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diff --git a/old/12892.txt b/old/12892.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..58b5174 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/12892.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4203 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Simon Magus, by George Robert Stow Mead + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Simon Magus + +Author: George Robert Stow Mead + +Release Date: July 12, 2004 [EBook #12892] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SIMON MAGUS *** + + + + +Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Wilelmina Malliere and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + + + + +SIMON MAGUS + +AN ESSAY ON THE FOUNDER OF SIMONIANISM +BASED ON THE ANCIENT SOURCES WITH +A RE-EVALUATION OF HIS PHILOSOPHY AND TEACHINGS. + +BY + +G.R.S. MEAD + + + +SIMON MAGUS. + + +INTRODUCTION. + + +Everybody in Christendom has heard of Simon, the magician, and how +Peter, the apostle, rebuked him, as told in the narrative of the _Acts +of the Apostles_. Many also have heard the legend of how at Rome this +wicked sorcerer endeavoured to fly by aid of the demons, and how Peter +caused him to fall headlong and thus miserably perish. And so most think +that there is an end of the matter, and either cast their mite of pity +or contempt at the memory of Simon, or laugh at the whole matter as the +invention of superstition or the imagination of religious fanaticism, +according as their respective beliefs may be in orthodoxy or +materialism. This for the general. Students of theology and church +history, on the other hand, have had a more difficult task set them in +comparing and arranging the materials they have at their disposal, as +found in the patristic writings and legendary records; and various +theories have been put forward, not the least astonishing being the +supposition that Simon was an alias for Paul, and that the Simon and +Peter in the accounts of the fathers and in the narrative of the legends +were simply concrete symbols to represent the two sides of the Pauline +and Petrine controversies. + +The first reason why I have ventured on this present enquiry is that +Simon Magus is invariably mentioned by the heresiologists as the founder +of the first heresy of the commonly-accepted Christian era, and is +believed by them to have been the originator of those systems of +religio-philosophy and theosophy which are now somewhat inaccurately +classed together under the heading of Gnosticism. And though this +assumption of the patristic heresiologists is entirely incorrect, as may +be proved from their own works, it is nevertheless true that Simonianism +is the first system that, as far as our present records go, came into +conflict with what has been regarded as the orthodox stream of +Christianity. A second reason is that I believe that Simon has been +grossly misrepresented, and entirely misunderstood, by his orthodox +opponents, whoever they were, in the first place, and also, in the +second place, by those who have ignorantly and without enquiry copied +from them. But my chief reason is that the present revival of +theosophical enquiry throws a flood of light on Simon's teachings, +whenever we can get anything approaching a first-hand statement of them, +and shows that it was identical in its fundamentals with the Esoteric +Philosophy of all the great religions of the world. + +In this enquiry, I shall have to be slightly wearisome to some of my +readers, for instead of giving a selection or even a paraphraze of the +notices on Simon which we have from authenticated patristic sources, I +shall furnish verbatim translations, and present a digest only of the +unauthenticated legends. The growth of the Simonian legend must unfold +itself before the reader in its native form as it comes from the pens of +those who have constructed it. Repetitions will, therefore, be +unavoidable in the marshalling of authorities, but they will be shown to +be not without interest in the subsequent treatment of the subject, and +at any rate we shall at least be on the sure ground of having before us +all that has been said on the matter by the Church fathers. Having cited +these authorities, I shall attempt to submit them to a critical +examination, and so eliminate all accretions, hearsay and controversial +opinions, and thus sift out what reliable residue is possible. Finally, +my task will be to show that Simon taught a system of Theosophy, which +instead of deserving our condemnation should rather excite our +admiration, and that, instead of being a common impostor and impious +perverter of public morality, his method was in many respects of the +same nature as the methods of the theosophical movement of to-day, and +deserves the study and consideration of all students of Theosophy. + +This essay will, therefore, be divided into the following parts: + + +I.--Sources of Information. + +II.--A Review of Authorities. + +III.--The Theosophy of Simon. + + + + + +PART I. + +SOURCES OF INFORMATION. + + +Our sources of information fall under three heads: I. The Simon of the +_New Testament_; II. The Simon of the Fathers; III. The Simon of the +Legends. + + +I.--_The Simon of the New Testament._ + +_Acts_ (viii. 9-24); author and date unknown; commonly supposed to be +"by the author of the third gospel, traditionally known as Luke";[1] not +quoted prior to A.D. 177;[2] earliest MS. not older than the sixth +century, though some contend for the third. + + +II.--_The Simon of the Fathers._ + +i. Justinus Martyr (_Apologia_, I. 26, 56; _Apologia_, II. 15; _Dialogus +cum Tryphone_, 120); probable date of First Apology A.D. 141; neither +the date of the birth nor death of Justin is known; MS. fourteenth +century. + +ii. Irenaeus (_Contra Haereses_, I. xxiii. 1-4); chief literary activity +last decennium of the second century; MSS. probably sixth, seventh, and +eighth centuries; date of birth and death unknown, for the former any +time from A.D. 97-147 suggested, for latter 202-3. + +iii. Clemens Alexandrinus (_Stromateis_, ii. 11; vii. 17); greatest +literary activity A.D. 190-203; born 150-160, date of death unknown; +oldest MS. eleventh century. + +iv. Tertullianus (_De Praescriptionibus adversus Haereticos_, 46, +generally attributed to a Pseudo-Tertullian); c. A.D. 199; (_De Anima_, +34, 36); c. A.D. 208-9; born 150-160, died 220-240. + +v. [Hippolytus (?)] (_Philosophumena_, vi. 7-20); date unknown, probably +last decade of second to third of third century; author unknown and only +conjecturally Hippolytus; MS. fourteenth century. + +vi. Origenes (_Contra Celsum_, i. 57; v. 62; vi. 11); born A.D. 185-6, +died 254-5; MS. fourteenth century. + +vii. Philastrius (_De Haeresibus_); date of birth unknown, died probably +A.D. 387. + +viii. Epiphanius (_Contra Haereses_, ii. 1-6); born A.D. 310-20, died +404; MS. eleventh century. + +ix. Hieronymus (_Commentarium in Evangelicum Matthaei_, IV. xxiv. 5); +written A.D. 387. + +x. Theodoretus (_Hereticarum Fabularum Compendium_, i. 1); born towards +the end of the fourth century, died A.D. 453-58; MS. eleventh century. + + +III.--_The Simon of the Legends._ + +A. The so-called Clementine literature. + +i. _Recognitiones_, 2. _Homiliae_, of which the Greek originals are lost, +and the Latin translation of Rufinus (born c.A.D. 345, died 410) alone +remains to us. The originals are placed by conjecture somewhere about +the beginning of the third century; MS. eleventh century. + +B. A mediaeval account; (_Constitutiones Sanctorum Apostolorum_, VI. +vii, viii, xvi); these were never heard of prior to 1546, when a +Venetian, Carolus Capellus, printed an epitomized translation of them +from an MS. found in Crete. They are hopelessly apocryphal. + + * * * * * + +I.--_The Simon of the New Testament._ + +_Acts_ (viii. 9-24). Text: _The Greek Testament_ (with the readings +adopted by the revisers of the authorized version); Oxford, 1881. + + Now a certain fellow by name Simon had been previously in the city + practising magic and driving the people of Samaria out of their + wits, saying that he was some great one; to whom all from small to + great gave heed, saying: "This man is the Power of God which is + called Great." And they gave heed to him, owing to his having + driven them out of their wits for a long time by his magic arts. + But when they believed on Philip preaching about the Kingdom of God + and the Name of Jesus Christ, they began to be baptized, both men + and women. And Simon himself also believed, and after being + baptized remained constantly with Philip; and was driven out of + _his_ wits on seeing the signs and great wonders[3] that took + place. + + And the apostles in Jerusalem hearing that Samaria had received the + Word of God, sent Peter and John to them. And they went down and + prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Spirit. For as + yet it had not fallen upon any of them, but they had only been + baptized unto the Name of the Lord Jesus. + + Then they laid their hands on them, and they received the Holy + Spirit. And when Simon saw that the Holy Spirit was given by the + laying on of the hands of the apostles, he offered them money, + saying: "Give unto me also this power, in order that on whomsoever + I lay my hands he may receive the Holy Spirit." + + But Peter said unto him: "Thy silver perish with thee, in that thou + didst think that the gift of God is possessed with money. There is + not for thee part or lot in this Word, for thy heart is not right + before God. Therefore turn from this evil of thine, and pray the + Lord, if by chance the thought of thy heart shall be forgiven thee. + For I see that thou art in the gall of bitterness and the bond of + iniquity." + + And Simon answered and said: "Pray ye on my behalf to the Lord, + that none of the things that ye have said may come upon me." + + +II.--_The Simon of the Fathers._ + +i. Justinus Martyr (_Apologia_, I. 26). Text: _Corpus Apologetarum +Christianorum Saeculi Secundi_ (edidit Io. Car. Th. Eques de Otto); Jenae, +1876 (ed. tert.). + + And thirdly, that even after the ascension of the Christ into + heaven the daemons cast before themselves (as a shield) certain men + who said that they were gods, who were not only not expelled by + you,[4] but even thought worthy of honours; a certain Samaritan, + Simon, who came from a village called Gitta; who in the reign of + Claudius Caesar[5] wrought magic wonders by the art of the daemons + who possessed him, and was considered a god in your imperial city + of Rome, and as a god was honoured with a statue by you, which + statue was erected in the river Tiber, between the two bridges, + with the following inscription in Roman: "Simoni Deo Sancto." And + nearly all the Samaritans, but few among the rest of the nations, + confess him to be the first god and worship him. And they speak of + a certain Helen, who went round with him at that time, and who had + formerly prostituted herself,[6] but was made by him his first + Thought. + +ii. Irenaeus (_Contra Haereses_, I. xxiii. 1-4). Text: _Opera_ (edidit +Adolphus Stieren); Lipsiae, 1848. + + 1. Simon was a Samaritan, the notorious magician of whom Luke the + disciple and adherent of the apostles says: "But there was a fellow + by name Simon, who had previously practised the art of magic in + their state, and led away the people of the Samaritans, saying that + he was some great one, to whom they all listened, from the small to + the great, saying: 'He is the Power of God, which is called Great.' + Now they gave heed to him because he had driven them out of their + wits by his magical phenomena." This Simon, therefore, pretended to + be a believer, thinking that the apostles also wrought their cures + by magic and not by the power of God; and supposing that their + filling with the Holy Spirit by the laying on of hands those who + believed in God, through that Christ Jesus who was being preached + by them--that this was effected by some superior magical knowledge, + and offering money to the apostles, so that he also might obtain + the power of giving the Holy Spirit to whomsoever he would, he + received this answer from Peter: "Thy money perish with thee, since + thou hast thought that the gift of God is obtained possession of + with money; for thee there is neither part nor lot in this Word, + for thy heart is not right before God. For I see thou art in the + gall of bitterness and the bond of iniquity." + + And since the magician still refused to believe in God, he + ambitiously strove to contend against the apostles, so that he also + might be thought of great renown, by extending his investigations + into universal magic still farther, so that he struck many aghast; + so much so that he is said to have been honoured with a statue for + his magic knowledge by Claudius Caesar. + + He, therefore, was glorified by many as a god; and he taught that + it was he himself who, forsooth, appeared among the Jews as the + Son, while in Samaria he descended as the Father, and in the rest + of the nations he came as the Holy Spirit. That he was the highest + power, to wit, the Father over all, and that he allowed himself to + be called by whatever name men pleased. + + 2. Now the sect of the Samaritan Simon, from whom all the heresies + took their origin, was composed of the following materials. + + He took round with him a certain Helen, a hired prostitute from the + Phoenician city Tyre, after he had purchased her freedom, saying + that she was the first conception (or Thought) of his Mind, the + Mother of All, by whom in the beginning he conceived in his Mind + the making of the Angels and Archangels. That this Thought, leaping + forth from him, and knowing what was the will of her Father, + descended to the lower regions and generated the Angels and Powers, + by whom also he said this world was made. And after she had + generated them, she was detained by them through envy, for they did + not wish to be thought to be the progeny of any other. As for + himself, he was entirely unknown by them; and it was his Thought + that was made prisoner by the Powers and Angels that has been + emanated by her. And she suffered every kind of indignity at their + hands, to prevent her reaescending to her Father, even to being + imprisoned in the human body and transmigrating into other female + bodies, as from one vessel into another.[7] She also was in that + Helen, on whose account the Trojan War arose; wherefore also + Stesichorus[8] was deprived of his sight when he spake evil of her + in his poems; and that afterwards when he repented and wrote what + is called a recantation, in which he sang her praises, he recovered + his sight. So she, transmigrating from body to body, and thereby + also continually undergoing indignity, last of all even stood for + hire in a brothel; and she was the "lost sheep." + + 3. Wherefore also he himself had come, to take her away for the + first time, and free her from her bonds, and also to guarantee + salvation to men by his "knowledge." For as the Angels were + mismanaging the world, since each of them desired the sovereignty, + he had come to set matters right; and that he had descended, + transforming himself and being made like to the Powers and + Principalities and Angels; so that he appeared to men as a man, + although he was not a man; and was thought to have suffered in + Judaea, although he did not really suffer. The Prophets moreover had + spoken their prophecies under the inspiration of the Angels who + made the world; wherefore those who believed on him and his Helen + paid no further attention to them, and followed their own pleasure + as though free; for men were saved by his grace, and not by + righteous works. For righteous actions are not according to nature, + but from accident, in the manner that the Angels who made the world + have laid it down, by such precepts enslaving men. Wherefore also + he gave new promises that the world should be dissolved and that + they who were his should be freed from the rule of those who made + the world. + + 4. Wherefore their initiated priests live immorally. And everyone + of them practises magic arts to the best of his ability. They use + exorcisms and incantations. Love philtres also and spells and what + are called "familiars" and "dream-senders," and the rest of the + curious arts are assiduously cultivated by them. They have also an + image of Simon made in the likeness of Jupiter, and of Helen in + that of Minerva; and they worship the (statues); and they have a + designation from their most impiously minded founder, being called + Simonians, from whom the Gnosis, falsely so-called, derives its + origins, as one can learn from their own assertions. + +iii. Clemens Alexandrinus (_Stromateis_, ii. 11; vii. 17). Text: _Opera_ +(edidit G. Dindorfius); Oxoniae, 1869. + +In the first passage the Simonian use of the term, "He who stood," is +confirmed, in the latter we are told that a branch of the Simonians was +called Entychitae. + +iv. Tertullianus, or Pseudo-Tertullianus (_De Praescriptionibus_, 46). +Text: _Liber de Praes_., etc. (edidit H. Hurter, S.J.); Oeniponti, 1870. +Tertullianus (_De Anima_, 34, 36). Text: _Bibliothec. Patr. Eccles. +Select._ (curavit Dr. Guil. Bruno Linder), Fasc. iv; Lipsiae, 1859. + +In the _Praescriptions_ the passage is very short, the briefest notice +possible, under the heading, "Anonymi Catalogus Heresum." The notice in +the _De Anima_ runs as follows: + + For Simon the Samaritan also, the purveyor of the Holy Spirit, in + the _Acts of the Apostles_, after he had been condemned by himself, + together with his money, to perdition, shed vain tears and betook + himself to assaulting the truth, as though for the gratification of + vengeance. Supported by the powers of his art, for the purpose of + his illusions through some power or other, he purchased with the + same money a Tyrian woman Helen from a place of public pleasure, a + fit commodity instead of the Holy Spirit. And he pretended that he + was the highest Father, and that she was his first suggestion + whereby he had suggested the making of the Angels and Archangels; + that she sharing in this design had sprung forth from the Father, + and leaped down into the lower regions; and that there, the design + of the Father being prevented, she had brought forth Angelic Powers + ignorant of the Father, the artificer of this world; by these she + was detained, not according to his intention, lest when she had + gone they should be thought to be the progeny of another. And + therefore being made subject to every kind of contumely, so that by + her depreciation she might not choose to depart, she had sunk to as + low as the human form, as though she had had to be restrained by + chains of flesh, and then for many ages being turned about through + a succession of female conditions, she became also that Helen who + proved so fatal to Priam, and after to the eyes of Stesichorus, for + she had caused his blindness on account of the insult of his poem, + and afterwards had removed it because of her pleasure at his + praise. And thus transmigrating from body to body, in the extreme + of dishonour she had stood, ticketed for hire, a Helen viler [than + her predecessor]. She was, therefore, the "lost sheep," to whom the + highest Father, Simon, you know, had descended. And after she was + recovered and brought back, I know not whether on his shoulders or + knees, he afterwards had respect to the salvation of men, as it + were by the liberation of those who had to be freed from these + Angelic Powers, for the purpose of deceiving whom he transformed + himself, and pretended that he was a man to men only, playing the + part of the Son in Judaea, and that of the Father in Samaria. + +v. [Hippolytus (?)] _(Philosophumena_, vi. 7-20). Text: _Refutatio +Omnium Haeresium_ (ediderunt Lud. Duncker et F.G. Schneidewin); +Gottingae, 1859. + + 7. I shall, therefore, set forth the system of Simon of Gittha, a + village of Samaria, and shall show that it is from him that those + who followed[9] him got their inspiration, and that the + speculations they venture upon have been of a like nature, though + their terminology is different. + + This Simon was skilled in magic, and deluding many, partly by the + art of Thrasymedes, in the way we have explained above,[10] and + partly corrupting them by means of daemons, he endeavoured to deify + himself--a sorcerer fellow and full of insanity, whom the apostles + confuted in the _Acts_. Far more prudent and modest was the aim of + Apsethus, the Libyan, who tried to get himself thought a god in + Libya. And as the story of Apsethus is not very dissimilar to the + ambition of the foolish Simon, it will not be unseemly to repeat + it, for it is quite in keeping with Simon's endeavour. + + 8. Apsethus, the Libyan, wanted to become a god. But in spite of + the greatest exertions he failed to realize his longing, and so he + desired that at any rate people should _think_ that he had become + one; and, indeed, for a considerable time he really did get people + to think that such was the case. For the foolish Libyans sacrificed + to him as to some divine power, thinking that they were placing + their confidence in a voice that came down from heaven. + + Well, he collected a large number of parrots and put them all into + a cage. For there are a great many parrots in Libya and they mimic + the human voice very distinctly. So he kept the birds for some time + and taught them to say, "Apsethus is a god." And when, after a long + time, the birds were trained and could speak the sentence which he + considered would make him be thought to be a god, he opened the + cage and let the parrots go in every direction. And the voice of + the birds as they flew about went out into all Libya, and their + words reached as far as the Greek settlements. And thus the + Libyans, astonished at the voice of the birds, and having no idea + of the trick which had been played them by Apsethus, considered him + to be a god. + + But one of the Greeks, correctly surmising the contrivance of the + supposed god, not only confuted him by means of the self-same + parrots, but also caused the total destruction of this boastful and + vulgar fellow. For the Greek caught a number of the parrots and + re-taught them to say "Apsethus caged us and made us say, 'Apsethus + is a god.'" And when the Libyans heard the recantation of the + parrots, they all assembled together of one accord and burnt + Apsethus alive. + + 9. And in the same way we must regard Simon, the magician, more + readily comparing him with the Libyan fellow's thus becoming a god. + And if the comparison is a correct one, and the fate which the + magician suffered was somewhat similar to that of Apsethus, let us + endeavour to _re-teach the parrots of Simon_, that he was not + Christ, who has stood, stands and will stand, but a man, the child + of a woman, begotten of seed, from blood and carnal desire, like + other men. And that this is the case, we shall easily demonstrate + as our narrative proceeds. + + Now Simon in his paraphrasing of the Law of Moses speaks with + artful misunderstanding. For when Moses says "God is a fire burning + and destroying,"[11] taking in an incorrect sense what Moses said, + he declares that Fire is the Universal Principle, not understanding + what was said, viz., not that "God is fire," but "a fire burning + and destroying." And thus he not only tears to pieces the Law of + Moses, but also plunders from Heracleitus the obscure.[12] And + Simon states that the Universal Principle is Boundless Power, as + follows: + + "_This is the writing of the revelation of Voice and Name from + Thought, the Great Power, the Boundless. Wherefore shall it be + sealed, hidden, concealed, laid in the Dwelling of which the + Universal Root is the foundation_."[13] + + And he says that man here below, born of blood, is the Dwelling, + and that the Boundless Power dwells in him, which he says is the + Universal Root. And, according to Simon, the Boundless Power, Fire, + is not a simple thing, as the majority who say that the four + elements are simple have considered fire also to be simple, but + that the Fire has a twofold nature; and of this twofold nature he + calls the one side the concealed and the other the manifested, + (stating) that the concealed (parts) of the Fire are hidden in the + manifested, and the manifested produced by the concealed. + + This is what Aristotle calls "in potentiality" and "in actuality," + and Plato the "intelligible" and "sensible." + + And the manifested side of the Fire has all things in itself which + a man can perceive of things visible, or which he unconsciously + fails to perceive. Whereas the concealed side is everything which + one can conceive as intelligible, even though it escape sensation, + or which a man fails to conceive. + + And generally we may say, of all things that are, both sensible + and intelligible, which he designates concealed and manifested, the + Fire, which is above the heavens, is the treasure-house, as it were + a great Tree, like that seen by Nabuchodonosor in vision, from + which all flesh is nourished. And he considers the manifested side + of the Fire to be the trunk, branches, leaves, and the bark + surrounding it on the outside. All these parts of the great Tree, + he says, are set on fire from the all-devouring flame of the Fire + and destroyed. But the fruit of the Tree, if its imaging has been + perfected and it takes the shape of itself, is placed in the + storehouse, and not cast into the Fire. For the fruit, he says, is + produced to be placed in the storehouse, but the husk to be + committed to the Fire; that is to say, the trunk, which is + generated not for its own sake but for that of the fruit. + + 10. And this he says is what is written in the scripture: "For the + vineyard of the Lord Sabaoth is the house of Israel, and a man of + Judah a well-beloved shoot."