We shall venerate Divinity in a proper manner, if we render the intellect that is in us pure from all vice, as from a certain stain.
A temple, indeed, should be adorned with gifts, but the soul with disciplines.
As the lesser mysteries are to be delivered before the greater, thus also discipline must precede philosophy.
The fruits of the earth, indeed, are annually imparted, but the fruits of philosophy at every part of the year.
As land is especially to be attended to by him who wishes to obtain from it the most excellent fruit, thus also the greatest attention should be paid to the soul, in order that it may produce fruit worthy of its nature.
ADDITIONAL NOTES.
ADDITIONAL NOTES.
[P. 50.] Better worth saving than ten thousand corporeal eyes.
Iamblichus here alludes to what Plato says in the seventh book of his Republic, respecting the mathematical disciplines. For he there says, “that the soul through these disciplines has an organ purified and enlightened, which is blinded and buried by studies of another kind, an organ better worth saving than ten thousand eyes, since truth becomes visible through this alone.”
[P. 58.] That in which the Sirens subsist.