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third discourse concerning oracles after dinner we returned to the labyrinth i was pensive in my pity for the comptes madness which i fully realize would be hard to cure prevented my being as much amused at all that he had told me as i should have been could i have had any hope of restoring him to reason i kept searching antiquity for some counter arguments for his which he would be unable to refute for on my a deuce in the opinions of the church he declared that he cared for not save the ancient religion of his fathers the philosophers and to seek to convince a kabbalist by reason would be a long-winded undertaking besides i was not anxious to get into a dispute with a man whose motives i did not yet as all together understand it crossed my mind that what he had said concerning the false god for whom he had substituted the selfs and other elementary people might be refuted by the pagan oracles whom scripture everywhere calls devils and not sills but not knowing whether the compti might not in the tenet of his kabbalah attribute the answer of the oracles to some natural cause i believe that would be to the point to make him explain what he thought about them he gave me an opportunity to broach his subject when before entering a labyrinth he turned towards the garden this is very fine he said these statues are rather effective the cardinal who had been brought here i replied had a fancy little worthy of his great genius he believed the majority of these figures to have been given forth oracles and bygone days and paid exceedingly dear for them on our account and that is a thing of many people lecompti rejoined everyday ignorance caused a very criminal kind of idolatry to be committed since people preserve with such great care and consider so precious those very idols which they believe the devil formerly employed to make himself worshipped oh god will people never in this world know that thou has precipitated thine enemies beneath thy footstool from the birth of time and that thou dost hold the demon's prisoner under the earth in the vortex of darkness this unpraised worthy desire to collect these counterfeit instruments of the demons might become innocent my son if people would let themselves be persuaded that the angels of darkness have never been allowed to speak through the oracles i do not believe i interrupted that it would be easy to establish that hypothesis amongst the antiquarians but possibly it might be among the free thinkers for not long ago was decided by the leading minds of the day in a conference called for that purpose that all these pretended oracles were either a fraud due to the adverse of the gentile priest or but a political trick of the sovereigns was his coverance held in this question thus decided by the kings of the muhammadan embassy center king no sir i answered then of what religion are these gentlemen he retorted since they said that not the holy scriptures which make mention in so many instances of so many different oracles especially at the pythian oracles who made their abode and gave forth their replies in places destined for the multiplication of the image of god i mentioned all these ventriloquists i answered and i reminded the company that king saul had banished them from his kingdom or notwithstanding he found one of them on the evening of the day before his death whose voice had the wondrous power of raising samuel from the dead in answer to his prayer and to his rune but these learned men did not alter their decision that there never had been any oracles if the scripture made no impression upon them said the compti you should have convinced them by all antiquity wherein it would have been easy to point out a thousand marvelous proofs there were so many virgins pregnant with the destiny of mortals who brought forth the good and bad fortunes of those who consulted them what do you allege as to the chrysanthemum origin and achimenius who make mentions of the divine men whom the greeks called in gostermith whose prophetic abdomens articulated such famous oracles and if your gentleman did not care for the scriptures and the fathers you should have reminded them of those miraculous maids of whom the greek sonia speak who changed themselves into doves and in that form delivered the celebrated oracles of the dove of dordana or else you might have said to the glory of your nation that they were of old and gall illustrious maidens who transformed their entire appearance at the will of those who consulted them and who in addition to the famous oracles which they delivered had a wonderful power over the waters and the salutatory authority over the most incurable disease they would have treated all these fine proofs as apocryphal said i does their antiquity run to them suspect he rejoined if so you had only to reduce the oracles which are still delivered every day and in what part of the world should i in paris he replied in paris i exclaimed in paris he repeated arta master of israel and knows not these things do not people daily consult aquatic oracles and glasses of water and basins and aerial oracles and mirrors on the hands of virgins do they not recover lost beads in pilfered watches do they not learn from distant countries in this way and see the absent ah sir what are you saying said i i'm recounting that which i am positive happens every day he answered and it would not be difficult to find a thousand eyewitnesses of it well i cannot believe that sir i returned the magistrates would not make an example of