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To sum up all then in one word, it is not reasonable
to believe that either the water or the sun or the earth or
the heaven is Osiris or Isis; nor, again, that the fire or the
drought or the sea is Typhon; but if we simply ascribe to
Typhon whatever in all these is through excesses or defects
intemperate or disorderly, and if on the other hand we reverence and honor what in them all is orderly, good, and
beneficial, esteeming them the operations of Isis, and as
the image, imitation, and discourse of Osiris, we shall not
err. And we shall besides take off the incredulity of
Eudoxus, who makes a great question how it comes to
pass that neither Ceres hath any part in the care of love
affairs (but only Isis), nor Bacchus any power either to
increase the Nile or to preside over the dead. For we
hold that these Gods are set over the whole share of good
in common, and that whatever is either good or amiable
[p. 123]
in Nature is all owing to these, the one yielding the principles, and the other receiving and dispensing them.
Plutarch. Plutarch's Morals. Translated from the Greek by several hands. Corrected and revised by. William W. Goodwin, PH. D. Boston. Little, Brown, and Company. Cambridge. Press Of John Wilson and son. 1874. 4.
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