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In the first place, therefore, you say, "it must be granted that there are Gods." Thus to speak, however, is not right on this subject. For an innate knowledge of the Gods is co-existent with our very essence; and this knowledge is superior to all judgment and deliberate choice, and subsists prior to reason and demonstration. It is also counited from the beginning with its proper cause, and is consubsistent with the essential tendency of the soul to the good. If, indeed, it be requisite to speak the truth, the contact with divinity is not knowledge. For knowledge is in a certain respect separated [from its object] by otherness.[1] But prior to the knowledge, which as one thing knows another, is the uniform connexion with divinity, and which is suspended from the Gods, is spontaneous and inseparable from them. Hence, it is not proper to grant this, as
- ↑ Damascius περυ αρχων says, "that difference not existing, there will not be knowledge." And, "that the contact as of one with one is above knowledge." Likewise, "that the intellectual perception of the first intelligible is without any difference or distinction. ετεροτητος μη ουσης, μηδε γνωσις εσται. Et συναφη ως ενος προς εν, υπερ γνωσιν. Alibi, αδιακριτος η του πρωτου νοητου νοησις.