such culprits and people would not be permitted idolatry ah how haste you are interrupted the compt there is not so much evil in all this as you might suppose and providence will not permit the total destruction of that remnant philosophy which has escaped the lamentable shipwreck truth is sustained if there yet remains among the people any vestige of the dread power of the divine names are you of the opinion that it should be blotted out and they should lose the respect and recognition due to the great name agla which works all these wonders even when evoked by the ignorant and sinful in which spoken by a kabbalist would perform many other miracles if you had wished to convince your gentleman of the truth of the oracles you would only to exalt your imagination and your faith in turning towards the earth cry aloud ah sir i interposed i was careful not to advance that kind of argument to such proper folk as those with whom i was debating they would have taken me for a fanatic for depend upon it they have no faith whatever in that sort of thing and even if i had known the kabbalistic procedure to which you refer it would not have succeeded when pronounced by me i have even less faith in name well well said the compt if you lack faith we shall supply it if you had reason to believe however that your gentleman would not credit that which they can see any day in paris you might have cited a story of rather recent date that oracle which celius wrote a genius says he himself witnessed delivered towards the end of the last century by that extraordinary woman who spoke and predicted the future by means of the same organ as did the iracles of plutarch i should not have cared the cytogenius i answered it would have seemed pedantic to do so however they would certainly have told me that the woman was beyond question the demonic they would have said that very mnemonically cease replied sir i ventured to say notwithstanding the kabbalistic aversion to monks which i perceive you to entertain i cannot help siding with them on this occasion i believe that there would not be much harm and absolutely denying that oracles ever existed as there is insane it was not the devil who spoke through them because in short the fathers and the theologians because in short he interrupted do not the theologians agree that the learned sambith the most ancient of the sybils was the daughter of noah what has to do with that i retorted does not plutarch say he rejoined that the most ancient of the sybils was the first to deliver oracle's adelphi therefore the spirit which sambith harbored in her breast was not a devil nor was her apollo a false god for idolatry did not begin until long after the division of languages for it be far from the truth to attribute the father of lies the sacred books of the symbols and all the proof of the true religions which the fathers have drawn from them and then to my son he laughingly continued it is not for you to annul the marriage of david and the sybil who is made by a celebrated cardinal not to accuse that learned personage if having placed side by side a great prophet in a wretched demonic since either david strengthens the testimony of the sybil or the sybil weakens the authority of david sir i exclaimed i entreat you again to become serious willingly said he provided you will not accuse me of being too much so is it your opinion that the devil is sometimes divided against himself and against his own interest why not said i why not said he because that which tortulion has so feliciously and so grandly termed the reason of god does not find it fitting satan is never divided against himself if therefore follows either the devil has never spoken to the oracles or that he has never spoken to them against his own interest and therefore if the oracles have spoken against the interests of the devil it was not the devil who was speaking to the oracles but said i has not god been able to compel the devil to bear witness to the truth and to speak against himself but he answered what if god has not compelled him to do so ah in that case i replied you are more in the right than the monks let us look into this matter then he continued that i may proceed invincibly and in good faith i do not care to introduce the evidence concerning oracle cited by the fathers of the church although i am aware of the veneration you entertained for these great men their religion and the interest they took in the matter might have prejudiced them and seen truth to be rather poor and naked in their own time their love of her might have caused them to borrow from falsehoods self some robe and ornament from truth adornment there were men and consequently capable of bearing false witness according to the maxim of the poet of the synagogue i shall therefore take a man who cannot be suspected as such a motive a pagan and a pagan of a very different kind to lucretius or lucian or the epicureans a pagan thoroughly imbued with the belief that there are gods in devil's outnumber immeasurably superstitious a mighty magician or supposedly so and consequently a great partisan of devils namely porphyrus here are a word for word some oracles which he reports oracle above the celestial fire there is an incorruptible flame ever sparkling source of life fountain of all being in principle of all things this flame produces all and nothing perishes save that which it consumes it reveals itself by virtue of itself this fire cannot be contained in any place it is without form and without substance it girdles the heavens and from it that precedes