalt also preserve thy Body […]he more healthfull; for this Ordinarily is the effect of Divine illuminations, viz. to consume the matter of the Body, and to es[…]ablish health, that it be not seized either by passion or diseases.

Certainly, out of the cavities of the Earth spring terrestrial Dogs,
Which shew no true signe to mortal Man[…]]

The speech is of material Daemons: These he calls Dogs, for that they are Executioners of souls; Terrestrial, for that they fall from Heaven, and are rolled about the Earth. These, saith he, being removed far from the Beatitude of Divine Life, and destitute of Intellectual Contemplation, cannot praesignifie Futures; whence all that they say or show is false, and not solid: for they know Beings [non-Latin script], by their Out-sides; but, that which knoweth figures [non-Latin script], particularly, useth Notions indivisible and not figured.

For the Father perfected all things, and delivered them over to the second
Mind, which all Nations of men call the first.]

The first Father of the Triad, having made the Universal Frame, deliver'd it over to the Mind; which Mind the whole Race of Mankind (being Ignorant of the Paternal Excellency) call the first God: but our Doctrine holds the contrary, viz. that the first Mind, the Son of the Great Father, made and perfected every Creature; for the Father, in the Book of Moses, declareth to the Son the Idaea of the Production of Creatures, but the Son himself is the Maker of the Work.

The furies are Stranglers of Men.]

([non-Latin script]) The reductive Angels reduce Souls to them, drawing them from general things; but the Furies ([non-Latin script]) being the Tormentors of the Natures which are dispersed, and envious of human Souls, entangle them in material Passions; and as it were strangle them; and not only Torture such as are full of passions, but even those that are converted towards the immaterial Essence, for these also coming into matter and into generation, stand in need of such purification: for we see many Persons even of those who live holily and purely, fall into unexpected Miseries.

The Paternal mind hath implanted Symbols in Souls.]

As the Mosaick Book saith, that Man was formed after the Image of God; so the Chaldaean saith, that the Maker and Father of the World sowed Symbols of his Essence in the Souls thereof. For out of the paternal Seed, not only Souls, but all superiour Orders sprung. But in Incorporeal substances, there is one kind of signs, viz. Incorporeal, and Individual; In the World, there are other signs and Symbols, the unspeakable properties of God, which are far more Excellent then the Vertues themselves.

The Souls of those who quit the Body violently are most pure.

Whosoever shall take this saying rightly, will find that it contradicts not our Doctrine; for the Crowned Martyrs who in time of persecution leave their Bodies by a violent End, purifie and perfect their Souls: but this is not that which the Chaldaean means. He praiseth all violent Death, because the Soul, which leaveth the Body with trouble, abhorrs this Life, and hateth conversation with the Body, and, rejoycing, flyeth up to the things above: but those Souls which forsake this Life, their Bodies being naturally dissolved by sicknesse, do regret it's propension and inclination to the Body.

Because the Soul being a bright fire by the power of the Father
Remains immortal, and is Mistresse of Life,
And possesseth many Completions of the cavities of the World.]

The Soul being an immaterial and incorporeal fire, exempt from all compounds, and from the material Body, is immortal: for nothing material or dark is commixed with her, neither is she compounded, […]o as that she may be resolved into those things of which she consists; but she is the Mistresse of Life, enlightning the Dead with Life, she hath the Complements of many Recesses, that is, susceptive of the Government of Matter, for she is enab[…]ed according to her different Vertues to dwell in different Zones of the World.

The Father infuseth not fear, but instead of perswasion]

That is, the Divine Nature is not stern and full of indignation, but sweet and calm; whence it doth not cause fear in the Natures subjected to it, but attracts all things by perswasion and graciousnesse; for if it were formidable and minacious, every Order of Beings would have been dissolved; None of them being able to endure his Power. And this Doctrine, is in part esteemed true amongst us; for God is a Light, and a fire consuming the Wicked: The Menaces and affrightings of God are the Intermission of the Divine Goodnesse towards us, by reason of our ill management of our Affairs.

