the same time gives rise to extravagant imaginations in his dreams respecting the union of the immaterial element with the corporeal substance.1

214. Every thing that takes place is the result of Necessity, and of a principle identified with all its consequences; (in this we see the rudiments of Spinozism, and the Theodicé of Leibnitz). All things are connected together by a perpetual dependency; (a system of universal Determinism, from which there is only one exception, and that rather apparent than real, of Unity). Out of this concatenation of things arise the principles of natural Magic and Divination. As for the existence of Evil in the external world, Plotinus considers it to be sometimes an unavoidable but necessary negation of good, at others, something positive: such as Matter, Body; and, in this latter particular, sometimes as being external to the soul, and the cause of imperfection in its productions; sometimes as seated within the soul, as its imperfect product. In this manner he falls into the very fault which he urges against the Gnostics. He is also led to adopt a system of Optimism and Fatalism, adverse to Morality;" though occasionally he admits that moral Evil is voluntary, and the author of it accountable."

215. Unity (the Divinity) being Perfection itself, is the end and object of all things, which derive from him their nature and their being; and which cannot become perfect but through him. The Human Soul cannot attain perfection or felicity but by the intuition of the Supreme Unity, by means of an absolute abstraction (aλwois, simplification) from all compound things, and by absorption into pure Esse. In this consists Virtue, which is twofold: Inferior Virtue, comprising the so-called cardinal virtues, (or ToλTIKÝ), belonging to such souls as are in the progress of purification; and Superior Virtue, which consists in an intimate union, by intuition, with the Divine Being (evwois). Its source

Enn. IV, lib. I, II, III, VI.

3 Enn. VI, lib. VII, 8-10; Enn. IV, lib. IV, 4, 5; Enn. VII, lib.

II, 3.

3 Enn. III, lib. II, 16; Enn. IV, lib. IV, 32. 40.

Enn. I, lib. VIII; Enn. II, lib. IX; Enn. III, lib. II. 5 Enn. I, lib. VIII, 5; Enn. III, lib. II, 18.

6 Enn. III, lib. II, 9, 10.

is the Divinity himself, throngh the medium of light and heat. The Soul acquires from its intuition of Divine beauty a similar grace; and derives warmth from the celestial fire.1

216. This system is built on two principles unsupported by proof. These are: 1st. That the Absolute and Universal, which is inaccessible to the senses, is the Principle of the Universe, and may be recognised as such: 2dly. That it can be known by means of an intellectual intuition and perception, superior in its nature to Thought itself. Plotinus represents Thought as intuition and perception, transforms Philosophy into Poetry, and the pure form of our conceptions into substantial objects. His doctrine is a transcendant Mysticism containing some Platonic notions, and elicited by the enthusiasm prevalent in that age. Neglecting the question of possibilities, his philosophy proceeds at once to the cognition of the absolute and complete theory of universal knowledge. At the same time it certainly contains several valuable hints respecting our faculties for acquiring knowledge, and some elevated thoughts, which have been borrowed and improved by other philosophers. It acquired the highest popularity, principally because it derived knowledge from a source superior to the senses; and owing to its doctrine of a Triad, and the relation it supposes between it and the external world: and in short was considered a complete exposition of the theory of the Great Plato: of that Plato whom men began now to consider divinely inspired. Next came the attempt to prove the correspondence of Plato's system with those anterior doctrines whence he was supposed to have derived so many of his own: viz. of Pythagoras, Orpheus, Zoroaster, and Hermes; and they were not long without apocryphal books also, attributed to the same, to substantiate this notion. They went farther, and desired to prove a like correspondence between Plato and his successors, particularly Aristotle. All these attempts, which were inconsistent with a truly philosophical spirit, did but foster the prevailing taste of the age for superstition and mystical exaggeration. (Magic and Divination, etc.).

1 Enn. I, lib. II, VIII, 13; Enn. VI, lib. VII, c. 22; lib, IX, 9—11. 2 PROCLI Theol. Platonis, lib. 1, c. 1.

Among the numerous disciples of Plotinus were principally distinguished Porphyry (whose proper name was Malchus), and Amelius or Gentilianus of Etruria. The works of the latter, illustrative of the theory of Plotinus, have not come down to us.

§ 217.

PORPHYRII Liber de Vitâ Pythagoræ, ejusdem sententiæ ad intelligibilia ducentes, cum Dissertatione de Vitâ et Scriptis Porphyrii, ed. LUCAS HOLSTENIUS, Rom. 1630, 8vo. Cf. § 88.

Porphyrii De abstinentia ab esu Animalium libri IV, ed JAC. DE RHOER, Traj. ed Rhen. 1767, 8vo.

Ejusd.: Epist. de Diis Dæmonibus, ad Anebonem (in IAMBL. de Mysteriis, Ven. 1497.

Ejusd. De quinque Vocibus, seu in Categorias Aristotelis Introductio, Gr. Paris. 1543, 4to; Lat. per Jo. BERN. FELICIANUM, Venet. 1546, 1566, fol.

Πορφυρίου φιλοσόφου πρὸς Μαρκέλλαν, etc. Invenit, interpretatione notisque declaravit ANGELUS MAIUS, etc. acc. ejusdem Pocticum Fragmentum, Mediol. 1816, 8vo.

