lions and suspicions ; since also in other things, that which always soars beyond our conceptions is more honour¬ able than that which is more obvious ; so that what dies fro in all our suspicions will be most honourable. But if this be the case, it is nothing. Let however nothing be twofold, one better than the one, the other posterior to sensibles. If also we strive in vain in asserting these things, striving in vain is likewise twofold ; the one falling into the ineffable, the other into that which in no respect what¬ ever has any subsistence. For the latter also is ineffable, as Plato says, yet according to the worse, but the former according to the better. If, too, we search for a certain advantage arising from it, this is the most necessary advan¬ tage of all others, that all things proceed as from an ady¬ tum, from the ineffable, and in an ineffable manner. For neither do they proceed as the one produces the many , nor as the united things separated , but as the ineffable similar-
ϊν produces all things ineffably, But if in asserting these things concerning it, that it is ineffable, that it is no one of all things, that it is incomprehensible, we subvert what we say, it is proper to know that these are the names and words of our parturitions, daring anxiously to explore it, and which, standing in the vestibules of the adytum, announce indeed nothing pertaining to the ineffable, but signify the manner in which we are affected about it, our doubts and disappointments ; nor yet this clearty, but through indications to such as are able to understand these investigations. We also see that our parturitions suffer these things about the one , and that in a similar manner they are solicitous and subverted. For the one, says Plato, if it is , is not the one . But if it is not, no assertion can be adapted to it : so that neither can there be a negation of it, nor can any name be given to it ; for neither is a name simple. Nor is there any opinion nor science of it. For neither are these simple ; nor is intellect itself simple. So that the one is in every respect unknown and ineffable.
“ What then ? Shall we investigate something else beyond the ineffable ? Or perhaps, indeed, Plato leads us ineffa¬ bly through the one as a medium, to the ineffable beyond the one which is now the subject of discussion ; and this bv an ablation of the one , in the same manner as he leads us to the one by an ablation of other things. But if hav¬ ing ascended as far as to the one he is silent, this also is
becoming in Plato to be perfectly silent, after the manner
of the ancients, concerning things in every respect un¬
speakable; for the discourse was indeed most dangerous
in consequence of falling on idiotical ears. Hence that
which is beyond the one is to be honoured in the most
perfect silence, and prior to this, by the most perfect
ignorance, which despises all knowledge.” 4
And in another part of the same admirable work, he further observes : u Ascending therefore to the one , shall we meet with it as that which is known ? Or wishing to meet with it as such shall we arrive at the unknown ? May we not say that each of these is true? For we meet with it afar off as that which is known ; and when we are united to it from afar, passing beyond that in our nature which is gnostic of the one , then are we brought to be one, that is to be unknown instead of being gnostic. This contact, therefore, as of one with one, is above know¬ ledge, but the other is as of that which is gnostic with that which is known. As, however, the crooked is known by the straight, so we form a conjecture of the unknown
1 As that which is below all knowledge is an ignorance worse than knowledge, so the silence in which our ascent to the ineffa¬ ble terminates, is succeeded by an ignorance superior to all know¬ ledge. Let it however be carefully remembered, that such an ignorance is only to be obtained after the most scientific and intellectual energies.
by the known. And this indeed is a mode of knowledge* The one , therefore, is so far known, that it does not admit of an approximating knowledge, but appears afar off as known, and imparts a gnostic indication of itself. Unlike other things, however, the nearer we approach to it, it is not the more, but on the contrary less known 5 knowledge being dissolved by the one into ignorance, since as we have before observed where there is knowledge there is also separation. But separation approaching to the one is inclosed in union ; so that knowledge also is refunded into ignorance. This, too, the analogy of Plato requires. For first, we endeavour to see the sun, and we do indeed
see it afar off ; but by how much the nearer we approach
to it, by so much the less do we see it : and at length, we neither see other things nor it, the eye becoming spontane¬ ously dazzled by its light. Is therefore the one in its proper nature unknown, though there is something else un¬ known beside the one ? The one indeed wills to be by itself, but with no other ; but the unknown, beyond the one, is per¬ fectly ineffable, w hich we acknowledge we neither know, nor are ignorant of, but which has about itself super-ignorance. Hence by proximity to this Ιΐίβ one itself is darkened : for being very near to the immense principle, if it be lawful so to speak, it remains as it were in the adytum of that truly mystic silence. On this account, Plato in speaking of it finds all his assertions subverted: for it is
near to the subversion of every thing, which takes place about the first. It differs from it however in this, that it is one simply, and that according to the one it is also at the same time all things. But the first is above the one and all things, being more simple than either of these.”