[14] And if a man of Judah is a + well-beloved shoot, it is shown, he says, that a tree is nothing + else than a man. But concerning its sundering and dispersion, he + says, the scripture has sufficiently spoken, and what has been said + is sufficient for the instruction of those whose imaging has been + perfected, viz.: "All flesh is grass, and every glory of the flesh + as the flower of grass. The grass is dried up and the flower + thereof falleth, but the speech of the Lord endureth for the + eternity (aeon)."[15] Now the Speech of the Lord, he says, is the + Speech engendered in the mouth and the Word (Logos), for elsewhere + there is no place of production. + + 11. To be brief, therefore, the Fire, according to Simon, being of + such a nature--both all things that are visible and invisible, and + in like manner, those that sound within and those that sound aloud, + those which can be numbered and those which are numbered--in the + _Great Revelation_ he calls it the Perfect Intellectual, as (being) + everything that can be thought of an infinite number of times, in + an infinite number of ways, both as to speech, thought and action, + just as Empedocles[16] says: + + "By earth earth we perceive; by water, water; by aether [divine], + aether; fire by destructive fire; by friendship, friendship; and + strife by bitter strife." + + 12. For, he says, he considered that all the parts of the Fire, + both visible and invisible, possessed perception[17] and a portion + of intelligence. The generable cosmos, therefore, was generated + from the ingenerable Fire. And it commenced to be generated, he + says, in the following way. The first six Roots of the Principle of + generation which the generated (_sc._, cosmos) took, were from that + Fire. And the Roots, he says, were generated from the Fire in + pairs,[18] and he calls these Roots Mind and Thought, Voice and + Name, Reason and Reflection, and in these six Roots there was the + whole of the Boundless Power together, in potentiality, but not in + actuality. And this Boundless Power he says is He who has stood, + stands and will stand; who, if his imaging is perfected while in + the six Powers, will be, in essence, power, greatness and + completeness, one and the same with the ingenerable and Boundless + Power, and not one single whit inferior to that ingenerable, + unchangeable and Boundless Power. But if it remain in potentiality + only, and its imaging is not perfected, then it disappears and + perishes, he says, just as the potentiality of grammar or geometry + in a man's mind. For potentiality when it has obtained art becomes + the light of generated things, but if it does not do so an absence + of art and darkness ensues, exactly as if it had not existed at + all; and on the death of the man it perishes with him. + + 13. Of these six Powers and the seventh which is beyond the six, he + calls the first pair Mind and Thought, heaven and earth; and the + male (heaven) looks down from above and takes thought for its + co-partner, while the earth from below receives from the heaven the + intellectual fruits that come down to it and are cognate with the + earth. Wherefore, he says, the Word ofttimes steadfastly + contemplating the things which have been generated from Mind and + Thought, that is from heaven and earth, says: "Hear, O heaven, and + give ear, O earth, for the Lord hath said: I have generated sons + and raised them up, but they have set me aside."[19] + + And he who says this, he says, is the seventh Power, He who has + stood, stands and will stand, for He is the cause of those good + things which Moses praised and said they were very good. And (the + second pair is) Voice and Name, sun and moon. And (the third) + Reason and Reflection, air and water. And in all of these was + blended and mingled the Great Power, the Boundless, He who has + stood, as I have said. + + 14. And when Moses says: "(It is) in six days that God made the + heaven and the earth, and on the seventh he rested from all his + works," Simon arranges it differently and thus makes himself into a + god. When, therefore, they (the Simonians) say, that there are + three days before the generation of the sun and moon, they mean + esoterically Mind and Thought--that is to say heaven and earth--and + the seventh Power, the Boundless. For these three Powers were + generated before all the others. And when they say "he hath + generated me before all the Aeons," the words, he says, are used + concerning the seventh Power. Now this seventh Power which was the + first Power subsisting in the Boundless Power, which was generated + before all the Aeons, this, he says, was the seventh Power, about + which Moses says: "And the spirit of God moved over the water," + that is to say, he says, the spirit which hath all things in + itself, the Image of the Boundless Power, concerning which Simon + says: "_The Image from, the incorruptible Form, alone ordering all + things._" For the Power which moves above the water, he says, is + generated from an imperishable Form, and alone orders all things. + + Now the constitution of the world being with them after this or a + similar fashion, God, he says, fashioned man by taking soil from + the earth. And he made him not single but double, according to the + image and likeness. And the Image is the spirit moving above the + water, which, if its imaging is not perfected, perishes together + with the world, seeing that it remains only in potentiality and + does not become in actuality. And this is the meaning of the + Scripture, he says: "Lest we be condemned together with the + world."[20] But if its imaging should be perfected and it should be + generated from an "indivisible point," as it is written in his + _Revelation_, the small shall become great. And this great shall + continue for the boundless and changeless eternity (_aeon_), in as + much as it is no longer in the process of becoming.[21] + + How and in what manner, then, he asks, does God fashion man? In the + Garden (Paradise), he thinks. We must consider the womb a Garden, + he says, and that this is the "cave," the Scripture tells us when + it says: "I am he who fashioned thee in thy mother's womb,"[22] for + he would have it written in this way. In speaking of the Garden, he + says, Moses allegorically referred to the womb, if we are to + believe the Word. + + And, if God fashions man in his mother's womb, that is to say in + the Garden, as I have already said, the womb must be taken for the + Garden, and Eden for the region (surrounding the womb), and the + "river going forth from Eden to water the Garden,"[23] for the + navel. This navel, he says, is divided into four channels, for on + either side of the navel two air-ducts are stretched to convey the + breath, and two veins[24] to convey blood. But when, he says, the + navel going forth from the region of Eden is attached to the foetus + in the epigastric regions, that which is commonly called by + everyone the navel[25] ... and the two veins by which the blood + flows and is carried from the Edenic region through what are called + the gates of the liver, which nourish the foetus. And the + air-ducts, which we said were channels for breath, embracing the + bladder on either side in the region of the pelvis, are united at + the great duct which is called the dorsal aorta. And thus the + breath passing through the side doors towards the heart produces + the movement of the embryo. For as long as the babe is being + fashioned in the Garden, it neither takes nourishment through the + mouth, nor breathes through the nostrils. For seeing that it is + surrounded by the waters (of the womb), death would instantly + supervene, if it took a breath; for it would draw after it the + waters and so perish. But the whole (of the foetus) is wrapped up + in an envelope, called the amnion, and is nourished through the + navel and receives the essence of the breath through the dorsal + duct, as I have said. + + 15. The river, therefore, he says, which goes out of Eden, is + divided into four channels, four ducts, that is to say; into four + senses of the foetus: sight, (hearing),[26] smelling, taste and + touch. For these are the only senses the child has while it is + being formed in the Garden. + + This, he says, is the law which Moses laid down, and in accordance + with this very law each of his books was written, as the titles + show. The first book is _Genesis_, and the title of the book, he + says, is sufficient for a knowledge of the whole matter. For this + _Genesis_, he says, is sight, which is one division of the river. + For the world is perceived by sight. + + The title of the second book is _Exodus_. For it was necessary for + that which is born to travel through the Red Sea, and pass towards + the Desert--by Red the blood is meant, he says--and taste the + bitter water. For the "bitter," he says, is the water beyond the + Red Sea, inasmuch as it is the path of knowledge of painful and + bitter things which we travel along in life. But when it is changed + by Moses, that is to say by the Word, that bitter (water) becomes + sweet. And that this is so, all may hear publicly by repeating + after the poets: + + "In root it was black, but like milk was the flower. Moly the Gods + call it. For mortals to dig it up is difficult; but Gods can do all + things."[27] + + 16. Sufficient, he says, is what is said by the Gentiles for a + knowledge of the whole matter, for those who have ears for hearing. + For he who tasted this fruit, he says, was not only not changed + into a beast by Circe, but using the virtue of the fruit, reshaped + those who had been already changed into beasts, into their former + proper shape, and re-struck and recalled their type. For the true + man and one beloved by that sorceress is discovered by this + milk-white divine fruit, he says. + + In like manner _Leviticus_, the third book, is smelling or + respiration. For the whole of that book treats of sacrifices and + offerings. And wherever there is a sacrifice, there arises the + smell of the scent from the sacrifice owing to the incense, + concerning which sweet smell the sense of smell is the test. + + _Numbers_, the fourth book, signifies taste, wherein speech (or the + Word) energizes. And it is so called through uttering all things in + numerical order. + + _Deuteronomy_, again, he says, is so entitled in reference to the + sense of touch of the child which is formed. For just as the touch + by contact synthesizes and confirms the sensations of the other + senses, proving objects to be either hard, warm, or adhesive, so + also the fifth book of the Law is the synthesis of the four books + which precede it. + + All ingenerables, therefore, he says, are in us in potentiality but + not in actuality, like the science of grammar or geometry. And if + they meet with befitting utterance[28] and instruction, and the + "bitter" is turned into the "sweet"--that is to say, spears into + reaping hooks and swords into ploughshares[29]--the Fire will not + have born to it husks and stocks, but perfect fruit, perfected in + its imaging, as I said above, equal and similar to the ingenerable + and Boundless Power. "For now," says he, "the axe is nigh to the + roots of the tree: every tree," he says, "that bringeth not forth + good fruit, is cut down and cast into the fire."[30] + + 17. And so, according to Simon, that blessed and imperishable + (principle) concealed in everything, is in potentiality, but not in + actuality, which indeed is He who has stood, stands and will stand; + who has stood above in the ingenerable Power, who stands below in + the stream of the waters, generated in an image, who shall stand + above, by the side of the blessed and Boundless Power, if the + imaging be perfected. For three, he says, are they that stand, and + without there being three standing Aeons, there would be no setting + in order[31] of the generable which, according to them, moves on + the water, and which is fashioned according to the similitude into + a perfect celestial, becoming in no whit inferior to the + ingenerable Power, and this is the meaning of their saying: "_Thou + and I, the one thing; before me, thou; that after thee, I._" + + This, he says, is the one Power, separated into the above and + below, generating itself, increasing itself, seeking itself, + finding itself, its own mother, its own father, its sister, its + spouse; the daughter, son, mother, and father of itself; One, the + Universal Root. + + And that, as he says, the beginning of the generation of things + which are generated is from Fire, he understands somewhat in this + fashion. Of all things of which there is generation, the beginning + of the desire for their generation is from Fire. For, indeed, the + desire of mutable generation is called "being on fire." And though + Fire is one, yet has it two modes of mutation. For in the man, he + says, the blood, being hot and yellow--like fire when it takes + form--is turned into seed, whereas in the woman the same blood (is + changed) into milk. And this change in the male becomes the faculty + of generating, while that in the female (becomes) nourishment for + the child. This, he says, is "the flaming sword that is turned + about to keep the way of the tree of life."[32] For the blood is + turned into seed and milk; and this Power becomes mother and + father, father of those that are born, and mother of those that are + nourished, standing in want of nothing, sufficient unto itself. And + the tree of life, he says, is guarded by the fiery sword which is + turned about, (which tree), as we have said, (is) the seventh Power + which proceeds from itself, contains all (in itself), and is stored + in the six Powers. For were the flaming sword not turned about, + that fair tree would be destroyed and perish; but if it is turned + into seed and milk, that which is stored in them in potentiality, + having obtained a fitting utterance,[33] and an appointed place in + which the utterance may be developed, starting as it were from the + smallest spark, it will increase to all perfection, and expand, and + be an infinite power, unchangeable, equal and similar to the + unchangeable Aeon, which is no more generated for the boundless + eternity. + + 18. Conformably, therefore, to this reasoning, for the foolish, + Simon was a god, like that Libyan Apsethus; (a god) subject to + generation and suffering, so long as he remained in potentiality, + but freed from the bonds of suffering and birth, as soon as his + imaging forth was accomplished, and attaining perfection he passed + forth from the first two Powers, to wit heaven and earth. For Simon + speaks distinctly concerning this in his _Revelation_ as follows: + + "_To you, therefore, I say what I say, and write what I write. And + the writing is this._ + + "_Of the universal Aeons there are two shoots, without beginning or + end, springing from one Root, which is the Power invisible, + inapprehensible Silence. Of these shoots one is manifested from + above, which is the Great Power, the Universal Mind ordering all + things, male, and the other, (is manifested) from below, the Great + Thought, female, producing all things_. + + "_Hence pairing with each other_,[34] _they unite and manifest the + Middle Distance, incomprehensible Air, without beginning or end. In + this is the Father who sustains all things, and nourishes those + things which have a beginning and end._ + + "_This is He who has stood, stands and will stand, a male-female + power like the preexisting Boundless Power, which has neither + beginning nor end, existing in oneness. For it is from this that + the Thought in the oneness proceeded and became two._ + + "_So he_[35] _was one; for having her_[36] _in himself, he was + alone, not however first, although preexisting, but being + manifested from himself to himself, he became second. Nor was he + called Father before (Thought) called him Father._ + + "_As, therefore, producing himself by himself, he manifested to + himself his own Thought, so also the Thought that was manifested + did not make the Father, but contemplating him hid him--that is to + say the Power--in herself, and is male-female, Power and Thought._ + + "_Hence they pair with each other being one, for there is no + difference between Power and Thought. From the things above is + discovered Power, and from those below Thought._ + + "_In the same manner also that which was manifested from them_[37] + _although being one is yet found as two, the male-female having the + female in itself. Thus Mind is in Thought--things inseparable from + one another--which although being one are yet found as two._" + + 19. So then Simon by such inventions got what interpretation he + pleased, not only out of the writings of Moses, but also out of + those of the (pagan) poets, by falsifying them. For he gives an + allegorical interpretation of the wooden horse, and Helen with the + torch, and a number of other things, which he metamorphoses and + weaves into fictions concerning himself and his Thought. + + And he said that the latter was the "lost sheep," who again and + again abiding in women throws the Powers in the world into + confusion, on account of her unsurpassable beauty; on account of + which the Trojan War came to pass through her. For this Thought + took up its abode in the Helen that was born just at that time, and + thus when all the Powers laid claim to her, there arose faction and + war among those nations to whom she was manifested. + + It was thus, forsooth, that Stesichorus was deprived of sight when + he abused her in his verses; and afterwards when he repented and + wrote the recantation in which he sung her praises he recovered his + sight. + + And subsequently, when her body was changed by the Angels and lower + Powers--which also, he says, made the world--she lived in a brothel + in Tyre, a city of Phoenicia, where he found her on his arrival. + For he professes that he had come there for the purpose of finding + her for the first time, that he might deliver her from bondage. And + after he had purchased her freedom he took her about with him, + pretending that she was the "lost sheep," and that he himself was + the Power which is over all. Whereas the impostor having fallen in + love with this strumpet, called Helen, purchased and kept her, and + being ashamed to have it known by his disciples, invented this + story. + + And those who copy the vagabond magician Simon do like acts, and + pretend that intercourse should be promiscuous, saying: "All soil + is soil, and it matters not where a man sows, so long as he does + sow." Nay, they pride themselves on promiscuous intercourse, saying + that this is the "perfect love," citing the text, "the holy shall + be sanctified by the ... of the holy."[38] And they profess that + they are not in the power of that which is usually considered evil, + for they are redeemed. For by purchasing the freedom of Helen, he + (Simon) thus offered salvation to men by knowledge peculiar to + himself.[39] + + For he said that, as the Angels were misgoverning the world owing + to their love of power, he had come to set things right, being + metamorphosed and made like unto the Dominions, Principalities and + Angels, so that he was manifested as a man although he was not + really a man, and that he seemed to suffer[40] in Judaea, although + he did not really undergo it, but that he was manifested to the + Jews as the Son, in Samaria as the Father, and among the other + nations as the Holy Ghost, and that he permitted himself to be + called by whatever name men pleased to call him. And that it was by + the Angels, who made the world, that the Prophets were inspired to + utter their prophecies. Wherefore they who believe on Simon and + Helen pay no attention to the latter even to this day, but do + everything they like, as being free, for they contend that they are + saved through his (Simon's) grace. + + For (they assert that) there is no cause for punishment if a man + does ill, for evil is not in nature but in institution. For, he + says, the Angels who made the world, instituted what they wished, + thinking by such words to enslave all who listened to them. Whereas + the dissolution of the world, they (the Simonians) say, is for the + ransoming of their own people. + + 20. And (Simon's) disciples perform magical ceremonies and (use) + incantations, and philtres and spells, and they also send what are + called "dream-sending" daemons for disturbing whom they will. They + also train what are called "familiars,"[41] and have a statue of + Simon in the form of Zeus, and one of Helen in the form of Athena, + which they worship, calling the former Lord and the latter Lady. + And if any among them on seeing the images, calls them by the name + of Simon or Helen, he is cast out as one ignorant of the mysteries. + + While this Simon was leading many astray by his magic rites in + Samaria, he was confuted by the apostles. And being cursed, as it + is written in the _Acts_, in dissatisfaction took to these schemes. + And at last he travelled to Rome and again fell in with the + apostles, and Peter had many encounters with him for he continued + leading numbers astray by his magic. And towards the end of his + career going ... he settled under a plane tree and continued his + teachings. And finally running the risk of exposure through the + length of his stay, he said, that if he were buried alive, he would + rise again on the third day. And he did actually order a grave to + be dug by his disciples and told them to bury him. So they carried + out his orders, but he has stopped away[42] until the present day, + for he was not the Christ. + +vi. Origenes (_Contra Celsum_, i. 57; v. 62; vi. 11). Text (edidit +Carol. Henric. Eduard); Lommatzsch; Berolini, 1846. + + i. 57. And Simon also, the Samaritan magician, endeavoured to steal + away certain by his magic. And at that time he succeeded in + deceiving them, but in our own day I do not think it possible to + find thirty Simonians altogether in the inhabited world. And + probably I have said more than they really are. There are a very + few of them round Palestine; but in the rest of the world his name + is nowhere to be found in the sense of the doctrine he wished to + spread broadcast concerning himself. And alongside of the reports + about him, we have the account from the _Acts_. And they who say + these things about him are Christians and their clear witness is + that Simon was nothing divine. + + v. 62. Then pouring out a quantity of our names, he (Celsus) says + he knows certain Simonians who are called Heleniani, because they + worship Helen or a teacher Helenus. But Celsus is ignorant that the + Simonians in no way confess that Jesus is the Son of God, but they + say that Simon is the Power of God, telling some marvellous stories + about the fellow, who thought that if he laid claim to like powers + as those which he thought Jesus laid claim to, he also would be as + powerful among men as Jesus is with many. + + vi. 11. For the former (Simon) pretended he was the Power of God, + which is called Great, and the latter (Dositheus) that he too was + the Son of God. For nowhere in the world do the Simonians any + longer exist. Moreover by getting many under his influence Simon + took away from his disciples the danger of death, which Christians + were taught was taken away, teaching them that there was no + difference between it and idolatry. And yet in the beginning the + Simonians were not plotted against. For the evil daemon who plots + against the teaching of Jesus, knew that no counsel of his own + would be undone by the disciples of Simon. + +vii. Philastrius (_De Haeresibus_, i). Text: _Patres Quarti Ecclesiae +Saeculi_ (edidit D.A.B. Caillau); Paris, 1842. + + Now after the passion of Christ, our Lord, and his ascension into + heaven, there arose a certain Simon, the magician, a Samaritan by + birth, from a village called Gittha, who having the leisure + necessary for the arts of magic deceived many, saying that he was + some Power of God, above all powers. Whom the Samaritans worship as + the Father, and wickedly extol as the founder of their heresy, and + strive to exalt him with many praises. Who having been baptized by + the blessed apostles, went back from their faith, and disseminated + a wicked and pernicious heresy, saying that he was transformed + supposedly, that is to say like a shadow, and thus he had suffered, + although, he says, he did not suffer. + + And he also dared to say that the world had been made by Angels, + and the Angels again had been made by certain endowed with + perception from heaven, and that they (the Angels) had deceived the + human race. + + He asserted, moreover, that there was a certain other Thought, who + descended into the world for the salvation of men; he says she was + that Helen whose story is celebrated in the Trojan War by