{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p>But herein, no doubt, lies the great necessity for this\r\nabsurdity, so unworthy of the gods, that the ethereal gods,\r\nwho are concerned about human affairs, would not know what\r\nterrestrial men were doing unless the aerial demons should\r\nbring them intelligence, because the ether is suspended far\r\naway from the earth and far above it, but the air is contiguous<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_336\">[Pg 336]</a></span>\r\nboth to the ether and to the earth. O admirable wisdom!\r\nwhat else do these men think concerning the gods who, they\r\nsay, are all in the highest degree good, but that they are\r\nconcerned about human affairs, lest they should seem unworthy\r\nof worship, whilst, on the other hand, from the\r\ndistance between the elements, they are ignorant of terrestrial\r\nthings? It is on this account that they have supposed\r\nthe demons to be necessary as agents, through whom the\r\ngods may inform themselves with respect to human affairs,\r\nand through whom, when necessary, they may succour men;\r\nand it is on account of this office that the demons themselves\r\nhave been held as deserving of worship. If this be the case,\r\nthen a demon is better known by these good gods through\r\nnearness of body, than a man is by goodness of mind. O\r\nmournful necessity! or shall I not rather say detestable and\r\nvain error, that I may not impute vanity to the divine nature!\r\nFor if the gods can, with their minds free from the hindrance\r\nof bodies, see our mind, they do not need the demons as\r\nmessengers from our mind to them; but if the ethereal gods,\r\nby means of their bodies, perceive the corporeal indices of\r\nminds, as the countenance, speech, motion, and thence understand\r\nwhat the demons tell them, then it is also possible that\r\nthey may be deceived by the falsehoods of demons. Moreover,\r\nif the divinity of the gods cannot be deceived by the demons,\r\nneither can it be ignorant of our actions. But I would they\r\nwould tell me whether the demons have informed the gods\r\nthat the fictions of the poets concerning the crimes of the\r\ngods displease Plato, concealing the pleasure which they themselves\r\ntake in them; or whether they have concealed both, and\r\nhave preferred that the gods should be ignorant with respect\r\nto this whole matter, or have told both, as well the pious\r\nprudence of Plato with respect to the gods as their own lust,\r\nwhich is injurious to the gods; or whether they have concealed\r\nPlato's opinion, according to which he was unwilling that the\r\ngods should be defamed with falsely alleged crimes through\r\nthe impious licence of the poets, whilst they have not been\r\nashamed nor afraid to make known their own wickedness,\r\nwhich make them love theatrical plays, in which the infamous\r\ndeeds of the gods are celebrated. Let them choose which<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_337\">[Pg 337]</a></span>\r\nthey will of these four alternatives, and let them consider how\r\nmuch evil any one of them would require them to think of the\r\ngods. For if they choose the first, they must then confess that\r\nit was not possible for the good gods to dwell with the good\r\nPlato, though he sought to prohibit things injurious to them,\r\nwhilst they dwelt with evil demons, who exulted in their\r\ninjuries; and this because they suppose that the good gods\r\ncan only know a good man, placed at so great a distance from\r\nthem, through the mediation of evil demons, whom they could\r\nknow on account of their nearness to themselves.<a id=\"FNanchor_314_314\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_314_314\">[314]</a> If they\r\nshall choose the second, and shall say that both these things\r\nare concealed by the demons, so that the gods are wholly\r\nignorant both of Plato's most religious law and the sacrilegious\r\npleasure of the demons, what, in that case, can the\r\ngods know to any profit with respect to human affairs through\r\nthese mediating demons, when they do not know those things\r\nwhich are decreed, through the piety of good men, for the\r\nhonour of the good gods against the lust of evil demons?\r\nBut if they shall choose the third, and reply that these intermediary\r\ndemons have communicated, not only the opinion\r\nof Plato, which prohibited wrongs to be done to the gods,\r\nbut also their own delight in these wrongs, I would ask if\r\nsuch a communication is not rather an insult? Now the\r\ngods, hearing both and knowing both, not only permit the\r\napproach of those malign demons, who desire and do things\r\ncontrary to the dignity of the gods and the religion of Plato,\r\nbut also, through these wicked demons, who are near to them,\r\nsend good things to the good Plato, who is far away from\r\nthem; for they inhabit such a place in the concatenated\r\nseries of the elements, that they can come into contact with\r\nthose by whom they are accused, but not with him by whom\r\nthey are defended,—knowing the truth on both sides, but not\r\nbeing able to change the weight of the air and the earth.\r\nThere remains the fourth supposition; but it is worse than the\r\nrest. For who will suffer it to be said that the demons have\r\nmade known the calumnious fictions of the poets concerning\r\nthe immortal gods, and also the disgraceful mockeries of the\r\ntheatres, and their own most ardent lust after, and most sweet<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_338\">[Pg 338]</a></span>\r\npleasure in these things, whilst they have concealed from\r\nthem that Plato, with the gravity of a philosopher, gave it as\r\nhis opinion that all these things ought to be removed from a\r\nwell-regulated republic; so that the good gods are now compelled,\r\nthrough such messengers, to know the evil doings of\r\nthe most wicked beings, that is to say, of the messengers\r\nthemselves, and are not allowed to know the good deeds of\r\nthe philosophers, though the former are for the injury, but\r\nthese latter for the honour of the gods themselves?</p>","headings":["THE WORKS OF AURELIUS AUGUSTINE,","BOOK EIGHTH.","ARGUMENT."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg45304-paragraph-606"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"c2651ed001b57e55195ed29ba6aeadda83aca775a46074d791f3c6395b5bdaba","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_314_314","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_314_314","source_ebook":45304,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\">\n<p><a id=\"Footnote_314_314\"></a><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#FNanchor_314_314\"><span class=\"label\">[314]</span></a> Another reading, \"whom they could not know, though near to themselves.\"</p></div>","source_sha256":"d89e9a2b80bb59f394f0fb1bf313b39fab162f06af6642166d62c5912c1195f1","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/45304/pg45304-images.html#Footnote_314_314","text_sha256":"8474ff93a2c74f5aaf775eea7f445d6be589187c585ac026806a111ed80ee291","verified":false,"work_id":null}