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THEOSOPHY
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Plotinus
BY
LGr P729 .Ym
aR.S.MEAD,
% a^
PLOTINUS
BY
G:""'^^
Sr^MEAD,
B.A.,
M.R.A.S,
LONDON
THEOSOPHICAL PUBLISHING SOCIETY,
7,
W.C.
MADRAS
BENARES
:
"
THEOSOPHIST
" OFFICE,
1895
http://www.archive.org/details/plotinusOOmead
to
Select
Works of
Plotiitus^''^
published in
the
Bohn Libraries^
CONTENTS,
FOREWORD
THEN AND NOW
BIBWOGRAPHY
....
PAGE
I
6
22
44
PLOTINUS.
FOREWORD.
In presenting
to the public a
new
edition of
it
Thomas
may
be
temerous proceeding.
What
it
what
still
further
has
to
do with
I
the
translations of
Thomas Taylor ?
hope to show
to-day,
mind of
The
PLOTINUS
is
steadily
Now
was
of
Neoplatonism
What
Plato
was
to his master,
we can
the works of
Just as no
Harnack says, "the primary and classical document of Neoplatonism " of that document there is no There translation in the English language. are complete translations in Latin, French and German, but English scholarship has till now
of Plotinus are, as
;
The Enneads
being inferior to
thought
FOREWORD
i^''
3
.
cst^ ict
in
hoc
St. Augustine,
glance at the
De
German
marked
(in
the pioneer
work
of
Thomas Taylor
unsupported.
years of unremitting
the restoration of
Greek philosophy,
the Neoplatonists.
and
and profound philosopher devoted his whole life to the elucidation and propagation of the Platonic
wonderful
genius
philosophy.
"This
By
modern
of the
many
works of
Plotinus,
Porphyry,
Proclus, etc.
PLOTINUS
is
still
of Plotinus, but he
to
many
mere
name."
Taylor was a pioneer, and of pioneers we do
not
demand
times
It is true
own
demands
his
:
a higher standard
;
of
but what
was true of
critics
critics then,
is
true of his
though they may know more Greek, he knew more Plato. The present
to-day
translation,
nevertheless,
is
quite
faithful
enough for all ordinary purposes. Taylor was more than a scholar, he was a philosopher in the Platonic sense of the word and the translations of Taylor are still in great request, and command so high a price in the second-hand market that slender purses cannot procure them. The expense and labour of preparing
;
first
testing the
public interest by a
new
is,
hope that
may pave
the
way
to a
complete
FOREWORD
Neoplatonists.
presage an
subjects,
and that it is of great importance to learn what solution one of the most penetrating minds of antiquity had to offer of problems in religion and philosophy that are insistently pressing upon us to-day, will b^ seen from the
following considerations.
engage the attention of the student of histor}'. The conquests of Rome had opened up communication with the most distant parts of her vast empire, and seemed to the conquerors to have united even the ends of the earth. The thought of the Orient and Occident met, now in conflict, now in friendly embrace, and the
chief arena for the enactment of this intellectual
drama was
at Alexandria.
As Vacherot
says
''
when Ammonius
had become the The asylum sanctuar}' of universal wisdom. of the old traditions of the East, it was at the same time the birthplace of new doctrines. It was at Alexandria that the school of Philo it was at represented Hellenizing Judaism
Saccas began
teach,
;
all
the
of Syria,
of Chaldsea,
of Persia,
The School
raised
of
Alexandrian
fathers
it
Christian
surpass,
was not to
A strong
life
all
up
for the
mind new
it
vistas of thought,
and
"
(i.
unveiled for
culture
;
which the supports of life on its material, as well as on its spiritual side, had been broken asunder, and the great civilizations of the world were impressed with the consciousness of their own downfall, and with the
in
PLOTINUS
satisfying
more
form of spiritual being, a fellowship that should embrace all peoples, a form of belief that should bear men over all
present,
and
tranquillise
"
(v.
391-
by Mozley.)
state of affairs then,
and very
own
day.
It
between the
searching after a
new
ideal that
marked
that
mind
teenth century.
The tendency
in degree.
is
the
same
To-day life is far more intense, thought more active, experience more extended, the need of the solution of the problem
more
pressing.
