Testimonia

{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p>What, then, is the difference between good and evil demons?\r\nFor the Platonist Apuleius, in a treatise on this whole subject,<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_355\">[Pg 355]</a></span><a id=\"FNanchor_330_330\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_330_330\">[330]</a>\r\nwhile he says a great deal about their aerial bodies, has not\r\na word to say of the spiritual virtues with which, if they\r\nwere good, they must have been endowed. Not a word has\r\nhe said, then, of that which could give them happiness; but\r\nproof of their misery he has given, acknowledging that their\r\nmind, by which they rank as reasonable beings, is not only\r\nnot imbued and fortified with virtue so as to resist all unreasonable\r\npassions, but that it is somehow agitated with\r\ntempestuous emotions, and is thus on a level with the mind\r\nof foolish men. His own words are: \"It is this class of\r\ndemons the poets refer to, when, without serious error, they\r\nfeign that the gods hate and love individuals among men,\r\nprospering and ennobling some, and opposing and distressing\r\nothers. Therefore pity, indignation, grief, joy, every human\r\nemotion is experienced by the demons, with the same mental\r\ndisturbance, and the same tide of feeling and thought. These\r\nturmoils and tempests banish them far from the tranquillity of\r\nthe celestial gods.\" Can there be any doubt that in these\r\nwords it is not some inferior part of their spiritual nature, but\r\nthe very mind by which the demons hold their rank as rational\r\nbeings, which he says is tossed with passion like a stormy sea?\r\nThey cannot, then, be compared even to wise men, who with\r\nundisturbed mind resist these perturbations to which they\r\nare exposed in this life, and from which human infirmity is\r\nnever exempt, and who do not yield themselves to approve\r\nof or perpetrate anything which might deflect them from\r\nthe path of wisdom and law of rectitude. They resemble in\r\ncharacter, though not in bodily appearance, wicked and foolish\r\nmen. I might indeed say they are worse, inasmuch as they\r\nhave grown old in iniquity, and incorrigible by punishment.\r\nTheir mind, as Apuleius says, is a sea tossed with tempest,\r\nhaving no rallying point of truth or virtue in their soul from\r\nwhich they can resist their turbulent and depraved emotions.</p>","headings":["THE WORKS OF AURELIUS AUGUSTINE,","BOOK NINTH.","ARGUMENT."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg45304-paragraph-630"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"57f24beab18bcfbcf4bd50b82b1e0e594ef9199802d8c1ea110424a0b1b56b62","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_330_330","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_330_330","source_ebook":45304,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\">\n<p><a id=\"Footnote_330_330\"></a><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#FNanchor_330_330\"><span class=\"label\">[330]</span></a> The <i>De Deo Socratis.</i></p></div>","source_sha256":"d89e9a2b80bb59f394f0fb1bf313b39fab162f06af6642166d62c5912c1195f1","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/45304/pg45304-images.html#Footnote_330_330","text_sha256":"0aea0885da28a448e526846183b7d601b987a4df6dda80ff5ed302d028cee952","verified":false,"work_id":null}

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