the + vain-glorious poets. And the Powers, he says, led on by desire of + this Helen, stirred up sedition. "For she," he says, "arousing + desire in those Powers, and appearing in the form of a woman, could + not reaescend into heaven, because the Powers which were in heaven + did not permit her to reascend." Moreover, she looked for another + Power, that is to say, the presence of Simon himself, which would + come and free her. + + The wooden horse also, which the vain-glorious poets say was in the + Trojan War, he asserted was allegorical, namely, that that + mechanical invention typified the ignorance of all the impious + nations, although it is well known that that Helen, who was with + the magician, was a prostitute from Tyre, and that this same Simon, + the magician, had followed her, and together with her had practised + various magic arts and committed divers crimes. + + But after he had fled from the blessed Peter from the city of + Jerusalem, and came to Rome, and contended there with the blessed + apostle before the Emperor Nero, he was routed on every point by + the speech of the blessed apostle, and being smitten by an angel + came by a righteous end in order that the glaring falsity of his + magic might be made known unto all men. + +viii. Epiphanius (_Contra Haereses_, ii. 1-6). Text: _Opera_ (edidit G. +Dindorfius); Lipsiae, 1859. + + 1. From the time of Christ to our own day the first heresy was that + of Simon the magician, and though it was not correctly and + distinctly one of the Christian name, yet it worked great havoc by + the corruption it produced among Christians. This Simon was a + sorcerer, and the base of his operations was at Gittha, a city in + Samaria, which still exists as a village. And he deluded the + Samaritan people with magical phenomena, deluding and enticing them + with a bait by saying that he was the Great Power of God and had + come down from above. And he told the Samaritans that he was the + Father, and the Jews that he was the Son, and that in undergoing + the passion he had not really done so, but that it was only in + appearance. And he ingratiated himself with the apostles, was + baptized by Philip with many others, and received the same rite as + the rest. And all except himself awaited the arrival of the great + apostles and by the laying on of their hands received the Holy + Spirit, for Philip, being a deacon, had not the power of laying on + of hands to grant thereby the gift of the Holy Spirit. But Simon, + with wicked heart and erroneous calculations, persisted in his base + and mercenary covetousness, without abandoning in any way his + miserable pursuits, and offered money to Peter, the apostle, for + the power of bestowing the Holy Spirit by the laying on of hands, + calculating that he would give little, and that for the little (he + gave), by bestowing the Spirit on many, he would amass a large sum + of money and make a profit. + + 2. So with his mind in a vile state through the devilish illusions + produced by his magic, and weaving all kinds of images, and being + ever ready of his own villany to show his barbaric and demoniacal + tricks by means of his charms, he came forward publicly and under + the cloak of the name of Christ; and pretending that he was mixing + hellebore[43] with honey, he added a poison for those whom he + hunted into his mischievous illusion, under the cloak of the name + of Christ, and compassed the death of those who believed. And being + lewd in nature and goaded on through shame of his promises, the + vagabond fabricated a corrupt allegory for those whom he had + deceived. For picking up a roving woman, called Helen, who + originated from the city of the Tyrians, he took her about with + him, without letting people know that he was on terms of undue + intimacy with her; and when he was involved in bursting disgrace + because of his mistress, he started a fabulous kind of + psychopompy[44] for his disciples, and saying, forsooth, that he + was the Great Power of God, he ventured to call his prostitute + companion the Holy Spirit, and he says that it was on her account + he descended. "And in each heaven I changed my form," he says, "in + order that I might not be perceived by my Angelic Powers, and + descend to my Thought, which is she who is called Prunicus[45] and + Holy Spirit, through whom I brought into being the Angels, and the + Angels brought into being the world and men." (He claimed) that + this was the Helen of old, on whose account the Trojans and Greeks + went to war. And he related a myth with regard to these matters, + that this Power descending from above changed its form, and that it + was about this that the poets spake allegorically. And through this + Power from above--which they call Prunicus, and which is called by + other sects Barbero or Barbelo--displaying her beauty, she drove + them to frenzy, and on this account was she sent for the despoiling + of the Rulers who brought the world into being; and the Angels + themselves went to war on her account; and while she experienced + nothing, they set to work to mutually slaughter each other on + account of the desire which she infused into them for herself. And + constraining her so that she could not reaescend, each had + intercourse with her in every body of womanly and female + constitution--she reincarnating from female bodies into different + bodies, both of the human kingdom, and of beasts and other + things--in order that by means of their slaying and being slain, + they might bring about a diminution of themselves through the + shedding of blood, and that then she by collecting again the Power + would be enabled to reaescend into heaven. + + 3. And she it was at that time who was possessed by the Greeks and + Trojans; and that both in the night of time before the world + existed, and after its existence, by the invisible Powers she had + wrought things of a like nature. "And she it is who is now with me, + and on her account have I descended. And she was looking for my + coming. For she is the Thought,[46] called Helen in Homer." And it + was on this account that Homer was compelled to portray her as + standing on a tower, and by means of a torch revealing to the + Greeks the plot of the Phrygians. And by the torch, he delineated, + as I said, the manifestation of the light from above. On which + account also the wooden horse in Homer was devised, which the + Greeks think was made for a distinct purpose, whereas the sorcerer + maintained that this is the ignorance of the Gentiles, and that + like as the Phrygians when they dragged it along in ignorance drew + on their own destruction, so also the Gentiles, that is to say + people who are "without my wisdom," through ignorance, draw ruin on + themselves. Moreover the impostor said that Athena again was + identical with what they called Thought, making use forsooth of the + words of the holy apostle Paul--changing the truth into his own + lie--to wit: "Put on the breastplate of faith and the helmet of + salvation, and the greaves and sword and buckler";[47] and that all + this was in the mimes of Philistion,[48] the rogue!--words uttered + by the apostle with firm reasoning and faith of holy conversation, + and the power of the divine and heavenly word--turning them further + into a joke and nothing more. For what does he say? That he + (Philistion) arranged all these things in a mysterious manner into + types of Athena. Wherefore again, in making known the woman with + him whom he had taken from Tyre and who had the same name as Helen + of old, he spoke as I have told you above, calling her by all those + names, Thought, and Athena, and Helen and the rest. "And on her + account," he says, "I descended. And this is the 'lost sheep' + written of in the Gospel." Moreover, he left to his followers an + image, his own presumably, and they worship it under the form of + Zeus; and he left another in like manner of Helen in the guise of + Athena, and his dupes worship them. + + 4. And he enjoined mysteries of obscenity and--to set it forth more + seriously--of the sheddings of bodies, _emissionum virorom, + feminarum menstruorum_, and that they should be gathered up for + mysteries in a most filthy collection; that these were the + mysteries of life, and of the most perfect Gnosis--a practice which + anyone who has understanding from God would most naturally consider + to be most filthy conduct and death rather than life. And he + supposes names for the Dominions and Principalities, and says there + are different heavens, and sets forth Powers for each firmament and + heaven, and tricks them out with barbarous names, and says that no + man can be saved in any other fashion than by learning this + mystagogy, and how to offer such sacrifices to the Universal Father + through these Dominions and Principalities. And he says that this + world (aeon) was constructed defectively by Dominions and + Principalities of evil. And he considers that corruption and + destruction are of the flesh alone, but that there is a + purification of souls and that, only if they are established in + initiation by means of his misleading Gnosis. This is the beginning + of the so-called Gnostics. And he pretended that the Law was not of + God, but of the left-hand Power, and that the Prophets were not + from the Good God but from this or the other Power. And he lays it + down for each of them as he pleases: the Law was of one, David of + another, Isaiah of another, Ezekiel again of another, and ascribes + each of the Prophets to some one Dominion. And all of them were + from the left-hand Power and outside the Perfection,[49] and every + one that believed in the _Old Testament_ was subject to death. + + 5. But this doctrine is overturned by the truth itself. For if he + were the Great Power of God, and the harlot with him the Holy + Spirit, as he himself says, let him say what is the name of the + Power or in what word[50] he discovered the epithet for the woman + and nothing for himself at all. And how and at what time is he + found at Rome successively paying back his debt, when in the midst + of the city of the Romans the miserable fellow fell down and died? + And in what scripture did Peter prove to him that he had neither + lot nor share in the heritage of the fear of God? And could the + world not have its existence in the Good God, when all the good + were chosen by him? And how could it be a left-hand Power which + spake in the Law and Prophets, when it has preached the coming of + the Christ, the Good God, and forbids mean things? And how could + there not be one divine nature and the same spirit of the _New_ and + _Old Testament_, when the Lord said: "I am not come to destroy the + Law, but to fulfil it"?[51] And that He might show that the Law was + declared through Him and was given through Moses, and that the + grace of the Gospel has been preached through himself and his + carnal presence, He said to the Jews: "If ye believe Moses, ye + should also believe me; for he wrote about me."[52] There are many + other arguments also to oppose to the contention of the sorcerer. + For how will obscene things give life, if it were not a conception + of daemons? When the Lord himself answers in the Gospel to those + who say unto him: "If such is the case of the man and the woman, it + is not good to marry." But He said unto them: "All do not hold + this; for there are eunuchs who made themselves eunuchs for the + sake of the kingdom of the heavens."[53] And He showed that + natural abstinence from union is the gift of the kingdom of the + heavens; and again in another place He says with respect to + righteous marriage--which Simon of his own accord basely corrupting + treats according to his own desires--"Whom God has joined together + let no man put asunder."[54] + + 6. And how unaware is again the vagabond that he confutes himself + by his own babbling, not knowing what he gives out? For after + saying that the Angels were produced by him through his Thought, he + goes on to say that he changed his form in every heaven, to escape + their notice in his descent. Consequently he avoided them through + fear. And how did the babbler fear the Angels whom he had himself + made? And how will not the dissemination of his error be found by + the intelligent to be instantly refuted by everyone, when the + scripture says: "In the beginning[55] God made the heaven and the + earth"?[56] And in unison with this word, the Lord in the Gospel + says, as though to his own Father: "O Father, Lord of heaven and + earth."[57] If, therefore, the maker of heaven and earth is + naturally God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, all that the + slanderer Simon says is vain; to wit, the defective production of + the world by the Angels, and all the rest he has babbled about in + addition to his world of Daemons, and he has deceived those who + have been led away by him. + +ix. Hieronymus (In _Matthaeum_, IV. xxiv. 5). Text: _S. Eusebii +Hieronymi Comment._; Migne _Patrol. Grec._, VII. col. 176. + + Of whom there is one Simon, a Samaritan, whom we read of in the + _Acts of the Apostles_, who said he was some Great Power. And among + the rest of the things written in his volumes, he proclaimed as + follows: + + "I am the Word of God; I am the glorious one, I the Paraclete, the + Almighty, I the whole of God." + +x. Theodoretus _(Haereticarum Fabularum Compendium_, I. i.). Text: _Opera +Omnia_ (ex recensione Jacobi Simondi, denuo edidit Joann. Ludov. +Schulze); Halae, 1769. + + Now Simon, the Samaritan magician, was the first minister of his + (the Daemon's)[58] evil practices who arose. Who, making his base + of operations from Gittha, which is a village of Samaria, and + having rushed to the height of sorcery, at first persuaded many, + by the wonder-working he wrought, to attend his school, and call + him some divine Power. But afterwards seeing the apostles + accomplishing wonder-workings that were really true and divine, and + bestowing on those who came to them the grace of the Spirit, + thinking himself also worthy to receive equal power from them, when + great Peter detected his villainous intention, and bade him heal + the incurable wounds of his mind with the drugs of repentance, he + immediately returned to his former evil-doing, and leaving Samaria, + since it had received the seeds of salvation, ran off to those who + had not yet been tilled by the apostles, in order that, having + deceived with his magic arts those who were easy to capture, and + having enslaved them in the bonds of their own legendary lore,[59] + he might make the teachings of the apostles difficult to be + believed. + + But the divine grace armed great Peter against the fellow's + madness. For following after him, he dispelled his abominable + teaching like mist and darkness, and showed forth the rays of the + light of truth. But for all that the thrice wretched fellow, in + spite of his public exposure, did not cease from his working + against the truth, until he came to Rome, in the reign of Claudius + Caesar. And he so astonished the Romans with his sorceries that he + was honoured with a brazen pillar. But on the arrival of the divine + Peter, he stripped him naked of his wings of deception, and + finally, having challenged him to a contest in wonder-working, and + having shown the difference between the divine grace and sorcery, + in the presence of the assembled Romans, caused him to fall + headlong from a great height by his prayers and captured the + eye-witnesses of the wonder for salvation. + + This (Simon) gave birth to a legend somewhat as follows. He started + with supposing some Boundless Power; and he called this the + Universal Root.[60] And he said that this was Fire, which had a + twofold energy, the manifested and the concealed. The world + moreover was generable, and had been generated from the manifested + energy of the Fire. And first from it (the manifested energy) were + emanated three pairs, which he also called Roots. And the first + (pair) he called Mind and Thought, and the second, Voice and + Intelligence, and the third, Reason and Reflection. Whereas he + called himself the Boundless Power, and (said) that he had appeared + to the Jews as the Son, and to the Samaritans he had descended as + the Father, and among the rest of the nations he had gone up and + down as the Holy Spirit. + + And having made a certain harlot, who was called Helen, live with + him, he pretended that she was his first Thought, and called her + the Universal Mother, (saying) that through her he had made both + the Angels and Archangels; and that the world was fabricated by the + Angels. Then the Angels in envy cast her down among them, for they + did not wish, he says, to be called fabrications. For which cause, + forsooth, they induced her into many female bodies and into that of + the famous Helen, through whom the Trojan War arose. + + It was on her account also, he said, that he himself had descended, + to free her from the chains they had laid upon her, and to offer to + men salvation through a system of knowledge peculiar to himself. + + And that in his descent he had undergone transformation, so as not + to be known to the Angels that manage the establishment of the + world. And that he had appeared in Judaea as a man, although he was + not a man, and that he had suffered, though not at all suffering, + and that the Prophets were the ministers of the Angels. And he + admonished those that believed on him not to pay attention to them, + and not to tremble at the threats of the Law, but, as being free, + to do whatever they would. For it was not by good actions, but by + grace they would gain salvation. + + For which cause, indeed, those of his association ventured on every + kind of licentiousness, and practised every kind of magic, + fabricating love philtres and spells, and all the other arts of + sorcery, as though in pursuit of divine mysteries. And having + prepared his (Simon's) statue in the form of Zeus, and Helen's in + the likeness of Athena, they burn incense and pour out libations + before them, and worship them as gods, calling themselves + Simonians. + + +III.--_The Simon of the Legends_. + + +The so-called Clementine Literature: + +A. _Recognitiones_. Text: Rufino Aquilei Presb. Interprete (curante E.G. +Gersdorf); Lipsiae, 1838. + +_Homiliae_. Text: _Bibliotheca Patrum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum +Selecta_, Vol. I. (edidit Albertus Schwegler); Tubingensis, Stuttgartiae, +1847. + +B. _Constitutiones_. Text: _SS. Patrum qui Temporibus Apostolicis +Floruerunt Opera_ (edidit J.B. Cotelerius); Amsteladami, 1724. + +A. The priority of the two varying accounts, in the _Homilies_ and +_Recognitiones_, of the same story is in much dispute, but this is a +question of no importance in the present enquiry. The latest scholarship +is of the opinion that "the Clementines are unmistakably a production of +the sect of the Ebionites."[61] The Ebionites are described as: + + A sect of heretics developed from among the Judaizing Christians of + apostolic times late in the first or early in the second century. + They accepted Christianity only as a reformed Judaism, and believed + in our Blessed Lord only as a mere natural man spiritually + perfected by exact observance of the Mosaic law.[62] + +Summary.[63] Clement, the hero of the legendary narrative, arrives at +Caesarea Stratonis in Judaea, on the eve of a great controversy between +Simon and the apostle Peter, and attaches himself to the latter as his +disciple (H. II. xv; R.I. lxxvii). The history of Simon is told to +Clement, in the presence of Peter, by Aquila and Nicetas--the adopted +sons of a convert--who had associated with Simon. + +Simon was the son of Antonius and Rachael, a Samaritan of Gittha, a +village six schoeni[64] from the city of Caesarea (H.I. xxii), called a +village of the Gettones (R. II. vii). It was at Alexandria that Simon +perfected his studies in magic, being an adherent of John, a +Hemero-baptist,[65] through whom he came to deal with religious +doctrines. + +John was the forerunner of Jesus, according to the method of combination +or coupling.[66] Whereas Jesus had twelve disciples, as the Sun, John, +the Moon, had thirty, the number of days in a lunation, or more +correctly twenty-nine and a half, one of his disciples being a woman +called Helen, and a woman being reckoned as half a man in the perfect +number of the Triacontad, or Pleroma of the Aeons (H.I. xxiii; R. II. +viii). In the _Recognitions_ the name of Helen is given as Luna in the +Latin translation of Rufinus.[67] + +Of all John's disciples, Simon was the favourite, but on the death of +his master, he was absent in Alexandria, and so Dositheus,[68] a +co-disciple, was chosen head of the school. + +Simon, on his return, acquiesced in the choice, but his superior +knowledge could not long remain under a bushel. One day Dositheus, +becoming enraged, struck at Simon with his staff; but the staff passed +through Simon's body like smoke, and Dositheus, struck with amazement, +yielded the leadership to Simon and became his disciple, and shortly +afterwards died (H.I. xxiv; R. II. xiii). + +Aquila and Nicetas then go on to tell how Simon had confessed to them +privately his love for Luna (R. II. viii), and narrate the magic +achievements possessed by Simon, of which they have had proof with their +own eyes. Simon can dig through mountains, pass through rocks as if they +were merely clay, cast himself from a lofty mountain and be borne gently +to earth, can break his chains when in prison, and cause the doors to +open of their own accord, animate statues and make the eye-witness think +them men, make trees grow suddenly, pass through fire unhurt, change his +face or become double-faced, or turn into a sheep or goat or serpent, +make a beard grow upon a boy's chin, fly in the air, become gold, make +and unmake kings, have divine worship and honours paid him, order a +sickle to go and reap of itself and it reaps ten times as much as an +ordinary sickle (R. II. xi). + +To this list of wonders the _Homilies_ add making stones into loaves, +melting iron, the production of images of all kinds at a banquet; in his +own house dishes are brought of themselves to him (H.I. xxxii). He makes +spectres appear in the market place; when he walks out statues move, and +shadows go before him which he says are souls of the dead (H. IV. iv). + +On one occasion Aquila says he was present when Luna was seen looking +out of all the windows of a tower on all sides at once (R. II. xi). + +The most peculiar incident, however, is the use Simon is said to have +made of the soul of a dead boy, by which he did many of his wonders. The +incident is found in both accounts, but more fully in the _Homilies_ (I. +xxv-xxx) than in the _Recognitions_ (II. xiii-xv), for which reason the +text of the former is followed. + +Simon did not stop at murder, as he confessed to Nicetas and Aquila "as +a friend to friends." In fact he separated the soul of a boy from his +body to act as a confederate in his phenomena. And this is the magical +_modus operandi_. "He delineates the boy on a statue which he keeps +consecrated in the inner part of the house where he sleeps, and he says +that after he has fashioned him out of the air by certain divine +transmutations, and has sketched his form, he returns him again to the +air." + +Simon explains the theory of this practice as follows: + +"First of all the spirit of the man having been turned into the nature +of heat draws in and absorbs, like a cupping-glass, the surrounding air; +next he turns the air which comes within the envelope of spirit into +water. And the air in it not being able to escape owing to the confining +force of the spirit, he changed it into the nature of blood, and the +blood solidifying made flesh; and so when the flesh is solidified he +exhibited a man made of air and not of earth. And thus having persuaded +himself of his ability to make a new man of air, he reversed the +transmutations, he said, and returned him to the air." + +When the converts thought that this was the soul of the person, Simon +laughed and said, that in the phenomena it was not the soul, "but some +daemon[69] who pretended to be the soul that took possession of people." + +The coming controversy with Simon is then explained by Peter to Clement +to rest on certain passages of scripture. Peter admits that there are +falsehoods in the scriptures, but says that it would never do to explain +this to the people. These falsehoods have been permitted for certain +righteous reasons (H. III. v). + +"For the scriptures declare all manner of things that no one of those +who enquire unthankfully may discover the truth, but (simply) what he +wishes to find" (H. III. x). + +In the lengthy explanation which follows, however, on the passages Simon +is going to bring forward, such as the mention of a plurality of gods, +and God's hardening men's hearts, Peter states that in reality all the +passages which speak against God are spurious additions, but this is to +be guarded as an esoteric secret. + +Nevertheless in the public controversy which follows, this secret is +made public property, in order to meet Simon's declaration: "I say that +there are many gods, but one God of all these gods, incomprehensible and +unknown to all" (R. II. xxxviii); and again: "My belief is that there is +a Power of immeasurable and ineffable Light, whose greatness is held to +be incomprehensible, a power which the maker of the world even does not +know, nor does Moses the lawgiver, nor your master Jesus" (R. II. xlix). + +A point of interest to be noticed is that Peter challenges Simon to +substantiate his statements by quotations either from the scriptures of +the Jews, or from some they had not heard of, or from those of the +Greeks, or from _his own_ scriptures (R. II. xxxviii). + +Simon argues that finding the God of the Law imperfect, he concludes +this is not the supreme God. After a wordy harangue of Peter, Simon is +said to have been worsted by Peter's threatening to go to Simon's +bed-chamber and question the soul of the murdered boy. Simon flies to +Tyre (H.) or Tripolis (R.), and Peter determines to pursue him among the +Gentiles. + +The two accounts here become exceedingly contradictory and confused. +According to the _Homilies_, Simon flees from Tyre to Tripolis, and +thence further to Syria. The main dispute takes place at Laodicaea on the +unity of God (XVI. i). Simon appeals to the _Old Testament_ to show that +there are many gods (XVI. iv); shows that the scriptures contradict +themselves (XVI. ix); accuses Peter of using magic and teaching +doctrines different to those taught by Christ (XVII. ii-iv); asserts +that Jesus is not consistent with himself (XVII. v); that the maker of +the world is not the highest God (XVIII. i); and declares the Ineffable +Deity (XVIII. iv).