It
is
not
Rome who
it
has
the
is
up an
arterial
for
our
Greece and
it is
Rome
and unsystemized ideas of the then Orient it is the meeting of the great waters, the developed thought and industrious observation of the whole Western world meeting with the old slow stream of the ancient and modern East. The great impetus that the study of oriental languages has received during the last hundred years, the radical changes that the study of Sanskrit has wrought in the w^hole domain of philology, have led to the
;
initiation of a science of
comparative religion,
all
which
is
de-
To-day
the
it
is
queries
^'
authenticity of texts,
"
the
all
higher criticism
conflict
that
has once
The
which
for
between religion and science, more than two hundred years has
has produced a generation
for a reconciliation.
raged so
fiercely,
that longs
and searches
;;
10
PIvOTINUS
the extreme of
and negation
faith
once
once more
upon the notice of the western nations. The pendulum swings back towards belief once more the phenomena of spiritualism, hypnotism and psychism generally, are compelling investigation, and that investigation forces us to recognize that these factors must
press
:
if
we
are to
sweep of human evolution in all its and have a right understanding of the
history of civilization.
The
religious factor,
either
entirely neglected
by
scientific evolutionists or
an explanation that is at best fantastically inadequate, must be taken into primary account and with it the psychic nature of man must be profoundly studied, if the problem of religion
is to
Thus
is
that there
is
a distinct tendency
of to-day towards a
ii
a time also
when
:
human
anarchy
in
brief,
betterment.
Humanitarianism,
and over-driven
Yes, the times
;
of to-day.
and now
But mysticism is not an unmixed blessing. Psychism dogs its heels and hence it is that the history of the past shows us that wherever mysticism has arisen, there psychism with its dangers, errors, and
out, is offered.
it.
amongst
us
crowds
phenomenalists,
that the past
a renaissance of
?
all
us to avoid
true
the
mystic
way,
and
at
no
time
previously do
distinctly at
we
work
as in the
first
centuries of
12
PLOTINUS
It
was against
wild
all
these
that
and
is
the
imaorinino^s
invariably follow,
when
mystic religion
poured into
human thought,
same time
brilliantly
It will, therefore,
be
who
are inclined to
who
and Platonic methods, but also added a refined and pure mysticism of his own which the times of Plato and Aristotle were unable to produce.
not
only
the Aristotelean
combined
The
learn
what was the attitude of Plotinus to Christianity,- and whether the Christian doctrine had any influence on the teachings of
Much
has
on Neoplatonism, and of Neoplatonism on Christianity, especially by German scholars but it is safer to avoid all extreme opinions,
13
and be content with the moderate view of Harnack, that " the influence of Christianity whether Gnostic or Catholic on Neoplatonism was at no time very considerable," and
first
entirely unnoticeable.
Neoplatonism originated in Alexandria, where Oriental modes of worship were accessible to everyone, and since the Jewish philosophy
had
of Alexandria,
But
if
we
and Christian phraseology, we search in vain and the existence of any such influence is all the more
actual
influence
unlikely because
it
is
tonism that
offers
parallels to Philo
and
and
Porphyry
Christians.
(c.
xvi.)
Gnostics against
whom
be
And
strong spiritual
14
PLOTINUS
not
that would
be content
Those who envisagement of a cold ideal. were fired with this hope taught that this ideal was realizable, nay, that it had already been
realized.
With such a ferv^id spirit of hope and enthusiasm aroused, philosophy had to look
to its laurels.
And
in the
''
words of Mozley,
philosophers were
;
based on Vacherot,
kindled by a sense of
in the world
the
rivalr}^
they
felt,
present
men
and this stirred them to find a parallel power on their own side, and the nearest approach to it, both in character and degree, was found in
Plato.
To
whose power
elicited
Xor were
and from this rivalr}^ arose the svmbols of the Church and the subtleties of an
philosophers
;
15
own
Christian
systems
number
of
the
most
what
The
ence
indirect influ-
direct
plagiarism
is
unsupported
by any
discovered.
