[b] _Page 50._—Petosiris and Necepso were two of the most ancient
writers of Egyptian astrology, which, in many respects, differs from
that of the Chaldeans. The former of these celebrated men is greatly
applauded by Manetho, who, in his Apotelesmatica, professes to be his
follower, and calls him πολυφιλτατον ανδρα. Petosiris, however, was
much prior to Manetho, as is evident from Athenæus, iii. p. 114, who
says he is mentioned by Aristophanes. He is also noticed by Ptolemy (in
Tetrabiblo) under the appellation ‘of an ancient writer’ (του παλαιου or
του αρχαιου). According to Suidas, he wrote, among other things which
are unfortunately lost, Περι των παρ’ Αιγυπτιοις μυστηριων, _Concerning
the Mysteries of the Egyptians_, the loss of which work must be deeply
regretted by every lover of ancient lore. He is also mentioned by
Juvenal, vi. 580.
“Aptior hora cibo nisi quam dederit Petosiris.”
And in a Greek epigram (in Anthol. lib. ii. cap. 6.) on a certain person
who had predicted his death from the stars, and, in order that the
prediction might not be falsified, hung himself, it is said: αισχυνθεις
Πετοσιριν απηγξατο και μετεωρος θνησκει, &c. i. e.
“Lest Petosiris should incur disgrace,
Himself he strangled from a lofty place.”
Thus, too, it is related of Cardan, the celebrated physician and
astrologer, that having predicted the year and day of his death, when the
time drew near, he suffered himself to perish through hunger, to preserve
his reputation. My worthy and most intelligent friend Mr. J. J. Welsh
has furnished me with the following additional information concerning
the death of Cardan, and other astrologers: “Respecting Cardan’s
abstaining from food, in order to verify his prediction, Thuanus says:
‘Cum tribus diebus minus septuagesimum quintum annum implevisset, eodem
quo prædixerat anno et die, videlicet XI. Kalend. Octobris defecit, ob
id, ne falleret, mortem suâ inediâ accelerasse creditus.’ lib. lxii. p.
155. The same historian also relates, that Cardan brought astrology into
repute by the success he had in calculating nativities. ‘Judiciaria quam
vocant fidem apud multos adstruxit, dum certiora per eam quam ex arte
possint plerumque promere.’ _Id. ib._ Cardan was not the only astrologer
who foretold the time of his own death; for Martin Hortensius, Professor
of Mathematics in Amsterdam, not only predicted the time of his own
death, but that of two young men who were with him, and the result proved
the truth of his prophecy. The fact is admitted by Descartes, while he
ridicules the science and underrates the abilities of Hortensius. See
the 35th of his Letters to Father Mersenne, in the second volume of that
collection.
“When Ann of Austria, the wife of Louis XIII., was delivered of the
Dauphin, afterwards Louis XIV., a famous German astrologer was in
attendance to draw his nativity, but refused to say more than these three
words, which give a true character of Louis the Fourteenth’s reign; _Diu,
durè, feliciter_. See Limier’s Hist. du Règne de Louis XIV.
“I omitted to mention above, a curious circumstance related of Cardan
in Lavrey’s Hist. of England, vol. i. p. 711, viz. that having cured
the Archbishop of St. Andrew’s of a disorder which had baffled the most
skilful physicians, he took his leave of the Primate in these words:
‘I have been able to cure you of your sickness, but cannot change your
destiny, nor prevent you from being hanged.’ Eighteen years after, this
Prelate was hung by order of the Commissioners appointed by Mary Queen
Regent of Scotland.
“By the way, I am much surprised that Cardan’s autobiography has never
been translated; for it is, without a single exception, the most
extraordinary book of the kind ever published.”
We are informed by Fabricius, that Marsham, in Canone Chron. p. 477,
has eruditely collected many things pertaining to Petosiris, and Necepso
king of Egypt, from the most ancient writers on judicial astrology. We
likewise learn from Fabricius, that Necepso, to whom Petosiris wrote,
as being coeval with him, is believed to have flourished about the
year 800 of the Attic æra, i. e. about the beginning of the Olympiads.
He is praised by Pliny, by Galen, ix. p. 2. De Facultat. Simplicium
Medicament., and from him by Aetius.
[c] _Page 56._—Proclus in Tim. lib. iv. p. 277, informs us, that the
Chaldeans had observations of the stars, which embraced whole mundane
periods. What Proclus likewise asserts of the Chaldeans is confirmed by
Cicero in his first book on Divination, who says that they had records of
the stars for the space of 370,000 years; and by Diodorus Siculus, Bibl.
lib. xi. p. 113, who says, that their observations comprehended the space
of 473,000 years.