Malchus or Porphyry was born A.D. 233, at Batanea, a colony of the Tyrians in Syria, and after having been formed by the instructions of Origen and Longinus, whom he attended at Athens (§ 203), he went to Rome at the age of thirty, and there frequented the school of Plotinus, of whom he became a passionate admirer, and subsequently the biographer (§ 204). He possessed much more knowledge than his master, but less depth of understanding; coupled with considerable vanity and love of distinction. To judge from his writings, he possessed an inquisitive and critical spirit, and did not scruple to express doubts respecting some particulars of the Pagan mythology, the belief in apparitions, for instance, and demons; but on the other hand he was at times carried away by mystical and extravagant notions. He appears to have been so particularly in his latter days; when, like Plotinus, he was honoured with the sight of God. His labours were principally devoted to the explanation and diffusion of the philosophy of his master; to an attempt to blend the theory

See his Epistle to Anebo.

2 PORPHYR. Vita Plot. sub fin.

of Aristotle with those of Plato and Pythagoras; to the elucidation of certain topics connected with his religion, such as those of sacrifice, divination, the demons, and oracles; and lastly, to attacks on Christianity, against which he composed certain works, while resident in Sicily. He taught eloquence and philosophy at Rome, after the death of Plotinus, and died A.D. 304.

Iamblichus.

IAMBLICHUS, De Mysteriis Ægyptiorum liber, seu Responsio ad Porphyrii Epistolam ad Anebonem, Gr. et Lat. ed. THOM. GALE, Oxon. 1678, folio; with the other works of Iamblichus.

Ejusd.: Περὶ βίου Πυθαγορικοῦ λόγος. See § 88.

Ejusd.: Λόγος προτρεπτικὸς εἰς φιλοσόφιαν, adhortatio ad Philos. Textum, etc., recensuit, interpretatione Latina, etc., et Animadversionibus instruxit THEOPH. KIESSLING, Lips. 1813, 8vo.

:

Ejusd. De Generali Mathematum Scientia (the original in the Anecdota Græca of VILLOISON, tom. II. p. 188, sqq.), and Introductio in Nicomachi Geraseni Arithmeticam (see § 185), ed. SAM. TENNULIUS, Arnh. 1668, 4to, et Theologumena Arithmetices, Paris. 1543, 4to.

GE. E. HEBENSTREIT, Diss. de Iamblichi Philosophi Syri doctrina, Christianæ Religioni quam imitari studet, noxia, Lips. 1704, 4to.

218. The mystical philosophy of Tamblichus was even still better adapted to the temper of the age. He was born at Chalcis in Cole-Syria, became the disciple of a certain Anatolius and of Porphyry: obtained the surname of Oavμários and OctoтaTos, and died A.D. 333. In reputation he soon surpassed his master, Porphyry; but not in talent. In his life of Pythagoras he appears as a Syncretist, or compiler and combiner of different systems, but without critical talent. In the fragments of his work on the soul, and in his letters, we discover some good sense, and more acquaintance with his opinions of the old philosophers, with which he is apt to blend his own philosophical tenets. It is very doubtful whether he was the author of the work on the mysteries of the Egyptians, but if so, no one ever carried to a greater length than he did the mysticism and extravagance of his age. Styling himself the priest of the

1 EUSEB. VI, 18, Hist. Eccles.

2 Preserved to us by STOBÆUS.

3 See MEINERS, Commentat. Soc. Gotting. 1782, vol. IV, p. 50, and TIEDEMANN, Spirit of Speculative Philosophy, tom. III, p. 473, sqq.

Divinity, he there, with the most perfect assurance, gives solutions of the queries proposed by Porphyry in his letter to Anebon (§ 217), and defines with the utmost minuteness the different classes of angels, the apparitions of gods and demons; with a multitude of details of the same nature. He maintained the doctrine of union with God (δραστικὴ ἕνωσις) by means of theology, and theurgy or the supernatural science, to which he made philosophy subordinate.

By Theurgy he meant to express the practice of certain mysterious actions, supposed to be acceptable to the Divinity; and the influence of certain incommunicable symbols, the perfect knowledge of which belongs to God alone, whereby the Divinities are influenced according to our wishes; and to give some colour to these extravagances he referred to the Hermetical books, whence he chose to suppose that Pythagoras and Plato had derived their theories.

Successors of Tamblichus and their contemporaries.

219. Iamblichus had a great number of followers; among others Dexippus, Sopater of Apamea, Edesius, the successor of Iamblichus, and Eustathius, the successor of the latter, both of Cappadocia. Among the disciples of Ædesius were Eusebius of Myndus, and Priscus of Molossis, both of whom rejected the belief in Magic and Theurgy, to which Maximus2 of Ephesus and Chrysanthius of Sardes were inclined. To the school of the latter belonged Eunapius of Sardes,3 and the emperor Julian. The Neoplatonic system was taught in part by Claudian, brother of Maximus, and by Sallust, the same doubtless who became consul under

1EUNAP. Vit. Soph. p. 69.

2 Mažinov pilooóрov περì кaтaρxwv, rec. etc. ed. GERHARD, Lips. 1820, 8vo.

3 See Bibliogr. § 81.

4 Became emperor 360, died 363, A.C. Juliani Opera, ed. DION. PETAVIUS, Paris. 1630, 4to. Ed. EZECH. SPANHEIM, Lips. 1696, fol.

AD. KLUIT, Oratio inauguralis pro Imperatore Juliano Apostata, Middelb. 1760, 4to.

JOH. PET. LUDEWIG, Edicta Juliani contra Philosophos Christianos, Hal. 1702, 4to.

GOTTL. FR. GUDII Diss. de Artibus Juliani Apostatæ Paganam superstitionem instaurandi, Jen. 1739, 4to.