Select Works of Plotinus — trans. Thomas Taylor

arch after felicity]. Then also we are no longer discordant, but form a truly divine dance about it.

IX. In this dance, however, the soul beholds the fountain of life, the fountain of intellect, the principle of being, the cause of good, and the root of soul. And these are not poured forth from this fountain, so as to produce in it any diminution. For it is not a corporeal mass ; since if it were, its progeny would be corruptible* But now they are perpetual, because the principle of them abides with invariable sameness ; not being distributed into them, but remaining whole and entire® Hence* they likewise remain, just as if the sun being permanent, light also should be permanent. For we are not cut off from this fountain, nor are we separated from it, though the nature of body inter¬ vening, draws us to itself. But we are animated and preserved by an infusion from thence, this principle not imparting, and afterwards withdraw¬ ing itself from us ; since it always supplies us with being, and always will as long as it continues to be that which it is. Or rather, we are what we are by verging to it. Our well-being also consists in this tendency. And to be distant from it is nothing else than a diminution of existence. Here, like¬ wise, the soul rests, and becomes out of the reach of evils, running back to that place which is free from ill. And here also, she energizes intellec¬ tually, is liberated from perturbations, and lives in reality. For the present life, and which is without God, is a vestige of life, and an imitation of that life which is real. But the life in the intelligible world consists in the energy of intellect. Energy also generates Gods, through a tranquil and quiet £onp. 497tact with the principle of all things. It likewise generates beauty, justice, and virtue. For the soul being filled with deity, brings forth these. And this is both the beginning; and end to the soul. It o o

® * Λ ^ is the beginning indeed, because she originates from thence ; but it is the end, because the good is there, and because when the soul is situated there, she becomes what she was before. For the good which is here, and in sensible concerns, is a lapse, a flight, and a defluxion of the wings of the soul.

from thence ; but it is the end, because the good is there, and because when the soul is situated there, she becomes what she was before. For the good which is here, and in sensible concerns, is a lapse, a flight, and a defluxion of the wings of the soul. But that the good is there, is indicated by the love which is connascent with the soul ; conformably to which Love is conjoined in marriage with souls, both in writings and in fables.1 For since the soul is dif¬ ferent from God, but is derived from him, she necessarily loves him, and when she is there she has a celestial love ; but the love which she here possesses is common and vulgar. For in the intel¬ ligible world the celestial Venus reigns ; but here the popular Venus, : * who is as it were meretri-

* See my translation of the fable of Cupid and Psyche ; for to this fable Plotinus now evidently alludes.

τ The celestial Venus, says Proclus, (in Schol. MSS. in Cratylum), is supermundane, leads upwards to intelligible beauty, is the supplier of an unpolluted life, and separates from generation. But the Venus that proceeds from Dione,

Plot. 2 I

p. 498

cions.1 Every soul also is a Venus. And this the nativity of Venus, and Love who w7as born at the same time with her, obscurely signify.2 The soul, therefore, when in a condition conformable to nature, loves God, wishing to be united to him, being as it were the desire of a beautiful virgin to be conjoined with a beautiful Love. When, how¬ ever, the soul descends into generation, then being as it were deceived by [spurious] nuptials, and associating herself with another and a mortal Love, she becomes petulant and insolent through being absent from her father. But when she again hates governs all the co-ordinations in the celestial world and the earth, binds them to each other, and perfects their generative progressions, through a kindred conjunction. He likewise in¬ forms us, that this goddess proceeds from foam, according to Orpheus, as well as the more ancient [or celestial] Venus; and that both proceed from generative powers ; one from that of Heaven, but the other from that of Jupiter the Demiurgus. He adds, that by the sea (from which they rose) we must un¬ derstand an expanded and circumscribed life ; by its profun¬ dity, the universally-extended progression of such a life ; and by the foam, the greatest purity of nature, that which is full of prolific light and power, that which swims upon all life, and is as it were its highest flower.

1 Plotinus says this, looking to the illegitimate participa¬ tions of this Venus by mankind.

and by the foam, the greatest purity of nature, that which is full of prolific light and power, that which swims upon all life, and is as it were its highest flower.

1 Plotinus says this, looking to the illegitimate participa¬ tions of this Venus by mankind.

a See the speech of Diotima in the Banquet of Plato.

p. 499

terrene wantonness and injustice, and becomes purified from the defilements which are here, and again returns to her father, then she is affected in the most felicitous manner. And those indeed w ho are ignorant of this affection, may from terrene love form some conjecture of divine love, by consi¬ dering how great a felicity the possession of a most beloved object is conceived to be ; and also by considering that these earthly objects of love are mortal and noxious, that the love of them is nothing more than the love of images, and that they lose their attractive power because they are not truly desirable, nor our real good, nor that which we investigate. In the intelligible world, however, the true object of love is to be found, with which we may be conjoined, which we may participate, and truly possess, and which is not externally enveloped with flesh. He however who knows this , will know what I say , and will be convinced that the soul

V ·

has then another life. The soul also proceeding to, and having now arrived at the desired end, and participating of deity, will know that the supplier of true life is then present. She will likewise then require nothing farther ; for on the contrary, it will be requisite to lay aside other things, to stop inp. 500 this alone, and to become this alone, amputating every thing else with which she is surrounded. Hence, it is necessary to hasten our departure from hence, and to be indignant that we are bound in one part of our nature, in order that with the whole of our [true] selves, we may fold ourselves about divinity, and have no part void of contact with him. When this takes place therefore, the soul will both see divinity and herself, as far as it is lawful for her to see him. And she will see her¬ self indeed illuminated, and full of intelligible light ; or rather, she will perceive herself to be a pure light, unburthened, agile, and becoming to be a God, or rather being a God, and then shining forth as such to the view.1 But if she again be¬ comes heavy, she then as it were wastes away.

* Hence Aristotle in his Politics also says, that he who sur¬ passes beyond all comparison the rest of his fellow-citizens in virtue, ought to be considered as a God among men.