DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.43363#0324
io6 PLUTARCH’S Treatife of
Divinity resides; so far from it, that those things which
never had any life, nor are indeed capable of it, are
in a much lower degree of estimation, than those that
once enjoyed exigence though they may have since lost
it. For whatever Beings are endued with life, with the
faculty of seeing, that have a principle of voluntary
motion in them, and that are able to distinguish what
belongs to, and is proper for them, and what not (ac-
cording to Heraclitus's expression) all these are to be
regarded as the effluxes as it were, or as so many por-
tions taken off from that supreme providential Wisdom,
that governs the universe.—so that at least the Deity is
not worse represented in these animals, than it is in
those curious images of metal and stone, which are
made by the art of man. They are both of them, ’tis
true, equally liable to corruption and decays, but then
the latter are by nature entirely incapable os all sense
or perception — these then are, in my opinion, the best
reasons they offer for the worship which they pay their
sacred animals.
Of the facred Veftments and Oiiris.
78. Now as to the facred robes, with which the statues
of these Deities are adorned, those of Isis are dyed with
a great variety of colours, her power being wholly con-
versant about Matter, which becomes all things and ad-
mits all things, light and darkness, day and night, fire and
water, life and death, beginning and end: wheras thofe
of Ofiris are of one uniform shining colour, without the
least shade or variety in them. For as he is a first Prin-
ciple, prior to all other Beings, and purely intelligent,
he muft ever remain unmixed, and undefiled) for this
reason
Divinity resides; so far from it, that those things which
never had any life, nor are indeed capable of it, are
in a much lower degree of estimation, than those that
once enjoyed exigence though they may have since lost
it. For whatever Beings are endued with life, with the
faculty of seeing, that have a principle of voluntary
motion in them, and that are able to distinguish what
belongs to, and is proper for them, and what not (ac-
cording to Heraclitus's expression) all these are to be
regarded as the effluxes as it were, or as so many por-
tions taken off from that supreme providential Wisdom,
that governs the universe.—so that at least the Deity is
not worse represented in these animals, than it is in
those curious images of metal and stone, which are
made by the art of man. They are both of them, ’tis
true, equally liable to corruption and decays, but then
the latter are by nature entirely incapable os all sense
or perception — these then are, in my opinion, the best
reasons they offer for the worship which they pay their
sacred animals.
Of the facred Veftments and Oiiris.
78. Now as to the facred robes, with which the statues
of these Deities are adorned, those of Isis are dyed with
a great variety of colours, her power being wholly con-
versant about Matter, which becomes all things and ad-
mits all things, light and darkness, day and night, fire and
water, life and death, beginning and end: wheras thofe
of Ofiris are of one uniform shining colour, without the
least shade or variety in them. For as he is a first Prin-
ciple, prior to all other Beings, and purely intelligent,
he muft ever remain unmixed, and undefiled) for this
reason