17:17
Περὶ γὰρ τῶν κατὰ τὸν Δημόκριτον συμπαθειῶν τε καὶ ἀντιπαθειῶν τί καὶ λέγειν ἔχομεν, ἢ τοῦθ ὅτι κατὰ τὸν κοινὸν λόγον ἀβδηρολόγος ἐστὶν ὁ ἀπὸ τῶν Ἀβδήρων ἄνθρωπος; Ὥσπερ δὲ ὁ τῇ πόλει τῆς προσηγορίας αἴτιος, φίλος ὢν Ἡρακλέους ὥς φασιν, ὑπὸ τῶν Διομήδους ἵππων κατεβρώθη, τρόπῳ τῷ αὐτῷ καὶ ὁ τὸν μάγον Ὀστάνην καυχώμενος ἐν ἡμέρᾳ συντελείας πυρὸς αἰωνίου βορᾷ παραδοθήσεται. Καὶ ὑμεῖς δέ, τοῦ γέλωτος ἢν μὴ ἀποπαύσησθε, τῶν αὐτῶν ὧνπερ καὶ οἱ γόητες τιμωριῶν ἀπολαύσετε. Διόπερ, ὦ Ἕλληνες, κεκραγότος ὥσπερ ἀπὸ τοῦ μετεώρου κατακούσατέ μου, μηδὲ ἐπιτωθάζοντες τὴν ὑμετέραν ἀλογιστίαν ἐπὶ τὸν κήρυκα τῆς ἀληθείας μετάγετε. Πάθος οὐκ ἔστι δι ἀντιπαθείας ἀπολλύμενον, οὐδὲ ὁ μεμηνὼς σκυτίδων ἐξαρτήμασι θεραπεύεται. Δαιμόνων εἰσὶν ἐπιφοιτήσεις· καὶ ὁ νοσῶν καὶ ὁ λέγων ἐρᾶν, καὶ ὁ μισῶν καὶ ὁ βουλόμενος ἀμύνεσθαι, τούτους λαμβάνουσι βοηθούς. Τρόπος δὲ αὐτοῖς τῆς μηχανῆς οὗτος.Ὥσπερ γὰρ οἱ τῶν γραμμάτων χαρακτῆρες, στίχοι τε οἱ ἀπ αὐτῶν, οὐ καθ ἑαυτούς εἰσι δυνατοὶ σημαίνειν τὸ συνταττόμενον, σημεῖα δὲ τῶν ἐννοιῶν σφίσιν ἄνθρωποι δεδημιουργήκασι, παρὰ τὴν ποιὰν αὐτῶν σύνθεσιν γινώσκοντες ὅπως καὶ ἡ τάξις τῶν γραμμάτων ἔχειν νενομοθέτηται, παραπλησίως καὶ τῶν ῥιζῶν αἱ ποικιλίαι, νευρῶν τε καὶ ὀστέων παραλήψεις, οὐκ αὐταὶ καθ ἑαυτὰς δραστικαί τινές εἰσι, στοιχείωσις δέ ἐστι τῆς τῶν δαιμόνων μοχθηρίας, οἳ πρὸς ἅπερ ἕκαστον αὐτῶν ἰσχύει ὡρίκασιν. Ἐπεὶδ ἂν παρειλημμένην ὑπὸ τῶν ἀνθρώπων θεάσωνται τὴν δι αὐτῶν ὑπηρεσίαν, λαμβάνοντες σφίσιν αὐτοῖς δουλεύειν τοὺς ἀνθρώπους ἀπεργάζονται. Πῶςδ ἂν ἀγαθὸν μοιχείαις ὑπηρετεῖν; Πῶς δὲ καὶ σπουδαῖον πρὸς τὸ μισεῖν τινας παριόντας βοηθεῖν;Ἢ πῶς ὕλῃ καλὸν προσανάπτειν τὴν εἰς τοὺς μεμηνότας βοήθειαν καὶ μὴ τῷ θεῷ; Τέχνῃ γὰρ τῆς θεοσεβείας τοὺς ἀνθρώπους παρατρέπουσιν, πόαις αὐτοὺς καὶ ῥίζαις πείθεσθαι παρασκευάζοντες.Ὁ δὲ θεός, εἴπερ αὐτὰ πρὸς τὸ ποιεῖν ἅπερ οἱ ἄνθρωποι βούλονται κατεσκευάκει, πονηρῶν ἂν ἦν πραγμάτων δημιουργός· ἐπεὶ αὐτὸς μὲν πᾶν τὸ εὖ πως ἔχον ἐδημιούργησεν, ἡ δὲ τῶν δαιμόνων ἀσωτία τοῖς ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ πρὸς τὸ κακοποιεῖν ἐχρήσατο, καὶ τούτων ἐστὶ τῆς κακίας εἶδος καὶ οὐχὶ τοῦ τελείου.Πῶς γὰρ ζῶν μὲν ἥκιστα μοχθηρὸς εἴην, νεκροῦ δὲ ὄντος μου λείψανον τὸ ἐν ἐμοί, μηδὲν ἐμοῦ πράττοντος, τὸ μήτε κινούμενον ἀλλὰ μήτε αἰσθανόμενον, αἰσθητόν τι ἀπεργάσεται; Πῶς δὲ ὁ τεθνεὼς οἰκτίστῳ θανάτῳ δυνήσεται πρὸς τιμωρίαν τινὸς ἐξυπηρετῆσαι; Τοῦτο γὰρ εἰ οὕτως εἴη, πολλῷ μᾶλλον ἀφ ἑαυτοῦ τὸν οἰκεῖον ἐχθρὸν ἀμύνηται· δυνάμενος γὰρ καὶ ἄλλοις βοηθεῖν ἔκδικος πολλῷ μᾶλλον ἑαυτοῦ καταστήσεται
論到德謨克利特所說的「同感」與「反感」，我們除了這話還能說什麼呢——就是照那句俗語：那來自阿布德拉的人，乃是個「阿布德拉式的胡言者」？正如那給此城命名之人，據說是赫拉克勒斯的朋友，卻被狄俄墨得斯的馬群吞吃了，照樣，那以法師俄斯塔涅斯自誇之人，在終結之日也必被交付給永火作糧。你們若不止息嘲弄，也必享受與那些術士同樣的刑罰。所以，希臘人哪，當聽我這如同從高處呼喊之聲，不要藉譏笑你們自己的無理性，將它轉嫁到那真理的傳報者身上。沒有一種情慾是藉「反感」被除滅的，瘋人也不是靠掛上皮條就得醫治。這些乃是鬼魔的造訪；那患病的、那自稱戀愛的、那懷恨的、那意欲報復的，都把這些鬼魔當作幫手。它們行詭計的方式如下。正如字母的形體，以及由字母組成的字句，本身並不能表明所要表達的意思，乃是人為自己造了表達意念的記號，並憑著字母特定的組合，知道字母的次序是如何被定規的——照樣，各樣的根莖、筋與骨的種種運用，本身也並非有任何作為，乃是鬼魔惡毒的「字母」，它們對各自所能掌控之物劃定了界限。每逢它們看見人在運用藉這些東西所行的「效力」，便趁機抓住，使人成為它們的奴隸。服事姦淫之事怎能算為善呢？幫助那些路過之人去恨惡某些人，怎能算為認真之舉呢？又怎能把醫治瘋人之助歸給物質，而不歸給神呢？因為它們藉一種技倆，使人偏離對神的敬拜，慫恿人去信靠草藥與根莖。但神若當真為「成就人所願的任何事」而造了這些東西，祂便要成了惡事的製造者；其實祂自己所造的一切，本是某種美好狀態的，乃是鬼魔的放蕩濫用世上之物去行惡，這些事屬乎它們那一類的邪惡，並不屬乎那全備者。原來我活著時尚且最不至於作惡，那麼我死後，我裡面的殘餘——我既毫無作為，那物既不動、也無知覺——又怎能產生什麼可感知的效應呢？那以最可憐之死而亡的人，又怎能為人效力去報仇呢？倘若真是如此，他豈不更要報復自己的仇敵；既能幫助別人，豈不更要立自己為自己的報仇者？
