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PAGE BOOK VI: SIMON MAGUS, VALENTINUS, AND THEIR FOLLOWERS 1-57 1. SIMON 2 2. VALENTINUS 17 3. SECUNDUS AND EPIPHANES 38 4. PTOLEMY 39 5. MARCUS 40

BOOK X: SUMMARIES, AND THE WORD OF TRUTH 149-178 1. THE SUMMARY OF THE PHILOSOPHERS 150 2. THE SUMMARY OF THE HERESIES 153 3. THE WORD OF TRUTH 171

INDEX 179

PHILOSOPHUMENA

BOOK VI

SIMON MAGUS, VALENTINUS, AND THEIR FOLLOWERS

And the manifest of the fire contains within itself all which one can perceive or which can escape one, but remains visible; but the hidden contains everything which one can perceive as something intelligible but which evades the sense or which as not being thoroughly understood one passes over. But it must be said generally that of all things which are perceptible and intelligible, which Simon calls hidden and manifest, the supercelestial fire is the Treasure-house, like unto the great tree which was seen by Nebuchadnezzar in a dream, from which all flesh is fed. And he considers the trunk, the boughs, the leaves, and the bark on the outside of it to be the manifest part of the fire. All these things which are attached to the great tree the flame of the all-devouring fire causes to vanish. But the fruit of the tree, if it be made a perfect likeness and has received its own shape, is placed in a storehouse and not in the fire. For the fruit, he says, has been produced that it may be put in a storehouse, but the chaff that it may be cast into the fire, which is the trunk which has not been produced for its own sake, but for that of the fruit.

For earth by earth we see, and water by water And aether by aether, yet destroying fire by fire, And by love, and strife in gloomy strife.--

How then and in what manner, he says, did God form man in Paradise? For this is his opinion. Let, he says, Paradise be the womb, and that this is true the Scripture teaches when it says: "I am he who fashioned thee in thy mother's womb." For this also he wishes to be thus written. Moses, he says, speaking in allegory, calls Paradise the womb if we are to believe the word. But if God fashions man in the womb of his mother, that is, in Paradise, as I have said, let Paradise be the womb and Edem the placenta: "And a river went forth from Edem and watered Paradise" the navel-string. The navel-string, he says, separates into four heads. For on each side of the navel are set two arteries, conduits of breath, and two veins, conduits of blood. But when he says, the navel-string goes forth from the placenta it takes root in the infant by the epigastrium which all men commonly call the navel. And the two veins it is through which flows and is borne from Edem the blood to the so-called gates of the liver whence the child is fed. But the arteries as we have said, are the conduits of the breath which pass behind on either side of the bladder round the pelvis and make connection with the great artery by the spine called the aorta, and thus through the ventricles the breath flows upon the heart and causes movement of the embryo. For the embryo in course of formation in Paradise neither takes food by the mouth, nor breathes through the nostrils. For, as it exists amid waters, death is at its feet if it should breathe. For it would then draw in the waters and die. But it is girt about almost wholly by the envelope called the amnion and is fed through the navel, and through the aorta which is by the spine, it receives, as I have said the substance of the breath.

Black was it at the root, but the flower was like milk The gods call it Moly, but hard it is to dig For mortal men, but to the gods all things are possible.--

And that, he says, the beginning of the generation of things begotten is from fire, he understands in some such fashion as this: In all things whatever which have birth, the beginning of the desire of generation comes from fire. As, for instance, the desire for mutable generation is called "being inflamed" . But the fire from being one, turns into two. For in the man, he says, the blood which is hot and yellow as fire is depicted, turns into seed; but in the woman the selfsame blood into milk. And from the turning in the male comes generation and from that in the female the nourishment of that which is generated. This, he says, is the flaming sword turning about to guard the path to the Tree of Life. For the blood is turned to seed and milk and the same power becomes father and mother of those which are born and the increase of those which are nourished, itself lacking nothing and being sufficient unto itself. But the Tree of Life is guarded he says, through the turning of the flaming sword, as we have said, which is the Seventh Power which is from itself, which contains all things which lies stored up in the six powers. For if the flaming sword did not turn about, that fair tree would perish and be destroyed. But if the Logos which is lying stored up potentially therein, is turned into seed and milk, being lord of its proper place wherein is begotten a Logos of souls,--then from the smallest spark it will become great and increase in every sense and will be a boundless power unchangeable in the aeon which changes not until it is in the Boundless Aeon.

