so do we esteem it eternal, immortal, and incorruptible. But as to the
virtues and faculties which are in it, we believe that some fail in
one place, and spring up anew in another. It seems also (for so some
experiments incline us to conjecture) that these transitions, changes,
and revolutions in process of time do circulate and return to the
same place, and begin again where they left off. In some countries we
see lakes and whole rivers and not a few fountains and springs of hot
waters have sometimes failed and been entirely lost, and at others
have fled and absconded themselves, being hidden and concealed under
the earth; but perhaps some years after do appear again in the same
place, or else run hard by. And so of metal mines, some have been quite
exhausted, as the silver ones about Attica; and the same has happened
to the veins of brass ore in Euboea, of which the best blades were made
and hardened in cold water, as the poet Aeschylus tells us,
Taking his sword, a right Euboean blade.
It is not long since the quarry of Carystus has ceased to yield a
certain soft stone, which was wont to be drawn into a fine thread; for
I suppose some here have seen towels, net-work, and coifs woven of that
thread, which could not be burnt; but when they were soiled with using,
people flung them into the fire, and took them thence white and clean,
the fire only purifying them. But all this is vanished; and there
is nothing but some few fibres or hairy threads, lying up and down
scatteringly in the grain of the stones, to be seen now in the quarry.
44. Aristotle and his followers affirm that all this proceeds from
an exhalation within the earth, and when this fails or removes to
another place, or revives and recovers itself again, the phenomena
proceeding from them do so too. The same must we say of the prophetical
exhalations which spring from the earth, that their virtue also is
not immortal, but may wax old and decay; for it is not unlikely that
great floods of rain and showers do extinguish them, and that the
claps of thunder do dissipate them; or else (which I look upon to be
the principal cause) they are sunk lower into the earth or utterly
destroyed by the shock of earthquakes and the confusion that attends
them, as here in this place there still remain the tragical monuments
of that great earthquake that overthrew the city. And in the town of
Orchomenus, they say, when the pestilence carried away such multitudes
of people, the oracle of Tiresias of a sudden ceased, and remains mute
to this day. And whether the like has not happened to the oracles in
Cilicia, as we have heard it hath, no man can better inform us than
you, Demetrius.
45. I cannot tell, says Demetrius, how things are at present in those
parts, for you all know I have been long absent from thence; but when I
was there, both that of Mopsus and of Amphilochus flourished and were
in great esteem. And as to the oracle of Mopsus, I can from my own
knowledge tell you a strange story about it. The Governor of Cicilia
was a man inclining to scepticism about the Gods,—through the infirmity
of his unbelief, I think, for otherwise he was an oppressor and a
worthless man,—and he had about him several Epicureans, who are wont to
mock at the belief of such things as seem contrary to reason, as they
themselves say, standing much upon their goodly natural philosophy. He
sent a freed servant of his to the oracle, like a spy into an enemy’s
camp, with a letter sealed, wherein was the question he was to ask the
oracle, nobody knowing the contents thereof. This man then, as the
custom of the place is, remaining all night in the temple-porch asleep,
related the next morning the dream which he had; for he thought he saw
a very handsome man stand before him, who said only this word, Black,
to him, and nothing else, for he vanished away immediately. This seemed
to us very impertinent, though we could not tell what to make of it;
but the governor marvelled at it, and was so nettled with it, that he
had the oracle in great veneration ever since; for, opening the letter,
he showed this question which was therein: Shall I sacrifice to thee
a white bull or a black? Which dashed his Epicureans quite out of
countenance, and he offered the sacrifice required, and to the day of
his death continued a devout admirer of Mopsus.
