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1xiv Dionysius the Areopagite prefer to rest our proof on Porphyry, as not being prejudiced in favour of the truth. Let us then first see what Plotinus teaches respecting the Holy Trinity. He says, " We need not go beyond the three Hypostaseis " (Persons). It is true that Plotinus presents that Trinity as "One," "Mind," and "Soul," whereas Dionysius gives the formula " Father, Son, and Spirit. Occasionally Plotinus uses "Logos" instead of "Mind. But even this substitution of "One" for "Father" may be traced to Dionysius, who speaks of the Triad, ^vapxiKT) and even ivapx'-<oov vnoaTaaecop, " 0/ie springing. The " One " represents the Father. Plotinus says, " We may represent the first principle, ' One,' as source, which has no other origin than Itself, and which pours Itself in a multitude of streams without being diminished by what it gives. Dionysius speaks of the " Father " as sole source of Godhead, and says that "the Godhead is undiminished by the gifts imparted. In Chap. XII. of Divine Names, Dionysius treats of " One " and " Perfect " as applied to Almighty God. Let us now hear Plotinus on the " Beautiful " Enneades (I. 6-7). Plotinus says, " The soul advances in its ascent towards God, until being raised above everything alien, it sees face to face, in His simplicity, and in all His purity, Him upon Whom all hangs, to Whom all aspire, from Whom all hold existence, life and thought. What transport of love must not he feel who sees Him ! with what ardour ought he not to desire to be united to Him ! He,
2and the Alexandrine ScJiooI. xv who has not seen Him, desires Him as the Good ; he who has seen Him, admires Him as the sovereign Beauty; and struck at once with astonishment and pleasure, disdains the things which heretofore he called by the name of Beauty, This is what happens to those to whom have appeared the forms of gods and demons ; — they no longer care for the beauty of other bodies. What think you, then, sliould he experience who has seen the Beautiful Himself, — the Beautiful surpassing earth and heaven ! The miserable is not he, who has neither fresh colour nor comely form, nor power, nor royalty ; it is alone he, who sees himself excluded from the possession of Beauty — a possession in comparison with which he ought to disdain royalty, rule of the whole earth, of the sea, and heaven itself, if he should be able, by abandoning, by despising all these, to rise to the contemplation of the Beautiful, face to face. Plotinus also recognised, " that the eye soiled with impurity could never bear the sight, or attain to the vision of that Beauty. We must render the organs of vision analogous and like to the object that they would contemplate. Every man ought to begin by rendering himself beautiful and divine to obtain a vision of the Beautiful and the Deity." ^ Well might St. Augustine say, that "with the change of a few words, Plotinus became concordant with Christ's religion. No wonder that Gregory and Basil quoted so largely from Plotinus. Let us now hear what Dionysius says of the " Good and Beautiful " : — •
3xvi Doinysius the Areopagite ''Goodness turns all things to Itself; all things aspire to It, as source and bond and end. From this Beautiful comes being to all existing things. All things aspire to the Beautiful and Good, — and there is no existing thing which does not participate in the Beautiful and Good. Read the Fourth Chapter of the Divine Names. Porphyry records that Plotinus attained to that vision of the Beautiful three times during his life. How that vision of the Beautiful is to be attained, Dionysius describes in the " Mystic Theology : " — " But thou, O dear Timothy, by thy persistent commerce with the mystic visions, leave behind both sensible perceptions and intellectual efforts, and all objects of sense and intelligence, and all things not being and being, and be raised aloft agnostically to the union, as attainable, with Him Who is above every essence and knowledge. For by unchecked and absolute extasy, in all purity, from thyself, and all, thou wilt be carried on high to the superessential Ray of the Divine Darkness, when thou hast cast away all and become free from all. Ammonius had such extasy during his lectures, in which he seemed to have Divine visions. Plotinus differs from Dionysius in regarding creation as an act of necessity, whereas Dionysius regards it as an act of love. Plotinus treats evil as " an elongation from God. Dionysius speaks of Almighty God as immanent in matter the most elongated from spirit. Plotinus traces evil to matter; Dionysius to the fallacious choice of a free agent.