"Unto you I say what I say, and I write what I write. The writing is this. There are two stems of all the Aeons, having neither beginning nor end, from one root, which is Power-Silence unseen and incomprehensible. One of them appears on high, who is a great power, the mind of the universals, who orders all things and a male. And the other below is a great Thought, a female giving birth to all things. These, then, being set over against each other form a pair and show forth the middle space, an incomprehensible air having neither beginning nor end. In this is a Father who upholds all things and nourishes those which have a beginning and end. This is He who Stood, Stands, and will Stand, being a masculo-feminine power after the likeness of the pre-existing Boundless Power which has neither beginning nor end but exists in oneness. For the thought which came forth from the in oneness was two. And that was one. For he when he contained her within himself was alone, nor was he indeed first although he existed beforehand, but having himself appeared from himself, a second came into being. But he was not called Father until she named him Father. Just as then he, drawing himself forth from himself, manifested to himself his own thought, so also the thought having appeared did not create him; but beholding him, hid the Father--that is Power--within herself; and there is a masculo-feminine Power-and-Thought when they are set over against each other. For Power does not differ at all from thought, they being one. From the things on high is discovered Power; from those below Thought. Thus then it is that that which appeared from them being one is found to be two, a masculo-feminine having the female within it. This is Mind in Thought for they being one when undivided from one another are yet found to be two."

"Yea by the Tetractys handed down to our head A source of eternal nature containing within itself roots."

For the beginning of natural and solid bodies is the Tetractys as the monad is of the intelligible ones. But that the Tetractys gives birth to the perfect number as among the intelligibles the does to the 10, they teach thus. If one beginning to count, says 1, and adds 2, and then 3 in like manner, these will make 6. yet another 4 and there in the same way will be the total 10. For the 1, 2, 3 and 4 become 10, the perfect number. Thus, he says, the Tetractys will in all things imitate the intelligible monad having been thus able to bring forth a perfect number.

"For it was before and will be. Never I ween Will the unquenchable aeon be devoid of these two."

What are these ? Strife and Love. But their love makes the cosmos incorruptible and eternal, as they think. For substance and the cosmos are one. But strife rends asunder and diversifies, and tries by every means to make the world divide. Just as one cuts arithmetically the myriad into thousands and hundreds and tens and drachmas, and obols, and quarters by dividing it into small parts, so Strife cuts the substance of the cosmos into animals, plants, metals and such like things. And Strife is according to them, the Demiurge of the generation of all things coming to pass, and Love governs and provides for the universe, so that it abides. And having collected into one the scattered and rent of the universe and leading them forth from life, it joins and adds them to the universe so that it may abide and be one. Never therefore will Strife cease from dividing the cosmos, nor Love from attaching together the separated things of the cosmos. Something like this it seems is the "distribution" according to Pythagoras. But Pythagoras says that the stars are fragments of the sun and that the souls of animals are borne from the stars. And that the same are mortal when they are in the body being buried as it were in a tomb; but that they will rise again and become immortal when we are separated from our bodies. Whence Plato being asked by some one what Philosophy is, said: "It is a separation of soul from body."

"A certain source containing roots of eternal nature."

and Sophia by whom the psychic and material creation is now framed. And Sophia is called Spirit, but the Demiurge Soul, and the Devil the ruler of the world, and Beelzebud that of the demons. This is what they say, and beside this, they make their whole teaching arithmetical; as is said above, they that thirty Aeons within the Pleroma again projected other Aeons by analogy with themselves, so that the Pleroma may be summed up in a perfect number. For, as it has been made clear that the Pythagoreans divide into 12 and 30 and 60 and that these have also minutes of minutes, thus also do subdivide the things within the Pleroma. But subdivided also are the things in the Ogdoad, and there rules Sophia who is according to them the Mother of All Living, and the Logos, the Joint Fruit of the Pleroma, there are supercelestial angels, citizens of the Jerusalem on high, which is in heaven. For this Jerusalem is Sophia. Without and her bridegroom the Joint Fruit of the Pleroma. the Demiurge also projected souls; for he is the essence of souls. This is according to them Abraham and these are the children of Abraham. Then, from the material and devilish essence the Demiurge has made the bodies of the souls. This is the saying: "And God made man, taking dust from the earth, and breathed into his face a breath of life, and man became a living soul." This is, according to them, the inward psychic man who dwells in the material body which is material, corruptible, and formed entirely of devilish essence. But this material man is like unto an inn, or the dwelling-place, sometimes of the soul alone, sometimes of the soul and demons, and sometimes of the soul and logoi, who are logoi sown from above in this world by the Joint Fruit of the Pleroma, and by Sophia, and who dwell in the earthly body with the soul when there are no demons dwelling with it. This, he says, is what was written in Scripture: "For this cause I bow my knees to the God and Father and Lord of our Lord Jesus Christ, that God would grant you that Christ should dwell in the inner man, that is the psychical not the somatic, that you be strengthened to comprehend what is the depth" which is the Father of the universals "and what is the breadth," which is Stauros the Limit of the Pleroma, "or what the length," which is the Pleroma of the Aeons. Wherefore, he says, the psychic man does not receive the things of God's spirit; for they are foolishness unto him. But foolishness, he says, is the power of the Demiurge, for he was senseless and mindless and thought that he fashioned the cosmos, being ignorant that Sophia, the Mother, the Ogdoad, wrought all things with regard to the creation of the world for him who knew it not.

