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Hippolytus
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Introductory Notice to Hippolytus.
[127] Or, “is immortal.” Diogenes Laertius (book vii.) notices, in his section on Zeno, as part of the Stoic doctrine, “that the soul abides after death, but that it is perishable.”
[128] Or, “through what is incorporeal;” that is, through what is void or empty space.
[129] Or, “resurrection;” or, “resistance;” that is, a resisting medium.
[130] The atomic theory is, as already mentioned by Hippolytus, of more ancient date than Epicurus’ age, being first broached by Leucippus and Democritus. This fact, however, has, as Cudworth argues, been frequently overlooked by those who trace the doctrine to no older a source than the founder of the Epicurean philosophy.
[131] Or, “that neither has He business to do, nor does He attend to any. As a consequence of which fact,” etc.
[132] “Among the Gentiles” seems a mistake. One reading proposed is, “some (intended) our sensuous passions;” or, “some understood the passions.” The words “among the Gentiles,” the French commentator, the Abbe Cruice, is of opinion, were added by Christian hands, in order to draw a contrast between the virtuous Christian and the vicious pagan.
Chapter XX.—The Academics; Difference of Opinion Among Them.
[133] See Diogenes Laertius’ Lives, x. 63 (Bohn’s Library); Plutarch, De Placitis Philosophorum, iv. 3.
[134] Diogenes Laertius, Lives, ix. 75; Sextus Empiricus, Hypotyp., i. 188–192.
[135] This is what the Academics called “the phenomenon” (Sextus Empiricus, Pyrrh. Hyp., i. 19–22).
[136] This is a mistake in the manuscript for Ganges, according to Roeper.
[137] Or, “knowledge.” (See Clemens Alexandrinus, Strom., i., xv., lxxii.; Eusebius, Præparat. Evang., ix. 6.)
[138] Athenæus (Deipn., book ix.) ascribes this opinion to Plato, who, he tells us, “asserted that the soul was so constituted, that it should reject its last covering, that of vanity.”
[139] Or, “they name light their god;” or, “they celebrate in their own peculiar language God, whom they name,” etc.
[140] The text here would seem rather confused. The above translation agrees with Cruice’s and Schneidewin’s Latin version. I have doubts about its correctness, however, and would render it thus: “…enveloped in a body extrinsic to the divine essence, just as if one wore a sheepskin covering; but that his body, on being divested of this (covering), would appear visible to the naked eye.” Or, “This discourse whom they name God they affirm to be incorporeal, but enveloped in a body outside himself (or his own body) (just as if one carried a covering of sheepskin to have it seen); but having stripped off the body in which he is enveloped, that he no longer appears visible to the naked eye.” (Roeper.) I am not very confident that this exactly conveys the meaning of Roeper’s somewhat obscure Greek paraphrase.
[141] The parenthetical words Roeper considers introduced into the text from a marginal note.
Chapter XXII.—The Druids; Progenitors of Their System.
[142] Or “Zamalxis,” or “Zametris” (see Menagius on Diogenes Laertius, viii. 2).
[143] Or, “of Thracian origin.” The words are omitted in two mss.
[144] There are several verbal differences from the original in Hippolytus’ version. These may be seen on comparing it with Hesiod’s own text. The particular place which Hesiod occupies in the history of philosophy is pointed out by Aristotle in his Metaphysics. The Stagyrite detects in the Hesiodic cosmogony, in the principle of “love,” the dawn of a recognition of the necessity of an efficient cause to account for the phenomena of nature. It was Aristotle himself, however, who built up the science of causation; and in this respect humanity owes that extraordinary man a deep debt of gratitude.
[145] Or “youngest,” or “most vigorous.” This is Hesiod’s word, which signifies literally, “fittest for bearing arms” (for service, as we say).
[146] “The majority of those who first formed systems of philosophy, consider those that subsist in a form of matter, to be alone the principle of all things.”—Aristotle’s Metaphysics, book i. c. iii. p. 13 (Bohn’s ed.).
Chapter I.—System of the Astrologers; Sidereal Influence; Configuration of the Stars.
[147] Or, “interval.”
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