Million Book Collection - The Fishers of Men Ministries

THE GOSPEL OF PHILOSOPHIC HEATHENISM 2 5 Itot surpassing the limits of his wisdom, anhis, as Domitian himself will admit, requires a manike unto God. What, then, is the appearance whichhis world wears ? Souls in a state of disorder madlv V,ssume every sorfc of shape. Laws seem to thembsolete, moderation is lost, the worship of the godglected, idle talking is in fashion, and dissipfrom which flows indolence, the counsellor of everyevil deed. Souls thus besotted by intemperance plungeinto every excess, and nothing can restrain this wildirregularity, not if they were to swallow all thosepotions which like mandragora are medicined to sleeBut to regulate such a world of souls as these needsa man who shall come to them as a god in wisdom.Such a man is able to recall them from loves to whichthey are devoted, and from avarice which is neversated by riches until choked. Perhaps such a manmay restrain them beforehand from disorder, but whenonce committed, he adds, "neither I, nor God, who isthe Constructor of all things, can wash them from itsstain."1»Now in these words we have a picture of the wholeaction attributed to Apollonius throughout his life.This and no more he aspired to do in virtue of theinnate power of the soul, as being a part of the divineethereal nature. Such he conceived to be the truetask of philosophy. So much, as it thought, requiredto be done, and so much it attempted to do. And asthe soul, being a portion of the divine intelligence, isthe source of all good to man, so the body, which isregarded as the prison of its higher nature, must bethe source of the disordered affections which gainmastery over the soul. All the ascetic life of Apol-1 Book viii. 7, 7, pp. 311, 312. Edit. Kayser.