[70] Peter of course refutes him (XVIII. xii-xiv), and +Simon retires. + +The last incident of interest takes place at Antioch. Simon stirs up the +people against Peter by representing him as an impostor. Friends of +Peter set the authorities on Simon's track, and he has to flee. At +Laodicaea he meets Faustinianus (R.), or Faustus (H.), the father of +Clement, who rebukes him (H. XIX. xxiv); and so he changes the face of +Faustinianus into an exact likeness of his own that he may be taken in +his place (H. XX. xii; R.X. liii). Peter sends the transformed +Faustinianus to Antioch, who, in the guise of Simon, makes a confession +of imposture and testifies to the divine mission of Peter. Peter +accordingly enters Antioch in triumph. + +The story of Simon in the _Apostolic Constitutions_ is short and taken +from the _Acts_, and to some extent from the Clementines, finishing up, +however, with the mythical death of Simon at Rome, owing to the prayers +of Peter. Simon is here said to be conducted by daemons and to have +flown ([Greek: hiptato]) upwards. The details of this magical feat are +given variously elsewhere.[71] + +The only point of real interest is a vague reference to Simonian +literature (VI. xvi), in a passage which runs as follows: + + For we know that the followers of Simon and Cleobius having + composed poisonous books in the name of Christ and his disciples, + carry them about for the deception of you who have loved Christ and + us his servants.[72] + +So end the most important of the legends. To these, however, must be +added others of a like nature of which the scene of action is laid at +Rome in the time of Nero.[73] I have not thought it worth while to refer +to the original texts for these utterly apocryphal and unauthenticated +stories, but simply append a very short digest from the excellent +summary of Dr. Salmon, the Regius Professor of Divinity in Dublin +University, as given in Smith and Wace's _Dictionary of Christian +Biography_.[74] + +The Greek _Acts of Peter and Paul_ give details of the conflict and +represent both apostles as having taken part in it. Simon and Peter are +each required to raise a dead body to life. Simon, by his magic, makes +the head move, but as soon as he leaves the body it again becomes +lifeless. Peter, however, by his prayers effects a real resurrection. +Both are challenged to divine what the other is planning. Peter prepares +blessed bread, and takes the emperor into the secret. Simon cannot guess +what Peter has been doing, and so raises hell-hounds who rush on Peter, +but the presentation of the blessed bread causes them to vanish. + +In the _Acts of Nereus and Achilleus_,[75] another version of the story +is given. Simon had fastened a great dog at his door in order to prevent +Peter entering. Peter by making the sign of the cross renders the dog +tame towards himself, but so furious against his master Simon that the +latter had to leave the city in disgrace. + +Simon, however, still retains the emperor's favour by his magic power. +He pretends to permit his head to be cut off, and by the power of +glamour appears to be decapitated, while the executioner really cuts off +the head of a ram. + +The last act of the drama is the erection of a wooden tower in the +Campus Martius, and Simon is to ascend to heaven in a chariot of fire. +But, through the prayers of Peter, the two daemons who were carrying him +aloft let go their hold and so Simon perishes miserably. + +Dr. Salmon connects this with the story, told by Suetonius[76] and Dio +Chrysostom,[77] that Nero caused a wooden theatre to be erected in the +Campus, and that a gymnast who tried to play the part of Icarus fell so +near the emperor as to bespatter him with blood. + +So much for these motley stories; here and there instructive, but mostly +absurd. I shall now endeavour to sift out the rubbish from this +patristic and legendary heap, and perhaps we shall find more of value +than at present appears. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 1: Smith's _Dictionary of the Bible_, art. "Acts of the +Apostles."] + +[Footnote 2: _Ibid._] + +[Footnote 3: Lit. powers.] + +[Footnote 4: The Romans.] + +[Footnote 5: Claudius was the fourth of the Caesars, and reigned from +A.D. 41-54.] + +[Footnote 6: Lit., stood on a roof; an Eastern metaphor.] + +[Footnote 7: The technical term for this transmigration, used by +Pythagoreans and others, is [Greek: metangismos], the pouring of water +from one vessel ([Greek: angos]) into another.] + +[Footnote 8: This famous lyric poet, whose name was Tisias, and +honorific title Stesichorus, was born about the middle of the seventh +century B.C., in Sicily. The story of his being deprived of sight by +Castor and Pollux for defaming their sister Helen is mentioned by many +classical writers. The most familiar quotation is the Horatian (_Ep._ +xvii. 42-44): + + Infamis Helenae Castor offensus vicem + Fraterque magni Castoris victi prece. + Adempta vati redidere lumina. + +[Footnote 9: That is to say, the heretics.] + +[Footnote 10: In a preceding part of the book against the "Magicians."] + +[Footnote 11: _Deuteronomy_, iv. 24.] + +[Footnote 12: Heracleitus of Ephesus flourished about the end of the +sixth century B.C. He was named the obscure from the difficulty of his +writings.] + +[Footnote 13: I put the few direct quotations we have from Simon in +italics.] + +[Footnote 14: _Isaiah_, v. 7.] + +[Footnote 15: _I Peter_, i. 24.] + +[Footnote 16: Empedocles of Agrigentum, in Sicily, flourished about B.C. +444.] + +[Footnote 17: [Greek: phronaesis], consciousness?] + +[Footnote 18: Syzygies.] + +[Footnote 19: _Isaiah_, i. 2.] + +[Footnote 20: _I Corinth._, xi. 32.] + +[Footnote 21: [Greek: to maeketi ginomenon.]] + +[Footnote 22: See _Jeremiah_, i. 5.] + +[Footnote 23: _Genesis_, ii, 10.] + +[Footnote 24: Veins and arteries are said not to have been distinguished +by ancient physiologists.] + +[Footnote 25: A lacuna unfortunately occurs here in the text. The +missing words probably identified "that which is commonly called by +everyone the navel" with the umbilical cord.] + +[Footnote 26: This is omitted by Miller in the first Oxford edition.] + +[Footnote 27: _Odyssey_, x. 304, _seqq._] + +[Footnote 28: [Greek: logos].] + +[Footnote 29: Cf. _Isaiah_, ii. 4.] + +[Footnote 30: Cf. _Luke_, iii. 9.] + +[Footnote 31: Or adorning.] + +[Footnote 32: _Genesis_, iii. 24.] + +[Footnote 33: [Greek: logos]; also reason.] + +[Footnote 34: [Greek: antistoichountes]; used in Xenophon (_Ana._ v. 4, +12) of two bands of dancers facing each other in rows or pairs.] + +[Footnote 35: He who has stood, stands and will stand.] + +[Footnote 36: Thought.] + +[Footnote 37: The Middle Distance.] + +[Footnote 38: There is a lacuna in the text here.] + +[Footnote 39: [Greek: dia taes idias epignoseos.]] + +[Footnote 40: Undergo the passion.] + +[Footnote 41: [Greek: paredrous] C.W. King calls these "Assessors." +(_The Gnostics and their Remains_, p. 70.)] + +[Footnote 42: This is presumably meant for a grim patristic joke.] + +[Footnote 43: A medicinal drug used by the ancients, especially as a +specific against madness.] + +[Footnote 44: The conducting of souls to or from the invisible world.] + +[Footnote 45: [Greek: prounikos: prouneikos] is one who bears burdens, a +carrier; in a bad sense it means lewd.] + +[Footnote 46: Or the conception (of the mind).] + +[Footnote 47: Cf. 1 _Thess_., v. 8.] + +[Footnote 48: A famous actor and mime writer who flourished in the time +of Augustus (circa A.D. 7); there are extant some doubtful fragments of +Philistion containing moral sentiments from the comic poets.] + +[Footnote 49: [Greek: plaeroma]] + +[Footnote 50: Scripture.] + +[Footnote 51: _Matth._, v. 17.] + +[Footnote 52: _John_, v. 46, 47.] + +[Footnote 53: _Matth._, xix. 10-12.] + +[Footnote 54: _Matth._, xix. 6.] + +[Footnote 55: [Greek _archae_] the same word is translated "dominion" +when applied to the aeons of Simon.] + +[Footnote 56: _Genesis_, i. 1.] + +[Footnote 57: _Matth._, xi. 25.] + +[Footnote 58: "The all-evil Daemon, the avenger of men," of the +Prologue.] + +[Footnote 59: Mythologies.] + +[Footnote 60: "Rootage," rather, to coin a word. [Greek: rizoma] must be +distinguished from [Greek: riza], a root, the word used a few sentences +later.] + +[Footnote 61: _Dictionary of Christian Biography_ (Ed. Smith and Wace), +art. "Clementine Literature," I. 575.] + +[Footnote 62: _Dictionary of Sects, Heresies_, etc. (Ed. Blunt), art. +"Ebionites."] + +[Footnote 63: The two accounts are combined in the following digest, and +in the references H. stands for the _Homiles_ and R. for the +_Recognitions_.] + +[Footnote 64: Some twenty-three miles.] + +[Footnote 65: We have little information of the Hemero-baptists, or +Day-baptists. They are said to have been a sect of the Jews and to have +been so called for daily performing certain ceremonial ablutions +(Epiph., _Contra Haer._, I. 17). It is conjectured that they were a sect +of the Pharisees who agreed with the Sadducees in denying the +resurrection. _The Apostolic Constitutions_ (VI. vii) tell us of the +Hemero-baptists, that "unless they wash themselves every day they do not +eat, nor will they use a bed, dish, bowl, cup, or seat, unless they have +purified it with water."] + +[Footnote 66: [Greek: kata ton taes suzugias logon.]] + +[Footnote 67: This has led to the conjecture that the translation was +made from the false reading Selene instead of Helene, while Bauer has +used it to support his theory that Justin and those who have followed +him confused the Phoenician worship of solar and lunar divinities of +similar names with the worship of Simon and Helen.] + +[Footnote 68: This is not to be confused with the Dositheus of Origen, +who claimed to be a Christ, says Matter (_Histoire Critique du +Gnosticisme_, Tom. i. p. 218, n. 1st. ed., 1828).] + +[Footnote 69: An elemental.] + +[Footnote 70: [Greek: pataer en aporraetois].] + +[Footnote 71: Hegesippus (_De Bello Judaico_, iii. 2), Abdias (_Hist._, +i, towards the end), and Maximus Taurinensis (_Patr. VI. Synodi ad Imp. +Constant._, Act. 18), say that Simon flew like Icarus; whereas in +Arnobius (_Contra Gentes_, ii) and the Arabic Preface to Council of +Nicaea there is talk of a chariot of fire, or a car that he had +constructed.] + +[Footnote 72: Cotelerius in a note (i. 347, 348) refers the reader to +the passages in the _Recognitions_ and in Jerome's _Commentary on +Matthew_, which I have already quoted. He also says that the author of +the book, _De Divinis Nominibus_ (C. 6), speaks of "the controversial +sentences of Simon" ([Greek: Simonos antirraetikoi logoi]). The author +is the Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, and I shall quote later on some +of these sentences, though from a very uncertain source. Cotelerius also +refers to the Arabic Preface to the Nicaean Council. The text referred +to will be found in the Latin translation of Abrahamus Echellensis, +given in Labbe's _Concilia (Sacrorum Conciliorum Nova Collectio_, edd. +Phil. Labbaeus et Gabr. Cossartius, S.J., Florentiae, 1759, Tom. ii, p. +1057, col. 1), and runs as follows: + + "Those traitors (the Simonians) fabricated for themselves a gospel, + which they divided into four books, and called it the 'Book of the + Four Angles and Points of the World.' All pursue magic zealously, + and defend it, wearing red and rose-coloured threads round the neck + in sign of a compact and treaty entered into with the devil their + seducer." + +As to the books of the followers of Cleobius we have no further +information.] + +[Footnote 73: A.D. 54-68.] + +[Footnote 74: Art. "Simon Magus," Vol. IV. p. 686.] + +[Footnote 75: Bolland, _Acta SS._ May iii. 9.] + +[Footnote 76: vi. 12.] + +[Footnote 77: _Orat._ xxi. 9.] + + + + +PART II. + +A REVIEW OF AUTHORITIES. + + +The student will at once perceive that though the Simon of the _Acts_ +and the Simon of the fathers both retain the two features of the +possession of magical power and of collision with Peter, the tone of the +narratives is entirely different. Though the apostles are naturally +shown as rejecting with indignation the pecuniary offer of the +thaumaturge, they display no hate for his personality, whereas the +fathers depict him as the vilest of impostors and charlatans and hold +him up to universal execration. The incident of Simon's offering money +to Peter is admittedly taken by the fathers from this account, and +therefore their repetition in no way corroborates the story. Hence its +authenticity rests entirely with the writer of the _Acts_, for Justin, +who was a native of Samaria, does not mention it. As the _Acts_ are not +quoted from prior to A.D. 177, and their writer is only traditionally +claimed to be Luke, we may safely consider ourselves in the domain of +legend and not of history. + +The same may be said of all the incidents of Simon's career; they +pertain to the region of fable and probably owe their creation to the +Patristic and Simonian controversies of later ages. + +The Simon of Justin gives us the birthplace of Simon as at Gitta, and +the rest of the fathers follow suit with variation of the name. Gitta, +Gittha, Gittoi, Gitthoi, Gitto, Gitton, Gitteh, so run the variants. +This, however, is a matter of no great importance, and the little burg +is said to-day to be called Gitthoi.[78] + +The statement of Justin as to the statue of Simon at Rome with the +inscription "SIMONI DEO SANCTO" has been called in question by every +scholar since the discovery in 1574 of a large marble fragment in the +island of the Tiber bearing the inscription "SEMONI SANCO DEO FIDIO," a +Sabine God. A few, however, think that Justin could not have made so +glaring a mistake in writing to the Romans, and that if it were a +mistake Irenaeus would not have copied it. The coincidence, however, is +too striking to bear any other interpretation than that perhaps some +ignorant controversialist had endeavoured to give the legend a +historical appearance, and that Justin had lent a too ready ear to him. +It is also to be noticed that Justin tells us that nearly all the +Samaritans were Simonians. + +We next come to the Simon of Irenaeus which, owing to many similarities, +is supposed by scholars to have been taken from Justin's account, if not +from the _Apology_, at any rate from Justin's lost work on heresies +which he speaks of in the _Apology_. Or it may be that both borrowed +from some common source now lost to us. + +The story of Helen is here for the first time given. Whether or not +there was a Helen we shall probably never know. The "lost sheep" was a +necessity of every Gnostic system, which taught the descent of the soul +into matter. By whatever name called, whether Sophia, Acamoth, Prunicus, +Barbelo, the glyph of the Magdalene, out of whom seven devils are cast, +has yet to be understood, and the mystery of the Christ and the seven +aeons, churches or assemblies (_ecclesiae_), in every man will not be +without significance to every student of Theosophy. These data are +common to all Gnostic aeonology. + +If it is argued that Simon was the first inventor of this aeonology, it +is astonishing that his name and that of Helen should not have had some +recognition in the succeeding systems. If, on the contrary, it is +maintained that he used existing materials for his system, and explained +away his improper connection with Helen by an adaptation of the +Sophia-mythos, it is difficult to understand how such a palpable +absurdity could have gained any credence among such cultured adherents +as the Simonians evidently were. In either case the Gnostic tradition is +shown to be pre-Christian. Every initiated Gnostic, however, must have +known that the mythos referred to the World-Soul in the Cosmos and the +Soul in man. + +The accounts of the _Acts_ and of Justin and Irenaeus are so confusing +that it has been supposed that two Simons are referred to.[79] For if he +claimed to be a reincarnation of Jesus, appearing in Jerusalem as the +Son, he could not have been contemporary with the apostles. It follows, +therefore, that either he made no such claim; or if he made the claim, +Justin and Irenaeus had such vague information that they confused him +with the Simon of the _Acts_; or that the supposition is not +well-founded, and Simon was simply inculcating the esoteric doctrine of +the various manifestations or descents of one and the same Christ +principle. + +The Simon of Tertullian again is clearly taken from Irenaeus, as the +critics are agreed. "Tertullian evidently knows no more than he read in +Irenaeus," says Dr. Salmon.[80] + +It is only when we come to the Simon of the _Philosophumena_ that we +feel on any safe ground. The prior part of it is especially precious on +account of the quotations from _The Great Revelation_ ([Greek: hae +megalae apophasis]) which we hear of from no other source. The author of +_Philosophumena_, whoever he was, evidently had access to some of the +writings of the Simonians, and here at last we have arrived at any thing +of real value in our rubbish heap. + +It was not until the year 1842 that Minoides Mynas brought to Paris from +Mount Athos, on his return from a commission given him by the French +Government, a fourteenth-century MS. in a mutilated condition. This was +the MS. of our _Philosophumena_ which is supposed to have been the work +of Hippolytus. The authorship, however, is still uncertain, as will +appear by what will be said about the Simon of Epiphanius and Philaster. + +The latter part of the section on Simon in the _Philosophumena_ is not +so important, and is undoubtedly taken from Irenaeus or from the +anti-heretical treatise of Justin, or from the source from which both +these fathers drew. The account of the death of Simon, however, shows +that the author was not Hippolytus from whose lost work Epiphanius and +Philaster are proved by Lipsius to have taken their accounts. + +The Simon of Origen gives us no new information, except as to the small +number of the Simonians. But like other data in his controversial +writings against the Gnostic philosopher Celsus we can place little +reliance on his statement, for Eusebius Pamphyli writing in A.D. 324-5, +a century afterwards, speaks of the Simonians as still considerable in +numbers.[81] + +The Simon of Epiphanius and Philaster leads us to speak of a remarkable +feat of scholarship performed by R.A. Lipsius,[82] the learned professor +of divinity in the university of Jena. From their accounts he has +reconstructed to some extent a lost work of Hippolytus against heresies +of which a description was given by Photius. This treatise was founded +on certain discourses of Irenaeus. By comparing Philaster, Epiphanius, +and the Pseudo-Tertullian, he recovers Hippolytus, and by comparing his +restored Hippolytus with Irenaeus he infers a common authority, probably +the lost work of Justin Martyr, or, may we suggest, as remarked above, +the work from which Justin got his information.[83] + +The Simon of Theodoret differs from that of his predecessor only in one +or two important details of the aeonology, a fact that has presumably +led Matter to suppose that he has introduced some later Gnostic ideas +or confused the teachings of the later Simonians with those of +Simon.[84] + +The Simon of the legends is so entirely outside any historical +criticism, and the stories gleaned from the _Homilies_ and +_Recognitions_ are so evidently fabrications--most probably added to the +doctrinal narrative at a later date--and so obviously the stock-in-trade +legends of magic, that not a solitary scholar supports their +authenticity. Probably one of the reasons for this is the strong +Ebionism of the narratives, which is by no means palatable to the +orthodox taste. In this connection the following table of the Ebionite +scheme of emanation may be of interest: + + GOD. + (The One Being, the Principle of all things.) + ______________________________________^___________________________________ + / \ + SPIRIT. MATTER. + | The Four elements. + | (This mixture produces) + | | + | | + THE SON. THE DEVIL. + (The Leader of the future cycle.) (The leader of the present cycle.) + | | + | | + GREAT THINGS. LITTLE THINGS. + (Heaven, light, life, etc.) (Earth, fire, death, etc.) + | | + | | + ADAM. EVE. + (Truth.) (Error.) + \________________ _______________/ + \ / + MAN. + (The union of Spirit and Body, of Truth and Error.) + ________________/ \_______________ + / \ + INFERIOR MEN. SUPERIOR MEN. + Ishmael. Isaac. + Esau. Jacob. + Aaron. Moses. + John the Baptist. Jesus. + Antichrist. Christ. +\_____________________________________ ___________________________________/ + V + GOD. + (Completion, rest.)[85] + +There remains but to mention the curious theory of Bauer and the +Tubingen school. It is now established by recent theological criticism +that the Clementine writings were the work of some member or members of +the Elkesaites, a sect of the Ebionites, and that they were written at +Rome somewhere in the third century. The Elkessaeans or Elkesaites +founded their creed on a book called _Elkesai_, which purported to be an +angelic revelation and which was remarkable for its hostility to the +apostle Paul. As the _Recognitions_ contain much anti-Paulinism, Bauer +and his school not only pointed out the Ebionite source of the +Clementine literature, but also put forward the theory that whenever +Simon Magus is mentioned Paul is intended; and that the narrative of the +_Acts_ and the legends simply tell the tale of the jealousy of the elder +apostles to Paul, and their attempt to keep him from the fullest +enjoyment of apostolic privileges. But the latest scholarship shakes its +head gravely at the theory, and however bitter controversialists the +anti-Paulinists may have been, it is not likely that they would have +gone so far out of their way to vent their feelings in so grotesque a +fashion. + +In conclusion of this Part let us take a general review of our +authorities with regard to the life of Simon and the immoral practices +attributed to his followers, including a few words of notice on the lost +Simonian literature, and reserving the explanation of his system and +some notice of magical practices for Part III. + +I have distinguished the Simon of the fathers from the Simon of the +legends, as to biography, "by convention" and not "by nature," as the +Simonians would say, for the one and the other is equally on a mythical +basis. It is easy to understand that the rejection of the Simon of the +legends is a logical necessity for those who have to repudiate the +Ebionite Clementines. Admit the authenticity of the narrative as regards +Simon, and the authenticity of the other incidents about John the +Baptist and Peter would have to be acknowledged; but this would never +do, so Simon escapes from the clutches of his orthodox opponents as far +as this count is concerned. + +But the biographical incidents in the fathers are of a similar nature +precisely to those in the Clementines, and their sources of information +are so vague and unreliable, and at such a distance from the time of +their supposed occurrence, that we have every reason to place them in +the same category with the Clementine legends. Therefore, whether we +reject the evidence or accept it, we must reject both accounts or accept +both. To reject the one and accept the other is a prejudice that a +partisan may be guilty of, but a position which no unbiassed enquirer +can with justice take up. + +The legends, however, may find some excuse when it is remembered that +they were current in a period when the metal of religious controversy +was glowing at white heat. Orthodox Christians had their ears still +tingling with the echoing of countless accusations of the foulest nature +to which they had been subjected. Not a crime that was known or could be +imagined that had not been brought against them; they naturally, +therefore, returned the compliment when they could do so with safety, +and though in these more peaceful and tolerant days much as we may +regret the flinging backwards and forwards of such vile accusations, we +may still find some excuse for it in the passionate enthusiasm of the +times, always, however, remembering that the readiest in accusation and +in putting the worst construction on the actions of others, is generally +one who unconsciously brings a public accusation against his own lower +nature. + +This has been well noticed by Matter, who writes as follows: + + "There is nothing so impure," says Eusebius, "and one cannot + imagine anything so criminal, but the sect of the Simonians goes + far beyond it."