Sallustius

“ In many parts likewise of the hymn to Jupiter, I acknowledge myself greatly indebted to the elegant hymns of Synesius, which I should have translated long since, had they not been so replete with a certain horrid and gigantic impiety, which not only eradicates from the soul that most natural conception, that there are gods subordinate to the first cause, but introduces the most dire of all opinions in its stead, that a mere mortal is equal to the highest god! ”

“ For the number nine, which is generated from the first perfect number, (that is, three) is, through similitude and sameness, accommodated to the multiform causes of the mundane order and harmony; all of them at the same time being collected into one summit for the purpose of producing one consummate perfection; for the Muses generate the variety of reasons with which the world is replete; but Apollo comprehends in union all the multitude of these. And the Muses give subsistence to the harmony of soul; but Apollo is the leader of intellectual and indivisible harmony. ”

“ Make trial of a man rather from his deeds than his discourses; for many live badly and speak well.
Perform great things, at the same time promising nothing great.
Since the roots of our natures are established in divinity, from which also we are produced, we should tenaciously adhere to our root; for streams also of water, and other offspring of the earth, when their roots are cut off become rotten and dry.
The strength of the soul is temperance; for this is the light of a soul destitute of passions: but it is much better to die than to darken the soul through the intemperance of the body. ”

“ But since so much providence is displayed in the last of things, it is impossible that it should not subsist in such as are first: besides, divinations, and the healing of bodies, take place from the beneficent providence of the gods. And it is necessary to believe that a similar concern about the world is exerted by the gods, without either expecting reward, or enduring labour in the exertion; but that as bodies endued with power, produce essentially, or by their very essence, that which they produce; as the sun illuminates and heats by that which he is alone ”

“ While reading works divine illume my sight,
And dissipate these mists, that I may learn
Immortal gods from mortals to discern;
Lest, plung’d in drowsy Lethe’s black abyss,
Some baneful dæmon keep my soul from bliss ”

“ But the forms of polities are produced according to the triple division of the soul; for the rulers are assimilated to reason, the soldiers to anger, and the common people to desire. Hence, when all things are administered according to reason, and he who is the best of all men possesses dominion, then a kingdom is produced: but when, from reason and anger in conjunction, more than one hold the reins of government, an aristocracy is produced: but where government is carried on through desire, and honours subsist with a view to possessions, such a polity is called a timocracy ”

“ Divinity sends evil to men, not as being influenced by anger, but for the sake of purification; for anger is foreign from divinity, since it arises from circumstances taking place contrary to the will: but nothing contrary to the will can happen to a god.
When you deliberate whether or not you shall injure another, you will previously suffer the evil yourself which you intended to commit: but neither must you expect any good from the evil; for the manners of everyone are correspondent to his life and actions: for every soul is a repository ”

“ We may likewise add, that since the world subsists through the goodness of divinity, it is necessary that divinity should always be good, and the world perpetually endure: just in the same manner as light is coexistent with the sun and fire, and the shadow with its forming body.
But of the bodies contained in the world, some imitate intellect, and revolve in a circle; but others soul, and are moved in a right line. ”

“ It is better to converse more with yourself than with others.
If you are always careful to remember, that in whatever place either your soul or body accomplishes any deed, divinity is present as an inspector of your conduct; in all your discourses and actions you will venerate the presence of an inspector from whom nothing can be concealed, and will at the same time possess divinity as an intimate associate. ”

“ But souls of the middle class, for whom the book of Sallust is designed, in consequence of becoming vitiated and defiled, though not in an incurable degree, are incapable of acquiring in the present life philosophic perfection and purity, and are with great difficulty, and even scarcely able to ascend, after long periods, to the beatific vision of the intelligible world. ”

“ But if any one thinking agreeable to reason and truth, that the gods are immutable, doubts how they rejoice in the good, but are averse from the evil; and how they become angry with the guilty, but are rendered propitious by proper cultivation; we reply, that divinity neither rejoices; for that which rejoices is also influenced by sorrow: nor is angry; for anger is a passion: nor is appeased with gifts; for then he would be influenced by delight. Nor is it lawful that a divine nature should be well or ill affected from human concerns ”

“ But we, when we are good, are conjoined with the gods through similitude; but when evil, we are separated from them through dissimilitude. And while we live according to virtue, we partake of the gods, but when we become evil we cause them to become our enemies; not that they are angry, but because guilt prevents us from receiving the illuminations of the gods, and subjects us to the power of avenging dæmons. But if we obtain pardon of our guilt through prayers and sacrifices, we neither appease nor cause any mutation to take place in the gods ”

“ Learn how to produce eternal children, not such as may supply the wants of the body in old age, but such as may nourish the soul with perpetual food.
It is impossible that the same person can be a lover of pleasure, a lover of body, a lover of riches, and a lover of divinity: for a lover of pleasure is also a lover of body; but a lover of body is entirely a lover of riches; but a lover of riches is necessarily unjust; and the unjust is necessarily profane towards divinity, and lawless with respect to men. ”

