No More Learning

_ If, closing the
perceptive organs of sense, you look upward with the visive power of
intellect, and, averting the eye of the _flesh,_ you excite the eye
of the soul, you will thus alone behold God*. And if you seek for the
leader of this path, you must avoid impostors and enchanters, and those
who persuade you to pay attention to [real] idols; in order that you may
not be entirely ridiculous, by blaspheming as idols other things which
are manifestly Gods**, and venerating that which is in reality more
worthless than any image, and which is not even an image, but _a dead
body_***; and by investigating a Father similar to it.

* This is most Platonically said by Celsus.

** Such as the sun and moon, and the other heavenly bodies.

*** The Emperor Julian in the fragments of his Arguments
against the Christians, 'preserved by Cyril, says, speaking
to the Christians: "You do not notice whether any thing is
said by the Jews about holiness; but you emulate their rage
and their bitterness, overturning temples and altars, and
cutting the throats not only of those who remain firm in
paternal institutes, but also of. . .

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"There are essence and generation, the intelligible and the visible.
And truth indeed subsists with essence, but error with generation*.
Science, therefore, is conversant with truth, but opinion with
generation. Intelligence also pertains to, or has the intelligible for
its object; but what is visible is the object of sight. And intellect
indeed knows the intelligible; but the eye knows that which is visible.
What the sun therefore is in the visible region,--being neither the eye,
nor sight, but the cause to the eye of seeing, and to the sight of its
visive power, to all sensibles of their being generated, and to
himself of being perceived;--this the supreme God [or _the good_] is
in intelligibles: since he is neither intellect, nor intelligence, nor
science, but is the cause, to intellect, of intellectual perception;

. . .
those heretics who are equally erroneous with yourselves,
and who do not lament a dead body in the same manner as you
do. For neither Jesus nor Paul exhorted you to act in this
manner. But the reason is, that they did not expect you
would arrive at the power which you have obtained. For they
were satisfied if they could deceive maid-servants and
slaves, and through these married women, and such men as
Cornelius and Sergius; among whom, if you can mention one
that was at that time an illustrious character, (and these
things were transacted under the reign of Tiberius or
Claudius,) believe that I am a liar in all things. "

* Generation signifies the whole of that which is visible.

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to intelligence, of its subsistence on account of him; to science, for
its possession of knowledge for his sake, and to all intelligibles for
their existence as such. He is likewise the cause to truth itself and
to essence itself, of their existence, being himself beyond all
intelligibles, by a certain ineffable power*. And these are the
assertions of men who possess intellect. But if you understand any thing
of what is here said, you are indebted to us for it. If, likewise, you
think that a certain spirit descending from God announced to you things
of a divine nature, this will be the spirit which proclaimed what I have
above said, and with which ancient men being replete, have unfolded so
many things of a most beneficial nature. If, therefore, you are unable
to understand these assertions, be silent, and conceal your ignorance,
and do not say that those are blind who see, and that those are lame who
run,

* This sentence in the original is as follows: [--------].
But it is requisite to read, conformably to the above
translation, [--------]. Celsus has derived what he here
says from the Sixth Book of Plato's Republic, and what he
says previous to this from the Timæeus of Plato. --See
Taylor's translation of these Dialogues.

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you at the same time possessing souls that are in every respect lame and
mutilated, and living in body, viz. in that which is dead.