why do we deprive the spirits and souls which are in bodies of the
same power by which Daemons may foresee and foretell things to come?
For it is not likely souls do acquire any property and power, when
they abandon their bodies, wherewith they were not endowed before; but
rather, we should think that they had always the same parts, but in
a worse degree, when they were mixed with bodies, some of them being
inapparent and hid, and others weak and obscure, like those who see
through a thick mist or move in water, heavily and uneasily performing
their operations, much desiring to be cured and so to recover what
is their own, and to be discharged and purified of that which covers
them. For as the sun does not then properly become bright when he has
escaped out of the cloud,—for he is always so, though to our eyes,
being clouded, he seems obscure and dark,—so the soul acquires not then
the faculty of divining when gotten clear of the body, as from a cloud,
but having the same before, is blinded by the commixture and confusion
which she has with the mortal body. And this cannot seem strange or
incredible, if we consider nothing else in the soul but the faculty
of remembrance, which is, as it were, the reverse of divination, and
if we reflect upon the miraculous power it hath of preserving things
past, or, we should rather say, things present, for of what is past
nothing remains, and all things do come into being and perish in the
same moment, whether they be actions, or words, or passions; they all
pass by and vanish as soon as they appear; for time, like the course of
a river, passeth on, and carries every thing along with it. But this
retentive faculty of the soul seizes upon these in some mysterious
way, and gives a form and a being to those things which are no longer
present. For the oracle which was given to those of Thessaly, touching
Arne, enjoined them to declare
The deaf man’s hearing, and the blind man’s sight.
But memory is to us the hearing of things without voice, and the sight
of things invisible; so that, as I now said, no marvel, if retaining
the things which are no longer in being, the soul anticipates several
of those which are still to come; for these do more concern her, and
she does naturally sympathize with them, inclining and tending to
things which are future; whereas, as to those which are past and have
an end, she leaves them behind her, only retaining the bare remembrance
of them.
40. Our souls then, having this inbred power,—though weak, obscure, and
hardly able to express their apprehensions,—yet sometimes spread forth
and recover themselves, either in dreams or in the time of sacrifice
or religious worship, when the body is well purified and endued with
a certain temperature proper to this effect, or when the rational
and speculative part, being released and freed from the solicitude
after present things, joineth with the irrational and imaginative
part to think of and represent what is to come. For it is not, as
Euripides saith, that he is the best prophet who guesses well; but
he is the wisest man, not whose guess succeeds well in the event,
but who, whatever the event be, takes reason and probability for his
guide. Now the faculty of divining, like blank paper, is void of any
reason or determination of itself, but is susceptible of fantasies and
presentiments; and without any ratiocination or discourse of reason,
it touches on that which is to come, when it has withdrawn itself
farthest from the present. And from this it withdraws by means of a
certain disposition of body, by which that state is produced which
we call inspiration or enthusiasm. Now the body is sometimes endued
naturally with this disposition; but most times the earth casts forth
to men the sources and causes of several other powers and faculties,
some of which carry men beside themselves into ecstasy and phrensy,
and produce maladies and mortalities; others again are good, gentle,
and profitable, as appears by those who have had the experience of
them. But this spring, or wind, or spirit of divination is most holy
and divine, whether it comes by itself through the air, or through
the water of some spring. For, being infused and mixed with the body,
it produceth an odd temperature and strange disposition in the soul,
which a man cannot exactly express, though he may resemble or compare
it to several things. For by heat and dilatation it seems to open
certain pores that make a discovery of future things; like wine, which,
causing fumes to ascend up into the head, puts the spirits into many
unusual motions, and reveals things that were laid up in secret. For
drunkenness and phrensy, if we will believe Euripides, have a near
approach to the nature of divination, when the soul, being hot and
fiery, banishes those fears to which prudence and sobriety are subject,
and which extinguish and quench the spirit of divination.
41. Furthermore, a man may say that dryness, being mixed with heat,
attenuateth and subtilizeth the spirit, and makes it pure and of an
ethereal nature and consistence; for the soul itself, according to
Heraclitus, is of a dry constitution; whereas moisture does not only
dim the sight and dull the hearing, but when mingled with the air and
touching the superficies of mirrors, dusketh the brightness of the one
and takes away the light of the other. Or perhaps, on the contrary, by
some refrigeration and condensation of this spirit, like the tincture
and hardening of iron, this part of the soul which does prognosticate
may become more intense and get a perfect edge. Just as tin being
melted with brass (which of itself is rare and spongeous) does drive
it nearer and make it more massy and solid, and withal causeth it
to look more bright and resplendent; so I cannot see any reason, why
this prophetical exhalation, having some congruence and affinity with
souls, may not fill up that which is lax and empty, and drive it more
close together. For there are many things which have a reference and
congruity one with another; as the bean is useful in dyeing purple, and
soda in dyeing saffron, if they be mixed therewith; and as Empedocles
says,
Linen is dyed with the bright saffron’s flower.
And we have learned of you, Demetrius, that only the river Cydnus
cleaneth the knife consecrated to Apollo, in the city of Tarsus in
Cilicia, and that there is no other water which can scour and cleanse
it. So in the town of Olympia, they temper ashes with the water of the
river Alpheus, with which they make a mortar wherewith they plaster the
altar there; but if this be attempted to be done by the water of any
other river, it is all to no purpose.
42. It is no wonder then if, the earth sending up many exhalations,
only those of this sort transport the soul with a divine fury, and
give it a faculty of foretelling future things. And, without a doubt,
what is related touching the oracle of this place does herewith agree;
for it is here where this faculty of divining first showed itself,
by means of a certain shepherd, who chanced to fall down and began
to utter enthusiastic speeches concerning future events; of which at
first the neighbors took no notice; but when they saw what he foretold
came to pass, they had him in admiration; and the most learned among
the Delphians, speaking of this man, are used to call him by the name
of Coretas. The soul seems to me to mix and join itself with this
prophetic exhalation, just as the eye is affected with the light. For
the eye, which has a natural property and faculty of seeing, would be
wholly useless without the light; so the soul, having this faculty and
property of foreseeing future things, as an eye, has need of a proper
object which may enlighten and sharpen it. And therefore the ancients
took the sun and Apollo to be the same God; and those who understand
the beauty and wisdom of analogy or proportion do tell us, that as the
body is to the soul, the sight to the mind, and light to truth, so is
the sun with reference to Apollo; affirming the sun to be the offspring
proceeding perpetually from Apollo, who is eternal and who continually
bringeth him forth. For as the sun enlightens and excites the visive
powers of the senses, so Apollo does excite the prophetic virtue in the
soul.
43. Those then that imagined that both were one and the same God have
with good reason dedicated and consecrated this oracle to Apollo
and to the earth, deeming it to be the sun which imprinted this
temperature and disposition on the earth, from whence arose this
predictive exhalation. For as Hesiod, with far better reason than other
philosophers, calls the earth