The Father hath snatched away himself:
Neither hath he shut up his own fire in his Intellectual fire.]

The meaning of which Oracle, is this, The God of all things, who is also termed Father, hath made himself incomprehensible, not only to the first and second Natures, and to our Souls, but even to his own Power; for the Father, saith he, hath snatch'd himself away from every Nature: But this Doctrine is not Orthodox; for with us the Father is known in the Son, as the Son in the Father, and the Son is the Definition of the Father, and the Divine supernatural World.

For the Intelligible is something, which it behooves thee to comprehend with the flower of the Mind.]

The Soul hath a power correspondent to every thing that is conceivable by the Mind; As to sensibles, Sense; to cogitables, Cogitation; to intelligibles, Mind. Now the Chaldaean saith, that, although God is an Intelligible, yet he is not Comprehensible by the Mind, but only by the flower of the Mind. The flower of the Mind is the ([non-Latin script]) singular power of the Soul; Since, therefore, God is properly One, endeavour not to comprehend him by the Mind, but by the singular power: for that which is first One, can only be apprehended by that which is one in us, and not either by cogitation or Mind.

The unguirders of the Soul which give her breathing are easie to be loosed.]

Lest any One should say, I would free my Soul from my Body, but I cannot; the Oracle tells us, that the powers, which thrust the Soul out of the natural Body, and give her breathing, as it were, from the toyle and trouble of the Body, are easily loosed; that is, these faculties are free, and not restrained by any Nature, and able to set the Body at Liberty, generously from corporeal Bonds.

It behooves thee to hasten to the Light, and to the beams of the Father,
From whence was sent to thee a Soul cloathed with much Mind.]

Seeing that the Soul hath not it's Being from Seed, neither consists of corporeal mixtures, but had its Essence from God above; therefore she ought to turn towards Him, and to make her return to the Divine Light: for she came down cloathed with much Mind; that is, she was furnished by the Maker and Father with many Remembrances of the Divine sayings, when she came hither, whence she should endeavour to return by the same Remembrances.

All things are produced out of one Fire[…]]

This is a true Doctrine, conformable to our Religion; for all Beings, as well intelligible, as sensible, received their Essence from God above, and are converted to God alone; those which have being only, Essentially; those which have being and Life, Essentially and Vitally; those which have being and Life and Mind, Essentially and Vitally and Intellectually. From One therefore all things came, and to One is their return: This Oracle is not to be condemned, but is full of our Doctrine.

What the Mind speaks, it speaks by Intellection.]

When (saith he) thou shalt hear an articulate Voice, Thundering from above out of Heaven, think not that the Angel or God who sends forth that Voice, did articulate it after our manner enunciatively; but that He, according to his own Nature, conceived it only inarticulately: but thou, according to thy own Impotence, hearest the Not on syllabically and enuntiatively. For as God heareth our Voice not vocally, so Man receiveth the Notions of God vocally, every one according to the operation of his Nature.

These the Earth bewails even to their Children.]

It is meant of Atheists, that God extends his Vengeance even to their Posterity: for the Oracle, to express the torments which they shall receive under the Earth, saith, It howles beneath for them: that is, the Place under the Earth bellows to them, and roareth like a Lion. Whence Proclus also saith, The Composition of Souls that are of Affinity with one another, is of like Nature; and those which are not yet loosed from the Bands of Nature, are entangled and detained by like passions. These therefore must fulfil all punishments, and since by natural Affinity they are infected with Pollutions, must again be cleansed from them.

Enlarge not thy Destiny.]

The wisest of the Greeks call Nature or rather the Completion of the Illuminat[…]ons which the Nature of Beings receiveth ([non-Latin script]) Fate. Providence is an Immediate Beneficence from God. But Fate is that which governs all our Affairs, by the concatenation of Beings. We are subjects to Providence, when we act Intellectually; to Fate, when corporeally. Encrease not therefore, saith he, thy Fate, no[…] endeavour to surmount it, but commit thy self wholly to the Government of God.

