473 Democritus. [The
Paris editors add, vide Lærtium. As to Ostanes,
see that invaluable thesaurus, Hofmann’s Lex. Universale,
vol. ii. p. 6. Leyden, 1698.]
will be delivered up in
the day of consummation474
as fuel for the eternalfire. And you,
if you do not cease from your laughter, will gain the same punishment
as the jugglers. Wherefore, O Greeks, hearken to me, addressing you
as from an eminence, nor in mockery transfer your own want of reason
to the herald of the truth. A diseased affection (πάθος)
is not destroyed by a counter-affection (ἀντιπάθεια),
nor is a maniac cured by hanging little amulets of leather upon him.
There are visitations of demons; and he who is sick, and he who says he
is in love, and he who hates, and he who wishes to be revenged, accept
them as helpers. And this is the method of their operation: just as the
forms of alphabetic letters and the lines composed of them cannot of
themselves indicate what is meant, but men have invented for themselves
signs of their thoughts, knowing by their peculiar combination what the
order of the letters was intended to express; so, in like manner, the
various kinds of roots and the mutual relation of the sinews and bones can
effect nothing of themselves, but are the elemental matter with which the
depravity of the demons works, who have determined for what purpose each
of them is available. And, when they see that men consent to be served
by means of such things, they take them and make them their slaves. But
how can it be honourable to minister to adulteries? How can it be noble
to stimulate men in hating one another? Or how is it becoming to ascribe
to matter the relief of the insane, and not to God? For by their art they
turn men aside from the pious acknowledgment of God, leading them to place
confidence in herbs and roots.475
475
[Naviget Anticyras. On hellebore, see otherwise useless learning
but illustrative of this place, in Burton, Anat. Melanchol.,
p. 400. Ed. New York, 1847.]
But God, if He had prepared these
things to effect just what men wish, would be a Producer of evil things;
whereas He Himself produced everything which has good qualities, but
the profligacy of the demons has made use of the productions of nature
for evil purposes, and the appearance of evil which these wear is from
them, and not from the perfectGod. For how comes it to pass that when
alive I was in no wiseevil, but that now I am dead and can do nothing,
my remains, which are incapable of motion or even sense, should effect
something cognizable by the senses? And how shall he who has died by the
most miserable death be able to assist in avenging any one? If this were
possible, much more might he defend
himself from his own enemy; being able to
assist others, much more might he constitute himself his own avenger.
