Mısır Hikmeti ve Suretin Örtüsü

These are, in truth, a teaching born first from the abundance of Egyptian learning, as Cornelius Tacitus testifies, then embellished and refined over time, as Joannes Goropius recounts in his Hieroglyphics. Indeed, we might liken this knowledge to a wise person who has lived in solitude and nakedness for many years, who, in order to go where there is social conversation, dresses themselves; this is so that others, enticed by the outward beauty of the body—which is the image—may desire to understand minutely those qualities that give splendor to the soul—which is the thing signified, and which was only cherished by a few strangers while it remained in solitude. And we read only that Pythagoras, out of a true desire for wisdom, penetrated into Egypt with the greatest effort, where he learned the secrets of things that they hid within these Enigmas. Therefore, having returned home burdened with years and wisdom, he deserved that after his death his house be made into a Temple, consecrated to the merit of his knowledge. It is also found that Plato drew a great part of his doctrine out of these secrets, in which even the holy Prophets hid it. And Christ, who was the fulfillment of the Prophecies, concealed a great part of the divine secrets under the obscurity of his parables.