Select Works of Plotinus — trans. Thomas Taylor

is ever flourishing, and full of joy, and perseveres in perpetuity of bliss through the beneficent communications of the Gods/'

* I

And thus much for the life of Plotinus, who was a philosopher pre-eminently distin¬ guished for the strength and profundity of his intellect, and the purity and elevation of his life. He was a being wise without the usual mixture of human darkness, and great without the general combination of human weakness and imperfection. He seems to have left the orb of light solely for the benefit of mankind ; that he might teach them how to repair the ruin contract¬ ed by their exile from good, and how to return to their true country, and legitimate kindred and allies. I do not mean that he

1e *

lKTKOi)UCTl0Ne descended into mortality, for the purpose of unfolding the sublimest truths to the vulgar part of mankind ; for this would have been a vain and ridiculous attempt ; 1

1 In every class of beings in the universe (as I have else¬ where observed) there is a first, a middle, and a last, in order that the progression of things may form one unbroken chain, originating from deity, and terminating in matter. In con¬ sequence of this connexion, one part of the human species naturally coalesces, through transcendency, with beings of an order superior to man ; another part, through diminution, unites with the brutal species ; and a third part, which sub¬ sists as the connecting medium between the other two, possesses those properties which characterize human nature in a manner not exceeding but exactly commensurate to the condition of humanity. The first of these parts, from its surpassing excellence, consists of a small number of mankind. That which subsists as the middle, is numerous. But that which ranks as the last in gradation, is composed of a count¬ less multitude,

“ Thick as autumnal leaves that strow the brooks

In consequence of this beautiful gradation, the most subor¬ dinate part of mankind arc only to be benefited by good

ke ο β

since the eyes of the multitude, as Plato justly observes, are not strong enough to look to truth. But he came as a guide to

* the few who are born with a divine destiny;

gain the lost region of light, but know not how to break the fetters by which they are detained : who are impatient to leave the obscure cavern of sense, where all is delusion and rulers, laws, and customs, through which they become peace» able members of the communities in which they live, and make a proficiency, as Maximus Tyrius well observes, not by any accession of good, 2leave the obscure cavern of sense, where all is delusion and rulers, laws, and customs, through which they become peace» able members of the communities in which they live, and make a proficiency, as Maximus Tyrius well observes, not by any accession of good, but by a diminution of evil. Hence the present efforts to enlighten by education the lowest class of mankind is an attempt to break the golden chain of beings, to disorganise society, and to render the vulgar dis¬ satisfied with the servile situations in which God and nature intended them to be placed. In short, it is an attempt cal¬ culated to render life intolerable, and knowledge contemp¬ tible, to subvert all order, introduce anarchy, render super¬ stition triumphant, and restore, in the language of Pope, the throne of

— u Night primaeval and of Chaos o

shadow, and to ascend to the realms of intellect, where all is substance and reality.

This very extraordinary man also appears to have been the first of the Platonic philosophers, who clearly and distinctly asserted the subsistence of the three hypos¬ tases that rank as principles ( αρχικοα υποσ-τα- (rsig) viz. the good9 intellect , and soul , and who demonstrated that there can be neither more nor less than these. But these three are thus denominated, because they are not consubsistent ; and they are not consubsistent, because they are essentially different from each other. For according to Plato the good is superessential ; intellect is an impartible , immoveable essence ; and soul is a self-motive essence, and subsists as a medium between intellect and the nature

which is distributed about bodies.1 By no means therefore is the Platonic the same with the Christian trinity, as the advocates for the latter have ignorantly and idly supposed. For the good or the highest God according to Plato being so perfectly exempt from all multitude, that he is even beyond essence, is not to be cormumerated

* with any thing, or to be co-arranged with the second and third principles in the abovementioned or any other triad. Indeed, according to the philosophy of Plato, as I have elsewhere shown, in every order of 3bth book of the Republic of Plato, in which Socrates clearly asserts that the good is superessential ; and the Timaeus, in which the difference between intellect and soul is most clearly indicated. See likewise the notes on the 3d Epistle of Plato in Vol, V. of my translation of hijg works.

things a triad is the immediate progeny of a monad. Hence the intelligible triad proceeds immediately from the ineffable principle of things. Phanes, or intelligible intellect, who is the last of the intelligible order, is the monad, leader, and producing cause of a triad, which is denominated νοητός και vospog, i. e. intelligible , and at the same time intellectual . In like manner the extremity of this order produces immedi¬ ately from itself the intellectual triad, Saturn, Rhea, and Jupiter. Again, Jupiter, who is also the demiurgus, is the monad of the supermundane triad. Apollo, who subsists at the extremity of the supermun¬ dane order, produces a triad of liberated Gods. (Seoi απόλυτό*.) And the extremity of the liberated order becomes the monad

of a triad of mundane Gods.1 This theory too, which is the progeny of the most con¬ summate science, is in perfect conformity with the theology of the Chaldaeans. And hence it is said in one of their oracles, “ In every world a triad shines forth , of which a monad is the ruling principle Γ ( παντι yap εν κοσμώ 7\αμπει τριας , rjg μονας άρχει.)

This likewise appears to be the peculi¬ arity of the philosophy of Plotinus, that it considered all the above-mentioned orders, all true beings that are superior to soul, and the multiform variety of ideas, or paradigms of things, as comprehended in one supreme intellect, which it denominates the intelli¬ gible world, and as there subsisting in impartible union, without any specific

See my translation of Prod us on the Theology of

Plato.

"Έ β « ®

distinction. Hence Plotinus was more anxiously employed in profoundly investi¬ gating the nature of this divine world, than in scientifically unfolding the order of the beings it contains. Indeed, his genius on every subject seems to have been more adapted to an intimate perception of the occult essence of a thing, than to an expla¬ nation of its gradual evolution, and a descri ption of the mode ofits participations.