Gleanings of antiquities / By John Beaumont, Gent.

  • Beaumont, John, -1731.
Date:
1724
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Gleanings of antiquities / By John Beaumont, Gent. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    174/226 (page 160)
    That there are miniftring Spirits both good and evil, which, by the Philofophers, are called by the common Name of Damons, by the Peripatetick f In¬ telligences ; by Chriflians, good and bad Angels ; is a Do&rine which has pafs d by .Tradition, for many Ages, and is confirmed by a fourfold Reafon, viz. by Specters, Oracles, Magick Arts, and Prodigies. The Sadduces did not acknowledge Spirits; or if they did, they underftood by them only Qualities produced by God in the Mind of him whom he would iaftrud in fomething ,* or they thought God pro- due d Spirits when he would employ them, and afterwards deftroyed them ,* and produc’d them, by leparating fomewhat from the Soul of the World, which afterwards returned into the general Nature. Among the Philofophers of the Gentiles, Democritus did not own any Spirits. Nor Ariflotle, others than the Movers of the Celeftial Orbs ,* which likewife his chief Interpreters held, as Alexander, Simplicius, and Averrhoes. Tho others of them held otherwife ; but thefe receded therein from their Mailer, as well as in other things. Firfl, Theophraftus ; many Ages afterwards, Atnmonius, Philoponus ; and among the Arabians, Avicenna and Algazel: nor was there caufe why thefe fhould be fworn to the Opinion of Democritus, or Ariflotle, who before had left the Opi¬ nion of the Ancients. For Pythagoras afTerted Da™ monsy and if we believe Simplicius, Lib. de Anima, he was the firfk of the Philofophers that did it. Nor :s it to be doubted, but in it Pythagoras followed thofe whom he had ufed for Mailers ; the Thracians, Egyp¬ tians, Per flans, Chaldeans, and others. Plato followed this Opinion, and his Followers, Apuleius, Plotinus, Porphyrins, Proclus, and Pfellus. It may feem ilrange, whence the Gentiles knew there wrere Spirits, or Damons, which the Sadduces, Peripatetkks, and other Men, of great Name, deny : as many do at this day, who believe nothing but