Testimonia

{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p>The definition which Apuleius gives of demons, and in\r\nwhich he of course includes all demons, is that they are in\r\nnature animals, in soul subject to passion, in mind reasonable,\r\nin body aerial, in duration eternal. Now in these five qualities\r\nhe has named absolutely nothing which is proper to good men\r\nand not also to bad. For when Apuleius had spoken of the\r\ncelestials first, and had then extended his description so as to\r\ninclude an account of those who dwell far below on the earth,\r\nthat, after describing the two extremes of rational being, he\r\nmight proceed to speak of the intermediate demons, he says,\r\n\"Men, therefore, who are endowed with the faculty of reason\r\nand speech, whose soul is immortal and their members mortal,\r\nwho have weak and anxious spirits, dull and corruptible\r\nbodies, dissimilar characters, similar ignorance, who are obstinate\r\nin their audacity, and persistent in their hope, whose\r\nlabour is vain, and whose fortune is ever on the wane, their\r\nrace immortal, themselves perishing, each generation replenished\r\nwith creatures whose life is swift and their wisdom slow, their\r\ndeath sudden and their life a wail,—these are the men who\r\ndwell on the earth.\"<a id=\"FNanchor_341_341\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_341_341\">[341]</a> In recounting so many qualities which\r\nbelong to the large proportion of men, did he forget that which\r\nis the property of the few when he speaks of their wisdom\r\nbeing slow? If this had been omitted, this his description\r\nof the human race, so carefully elaborated, would have been\r\ndefective. And when he commended the excellence of the\r\ngods, he affirmed that they excelled in that very blessedness\r\nto which he thinks men must attain by wisdom. And therefore,\r\nif he had wished us to believe that some of the demons<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_363\">[Pg 363]</a></span>\r\nare good, he should have inserted in his description something\r\nby which we might see that they have, in common with the\r\ngods, some share of blessedness, or, in common with men, some\r\nwisdom. But, as it is, he has mentioned no good quality by\r\nwhich the good may be distinguished from the bad. For\r\nalthough he refrained from giving a full account of their\r\nwickedness, through fear of offending, not themselves but their\r\nworshippers, for whom he was writing, yet he sufficiently indicated\r\nto discerning readers what opinion he had of them; for\r\nonly in the one article of the eternity of their bodies does he\r\nassimilate them to the gods, all of whom, he asserts, are good\r\nand blessed, and absolutely free from what he himself calls the\r\nstormy passions of the demons; and as to the soul, he quite\r\nplainly affirms that they resemble men and not the gods, and\r\nthat this resemblance lies not in the possession of wisdom, which\r\neven men can attain to, but in the perturbation of passions\r\nwhich sway the foolish and wicked, but is so ruled by the good\r\nand wise that they prefer not to admit rather than to conquer\r\nit. For if he had wished it to be understood that the demons\r\nresembled the gods in the eternity not of their bodies but of\r\ntheir souls, he would certainly have admitted men to share in\r\nthis privilege, because, as a Platonist, he of course must hold\r\nthat the human soul is eternal. Accordingly, when describing\r\nthis race of living beings, he said that their souls were immortal,\r\ntheir members mortal. And, consequently, if men\r\nhave not eternity in common with the gods because they have\r\nmortal bodies, demons have eternity in common with the gods\r\nbecause their bodies are immortal.</p>","headings":["THE WORKS OF AURELIUS AUGUSTINE,","BOOK NINTH.","ARGUMENT."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg45304-paragraph-640"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"fec268da54a900e8b1bcecb56dac79b40ecb46223a88e7151b4f78dbf24b297b","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_341_341","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_341_341","source_ebook":45304,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\">\n<p><a id=\"Footnote_341_341\"></a><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#FNanchor_341_341\"><span class=\"label\">[341]</span></a> <i>De Deo Soc.</i></p></div>","source_sha256":"d89e9a2b80bb59f394f0fb1bf313b39fab162f06af6642166d62c5912c1195f1","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/45304/pg45304-images.html#Footnote_341_341","text_sha256":"72f9f3c4d8d904367250e4cad28714c0182af64ddaab9f80f2563c9006df9181","verified":false,"work_id":null}

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