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most venerable excellences we can conceive, and the most holy and primary names and things, we ascribe nothing to him which is suitable to his dignity. It is sufficient, however, to procure our pardon [for the attempt], that we can attribute to him nothing superior."[1] If it is not possible, therefore, to form any ideas equal to the dignity of the immediate progeny of the ineffable, i. e. of the first principles of things, how much less can our conceptions reach that thrice unknown darkness, in the reverential language of the Egyptians,[2]
- ↑ (
Greek characters)[Greek: kai chrê ton epi tas archas anabainonta zêtein, ei dunaton einai ti kreitton'tês ypotetheisês archês kan eurethê, palin ep ekeinou zêtein, eôs an eis tas akrotatas ennoias elthômen ôn ouketi semnoteras echomen kai mê zêsai tên anabasin. oude gar eulabêteon mê kenembatômen, meixona tina kai yperbainonta tas prôtas archas peri autôn ennoontes. ou gar dynaton'têlikouton pêdêma pêdêmai tas êmeteras ennoias, ôs parisôthênai tê axia tôn prôtôn archôn, ou legô kai yperptênai. mia gar autê pros theon anatasis arizê, kai ôs dynaton aptaizos. kai ôn ennoomen agathôn ta semnotata, kai agiôtata, kai prôtourga, kai onomata kai pragmata autô anatithentas eidenai bebaiôs, oti mêden anatetheikamen axion. arkei de êmin eis syngnômên, to mêden echein ekeinôn yperteron. Simplic. in Epict. Enchir. p. 207. Lond. 1670. 8vo.]
- ↑ Of the first principles, says Damascius in MS. (Greek characters) [Greek: peri archôn], the Egyptians said nothing, but celebrated it as a darkness beyond all intellectual conception, a thrice un-