As
Max
''
Muller says
The
difficulty of
on the part of one religion from another is much greater than is commonly supposed, and if it has taken place, there seems to me only one way in which it can be. satisfactorily established, namely, by the actual occurrence of foreio^n words which retain a certain unidiomatic appearance in the language to which they have been transferred. It seems impossible that any religious community sliould have
adopted fundamental principles
of religion
from another, unless their intercourse was intimate and continuous in fact, unless they
;
i6
PLOTINUS
freely
could
*'
express
.
their
. .
thoughts
in
common
have a
religions,
language.
of
Nor should we
feeling
forget that
hostility
most religions
towards
other
and that they are not likely to borrow from others which in their most important and fundamental doctrines they
consider erroneous."
logical Religion,,
{Theosophy or
Psycho-
London, 1893, PP- Z^l-Z^^-) And though Plotinus cannot be said to have borrowed directly either from Christianity or other oriental ideas, nevertheless it is beyond doubt that he was acquainted with them, and By birth he was that too most intimately. an Egy^ptian of Lycopolis (Sivouth) for eleven years he attended the school of Ammonius at
;
Alexandria
was so great, that he joined the expedition of Gordian in order to learn the religio-philosophy of the Persians and Indians his pupils, Amelius and Porphyry, were filled with oriental teaching, and it was in answer
further East
;
Por-
17
318)
^'
in the Orient,
and Persia
than in the philosophical doctrines of Greece. He is perfectly familiar with the works of
and his admiration goes so far as to ask whether it is Philo who platonizes, or Plato who philonizes he dubs Plato the Attic
Philo,
;
Moses.
have
it is
at all
owing
Numenius, the father of this Syrian School, out of which Amelius and Porphyr^^ came into
Neoplatonism.
^'
philosopher
is
w^ords of Eusebius:
treats of the
Good, and who has affirmed his doctrine with the witness of Plato, should go even further back
i8
It
PIvOTINUS
must be that he should appeal to the most renowned of the nations, and that he should present the rituals, dogmas and institutions which originally established by the Brahmans, Jews, Magians and Egyptians are in agreement with the doctrines of Plato.' {De
Bono, VIII.
vii.)."
We,
two marked
characteristics
on the one hand, and a rational and practical mysticism on the other that reminds us very
strongly of the best phase of the yoga-systems
As Brandis remarks The endeavour which, as far as we can judge, characterised Plotinus more than any
of ancient India.
''
:
...
to
pave
the
way
to the solution of
any question by a
one
In the
There
is
;
a real soberness
in
the
mind
of
its
author
man, though
19
manner
to
This
is
man
writinor
and
not
from the
man
as Plotinus.
The
Neo-
and will be the least understood, is that connected with the practice of theurgy, which consummates itself in ecstasy,
platonist that has been
the
Samadhi of the yoga-art of Indian mystics. For years Plotinus kept secret the teachings
of his master
Ammonius
till
where does Plotinus enter into any details of the methods by which this supreme state of consciousness is to be reached, and I cannot but think that he still kept silence deliberately on this all-important point.
20
PLOTINUS
Ammonius, the master, made such an impression on his times by his great wisdom and knowledge that he was known as the godtaught" (^o8t8aKTos) he was more than a mere
^'
;
eclectic,
The
pupil
Plotinus also
and phenomena-mongers of the time, he shows a thorough contempt for such magic arts,
though,
spiritual
if
we
own
power was great. The gods and daemons and powers were to be commanded and not obeyed. " Those gods of yours must come to me, not I to them." (eVeiVovs Set -n-pos
/A
epxeaSaL, ovk
e/xe
Trpos
eKeivov^.
Porphyry^
X.)
And, indeed, he ended his life in the way that Yogins in the East are said to pass out of the body. When the hour of death approaches
they perform Tapas, or in other words enter
into a deep state of contemplation.
evidently
the
were:
"Now
me
TO) TravTL
within
TO v
Porphyry^
Iv
rj/xlv
Oelov
-n-po^
ii.)
21
far
as
we have
z\l
ancient or
modern"
(Mozley).
on the thought of his own time, and what solution he offered of the problems which are again presented to us, but with even greater insistence, in our own days. We
his opinions
will,
therefore,
take a glance at
the
main
22
In these
sophy.
macrocosmic
identity
essential
man
universe
TravTt
the
to cV
tJ/^-iv
with the
to cV
to3
^etov,
Param-
atman
are
the
main
Thus from the point of. view^ of the great universe, we have the One Reality, or the Real, the One, the Good (to ov, to ev, to ayaOov);
this is the All- self of the Upanishads,
Brah-
man
or
Paramatman.
Plotinus bestows
much
mind
It
back from
it,
unable to reach
it."