P. 558. There are apocatastatic periods of the stars and. spheres.
Of these periods of the stars, which are the causes of fertility and sterility in the sublunary region, Plato speaks in the 8th book of his Republic. And as what he says on this subject is no less obscure than important, I shall pre¬ sent the reader with the following attempt to elucidate his meaning, and to develope the mysteries of the geometric number, which he observes is the author of better and worse generations. The whole is extracted from the notes to my translation of the Republic.
In the first place, then, the passage respecting this num¬ ber is as follows : u It is indeed difficult for a city thus constituted to be changed ; but as every thing which is generated is obnoxious to corruption, neither will such a constitution as this remain for ever, but be dissolved. And its dissolution is this. Not only with respect to ter¬ restrial plants, but likewise in terrestrial animals, a fer¬ tility and sterility of soul as well as of body takes place.
when the revolutions of the heavenly bodies complete the periphery of their respective orbits, which are shorter to the shorter-lived, and contrariwise to such as are the contrary. And with reference to the fertility and sterility of our race, although those are wise that you have edu¬ cated to be governors of cities, yet will they never by rea¬ son in conjunction with sense, observe the proper seasons, but overlook them, and sometimes generate children when they ought not. But the period to that which is divinely generated is that which the perfect number comprehends ; and to that which is generated by man, that period in which the augmentations surpassing and surpassed, when they shall have received three restitutions and four bound¬ aries of things assimilating and dissimilating, increasing and decreasing, shall render all things correspondent and effable ; of which the sesquitertian progeny, when con¬ joined with the pentad, and thrice increased, affords two harmonies. One of these, the equally equal, is a hun¬ dred times a hundred ; but the other, of equal length indeed, but more oblong, is of a hundred numbers from effable diameters of pentads, each being deficient by unity, and from two numbers that are ineffable, and from a hun¬ dred cubes of the triad. But the whole geometric number of this kind, is the author of better and worse generations ; of which when our governors being ignorant, join our couples together unseasonably, the children shall neither be of a good genius, nor fortunate/’
Plot.
oD4
In the second place, with respect to the meaning of what is here said by Plato, as to the periodical mutation of things in the sublunary region, it must be observed, that all the parts of the universe are unable to participate of the providence of divinity in a similar manner, but some of its parts enjoy this eternally, and others temporally ; some in a primary, and others in a secondary degree. For the universe being a perfect whole, must have a first, a middle, and a last part. But its first parts as having the most excellent subsistence, must always exist according to nature ; and its last parts must sometimes subsist ac¬ cording to, and sometimes contrary to nature. Hence the celestial bodies, which are the first parts of the universe, perpetually subsist according to nature, both the whole spheres, and the multitude co-ordinate to these w holes ; and the only alteration which they experience, is a muta¬ tion of figure, and variation of light at different periods. But in the sublunary region, while the spheres of the ele¬ ments remain on account of their subsistence as wholes, always according to nature, the parts of these wholes have sometimes a natural, and sometimes an unnatural subsist¬ ence ; for thus alone can the circle of generation unfold all the variety w'hich it contains.
The different periods in which these mutations happen, are called by Plato, with great propriety, periods of fertility and sterility. For in these periods, a fertility or sterility of
men, animals, and plants, takes place ; so that in fertile
periods, mankind will be both more numerous, and upon
the whole, superior in mental and bodily endowments to
the men of a barren period. And a similar reasoning
must be extended to animals and plants. The so much
celebrated heroic age, was the result of one of these
fertile periods, in which men transcending the herd of
mankind, both in practical and intellectual virtue,
abounded on the earth.
With respect to the epithet divinely generated , it is
well observed by the Greek scholiast, t( that Plato does
not mean by this either the whole world, though the
epithet is primarily applicable to it, nor the celestial
regions only, nor the sublunary world, but every thing which is perpetually and circularly moved , whether in the heavens, or under the moon ; so far as it is corporeal calling it generated, (for no body is self-subsistent,) but so far as it is perpetually moved, divine . For it imitates the most divine of things, which possess an ever-vigilant life. But with respect to the perfect number mentioned here by Plato, we must not only direct our attention to a per¬ fect number in vulgar arithmetic, — for this is rather num¬ bered than number, tends to perfection and is never perfect, as being always in generation,— but we must survey the cause of this number, which is indeed intellec¬ tual, but comprehends the definite boundary of every
period of the world.”
In the third place let us consider what Plato means by
augmentations surpassing and surpassed ; things assimi¬
lating and dissimilating, increasing and decreasing, corre¬
spondent and effable.