a tiny spark which makes the whole fire of the sun moon stars this is what i know of god seek not to know more for this passes thy comprehension however wise thou may be nevertheless know that the unjust and wicked man cannot hide himself from god nor can craft nor excuse disguise odd from his piercing eyes all is full of god god is everywhere you will admit my son that this oracle is not too greatly influenced by his devil at least i answer the devil in this instance rather departs from his character here is another said he that preaches still better there is a god an immense depth of flame the heart must not however fear to touch his adorable flame nor to be touched by it it will in no wise be consumed by this gentle flame whose tranquil and peaceful warmth causes the union harmony and duration of the world nothing exists saved by this fire which is god himself it is uncreate it is without mother it is omniscient and unteachable it is unchanging and purpose and its name is ineffable this is god as for us who are his messengers we are but a little part of god well what say you to that i should say of both i replied that god can force the father of lies to bear witness to the truth here's another rejoin the compt which will remove that scruple oracle alas tripods weep and make funeral oration for your apollo he is mortal he is about to die he expires because the light of the celestial flame extinguishes him you see my child that whoever this may be who speaks through these oracles and who so admirably explains to the pagans the essence unity immensity and turning of god he owns that he is mortal and but a spark of god therefore it cannot be the devil who is speaking since he is immortal and god would not compel him to say that he is not it is therefore proven that satan is not divided against himself is it a way to make himself worship to say that there is but one god the oracle says that he is mortal since when as the devil becomes so humble as to deprive himself of even his natural qualities therefore you see my son that if the principle of him who is called par excellence the god of the sciences exist it cannot have been the devil who spoke through the oracles but if it was not the devil said i either lined from gaity of heart where he speaks of himself as mortal or telling the truth under compulsion when he speaks of god then to what will your kabbalah ascribe all the oracles which you maintain to have been actually delivered is it to an exultation of the earth as aristotle sisu and plutarch would say ah not to that my child said to comp thank to the sacred kabbalah my imagination has not led me astray to that extent now what do you mean i inquired do you consider that my opinion so exceedingly visionary nevertheless its partisans are men of good sense not in this instance he replied and it is impossible to attribute to an exaltation all that happened in the oracles for example that man in tactus who appeared in a dream to the priests of the temple of hercules in armenia and commanded them to make ready for him hunters equipped for the chase up to this point exaltation might account for it but when those horses returned in the evening jaded and their quivers emptied of shafts and when the next day exactly the same number of dead beasts were found as there had been arrows in the quivers you will perceive the exaltation could not have produced this effect much less the devil for to believe that the devil has been permitted to divert himself by chasing the hind in hair is to have been an irrational and unkabbalistic idea of the misery of the enemy of god then said i to what cause does the sacred kabbalah scribe all of this wait he answered before i reveal this mystery to you i must overcome any prejudice you might have because of this hypothetical exaltation four if i remember a right you cited aristotle plutarch cicero with emphasis you might likewise have cited iamblicus who had very great genius though he was labored for a time under this delusion but speedly relinquished it when he had examined the matter at close range in the book of the mysteries peter of opponents palminatious lavinius cyrenius and lucillus vanina were also overjoyed to find this subterfuge in some of the ancient writers all these pseudo-geniuses who when they treat a divine thing say rather what pleases them than what they know to be true are unwilling to admit that there is anything superhuman in the oracles less they should acknowledge the existence of something superior to man they fear lest man should make of the oracle ladder wherewith to mount to god whom they dread to acknowledge is manifesting through gradations of the spiritual creatures and they prefer to manufacture a ladder to descend into nothingness instead of mounting towards heaven they delve into the earth and instead of seeking and being superior to man the cause of those transports which left him above himself and restored him a kind of divinity they weakly ascribe to impotent exaltations this power to penetrate the future discover hidden things and attain to the supreme secrets of the divine essence such is the misery of man when possessed by the spirit of contradiction and the disposition to think differently to others instead of achieving his ends he becomes involved and fettered these intellectual liberties do not wish to make man substitute substances less material in himself and yet they make him subject to an exaltation and disregarding the absence of any connection whatever between his chimerical vapor and the soul of man between this emanation