Plato, in the Timæus, speaking of this greater apocatastasis, says: “At
the same time, however, it is no less possible to conceive, that the
perfect number of time will then accomplish a perfect year, when the
celerities of all the eight periods being terminated with reference to
each other, shall have a summit, as they are measured by the circle,
of that which subsists according to the same and the similar [i. e.
according to the sphere of the fixed stars].”
On this passage, Proclus, in his Commentary, observes as follows: “The
whole mundane time measures the one life of the universe, according to
which all the celerities are terminated of the celestial and sublunary
circles. For in these also there are periods, which have for the summit
of their apocatastasis the lation of the circle of _the same_ [i. e. of
the sphere of the fixed stars]. For they are referred to this as to their
principle, because it is the most simple of all, since the apocatastases
are surveyed with reference to the points of it. Thus, for instance, all
of them make their apocatastasis about the equinoctial point[47], or
about the summer tropic; or though the joint apocatastasis should not be
considered to be according to the same point, but with reference to the
same, when, for instance, rising or culminating, yet all of them will
have with reference to it a figure of such a kind. For now the present
order is entirely a certain apocatastasis of all the heavenly bodies, yet
the configuration is not seen about the same, but with reference to the
same point. Once, however, it was about the same, and according to one
certain point, at which if it should again take place, the whole of time
will have an end. One certain apocatastasis likewise seems to have been
mentioned; hence it is said that Cancer is the horoscope of the world,
and this year is called Cynic, or pertaining to the Dog, because, among
the constellations, the splendid star of the Dog rises together with
Cancer. If therefore the planets should again meet in the same point of
Cancer, this concurrence will be one period of the universe. If, however,
the apocatastasis takes places in Cancer about the equinoctial point,
that also which is from the summer tropic will be directed towards the
summer tropic, and the number of the one will be equal to the number
of the other, and the time of the one to the time of the other. For
each of them is one period, and is defined by quantity, on account of
the order of the bodies that are moved. In addition, however, to what
has been said, it must be observed, that this perfect number differs
from that mentioned in the Republic, which comprehends the period of
every divinely generated nature[48], since it is more partial, and is
apocatastatic of the eight periods alone. For the other perfect number
comprehends the peculiar motions of the fixed stars, and, in short, of
all the divine genera that are moved in the heavens, whether visibly or
invisibly, and also of the celestial genera posterior to the Gods, and
of the longer or shorter periods of sublunary natures, together with the
periods of fertility and sterility. Hence, likewise, it is the lord of
the period of the human race.”
“The year (says Macrobius) which is called mundane, is _truly_ revolving,
because it is effected by a full convolution of the universe, and is
evolved in the most extended periods of time, the reason of which is
as follows: All the planets and the stars which are seen fixed in the
heavens, the peculiar motion of the latter of which though the human
sight has never been able to perceive or apprehend, are yet moved, and,
besides the revolution of the heavens by which they are always drawn
along, have an advancing motion of their own. This motion, however,
is completed in such a length of time, that the life of man is not
sufficiently extended to discover, by continual observation, their
mutation to the place in which they were first seen. The end, therefore,
of the mundane year is, when all the planets and all the fixed stars have
returned from a certain place to the same place, so that no star in the
heavens may be situated in a place different from that in which it was
before, since all the other stars, when moved from that place to which
they return, give a termination to their year; so that the luminaries
[i. e. the sun and moon] also, together with the five wandering stars,
may be in the same places and parts in which they were situated when
the mundane year began. This, however, according to the decision of
physiologists, will take place at the expiration of 15,000 years; hence,
as the lunar year is a month, and the solar year consists of twelve
months, and the years of the other planets are those which we have before
mentioned, so the mundane year consists of 15,000 of such years as we
now compute. This year, therefore, is called the _truly revolving year_,
which is not measured by the retrogression of the sun, i. e. of one
planet, but is terminated by the return of all the planets to the same
place, under the same description of the whole heavens; from whence also
it is called mundane, because the world is properly called heaven. Hence,
as we not only denominate the progression of the sun from the kalends of
January to the same kalends, the solar year, but also its progression
from the day after the kalends to the same day, and its return from any
day of any month to the same day, a year; thus, also, the beginning of
this mundane year may be fixed by any one at any time he pleases. Thus,
for instance, Cicero now, from an eclipse of the sun, which happened at
the time of the death of Romulus, supposes the beginning of the mundane
year to commence. And though frequently afterwards an eclipse of the sun
may have happened, yet a repeated eclipse of this luminary is not said to
give completion to the mundane year; but then this completion takes place
when the sun, during its eclipse, will be in the same places and parts,
and likewise all the planets and fixed stars, in which they were at the
time of the death of Romulus. Hence, as physiologists assert, 15,000
years after the death of Romulus the sun will again be so eclipsed,
that it will be in the same sign, and in the same part of the heavens,
as it was at that time; all the stars likewise returning to the same
place.”—_Macrob. in Somn. Scip._ lib. ii.
