Testimonia

{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p>That opinion, which the same Platonist avers that Plato\r\nuttered, is not true, \"that no god holds intercourse with men.\"<a id=\"FNanchor_347_347\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_347_347\">[347]</a>\r\nAnd this, he says, is the chief evidence of their exaltation, that\r\nthey are never contaminated by contact with men. He admits,\r\ntherefore, that the demons are contaminated; and it follows\r\nthat they cannot cleanse those by whom they are themselves\r\ncontaminated, and thus all alike become impure, the demons\r\nby associating with men, and men by worshipping the demons.\r\nOr, if they say that the demons are not contaminated by\r\nassociating and dealing with men, then they are better than the\r\ngods, for the gods, were they to do so, would be contaminated.<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_372\">[Pg 372]</a></span>\r\nFor this, we are told, is the glory of the gods, that they are so\r\nhighly exalted that no human intercourse can sully them.\r\nHe affirms, indeed, that the supreme God, the Creator of all\r\nthings, whom we call the true God, is spoken of by Plato as\r\nthe only God whom the poverty of human speech fails even\r\npassably to describe; and that even the wise, when their\r\nmental energy is as far as possible delivered from the trammels\r\nof connection with the body, have only such gleams of\r\ninsight into His nature as may be compared to a flash of\r\nlightning illumining the darkness. If, then, this supreme\r\nGod, who is truly exalted above all things, does nevertheless\r\nvisit the minds of the wise, when emancipated from the body,\r\nwith an intelligible and ineffable presence, though this be\r\nonly occasional, and as it were a swift flash of light athwart\r\nthe darkness, why are the other gods so sublimely removed\r\nfrom all contact with men, as if they would be polluted by it?\r\nas if it were not a sufficient refutation of this to lift up our\r\neyes to those heavenly bodies which give the earth its needful\r\nlight. If the stars, though they, by his account, are visible\r\ngods, are not contaminated when we look at them, neither are\r\nthe demons contaminated when men see them quite closely.\r\nBut perhaps it is the human voice, and not the eye, which\r\npollutes the gods; and therefore the demons are appointed to\r\nmediate and carry men's utterances to the gods, who keep\r\nthemselves remote through fear of pollution? What am I to\r\nsay of the other senses? For by smell neither the demons,\r\nwho are present, nor the gods, though they were present and\r\ninhaling the exhalations of living men, would be polluted if they\r\nare not contaminated with the effluvia of the carcases offered\r\nin sacrifice. As for taste, they are pressed by no necessity of\r\nrepairing bodily decay, so as to be reduced to ask food from men.\r\nAnd touch is in their own power. For while it may seem that\r\ncontact is so called, because the sense of touch is specially\r\nconcerned in it, yet the gods, if so minded, might mingle with\r\nmen, so as to see and be seen, hear and be heard; and where\r\nis the need of touching? For men would not dare to desire\r\nthis, if they were favoured with the sight or conversation of\r\ngods or good demons; and if through excessive curiosity they\r\nshould desire it, how could they accomplish their wish without<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_373\">[Pg 373]</a></span>\r\nthe consent of the god or demon, when they cannot touch\r\nso much as a sparrow unless it be caged?</p>","headings":["THE WORKS OF AURELIUS AUGUSTINE,","BOOK NINTH.","ARGUMENT."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg45304-paragraph-659"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"345038598ae2f4e166fbcf9495e808f0dd3c5f2e372c9e2182e56b35d2560e6b","edition_title":"The City of God, Volume I","edition_translators":["Marcus Dods","George Wilson (Book IV)","J. J. Smith (Books V-VIII)"],"edition_year":1871,"explicit_reference_candidates":[],"headings":[],"id":"pg45304-Footnote_347_347","license_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html","public_import_allowed":false,"record_kind":"original-editor-translator-note","review_required":["work and recension attribution","original-work chronology","Bible reference numbering and citation kind","English edition rights and attribution"],"review_status":"needs_review","rights_evidence":"Provider catalog reports public domain in the USA. Original transcription title leaves state T. & T. Clark, Edinburgh, 1871; printed translator allocation retained. Gutenberg credits Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries without an exact scan identifier. Full provider license preserved with acquired original; republication and per-work metadata remain unreviewed.","source_anchor":"Footnote_347_347","source_ebook":45304,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\">\n<p><a id=\"Footnote_347_347\"></a><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#FNanchor_347_347\"><span class=\"label\">[347]</span></a> Apuleius, <i>ibid.</i></p></div>","source_sha256":"d89e9a2b80bb59f394f0fb1bf313b39fab162f06af6642166d62c5912c1195f1","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/45304/pg45304-images.html#Footnote_347_347","text_sha256":"b781d4b102f037dd0a43f4eca02ec0f49fb665965affabc49753d4378c9d5ea4","verified":false,"work_id":null}

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