Part 6

“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.

FOOTNOTES:

[47] For ισομερικον here, it is obviously necessary to read ισημερινον. It must also be observed that there are two equinoctial points or signs, and these are Aries and Libra.

[48] See my explanation of this perfect, which is also called the geometric number, in p. 150 of my Theoretic Arithmetic.

[49] i. e. material dæmons, or θηρες χθονος, _the wild beasts of the earth_, as they are called in the Chaldean oracles.

[50] i. e. the whole choir of beneficent natures superior to man. But by _the depression of the heads of the sacred birds_, the inaptitude of persons and places to receive divine influence is denoted.