For nothing proceeds from the paternal principality imperfect.]

The Father (saith he) produceth all things perfect and self-sufficient according to their Order, but the Imbecillity and Remission of the things produced sometimes causeth a Defect and Imperfection, but the Father calleth back again that Defect to Perfection; and converts it to it Self-sufficience. Like this, is that which Iames the Brother of our Lord pronounceth in the beginning of his Epistle, Every perfect guift cometh down from above from the Father of Lights. For nothing proceeds Imperfect from the Perfect, and especially when we chance to be ready to receive that which is primarily distilled from him.

But the Paternal Mind accepts her not untill she come forth.

The Paternal Mind doth not admit the Impulsions of the desires of the Soul, before she hath excluded the forgetfulness of the riches which she received from the most bountiful Father, and called back to her Memory the sacred Watch-words which she received from him, and pronounce the good speech imprinting in her remembrance the Symbols of the Father who begot her. For the Soul consists of sacred Words and divine Symbols, of which those proceed from the sacred Species, these from the divine Monads; and We are ([non-Latin script]) Images of the sacred Essences, but ([non-Latin script]) Statues of the unknown Symbols. Moreover we must know that every Soul differs from another Soul specifically, and that there are as several species of Souls as there are Souls.

When thou seest the terrestrial Daemon approach, sacrifice the stone Mnizuris, using invocation.]

The Daemons that are near the Earth are by nature lying, as being farre off from the Divine knowledge, and filled with dark matter. Now if you would have any true discourse from these, prepare an Altar, and sacrifice the stone Mnisuris: this stone hath the power of evocating the other greater Daemon, who, invisibly approaching to the material Daemon, will pronounce the true solution of demands, which he transmits to the demandant. The Oracle joyneth the evocative Name with the sacrificing of the stone. The Chaldaean asserts some Daemons good, others ill; but our Religion defines them to be all ill, as having by a premedi[…]ated defection exchanged good for ill.

Learn the Intelligible, forasmuch as it exists beyond the Mind.]

For though all things are comprehended by the Mind, yet God the first intelligible exists without or beyond the Mind. This without you must not understand distantially, nor according to intellectual alterity, but according to the intelligible Excess alone, and the propriety of the existence, it being without or beyond all Mind, whereby the superessential is manifested. For the first intelligible Mind is Essence, beyond which is the self-intelligible. Besides these is God, who is beyond the intelligible, and self-intelligible: for We assert the Divinity to be neither intelligible nor self-intelligible, it being more excellent then all Speech and Notion, so as that it is wholly unintelligible, and unexpressible, and more to be honoured by Silence, then reverenc'd by wonderful Expressions. For it is more sublime then to be reverenced, spoken, and conceived.

Intelligent Iynges doe themselves also understand from the Father,
By unspeakable Counsels being moved so as to understand.]

Iynges are certain (Vertues or) Powers, next the paternal Depth, consisting of three Triads. These understand according to the paternal Mind, which containeth their Cause solely in himself. Now the Counsels of the Father, in regard of their intelligible sublimity, are not vocal; but the intellectual Marks of abstract things, though understood by secondaries (or inferiours) are understood as without speaking, and as it were abstracted from intelligible Prolations. For as the conceptions of Souls, they understand intellectual orders, yet understand them as immutable: So the Acts of the Intellectuals understanding the intellectual signs, understand them as not a vocal subsisting in unknown Existences.

CONJECTURES upon the Greek Text of the Oracles.

WHO it was that rendred these Oracles in Greek is (as we said) uncertain; much more certain is it that they were all composed in Hexameter verse: though they are sometimes cited indistinctly and abruptly by Patricius, seeming wholly irreconcileable with poetick numbers; yet that the greater part of them are Hexameters, none can deny; and whosoever shall look more cautiously upon the rest, will find prints enough by which they may be traced and demonstrated to have been of the same kind, though confounded in the manner of citations, sometimes by the Authors out of which Patricius took them, sometimes by Patricius himself, who was farre more diligent to collect and digest, then curious to distinguish them, or to regard their numbers: which defect we shall endeavour, in some measure, to supply.

