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1e profundity of Plato's conceptions; they* withdrew not the veil which covers his secret meaning, like the 'curtains* which Points him two ways, the narrower is the better. Plac'd at the door of learning, youth to guide» We never suffer it to stand too wide . To ask, to guess, to know as they commence, As Fancy opens the quick springs of Sense, We ply the memory , we load the brain , Bind rebel Wit, and double chain on chain ; Confine the thought, to exercise the breath , And keep them in the pale of Words till death , Whate’er the talents, or howe’er design’d , We hang one jingling padlock on the wind . Punciad, Book IV. 3 Έπι των Χεγομενων τεΧετων, τα μεν α bvra ην, ως δηΧοι και τοννομα, τα be παραπετάσματα προβεβΧηνται, αθέατα τα εν tois abvrois <ρν\αττοντα, Psellus in Alleg. de Sphina viii INTRODUCTION, guarded the adytum of temples from the profane eye ; and they saw not that all behind the veil is luminous, and that there divine spectacles * every where present themselves to the view. This task was reserved for men who were born indeed in a baser age, but who being allotted a nature similar to their master were the true interpreters of his sublime and mystic speculations. Of these Plotinus was the leader, and to him this philosophy is in·* debted for its genuine restoration, and for that succession of philosophic heroes, who were luminous links of the golden chain of deity. The commencement indeed of this restoration of philosophy originated from Ammonius Saccas, but the completion of 1 See ray dissertation on the Eleusinian and Bacchie Mysteries in Numbers XV and XVI of the Pamphleteer. INTRODUCTION. IX « it was the work of Plotinus. For the former of these, who was by birth an Alex¬ andrian, and at first nothing more than a porter, opened a philosophical school at Alexandria, but with a determination not to commit the more abstruse and theologi¬ cal dogmas of his philosophy to writing. Indeed, this truly great man was so fearful of profaning these sublime mysteries, by exposing them to vulgar inspection, that he revealed them to his disciples Erennius, Origen, and Plotinus, on the condition of inviolable secrecy, and under the guard of irrevocable oaths. However, fortunately for posterity, Erennius dissolved the compact, and Origen (not the Christian father of that name) imitating Erennius, disclosed a part of his master s secrets, in a curious treatise on Daemons, which unfortunately is lost.
2of irrevocable oaths. However, fortunately for posterity, Erennius dissolved the compact, and Origen (not the Christian father of that name) imitating Erennius, disclosed a part of his master s secrets, in a curious treatise on Daemons, which unfortunately is lost. But INTRODUCTION X the publications of these two great men were but trifling efforts to restore the mystic wisdom of antiquity, since the evolution of it into light free from the enigmas in which it had been before enve¬ loped, was reserved for the divine genius of Plotinus* ♦ Of this very extraordinary man there is a long and interesting life extant by his disciple Porphyry, from which the follow* ing particulars are selected for the informa¬ tion of the English reader* Plotinus was by birth an Egyptian, and was a native of Lycopolis, as we are in¬ formed by Eunapius ; for Porphyry is wholly silent as to this particular. Indeed, this is not wonderful, if we consider what INTRODUCTION. XI Porphyry asserts of him in the beginning of his life, viz. that he was ashamed that his soul was in body . Hence, says he, he would neither tell the race, nor the parents from whom he originated, nor would he patiently relate in what country he was born. This I know will be considered by a genuine modern, as either rank enthusiasm, or gross affectation ; but he who has fathomed the depth of his writings will immediately sub¬ scribe to its truth. The same vehement love for intellectual pursuits, and contempt for body, made him disdain to sit for his picture; so that when Amelias, one of his disciples* begged that he would permit his likeness to be taken, his answer expressed the true greatness of his mind : “ As if (says he) it was not sufficient to bear this image, with which nature has surrounded Xll INTRODUCTION. us, you think that a more lasting image of this image should be left as a work worthy to be inspected.” However, the wish of Amelius was at length accomplished, by the ingenious contrivance of one Carterius a painter, who by frequenting the school of Plotinus, and viewing his countenance with fixed attention, produced at length from his memory a happy likeness of the philosopher. Though he was often afflicted with the colic, he always refused the assist¬ ance of clysters, asserting that remedies of this kind were not fit for a man advanced in years. Nor would he ever receive the assistance of theriacal antidotes, since he said his nourishment was not derived from the bodies of even tame animals. He like¬ wise abstained from baths; but daily used frictions at home.