“ And if any one should say that intellect is evil, he must at the same time assert that intellect is deprived of intellect: but if soul, he must affirm that soul is worse that body; for every body, considered according to itself, is without evil. But if they assert that evil subsists from soul and body conjoined, it will certainly be absurd, that things which separately considered are not evil, should become evil from their conjunction with each other. But if any one should say that dæmons are evil, we reply, that if they possess their power from the gods they will not be evil ”

“ The unjust man suffers greater evil while his soul is tormented with a consciousness of guilt, than when his body is scourged with whips.
It is by no means safe to discourse concerning divinity with men of false opinions ”

“ But to refer injustice and crimes committed through lasciviousness and wantonness to fate, leaves us indeed good, but the gods evil and base: unless some one should endeavour to remove this consequence, by replying, that every thing which the world contains, and whatever has a natural subsistence, is good, but that the nature which is badly nourished, or which is of a more imbecile condition, changes the good proceeding from fate into something worse; just as the sun, though it is good itself, becomes noxious to the blear-eyed and feverish. ”

“ And from hence it is manifest that there is nothing in the world naturally evil; but about the energies of men, and of these not all, nor yet always, evil appears. Indeed, if men were guilty through evil itself, nature herself would be evil; but if he who commits adultery considers the adultery as evil, but the pleasure connected with it as good; if he who is guilty of homicide considers the slaughter as evil, but the riches resulting from the deed as good; and if he who brings destruction on his enemies considers the destruction as evil, but taking revenge on an enemy as good ”

“ He is a wise man, and beloved by divinity, who studies how to labour for the good of his soul, as much as others labour for the sake of the body.
Yield all things to their kindred and ruling nature except liberty. ”

“ But it is necessary that the rational soul should be immortal, because it knows the gods; for nothing mortal knows that which is immortal. Besides this, it despises human concerns, as foreign from its nature, and has a disposition contrary to bodies, as being itself incorporeal. Add too, that when the body with which a soul is connected is beautiful and young, then the soul is oppressed and its vigour diminished; but when this grows old, the soul revives, and increases in strength and vigour. And every worthy soul uses intellect; but intellect is not generated by body ”

“ If they assign triangles and squares as the cause, it is absurd that human virtue should every where remain the same, but that the gods should be subject to mutation from diversity of places. But that nobility or ignobility of parents may be predicted from the stars, shows that they do not produce all things, but only signify some, by their different situations and aspects; for how can things which subsisted prior to generation be produced from generation? ”

“ That the gods will never destroy the world has been already asserted; but the order of discourse requires that we should now prove that it is naturally incorruptible; for whatever is corrupted is either corrupted from itself or from some other nature. If therefore the world is corrupted from itself, fire must necessarily burn itself, and water consume itself by dryness: but if the world may be corrupted by another, it must either be from body or from that which is incorporeal. ”

“ But Attis loves a nymph, and nymphs preside over generation; for every thing in generation flows. But because it is necessary that the flowing nature of generation should be stopped, lest something worse than things last should be produced; in order to accomplish this, the Demiurgus of generable and corruptible natures, sending prolific powers into the realms of generation, is again conjoined with the gods [4] . But these things indeed never took place at any particular time, because they have a perpetuity of subsistence: and intellect contemplates all things as subsisting together ”

“ The soul therefore becomes guilty because it desires good, but it wanders about good because it is not the first essence. But that it may not wander, and that when it does so, proper remedies may be applied, and it may be restored, many things have been produced by the gods; for arts and sciences, virtues and prayers, sacrifices and initiations, laws and polities, judgements and punishments, were invented for the purpose of preventing souls from falling into guilt; and even when they depart from the present body, expiatory gods and dæmons purify them from guilt. ”

“ But since the world is a sphere, which the zodiac evinces, and in every sphere the inferior part is the middle, for it is every way much distant from the surface; hence heavy bodies are impelled downwards, and are driven to the earth: and all these indeed the gods fabricate, intellect orderly disposes, and soul perpetually moves. ”

“ Intellect is that power by which we understand simple self-evident truths, called axioms, and are able to pass into contact with ideas themselves. But cogitation is that power which forms and perfects arguments and reasons. Opinion is that which knows the universal in sensible particulars, as that every man is a biped; and the conclusion of cogitation, as that every rational soul is immortal ”

“ Concerning the gods therefore, the world, and human affairs, what has been said may be sufficient for such as are not able to be led upwards through the assistance of philosophy, and yet do not possess incurable souls. It now remains that we speak concerning natures which were never generated nor separated from one another; since we have already observed, that secondary are produced from primary natures. Every thing which is generated is either generated by art, or by nature, or according to power. ”

“ Besides, whatever is capable of being naturally corrupted, we also are able to destroy; but no one has ever destroyed or changed the circular body of the world; while, on the other hand, we can change, but cannot destroy, an elementary body. And, lastly, whatever may be corrupted is changed and grows old by time; but through such an extended succession of ages, the world has remained without mutation. ”