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The decline of the West, Volume 2

Note 455 — Chapter VIII · PROBLEMS OF THE ARABIAN CULTURE (B) THE MAGIAN SOUL

Charles Francis Atkinson translation

Note the “Western” outlook on the substance-questions in the contemporary writings of Proclus—his double Zeus, his triad of πατήρ, δύναμις, νοήσις or νοητόν, and so forth (Zeller, Philosophie der Griechen, V, pp. 857, et seq.). Proclus’s beautiful “Hymn to Athene” is a veritable Ave Maria:

“But when an evil lapse of my being puts me into bondage (And, ah, I know indeed how I am tossed about by many unholy deeds that in my blindness I have done), Be thou gracious to me, thou gentle one, thou blessing of mankind, And let me not lie upon the earth as prey to fearful punishments, For I am, and I remain, thy chattel.” (Hymn VII, Eudociæ Aug. rel. A. Ludwich, 1897.)

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