Testimonia

{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p>The Egyptian Hermes, whom they call Trismegistus, had\r\na different opinion concerning those demons. Apuleius,\r\nindeed, denies that they are gods; but when he says that\r\nthey hold a middle place between the gods and men, so that\r\nthey seem to be necessary for men as mediators between them\r\nand the gods, he does not distinguish between the worship\r\ndue to them and the religious homage due to the supernal\r\ngods. This Egyptian, however, says that there are some gods\r\nmade by the supreme God, and some made by men. Any\r\none who hears this, as I have stated it, no doubt supposes\r\nthat it has reference to images, because they are the works\r\nof the hands of men; but he asserts that visible and tangible\r\nimages are, as it were, only the bodies of the gods, and that\r\nthere dwell in them certain spirits, which have been invited\r\nto come into them, and which have power to inflict harm, or\r\nto fulfil the desires of those by whom divine honours and\r\nservices are rendered to them. To unite, therefore, by a\r\ncertain art, those invisible spirits to visible and material\r\nthings, so as to make, as it were, animated bodies, dedicated\r\nand given up to those spirits who inhabit them,—this,\r\nhe says, is to make gods, adding that men have received\r\nthis great and wonderful power. I will give the\r\nwords of this Egyptian as they have been translated into\r\nour tongue: \"And, since we have undertaken to discourse\r\nconcerning the relationship and fellowship between men\r\nand the gods, know, O Æsculapius, the power and strength\r\nof man. As the Lord and Father, or that which is highest,\r\neven God, is the maker of the celestial gods, so man is the<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_340\">[Pg 340]</a></span>\r\nmaker of the gods who are in the temples, content to dwell\r\nnear to men.\"<a id=\"FNanchor_315_315\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_315_315\">[315]</a> And a little after he says, \"Thus humanity,\r\nalways mindful of its nature and origin, perseveres in the\r\nimitation of divinity; and as the Lord and Father made\r\neternal gods, that they should be like Himself, so humanity\r\nfashioned its own gods according to the likeness of its own\r\ncountenance.\" When this Æsculapius, to whom especially\r\nhe was speaking, had answered him, and had said, \"Dost thou\r\nmean the statues, O Trismegistus?\"—\"Yes, the statues,\" replied\r\nhe, \"however unbelieving thou art, O Æsculapius,—the statues,\r\nanimated, and full of sensation and spirit, and who do such\r\ngreat and wonderful things,—the statues, prescient of future\r\nthings, and foretelling them by lot, by prophet, by dreams, and\r\nmany other things, who bring diseases on men and cure\r\nthem again, giving them joy or sorrow according to their\r\nmerits. Dost thou not know, Æsculapius, that Egypt is an\r\nimage of heaven, or, more truly, a translation and descent of all\r\nthings which are ordered and transacted there,—that it is, in\r\ntruth, if we may say so, to be the temple of the whole world?\r\nAnd yet, as it becomes the prudent man to know all things\r\nbeforehand, ye ought not to be ignorant of this, that there is\r\na time coming when it shall appear that the Egyptians have\r\nall in vain, with pious mind, and with most scrupulous diligence,\r\nwaited on the divinity, and when all their holy worship\r\nshall come to nought, and be found to be in vain.\"</p>","headings":["THE WORKS OF AURELIUS AUGUSTINE,","BOOK EIGHTH.","ARGUMENT."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg45304-paragraph-610"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"423493be620d3fcd8e9041ea914e0383d807695d3517fe56ae1fdf2461f44b01","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_315_315","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_315_315","source_ebook":45304,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\">\n<p><a id=\"Footnote_315_315\"></a><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#FNanchor_315_315\"><span class=\"label\">[315]</span></a> These quotations are from a dialogue between Hermes and Æsculapius,\r\nwhich is said to have been translated into Latin by Apuleius.</p></div>","source_sha256":"d89e9a2b80bb59f394f0fb1bf313b39fab162f06af6642166d62c5912c1195f1","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/45304/pg45304-images.html#Footnote_315_315","text_sha256":"31078db16b6ead52acbb5655158896e62e147097bc490e3810762a7190430856","verified":false,"work_id":null}

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