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secrets of Isis, or to point out the arcanum in the adytum,[1] or to stop Baris, or to scatter the members of Osiris to Typhon, or to do something else of the like kind." Men do not, however, as you think, threaten by such words as these the sun or the moon, or any of the celestial Gods; for if they did, more dire absurdities would ensue than those which you lament. But, as we before observed, there is a certain genus of powers in the world which is partible, inconsiderate, and most irrational, and which receives reason from another, and is obedient to it; neither itself employing a proper intelligence, nor distinguishing what is true and false, or what is possible or impossible. A genus, therefore, of this kind, when threatenings are extended, is immediately coexcited and astonished, because, as it appears to me, it is naturally adapted to be led by representations, and to allure other things, through an astounded and unstable phantasy.
- ↑ The conjecture of Gale, that for ἤ το εν Αβυδῳ in this place, we should read ἤ το εν αδυτῳ, is, I have no doubt, right. For the highest order of intelligibles is denominated by Orpheus the adytum, as we are informed by Proclus in Tim. By the arcanum in the adytum, therefore, is meant the deity who subsists at the extremity of the intelligible order (i. e. Phanes); and of whom it is said in the Chaldean Oracles, "that he remains in the paternal profundity, and in the adytum, near to the god-nourished silence."
