[313] _Adversus Coloten_, 1124 D. The religious value of the belief in Dæmonology is indicated in an interesting passage in the “_De Iside et Osiride_” in which Isis, by her sufferings, is described as “having given a sacred lesson of consolation to men and women involved in similar sorrows.” 361 E. (In the next sentence she and Osiris are raised from the dæmonic rank to the divine.) [314] Accepting Bernardakis’ first emendation—εἰς θεοὺς ἐπαναφέρει τὰς τῶν πράξεων ἀρχὰς. 580 A. [315] 581 F.—Phidolaus would not have been at home among Xenophon’s troops (_Anabasis_, iii. 2, 9). [316] 588 C, D. [317] 588 E. [318] 589 D. [319] 586 A. [320] 589 F. [321] 591 A. [322] 594. [323] _De Defectu_, 415 B, C. In the _De Facie quæ apparet_ the connexion between mankind and the dæmons in described in similar terms to those employed in the _De Dæmonio Socratis_. The Dæmons do not spend all their time on the moon; they take charge of oracles, assist at initiatory rites, punish evildoers, help men in battle and at sea, and for any want of fairness or competence in the discharge of these duties they are punished by being driven again to earth to enter human bodies once more (944 D; cf. 944 C). [324] That this truth is one which appeals to the Imagination more cogently than to the Reason, resembling in that respect the belief in the soul’s immortality, is evident to Plutarch. It is on this account that he illustrates it by Myth instead of arguing it by Reason, and takes every precaution to prevent his readers from regarding it as a complete and final presentation of a logically irrefutable belief. [325] _Non posse suaviter_, &c., 1101 B, C. [326] 1101 D. [327] 1102 B. [328] _De Audiendis Poetis_ 34 B.