Book V - Snyder Bible

112
disease of mind, by reason of which they see not the things
which are, but long to bring to their sight those which are not.
But thus it is also to those who are suffering frenzy, and seem
to themselves to see many images, because their spirit, being
torn and withdrawn from its place by excess of cold or of heat,
suffers a failure of its natural service. But those also who are
in distress through thirst, when they fall asleep, seem to themselves
to see rivers and fountains, and to drink; but this befalls
them through being distressed by the dryness of the unmoistened
body. Wherefore it is certain that this occurs through
some ailment either of the s
Chapter LXV: Fallacy of Imagination
ncerning
Yahrushalayim, which I had often seen, I told my
brother what places and what gatherings of people I had
seemed to myself to see. But also concerning Caesarea, which I
had never seen, I nevertheless contended that it was such as I
had conceived it in my mind and thought. But when I came
hither, and saw nothing at all like to those things which I had
seen in fantasy, I blamed myself, and observed distinctly, that I
had assigned to it gates, and walls, and buildings from others
which I had seen, taking the likeness in reality from others.
Nor indeed can any one imagine anything new, and of which
no form has ever existed. For even if any one should fashion
from his imagination bulls with five heads, he only forms them
with five heads out of those which he has seen with one head.
And you therefore, now, if truly you seem to yourself to perceive
anything with your thought, and to look above the heavens,
there is no doubt but that you imagine them from those
things which you see, placed as you are upon the earth. But if
you think that there is easy access for your mind above the
heavens, and that you are able to conceive the things that are
there, and to apprehend knowledge of that immense light, I
think that for him who can comprehend these things, it were
easier to throw his sense, which knows how to ascend thither,
into the heart and breast of some one of us who stand by, and