n IAMBLICHUS 129 



works were those of lamblichus the Platonist, who died 

 early in the fourth century, the Life of Pythagoras, 

 and especially the Mysteries of the Egyptians} Another 

 work, in many books, which has not come down to us, 

 but which penetrated into the literature of the middle 

 ages, was on the Perfect Theology of the Chaldaeans. To 

 lamblichus, as to Plotinus, the Ideal world was a 

 hierarchy of Gods, from the ineffable, unsearchable 

 One, down, tier upon tier, through successive emana- 

 tions, to the Gods that are immanent in the world we 

 know and the things of the world. In the scheme not 

 only do the Ideas of Plato, the Numbers of Pythagoras, 

 the Forms of Aristotle, find a place, but also all the 

 Gods of the Greek mythology, of the Egyptian religion, 

 of the Babylonian and Hebrew esoteric cults. The 

 same character is to be found in the writings of the so- 

 called Hermes or Mercurius Trismegistus, to whom 

 Bruno constantly appeals. 2 It was partly for their 

 cosmology, more in accord with modern thought than 

 that of the Peripatetics and the Church, that they were 

 read ; but still more for the support their belief in 

 demonic spirits, governing the movements of the 

 worlds and of all individual things, gave to magical 

 and theurgical practices, which through the slackening 

 of the rule of the Church were now universal. " All 

 stars are called fires by the Chaldaeans," writes Bruno, 

 <c animals of fire, ministers of fire, innumerable gods, 

 divine oracles." " The Chaldaeans and the wise Rabbis 

 endowed the stars with intelligence and feeling." 4 

 " There are some who are by no means thought worthy 

 of a hearing among philosophers, the Chaldaeans and 



1 Cf. Her. Fur., Lag. 636. If not by lamblichus, this work issued certainly 

 from his school, to which Julian the Apostate belonged. 



2 E.g. Op.Lat. i. i. 376. 3 Ibid. 4 Of.cit. 



