|
In vain, therefore, have Apuleius, and they who think with him,
conferred on the demons the honor of placing them in the air, between
the ethereal heavens and the earth, that they may carry to the gods the
prayers of men, to men the answers of the gods: for Plato held, they
say, that no god has intercourse with man. They who believe these
things have thought it unbecoming that men should have intercourse with
the gods, and the gods with men, but a befitting thing that the demons
should have intercourse with both gods and men, presenting to the gods
the petitions of men, and conveying to men what the gods have granted;
so that a chaste man, and one who is a stranger to the crimes of the
magic arts, must use as patrons, through whom the gods may be induced
to hear him, demons who love these crimes, although the very fact of
his not loving them ought to have recommended him to them as one who
deserved to be listened to with greater readiness and willingness on
their part. They love the abominations of the stage, which chastity
does not love. They love, in the sorceries of the magicians, "a
thousand arts of inflicting harm," which innocence does not love.
Yet both chastity and innocence, if they wish to obtain anything from
the gods, will not be able to do so by their own merits, except their
enemies act as mediators on their behalf. Apuleius need not attempt to
justify the fictions of the poets, and the mockeries of the stage. If
human modesty can act so faithlessly towards itself as not only to love
shameful things, but even to think that they are pleasing to the
divinity, we can cite on the other side their own highest authority and
teacher, Plato.
|
|