Hence, as the greater mundane apocatastasis consists of 300,000 years,
and 15,000 years make a mundane year, the greater apocatastasis will
consist of 20,000 mundane years.
This greater apocatastasis is also alluded to by Synesius in his treatise
On Providence, and likewise in the Asclepian Dialogue ascribed to Hermes
Trismegistus. The extract from Synesius, who informs us that his treatise
is an Egyptian narration relative to Osiris and Typhos, is as follows:
“Some time after this, Typhos obtained the kingdom by fraud and force,
and Osiris was banished: but during the evils arising from the tyrannical
government of Typhos, some God manifestly appeared to a certain
philosopher who was a stranger in Egypt, and who had received great
benefits from Osiris, and ordered him to endure the present calamities,
because they were months only, and not years, in which the Fates had
destined that the Egyptian sceptres should raise the nails of the wild
beasts[49], and depress the heads of the sacred birds[50]. But this is
an arcane symbol. And the philosophic stranger above mentioned knew that
a representation of this was engraved in obelisks and in the sacred
recesses of the temples. The divinity also unfolded to him the meaning
of the sacred sculpture, and gave him a sign of the time in which it
would be verified. _For when those_, said he, _who are now in power,
shall endeavour to make an innovation in our religion, then in a short
time after expect that the GIANTS_ (meaning by these, men of another
nation) _shall be entirely expelled, being agitated by their own avenging
furies_. If, however, some remains of the sedition should still exist,
and the whole should not be at once extinguished, but Typhos should still
remain in the seat of government, nevertheless do not despair of the
Gods. The following also is another symbol for you. _When we shall purify
the air which surrounds the earth, and which is defiled with the breath
of the impious, with fire and water, then the punishment of the rest will
also follow, and then immediately expect a better order of things, Typhos
being removed. For we expel such-like prodigies by the devastation of
fire and thunder._ In consequence of this, the stranger considered that
to be a felicitous circumstance, which had before appeared to him to be
dreadful, and no longer bore with molestation a necessary continuance
in life, through which he would be an eye-witness of the advent of the
Gods; for it exceeded the power of human sagacity to conjecture, that
so powerful a multitude as were then collected together in arms, and
who even in time of peace were by law obliged to be armed, should be
vanquished without any opposition. He considered with himself, therefore,
how these things could be accomplished, for they appeared to surpass the
power of reason. _But after no great length of time, a certain depraved
fragment of religion, and an adulteration of divine worship, like that
of money, as it were, prevailed, which the ancient law exterminated from
cities, shutting the doors against impiety, and expelling it to a great
distance from the walls._ Typhos, however, did not himself introduce
this impiety, for he feared the Egyptian multitude, but for this purpose
called in the assistance of the Barbarians, and erected a temple in the
city, having previously subverted the laws of his country. When these
things, therefore, came to pass, the stranger began to think that this
was the event which divinity had predicted. ‘And perhaps,’ said he,
‘I shall be a spectator of what will follow.’ He likewise then learnt
some particulars about Osiris, which would shortly happen, and others
which would take place at some greater distance of time, viz. when the
boy Horus would choose, as his associate in battle, a wolf instead of a
lion. But who the wolf is, is a sacred narration, which it is not holy to
divulge, even in the form of a fable.”
