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It appears to me, also, that the present question errs in another respect. For it is ignornant that the offering of sacrifices through fire has the power of consuming and destroying the matter of them in a greater degree; that it assimilates this matter to itself, but is not itself assimilated to the matter; and that it elevates to divine, celestial, and immaterial fire, but does not tend downwards to matter and generation. For if the enjoyment of the vapours from matter allured dæmons, it would be requisite that the matter should be pure and entire; since thus there would be a more abundant efflux from it to its participants. But now all the matter is enkindled and consumed, and is changed into the purity and tenuity of fire; which is itself a clear indication of the contrary to what you assert. For superior beings [i. e. dæmons] are impassive, and they are delighted to amputate matter through fire, and render us impassive. They likewise assimilate whatever is in us to the Gods, in the same manner as fire[1] assimilates all solid and resisting sub-
- ↑ It is well observed by Ficinus, in lib. i. Eunead. ii. Plotin. "that the fire which is enkindled by us is more similar to the heavens than other terrestrial substances.
