On the God of Socrates (1878) - Page 14

— 7 —

...contemplating]. In their number are those twelve gods whose names were compressed into two verses by Ennius Quintus Ennius (c. 239–169 BC) was a foundational Roman poet. His mnemonic verse for the twelve Olympians was famous in antiquity. according to the arrangement of their names: Juno, Vesta, Minerva, Ceres, Diana, Venus, Mars, Mer-
122cury, Jove, Neptune, Vulcan, Apollo, and others of that kind, whose names have indeed long been known to our ears, but whose powers are inferred by our minds through the various
15benefits observed in the conduct of life, in those matters over which each of them presides. III However, the profane [philosophical] crowd of the unlearned—void of holiness, deprived of true reason, lacking in religion, and powerless over truth—either trembles before these gods with the most scrupulous worship or neglects them with the most insolent disdain;
123some are fearful in their superstition, others are puffed up in their contempt. For most people worship all these gods, who are located at the high peak of the ether The "ether" was considered the fifth element, the pure, fiery air of the highest heavens where the gods lived. and set far apart from human contact, though they
16do not do so rightly; all fear them, but ignorantly; and a few deny them, but impiously. These gods Plato considers to be incorporeal living beings meaning they possess life and mind but no physical, material bodies., having neither end nor beginning, but eternal both forward and backward in time, removed from the contact of the body by their own nature, with a character perfected toward supreme happiness, sharing in no external good but being good of themselves and ready for all things
17suitable for them with a promptness that is easy, simple, free, and absolute. 124 Why should I now begin to speak of their parent, who is the ruler and author of all things, free from all bonds of suffering or acting, and bound by no turn of duty to any particular task? Since Plato, endowed with heavenly eloquence and discussing matters equal to the immortal gods, most frequently proclaims that this one alone, because of a certain ineffable Something that is too great or sacred to be expressed in words. excess of incredible majesty, cannot be even slightly grasped by any speech due to the poverty of human language; and that even for wise men—when they have removed themselves from the body by the vigor of the mind as far as is permitted—an understanding of this god [comes] only occasionally, just as a white light flashes through the deepest darkness in a most rapid bolt of lightning.
18I shall therefore pass over this subject, in which not only I, but even my 125 Plato, have been unable to find any words sufficient for the greatness of the matter; I shall [sound] a retreat for my own mediocrity in matters that far surpass it, and I shall finally call my discourse down from heaven to earth. In this realm, we humans are the primary animal, although most...

2 Juno — Apollo: Martianus Capella, Book I, 42. 14 Plato, Timaeus 28 C: original: "τὸν μὲν οὖν ποιητὴν καὶ πατέρα τοῦδε τοῦ παντὸς εὑρεῖν τε ἔργον καὶ εὑρόντα εἰς πάντας ἀδύνατον λέγειν" "Now to find the maker and father of this universe is a hard task, and when one has found him, it is impossible to declare him to all." 18 "cannot be... bolt of lightning": Augustine, The City of God, Book IX, 16. 25 Augustine, The City of God, Book VIII, 15: "Apuleius says that man is a terrestrial animal."