Typhos, however, through his tyranny, was at length dethroned, and Osiris
recalled from exile; and Synesius, towards the end of this treatise,
observes, “that the blessed body which revolves in a circle is the
cause of the events in the sublunary world. For both are parts of the
universe, and they have a certain relation to each other. If, therefore,
the cause of generation[51] in the things which surround us originates
in the natures which are above us, it follows that the seeds of things
which happen here descend from thence. And if some one should add, since
astronomy imparts credibility to this, that there are _apocatastatic_[52]
periods of the stars and spheres, some of which are simple, but others
compounded; such a one will partly accord with the Egyptians, and partly
with the Grecians, and will be perfectly wise from both, conjoining
intellect to science. A man of this kind therefore will not deny, that,
in consequence of the same motions returning, effects also will return,
together with their causes; and that lives on the earth, generations,
educations, dispositions, and fortunes, will be the same with those that
formerly existed. We must not wonder, therefore, if we behold a very
ancient history verified in life, and should see things which flourished
before our times accord with what is unfolded in this narration; and,
besides this, perceive that the forms which are inserted in matter are
consentaneous to the arcana of a fable.”
The following is the extract from the Asclepian Dialogue, a Latin
translation only of which is extant, and is generally believed by the
learned to have been made by Apuleius:—
“An ignoras, O Asclepi, quod Ægyptus imago sit cœli, aut, quod est
verius, translatio et descensio omnium quæ gubernantur atque exercentur
in cœlo? Et, si dicendum est, verius terra nostra totius mundi est
templum: et tamen quoniam præscire cuncta prudentes decet, istud vos
ignorare fas non est, futurum tempus est, quum appareat Ægyptios incassum
pia mente divinitatem et sedula religione servasse, et omnis eorum sancta
veneratio in irritum casura frustrabitur. E terris enim ad cœlum est
recursura divinitas. _Linquatur Ægyptus, terraque, quæ fuit divinitatis
sedes, religione viduata, Numinum præsentia destituetur. Alienigenis
enim regionem istam terramque complentibus, non solum neglectus
religionum, sed (quod est durius) quasi de legibus, a religione,
pietate, cultuque divino statuetur præscripta pœna, prohibitio. Tunc
terra ista sanctissima, sedes delubrorum et templorum, sepulchrorum erit
mortuorumque plenissima. O Ægypte, Ægypte, religionum solæ supererunt
fabulæ, eæque incredibiles posteris suis; solaque supererunt verba
lapidibus incisa, tua pia facta narrantibus; et inhabitabit Ægyptum
Scythos aut Indus aut aliquis talis._ Divinitas enim repetet cœlum,
deserti homines toti morientur, atque ita Ægyptus Deo et homine viduata
deseretur. Te verò appello sanctissimum flumen, tibique futura prædico:
torrenti sanguine plenus ad ripas usque erumpes, undæque divinæ non solum
polluentur sanguine, sed totæ rumpentur, et vivis multo major erit
numerus sepultorum; superstes verò qui erit, lingua sola cognoscetur
Ægyptius, actibus verò videbitur alienus. Quid fles, O Asclepi? Et his
amplius, multoque deterius ipsa Ægyptus suadebitur, imbueturque pejoribus
malis, quæ sancta quondam et divinitatis amantissima deorum in terras
religionis suæ merito, sola seductio [_lege_ reductio] sanctitatis et
pietatis magistra, erit maximæ crudelitatis exemplum. _Et tunc tædio
hominum non admirandus videbitur mundus, neque adorandus. Hoc totum
bonum, quo melius nec est, nec fuit, nec erit, quod videri possit,
periclitabitur. Eritque grave hominibus, ac per hoc contemnetur, nec
diligetur totus hic mundus, Dei opus immutabile, gloriosa constructio,
bonum multiformi imaginum varietate compositum, machina voluntatis
Dei in suo opere sine invidia suffragantis omnium in unum, quæ
venerari, laudari, amari denique à videntibus possunt, multiformis
adunata congestio._ Nam et tenebræ præponentur lumini, et mors vita
utiloir judicabitur. Nemo suspiciet cœlum. _Religiosus pro insano,
irreligiosus putabitur prudens, furiosus fortis, pro bono habebitur
pessimus._ Anima enim et omnia circum eam quibus aut immortalis nata
est, aut immortalitatem se consecuturam esse præsumit, secundum quod
vobis exposui, non solum risus, sed etiam putabitur vanitas. _Sed mihi
credite etiam periculum capitate constituetur in eum, qui se mentis
religioni dederit. Nova constituentur jura, lex nova; nihil sanctum,
nihil religiosum, nec cœlo, nec cœlestibus dignum audietur, aut mente
credetur. Fiet Deorum ab hominibus dolenda secessio; soli nocentes angeli
remanebant, qui humanitati commixti ad omnia audaciæ mala miseros manu
injecta compellent in bella, in rapinas, in fraudes, et in omnia quæ sunt