and the future events between this frivolous cause and these miraculous effects the mere singularity of their theories is to them sufficient evidence of their reasonableness they are content to deny the existence of spirits and to assume the role of free thinkers then sir is singularly exceedingly displeasing to you i asked ah my son said he tis the bane of common sense and the stumbling block of the greatest mind aristotle great logician though he was could not avoid the stare snare in which the passion for singularity leads those whom it imbalances as violently as it did him he could not i say avoid becoming entangled and contradicting himself in his book on the generation of animals and in his ethics he says that the spirit and understanding of man came to him from without and cannot be transmitted from father to son and from the spirituality of the operation of man's soul he concludes to be of a different nature to that of composite materials which it animates the grossness of which only serves to be declared to be cloud speculation and is far from contributing to its production blind aristotle since you maintain that the matter of which we are composed cannot be the source of our spiritual thoughts how can you expect a weak exaltation to be the source of sublime thought and of those soaring flights of spirit achieved by those who gain forth the pythian oracles see my child how forcibly this genius contradicts himself and how his craving for singularity leads him astray you've reasoned very logically sir and i enchanted to perceive that he was talking excellent sense and hoping that his madness would not prove incurable god willing plutarch so sound in other respects he said interrupting me moves me to pity in his dialogue concerning cessation of the oracles convincing objections are raised which is and no why refutes why does he not answer what is said to him namely that if it is the exultation which causes these transports all those who approach the prophetic tripod would be seized with enthusiasm and not merely a single maiden who moreover must be virgin but how can this vapor articulate cries through the abdomen besides this exaltation is a natural cause which must necessarily produce its effect regularly in all times why is this major made in agitated only when consulted and what is more important why is the earth ceased to breathe forth these divine vapors is it less earth now than then is it subject to other influences has it other seas and other rivers who then has stopped earth's pores or change its natures i wonder that papanerius lucillus and the other libertines should borrow this idea from plutarch and cast aside his explanation he spoke more judiciously than sister on aristotle for he was a man of great good sense and not knowing what conclusion to draw from all these oracles after tedious irresolution he desired this exaltation which he believed issued from the earth was the most divine spirit thus he ascribed to divinity the extraordinary agitation and illuminations of the priests of apollo this divinatory vapor is a breath in the most divine and most holy spirit city poppiness lucillus and modern atheists do not adopt themselves readily to fashions of speech which imply divinity these exaltations say they were the nature of those vapers which infects splendix who speak languages they don't understand fernilius refutes these impieties rather well by proving that bile which is humor cannot cause a diversity of tongue which is one of the most marvelous effects under consideration and an artificial expression of thought nevertheless he decided erroneously and subscribing to selles and to all those who have not penetrated far enough into our holy philosophy for like them not knowing where to locate the cause of these surprising effects he imitated the women and monks and attributed them to the devil then whom should one attribute them said i i have long awaited his kabbalistic secret plutarch has very well indicated he said and he would have been wise had he let matters rest there since it's a regular method of expressing one's opinion by means of an unseemly organ was neither solemn enough nor sufficiently worthy of the majesty of the god says that pagan and since the saint of the oracle surpassed the powers of the soul of men they have rendered great service to philosophy for they have established the existence of mortal beings beyond the gods and man to whom one can ascribe all that surpasses human weakness yet falls short of divine greatness this is the opinion held in every ancient philosophy the platonists and the pythagoreans took it from the egyptians and the latter from joseph the savior and from the hebrews who dwelt in egypt before the crossing of the red sea the hebrews used to call these beings who are between angels and man saraim and the greeks transposing the letters and adding but one syllable call them de monas among the ancient philosophers their demons were held to be an aerial race ruling over the elements mortal engendering and unknown in this century to those who rarely seek truth in her ancient dwelling place which is to say in the kabbalah in the theology of the hebrews who possess the special art of holding communion with that aerial people and of conversion with all these inhabitants of the air now sir i think you've returned again to yourselves yes my son he went on the terraphim of the jews was but the ceremony which had to be observed for what the communion and that jew micah who complains in the book of judges that his gods have been taken from