[86] + + The bolt of Eusebius is strong; it is even too strong; for one can + imagine nothing that goes beyond the excess of criminality; and + Eusebius, belonging to a community who were just escaping from + punishments into which accusations no less grave had caused them to + be dragged, should not perhaps have allowed himself to speak as he + does. But man is made thus; he pursues when he ceases to be + pursued.[87] + +All societies that have secret rites and a public position, as was the +case with all the early communities of Christians and Gnostics, have had +like accusations brought against them. The communities of the Simonians +and Christians may or may not have been impure, it is now impossible to +pronounce a positive opinion. The important point to notice is that the +accusations being identical and the evidence or want of evidence the +same, condemnation or acquittal must be meted out to both; and that if +one is condemned and the other acquitted, the judgment will stand +condemned as biassed, and therefore be set aside by those who prefer +truth to prejudice. + +So eager were the fathers to discredit Simon that they contradict +themselves in the most flagrant fashion on many important points. On the +one hand we hear that Samaria received the seed of the Word from the +apostles and Simon in despair had to flee, on the other hand Justin, a +native of Samaria, tells us, a century after this supposed event, that +nearly all the Samaritans are Simonians. The accounts of Simon's death +again are contradictory; if Simon perished so miserably at Rome, it is +the reverse of probable that the Romans would have set up a statue in +his honour. But, indeed, it is a somewhat thankless task to criticize +such manifest inventions; we know the source of their inspiration, and +we know the fertility of the religious imagination, especially in +matters of controversy, and this is a sufficient sieve wherewith to sift +them out of our heap. + +I must now say a few words on Simonian literature of which the only +geniune specimens we can in any way be certain are the quotations from +the _Apophasis_ of Simon in the text of the _Philosophumena_. + +That there was a body of Simonian scriptures is undoubtedly true, as may +be seen from the passages we have quoted from the _Recognitions_, +Jerome, Pseudo-Dionysius and the Arabic Preface to the Nicaean Council, +and for some time I was in hopes of being able to collect at least some +scattered fragments of these works, but they have all unfortunately +shared the fate of much else of value that the ignorance and fear of +orthodoxy has committed to the flames. We know at any rate that there +was a book called _The Four Quarters of the World_, just as the four +orthodox gospels are dedicated to the signs of the four quarters in the +old MSS., and that a collection of sentences or controversial replies of +Simon were also held in repute by Simonians and were highly distasteful +to their opponents. Matter[88] and Amelineau[89] speak of a book by the +disciples of Simon called _De la Predication de S. Paul_, but neither +from their references nor elsewhere can I find out any further +information. In Migne's _Encyclopedie Theologique_,[90] also, a +reference is given to M. Miller (_Catalogue des Manuscripts Grecs de +l'Escurial_, p. 112), who is said to mention a Greek MS. on the subject +of Simon ("un ecrit en grec relatif a Simon"). But I cannot find this +catalogue in the British Museum, nor can I discover any other mention of +this MS. in any other author. + +At last I thought that I had discovered something of real value in +Grabe's _Spicilegium_, purporting to be gleanings of fragments from the +heretics of the first three centuries A.D.,[91] but the date of the +authority is too late to be of much value. Grabe refers to the +unsatisfactory references I have already given and, to show the nature +of these books, according to the opinion of the unknown author or +authors of the _Apostolic Constitutions_ (Grabe calls him the +"collector," and for some reason best known to himself places him in the +fourth century[92]), quotes the following passage from their legendary +pages. + +"Such were the doings of these people with names of ill-omen slandering +the creation and marriage, providence, child-bearing, the Law and the +Prophets; setting down foreign names of Angels, as indeed they +themselves say, but in reality, of Daemons, who answer back to them from +below." + +It is only when Grabe refers to the Simonian _Antirrhetikoi Logoi_, +mentioned by the Pseudo-Dionysius, which he calls "vesani Simonis +Refutatorii Sermones," that we get any new information. + +A certain Syrian bishop, Moses Barcephas, writing in the tenth +century,[93] professes to preserve some of these controversial retorts +of Simon, which the pious Grabe--to keep this venom, as he calls it, +apart from the orthodox refutation--has printed in italics. The +following is the translation of these italicized passages: + +"God willed that Adam should not eat of that tree; but he did eat; he, +therefore, did not remain as God willed him to remain: it results, +therefore, that the maker of Adam was impotent." + +"God willed that Adam should remain in Paradise; but he of his own +disgraceful act fell from thence: therefore the God that made Adam was +impotent, inasmuch as he was unable of his own will to keep him in +Paradise." + +"(For) he interdicted (he said) Adam from the tree of the knowledge of +good and evil, by tasting which he would have had power to judge between +good and evil, and to avoid this, and follow after that." + +"But (said he) had not that maker of Adam forbidden him to eat of that +tree, he would in no way have undergone this judgment and this +punishment; for hence is evil here, in that he (Adam) had done contrary +to the bidding of God, for God had ordered him not to eat, and he had +eaten." + +"Through envy (said he) he forbade Adam to taste of the tree of life, so +that, of course, he should not be immortal." + +"For what reason on earth (said he) did God curse the serpent? For if +(he cursed him) as the one who caused the harm, why did he not restrain +him from so doing, that is, from seducing Adam? But if (he cursed him) +as one who had brought some advantage, in that he was the cause of +Adam's eating of that good tree, it needs must follow that he was +distinctly unrighteous and envious; lastly, if, although from neither of +these reasons, he still cursed him, he (the maker of Adam) should most +certainly be accused of ignorance and folly." + +Now although there seems no reason why the above contentions should not +be considered as in substance the arguments employed by Simon against +his antagonists of the dead-letter, yet the tenth century is too late to +warrant verbal accuracy, unless there may have been some Syrian +translation which escaped the hands of the destroyers. The above quoted +specimen of traditionary Simonian logic, however, is interesting, and +will, we believe, be found not altogether out of date in our own +times.[94] + +Finally, there is one further point that I have reserved for the end of +this Part in order that my readers may constantly keep it in mind during +the perusal of the Part which follows. + +We must always remember that every single syllable we possess about +Simon comes from the hands of bitter opponents, from men who had no +mercy or toleration for the heretic. The heretic was accursed, condemned +eternally by the very fact of his heresy; an emissary of Satan and the +natural enemy of God. There was no hope for him, no mercy for him; he +was irretrievably damned.[95] The Simon of our authorities has no +friend; no one to say a word in his favour; he is hounded down the +byways of "history" and the highways of tradition, and to crush him is +to do God service. One solitary ray of light beams forth in the fragment +of his work called _The Great Revelation_, one solitary ray, that will +illumine the garbled accounts of his doctrine, and speak to the +Theosophists of to-day in no uncertain tones that each may say: + + Methinks there is much reason in his sayings. If thou consider + rightly of the matter, [Simon] has had great wrong.[96] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 78: M.E. Amelineau, "Essai sur le Gnosticisme Egyptien," +_Annales du Musee Guimet_, Tom. xvi. p. 28.] + +[Footnote 79: Mosheim's _Institutes of Ecclesiastical History_ (Trans. +etc., Murdock and Soames; ed. Stubbs 1863), Vol. I., p. 87, note, gives +the following list of those who have maintained the theory of two +Simons: Vitringa, _Observ. Sacrar._, v. 12, Sec. 9, p. 159, C.A. Heumann, +_Acta Erudit. Lips._ for April, A.D. 1727, p. 179, and Is. de Beausobre, +_Diss. sur l'Adamites_, pt. ii. subjoined to L'Enfants' _Histoire de la +Guerre des Hussites_, i. 350, etc. Dr. Salmon also holds this theory.] + +[Footnote 80: _Dict. Christ. Biog._, art. "Helena," Vol. II, p. 880.] + +[Footnote 81: _Hist. Eccles._, ii. 13.] + +[Footnote 82: _Quellenkritik des Epiphanios_.] + +[Footnote 83: _Cf._ Dr. Salmon's art. "Hippolytus Romanus," _Dict. +Christ. Biog._, iii. 93, 94.] + +[Footnote 84: _Histoire Critique du Gnosticisme_, Tom. i. p. 197 (1st +ed. 1828).] + +[Footnote 85: _Les Bibles, et les Initiateurs Religieux de l'Humanite_, +Louis Leblois, i. 144; from Uhlhorn, _Die Homilien und Recognitionen_, +p. 224.] + +[Footnote 86: _Hist. Eccles._, ii. 13.] + +[Footnote 87: _Op. cit._, i. 213.] + +[Footnote 88: _Op. cit._, ii. 217.] + +[Footnote 89: _Op. cit._, 32.] + +[Footnote 90: Tom. xxiii, "Dictionnaire des Apocryphes," Vol. II., +Index, pp. lxviii, lxix.] + +[Footnote 91: _Spicilegium SS. Patrum ut et Haereticorum Saeculorum post +Christum natum, I, II et III_; Johannes Ernestus Grabius; Oxoniae, 1714, +ed. alt., Vol. I., pp. 305-312.] + +[Footnote 92: P. 306.] + +[Footnote 93: _Comment. de Paradiso_, c. i., pp. 200, _et seqq._, +editionis Antverpiensis, anno 1567, in 8vo.] + +[Footnote 94: Grabe is also interesting for a somewhat wild speculation +which he quotes from a British Divine (apud Usserium in _Antiquitatibus +Eccles. Britannicae_), that the tonsure of the monks was taken from the +Simonians. (Grabe, _op. cit._, p, 697.)] + +[Footnote 95: In the epistle of St. Ignatius _Ad Trallianos_ (Sec. 11), +Simon is called "the first-born Son of the Devil" ([Greek: prototokon +Diabolou huion]); and St. Polycarp seems to refer to Simon in the +following passage in his Epistle _Ad Philipp._ (Sec. 7): + +"Everyone who shall not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, +is antichrist, and who shall not confess the martyrdom of the cross, is +of the Devil; and he who translates the words of the Lord according to +his own desires, and says there is neither resurrection nor judgment, he +is _the first-born of Satan_."] + + + + + +PART III. + +THE THEOSOPHY OF SIMON. + + +In treating of eschatology and the beginning of things the human mind is +ever beset with the same difficulties, and no matter how grand may be +the effort of the intellect to transcend itself, the finite must ever +fail to comprehend the infinite. How much less then can words define +that which even the whole phenomenal universe fails to express! The +change from the One to the Many is not to be described. How the +All-Deity becomes the primal Trinity, is the eternal problem set for +man's solution. No system of religion or philosophy has ever explained +this inexplicable mystery, for it cannot be understood by the embodied +Soul, whose vision and comprehension are dulled by the grossness of its +physical envelope. Even the illuminated Soul that quits its prison +house, to bathe in the light of infinitude, can only recollect flashes +of the Vision Glorious once it returns again to earth. + +And this is also the teaching of Simon when he says: + + I say there are many gods, but one God of all these gods, + incomprehensible and unknown to all, ... a Power of immeasurable + and ineffable Light, whose greatness is held to be + incomprehensible, a Tower which the maker of the world does not + know. + +This is a fundamental dogma of the Gnosis in all climes and in all ages. +The demiurgic deity is not the All-Deity, for there is an infinite +succession of universes, each having its particular deity, its Brahma, +to use the Hindu term, but this Brahma is not THAT which is +Para-Brahman, that which is beyond Brahma. + +This view of the Simonian Gnosis has been magnificently anticipated in +the _Rig Veda_ (x. 129) which reads in the fine translation of +Colebrooke as follows: + + That, whence all this great creation came, + Whether Its will created or was mute, + The Most High Seer that is in highest Heaven, + He knows it--or perchance even He knows not. + +In treating of emanation, evolution, creation or whatever other term may +be given to the process of manifestation, therefore, the teachers deal +only with one particular universe; the Unmanifested Root, and Universal +Cause of all Universes lying behind, in potentiality ([Greek: dynamis]), +in Incomprehensible Silence ([Greek: sigae akatalaeptos]). For on the +"Tongue of the Ineffable" are many "Words" ([Greek: logoi]), each +Universe having its own Logos. + +Thus then Simon speaks of the Logos of this Universe and calls it Fire +([Greek: pyr]). This is the Universal Principle or Beginning ([Greek: +ton holon archae]), or Universal Rootage ([Greek: rizoma ton holon]). +But this Fire is not the fire of earth; it is Divine Light and Life and +Mind, the Perfect Intellectual ([Greek: to teleion noeron]). It is the +One Power, "generating itself, increasing itself, seeking itself, +finding itself, its own mother, its own father, its sister, its spouse: +the daughter, son, mother, and father of itself; One, the Universal +Root." It is That, "which has neither beginning nor end, existing in +oneness." "Producing itself by itself, it manifested to itself its own +Thought ([Greek: epinoia])." + +It is quite true that this symbology of Fire is not original with +Simon, but there is also no reason to suppose that the Samaritan +teacher plagiarized from Heracleitus when we know that the major part of +antiquity regarded fire and the sun as the most fitting symbols of +Deity. Of the manifested elements, fire was the most potent, and +therefore the most fitting symbol that could be selected in manifested +nature. + +But what was the Fire of Heracleitus, the Obscure ([Greek: ho +skoteinos]), as Cicero, with the rest of the ancients, called him, +because of his difficult style? What was the Universal Principle of the +"weeping philosopher," the pessimist who valued so little the estimation +of the vulgar ([Greek: ochloloidoros])? It certainly was no common +"fire," certainly no puerile concept to be brushed away by the mere +hurling of an epithet. + +Heracleitus of Ephesus (_flor. c._ 503 B.C.) was a sincerely religious +man in the highest sense of the word, a reformer who strongly opposed +the degenerate polytheism and idolatry of his age; he insisted on the +impermanence of the phenomenal universe, of human affairs, beliefs and +opinions, and declared the One Eternal Reality; teaching that the Self +of man was a portion of the Divine Intelligence. The object of his +enquiry was Wisdom, and he reproached his vain-glorious countrymen of +the city of Diana with the words: "Your _knowledge_ of many things does +not give you _wisdom_." + +In his philosophy of nature he declared the One Thing to be Fire, but +Fire of a mystical nature, "self-kindled and self-extinguished," the +vital quickening power of the universe. It was that Universal Life, by +participation in which all things have their being, and apart from which +they are unsubstantial and unreal. This is the "Tree of Life" spoken of +by Simon. + +In this Ocean of Fire or Life--in every point or atom of it--is inherent +a longing to manifest itself in various forms, thus giving rise to the +perpetual flux and change of the phenomenal world. This Divine Desire, +this "love for everything that lives and breathes," is found in many +systems, and especially in the Vedic and Phoenician Cosmogony. In the +_Rig Veda_ (x. 129), it is that Kama or Desire "which first arose in It +(the Unknown Deity)," elsewhere identified with Agni or Fire. In the +fragments of Phoenician Cosmogony, recovered from Sanchuniathon, it is +called Pothos ([Greek: pothos]) and Eros ([Greek: eros]). + +In its pure state, the Living and Rational Fire of Heracleitus resides +in the highest conceivable Heaven, whence it descends stage by stage, +gradually losing the velocity of its motion and vitality, until it +finally reaches the Earth-stage, having previously passed through that +of "Water." Thence it returns to its parent source. + +In this eternal flux, the only repose was to be found in the harmony +that occasionally resulted from one portion of the Fire in its descent +meeting another in its ascent. All this took place under Law and Order, +and the Soul of man being a portion of the Fire in its pure state, and +therefore an exile here on Earth, could only be at rest by cultivating +as the highest good, contentment ([Greek: euarestaesis]), or +acquiescence to the Law. + +The author of the _Philosophumena_ professes to give us some additional +information on this philosopher who "bewailed all things, condemning the +ignorance of all that lives, and of all men, in pity for the life of +mortals," but the obscure philosopher does not lend himself very easily +to the controversial purposes of the patristic writer. Heracleitus +called the Universal Principle ([Greek: ton hapanton archae]) +Intellectual Fire ([Greek: pur noeron]), and said that the sphere +surrounding us and reaching to the Moon was filled with evil, but beyond +the Moon-sphere it was purer.[97] + +The sentences that the author quotes from Heracleitus in Book IX, are +not only obscure enough in themselves, but are also rendered all the +more obscure by the polemical treatment they are subjected to by the +patristic writer. Heracleitus makes the ALL inclusive of all Being and +Non-Being, all pairs of opposites, "differentiation and +non-differentiation, the generable and ingenerable, mortal and immortal, +the Logos and Aeon, and the Father and Son," which he calls the "Just +God." This ALL is the "Sadasat-Tatparam yat" of the _Bhagavad Gita_, +inclusive of Being (Sat), Non-Being (Asat), and That Which transcends +them (Tatparam yat).[98] + +This Logos plays an important part in the system of the Ephesian sage, +who says that they who give ear to the Logos (the Word or Supreme +Reason) know that "All is One" ([Greek: hen panta eidenai]). Such an +admission he calls, "Reflex Harmony" ([Greek: palintropos harmoniae]), +like unto the Supernal Harmony, which he calls Hidden or Occult, and +declares its superiority to the Manifested Harmony. The ignorance and +misery of men arise from their not acting according to this Harmony, +that is to say, according to (Divine) Nature ([Greek: kata phusin]). + +He also declares that the Aeon, the Emanative Deity, is as a child +playing at creation, an idea found in both the Hindu and Hermetic +Scriptures. In the former the Universe is said to be the sport (Lila) of +Vishnu, who is spoken of in one of his incarnations as Lilavatara, +descending on earth for his own pleasure, when as Krishna he assumed the +shape of man as a pretence (a purely Docetic doctrine), hence called +Lila-manusha-vigraha; while in the latter we learn from a magic papyrus +that Thoth (the God of Wisdom) created the world by bursting into "seven +peals of laughter." This, of course, typifies the Bliss of the Deity in +Emanation or Creation, caused by that Divine Love and Compassion for all +that lives and breathes, which is the well-spring of the Supreme Cause +of the Universe. + +Diving into the Mystery of Being, Heracleitus showed how a thing could +be good or evil, and evil or good, at one and the same time, as for +instance sea water which preserved and nourished fishes but destroyed +men. So also, speaking in his usual paradoxical manner, which can only +be understood by a full comprehension of the dual nature of man,--the +real divine entity, and the passing and ever-changing manifestation, +which so many take for the whole man--he says: + + The immortals are mortal, and the mortals immortal, the former + living the death of the latter, and the latter dying the life of + the former.[99] + +Thus all externals are transitory, for "no one has ever been twice on +the same stream, for different waters are constantly flowing down," and +therefore in following externals we shall err, for nothing is efficient +and forcible except through Harmony, and its subjection to the Divine +Fire, the central principle of Life. + +Such was the Fire of the distinguished Ephesian, and of like nature was +the Fire of Simon with its three primordial hypostases, Incorruptible +Form ([Greek: aphthartos morphae]), Universal Mind ([Greek: nous ton +holon]), and Great Thought ([Greek: epinoia megalae]), synthesized as +the Universal Logos, He who has stood, stands and will stand ([Greek: ho +estos, stas, staesomenos]). + +But before passing on to the aeonology of Simon, a short delay, to +enquire more fully into the notions of the Initiated among the ancients +as to the nature of Mystic Fire, will not be without advantage. + +If Simon was a Samaritan and learned in the esoteric interpretation of +scripture, he could not have failed to be acquainted with the Kabalah, +perhaps even with the now lost Chaldaean _Book of Numbers_. Among the +books of the Kabalah, the _Zohar_, or "Book of Splendour," speaks of the +mysterious "Hidden Light," that which Simon calls the Hidden Fire +([Greek: to krupton]), and tells us of the "Mystery of the Three Parts +of the Fire, which are One" as follows: + + Began Rabbi Sim-on and said: Two verses are written, "That YHVH thy + Elohim is a devouring fire, a zealous Ail (El)" (_Deut._, iv. 24); + again it is written, "But you that cleave unto YHVH your Elohim, + are alive, every one of you, this day" (_Deut._, iv. 4). On this + verse "That YHVH thy Elohim is a consuming fire," this we said to + the companions; That it is a fire which devours fire, and it is a + fire which devours itself and consumes itself, because it is a fire + which is more mighty than fire, and it has been so confirmed. But, + Come, See! Whoever desires to know the wisdom of the Holy Unity + should look in that flame arising from a burning coal or a lighted + lamp. This flame comes out only when united with another thing. + Come, See! In the flame which goes up are two lights: one light is + a bright white and one light is united with a dark or blue; the + white light is that which is above and ascends in a straight path, + and that below is that dark or blue light, and this light below is + the throne to the white light and that white light rests upon it, + and they unite one to the other so that they are one. And this dark + light, or blue colour, which is below, is the precious throne to + the white. And this is the mystery of the blue. And this blue dark + throne unites itself with another thing to light that from below, + and this awakes it to unite with the upper white light, and this + blue or dark, sometimes changes its colour, but that white above + never changes its colour, it is always white; but that blue changes + to these different colours, sometimes to blue or black and + sometimes to a red colour, and this unites itself to two sides. It + unites to the above, to that white upper light, and unites itself + below to the thing which is under it, which is the burning matter, + and this burns and consumes always from the matter below. And this + devours that matter below, which connects with it and upon which + the blue light rests, therefore this eats up all which connects + with it from below, because it is the nature of it, that it devour + and consume everything which depends on it and is dead matter, and + therefore it eats up everything which connects with it below, and + this white light which rests upon it never consumes itself and + never changes its light, and therefore said Moses; "That YHVH thy + Elohim is a consuming fire." Surely He consumes. It devours and + consumes every thing which rests under it; and on this he said: + "YHVH is thy Elohim" not "our Elohim," because Moses has been in + that white light, Above, which neither devours nor consumes. Come, + See! It is not His Will to light that blue light that should unite + with that white light, only for Israel; because they cleave or + connect under Him. And, Come, See! Although the nature of that dark + or blue light is, that it shall consume every thing which joins + with it below, still Israel cleaves on Him, Below, ... and although + you cleave in Him nevertheless you exist, because it is written: + "You are all alive this day." And on this white light rests above a + Hidden Light which is stronger. Here is the above mystery of that + flame which comes out from it, and in it is the Wisdom of the + Above.