animarum naturæ contraria._ Tunc non terra constabit, nec navigabitur
mare, nec cœlum astrorum cursibus, nec siderum cursus constabit in
cœlo. Omnis vox divina necessaria taciturnitate mutescet, fructus terræ
corrumpentur, nec fœcunda erit tellus, et aër ipse mœsto torpore
languescet. Hæc et talis senectus veniet mundi, irreligio, inordinatio,
irrationabilitas bonorum omnium. Cùm hæc cuncta contigerint, O Asclepi,
tunc ille dominus et pater, Deus primipotens, et unus gubernator
mundi, intuens in mores factaque voluntaria voluntate sua, quæ est Dei
benignitas, vitiis resistens, et corruptelæ omnium errorem revocans,
malignitatem omnem vel alluvione diluens, vel igne consumens, vel morbis
pestilentiisque per diversa loca dispersis finiens, ad antiquam faciem
mundum revocabit, ut et mundus ipse adorandus videatur et mirandus,
et tanti operis effector et restitutor Deus ab omnibus qui tunc erunt
frequentibus laudum præconiis benedictionibusque celebretur. Hæc enim
mundi genitura cunctarum reformatio rerum bonarum, et naturæ ipsius
sanctissima et religiosissima restitutio, peracto temporis cursu, quæ est
et fuit sine initio sempiterna. Voluntas enim Dei caret initio, quæ eadem
est, et ubique est sempiterna.” i. e.
“Are you ignorant, O Asclepius, that Egypt is the image of heaven, or,
which is more true, a translation and descent of everything which is
governed and exercised in heaven? And, if it may be said, our land is
truly the temple of the whole world. Nevertheless, because it becomes
wise men to foreknow all things, it is not lawful that you should be
ignorant that the time will come when it may seem that the Egyptians
have in vain, with a pious mind and sedulous religion, paid attention
to divinity, and all their holy veneration shall become void and of no
effect. For divinity shall return back from earth to heaven. _Egypt
shall be forsaken, and the land which was the seat of divinity shall
be destitute of religion, and deprived of the presence of the Gods.
For when strangers shall possess and fill this region and land, there
shall not only be a neglect of religion, but (which is more miserable)
there shall be laws enacted against religion, piety, and divine worship;
they shall be prohibited, and punishments shall be inflicted on their
votaries. Then this most holy land, the seat of places consecrated to
divinity, and of temples, shall be full of sepulchres and dead bodies.
O Egypt, Egypt, fables alone shall remain of thy religion, and these
such as will be incredible to posterity; and words alone shall be left
engraved in stones, narrating thy pious deeds. The Scythian also, or
Indian, or some other similar nation, shall inhabit Egypt._ For divinity
shall return to heaven, all its inhabitants shall die, and thus Egypt,
bereft both of God and man, shall be deserted. I call on thee, O most
holy river, and predict to thee future events. Thou shalt burst forth
with a torrent of blood, full even to thy banks, and thy divine waters
shall not only be polluted with blood, but the land shall be inundated
with it, and the number of the dead shall exceed that of the living. He,
likewise, who survives, shall only, by his language, be known to be an
Egyptian, but by his deeds he will appear to be a stranger. Why do you
weep, O Asclepius? Egypt shall experience more ample and much worse evils
than these, though she was once holy, and the greatest lover of the Gods
on the earth, by the desert of her religion. And she who was alone the
reductor of sanctity and the mistress of piety will be an example of the
greatest cruelty. Then also, through the weariness of men, the world
will not appear to be an admirable and adorable thing. This whole good,
a better than which, as an object of perception, there neither is, nor
was, nor will be, will be in danger, and will be grievous to men. Hence
this whole world will be despised, and will not be beloved, though it is
the immutable work of God, a glorious fabric, a good compounded with a
multiform variety of images, a machine of the will of God, who, in his
work, gave his suffrage without envy, that all things should be one. It
is also a multiform collected heap, capable of being venerated, praised
and loved by those that behold it. For darkness shall be preferred to
light, and death shall be judged to be more useful than life. No one
shall look up to heaven. _The religious man shall be accounted insane,
the irreligious shall be thought wise, the furious brave, and the worst
of men shall be considered a good man._ For the soul, and all things
about it, by which it is either naturally immortal, or conceives that
it shall attain to immortality, conformably to what I have explained to
you, shall not only be the subject of laughter, but shall be considered
as vanity. _Believe me, likewise, that a capital punishment shall be
appointed for him who applies himself to the religion of intellect.