him only laments the loss of little image to which the selfs used to converse with him the gods which rachel stole from her father were also tariff him neither micah nor laban are approved for idolatry and jacob would have taken care not to live for 14 years with an idolater nor to marry his daughter it was only a commerce with silvs and tradition tells us that the synagogue considered such commerce permissible and the image belonging to david's wife was but that terraphim by virtue of which she conversed with the elementary peoples for you can well imagine that the prophet after god's own heart would not have tolerated idolatry in his own household these elementary nations so long as god neglected the salvation of the world in punishment for the first sin used to take pleasure in explaining to man through the oracles what they knew of god in teaching them how to live morally and to give them most wise and most profitable counsel such as are seen in great number and plutarch in all historians as soon as god took pity on mankind and is willing himself to become their teacher these little masters withdrew hence the sounds of the oracles then the upshot of your entire discourse sir i remarked is that there certainly were oracles and that the silfs delivered them and even today deliver them in goblets or in mirrors the silts or salamanders the gnomes or undines corrected the compti if that be so i replied all your elementary people are very dishonest folk so why do you say that city why could anything be more navish i pursued than all these responses with double meanings which they always give always he replied ah not always did the silphid speak very obscurely who appeared to the roman in asia and predicted to him that he would one day return to rome with the dignity of proconsul and does not tacitus say that the event occurred exactly as predicted that inscription and all statues famous in the history of spain which warned unfortunate king rodriguez that his indiscretion and incontinence would be punished by men dressed and armed exactly as they were and those black men would take possession of spain and rule there for many years could anything have been more explicit and was not the prophecy verified by the event in that self-same year for did not the moors come to the throne that effeminate king you know the story and you must admit that the devil who since the reign of the messiah does not dispose of empires could not have been the author of this oracle and that it was undoubtedly some great kabbalist who had from one of the most learned salamanders since the salamanders loved chastity exceedingly they willingly make known to us the misfortunate who must befall mankind for lack of that virtue but sir said i to him do you consider the heteroclitic organ which they made use of for the preaching of their ethics very chaste and all together in keeping with kabbalistic modesty ah said the cop smiling your imagination is shocked and you fail to perceive the physical reason which causes the flaming salamander naturally to delight in the most ingenious places and to be attracted by i understand i understand i interrupted do not take the trouble to explain further as for the obscurity of some oracles which you dub knavery he went on seriously are not shadows the usual cloak of truth is not god pleased to hide himself in their somber veil and is not holy writ that perpetual oracle which is left to his children enveloped in an adorable obscurity which confounds and bewilders the proud even as its light guides the humble if this be your own difficulty my son i advise you not to postpone entering into communion with the elementary people you will find them very sincere folk learning benevolent and god-fearing i am of opinion that you should begin with the salamanders for you have mars in mid-heaven in your horoscope which signifies that there is a great deal of fire in all your actions and as for marriage i would rather think that you should choose a sofid you would be happy with her than any of the others for you have jupiter in the ascendant with venus in sextile now jupiter presides over the air and the people of the air you must however consult your own heart in this matter for as you will one day see a sage governs himself by the interior stars and the stars of the exterior heaven but serve to give him a more certain knowledge of the aspects of the stars of that interior heaven which is in every creature thus did rest with you to tell me what your inclination is that we may proceed to your alliance with these elementary peoples which are most pleasing to you sir i replied in my opinion this affair demands a little consultation i esteem you for that answer he said laying his hand on my shoulder consult maturely as to this affair and above all with him who was called in an eminent degree the angel of the grand counsel go and devote yourself to prayer and i shall be at your house at two o'clock tomorrow afternoon we came back to paris and on the way i led him once more to discourse against atheists and libertines i have never heard arguments so well supported by reason nor such sublime and subtle ideas advanced for the existence of god and against the blindness of those who go through life without wholly surrendering themselves to a serious and continual worship of him to whom we owe the gift and preservation of our being i was surprised at the character of this man and i could not comprehend how it was possible for him to be at once so strong and so weak so admirable yet so ridiculous end of discourse