SYSTEM
itself,
23
coming weaker (VI. viii. 19) essences must flow from it and yet it experiences no change it is immanent in all existences (IV. iii. 17;
VI.
all,"
xi.
i)
'*
it
is
the Absolute
it
must be
being
all
and Harnack dubs the system of Plotinus ''dynamic Pantheism," whatever that may mean. But we are in the region of paradox and inexpressibility and so had better hasten on to the
as says Brandis
;
first
stage of emanation.
then,
First,
there
arises
(how,
Plotinus
to the
Omniscient alone)
(yovs
or ideal universe
or
the
It is
by
of the Universal
(i^^^x^
''"^^
Mind
says
-n-avros
or
Twvo\a)i/)
As Tennemann
(vov?)
In as
much
as Intelligence
[Univer-
24
sal
PLOTINUS
Mind] contemplates
in
IS possible^
and limited and Conso becomes the Actual and Real (ov).
of something determined
sequently, Intelligence
is
the base of
to
real
all
the
Being.
Chid-Anandam
Thought, Bliss.] The object contemplated and the thinking subject, are identical and that which Intelligence thinks, it at the same time creates. By always thinking, and always in the same manner, yet continually with new
;
difference,
it
produces
all
idea]
it
:
is
the essence of
imperishable
the
i6
; ;
essences
Upanishads
iii.
on
it all
sum
IV.
viii.
9 viii. 16 V. i. 4, 6 iii. 5, ix. 5; VI. vii. 12, 13. And for an V. 2 7 exposition of the logos theory in Plotinus, see
17
;
VI.
vii. 5,
Vacherot,
i.
317).
We
''
of the motion-
"
SYSTEM
less
25
nous
is
is,
the
soul,
which, according to
immaterial.
Its
Plotinus,
relation to the
nous
is
the
same
as that of the
nous
to the
One.
It
and the phenomenal world, is permeated and illuminated by the former, but is also in conThe nous is indivisible tact with the latter. [the root of monadic individuality the Sattva of the Buddhist theory of Ekotibhava as the soul viay preserve its applied to man] unity and remain in the nous, but at the same time it has the power of uniting with the corporeal world, and thus being disintegrated. It therefore occupies an intermediate position.
;
;
As a
world
;
single
soul
(world-soul)
to
it
belongs in
essence and
destination
also
the intelligible
but
it
and
is
lose
themselves in the
finite
(Harnack).
This
precisely the
same idea
as that of
by a process of
from
it.
differentiation (Panchikarana,
")
26
PLOTINUS
Tennemann
vi. 4
(/.^.,
;
marized by
V.
i.
(^
ii.
208, 209)
from En.
III. viii
is
6, 7,
and
VI.
22
and
''The Soul
and the thought (A-oyos) of Intelligence, being itself also productive and creative. It is therefore Intelligence, but with a more obscure vision and less perfect knowledge inasmuch as it
;
does not
itself directly
through the medium of intelligence, being endowed with an energetic force which carries It is not an its perceptions beyond itself.
original but a reflected light, the principle of
Nature.
Its
proper
;
and
means
it
of this
contemplation.
its
In this
manner
faculties
produces, in
others the
human, the
Nature
(<^vVts).
Nature is a contemplative and creative energy, which gives form to matter (Xoyo?
TTotoji/)
;
for
form
(elSos,
/ao/3<^^)
and thought
All that takes
(\oyos) are
SYSTEM
place in the world around
lis
27
is
the
work of
is
contemplation."
It
is
somewhat weak
it
is
true
that
he has a
avoids
view of certain Gnostic schools which made matter the root of all evil, he does not entirely clear himself from a similar misconception. It is the object of the Worldcriticises the
harmony "but
;
all
phenomenal world unity and harmony are replaced by strife and discord the result is a conflict, a becoming and vanishing, an illusive existence. And the reason for this state of things is that bodies rest on a substratum of matter. Matter is the basework
in the actual
of each
(to
pdOos eKao-Tov
r]
vXt])
it
is
the dark
which has no qualities, the /^r) 6v. Destitute of form and idea it is evil as capable of form it is neutral." The Vedantins, on the contrary, pair the root of matter (Asat, Prakriti, Maya) with the Universal Mind, and make it of like dignitv.
principle, the indeterminate, that
;
28
It is
PLOTINUS
by the removal of
this primal veil that
is
revealed.
principles ot
:
God
the
Father and the One Absolute, Jesus Christ and the First Intelligence or Universal Mind, and
the Holy Spirit and the World-Soul.
(Jules
Simon,
i.