New statutes and new laws shall be established, and nothing religious,
or which is worthy of heaven or celestial concerns, shall be heard, or
believed by the mind. There will be a lamentable departure of the Gods
from men[53]; noxious angels[54] will alone remain, who, being mingled
with human nature, will violently impel the miserable men [of that time]
to war, to rapine, to fraud, and to every thing contrary to the nature
of the soul._ Then the earth shall be in a preternatural state; the sea
shall not be sailed in, nor shall the heavens accord with the course
of the stars, nor the course of the stars continue in the heavens.
_Every divine voice shall be dumb by a necessary silence_, the fruits
of the earth shall be corrupted, nor shall the earth be prolific, and
the air itself shall languish with a sorrowful torpor. These events and
such an old age of the world as this shall take place, such irreligion,
inordination, and unreasonableness of all good. When all these things
shall happen, O Asclepius, then that lord and father, the God who is
first in power, and the one governor of the world, looking into the
manners and voluntary deeds [of men], and by his will, which is the
benignity of God, resisting vices, and recalling the error arising from
the corruption of all things; washing away likewise all malignity by a
deluge, or consuming it by fire, or bringing it to an end by disease
and pestilence dispersed in different places, will recall the world to
its ancient form, in order that the world itself may appear to be an
adorable and admirable production, and God, the fabricator and restorer
of so great a work, may be celebrated, by all that shall then exist,
with frequent solemn praises and benedictions. For this _geniture_[55]
of the world is the reformation of all good things, and the most holy
and religious restitution of the nature of it, the course of time being
accomplished[56]; since time is perpetual, and always was without a
beginning. For the will of God is without beginning, is always the same,
and is everywhere eternal.”
Of this very remarkable extract, it is necessary to observe, in the
first place, that it was principally made by me from the edition of the
Asclepian Dialogue by Ficinus, as he appears to have had a more correct
manuscript in his possession than any that have been consulted by more
modern editors. Of this the learned and at the same time philosophic
reader will be immediately convinced, by comparing this extract with the
same part of that dialogue in the most modern editions of it. In the
second place, that this dialogue is of genuine antiquity and no forgery,
is, I think, unquestionably evident from neither Lactantius nor Augustin
having any doubt of its authenticity, though it was their interest
to have proved it to be spurious if they could, because it predicts,
(which is the third thing especially deserving of remark,) that the
memorials of the martyrs should succeed in the place of the temples of
the Gods. Hence Augustin concludes this to be a prophecy or prediction
made _instinctu fallacis spiritûs_,—_by the instinct or suggestion of
a deceitful spirit_. But that this prediction was accomplished, is
evident, as Dr. Cudworth observes in his True Intellectual System of
the Universe, p. 329, from the following passages of Theodoret, which I
shall quote as translated by the Doctor. “Now the martyrs have utterly
abolished and blotted out of the minds of men the memory of those who
were formerly called Gods.” And again, “Our Lord hath now brought his
dead (i. e. his martyrs) into the room and place (i. e. into the temples)
of the Gods; whom he hath sent away empty, and bestowed their honour
upon these his martyrs. For now, instead of the festivals of Jupiter and
Bacchus, are celebrated those of Peter and Paul, Thomas and Sergius,
and other holy martyrs.” Antoninus the philosopher also, according to
Eunapius, predicted the very same thing, viz. that after his decease the
magnificent temple of Serapis in Egypt, together with the rest, should
be demolished, and the temples of the Gods be turned into sepulchres,
και τα ἱερα ταφους γενησεσθαι. And in the fourth and last place, the
intelligent reader who compares this prediction with what is said about
the philosophic stranger by Synesius, in the foregoing extract, will
immediately see that the former wonderfully accords with the latter.
[d] _Page 57._—This first period of the world, which was uncultivated
and rude, and, according to Firmicus, was under the dominion of Saturn,
is mentioned by Plato at the beginning of his third book On Laws. For
there having observed that time is infinite, he says, “that myriads upon
myriads of cities have existed in this time, and that, in consequence of
the same temporal infinity, as many have been destroyed.” He also says,
“that they will everywhere have been governed according to every kind of
polity; and at one time pass from the less to the greater, and at another
from the greater to the less, and have become worse from the better, and
better from the worse.” He adds, “that the cause of this mutation, viz.
the many destructions of the human race, is through deluges, diseases,
and numerous other things, in which a very small part of mankind was
left....” After this he observes, “that those who escaped the destruction
which was caused by a deluge, were nearly mountain shepherds, a few
dormant sparks of the human race, preserved on the summits of mountains.
