On the Perennial Philosophy

XXXVII Whether the oracle of Apollo was poured forth by a good or an evil spirit original: "Dæmone". That it was from an evil one, and the signs thereof. That God has often used wicked spirits and men for the prediction of future events.

XXXVIII That the demons were never in the company of the blessed; they fell not from celestial joys which they possessed, but which they were to possess if they had acted rightly. Their sin was pride and envy.

XXXIX Regarding the demons falling from heaven, the ancients knew and handed down certain things; Pherecydes, Empedocles, Homer, and Plutarch described this ruin.

XL Regarding the Spirits original: "Genijs", or Angels, given as guardians to each individual; the wonderful agreement between them and our own beliefs. Witnesses of these things are Menander, Empedocles, Plutarch, and Arrian.

XLI The opinions of Calcidius regarding demons; that the ethereal demons, to whom he attributes serene or pure bodies, should rather be called Angels. The definition of a demon according to the same author.

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BOOK NINE, ON THE CREATION OF

Man, and the immortality of souls.

CHAPTER I That all have agreed that man was created by God: that souls come from the divine: and how this fame, flowing from the ancients, was blackened among some by the great length of time.

II That Pythagoras and Archytas agree that man was created by God, and that dominion over all living things was given to him. And that this was also the opinion of the entire school.

III That this theology of the Pythagoreans concerning man being divinely created is derived from the Egyptians: and that Hermes Trismegistus original: "Mercurius Trismegistus" expressed it more extensively.

IV That the ancient poets, whom Ovid followed, confirmed the Mosaic opinion of man being divinely created, and that Cornutus also asserts this.

V That the Chaldean Theology also confirms that man was created by God, and the soul infused into the body from without. And that the Egyptian philosophers and likewise the oracle of Apollo assert the same.

VI The opinion of Plato regarding man being divinely created, and that in the Timaeus, in attributing the formation of the body to lesser gods, he spoke poetically, while in other places attributing the whole workmanship to the supreme God.

VII That Aristotle wonderfully agrees with Mosaic Theology: that man was established by God, the body formed, and the variety of sex given, but the soul inspired from without.

VIII What Aristotle felt and said concerning the immortality and divinity of the soul, which those before him—the Chaldeans, Pythagoras, Aratus, Hermes Trismegistus, and thereafter Philo and Marcus Tullius Cicero—also held.

IX That Aristotle confirmed the same opinion in other places, in which he felt and openly pronounced the soul to be separate from the body; and the Peripatetics followers of Aristotle testify that he held this view.

X A similar proof from those things which he wrote in the books On the Soul and On the Parts of Animals: and that the Greek interpreters contend that Aristotle himself held this.

XI That Marcus Tullius Cicero, on behalf of all Romans, affirms that the soul and body were created by the supreme God, and that the soul itself is in the image and likeness of God: and that he agrees marvelously with Moses.