46. When Demetrius had given us this relation, he held his peace. And
I, being desirous to put an end to this conference, cast mine eyes on
Philippus and Ammonius, who sat together; and they, I thought, looked
as if they had something to say to me, and therefore I kept silent
With that Ammonius: Philippus hath something to offer, Lamprias,
touching what hath been debated; for he thinks, as well as other folks,
that Apollo and the sun are the same God. But the question which I
propose is of greater consequence; for just now in our discourse we
have taken away divination from the Gods, and openly attributed it to
the Daemons, and now we are for excluding them also, and dispossessing
them of the oracle and three-footed stool, referring the cause, or
rather the nature and essence, of divination to exhalations, winds, and
vapors; for these opinions carry us still farther off from the Gods,
introducing such a cause of this event as Euripides makes Polyphemus to
allege:
The earth by force, whether she will or no
Does for my cattle make the grass to grow.[11]
Yet he says that he sacrificed his herds, not to the Gods, but to
himself and his own belly, “the greatest of all Daemons;” whereas
we offer them sacrifices and prayers to obtain an answer from their
oracles; but to what purpose, if it be true that souls are naturally
endued with the faculty of prediction, and that the chief cause that
excites this faculty and virtue is a certain temperature of air and
winds? And what signifies then the sacred institutions and setting
apart these religious prophetesses, for the giving of answers? And why
do they return no answer at all, unless the sacrifice tremble all over,
even from the very feet, whilst the wine is poured on its head? For it
is not enough to wag the head, as other beasts do which are appointed
for sacrifices; but this quaking and shivering must be universal
throughout all parts of the body, and that with a trembling noise; for
if this be not done, they say that the oracle will give no answer,
neither is the priestess even introduced. For it is very proper and
suitable for them to do and believe thus who ascribe the impulses of
prophetical inspiration either to a God or a Daemon, but by no means
for those that are of your opinion. For the exhalation which springeth
out of the ground, whether the beast tremble or not, will always, if it
be present, cause a ravishment and transport of spirit, and dispose the
soul alike, not only of Pythia, but of any one else that first cometh
or is presented. And it must needs seem absurd to set apart one certain
woman for the delivery of these oracles, and to oblige her to virginity
and chastity all her days, when the thing is referred to such a cause.
For as to that Coretas, whom the Delphians will needs have to be the
first that happened to fall upon this chink or crevice of the ground,
and gave the first proof of the virtue of the place,—he, I say, seems
to me not at all to differ from other herdsmen or shepherds, supposing
what is reported of him to be true, as I believe it is not. And truly,
when I call to mind of what benefit this oracle has been unto the
Greeks, not only in their wars and building of cities, but also in the
stresses of plague and famine, methinks it is very unfit to refer its
invention and original unto mere chance, rather than to God and divine
providence. But I would willingly have you, Lamprias, says he, to speak
on this point, and I pray you, Philippus, to have patience a while.
With all my heart, replied Philippus, and I dare undertake the same for
all the company.
47. And, as to my part, quoth I, O Philippus! I am not only much moved,
but also ashamed, considering my youth, in the presence of so many
wise and grave personages, to appear as if I endeavored by sophistry
to impose upon them, and to destroy and evacuate what sage and holy
men have determined concerning the divine nature and power. But though
I am young, yet Plato was old and wise as you are, and he shall be
my example and advocate in this case. He reprehended Anaxagoras
for applying himself too much to natural causes, always following
and pursuing the necessary and material cause of the passions and
affections incident to bodies, and omitting the final and efficient,
which are much better and more considerable principles than the other.
But Plato either first, or most of all the philosophers, hath joined
both of these principles together, attributing to God the causality of
all things that are according to reason, and yet not depriving matter
of a necessary or passive concurrence; but acknowledging that the
adorning and disposing of all this sensible world does not depend on
one single and simple cause, but took its being from the conjunction
and fellowship of matter with reason. This may be illustrated by the
works of art; as, for example, without going any further, the foot of
the famous cup which is amongst the treasure of this temple, which
Herodotus calls a Hypocrateridion, that has for the material causes
fire and iron, and pliableness by means of fire, and the tincture in
water, without which such a piece of work could not be wrought. But
the principal cause, and that which is most properly so called, which
wrought by all these, was art and reason. And we see the name of the
artist set on all such pieces, according to that,
’Twas Thasian Polygnotus, Aglaophon’s son,
That drew this draught of conquer’d Ilium.
But yet, without colors mixed and confounded with one another, it had
been impossible to have done a piece so pleasing to the eye. Should
one come then and enquire into the material cause, searching into
and discoursing concerning the alterations and mutations which the
vermilion receives mixed with ochre, or the ceruse with black, would
he thereby lessen the credit of the painter Polygnotus? And so he that
shall discourse how iron is both hardened and mollified, and how, being
softened in the fire, it becomes obedient to them who by beating it
drive it out in length and breadth; and afterwards, being plunged into
fresh water, by the coldness of it becomes hardened and condensed after
it was softened and rarefied by the fire, and acquires a firmness and
temper which Homer calls the strength of the iron,—does he, because of
this, e’er the less attribute the cause of the work to the workman? I
do not think he does; for those who examine the virtues and properties
of medicinal drugs do not thereby condemn the art of physic. Just as
when Plato says that we see because the light of the eye is mixed with
the clearness of the sun, and that we hear by the percussion of the
air, yet this does not hinder but that we have the faculty of seeing
and hearing from Divine Providence.
48. In a word, generation, as I have said, proceeding from two causes,
the chiefest and most ancient poets and divines have stuck only to the
first and most excellent of these, having on all occasions these known
words in their mouths,