That such as these must necessarily have been ignorant of other arts, and
of those artifices, in cities, of men towards each other, with a view
to prerogative and contention, and other base ends.” He also supposes
“that the cities which were situated in plains, and those bordering on
the sea, entirely perished at that time. That hence, all instruments were
destroyed, together with every invention pertaining to art, political
discipline, or anything else characterized by wisdom.” He adds, “We must
therefore assert, that when that devastation by a deluge took place,
human affairs were in a state of infinite and dreadful solitude; that a
prodigious part of the earth was unprolific; and other animals having
perished, some herds of oxen, and a few goats, which were rarely found,
supplied those men with food that escaped the devastation.” See what the
divine philosopher further observes on this interesting subject, in my
Translation of this book of his Laws.
The reader, however, must be careful not to confound this Saturnian
period with the _golden age_, which also was under Saturn. For the
latter, says Damascius (apud Phot.), consisted of a race of men proximate
to the gods, and is most magnificently celebrated by poets who were
seated on the tripos of the Muse. But by the _golden age_, as Proclus on
Hesiod beautifully observes, “an intellectual life is implied. For such
a life is pure, impassive, and free from sorrow; and of this impassivity
and purity gold is an image, because it is never subject to rust or
putrefaction. Such a life, too, is very properly said to be under Saturn,
because Saturn is an intellectual god.”—See more concerning this Divinity
in the Additional Notes at the end of the 5th vol. of my Plato, p. 675,
&c.
[e] _Page 59._—Plato, in the eighth book of his Republic, speaking of the
dissolution of the city which he has constituted, observes as follows:
“Not only with respect to terrestrial plants, but likewise in terrestrial
animals, a fertility and sterility of soul as well as of body takes
place, when the revolutions of the heavenly bodies complete the periphery
of their respective orbits; which are shorter to the shorter lived, and
contrarywise to such as are the contrary.” The necessity for such a
mutation taking place is this (as I have observed in the Introduction to
my Translation of Aristotle’s History of Animals),—that all the parts of
the universe are unable to participate the providence of divinity in a
similar manner, but some of its parts enjoy this perpetually, and others
only for a time; some in a primary, and others in a secondary degree. For
the universe, being a perfect whole, must have a first, a middle, and a
last part. But its first part, as having the most excellent subsistence,
must always exist according to nature; and its last part must sometimes
subsist according to, and sometimes contrary to, nature. Hence the
celestial bodies, which are the first parts of the universe, perpetually
subsist according to nature, both the whole spheres and the multitude
co-ordinate to these wholes[57]; and the only alteration which they
experience is a mutation of figure, and variation of light at different
periods; but in the sublunary region, while the spheres of the elements
remain, on account of their subsistence as wholes, always according to
nature, the parts of these wholes have sometimes a natural, and sometimes
an unnatural subsistence; for thus alone can the circle of generation
unfold all the variety which it contains.
The different periods in which these mutations happen are called by
Plato, with great propriety, periods of _fertility_ and _sterility_; for
in these periods a fertility or sterility of men, irrational animals, and
plants takes place; so that in fertile periods mankind will be both more
numerous, and upon the whole superior in mental and bodily endowments,
to the men of a barren period. And a similar reasoning must be extended
to animals and plants. The so much celebrated heroic age was the result
of one of these fertile periods, in which men transcending the herd of
mankind both in practical and intellectual virtue abounded on the earth.
And a barren period may be considered as having commenced somewhat prior
to the Augustan age, the destruction of all the great ancient cities,
with all their rites, philosophy, &c. being the natural consequence of
such a period. It appears to me that this period commenced in the time of
Sylla, and I found this opinion on the following passage in Plutarch’s
Life of that great commander:—Το δε παντων μεγιστον, εξ ανεφελου και
διαιθρου του περιεχοντος ηχησε φωνη σαλπιγγος, οξυν αποτεινουσα και
θρηνωδη φθογγον, ὡστε παντας εκφρονας γενεσθαι, και καταπτηξαι το
μεγεθος. Τυρῥηνων δε οἱ λογιοι μεταβολην ἑτερου γενους απεφαινοντο, και
μετακοσμησιν αποσημαινειν το τερας. ειναι μεν γαρ αυτῳ οκτω τα συμπαντα
γενη διαφεροντα τοις βιοις και τοις ηθεσι δ’ αλληλων, ἑκαστῳ δε αφωρισθαι
χρονων αριθμον, ὑπο του θεου συμπεραινομενον ενιαυτου μεγαλου περιοδῳ·
και ὁταν αυτη σχη τελος, ἑτερας ενισταμενης κινεισθαι τι σημειον εκ γης ἢ
ουρανου θαυμασιον. i. e. “But the greatest of all [the signs prior to the
civil wars] was the following: On a cloudless and clear day, the sound of
a trumpet was heard, so acute and _mournful_ as to astonish and terrify
by its loudness all that heard it. The Tuscan wise men and soothsayers,
therefore, declared that this prodigy signified the mutation into and
commencement of another age. For according to them there are eight ages,
differing from each other in lives and manners, each of which is limited
by divinity to a certain time of duration, and the number of years of
which this time consists is bounded by the period of the great year.