3were not fit for a man advanced in years. Nor would he ever receive the assistance of theriacal antidotes, since he said his nourishment was not derived from the bodies of even tame animals. He like¬ wise abstained from baths; but daily used frictions at home. But when a grievous INTRODUCTION* χία pestilence raged ‘ at Rome, and the servants who were accustomed to rub him* fell victims to the disease; from neglecting remedies of this kind, he gradually became a prey to the pestilence. So great was the violence of this distemper, and its effects so dreadful on Plotinus, as Eustochius in¬ formed Porphyry who was then absent, that through a very great hoarseness, all the clear and sonorous vigour of his musical voice was lost ; and what was still worse, his eyes were darkened, and his hands and feet were covered with ulcers. Hence, be¬ coming incapable of receiving the saluta- * This pestilence was in the time of the Emperor Gallienus, and raged so vehemently, according to Trebellius Pollio, that five thousand men perished through the same disease in one day. This happened in the year of Christ 262, and of Gallienus 9, 10 ; and not long after Porphyry applied him¬ self to Plotinus. XiV INTRODUCTION tions of his friends, he left the city, and went to Campania, to the estate of one Zethus, an ancient departed friend. Neces¬ saries were here administered to him from the hereditary possessions of Zethus, and were likewise brought from Minturnus, from the fields of Castricius. 1 But when this divine man drew near to his dissolu¬ tion, that period which is no less the dread of the vulgar than the transport of the philosopher, and which to Plotinus must have been the moment of extatic rapture, Eustochius, who dwelt at Puteolus, was not very hasty in his approaches ; doubtless not imagining that Plotinus was on the point of making his triumphant exit from a corporeal life. However, when he came 1 This is the Firmus Castricius to whom Porphyry in- scribes his treatise On Abstinence from Animal food. INTRODUCTION, XV into the presence of this departing hero, he was just in time to receive his dying words, and to preserve the sacred sentence to posterity. As yet (says he) I have ex·* x pected you , and now 1 endeavour · that my divine part may return to that divine nature which flourishes throughout the universe . Such were the last words of this mighty man, which like those contained in his writings, are great and uncommon, admir¬ able and sublime.
The source text as printed, transcribed diplomatically. Where the source language uses a non-Latin script that reaches us only through a Victorian romanisation, this layer is labelled transliteration, because that is what we hold.
1e profundity of Plato's conceptions; they* withdrew not the veil which covers his secret meaning, like the 'curtains* which Points him two ways, the narrower is the better. Plac'd at the door of learning, youth to guide» We never suffer it to stand too wide . To ask, to guess, to know as they commence, As Fancy opens the quick springs of Sense, We ply the memory , we load the brain , Bind rebel Wit, and double chain on chain ; Confine the thought, to exercise the breath , And keep them in the pale of Words till death , Whate’er the talents, or howe’er design’d , We hang one jingling padlock on the wind . Punciad, Book IV. 3 Έπι των Χεγομενων τεΧετων, τα μεν α bvra ην, ως δηΧοι και τοννομα, τα be παραπετάσματα προβεβΧηνται, αθέατα τα εν tois abvrois <ρν\αττοντα, Psellus in Alleg. de Sphina viii INTRODUCTION, guarded the adytum of temples from the profane eye ; and they saw not that all behind the veil is luminous, and that there divine spectacles * every where present themselves to the view. This task was reserved for men who were born indeed in a baser age, but who being allotted a nature similar to their master were the true interpreters of his sublime and mystic speculations. Of these Plotinus was the leader, and to him this philosophy is in·* debted for its genuine restoration, and for that succession of philosophic heroes, who were luminous links of the golden chain of deity. The commencement indeed of this restoration of philosophy originated from Ammonius Saccas, but the completion of 1 See ray dissertation on the Eleusinian and Bacchie Mysteries in Numbers XV and XVI of the Pamphleteer. INTRODUCTION. IX « it was the work of Plotinus. For the former of these, who was by birth an Alex¬ andrian, and at first nothing more than a porter, opened a philosophical school at Alexandria, but with a determination not to commit the more abstruse and theologi¬ cal dogmas of his philosophy to writing. Indeed, this truly great man was so fearful of profaning these sublime mysteries, by exposing them to vulgar inspection, that he revealed them to his disciples Erennius, Origen, and Plotinus, on the condition of inviolable secrecy, and under the guard of irrevocable oaths. However, fortunately for posterity, Erennius dissolved the compact, and Origen (not the Christian father of that name) imitating Erennius, disclosed a part of his master s secrets, in a curious treatise on Daemons, which unfortunately is lost.