308.)
for
is
So much
microcosmic
The
views
(vovs),
and
also
into spirit
^^^ body
is
(o-w/xa),
by which prism
This, again,
precisely the
:
same division
as
viz.,
Karanopadhi, the
or impedi-
causal vesture,
or spiritual veil
ment
Self;
of the
and Sthulopadhi, the gross vesture or physical body. The remarkable agreement between the view of Plotinus as to the three
spheres of existence, or states of consciousness,
or hypostases of being, in
verse, the
man and
the uni-
SYSTEM
other,
29
and that of Shankaracharya, the great master of the Advaita Vedantin school of
ancient India,
brilliant
may
It is based on the Tattvabodha^ or mystic. " Awakening to Reality," one of the most re-
treatises, so far,
The Dream of Ravan (a reprint from The Dublin University MagaLondon, 1895, PPzine of 1853, ^^54
entitled
5
211-215).
''
Man
is
gross outward body [Sthiilopadhi subtle, internal body or soul [Sukshmopadhi ^Aw] ^ being neither body
unity of light
o-w/xa]
;
5
nor
soul,
but
cause
is
absolute
body
self-forgetfulness,
called
the
it
[Karanopadhi
precipitates
vovs],
because
which
him from
These three
existing in the
all
waking, dreaming,
standeth behind
watched by the
spirit w^hicli
30
PLOTINUS
in the
unwinking
vigi-
The
in reality
no
This
is
Plotinus.
"There
enfolding
the other
the
inmost sphere of
Lethe,
in
which the
plunged in the
unconsciousness,
ocean of Ajnana, or
total
and utterly forgetting its real self, undergoes a change of gnostic tendency [polarity ?] and from not knowing at all, or absolute unconsciousness, emerges on the hither side of that Lethean boundary to a false or reversed knowledge of things (viparita jnana), under
;
and tendency to, knowledge outward from itself, in which delusion it thoroughly believes, and now endeavours to realise whereas the true knowledge which it had in the state of Turiya, or the ecstatic life, was all' within itself, in which it intuitively knew and experiin,
;
SYSTEM
enced
all
31
the sphere of
things.
And from
Prajna,
or
out-knowing
within
this
itself,
struggling to
all
itself
that
lost
it
once possessed
and
to
regain for the lost intuition an objective perception through the senses and understand-
which the spirit became an intelliit merges into the third sphere, which is the sphere of dreams, where it believes in a universe of light and shade, and where all
ing
A
in gence
existence
is
in the
way
of Abhasa, or phantasm.
There
soul
it
imagines
itself into
the Ivinga-deha
ethereal
(Psyche),
or subtle,
semi-material,
"From
the
first
and phan-
progresses into
or outermost sphere,
where matter
and sense are triumphant, where, the universe is believed a solid reality, where all things exist
in the
mode
and where that which successively forgot itself from spirit into absolute unconsciousness, and awoke on this side of that boundary of
oblivion into an intelligence struggling out-
imagined
itself into
conscious,
32
PLOTINUS
nervous soul, prepared for
out-realises itself
feeling, breathing,
further clothing,
now
from
The
first
or spiritual state
was
ecstasy,
from ecstasy it forgot itself into deep sleep from profound sleep it awoke out of unconsciousness, but
ternal world
still
within
itself,
of dreams;
from dreaming
thoroughly waking
and the outer world of sense." These ideas will help us exceedingly in studying our philosopher and in trying to understand what he meant by ecstasy, and
why there
Plotinus,
and
how
the metempsychosis in
which he
metaphor.
believed,
was neither
for
him the
,
The most
is
sympathetic notice of
found in Jules Simon's Histoire de VEcole d' Alexandrie (I. 588, sq^^ based for the most part on En. I. i. 12 II. ix.
the latter tenet
to be
;
IV.
iii.
V.
ii.
There are two degrees of reward pure souls, whose simplification is not yet accom^'
;
SYSTEM
rather] to live as
[into
33
fall
6)
But
Here comes in the doctrine of metempsychosis, which Plotinus met with everywhere around him, amongst the Egyptians, the Jews, and his forerunners in Neoplatonism [Potamon and Ammonius SacDoes Plato really take the doctrine of cas]. metempsychosis seriously, as the Republic would have us believe ? Does he not speak of it merely to banter contemporary superstition, as seems evident from the TimcBiis? Or is it not rather one of those dreams which
what of
retribution
them
and in which
he allowed his imagination to stray when knowledge failed him ? Whatever may have been the importance of metempsychosis for Plato, we can hardly suppose that Plotinus
did not take
the ironical
it
seriously.
