MINUCIUS FELIX. 495 -What said Plato,who believedthat itwas a hard thinsto findout God 1 Does not he also,withouthesitation,tellof both angelsand demons ? And in hisSymposium also,does not he endeavour to explainthe nature of demons 1 For he willhave it to be a substancebetween mortal and immortal — that is,mediate between body and spirit,compounded by a mingling of earthlyweight and heavenlylightness;whence alsohe warns us of the desireof love,1and he saysthatitis moulded and glidesinto the human breast,and stirsthe senses,and moulds the affections,and infusesthe ardour of lust. CHAPTEE XXVII. Argument. — To confirmwhat he has said,he goes over the ground againfrom itsfirstbeginning.Doubtlesshereisa sourceof error: demons lurkunder thestatuesand images, theyhaunt thefanes,theyanimatethefibresof theentrails, directtheflightsof birds,governilielots,pour forthoracles involvedin falseresponses.Neverthelesstliesethingsare notfrom God; but they are constrainedto confessthat they are made by themselves,when they are adjured by Christiansin the name of the true-God, and are driven from thepossessedbodies. Hence theyfleeliastilyfrom theneighbourhoodof Christians,and stirup sucha hatred againstthem in theminds of the Gentiles,thattheybegin to hate them beforetheyknow them,lesttheymay be able to imitatethem if known, or slwuldbe unabletocondemn them. u These impure spirits,therefore— the demons — as isshown by the Magi, by the philosophers,and by Plato,consecrated under statuesand images,lurk there,and by theirafflatus attainthe authorityasof a presentdeity; whilein the mean time they arebreathedintothe prophets,whilethey dwellin 1 Accordingto some editors," warnsus thatthedesireof loveis received."