[non-Latin script].

[non-Latin script].]

The latter part of the Hexameter,—[non-Latin script]. as is that also which immediately follows, —[non-Latin script]. and the next, —[non-Latin script]. That which follows is cited again by it self afterward.

[non-Latin script]]

This seems to be a loose citation of two several Hemistichs, with reference to the phrase (infinitively) not to the verse.

[non-Latin script]]

Read, perhaps,

[non-Latin script].
[non-Latin script]]

The verse requires—[non-Latin script]. [non-Latin script]]

Before,

[non-Latin script].
[non-Latin script]]

Perhaps [[non-Latin script]]

—[non-Latin script].
[non-Latin script].
[non-Latin script]]

Read [non-Latin script]. [non-Latin script]]

Perhaps, [non-Latin script] the rest being a gloss. [non-Latin script]]

It should be [non-Latin script]. [non-Latin script]] Proclus reads [non-Latin script] in Theolog.

[non-Latin script].

[non-Latin script]]

Pletho reads,

[non-Latin script].
[non-Latin script]]

Pletho,

[non-Latin script].
[non-Latin script] (perhaps [non-Latin script]]
[non-Latin script]]

Distinguish,

—[non-Latin script].
[non-Latin script].

[non-Latin script] and afterwards, [non-Latin script].

[non-Latin script]]

Perhaps,

[non-Latin script], &c.
[non-Latin script]]

Perhaps,—[non-Latin script]

[non-Latin script].
[non-Latin script]]

Distinguish,

—[non-Latin script].
[non-Latin script].
[non-Latin script]—
[non-Latin script]]

Distinguish,

—[non-Latin script],
[non-Latin script]—

[non-Latin script].

[non-Latin script]]

Afterwards cited thus,

[non-Latin script].
[non-Latin script].
[non-Latin script]]

Afterwards,

[non-Latin script]—
[non-Latin script]]

Distinguish,

—[non-Latin script].
[non-Latin script]—
[non-Latin script].
[non-Latin script]]

Read and distinguish,

[non-Latin script],
[non-Latin script]
[non-Latin script].
[non-Latin script],
[non-Latin script]
[non-Latin script].
[non-Latin script]
[non-Latin script]
[non-Latin script].
[non-Latin script].

And presently after,

—[non-Latin script]
[non-Latin script]—

[non-Latin script].

[non-Latin script]]

Distinguish,

—[non-Latin script]
[non-Latin script]
[non-Latin script].
[non-Latin script]]

cited elswhere by Patricius clearly, without [[non-Latin script]] which belong to some other place.

[non-Latin script]]

Distinguish,

—[non-Latin script],
[non-Latin script]
[non-Latin script].
[non-Latin script]]

Distinguish,

—[non-Latin script]
[non-Latin script]
[non-Latin script]
[non-Latin script].

[non-Latin script].

[non-Latin script]]

Distinguish,—[non-Latin script]

[non-Latin script]
[non-Latin script],
[non-Latin script].
[non-Latin script]]

Distinguish,

[non-Latin script]
[non-Latin script].
[non-Latin script]]

Distinguish,

[non-Latin script],
[non-Latin script].
[non-Latin script]]

Distinguish,

[non-Latin script]
[non-Latin script].

[non-Latin script].

[non-Latin script]]

Pletho, [non-Latin script]. [non-Latin script]]

Distinguish,

—[non-Latin script],
[non-Latin script].
[non-Latin script]]

Proclus in Theolog. [non-Latin script].

What follows under the title of [non-Latin script] is very confused, the same Fragments being often repeated.

[non-Latin script].

Most of these are perfect, being put forth by Pletho and Psellus.

[non-Latin script].
[non-Latin script] (so Pletho) [non-Latin script] (read [non-Latin script])
[non-Latin script], &c.

The rest may be corrected by the Edition of Pletho and Psellus.