Concerning the sympathies and antipathies according to Democritus, what can we say, except this—that, according to the common saying, the man from Abdera is an Abderite babbler? For just as the man who gave the city its name, being a friend of Heracles as they say, was devoured by the horses of Diomedes, in the same way the man who boasts of the magician Ostanes will, on the day of consummation, be handed over as fodder for the eternal fire. And you too, if you do not cease from your mockery, will enjoy the same punishments as the sorcerers. Therefore, O men of Greece, listen to me as I cry out, as it were, from on high, and do not, by jeering at your own irrationality, transfer it onto the herald of the truth. There is no passion that is destroyed through an antipathy, nor is the madman healed by appendages of leather strips. These are visitations of demons; and the sick man, and the man who says he is in love, and the hater, and the one wishing to take vengeance—these take the demons as helpers. And this is the manner of their device. For just as the characters of letters, and the lines composed from them, are not in themselves able to signify what is being arranged, but men have made for themselves signs of their conceptions, knowing by the particular composition of them how the order of the letters has been ordained—in like manner the varieties of roots also, and the applications of sinews and bones, are not in themselves anything active, but are the elements of the demons' malignity, who have set bounds upon the things over which each of them has power. Whenever they behold the service rendered through these things being employed by men, they take them and make men slaves to themselves. How could it be good to serve adulteries? How could it be earnest to assist those who pass by in hating certain people? Or how is it fair to attach to matter the help given to madmen, and not to God? For by an art they pervert men from the worship of God, persuading them to put their trust in herbs and roots. But God, if he had indeed contrived these things for doing whatever men wish, would be the maker of wicked deeds; whereas he himself fashioned everything that is in some good state, but the dissoluteness of the demons used the things in the world for doing evil, and these belong to the kind of their wickedness and not of the Perfect One. For how, while I am living, should I least be wicked, but when I am dead, the remnant in me—I doing nothing, the thing neither moving nor perceiving—will produce some perceptible effect? And how will the man who has died a most pitiable death be able to render service for someone's vengeance? For if this were so, far more would he avenge himself on his own enemy; since, if able to help even others, far more would he set himself up as avenger of himself.