other, that certain disgraceful and ill-omened sacrificial observances "are not properly connected with the worship of the gods or of good Dæmons,[1] but that there are surrounding us certain beings, great and potent, but malignant too, and hateful, who rejoice in such repulsive ceremonies, and are thereby restrained from the perpetration of greater evils." Democritus and Chrysippus are elsewhere quoted as supporters of the same view.[2]
Plutarch, accordingly, faithful to his principle of making Philosophy Mystagogue to Religion, has obtained from the philosophers a conviction that there are two kinds of dæmonic beings, two sets of supernatural characters with attributes inferior to those of the Divine Nature, and yet superior to those displayed by the human family. It has already been shown how naturally the good Dæmons would tend to become identified with the gods: a passage has just been quoted in which we can see this process of identification taking place. But Plutarch furnishes still more emphatic testimony to the necessity of such a consummation.
The group of philosophers gathered together at Delphi to discuss the cessation of the oracles have fallen
- [Footnote: Empedocles, in which this punishment is described. Another fragment
of verse from Empedocles (De Exilio, 607 C) depicts with equal force and beauty the punishment by the Dæmons of one who has been handed over to them to atone for his crimes.]
