Philosophumena; or, The refutation of all heresies, Volume I — David Hume — John Shaqi
Philosophumena; or, The refutation of all heresies, Volume I
David Hume · en
indications of what is to follow immediately, which can hardly be
anything else than announcements in advance of the subject of the next
lecture. Thus, at the end of Book I, he promises to explain the mystic
rites[47]--a promise which is for us unfulfilled in the absence of
Books II and III; at the end of Book IV, he tells us that he will deal
with the disciples of Simon and Valentinus[48]; at that of Book VII,
that he will do the same with the Docetæ[49]; and at that of Book VIII
that he will “pass on” to the heresy of Noetus.[50] In none of these
cases does he more than mention the first of the heresies to be treated
of in the succeeding book, which the reader could find out for himself
by turning over the page, or rather by casting his eye a little further
down the roll.
Again, there are repetitions in our text excusable in a lecturer who
does not, if he is wise, expect his hearers to have at their fingers’
ends all that he has said in former lectures, and who may even find
that he can best root things in their memory by saying them over and
over again; but quite unpardonable in a writer who can refer his
readers more profitably to his former statements. Yet, we find our
author in Book I giving us the supposed teaching of Pythagoras as to
the monad being a male member, the dyad a female and so on up to the
decad, which is supposed to be perfect.[51] This is gone through all
over again in Book IV with reference to the art of arithmetic[52]
and again in Book VI where it is made a sort of shoeing-horn to the
Valentinian heresy[53]. The same may be said of the “Categories” or
accidents of substance which Hippolytus in one place attributes to
Pythagoras, but which are identical with those set out by Aristotle
in the _Organon_. He gives them rightly to Aristotle in Book I, but
makes them the invention of the Pythagoreans in Book VI only to return
them to Aristotle in Book VII.[54] Here again is a mistake such as a
lecturer might make by a slip of the tongue, but not a writer with any
pretensions to care or seriousness.