"I must speak to you in enigmas, so that if the tablet should suffer in any of its leaves on sea or land, whoso reads may not understand. For things are thus. As regards the king of all, all things are his, and all are for his sake, and he is the cause of all that is fair. A second concerning secondary things and a third concerning those things which come third. But respecting the king himself there is nothing of this kind of which I have spoken. But after this the soul seeks to learn of what quality these are, since it looks towards the things which are germane to itself, of which it has nought sufficiently. This is, O son of Dionysius and Doris, your question as to what is the cause of all evils. But it is rather that anxiety about this is inborn, and if one does not remove it, one will never hit upon the truth. But what is wonderful about it, hear. For there are men who have heard these things, able to learn and able to remember, and who have yet grown old while straining to form a complete judgment. They say that what appeared believable is now unbelievable, and that what was then unbelievable was then the opposite. Looking therefore to this, beware, lest you repent what has unworthily fallen from you. Wherefore I have written none of these things, nor is there anything signed Plato, nor will there ever be. But the sayings now attributed to Socrates were when he was young and fair."

Valentinus having chanced upon these conceived the king of all, of whom Plato spoke, to be Father and Bythos and the primal source of all the Aeons. And when Plato spoke of the second concerning secondary things, Valentinus assumed that the secondary things were all the Aeons being within the limit of the Pleroma and the third concerning the third things, he assumed to be the whole arrangement without the limit and the Pleroma. And this Valentinus made plain in the fewest words in a psalm, beginning from below and not as Plato did from above, in these words:--

"I behold all things hanging from air, I perceive all things upheld by spirit, Flesh hanging from soul, Soul standing forth from air, And air hanging from aether, But fruits borne away from Bythos But the embryo from the womb."

Understanding this thus:--Flesh is, according to them, Matter, which depends from the soul of the Demiurge. But soul stands out from air, that is the Demiurge from the Spirit outside the Pleroma. But air stands out from aether, that is Sophia Without from that which is within limit and the whole Pleroma. Fruits are borne away from Bythos, which is the whole emanation of Aeons coming into being from the Father. The opinions of Valentinus have therefore been sufficiently told. It remains to tell of the teachings of those who have been obedient to his school, another having different teaching.

And of another number they say this:--the element Eta with the Episemon is an ogdoad, as it lies in the 8th place from the Alpha. Then again counting the numbers of the same elements together without the Episemon and adding them together as far as the Eta, they display the number 30. For if one begins the number of the elements with the Alpha up to the Eta after subtracting the Episemon, one finds the number 30. Since then the number 30 is made from the uniting of the three powers, the same number 30 occurring thrice made 90--for three times 30 are 90 . Thus the ogdoad made the number 99 from the first ogdoad and decad and dodecad. The number of which they sometimes carry to completion and make a triacontad and sometimes deducting the 12th number they count it 11 and likewise make the 10th 9. And multiplying and decupling these they complete the number 99. And since the 12th Aeon left the 11 and fell away from them and came below, they imagine that these things correspond one to the other. For the type of the letters is instructive. For the 11th letter is the Lambda which is the number 30 and is so placed after the likeness of the arrangement on high, since from the Alpha apart from the Episemon, the number of the same letters up to Lambda when added together makes up the number 99. But that the Lambda which is put in the 11th place came down to seek for what is like unto it so that it may complete the 12th number, and having found it did complete it is plain from the very shape of the element. For the Lambda succeeding as it were in the search for what was like unto itself and finding, seized it, and filled up with it the place of the 12th element Mu, which is composed of two Lambdas. Wherefore they avoid by this gnosis the place of the 99 that is to say the Hysterema as the type of the left hand, but follow the One which added to the 99, brings them over to the right hand.

