Select Works of Plotinus — trans. Thomas Taylor

r 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. However, though he did not develope the more particular progressions of true beings, yet he inserted the principles of this sub¬ lime investigation in his writings; and laid the foundation of that admirable and

, \ beautiful system, which was gradually revealed by succeeding Platonists, and at last received its perfection by the acute,

INTRODUCTION.

Ixxix

accurate, and elegant genius of Proclus.1

1 The following beautiful extract from the treatise of Plotinus, “ On intelligible beauty/' is a specimen of his manner of surveying all things, as subsisting without specific distinction in one supreme intellect. The whole of the extract likewise is the result of roepa επιβολή, or intuition through the projecting energies of intellect. “All the Gods are venerable and beautiful, and their beauty is immense. What else however is it but intellect through which they are such? and because intellect energizes in them in so great a degree as to render them visible [by its light.] ? For it is not because their bodies are beautiful. For those Gods that have bodies, do not through this derive their subsistence as Gods ; but these also are Gods through intellects For they are not at one time wise, and at another destitute of wisdom ; but they are always wise, in an impassive, stable, and pure intellect. They likewise know all things, not human concerns [precedaneously] but their own, which are divine, and such as intellect sees. Of the Gods however, those that are in the sensible heaven, for they abound in leisure, always contemplate, as if remotely, what the intelligible heaven contains, and this with an elevated head. But those that dwell in the latter, occupy the whole of the heaven a which

α The heaven which Plotinus here celebrates as the same wdth the intelligible world, and the supreme intellect, belongs, accurately speaking, to that divine order which is denominated by the Chaldaeait theologists νοητος χαι votgo;, intelligible and at the same time intellectual , and is beautifully unfolded by Proclus in bis 4th book On the Theology of Plato.

Ixxx

INTRODUCTION.

I shall only add* with respect to the is there, and survey [its blessed] inhabitants. For all things there are heaven, and there the earth is heaven, as also are the sea, animals, plants, and men.

bis 4th book On the Theology of Plato.

Ixxx

INTRODUCTION.

I shall only add* with respect to the is there, and survey [its blessed] inhabitants. For all things there are heaven, and there the earth is heaven, as also are the sea, animals, plants, and men. And in short, every

* thing pertaining to that heaven is celestial. The Gods likewise that it contains do not think men undeserving of their regard, nor any thing else that is there [because every thing there is divine.1] And they occupy and pervade with¬ out ceasing the whole of that [blissful] region. For the life which is there is unattended with labor, and truth [as Plato says in the Phaedrus] is their generator, and nutriment, their essence and nurse. They likewise see all things, not those with which generation, but those with which essence is pre¬ sent. And they perceive themselves in others. For all things there are diaphanous ; and nothing is dark and resisting, but every thing is apparent to every one internally and throughout. For light every where meets with light ; since every thing contains all things in itself, and again sees all things in another. So that all things are every where, and all is all. Each thing likewise is every thing. And the splendor there is infinite. For every thing there is great, since even that which is small is great. The sun too which is there is all the stars: and again each star is the sun and all the stars. In each, however, a different property predomi-

1 From the version of Ficinus it appears that the words on tcm ?xh

0fiov, are omitted in the original.

INTRODUCTION.

Ixxxi

nates, but at the same time all things are visible in each. Motion likewise there is pure ; for the motion is not con¬ founded by a mover different from it. Permanency also suffers no change of its nature, because it is not mingled witli the unstable. And the beautiful there is beautiful, because it does not subsist in beauty [as in a subject.] Each thing too is there established, not as in a foreign land, but the seat of each thing is that which each thing is ; and concurs with it, while it proceeds as it were on high from whence it origina¬ ted. Nor is the thing itself different from the place in which it subsists. For the subject of it is intellect, and it is itself intellect. Just as if some one should conceive that stars germinate from the light of this visible heaven which is luminous. In this sensible region therefore, one part is not produced from another, but each part is alone a part.

s intellect, and it is itself intellect. Just as if some one should conceive that stars germinate from the light of this visible heaven which is luminous. In this sensible region therefore, one part is not produced from another, but each part is alone a part. But there each part always proceeds from the whole, and is at the same time each part and the whole. For it appears indeed as a part ; but by him whose sight is acute, it will be seen as a whole ; viz. by him whose sight resembles that which Lynceus is said to have possessed, and which pene¬ trated the interior parts of the earth ; the fable obscurely indicating the acuteness of the vision of supernal eyes. There is likewise no weariness of the vision w hich is there, nor any plenitude of perception which can bring intuition to an end. For neither was there any vacuity, which when filled might cause the visive energy to cease : nor is this one thing, but that another, so as to occasion a part of one thing not to be

»

χχχπ

INTRODUCTION.

treatise of Synesius 1 On Providence, that the extracts which are given from it in this volume, contain, as it appears to me, indu¬ bitable proofs that it was written by him while he was a Platonic philosopher and a heathen. This however I leave to the decision of the intelligent reader. Suidas amicable with that of another. Whatever likewise is there, possesses an untamed and unwearied power. And that which is there insatiable is so, because its plenitude never causes it to despise that by which it is filled. For by seeing it more abundantly sees, and perceiving both itself and the objects of its perception to be infinite, it follows its own nature [in unceasing contemplation.] And life indeed is not wearisome to any one, when it is pure. Why, therefore, should that which leads the most excellent life be weary t But the life there is wisdom ; a wisdom not obtained bv a reasoning process, because the whole of it always was, and is not in any respect deficient, so as to be in want of investi¬ gation. But it is the first wisdom, and is not derived from another."

* For an account of Synesius, who from being a heathen became a bishop, see Toland's Hypatia.

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Ixxxiii

calls the treatise admirable (βανμ.α<ηος) · and it certainly contains some interesting par¬ ticulars relative to the mystic wisdom of the Egjrptians, which were doubtless derived from very ancient sources, and are no where else to be found*

I

ON THE VIRTUES/

X.