Cause Principle Unity

On magic
are expelled and replaced by their opposites with chants, prayers, meditations
and ecstacies of the soul. And it cannot be denied that, in some
people, there are dominating spirits who have the power to dispel certain
types of illnesses. They say that Cyrus and other Persian kings could cure
diseases of the spleen with the touch of their thumb. And it is well-known
and clearly established that the same is true of the Kings of France, who
cured disorders of the lymph glands with the touch of a thumb. It is also
said that someone who is the seventh son of the same father, and who was
born without the help of a woman, can do the same thing with his saliva.
One can prove that demons are material, and that they are of several
different kinds, by the fact that they have emotions, desires, angers, jealousies
and similar feelings found in humans, and in animals composed of
observable and more dense matter. That is why the slaughtering and sacrifice
of animals were instituted, for these demons are pleased a very great
deal by such ceremonies and their fumes. It must be that these demons are
constituted very much like us, because they also express their affections for
some peoples and nations, while they detest and hate all others.
Some of these demons have names and are famous and more powerful,
while others are more ordinary. The Romans called the latter ‘gods of the
dishes’, 19 i.e., there were no specific offerings and sacrifices made to them.
It is credible that such offerings were not necessary, but rather were pleasing
to them (for they could provide for themselves whatever they needed).
Nevertheless, these offerings were established for them as luxuries, which
they would not have had without human contributions. For although they
are able to know much more than we can, they cannot do and change
as many things as we can, because of their spiritual and more noble and
more reasonable characters. They are delighted by sweet scents and were
adequately paid homage at one time by incense, saffron, moss, amber and
fragrant flowers.
The more noble and more eminent spirits are said to be pleased by
hymns, chants and musical instruments.
Above all, these are the gods who, by nature, ‘have no need of us, and are
neither favourably influenced by our merits, nor touched by our anger’. 20
Being affected by our good or evil actions pertains only to those spirits who
can ask and receive from us some arrangement whereby they can have a
better and happier life. This does not seem to be at all appropriate for those
spirits who already enjoy a most happy state.
19 ‘petallares dei’. See Plautus, Cistellaria, II, 1, 46. 20 Lucretius, De rerum natura, V, 650–1.
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