[100] + +And if Chaldaea gave the impulse which enshrined the workings of the +Cosmos in such graphic symbology as the above, we are not surprised to +read in the Chaldaean Oracles ([Greek: logia]),[101] ascribed to +Zoroaster, that "all things are generated from One Fire."[102] And this +Fire in its first energizing was intellectual; the first "Creation" was +of Mind and not of Works: + + For the Fire Beyond, the first, did not shut up its power ([Greek: + dunamis]) into Matter ([Greek: hulae]) by Works, but by Mind, for + the fashioner of the Fiery Cosmos is the Mind of Mind.[103] + +A striking similarity with the Simonian system, indeed, rendered all the +closer by the Oracle which speaks of that: + + Which first leaped forth from Mind, enveloping Fire with Fire, + binding them together that it might interblend the + mother-vortices,[104] while retaining the flower of its own + Fire.[105] + +This "flower" of Fire and the vorticle idea is further explained by the +Oracle which says: + + Thence a trailing whirlwind, the flower of shadowy Fire, leaping + into the wombs (or hollows) of worlds. For thence it is that all + things begin to stretch below their wondrous rays.[106] + +Compare this with the teaching of Simon that the "fruit" of the Tree is +placed in the Store-house and not cast into the Fire. + +In his aeonology, Simon, like other Gnostic teachers, begins with the +Word, the Logos, which springs up from the Depths of the +Unknown--Invisible, Incomprehensible Silence. It is true that he does +not so name the Great Power, He who has stood, stands and will stand; +but that which comes forth from Silence is Speech, and the idea is the +same whatever the terminology employed may be. Setting aside the +Hermetic teachings and those of the later Gnosis, we find this idea of +the Great Silence referred to several times in the fragments of the +Chaldaean Oracles. It is called "God-nourished Silence" ([Greek: sigae +theothremmon]), according to whose divine decrees the Mind that +energizes before all energies, abides in the Paternal Depth.[107] Again: + + This unswerving Deity is called the Silent One by the gods, and is + said to consent (lit. sing together) with the Mind, and to be known + by the Souls through Mind alone.[108] + +Elsewhere the Oracles demonstrate this Power which is prior to the +highest Heaven as "Mystic Silence."[109] + +The Word, then, issuing from Silence is first a Monad, then a Duad, a +Triad and a Hebdomad. For no sooner has differentiation commenced in it, +and it passes from the state of Oneness ([Greek: monotaes]), than the +Duadic and Triadic state immediately supervene, arising, so to say, +simultaneously in the mind, for the mind cannot rest on Duality, but is +forced by a law of its nature to rest only on the joint emanation of the +Two. Thus the first natural resting point is the Trinity. The next is +the Hebdomad or Septenary, according to the mathematical formula +2^{n}-1, the sum of _n_ things taken 1, 2, 3 ... _n_, at a time. The +Trinity being manifested, _n_ here =3; and 2^{3}-1 = 7. + +Thus Simon has six Roots and the Seventh Power, seven in all, as the +type of the Aeons in the Pleroma. These all proceed from the Fire. In +like manner also the Cabeiric deities of Samothrace and Phoenicia were +Fire-gods, born of the Fire. Nonnus tells us they were sons of the +mysterious Hephaestus (Vulcan),[110] and Eusebius, in his quotations +from Sanchuniathon, that they were _seven_ in number.[111] The Vedic +Agni (Ignis) also, the God of Fire, is called "Seven-tongued" +(Sapta-jihva) and "Seven-flamed" (Sapta-jvala).[112] + +In the _Hibbert Lectures_ of 1887, Prof. A.H. Sayce gives the following +Hymn of Ancient Babylonia to the Fire-god, from _The Cuneiform +Inscriptions of Western Asia_ (iv. 15): + + 1. The (bed) of the earth they took for their border, but the god + appeared not, + + 2. from the foundations of the earth he appeared not to make + hostility; + + 3. (to) the heaven below they extended (their path), and to the + heaven that is unseen they climbed afar. + + 4. In the Star(s) of Heaven was not their ministry; in Mazzaroth + (the Zodiacal signs) was their office. + + 5. The Fire-god, the first-born supreme, into heaven they pursued + and no father did he know. + + 6. O Fire-god, supreme on high, the first-born, the mighty, supreme + enjoiner of the commands of Anu! + + 7. The Fire-god enthrones with himself the friend that he loves. + + 8. He reveals the enmity of those seven. + + 9. On the work he ponders in his dwelling-place. + + 10. O Fire-god, how were those seven begotten, how were they + nurtured? + + 11. Those seven in the mountain of the sunset were born; + + 12. those seven in the mountain of the sunrise grew up. + + 13. In the hollows of the earth they have their dwelling; + + 14. on the high places of the earth their names are proclaimed. + + 15. As for them, in heaven and earth they have no dwelling, hidden + is their name. + + 16. Among the sentient gods they are not known. + + 17. Their name in heaven and earth exists not. + + 18. Those seven from the mountain of the sunset gallop forth; + + 19. those seven in the mountain of the sunrise are bound to rest. + + 20. In the hollows of the earth they set the foot. + + 21. On the high places of the earth they lift the neck. + + 22. They by nought are known; in heaven and in earth is no + knowledge of them.[113] + +Though I have no intention of contending that Simon obtained his ideas +specifically from Vedic, Chaldaean, Babylonian, Zoroastrian, or +Phoenician sources, still the identity of ideas and the probability, +almost amounting to conviction for the student, that the Initiated of +antiquity all drew from the same sources, shows that there was nothing +original in the main features of the Simonian system. + +This is also confirmed by the statements in Epiphanius and the +_Apostolic Constitutions_ that the Simonians gave "barbarous" or +"foreign names" to their Aeons. That is to say, names that were neither +Greek nor Hebrew. None of these names are mentioned by the Fathers, and +probably the Greek terms given by the author of the _Philosophumena_ and +Theodoret are exoteric equivalents of the mystery names. There is +abundant evidence, from gems, monuments and fragments, to show that +there was a mystery language employed by the Gnostic and other schools. +What this language was no scholar has yet been able to tell us, and it +is sufficiently evident that the efforts at decipherment are so far +abortive. The fullest and most precious examples of these names and of +this language are to be found in the papyri brought back by Bruce from +Abyssinia at the latter end of the last century.[114] + +Jamblichus tells us that the language of the Mysteries was that of +ancient Egypt and Assyria, which he calls "sacred nations," as follows: + + But, you ask, why among our symbolical terms ([Greek: saemantika]) + we prefer barbarous (words) to our respective native (tongues)? + There is also for this a mystic reason. For it was the gods who + taught the sacred nations, such as the Egyptians and Assyrians, the + whole of their sacred dialect, wherefore we think that we ought to + make our own dialects resemble the speech cognate with the gods. + Since also the first mode of speech in antiquity was of such a + nature, and especially since they who learnt the first names + concerning the gods, mingled them with their own tongue--as being + suited to such (names) and conformable to them--and handed them + down to us, we therefore keep unchanged the rule of this immemorial + tradition to our own times. For of all things that are suited to + the gods the most akin is manifestly that which is eternal and + immutable.[115] + +The existence of this sacred tongue perhaps accounts for the constant +distinction made by Homer between the language of the gods and that of +men.[116] Diodorus Siculus also asserts that the Samothracians used a +very ancient and peculiar dialect in their sacred rites.[117] + +These "barbarous names" were regarded as of the greatest efficacy and +sanctity, and it was unlawful to change them. As the Chaldaean Logia say: + + Change not the barbarous names, for in all the nations are there + names given by the gods, possessing unspeakable power in the + Mysteries.[118] + +And the scholiast[119] adds that they should not be translated into +Greek. + +It is, therefore, most probable that Simon used the one, three, five, +and seven syllabled or vowelled names, and that the Greek terms were +substitutes that completely veiled the esoteric meaning from the +uninitiated. + +The names of the seven Aeons, as given by the author of the +_Philosophumena_, are as follows: The Image from the Incorruptible Form, +alone ordering all things ([Greek: eikon ex aphthartou morphaes kosmousa +monae panta]), also called The Spirit moving on the Waters ([Greek: to +pneuma to epipheroumenon epano tou hudatos]) and The Seventh Power +([Greek: hae ebdomae dunamis]); Mind ([Greek: nous]) and Thought +([Greek: epinoia]), also called Heaven ([Greek: ouranos]) and Earth +([Greek: gae]); Voice ([Greek: phonae]) and Name ([Greek: onoma]),[120] +also called Sun ([Greek: haelios]) and Moon ([Greek: selaenae]); Reason +([Greek: logismos]) and Reflection ([Greek: enthumaesis]), also called +Air ([Greek: aaer]) and Water ([Greek: hudor]). + +The first three of these are sufficiently explained in the fragment of +Simon's _Great Revelation_, preserved in the _Philosophumena_, and +become entirely comprehensible to the student of the Kabalah who is +learned in the emanations of the Sephirothal Tree. Mind and Thought are +evidently Chokmah and Binah, and the three and seven Sephiroth are to be +clearly recognized in the scheme of the Simonian System which is to +follow. + +Of the two lower Syzygies, or Lower Quaternary of the Aeons, we have no +details from the Fathers. We may, however, see some reason for the +exoteric names--Voice and Name, Reason and Reflection--from the +following considerations: + +(1) We should bear in mind what has already been said about the Logos, +Speech and Divine Names. (2) In the Septenary the Quaternary represents +the Manifested and the Triad the Concealed Side of the Fire. (3) The +fundamental characteristics of the manifested universe with the Hindus +and Buddhists are Name (Nama) and Form (Rupa). (4) Simon says that the +Great Power was not called Father until Thought (in manifestation +becoming Voice) _named_ ([Greek: onomasai]) him Father. (5) Reason and +Reflection are evidently the two lowest aspects, principles, or +characteristics, of the _divine_ Mind of man. These are included in the +lower mind, or Internal Organ (Antah-karana), by the Vedantin +philosophers of India and called Buddhi and Manas, being respectively +the mental faculties used in the certainty of judgment and the doubt of +enquiry. + +This Quaternary, among a host of other things, typifies the four lower +planes, elements, principles, aspects, etc., of the Universe, with their +Hierarchies of Angels, Archangels, Rulers, etc., each synthesized by a +Lord who is supreme in his own domain. Seeing, however, that the +outermost physical plane is so vast that it transcends the power of +conception of even the greatest intellect, it is useless for us to +speculate on the interplay of cosmic forces and the mysterious +interaction of Spheres of Being that transcend all normal human +consciousness. It is only on the lowest and outermost plane that the +lower Quaternary symbolizes the four Cardinal Points. The Michael (Sun), +Gabriel (Moon), Uriel (Venus), and Raphael (Mercury) of the Kabalah, the +four Beasts, the Wheels of Ezekiel, were living, divine, and intelligent +Entities pertaining to the inner nature of man and the universe for the +Initiated. + +It is to be presumed that the Simonians had distinct teachings on this +point, as is evidenced by the title of their lost work, _The Book of the +Four Angles and Points of the World_. The Four Angles were probably +connected with the four ducts or Streams of the "River going forth from +Eden to water the Garden." These Streams have their analogy on all +planes, and cosmically are of the same nature as the Akasha-Ganga--the +Ganges in the Akashic Ocean of Space--and the rest of the Rivers in the +Pauranic writings of the Hindus. + +But before going further it will be as well to have a Diagram or Scheme +of the Simonian Aeonology, for presumably the School of Simon had such a +Scheme, as we know the Ophites had from the work of Origen, _Contra +Celsum_. + +[Illustration: DIAGRAM OF THE SIMONIAN AEONOLOGY.][121] + + +Of course no Diagram is anything more than a symbolical mnemonic, so to +say; in itself it is entirely insufficient and only permits a glance at +one aspect, or face, of the world-process. It is a step in a ladder +merely, useful only for mounting and to be left aside when once a higher +rung is reached. Thus it is that the whole of the elements of Euclid +were merely an introduction to the comprehension of the "Platonic +Solids," which must also, in their turn, be discarded when the within or +essence of things has to be dealt with and not the without or +appearance, no matter how "typical" that appearance may be. + +Sufficient has already been said of the Universal Principle, of the +Universal Root and of the Boundless Power--the Parabrahman (That Which +transcends Brahma), Mula-Prakriti (Root-Nature), and Supreme Ishvara, +or the Unmanifested Eternal Logos, of the Vedantic Philosophers. The +next stage is the potential unmanifested type of the Trinity, the Three +in One and One in Three, the Potentialities of Vishnu, Brahma, and +Shiva, the Preservative, Emanative, and Regenerative Powers--the Supreme +Logos, Universal Ideation and Potential Wisdom, called by Simon the +Incorruptible Form, Universal Mind and Great Thought. This Incorruptible +Form is the Paradigm of all Forms, called Vishva Rupam or All-Form and +the Param Rupam or Supreme Form, in the _Bhagavad Gita_[122] spoken also +of as the Param Nidhanam or Supreme Treasure-house,[123] which Simon +also calls the Treasure-house [Greek: thaesauros] and Store-house +[Greek: apothaekae], an idea found in many systems, and most elaborately +in that of the _Pistis-Sophia_. + +Between this Divine World, the Unmanifested Triple Aeon, and the World +of Men is the Middle Distance--the Waters of Space differentiated by the +Image or Reflection of the Triple Logos (D) brooding upon them. As there +are three Worlds, the Divine, Middle, and Lower, which have been well +named by the Valentinians the Pneumatic (or Spiritual), Psychic (or +Soul-World), and Hylic (or Material), so in the Middle Distance we have +three planes or degrees, or even seven. This Middle Distance contains +the Invisible Spheres between the Physical World and the Divine. To it +the Initiated and Illuminati, the Spiritual Teachers of all ages, have +devoted much exposition and explanation. It is divine and infernal at +one and the same time, for as the higher parts--to use a phrase that is +clumsy and misleading, but which cannot be avoided--are pure and +spiritual, so the lower parts are corrupted and tainted. The law of +analogy, imaging and reflection, hold good in every department of +emanative nature, and though pure and spiritual ideas come to men from +this realm of the Middle Distance, it also receives back from man the +impressions of his impure thoughts and desires, so that its lower parts +are fouler even than the physical world, for man's secret thoughts and +passions are fouler than the deeds he performs. Thus there is a Heaven +and Hell in the Middle Distance, a Pneumatic and Hylic state. + +The Lord of this Middle World is One in his own Aeon, but in reality a +reflection of the triple radiance from the Unmanifested Logos. This Lord +is the Manifested Logos, the Spirit moving on the Waters. Therefore all +its emanations or creations are triple. The triple Light above and the +triple Darkness below, force and matter, or spirit and matter, both +owing their being and apparent opposition to the Mind, "alone ordering +all things." + +The Diagram to be more comprehensible should be so arranged, mentally, +that each of the higher spheres is found within or interpenetrating the +lower. Thus, from this point of view, the centre is a more important +position than above or below. External to all is the Physical Universe, +made by the Hylic Angels, that is to say those emanated by Thought, +Epinoia, as representing Primeval Mother Earth, or Matter; not the Earth +we know, but the Adamic Earth of the Philosophers, the Potencies of +Matter, which Eugenius Philalethes assures us, on his honour, no man has +ever seen. This Earth is, in one sense, the Protyle for which the most +advanced of our modern Chemists are searching as the One Mother Element. + +The idea of the Spirit of God moving on the Waters is a very beautiful +one, and we find it worked out in much detail in the Hindu scriptures. +For instance, in the _Vishnu Purana_,[124] we find a description of the +emanation of the present Universe by the Supreme Spirit, at the +beginning of the present Kalpa or Aeon, an infinity of Kalpas and +Universes stretching behind. This he creates endowed with the Quality of +Goodness, or the Pneumatic Potency. For the three Qualities (or Gunas) +of Nature (Prakriti) are the Pneumatic, Psychic and Hylic Potencies of +the Waters of Simon. + + At the close of the past (or Padma) Kalpa, the divine Brahma, + endowed with the quality of goodness, awoke from his night of + sleep, and beheld the universe void. He, the supreme Narayana, the + incomprehensible, the sovereign of all creatures, invested with the + form of Brahma, the god without beginning, the creator of all + things; of whom, with respect to his name Narayana, the god who has + the form of Brahma, the imperishable origin[125] of the world, this + verse is repeated: "The waters are called Nara, because they were + the offspring of Nara (the supreme spirit); and, as, in them, his + first (Ayana)[126] progress (in the character of Brahma) took + place, he is thence named Narayana (he whose place of moving was + the waters)." + +Sir Wm. Jones translates this well-known verse of Manu[127] as follows: + + The waters are called Narah, because they were the production of + Nara, or the spirit of God; and, since they were his first Ayana, + or place of motion, he thence is named Narayana or moving on the + waters. + +Substantially the same statement is made in the _Linga, Vayu_, and +_Markandeya Puranas_, and the _Bhagavata_ explains it more fully as +follows: + + Purusha (the Spirit) having divided the egg (the ideal universe in + germ), on his issuing forth in the beginning, desiring a place of + motion (Ayanam) for himself, pure he created the waters pure. + +In the _Vishnu Purana_, again, Brahma, speaking to the Celestials, says: + + I, Mahadeva (Shiva), and you all are but Narayana.[128] + +The beautiful symbol of the Divine Spirit moving and brooding over the +Primordial Waters of Space--Waters which as differentiation proceeds +become more and more turbid--is too graphic to require further +explanation. It is too hallowed by age and sanctified by the consent of +humanity to meet with less than our highest admiration. + +Dissertation on our Diagram could be pursued to almost any length, but +sufficient has already been said to show the points of correspondence +between the ideas ascribed to Simon and universal Theosophy. + +Let us now enquire into the part played by Epinoia, the Divine Thought, +in the cosmic process, reserving the part played by her in the human +drama to when we come to treat of the soteriology of Simon. We have +evidently here a version of the great Sophia-mythus, which plays so +important a part in all Gnostic systems. On the one hand the energizings +of the mother-side of Divine Nature, on the other the history of the +evolution of the Divine Monad, shut into all forms throughout the +elemental spheres, throughout the lower kingdoms, up to the man stage. + +The mystery of Sophia-Epinoia is great indeed, insoluble in its origins; +for how does that which is Divine descend below and create Powers which +imprison their parent? It is the mystery of the universe and of man, +insoluble for all but the Logos itself, by whose self-sacrifice Sophia, +the Soul, is finally freed from her bonds. + +Epinoia is a Power of many names. She is called the Mother, or +All-Mother, Mother of the Living or Shining Mother, the Celestial Eve; +the Power Above; the Holy Spirit, for the Spiritus in some systems is a +feminine power (in a symbolical sense, of course), pre-eminently in the +_Codex Nazaraeus_, the scripture of the Mandaites. Again she is called +She of the Left-hand, as opposed to the Christos, He of the Right-hand; +the Man-woman; Prouneikos; Matrix; Paradise; Eden; Achamoth; the Virgin; +Barbelo; Daughter of Light; Merciful Mother; Consort of the Masculine +One; Revelant of the Perfect Mysteries; Perfect Mercy; Revelant of the +Mysteries of the Whole Magnitude; Hidden Mother; She who knows the +Mysteries of the Elect; the Holy Dove, who has given birth to the two +Twins; Ennoia; and by many another name varying according to the +terminology of the different systems, but ever preserving the root idea +of the World-Soul in the Macrocosm and the Soul in Man. + +Within every form, aye, even apparently the meanest, is Epinoia +confined; for everything within is innate with Life; every form contains +a spark of the Divine Fire, essentially of the same nature as the All; +for in the Roots, and also in all things--since all is built on their +type--is "the whole of the Boundless Power together _in potentiality_, +but not _in actuality_." + +The reason given for this imprisonment of Sophia in most of the systems +is that she endeavoured to create without her Syzygy, the Father or +Nous, wishing to imitate alone the self-generating power of the Supreme. +Thus through ignorance she involved herself in suffering, from which she +was freed by repentance and experience. What explanation of this supreme +mystery was publicly ventured on by Simon we cannot know, for the +patristic accounts are confused and contradictory. + +Irenaeus tells us that: + + She was the first Conception (Epinoia) of his Mind, the Mother of + All, by whom in the beginning he conceived in his Mind, the making + of the Angels and Archangels. + + This Epinoia, leaping forth from _him_ (the Boundless Power), and + knowing what was the will of her Father, descended to the Lower + Regions and generated the Angels and Powers, by whom also he said + the world was made. And after she had generated them, she was + detained by them through envy, for they did not wish to be thought + the progeny of another. As for himself he was entirely unknown by + them; and it was his Thought (Epinoia) that was made prisoner by + the Powers and Angels that had been emanated by her. And she + suffered every kind of indignity at their hands to prevent her + reaescending to her Father, even to being imprisoned in the human + body and transmigrating into other female bodies, as from one + vessel into another. + +Tertullian's account differs by the important addition that the "design +of the Father was prevented"; how or why he does not say. + + She was his first Suggestion whereby he suggested the making of the + Angels and Archangels; that she sharing in this design had sprung + forth from the Father, and leaped down into the Lower Regions; and + that there, the design of the Father being prevented, she had + brought forth Angelic Powers ignorant of the Father, the artificer + of this world (?); by these she was detained, not according to his + intention, lest when she had gone they should be thought to be the + progeny of another, etc. + +The _Philosophumena_ say nothing on this point, except that Epinoia +"throws all the Powers in the World into confusion through her +unsurpassable Beauty." + +Philaster renders confusion worse confounded, by writing: + + And he also dared to say that the World had been made by Angels, + and the Angels again had been made by certain endowed with + perception from Heaven, and that they (the Angels) had deceived the + human race. + + He asserted, moreover, that there was a certain other Thought + (Intellectus) who descended into the world for the salvation of + men. + +Epiphanius further complicates the problem as follows: + + This Power (Prunicus and Holy Spirit) descending from Above changed + its form.... And through the Power from Above ... displaying her + beauty, she drove them to frenzy, and on this account was she sent + for the despoiling of the Rulers who brought the World into being; + and the Angels themselves went to war on her account; and while she + experienced nothing, they set to work to mutually slaughter each + other on account of the desire which she infused into them for + herself. + +Theodoret briefly follows Irenaeus. + +In these contradictory accounts we have a great confusion between the +roles played by Nous and Epinoia, the Father and Thought, the Spirit and +Spiritual Soul. Then again how did the Lower Regions come into +existence, for Epinoia to descend to them? This lacuna is filled by the +fuller information of the _Philosophumena_ which shows us the scheme of +self-emanation out or down into matter by similitude, thus confining the +problem of "evil" to space and time, and not raising it into an eternal +principle. Naturally it is not to be supposed that the origin of "evil" +is solvable for man in his present state, therefore whether it was +according to the design or contrary to the design of the Father, will +ever depend upon the point of view from which we severally regard the +problem. + +Law, Justice, and Compassion are not incompatible terms to one whose +heart is set firm on spiritual things; and the view that evil is not a +thing in itself, but exists only because of human ignorance, is one that +must commend itself to the truly religious and philosophical mind. Thus +evil is not a fixed quantity in itself, it depends on the internal +attitude each man holds with regard to externals as to whether they are +evil or no. + +For instance, it is not evil for an animal or savage to kill, for the +light of the higher law is not yet flaming brightly in their hearts. +That only is evil if we do what is displeasing to the Self. This may +perhaps throw some light on the Simonian dogma of action by accident +(_ex accidenti_), or institution ([Greek: thesei]), as opposed to action +according to nature (_naturaliter_ or [Greek: phusei])--evidently the +same idea as the teaching of Heracleitus to act according to nature +([Greek: kata phusin]) which he explains as according to the +Unmanifested Harmony which we can hear by straining our ears to catch +that still small voice within, the Voice of the Silence, the Logos or +Self. Simon presumably refers to this in the phrase "the things which +sound within" ([Greek: ta enaecha]), an idea remarkably confirmed by +Psellus,[129] who quotes the following Logion: + + When thou seest a most holy, formless Fire shining and bounding + throughout the depths of the whole Cosmos, give ear to the Voice of + the Fire. + +This brings us to a consideration of the teachings of Simon with regard +to the Lesser World, the Microcosm, Man, and to the scheme of his +soteriology. Evidently Simon taught the ancient, immemorial doctrine +that the Microcosm Man was the Mirror and Potentiality of the Cosmos, +the Macrocosm, as we have already seen above. Whatever was true of the +emanation of the Universe, was also true of Man, whatever was true of +the Macrocosmic Aeons was true of the Microcosmic Aeons in Man, which +are potentially the same as those of the Cosmos, and will develop into +the power and grandeur of the latter, if they can find suitable +expression, or a fit vehicle. This view will explain the reason of the +ancients for saying that we could only perceive that of which we have a +germ already within us. Thus it is that Empedocles taught: + + By earth earth we perceive; by water, water; by aether, aether; + fire, by destructive fire; by friendship, friendship; and strife by + bitter strife. + +And if the potentiality of all resided in every man, the teaching on +this point most forcibly has been, _Qui se cognoscit, in se omnia +cognoscit_--He who knows himself, knows all in himself--as Q. Fabius +Pictor tells us. And, therefore, the essential of moral and spiritual +training in ancient times was the attainment of Self-Knowledge--that is +to say, the attainment of the certitude that there is a divine nature +within every man, which is of infinite capacity to absorb universal +Wisdom; that, in brief, Man was _essentially_ one with Deity. + +With Simon, as with the Hermetic philosophers of ancient Egypt, all +things were interrelated by correspondence, analogy, and similitude. +"As above, so below," is the teaching on the Smaragdine Table of +Hermes. Therefore, whatever happened to the divine Epinoia, the Supreme +Mother, among the Aeons, happened also to the human Spiritual Soul or +Monadic Essence, in its evolution through all stages of manifestation. +This Soul is shut into all forms and bodies, successively up to the +stage of man. + +From one point of view this teaching has been conclusively proved by +Modern Science. The evolution of the external form has been traced +throughout all the kingdoms and is no longer in question. The ancient +teachers of evolution, though less exact in detail, were more accurate +in fact, in postulating a "something within" which alone could make the +external evolution of form of any intelligible purpose. The Spiritual +Soul--the Life, Consciousness, Spirit, Intelligence, whatever we may +choose to call it--was formless in itself, but ever assuming new forms +by a process called metempsychosis, metasomatosis, metangismos, etc., +which in the human stage becomes reincarnation, the rebirth or +Punarjanman of the Hindus. + +So much has been written on metempsychosis and reincarnation of late +that it is hardly necessary to dwell on a now so familiar idea. In its +widest sense the whole process of nature is subject to this mode of +existence, and in its more restricted sense it is the path of pilgrimage +of the Soul in the desert of Matter. In treating of a philosophical +conception, which has already been completely established as far as its +"visible side" is concerned by the researches of Modern Science in the +field of evolution, it is a waste of time to obscure the main issue by a +rehashing of the superstitious belief that the human Soul might pass +back to the brute. It may be that this superstition arose from the +consideration that the body and lower vestures of the Soul were shed off +and gradually absorbed by the lower creation in the alchemical processes +of nature. This was the fate of the "Purgations" of the Soul, but the +Soul itself when once it had passed from bodies of the lower kingdoms, +to bodies in the man-stage, could not retrogress beyond the limits of +that human kingdom. + +By a glance at the Diagram, and regarding it from the microcosmic point +of view, it is easy to see that the inner nature of man is more complex +than the elementary trichotomy of Body, Soul, and Spirit, might lead us +to suppose. Each plane of Being, for which the Soul has its own +appropriate Vesture, is generated from an "indivisible point," as Simon +called it, a zero-point, to use a term of modern Chemistry; six of which +are shown in the Diagram, and each plane of Being is bounded by such +zero-points, for they are points like that of the Circle whose centre is +everywhere and circumference nowhere. + +To pass on to the soteriology of Simon. The general concept of this +presents no difficulty to the student of Eastern Religions. The idea +that the great teachers are Avataras, incarnations, or descents, of the +Supreme Being, appearing on earth to aid mankind, is simple enough to +comprehend in itself, and would be open to little objection, were it not +for the theological dogmas and mythological legends that are wont to be +so busily woven round the lives of such teachers. In the present age it +is hardly necessary for us, with the experience of the past before our +eyes, to raise dissension as to whether such a manifestation is entirely +divine, or entirely human, or perfectly human and divine at one and the +same time, or neither or all of these. + +Eastern philosophy, regarding not only the external phenomenal world as +ever-changing and impermanent, but also all appearance or +manifestation--no matter how subjective it may be to us now--as not the +one Truth in itself, which it claims alone to be without change, it is +easy to see the reason why the Gnostic Philosophers for the most part +held to Doceticism--that is to say that the body of a Saviour was not +the Saviour himself, but an appearance. The heat of polemical +controversy may have led to exaggerated views on both sides, but the +philosophical mind will not be distressed at the thought that the body +is an appearance or mask of the real man, and that it forms no part of +his eternal possession. None the less the body is real to us here, for +we all have bodies of a like nature, and appearances are real to +appearances. Yet this does not invalidate the further consideration that +there are other bodies, vestures, or vehicles of consciousness, besides +the gross physical "coat of skin," for the use of the spiritual man, +each being an "appearance" in comparison to the higher vehicle, which is +in its turn an "appearance" to that which is more subtle and less +material or substantial than itself. + +Thus, in the descent from the Divine World, the Soul transforms itself, +or clothes itself in forms, or bodies, or vestures, which it weaves out +of its own substance, like to the Powers of the Worlds it passes +through, for every Soul has a different vehicle of consciousness for +every World or Plane. + +But the doctrine of the Soter, or Saviour, does not apply until the +Christ-stage or consummation is reached. Following the idea of rebirth, +there is a spiritual life cycle, or life-thread, on which the various +earth-lives are strung, as beads on a necklace, each successive life +being purer and nobler, as the Soul gains control of matter, or the +driver control of the chariot and steeds that speed him through the +experiences of life. As the end of this great cycle approaches, an +earthly vehicle is evolved that can show forth the divine spirit in all +the fulness possible to this world or phase of evolution. + +Now as the problem can be viewed from either the internal or external +point of view, we have the mystery of the Soul depicted both from the +side of the involution of spirit into matter and of the evolution of +matter into spirit. If, on the one hand, we insist too strongly on one +view, we shall only have a one-sided conception of the process; if, on +the other, we neglect one factor, we shall never solve the at present +unknown quantity of the equation. Thus the Soul is represented as the +"lost sheep" struggling in the meshes of the net of matter, passing from +body to body, and the Spirit is represented as descending, transforming +itself through the spheres, in order to finally rescue its Syzygy from +the bonds that are about her. + +The Soul aspires to the Spirit and the Spirit takes thought for the +Soul; as the Simonians expressed it: + + The male (Heaven, i.e., the Nous or Christ, or Spiritual Soul) + looks down from above and takes thought for its co-partner (or + Syzygy); while the Earth (i.e., the Epinoia or Jesus, or Human + Soul) from below receives from the Heaven the intellectual (in the + spiritual and philosophical sense, of course) fruits that come down + to it and are cognate with the Earth (i.e., of the same nature + essentially as Epinoia, who is essentially one with Nous). + +When this mystery is represented dramatically, so to say, and +personified, these two aspects of the Soul are depicted as two persons. +Thus we have Simon and Helen, his favourite disciple, Krishna and +Arjuna, etc. In the Canonical Gospels the favourite disciple is said to +be John, and the women-disciples are placed well in the background. +In the Gnostic Gospels, however, the women-disciples are not so +ostracized, and the view taken by these early communities of +philosophical and mystical Christians throws much light on that +wonderful history of the Magdalene that has so touched the heart of +Christendom. For instance, in the _Pistis-Sophia_, the chief of all the +disciples, the most spiritual and intuitive, is Mary Magdalene. This is +not without significance when we remember the love of the Christ for +Mary "out of whom he had cast _seven_ devils." + +The allegory is a striking one, and perfectly comprehensible to the +student of comparative religion. As there are seven Aeons in the +Spiritual World, seven principles or aspects of the Spiritual Soul, so +here on Earth, by analogy, there are seven lower aspects, or impure +reflections. As there are seven Cardinal Virtues, the Prajna-Paramitas, +or Perfections of Wisdom, of the Buddhists, so there are seven Cardinal +Vices, and these must be cast out by the spiritual will, before the +repentant Mary, or Human Soul, can be purified. + +This is the mystery of the Helen, the "lost sheep." Then follows the +mystical marriage of the Lamb, the union of the Human and Spiritual Soul +in man, referred to so often in the Gospels and other mystical +scriptures. + +Naturally the language used is symbolical, and has naught to do with +sex, in any sense. Woe unto him or her who takes these allegories of the +Soul as literal histories, for nothing but sorrow will follow such +materialization of divine mysteries. If Simon or his followers fell into +this error, they worked their own downfall, under the Great Law, as +surely do all who forge such bonds of matter for their own enslavement. + +But with condemnation we have nothing to do; they alone who are without +sin have the _right_ to cast stones at the Magdalenes of this world; and +they who are truly without sin use their purity to cleanse their +fellows, and do not sully it with the stains of self-righteous +condemnation. We, ordinary men and women of the age, are all "lost +sheep," human souls struggling in ignorance; shall we then stone our +fellows because their theology has a different nomenclature to our own? +For man was the same in the past as he is to-day. The Human Soul has +ever the same hopes and fears, loves and hates, passions and +aspirations, no matter how the mere form of their expression differs. +That which is important is the attitude we hold to the forms with which +we are surrounded. To-day the form of our belief is changed; the fashion +of our dress is scientific and not allegorical, but are we any nearer +the realization that it is a dress and no more, and not the real +expression of the true man within? + +Let us now take a brief glance at the Symbolical Tree of Life, which +plays so important a part in the Simonian Gnosis. Not, however, that it +was peculiar to this system, for several of the schools use the same +symbology. For instance, in the _Pistis-Sophia_[130] the idea is +immensely expanded, and there is much said of an Aeonian Hierarchy +called the Five Trees. As this, however, may have been a later +development, let us turn to the ancient Hindu Shastras, and select one +out of the many passages that could be adduced, descriptive of the +Ashvattha Tree, the Tree of Life, "the Ashvattha of golden wings," where +the bird-souls get their wings and fly away happily, as the +_Sanatsujatiya_ tells us. The passage we choose is from the _Bhagavad +Gita_, that marvellous philosophical episode from the _Mahabharata_, +which from internal evidence, and at the very lowest estimate, must be +placed at a date anterior to Simon. At the beginning of the fifteenth +Adyaya we read: + + They say the imperishable Ashvattha is with root above and branches + below, of which the sacred hymns are the leaves. Who knows this, he + is a knower of knowledge. Upwards and downwards stretch its + branches, expanded by the potencies (Gunas); the sense-objects are + its sprouts. Downwards, too, its roots are stretched, constraining + to action in the world of men. Here neither its form is + comprehended, nor its end, nor beginning, nor its support. Having + cut with the firm sword of detachment (_sc._ non-attachment to the + fruit of action) this Ashvattha, with its overgrown roots, then + should he (the disciple) search out that Supreme whither they who + come never return again, (with the thought) that now he is come to + that primal Being, whence the evolution of old was emanated. + +For what is this "sword of detachment" but another aspect of the "fiery +sword" of Simon, which is turned about to guard the way to the Tree of +Life? This "sword" is our passions and desires, which now keep us from +the golden-leaved Tree of Life, whence we may find wings to carry us to +the "Father in Heaven." For once we have conquered Desire and turned it +into spiritual Will, it then becomes the "Sword of Knowledge"; and the +way to the Tree of Spiritual Life being gained, the purified Life +becomes the "Wings of the Great Bird" on which we mount, to be carried +to its Nest, where peace at last is found. + +The simile of the Tree is used in many senses, not the least important +of which is that of the heavenly "vine" of the reincarnating Soul, every +"life" of which is a branch. This explains Simon's citation of the +Logion so familiar to us in the _Gospel according to Luke_: + + Every tree not bearing good fruit is cut down and cast into the + fire. + +This also explains one of the inner meanings of the wonderful passage in +the _Gospel according to John_: + + I am the true vine and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in + me that beareth not fruit he taketh away; and every branch that + beareth fruit he purgeth it that it may bear more fruit.[131] + +For only the spiritual fruit of every life is harvested in the +"Store-house" of the Divine Soul; the rest is shed off to be purified in +the "Fire" of earthly existence. + +Into the correspondence between the world-process of Nature, and that +which takes place in the womb of mortal woman, it will not be necessary +to enter at length. No doubt Simon taught many other correspondences +between the processes of Cosmic Nature and Microcosmic Man, but what +were the details of this teaching we can in no way be certain. Simon +may have made mistakes in physiology, according to our present +knowledge, but with the evidence before us all we can do is to suspend +our judgment. For in the first place, we do not know that he has been +correctly reported by his patristic antagonists, and, in the second, we +are even yet too ignorant of the process of the nourishment of the +foetus to pronounce any _ex cathedra_ statement. In any case Simon's +explanation is more in agreement with Modern Science than the generality +of the phantasies on scientific subjects to which the uninstructed piety +of the early Fathers so readily lent itself. As to whether the +Initiated of the ancients did or did not know of the circulation of the +blood and the functions of the arterial system, we must remain in doubt, +for both their well known method of concealing their knowledge and also +the absence of texts which may yet be discovered by the industry of +modern exploration teach us to hold our judgment in suspense. + +Again, seeing the importance which the symbolical Tree played in the +Simonian System, it may be that there was an esoteric teaching in the +school, which pointed out correspondences in the human body for mystical +purposes, as has been the custom for long ages in India in the Science +of Yoga. In the human body are _at least_ two "Trees," the nervous, and +vascular systems. The former has its "root" above in the cerebrum, the +latter has its roots in the heart. Along the trunks and branches run +currents of "nervous ether" and "life" respectively, and the Science of +Yoga teaches its disciples to use both of these forces for mystical +purposes. It is highly probable also that the Gnostics taught the same +processes to their pupils, as we know for a fact that the Neo-Platonists +inculcated like practices. From these considerations, then, it may be +supposed that Simon was not so ignorant of the real laws of the +circulation of the blood as might otherwise be imagined; and as to the +nourishment of the embryo, modern authorities are at loggerheads, the +majority, however, inclining to the opinion of Simon, that the foetus +is nourished through the umbilical cord.[132] + +The last point of importance to detain us, before passing on to a notice +on the magical practices ascribed to Simon, is the allegorical use made +by the Simonians of Scripture. Here again we have little to do with the +details reported, but only with the idea. It was a common belief of the +sages of antiquity that the mythological part of the sacred writings of +the nations were to be understood in an allegorical fashion. Not to +speak of India, we have the Neo-Platonic School with its analogetical +methods of interpretation, and the mention of a work of Porphyry in +which an allegorical interpretation of the _Iliad_ was attempted. +Allegorical shows of a similar nature also were enacted in the Lesser +Mysteries and explained in the Greater, as Julian tells us in the +_Mother of the Gods_,[133] and Plutarch on the _Cessation of +Oracles_.[134] + +Much evidence could be adduced that this was a widespread idea held by +the learned of antiquity, but space does not here allow a full +treatment of the subject. What is important to note is that Simon +claimed this as a method of his School, and therefore, in dealing with +his system, we cannot leave out so important a factor, and persist in +taking allegorical and symbolical expressions as literal teachings. We +may say that the method is misleading and has led to much superstition +among the ignorant, but we have no right to criticize the literal and +historical meaning of an allegory, and then fancy that we have +criticized the doctrine it enshrines. This has been the error of all +rationalistic critics of the world bibles. They have wilfully set on one +side the whole method of ancient religious teaching, and taken as +literal history and narrative what was essentially allegorical and +symbolical. Perhaps the reason for this may be in the fact that wherever +religion decays and ignorance spreads herself, there the symbolical and +allegorical is materialized into the historical and literal. The spirit +is forgotten, the letter is deified. Hence the reaection of the +rationalistic critic against the materialism and literalism of sacred +verities. Nevertheless, such criticism does not go deep enough to affect +the real truths of religion and the convictions of the human soul, any +more than an aesthetic criticism on the shape of the Roman letters and +Arabic figures can affect the truth of an algebraical formula. +Rationalistic criticism may stir people from literalism and dogmatic +crystallization, in fact it has done much in this way, but it does not +reach the hidden doctrines. + +Now Simon contended that many of the narrations of Scripture were +allegorical, and opposed those who held to the dead-letter +interpretation. To the student of comparative religion, it is difficult +to see what is so highly blameworthy in this. On the contrary, this view +is so worthy of praise, that it deserves to be widely adopted to-day, at +the latter end of the nineteenth century. To understand antiquity, we +must follow the methods of the wise among the ancients, and the method +of allegory and parable was the manner of teaching of the great Masters +of the past. + +But supposing we grant this, and admit that all Scriptures possess an +inner meaning and lend themselves to interpretation on every plane of +being and thought, who is to decide whether any particular +interpretation is just or no? Already we have writers arising, giving +diametrically opposite interpretations of the same mystical narrative, +and though this may be an advance on bald physical literalism, it is by +no means encouraging to the instructed and philosophical mind. + +If the Deity is no respecter of persons, times, or nations, and if no +age is left without witness of the Divine, it would seem to be in +accordance with the fitness of things that all religions in their purity +are one in essence, no matter how overgrown with error they may have +become through the ignorance of man. If, again, the root of true +Religion is one, and the nature of the Soul and of the inner +constitution of things is identical in all climes and times, as far as +its _main features_ are concerned, no matter what terminology, allegory, +and symbology may be employed to describe it; and not only this, but if +it be true that such subjective things are as potent facts in human +consciousness as any that exist, as indeed is evidenced by the +unrivalled influence such things have had on human hearts and actions +throughout the history of the world--then we must consider that an +interpretation that fits only one system and is found entirely +unsuitable to the rest, is no part of universal religion, and is due +rather to the ingenuity of the interpreter than to a discovery of any +law of subjective nature. The method of comparative religion alone can +give us any certainty of correct interpretation, and a refusal to +institute such a comparison should invalidate the reliability of all +such enquiries. + +Now Simon is reported to have endeavoured to find an inner meaning in +scriptural narratives and mythologies, and against this method we can +have nothing to say; it is only when a man twists the interpretation to +suit his own prejudices that danger arises. Simon, however, is shown to +have appealed to the various sacred literatures known in his time, an +eclectic and theosophical method, and one that cannot very well be +longer set on one side even in our own days. + +The primitive church was not so forgetful of symbology as are the +majority of the Christian faith to-day. One of the commonest +representations of primitive Christian art was that of the "Four +Rivers." As the Rev. Professor Cheetham tells us: + + We find it repeated over and over again in the catacombs, either in + frescoes or in the sculptured ornaments of sarcophagi, and + sometimes on the bottoms of glass cups which have been discovered + therein.