ON THE PERENNIAL PHILOSOPHY.

A ...that there were those who, although Orpheus, Musaeus, and Linus Legendary figures of early Greek music and poetry are said to have preceded them, many others existed who could certainly be called Theologians, if not absolute poets. For from where else do you think that grandiloquence of Homer flowed—so many cults, ceremonies, and sacrifices, in which you will find a manifest harmony with the Sacred Scriptures? The ancients were slow and sluggish in writing, either because the use of letters was not everywhere accepted, or because the custom of writing and handing things down to posterity through letters was not yet common. Furthermore, envious antiquity carries everything away with it, and in every age great shipwrecks of ancient monuments have occurred. There is no need for examples of how many most noble writers perished along with the Roman Empire, or how many are missing from the Greeks, whose names we have scarcely heard. Therefore, this same storm has devastated the most ancient ages and taken away the memory of past events. There is no language that does not deplore the destruction of good authors. To pass over many things among the Hebrews which are usually brought forward by them: where are the books of Nathan the prophet, and Ahijah the Shilonite, and the vision of Iddo the seer, which are cited in the books of Chronicles? original: "Paralipomenon" - the Greek name for the Books of Chronicles Where are the many books of Hermes Trismegistus, original: "Mercurij Trismegisti" - a legendary Hellenistic figure associated with secret wisdom that most ancient man, whom Iamblichus records to have written up to one hundred and ten thousand books—that is, papyrus scrolls—concerning divine and natural matters? To him belongs whatever we admire in Plato concerning the creation of the world and divine matters. Indeed, I maintain this: just as innumerable writers from the Latin and Greek languages have not reached posterity, so most monuments of the older ages, which might teach us about the creation of things and the deeds of kings, have perished. Yet the better part has been preserved, just as the Gospel has always remained unharmed while many lesser writers fell. Hence the Greeks have nothing they can cite before Homer and Hesiod; for Musaeus wrote almost nothing, and Orpheus, whose hymns are extant, seems to be a different person
B from that ancient one, although many things from that ancient Orpheus are cited by the Greeks. And certainly it was necessary for someone to have taught Hesiod that in the beginning there was Chaos, and afterwards the lands appeared. Therefore, only Homer and Hesiod either began to write, or their monuments alone, as the more noble among many, reached posterity. And just as Hesiod spoke of those things concerning Chaos heard from the ancients, so we ought to perceive that many more and better things were accustomed to wander through the peoples, or were accustomed to be hidden away in the possession of the wiser. Therefore, among the Greeks and Romans, wisdom was endangered in three ways: First, the diversity of language and the distance of places caused many things to escape the Greeks which were held among foreign nations—nations older than the Greeks and born almost with the heaven and earth. Then, those things which the ancient sons and grandsons of Noah—Javan, Kittim, Rodanim, Biblical figures associated with the origins of the Greek and Mediterranean peoples from whom the Greek nation was founded, the Ionians, Cypriots, and Rhodians—had brought with them in that first age: since they were following other pursuits due to the lack of necessities of life and the lack of skill in arts not yet discovered, and could not find leisure for letters, forgetfulness was easy. Finally, because those things which were circulated among those ancient Greeks, even if they had been written down by some men of better talent, were intercepted by many accidents and perished, so that all things could not reach posterity. Nevertheless, many remains have stayed, and we have seen many shipwrecks from such great riches tossed through the waves, which have driven us to collect them with whatever help we could. Although in this the Romans are worse off than the Greeks, because they could not reach all their monuments; as those who are later in lineage are also inferior in wisdom. The method of this work, moreover, will be twofold: since it has been shown that there was necessarily always one wisdom—whether handed down by succession or received by conjectures and judgments—to recall both and compare them with the true wisdom. For this reason, these arrangements have been called "On the Perennial Philosophy." For since there is one celestial religion, consisting of extraordinary piety and doctrine, the same has existed since the human race...