Again the Moon traversing the heavens completely in 30 days, typifies by these days the number of the Aeons. And the Sun completing his journey and terminating his cyclical return to his former place in 12 months shows forth the Dodecad. And that the days themselves, since they are measured by 12 hours, are a type of the mighty Ogdoad. And also that the perimeter of the Zodiacal circle has 360 degrees and that each Zodiacal sign has 30. Thus by means of the circle, they say, the image of the connection of the 12 with the 30 is observed. And again also they imagine that the earth is divided into 12 climates, and that each several climate receives a single power from the heavens immediately above it and produces children of the same essence with the power sending down by emanation a type of the Dodecad on high.

FOOTNOTES

BASILIDES, SATURNILUS, AND OTHERS

Let us see then what they say came into being in the first, second or third place from the cosmic seed. There existed says within the seed itself, a Sonhood, threefold throughout, of the same essence with the God-who-was-Not and begotten of the things that were not. Of this triple divided Sonhood, one part was subtle, and one wanting purification. Now the subtle straightway and as it became the first emission of the seed by the One-who-was-Not, escaped and ascended and went on high from below with the speed described by the poet--

"like wing or thought,"

In order that we may omit nothing of their , I will set forth what they say also about Gospel. Gospel is according to them the knowledge of hypercosmic things, as has been made plain, which the Great Ruler did not understand. When then there was manifested to him what are the Holy Spirit that is the Boundary, and the Sonhood and the God-who-is-Not the cause of all these, he rejoiced at the words and exulted, and this according to them is the Gospel. But Jesus according to them was born as we have before said. And He having come into being by the Birth before explained, all those things likewise came to pass with regard to the Saviour as it is written in the Gospels. And these things came to pass says, so that Jesus might become the first-fruits of the sorting-out of the things of the Confusion. For when the Cosmos was divided into an Ogdoad which is the head of the whole ordered world, the Great Ruler, and into a Hebdomad which is the head of the Hebdomad, the Demiurge of the things below him, and into this space of ours, which is the Formlessness, it was necessary that the things of the Confusion should be sorted out by the discrimination of Jesus.

That which was His bodily part which was from the Formlessness, therefore suffered and returned to the Formlessness. And that which was His psychic part which was from the Hebdomad also returned to the Hebdomad. But that which was peculiar to the Height of the Great Ruler ascended and remained with the Great Ruler. And He bore aloft as far as the Boundary Spirit that which was from the Boundary Spirit and it remained with the Boundary Spirit. But the third Sonhood which had been left behind to give and receive benefits was purified by Him, and traversing all these places went on high to the Blessed Sonhood. For this is the whole theory, as it were a Confusion of the Seed-Mass and the discrimination and the Restoration of the things confused into their proper places. Therefore Jesus became the first-fruits of the discrimination, and the Passion came to pass for no other reason than this discrimination. For in this manner, he says, all the Sonhood left behind in the Formlessness to give and receive benefits separated into its components in the same way as of Jesus was separated. This is what Basilides fables after having lingered in Egypt, and having learned from them such great wisdom, he brought forth such fruits.

Hear first the four roots of all things: Shining Zeus and life-bearing Here and A?doneus. And Nestis who wets with tears the source of mortals.

Zeus is fire and life-bearing Here the earth which bears fruits for the support of life. But A?doneus is the air, because while beholding all things through it, it alone we do not see. And Nestis is water, since it is the only vehicle of food, and therefore the becoming cause of all growing things, yet cannot nourish them by itself. For if it could so give nourishment, he says, living things could never die of hunger, for there is always abundance of water in the cosmos. Whence he calls water Nestis, because it is a becoming cause of nourishment, yet cannot itself nourish growing things. These things then are, to sum them up in outline, those which comprise the foundation of the cosmos water and Earth from which all things come, Fire and Spirit the tools and agents, and Strife and Love which fashion all things with skill. And Love is a certain peace and even mindedness and natural affection, which determines that the cosmos shall be perfect and complete; but Strife ever rends asunder that which is one and divides it and makes many things out of one. Therefore the cause of the whole creation is Strife, which he calls baneful, that is deadly. For it takes care that through every aeon, its creation persists. And Strife the deadly is the Demiurge and maker of all things which have come into being by birth; but Love, of their leading-forth from the cosmos and transformation and return to unity. Concerning which, Empedocles that there are two immortal and unbegotten things which have never yet had a source of existence. He speaks, however, somehow like this:--

For it was aforetime and will be; never, I ween, Will the unquenchable aeon lack these two.