[135] + +The interpretations given by the early divines were many and various; in +nearly every case, however, it was an interpretation which applied to +the Christian system alone, and accentuated external differences. Little +attempt was made to find an interpretation in nature, either objective +or subjective, or in man. Simon, at any rate, made the attempt--an +effort to broaden out into a universal system applying to all men at all +times. This is also the real spirit of pure Christianity which is so +often over-clouded by theological partisanship. A true interpretation +must stand the test of not only religious aspiration, but also +philosophical thought and scientific observation. + +Nor again should we find cause to grieve at an attempted interpretation +of the Trojan Horse, that was fabricated by the advice of Athena +(Minerva-Epinoia), for did not George Stanley Faber, in the early years +of this century, labour with much learning to prove its identity with +the Ark. True he only turned similar myths into the terms of one myth +and got no further, but that was an advance on his immediate +predecessors. Simon, however, had centuries before gone further than +Faber, as far as theory is concerned, by seeking an interpretation in +nature. But, in his turn, as far as our records go, he only attempted +the interpretation of one aspect of this graphic symbol, saying that it +typified "ignorance." An interpretation, however, to be complete should +cover all planes of consciousness and being from the physical human +plane to the divine cosmic. The Ark floating on the Waters of the Deluge +and containing the Germs of Life, the Mundane Egg in the Waters of +Space, and the Mare with her freight of armed warriors, all typify a +great fact in nature, which may be studied scientifically in the +development of the germ-cell, and ethically by analogy, as the egg of +ignorance, the germs in which are, from the lower aspect, our own evil +passions. + +In speaking of such allegories and tracing the correspondences between +certain symbologies and the natural facts of embryology, Simon speaks of +the "cave" which plays so important a part in so many religious +allegories. As the child is born in a "cave," so the "new man" is also +born in a "cave," and all the Saviours are so recorded to have been born +in their birth legends. The Mysteries of antiquity were for the most +part solemnized in caves, or rock-cut temples. The Epoptae deemed such +caverns as symbols both of the physical world and Hades or the Unseen +World, which surrounds every child of man. Into such a cave, in the +middle of the Ocean, Cronus shut his children, as Porphyry[136] tells +us. It was called by the name Petra, or Rock, and from such a Rock +Mithras is said to have been born.[137] + +Faber endeavours to identify this symbolical cave with the Ark,[138] +which may be permissible from one aspect, as the womb of mother nature +and of the human mother correspond analogically. + +In the "new birth" of the mysteries, the Souls were typified as bees +born from the body of an ox, for they were to gather the honey of +wisdom, and were born from the now dead body of their lower natures. In +the cave were two doors, one for immortals, the other for mortals. In +this connection the cave is the psychic womb that surrounds every man, +of which Nicodemus displays such ignorance in the Gospels. It is the +microcosmic Middle Distance; by one door the Lower Soul enters, and +uniting with its immortal consort, who descends through the door of the +immortals, becomes immortal. + +The cavern is overshadowed by an olive tree--again the Tree of Life to +which we have referred above--on the branches of which the doves rest, +and bring back the leaves to the ark of the body and the prisoner within +it. + +But space does not permit us to pursue further this interesting subject, +which requires an entire treatise by itself, or even a series of +volumes. Enough, however, has been said to show that the method of +interpretation employed by Simon is not without interest and profit, and +that the tolerant spirit of to-day which animates the best minds and +hearts in Christendom will find no reason to mete out to Simon wholesale +condemnation on this score. + +There are also many other points of interest that could be elaborated +upon, in the fragments of the system we are reviewing, but as my task is +in the form of an essay, and not an exhaustive work, I must be content +to pass them by for the present, and to hurry on to a few words on that +strange and misunderstood subject, commonly known as Magic. + +What Magic, the "Great Art" of the ancients, was in reality is now as +difficult to discover as is the true Religion that underlies all the +great religions of the world. It was an art, a practice, the Great and +Supreme Art of the most Sacred Science of God, the Universe and Man. It +was and it is all this in its highest sense, and its method was what is +now called "creation." As the Aeons imitated the Boundless Power and +emanated or created in their turn, so could man imitate the Aeons and +emanate or create in his turn. But "creation" is not generation, it is a +work of the "mind," in the highest sense of the word. By purification +and aspiration, by prayer and fasting, man had to make his mind +harmonious with the Great Mind of the Universe, and so by imitation +create pure vehicles whereby his consciousness could be carried in +every direction of the Universe. Such spiritual operations required the +greatest purity and piety, real purity and true piety, without disguise +or subterfuge, for man had to face himself and his God, before whom no +disguise was possible. The most secret motives, the most hidden desires, +were revealed by the stern self-discipline to which the Adepts of the +Science subjected themselves. + +But as in all things here below, so with the Art of Magic, it was +two-fold. Above I have only spoken of the bright side of it, the path +along which the World-Saviours have trodden, for no one can gain +entrance to the path of self-sacrifice and compassion unless his heart +burns with love for all that lives, and unless he treads the way of +wisdom only in order that he may become that Path itself for the +salvation of the race. But there is the other side; knowledge is +knowledge irrespective of the use to which it may be put. The sword of +knowledge is two-edged, as remarked above, and may be put to good or +evil use, according to the selfishness or unselfishness of the +possessor. + +But _corruptio optimi pessima_, and as the employment of wisdom for the +benefit of mankind--as, for instance, curing the sick, physically and +morally--is the highest, so the use of any abnormal power for the +advantage of self is the vilest sin that man can commit. + +There are strange analogies in Nature, and the higher the spiritual, the +lower the corresponding material process; so that we find in the history +of magic--perhaps the longest history in the world--extremes ever +meeting. Abuse of spiritual powers, and the vilest physical processes, +noxious, fantastic, and pestilential, are recorded in the pages of +so-called magical literature, but such foul deeds are no more real Magic +than are the horrors of religious fanaticism the outcome of true +Mohammedanism or Christianity. This is the abuse, the superstition, the +degeneration of all that is good and true, rendered all the more vile +because it pertains to denser planes of matter than even the physical. +It is a strange thing that the highest should pair with the lowest where +man is concerned, but it ever remains true that the higher we climb the +lower we may fall. + +Man is much the same in nature at all times, and though the Art was +practised in its purity by the great World-Teachers and their immediate +followers, whether we call it by the name Magic or no, it ever fell +into abuse and degeneracy owing to the ingrained ignorance and +selfishness of man. Thus the Deity and Gods or Daemons of one nation +became the Devil and Demons of another; the names were changed, the +facts remained the same. For if we are to reject all such things as +superstition, hallucination, and what not, the good must go with the +bad. But facts, whether good or bad, are still facts, and man is still +man, no matter how he changes the fashion of his belief. The followers +of the World-Teachers cannot hold to the so-called "miracles" of their +respective Masters and reject all others as false in fact, no matter +from what source they may believe they emanate. In nature there can be +nothing supernatural, and as man stands mid-way between the divine and +infernal, if we accept the energizing of the one side of his nature, we +must also accept that of the other. Both are founded on nature and +science, both are under law and order. + +The great Master of Christendom is reported to have told his disciples +that if they had but faith they should do greater works than even he had +done. Either this was false or else the followers have been false to +their Teacher. There is no escape from the dilemma. And such "works" are +to be wrought by divine Magic alone, or if the term be disliked, by +whatever name the great Science of the Soul and Divine things may be +called. + +For the last two hundred years or so it has been the fashion to deride +all such matters, perhaps owing to a reaection against over-credulity on +the part of those who held to the letter of the law and forgot its +spirit; but to-day it is no longer possible to entirely set aside this +all-important part of man's nature, and it now calls for as strict a +scientific treatment as the facts of the physical universe have been +subjected to. + +Hypnotism, Mesmerism, Spiritualism and Psychical Research, are the +cloud no bigger than a man's hand that is forcing the facts of Magic +again on the attention of both the theological and scientific world. +Hypnotism and Psychical Research are already becoming respectable and +attracting the attention of the generality of men of science and of our +clergy. Spiritualism and Mesmerism are still tabooed, but wait their +turn for popular recognition, having already been recognized by pioneers +distinguished in science and other professions. + +Of course I speak only of the facts of these arts, I do not speak of the +theories put forward. + +All these processes are in the very outermost court of the Temple of +True Magic, even if they are not outside the precinct. But they are +sufficient for our purpose, and should make the serious thinker and +unprejudiced enquirer pause before pronouncing the words, superstition +and hallucination, in too confident a tone, for he now must see the +necessity of having a clear idea of what he means by the terms. + +It is not uncommon of late to hear the superficially instructed setting +down everything to "suggestion," a word they have picked up from modern +hypnotic research, or "telepathy," a name invented by psychical +research--the ideas being as old as the world--forgetting that their +mind remains in precisely the same attitude with regard to such matters +as it was in previously when they utterly denied the possibility of +suggestion and telepathy. But to the earnest and patient student +hypnotism and the rest are but the public reaeppearance of what has +always existed in spite of the denial of two hundred years or so, and +instead of covering the whole ground is but the forward spray from the +returning wave of psychism which will sweep the nations off their feet +and moral balance, if they will not turn to the experience of the past +and gain strength to withstand the inrush. + +The higher forms of all these things, in the Western World, should have +now been in the hands of the ministers of the Church, in which case we +should not have had the reaeppearance of such powers in the hands of +vulgar stage exhibitions and mercenary public mediumship. + +But so it is; and in vain is it any longer to raise the cry of fraud and +hallucination on the one hand and of the devil on the other. This is a +mere shirking of responsibility, and nothing but a reasonable +investigation and an insistence on the highest ideals of life will help +humanity. + +I do not intend to enter into any review of the "wonders" attributed to +Simon, neither to deny them as hallucinations, nor attribute them to the +devil, nor explain them away by "suggestion." As a matter of fact we do +not even know whether Simon did or pretended to do any of the precise +things mentioned. All we are competent to decide is the general +question, viz., that any use of abnormal power is pernicious if done for +a personal motive, and will assuredly, sooner or later, react on the +doer. + +Here and there in the patristic accounts we light on a fact worthy of +consideration, as, for example, when Simon is reported to have denied +that the real soul of a boy could be exorcised, and said that it was +only a daemon, in this case a sub-human intelligence or elemental, as +the Mediaeval Kabalists called them. Again the Simonians are said to have +expelled any from their Mysteries who worshipped the statues of Zeus or +Athena as being representatives of Simon and Helen; thus showing that +they were symbolical figures for some purpose other than ordinary +worship; and probably the sect in its purity possessed a body of +teaching which threw light on many of the religious practices of the +times, and gave them a rational interpretation, quite at variance with +the fantastic diabolism which the Fathers have so loudly charged against +them. + +The legends of magic are the same in all countries, fantastic enough to +us in the nineteenth century, in all conscience, and most probably +exaggerated out of all correct resemblance to facts by the excited +imagination of the legend-tellers, but still it is not all imagination, +and after sifting out even ninety-nine per cent of rubbish, the residue +that remains is such vast evidence to the main facts that it is fairly +overwhelming, and deserves the investigation of every honest student. + +But the study is beset with great difficulty, and if left in the hands +of untrained thinkers, as are the majority of those who are interested +in such matters in the present day, will only result in a new phase of +credulity and superstition. And such a disastrous state of affairs will +be the distinct fault of the leaders of thought in the religious, +philosophical, and scientific world, if they refuse the task which is +naturally theirs, and if they are untrue to the responsibility of their +position as the directors, guardians, and adjusters of the popular mind. +Denial is useless, mere condemnation is of small value, explanation +alone will meet the difficulty. + +Thus when we are brought face to face with the recital of magical +wonders as attributed to Simon in the patristic legends, it is not +sufficient to sweep them on one side and ticket them with the +contemptuous label of "superstition." We must recognize that whether or +not these things were actually done by Simon, the ancient world both +Pagan and Christian firmly believed in their reality, and that if our +only attitude towards them is one of blank denial, we include in that +denial the possibility of the so-called "miracles" of Christianity and +other great religions, and therewith invalidate one of the most +important factors of religious thought and history. That the present +attitude of denial is owing to the absurd explanation of the phenomena +given by the majority of the ancient worthies, is easily admissible, but +this is no reason why the denial of the possibilities of the existence +of such things should be logical or scientific. + +As to the wonders ascribed to Simon, though extraordinary, they are +puerile compared to the ideals of the truly religious mind, and if +Simon used such marvels as proofs of the truth of his doctrine, he +unduly took advantage of the ignorance of the populace and was untrue to +his better nature. + +Again, setting aside all historical criticism, if Simon, as the _Acts_ +report, thought to purchase spiritual powers with money, or that those +who were really in possession of such powers would ever sell them, we +can understand the righteous indignation of the apostles, though we +cannot understand their cursing a brother-man. The view of the Christian +writer on this point is a true one, but the dogma that every operation +which is not done in the name of the particular Master of Christendom is +of the Devil--or, to avoid personifications, is evil--can hardly find +favour with those who believe in the brotherhood of the whole race and +that Deity is one, no matter under what form worshipped. + +Finally, to sum up the matter, we have cited our authorities, and +reviewed them, and then endeavoured to sift out what is good from the +heap, leaving the rubbish to its fate. Removed as we are by so many +centuries from the fierce strife of religious controversy which so +deeply marked the rise of Christianity, we can view the matter with +impartiality and seek to redress the errors that are patent both on the +side of orthodoxy and of heterodoxy. It is true we cannot be free of the +past, but it is also true that to identify ourselves with the hates and +strifes of the ancients, is merely to retrogress from the path of +progress. On the contrary, our duty should be to identify ourselves with +all that is good and beautiful and true in the past, and so gleaning it +together, bind it into a sheaf of corn that, when ground in the mills of +common-sense and practical experience, may feed the millions of every +denomination who for the most part are starving on the unsatisfying +husks of crude dogmatism. There is no need for a new revelation, in +whatever sense the word is understood, but there is every need for an +explanation of the old revelations and the undeniable facts of human +experience. If the Augean stables of the materialism that is so +prevalent in the religion, philosophy and science of to-day, are to be +cleansed, the spiritual sources of the world-religions can alone be +effectual for their cleansing, but these are at present hidden by the +rocks and overgrowth of dogma and ignorance. And this overgrowth can +only be removed by explanation and investigation, and each who works at +the task is, consciously or unconsciously, in the train of the Hercules +who is pioneering the future of humanity. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 96: _Julius Caesar_, III. ii. 106-8.] + +[Footnote 97: _Op. cit._ i. 4. Compare the Diagram and explanation of +the Middle Distance _infra_. The Moon is the "Lord" of the lower plane +of the Middle Distance, the Astral Light of the medieval Kabalists. This +is a doctrine common to the Hermetic, Vedantic, and many other schools +of Antiquity.] + +[Footnote 98: xi. 37.] + +[Footnote 99: _Philos._, ix. 10.] + +[Footnote 100: _Zohar_, i. 50_b_, Amsterdam and Brody Editions: quoted +in Isaac Myer's _Qabbalah_, pp. 376, 377.] + +[Footnote 101: See Cory's _Ancient Fragments_, 2nd ed.; not the reedited +third edition, which is no longer Cory's work.] + +[Footnote 102: [Greek: eisi panta puros henos ekgegaota]--_Psell. +24--Plet. 30._] + +[Footnote 103: _Proc. in Theol._ 333--_in Tim._ 157.] + +[Footnote 104: [Greek: paegaious krataeras]--I have ventured the above +translation for this difficult combination from the meaning of the term +[Greek: paegae], found elsewhere in the Oracles, in the metaphorical +sense of "source" (compare also Plato, _Phaed._ 245 C., 856 D., [Greek: +paegae kai archae chinaeseos]--"the source and beginning of motion"), +and also from the meaning of [Greek: krataer] (_crater_), as "a +cup-shaped hollow." + +The idea of this Crater is interestingly exemplified in the Twelfth Book +of Hermes Trismegistus, called "His Crater, or Monas," as follows: + +"10. _Tat._ But wherefore, Father, did not God distribute the Mind to +all men? + +"11. _Herm._ Because it pleased him, O Son, to set that in the middle +among all souls, as a reward to strive for. + +"12. _Tat._ And where hath he set it? + +"13. _Herm._ Filling a large Cup or Bowl (Crater) therewith, he sent it +down, giving also a Cryer or Proclaimer. + +"14. And he commanded him to proclaim these things to the souls of men. + +"15. Dip and wash thyself, thou that art able, in this Cup or Bowl: Thou +that believeth that thou shalt return to him that sent this cup; thou +that acknowledgest whereunto thou wert made. + +"16. As many, therefore, as understood the Proclamation, and were +_baptized_, or dowsed into the _Mind_, these were made partakers of +knowledge, and became perfect men, receiving the Mind." + +This striking passage explains the mystic "Baptism of Fire," or Mind, +whereby man became one with his Divine Monas, which is indeed his +"Mother Vortex" or Source.] + +[Footnote 105: _Proc. in Parm._] + +[Footnote 106: _Proc. in Theol. Plat._, 171, 172.] + +[Footnote 107: _Proc. in Tim._, 167.] + +[Footnote 108: _Proc. in Theol._, 321.] + +[Footnote 109: _Proc. in Crat._] + +[Footnote 110: _Dionys._, xiv.] + +[Footnote 111: _Praep. Evan._, i. 10.] + +[Footnote 112: The names of these seven flames of the Fire, with their +surface translations, are as follows: Kali, Dark-blue; Karali, Terrible; +Mano-java, Swift as Thought; Su-lohita, Deep-red colour; +Su-dhumra-varna, Deep-purple colour; Ugra or Sphulingini, Hot, +Passionate, or Sparkling; Pradipta, Shining, Clear. These are the +literal meanings; the mystic meanings are very different, and among +other things denote the septenary prismatic colours and other +septenaries in nature.] + +[Footnote 113: _Hibbert lectures_, 1887: "Lecture on the Origin and +Growth of Religion as illustrated by the Religion of the Ancient +Babylonians," pp. 179, 180.] + +[Footnote 114: See Schwartze's _Pistis-Sophia_ and Amelineau's _Notice +sur le Papyrus Gnostique Bruce_.] + +[Footnote 115: _De Mysteriis Liber_, vii. 4.] + +[Footnote 116: Compare also _Herodot._ ii, 54--[Greek: phonae +anthropaeiae].] + +[Footnote 117: _Lib._ v.] + +[Footnote 118: _Psel._ 7.] + +[Footnote 119: _Psel. Schol. in Orac. Magic_, p. 70.] + +[Footnote 120: Theodoret gives [Greek: ennoia].] + +[Footnote 121: A. Aphthartos Morphe. B. Nous ton Holon. c. Epinoia +Megale. D. Eikon. a. Nous. b. Phone. c. Logismos. d. Enthumesis. e. +Onoma. f. Epinoia.] + +[Footnote 122: xi. 47.] + +[Footnote 123: _Ibid._, xi. 18, 38.] + +[Footnote 124: Wilson's Trans. i. pp. 55 _et seqq._] + +[Footnote 125: Prabhavapyaya: Pra-bhava=the forth-being or origin, and +Apy-aya=the return or reabsorption. It is the same idea as the Simonian +Treasure-house.] + +[Footnote 126: Ayana simply means "moving."] + +[Footnote 127: _Manava-Dharma Shastra_, i. 10.] + +[Footnote 128: _Op. cit._, iv. 251.] + +[Footnote 129: 14.] + +[Footnote 130: This Gnostic gospel, together with the treatises +entitled, _The Book of the Gnoses of the Invisible_ and _The Book of the +Great Logos in each Mystery_ (the Bruce MSS.), is especially referred +to, as, with the exception of the _Codex Nazaraeus_, being the only +Gnostic works remaining to us. All else comes from the writings of the +Fathers.] + +[Footnote 131: xv, 1, 2] + +[Footnote 132: The most advanced theory, however, is that the foetus +derives nourishment from the amniotic fluid, and Dr. Jerome A. Anderson +sums up his highly interesting paper on the "Nutrition of the Foetus" in +the _American Journal of Obstetrics_, Vol. XXI, July, 1888, as follows: + +"To briefly sum up the facts supporting amniotic nutrition: + +"1st. The constant presence of nutritive substances in the amniotic +fluid during the whole period of gestation. + +"2nd. The certainty of the absorption by a growing, almost skinless, +foetus of any nutritive material in which it is constantly bathed. + +"3rd. The permeability of the digestive tract at an early period, and +the necessary entrance therein, according to the laws of hydrostatics, +of the albuminous amniotic fluid. + +"4th. The presence of, as it seems to me, _bona fide_ debris of +digestion, or meconium, in the lower intestine. + +"5th. The presence of urine in the bladder, and bile in the upper +intestine; their normal locations. + +"6th. The mechanical difficulties opposing direct nutrition through the +placenta, and the impossibility of nourishment by this method during the +early stages of embryonic life previous to the formation of the placenta +or umbilical vesicle. + +"7th. The evident material source of the fluid, as shown by the +hydrorrheas of pregnancy, as well as in the exhaustion the mother +experiences, in some cases, at least, under its loss and rapid +reproduction. + +"8th. The entire absence during gestation of any trace of the placenta +in certain animals, notably the salamander."] + +[Footnote 133: Oratio V, _In Matrem Deorum_.] + +[Footnote 134: _De Defectu Oraculorum_, xxi.] + +[Footnote 135: _Dictionary of Christian Antiquities_, art. "Four Rivers, +The."] + +[Footnote 136: _The Homeric Cave of Nymphs_, [Greek: peri tou en +Odusseia Numphon antrou].] + +[Footnote 137: [Greek: legousin ek petras gegennaesthai auton]--Just. +Mart. _Dial. cum. Tryph._] + +[Footnote 138: _Cabiri_, ii, 363.] + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Simon Magus, by George Robert Stow Mead + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SIMON MAGUS *** + +***** This file should be named 12892.txt or 12892.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/2/8/9/12892/ + +Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Wilelmina Malliere and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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