2of irrevocable oaths. However, fortunately for posterity, Erennius dissolved the compact, and Origen (not the Christian father of that name) imitating Erennius, disclosed a part of his master s secrets, in a curious treatise on Daemons, which unfortunately is lost. But INTRODUCTION X the publications of these two great men were but trifling efforts to restore the mystic wisdom of antiquity, since the evolution of it into light free from the enigmas in which it had been before enve¬ loped, was reserved for the divine genius of Plotinus* ♦ Of this very extraordinary man there is a long and interesting life extant by his disciple Porphyry, from which the follow* ing particulars are selected for the informa¬ tion of the English reader* Plotinus was by birth an Egyptian, and was a native of Lycopolis, as we are in¬ formed by Eunapius ; for Porphyry is wholly silent as to this particular. Indeed, this is not wonderful, if we consider what INTRODUCTION. XI Porphyry asserts of him in the beginning of his life, viz. that he was ashamed that his soul was in body . Hence, says he, he would neither tell the race, nor the parents from whom he originated, nor would he patiently relate in what country he was born. This I know will be considered by a genuine modern, as either rank enthusiasm, or gross affectation ; but he who has fathomed the depth of his writings will immediately sub¬ scribe to its truth. The same vehement love for intellectual pursuits, and contempt for body, made him disdain to sit for his picture; so that when Amelias, one of his disciples* begged that he would permit his likeness to be taken, his answer expressed the true greatness of his mind : “ As if (says he) it was not sufficient to bear this image, with which nature has surrounded Xll INTRODUCTION. us, you think that a more lasting image of this image should be left as a work worthy to be inspected.” However, the wish of Amelius was at length accomplished, by the ingenious contrivance of one Carterius a painter, who by frequenting the school of Plotinus, and viewing his countenance with fixed attention, produced at length from his memory a happy likeness of the philosopher. Though he was often afflicted with the colic, he always refused the assist¬ ance of clysters, asserting that remedies of this kind were not fit for a man advanced in years. Nor would he ever receive the assistance of theriacal antidotes, since he said his nourishment was not derived from the bodies of even tame animals. He like¬ wise abstained from baths; but daily used frictions at home.
3were not fit for a man advanced in years. Nor would he ever receive the assistance of theriacal antidotes, since he said his nourishment was not derived from the bodies of even tame animals. He like¬ wise abstained from baths; but daily used frictions at home. But when a grievous INTRODUCTION* χία pestilence raged ‘ at Rome, and the servants who were accustomed to rub him* fell victims to the disease; from neglecting remedies of this kind, he gradually became a prey to the pestilence. So great was the violence of this distemper, and its effects so dreadful on Plotinus, as Eustochius in¬ formed Porphyry who was then absent, that through a very great hoarseness, all the clear and sonorous vigour of his musical voice was lost ; and what was still worse, his eyes were darkened, and his hands and feet were covered with ulcers. Hence, be¬ coming incapable of receiving the saluta- * This pestilence was in the time of the Emperor Gallienus, and raged so vehemently, according to Trebellius Pollio, that five thousand men perished through the same disease in one day. This happened in the year of Christ 262, and of Gallienus 9, 10 ; and not long after Porphyry applied him¬ self to Plotinus. XiV INTRODUCTION tions of his friends, he left the city, and went to Campania, to the estate of one Zethus, an ancient departed friend. Neces¬ saries were here administered to him from the hereditary possessions of Zethus, and were likewise brought from Minturnus, from the fields of Castricius. 1 But when this divine man drew near to his dissolu¬ tion, that period which is no less the dread of the vulgar than the transport of the philosopher, and which to Plotinus must have been the moment of extatic rapture, Eustochius, who dwelt at Puteolus, was not very hasty in his approaches ; doubtless not imagining that Plotinus was on the point of making his triumphant exit from a corporeal life. However, when he came 1 This is the Firmus Castricius to whom Porphyry in- scribes his treatise On Abstinence from Animal food. INTRODUCTION, XV into the presence of this departing hero, he was just in time to receive his dying words, and to preserve the sacred sentence to posterity. As yet (says he) I have ex·* x pected you , and now 1 endeavour · that my divine part may return to that divine nature which flourishes throughout the universe . Such were the last words of this mighty man, which like those contained in his writings, are great and uncommon, admir¬ able and sublime.
The source text as printed, transcribed diplomatically. Where the source language uses a non-Latin script that reaches us only through a Victorian romanisation, this layer is labelled transliteration, because that is what we hold.
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