He
rehabilitates all
and strange transformations of the TimcEus and the myth of Er, the Armenian. Souls that have failed to raise themselves above
[the ordinary level of] humanity, but
who have
c
34
PLOTIXUS
in
human body;
of sensation,
if
who have
only lived a
life
they have
been entirely without energ\', if they have lived an entirely vegetative existence, are con-
demned
class],
The
exer-
cise of the
merely
which do not
deser\'e rebirth
into
human
notorious for their cruelty animate wild beasts. " Those who have erred through a too great
[The eifMDveia^ OT irouical vein, of Plato is more than apparent in the above.] A more terrible punishment is reser\'ed for great crimes. Hardened criminals descend to the hells, evaSor iXOoin-a (En. I. viii. 13), and Undergo those terrible punishments which Plato sets
III. iv. 2).
[This reminds
SYSTEM
''
35
of metempsychosis
tinus,
taken
by Plo-
we should
still
have to ask
for
him
as
whether the human soul really inhabits the body of an animal, and whether it
for Plato,
is
reflects the
The commentators
Thus according
to Pro-
naturam viodo feram^ scd ctiamformas. Hermes {Comm. of Chalcidius on Timccus^ ed. Fabric,
p. 350)
human
body
(O^ov
diro
the gods
it
ot'T09,
cfivXdcrcriLV
Moreover,
]\Iarinus
tells
us that Proclus,
36
PLOTINUS
''
was
of
persuaded
that
he
possessed
the soul
Nichomachus, the Pythagorean," and Proclus, in his Commentaries on the Tuiiccus^ vindicates
the tenet,
acuteness^
usual,"
"to enquire
how
human souls can descend into brute animals. And some, indeed, think that there are certain similitudes of men to brutes, which they call
savage lives
;
for they
by no means think
it
become
On
the contrar}',
may be
and the same kind so that they may become wolves and panthers, and ichneumons. But true reason, indeed, asserts that the human soul may be lodged in brutes, yet in such a manner, as that it may obtain its own proper life, and that the desouls are of one
it
and be bound to the baser nature by a propensity and similitude of affection. And that this is the only mode of insinuation, we have
proved by a multitude of arguments, in our Commentaries on the Phcedrics. If, however.
SYSTEM
it
2>7
is
the
opinion of Plato,
we add
he says, that the soul of Thersites assumed an ape, but not the body of an ape and in the
:
For
life
is
conjoined with
place
nature.
proper soul.
is
And
into
in this
he says
changed
a brutal
For a brutal nature is not a brutal body but a brutal life." (See The Six Books of
ProcliLson the Theology of Plato Taylor's trans^
lation;
London, 1816;
return to the
p. 7, Introd.).
view of Jules Simon, the distinguished Academician concludes his dissertation with the following words
:
To
"These contradictory
very
little interest for
;
interpretations have
sophy of Plato but we can conclude from the care which the old commentators have taken
to tone
down
dogma
was not
literal
I
would venture to differ somewhat from M. Jules Simon, and to suggest that the contradictory interpretations of commentators and the difficulties of modern criticism on this im-
38
PLOTINUS
drawn between the and psychic envelopes of man. The
and if the Psyche does not centre itself in the Nous, it risks to pass through the Cycle of Necessity (kvkXos dvayK->^s). But the Psyche, or soul vesture, is not the real man. The doctrine of metempsychosis, with its twin doctrine
of reincarnation, or Punarjanman,
is
it
arousing
much
interest in
may
be
much
that ap-
man
Speaking of
Max
well-known that this dogma has been accepted by the greatest philosophers of
say:
^'
It is
all centuries."
(Three Lectures
07i
;
the Veddnia
Philosophy^ London, 1894, p. 93) and quoting the well-known lines of Wordsworth' on ''the
our
life's
star,"
he
in a
''that
it
life
is
what we made
SYSTEM
yet to
39
(p.
many
ears" in the
West
67).
This
Karma which
of rebirth.