Hence, when one age is finished, and another is about to commence, a
certain wonderful sign will present itself, either from the earth or the
heavens.” The _mournfulness_ of this sound of the trumpet was evidently
an indication that a barren period was about to commence.—For an account
of the _great year_, see the note to page 478 of the treatise on Meteors.
The following extracts from a work entitled “Sketches chiefly relating
to the History, Religion, &c. of the Hindoos, concerning the Mundane
Periods,” appear to me to be highly interesting, and to form a most
important addition to what has been before said about the revolutions
which take place in the universe.
“They reckon the duration of the world by four Yougs, corresponding
in their nature with the Golden, Silver, Brazen, and Iron ages of the
ancients.
_Years._
The first, or the Sutty Youg, is said to have lasted 3,200,000
The Tirtah Youg, or second age 2,400,000
The Dwapaar Youg, or third age 1,600,000
And they say the Kaly Youg, or present age, will last 400,000.”
p. 222.
“The beginning of the Kaly Youg, or present age, is reckoned from 2
hours, 27 minutes, and 30 seconds of the morning of the 16th of February
3102 years before the Christian era; but the time for which their
astronomical tables are constructed, is 2 days, 3 hours, 32 minutes, and
30 seconds after that on the 18th of February, about six in the morning.
They say there was then a conjunction of the planets, and their tables
show that conjunction. Monsieur Bailly observes[58], that by calculation
it appears, that Jupiter and Mercury were then in the same degree of the
ecliptic; that Mars was distant about 8 degrees, and Saturn 17; and it
results from thence, that at the time of the date given by the Brahmans
to the commencement of the Kaly Youg, they saw those four planets
successively disengage themselves from the rays of the sun; first Saturn,
then Mars, then Jupiter, and then Mercury. These four planets, therefore,
showed themselves in conjunction; and though Venus could not have
appeared, yet, as they only speak in general terms, it was natural enough
to say there was then a conjunction of the planets. The account given by
the Brahmans is confirmed by the testimony of our European tables, which
prove it to be the result of a true observation. Monsieur Bailly is of
opinion, that their astronomical time is dated from an eclipse of the
moon, which appears then to have happened, and that the conjunction of
the planets is only mentioned by the way.”—pp. 224, 225.
The conjunction of the planets mentioned in the above extract, is
admirably elucidated by Olympiodorus in his MS. Scholia on the Gorgias of
Plato, as follows: “There are seven spheres, that of the moon, that of
the sun, and those of the other planets; but the inerratic is the eighth
sphere. The lunar sphere, therefore, makes a complete revolution more
swiftly, for it is accomplished in thirty days. That of the sun is more
slow, for it is accomplished in a year. That of Jupiter is still slower,
for it is effected in twelve years. And much more that of Saturn, for it
is completed in thirty years. The stars, therefore, are not conjoined
with each other in their revolutions, except rarely. Thus, for instance,
the sphere of Saturn and the sphere of Jupiter are conjoined with each
other in their revolutions in sixty years. For if the sphere of Jupiter
comes from the same to the same in twelve years, but that of Saturn in
thirty years, it is evident that when Jupiter has made five, Saturn will
have made two revolutions; for twice thirty is sixty, and so likewise is
twelve times five; so that their revolutions will be conjoined in sixty
years. Souls, therefore, are punished for such-like periods. _But the
seven planetary spheres conjoin their revolutions with the inerratic
sphere, through many myriads of years_; and this is the period which
Plato calls τον αει χρονον, _for ever_.”—See the Introduction to the
volume of my Aristotle, which contains a translation of Aristotle’s
treatise on the Soul, &c. &c.