The Daemons do not always stay in the moon, but
sometimes descend down here below, to have the care and
superintendency of oracles. They are assistant also, and
join in celebrating the sublimest ceremonies, having their
eye upon misdeeds, which they punish, and preserving the
good as well in perils of war as of the sea. And if in the
performance of this charge they commit any fault, either
through anger, envy, or any unjust grace or favor, they
smart for it; for they are again thrust down to the earth,
and tied to human bodies. Now those who were about
Saturn said, that themselves were some of the better of
these Daemons; as were formerly those that were heretofore in Crete called Dactyli Idaei, the Corybantes in
Phrygia, and the Trophoniades in Lebadea, a city of
Boeotia, and infinite others in several places of the habitable earth, whose names, temples, and honors continue to
this day. But the powers of some fail, being by a most
happy change translated to another place; which translations some obtain sooner, others later, when the understanding
[p. 290]
comes to be separated from the soul; which
separation is made by the love and desire to enjoy the
image of the sun, in which and by which shines that
divine, desirable, and happy beauty, which every other
nature differently longs after and seeks, one after one
manner, another after another. For the moon herself
continually turns, through the desire she has to be joined
with him. But the nature of the soul remains in the
moon, retaining only some prints and dreams of life. And
of this I think it to have been well and truly said,
The soul, like to a dream, flies quick away;
1
which it does not immediately, as soon as it is separated
from the body, but afterwards, when it is alone and divided
from the understanding. And of all that Homer ever
writ, there is not any passage more divine than that in
which, speaking of those who are departed this life, he
says,
Next these, I saw Alcides' image move;
Himself is with th' immortal Gods above.
2
For every one of us is neither courage, nor fear, nor desire,
—no more than flesh or humors,—but the part by which
we think and understand. And the soul being moulded
and formed by the understanding, and itself moulding and
forming the body, by embracing it on every side, receives
from it an impression and form; so that although it be
separated both from the understanding and the body, it
nevertheless so retains still its figure and semblance for a
long time, that it may with good right be called its image.
And of these souls (as I have already said) the moon is
the element, because souls resolve into her, as the bodies
of the deceased do into earth. Those indeed who have
been virtuous and honest, living a quiet and philosophical
life without embroiling themselves in troublesome affairs,
are quickly resolved; because being left by the understanding,
[p. 291]
and no longer using corporeal passions, they incontinently vanish away. But the souls of the ambitious and
such as have been busied in negotiations, of the amorous
and such as have been addicted to corporeal pleasures, as
also of the angry and revengeful, calling to mind the things
they did in their lives, as dreams in their sleep, walk wandering about here and there, like that of Endymion; because their inconstancy and their being over-subject to
passions transports them, and draws them out of the moon
to another generation, not letting them rest, but alluring
them and calling them away. For there is nothing small,
staid, constant, and accordant, after that being forsaken by
the understanding, they come to be seized by corporeal
passions. And of such souls, destitute of reason and suffering themselves to be carried away by the proud violence
of passion, were bred the Tityi and Typhons; and particularly that Typhon who, having by force and violence seized
the city of Delphi, overturned the sanctuary of the oracle
there. Nevertheless, after a long tract of time the moon
receives those souls and recomposes them; and the sun
inspiring again and sowing understanding in them, the
moon receives them by its vital power, and makes them
new souls; and the earth in the third place gives them a
body. For she gives nothing . . . after death of all that
she takes to generation. And the sun takes nothing, but
reassembles and receives again the understanding which
he gave. But the moon gives and receives, joins and disjoins, unites and separates, according to divers faculties
and powers; of which the one is named Ilithyia or Lucina
(to wit, that which joins), and the other Artemis or Diana
(to wit, that which separates and divides). And of the
three fatal Goddesses or Parcae, she which is called Atropos
is placed in the sun, and gives the principle of generation;
and Clotho, being lodged in the moon, is she who joins,
mingles, and unites; and the last, named Lachesis, is on
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the earth, where she adds her helping hand, and with her
does Fortune very much participate. For that which is
without a soul is weak in itself and liable to be affected by
others. The understanding is sovereign over all the rest,
and cannot be made to suffer by any. Now the soul is a
certain middle thing mixed of them both; as the moon
was by God made and created a composition and mixture
of things high and low, having the same proportion to the
sun as the earth has to her.
This (said Sylla) is what I understood from this guest
of mine, who was a stranger and a traveller; and this he
said he learned from the Daemons who served and ministered to Saturn. And you, O Lamprias, may take my
relation in such part as you please.