"I thought he did," added Charlie.

"I can show you that he did not," said Nat, taking up a volume from the table. "Now hear this;" and he proceeded to read the following, in which Jefferson is speaking of holding slaves:

"'What an incomprehensible machine is man! who can endure toil, famine, stripes, imprisonment, and death itself, in vindication of his own liberty, and the next moment be deaf to all those motives whose power supported him through the trial, and inflict on his fellow men a bondage, one hour of which is fraught with more misery than ages of that which he rose in rebellion to oppose. But we must wait with patience the workings of an overruling Providence, and hope that that is preparing the deliverance of these our suffering brethren. When the measure of their tears shall be full--when their tears shall have involved heaven itself in darkness--doubtless a God of justice will awaken to their distress, and by diffusing a light and liberality among their oppressors, or, at length by his exterminating thunder, manifest his attention to things of this world, and that they are not left to the guidance of blind fatality.'"

"That is strong against slavery, I declare," said Charlie. "I had always supposed that Jefferson was a defender of slavery."

"How plainly he says that there is more misery in 'one hour' of slavery, than there is in 'ages' of that which our fathers opposed in the Revolution," added Nat.

"I want to read you another passage still, you are beginning to be so good a Democrat," said Nat.

"Republican, then," answered Nat quickly, "just what Jefferson called himself. You won't object to that, will you?"

"Read on," said Charlie, without answering the last inquiry.

Nat read as follows:

"That is stronger yet!" exclaimed Charlie. "I tell you, Nat, there are no such Democrats now."

"Yes, there are; you see one sitting in this chair," replied Nat, "and I believe there are many such. A person must believe so if he believes the Declaration of Independence. Come, Charlie, you are as good a Democrat as I am, only you won't own it."

"I certainly think well of Jefferson's principles, so far as you have read them to me, but I am not quite ready to call myself a Democrat."

Jefferson's life and writings certainly made a lasting impression upon Nat's mind. It was one of the works that contributed to his success. Like the lives of Patrick Henry and of Dr. Franklin, and the address upon the character of Count Rumford, it contained much that appealed directly to his early aspirations. It is said that when Guido stood gazing upon the inimitable works of Michael Angelo, he was first roused to behold the field of effort for which he was evidently made, and he exclaimed, "I, too, am a painter." So, it would seem, that direction was given to the natural powers of Nat, and his thirst for knowledge developed into invincible resolution and high purpose by this and kindred volumes. It is often the case, that the reading of a single volume determines the character for life, and starts off the young aspirant upon a career of undying fame. Thus Franklin tells us that when he was a boy, a volume fell into his hands, to which he was greatly indebted for his position in manhood. It was "Cotton Mather's Essays to do Good," an old copy that was much worn and torn. Some of the leaves were gone, "but the remainder," he said, "gave me such a turn of thinking as to have an influence on my conduct through life; for I have always set a greater value on the character of a doer of good than any other kind of reputation; and if I have been a useful citizen, the public owes all the advantage of it to the little book." Jeremy Bentham said that the current of his thoughts and studies was decided for life by a single sentence that he read near the close of a pamphlet in which he was interested. The sentence was, "The greatest good of the greatest number." There was a great charm in it to one of his "turn of mind," and it decided his life-purpose. The passion of Alfieri for knowledge was begotten by the reading of "Plutarch's Lives." Loyola, the founder of the sect of Jesuits, was wounded in the battle of Pampeluna, and while he was laid up with the wound, he read the "Lives of the Saints," which impressed him so deeply that he determined from that moment to found a new sect.

There is no end to such examples from the page of history. It may seem an unimportant matter for a boy to read the life of Jefferson, or Franklin, or any other person; but these facts show us that it may be no trivial thing, though its importance will be determined by the decision, discrimination, and purpose with which the book is read. Very small causes are sometimes followed by the greatest results. Less than a book often settles a person's destiny. A picture created that life of purity and usefulness which we find in Dr. Guthrie, the renowned English champion of the Ragged School enterprise. His case is so interesting, that we close this chapter by letting him speak for himself. He says,

THREE IMPORTANT EVENTS.

"Frank is coming into the factory to work," said Nat one day to Charlie.

"He is?" answered Charlie with some surprise, as he had not heard of it; "when is he coming?"

"Next week I expect, if the place is ready for him. I am glad he is coming, for he will be company for us."

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