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.
1xiv Dionysius the Areopagite prefer to rest our proof on Porphyry, as not being prejudiced in favour of the truth. Let us then first see what Plotinus teaches respecting the Holy Trinity. He says, " We need not go beyond the three Hypostaseis " (Persons). It is true that Plotinus presents that Trinity as "One," "Mind," and "Soul," whereas Dionysius gives the formula " Father, Son, and Spirit. Occasionally Plotinus uses "Logos" instead of "Mind. But even this substitution of "One" for "Father" may be traced to Dionysius, who speaks of the Triad, ^vapxiKT) and even ivapx'-<oov vnoaTaaecop, " 0/ie springing. The " One " represents the Father. Plotinus says, " We may represent the first principle, ' One,' as source, which has no other origin than Itself, and which pours Itself in a multitude of streams without being diminished by what it gives. Dionysius speaks of the " Father " as sole source of Godhead, and says that "the Godhead is undiminished by the gifts imparted. In Chap. XII. of Divine Names, Dionysius treats of " One " and " Perfect " as applied to Almighty God. Let us now hear Plotinus on the " Beautiful " Enneades (I. 6-7). Plotinus says, " The soul advances in its ascent towards God, until being raised above everything alien, it sees face to face, in His simplicity, and in all His purity, Him upon Whom all hangs, to Whom all aspire, from Whom all hold existence, life and thought. What transport of love must not he feel who sees Him ! with what ardour ought he not to desire to be united to Him ! He,
2and the Alexandrine ScJiooI. xv who has not seen Him, desires Him as the Good ; he who has seen Him, admires Him as the sovereign Beauty; and struck at once with astonishment and pleasure, disdains the things which heretofore he called by the name of Beauty, This is what happens to those to whom have appeared the forms of gods and demons ; — they no longer care for the beauty of other bodies. What think you, then, sliould he experience who has seen the Beautiful Himself, — the Beautiful surpassing earth and heaven ! The miserable is not he, who has neither fresh colour nor comely form, nor power, nor royalty ; it is alone he, who sees himself excluded from the possession of Beauty — a possession in comparison with which he ought to disdain royalty, rule of the whole earth, of the sea, and heaven itself, if he should be able, by abandoning, by despising all these, to rise to the contemplation of the Beautiful, face to face. Plotinus also recognised, " that the eye soiled with impurity could never bear the sight, or attain to the vision of that Beauty. We must render the organs of vision analogous and like to the object that they would contemplate. Every man ought to begin by rendering himself beautiful and divine to obtain a vision of the Beautiful and the Deity." ^ Well might St. Augustine say, that "with the change of a few words, Plotinus became concordant with Christ's religion. No wonder that Gregory and Basil quoted so largely from Plotinus. Let us now hear what Dionysius says of the " Good and Beautiful " : — •
3xvi Doinysius the Areopagite ''Goodness turns all things to Itself; all things aspire to It, as source and bond and end. From this Beautiful comes being to all existing things. All things aspire to the Beautiful and Good, — and there is no existing thing which does not participate in the Beautiful and Good. Read the Fourth Chapter of the Divine Names. Porphyry records that Plotinus attained to that vision of the Beautiful three times during his life. How that vision of the Beautiful is to be attained, Dionysius describes in the " Mystic Theology : " — " But thou, O dear Timothy, by thy persistent commerce with the mystic visions, leave behind both sensible perceptions and intellectual efforts, and all objects of sense and intelligence, and all things not being and being, and be raised aloft agnostically to the union, as attainable, with Him Who is above every essence and knowledge. For by unchecked and absolute extasy, in all purity, from thyself, and all, thou wilt be carried on high to the superessential Ray of the Divine Darkness, when thou hast cast away all and become free from all. Ammonius had such extasy during his lectures, in which he seemed to have Divine visions. Plotinus differs from Dionysius in regarding creation as an act of necessity, whereas Dionysius regards it as an act of love. Plotinus treats evil as " an elongation from God. Dionysius speaks of Almighty God as immanent in matter the most elongated from spirit. Plotinus traces evil to matter; Dionysius to the fallacious choice of a free agent.
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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