THE JUDGMENT OF MARTIN SCHOOCK

Professor at the University of Groningen and Ommeland regarding the books of JOHANN WEYER, titled

ON THE ILLUSIONS OF DEMONS.

JUST AS envy is accustomed to target excellence above all else, so it perpetually accompanies the wise and the learned; for they are not only spoken of as exceptional, but are in fact truly great men. Envy is especially hostile to the monuments of genius, through which authors might surely live on even after they have returned to ashes and embers—were it not for those who, desiring to be thought of as learned themselves, strive by all means to suppress them. This is the fate not only of this or that book or writer, but of all who are known in bookstores and libraries. Even Plato—to whom Envy itself is forced to bear witness as the prince of all who have ever written or spoken, both for his richness of expression and his gravity—was called "the golden one" by Epicurus as a mockery original: "scomma." Epicurus used the term "golden" sarcastically to mock Plato's idealized and supposedly "precious" style.. Many have long noted a certain confusion in his Dialogues, and if we believe Athenaeus A Greek rhetorician and grammarian, author of the 'Deipnosophistae'., Theopompus of Chios even wrote a book against them, contending that most of them were untruthful and useless. Aristotle, Plato’s disciple—than whom Marcus Cicero testifies to have known nothing more refined or acute—faced censors of his writings and character while Athens was still in its prime, namely Aristoxenus, Timaeus, and Epicurus. And to say nothing of his more recent adversaries, Gregory of Nazianzus himself A 4th-century Archbishop of Constantinople and one of the "Cappadocian Fathers" of the Church, known for his theological rigor. pronounced these words somewhere with great irritation: Cast aside the minutely talkative cleverness of Aristotle; cast aside those deadly discourses on the soul, and all those human dogmas. To Cicero himself, the most eloquent original: "differ-". The Latin text breaks off here; the catchword "fer-" suggests the word "differtissimum," meaning "most eloquent" or "most gifted in speech." of the descendants of Romulus...