That he did so
of
summary
"
Tennemann
213)
is
the result
we
(a system of by a perpetual dependency imiversal Determinism from which there is only one exception, and that rather apparent than real, of Unity). Out of this concatena-
Magic and Divination." (See En. III. ii. i6;IV. iv. 32, 40, 415; VI. vii. 8-10; VII.
ii-
3)-
Though
insisted
the
in
doctrine
its
is
not
sufficiently
upon
and as applied
there.
to
his
40
PLOTINUS
{^I/vxikol)
and
There
Simon
(i.
562),
:
''
three
the polisole
men, whose
;
aim
is
the
whose aim is the destruction of the passions and the preparation of the soul for mystic union and lastly the at-one-ment of the soul
;
Avith
God."
it
Thus
and the consummation of virtue was the union with the One. It was by the practice of these virtues that the end of true philosophy was to
be reached.
''
As Tennemann
as
says
204)
Plotinus assumes,
his
principle,
that
knowledge and the thing known the Subjective and Objective are identified. The employment of philosophy is to Acquire a knowledge of the Unity, the essence and first principle of all things and that not mediately by thought and meditation, but by
tion as
SYSTEM
a more exalted method, by
{Trapovcria),
41
direct
intuition
tion."
(See En. V.
is
8, v. 7, sq.
VI.
ix. 3, 4.)
This
Tennemann
and with a
of mysticism, especially
a
that
of the
East.
soul
is
wisdom.
It is
and above
Deity.
all
This
"
precisely the
in the
d^xX.
same view as
of the
that
enshrined
great logion
Upanishads,
That
thouP
The
divine in
is
man
have
is
in
reality
fullness.
We
and
ecstasy
(eKo-rao-t?)
come
in.
These are
(i.
admirably
the
set forth
by Jules Simon
life.
549)
" Reminiscence
is
a natural consequence of
dogma
;
of a past
The Nous
[the spirit
ning
the
man
had a
42
PLOTIXUS
;
beginning
the present
;
life
it
is
therefore a new-
and under
It
(p. 552),
different conditions."
g^bles [ra
of the
allows
[e^eox?]
vols]
it
to turn
away
its
thought.
This love
is
a consequence
is
of reminiscence." not a
that
But ecstasy
(p.
the consum'^Ecstasy
is
mation of reminiscence
faculty-
553 j.
it
properly so called,
it is
a state of
in such a
way
hidden from it. The state w^ill not be permanent until our union with God is irrevocable here, in earth life, ecstasy is but a flash. It is a brief respite bestowed by the favour of Deity. [Such flashes are resting places on our long
]\Ian cau cease joume}^ ayoLTTavXax iv x/>oVot?.] to become man and become God; but man cannot be God and man at the same time." And that Plotinus w^as not a mere -theorist but did actually attain unto such a state of consciousness is testified to by Porphyry (c.
xxiii).
SYSTEM
Book
but,
(8to
43
of the
Enneads
it
(see also
En. V.
v. 3),
as he says,
KOL
Svcr(f>paaTOV
to Oia/xa).
WC reach
we understand
Beyond this region lie the realms of pure mysticism and the great unknown. And if any one can lead us b}' a safe path to those
supernal realms, avoiding the
of the way, and in a
needs, Plotinus
is
many dangers
manner
suited to western
recommended.
44
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Complete Editions.
Perna (Petrus) Basle, 1580, in-folio. A faulty Greek text, to which the Latin translation of Ficinus (Florence, 1492) was appended. Title: Plotini Platonici Operuin Omnium Philosophicorum Libri LIV. Oxford, 1835, 4to, 3 vols. CerCreuzer (Fridericus) tainly the best text j'et produced, with the translation and commentaries of Ficinus appended; and with additional notes by Wyttenbach, and an apparatus criticus by Moser. It gives all the variae lectiones from the codices, and is an admirable production. Title Plotini Opei'a Omnia.
; ;
:
Diibner
In M. F. Didot's Library
is
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Creuzer' s text.
This
:
merely a reproduction of
Title
Plotini Enneades.
Kirchofr(M.); Leipzig
(B.
Enof
are
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there
Berlin,
Based
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Title
Plotini Enneades.
Volkmann
vols.
Leipzig (Teubner), 7883, 1884, Svo, 2 Text simply, without various readings. Title
(R.);
Plotini Eniieades.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
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Ficinus
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45
Florence,
also
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An
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Les Enniades
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de Plot in.
Muller (H.
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Title
Die Enneaden
des Plotin.
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Taylor (T.) London, 17S7 reprinted with another title page 1792, i2mo, pp. xx, 4- A paraphrase of En. I.
; ;
Taylor
Concerning the Beautiful. London, 1794, Svo, pp. 22S. Contains " On Felicity," "On the Nature and Origin of Evil," "On Providence," " On Nature, Contemplation and the One," and ''On the Descent of the Soul." Title
vi.
Title
;
(T.)
Five Books of Plotinus. Taylor (T.); London, 1S17, Svo, pp. 560. This is the work which is now reproduced. Title Select Works of
:
Plotinus.
London, 1S34, Svo, pp. 129. Contains translations of En. L ix; VI. iv, v, and extracts from En. W. viL Title On Suicide. Jolmson (T. M.) Osceola, Mo., iSSo, Svo. Contains three Books only; the work of an enthusiastic admirer
Taylor
(T.);
: ;
of Taylor.
of Plotinus.
The above
46
Engelhardt
Title
(J.
PLOTINUS
G. V.); Erlangen, 1820, 1823, 8vo.
Only
Plotiniis.
under the title 'J'raite du Beau; and Salvini translated two books in Discorsi Acadeiv. 6,
:
miciy 1733.
Winzer
(J.
F.)
Wittemberg,
1809,
4to.
Title
Adum-
bratio
Morum
Gerlach
tatio
(G.
W.)
Wittemberg,
181
1,
4to.
Title
et
Disfni-
Shellingii
Doctri?ias de
Heigl
(G. A.)
Nuinine Sninmo intercedit. Landshut, 1815, 8vo. Title: Die PlotiniG. V.)
sche Physik.
Engelhardt
(J.
Erlangen,
1820, 8vo.
Title
Dis-
sertatio de
Jahn
Bern, 1838.
;
Basilius Ploti7iizans.
Plotini Ratio fie
(1840).
Steinhart
De
Dialectica
(1829)
and
Meletemata Plotiniana
Neander
des
9.
(A.);
"
Enneade des Plotinos," in the Abhandl. der Berliner Akademie (1843). Kircher; Halle, 1854. Title: Die Philosophie der Plotin,
Buchs
Also the two following "Theses for the Doctorate."
Matter (M.
J.)
An
excellent study
Commentatio' Philosophica de
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Daunas
(A.);
47
and
Paris,
1848,
:
8vo.
Very
superficial
patronizing^. Title
et sa Docirifie.
Etudes sut
le JSTysticisnie : Plotitt
Valentiner; "Plotin
21.
u.
s.
Enneaden,"
Kritikcn
;
(1S64).
(1881).
d.
Loesche
Augustinus Plotinizans
;
Steinliart
" Plotin," in
Va.\x\y's Realeficyklop.
klass.
Altetthums.
Brandis
(C.
A.);
Greek and
Roman
Biography
(1870).
Harnack
Mozley
"Plotinus" and " Neoplatonisni " (for admirable digest of system), in Smith and Wace's Dictionary of Christian Biography (1887).
(J.
R.);
See also
articles
in
Bayle's
Dictionnaire Historique,
(v.
691-701),
Dounau's
(M.
Biographic
des
Sciences
Univcrselle
Philosophiques.
Essai suf
(III.
380-467).
And
M. de Gerando,
5^.);
of
Tiedemann
;
(iii.
and of Tennemann
or
203-215
to
be found; Johnson
(V.), Paris, 1839.
(A.),
But by
i,
far
Book
ii,
pp.
197-599,
are
entirely
devoted to
Alexandrie,
Plotinus.
Title: Histoire de
VEcole
d''
48
PLOTIXUS
1846, 8vo, 2 vols.
Vacherot(Etienne); Paris,
Consult the
whole of the Introduction to Book II; also VoL i, pp. 364-599, for a full and sympathetic description
of Plotinus' system. Richter(A.); Halle, 1867, Svo.
A painstaking,
exhaustive
des Plotins.
General.
Zeller,
iii.
3d.
ed., 1881,.
iii.
2,
pp, 418-865
Hegel, Gesch.
;
d.
Philos.,
3 sq.
Ritter
;
und
Preller, Hist.
phiL
Grczc. et Rom., pp. 531 sq. also the histories of philosophy by Schwegler, Brandis, Brucker (ii. 228 sq.), Thilo, Striimpell, Ueberweg (gives the fullest account of the
literature,
according to
Women's
66,
Whitcomb
Street,
W.C.
University of Toronto
Library
Acme