I5-9E CHIEF ANCIENT PHILOSOPHIES. ^
NEOPLATONISM
BY
C
BIQG,
13.
D.
CHRIST CHURCH, OXFORD.
:
PUBLISHED UNDER. THE DIRECTION OF THE GENERAL LITERATURE COMMITTEE. 4
LONDON: SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE, NORTHUMBERLAND AVENUE,
W.C.
BRIGHTON: NEW YORK: E. &
43;
;
129, J.
QUEEN VICTORIA STREET, E.C
NORTH STREET.
B.
1895.
YOUNG
& CO.
RICHARD CLAY & SONS, LIMITED, LONDON & BUNGAY.
CONTENTS CHAP. I.
II.
STOICISM
9
THE PYTHAGOREANS
.27
III.
THE PLATONISTS, ATTICUS,
IV.
PLATONISTS,
ETC.
NIGRINUS, .DION
46.
CHRYSOS-
TOMUS V."
VI. VII. viii.
IX.
X. XI.
XII. XIII.
XIV.
XV. XVI. XVII. XVIII.
63
PLUTARCH CELSUS
81
...
98
THE NEOPLATONIC TRINITY
...
119
"HELLENISM"
THE GNOSTICS AND APOLOGISTS THE ALEXANDRINES PLOTINUS
1
THE WORLD -OF SENSE THE WORLD OF SENSE II. THE INTELLIGIBLE WORLD I.
191
...
201
...
2I 3
DOCTRINE OF GOD
NATURE AND OPERATIONS MAN IN NATURE ... THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL GOD, HIS
80
...
225 ...
24 I
25
1
259
CONTENTS
Vlll
PAGE
CHAP.
XIX.
XX. XXI. XXII. XXIII.
XXIV.
XXV.
ETHICS
...
266
ON BEAUTY
273
VISION
...
PORPHYRY IAMBLICHUS AND THE MEN OF JULIAN THE SCHOOL OF ATHENS ... ... LATER INFLUENCE OF PLATONISM ON THE CHURCH ... ... ...
279 292
302 317
334
NEOPLATONISM STOICISM
IN
this little
volume
it
is
proposed to run over the
and
history of the later Platonism, a large
But, narrow as are our limits,
intricate
not possible subject. to enter fairly upon the task without a brief review of Stoicism. This school of thought, the Porch, as it is it is
Athens where
often called, from the Painted Porch at its
first
professors lectured, was founded in the third
century before Christ, by Zeno, Cleanthes and Chrysippus, and was predominant in Rome from the time
Marcus Aurelius.
It
affected
Platonism partly by direct influence, but
still
more by
of
Nero
way of
to
that
of
re-action.
days of Epictetus, under the Flavian emperors, the only schools, that could be regarded as serious rivals of Stoicism in the capital, were the
In
the
Academics and the Epicureans. disciples of Aristotle, were, he tells hearted
Peripatetics, us,
few and
Plato himself was hardly rea4 at
all.
the
faint
NEOPLATONISM
10
The Epicureans were atomists in science, and utili They taught that the world was made by the fortuitous aggregation of infinitesimally
tarians in morals.
small particles of matter, and they admitted no standard of right or wrong but pleasure. They did not deny
the existence of gods
were made
but they held that the gods
;
in exactly the
same way
as everything else,
and took no
part whatever in the government of the They sat around their nectar," and lived
world.
"
a careless
"
Hence
as
regarded
the Epicureans were
commonly The Academics, degenerate Academy of Plato, were universal
life."
atheists.
representatives of the doubters. They had learned from Plato himself to
and from the
distrust the senses,
judgment," or,
conflict of opinions
Their maxim was,
to distrust reason.
as Pliny expresses
"
it,
"
Suspend thy only one thing is
certain, that
nothing is certain." Epicureanism is not necessarily coarse. Men may in spite of be utilitarians without being swine," "
But
Horace.
Even
of
by Mr.
J. S.
of what his
own
may
its
is
it
is
modern Mill
this is true.
agreeable,
case.
necessarily selfish and relative. form the form given to it
social
Men differ in
and each
is
their ideas
supreme judge
in
Hence, though the pursuit of pleasure
establish a coterie,
it
cannot build a society or
organize a state.
Epictetus attacks Epicurus. He charges him with denying the great moral truth of But the natural brotherhood of man with man." It is at this point that
"
These audacious now, he proceeds, see what happens and wholethe obvious would who destroy thinkers, !
STOICISM
some
facts
of
human
1 1
nature, are compelled
by that
very nature to assert the very facts which they deny. "What does Do not be mocked, Epicurus say?
There is no natural brotherhood good people. between one reasonable being and another, believe me. Those who tell you this are deluding you. Well, but what does it matter to you ? Let us be deluded. Will you be any the worse off, if the rest of the world is a natural brotherhood, and that they ought zealously to cherish this faith ? Nay, it believes that there
will
be
far better
and
sake?
Why
Good
safer for you.
trouble your head about us
Why
?
lie
sir,
awake
for
why our
your lamp, and get up early, and we should be deluded into thinking
light
write books, lest
that the gods care for men, or lest we should imagine that the Good is something else, and not pleasure ? If that be so, go to bed and sleep, live like the worm whose equal you make yourself; eat, drink, and snore. Why should you care what others think about these For what bond is there between us and things? you?"
Epicurus takes pains to
make people
follow pleasure.
Nature herself who thus
is
it
Surely, says Epictetus,
him out of his own mouth. With the same weapon the Stoic
convicts
apostles
of doubt.
"
If
I
smites
the
were the slave of an
Academic, I would plague him finely, though I were to be flogged for it every day of my life. Bring me for the bath. I would take oil, boy, he would say, fish-sauce,
would
cry.
and pour
it
By my
over him. fortune,
I
What
is
this?
would answer,
he
my
1
NEOPLATONISM
2
senses
my
tell
me
that
Did
brine.
Or again, Boy, give me would bring him a bason full of
it is oil.
I
barley-water.
not call for barley-water? Yes, sir, Is not this brine, sirrah ?
I
*
this
is
barley-water.
not barley-water cries he in a fury, take
Why
sir, is
O,
if
mind
*
? it
Take
and
it
taste
and smell
it.
And
it,
what,
the good of that, if our senses deceive us ? I had three or four fellow-slaves of the same
would make him hang himself or
as rnyself, I
recant."
It is the
same argument
coxcombs urged Berkeley, and no doubt
that
"
"
with a grin against the idealist a man may question the existence of an objective cause of sensation without denying the reality of the
But these lively passages show the position taken up by Stoicism against very clearly The Stoic agreed its two most formidable opponents. sensations themselves.
with the Epicurean, that sense and reflection upon the data of sense are the two sources of all that we can be said to
As
know.
against the Academic, he insisted
that both can be trusted,
if
we have learned
to use
As
against the Epicurean, he maintained aright. that reflection on the order of nature teaches us that
them
there
is
a
God
on the mind of man
that reflection
;
teaches us that
it
contains a faculty, the reason or con
science, which ought to bear rule
shows that we are to
great
meant by
maxim,
"
thinking of the
that reflection
on
life
owing certain duties The sum of these reflections is what
one another.
the Stoic
;
social beings,
nature.
When
Live according to "
state of nature
"
he enunciated his
Nature,"
he was not
of the French
fhilosQ^
STOICISM
13
which we some phe, still less of the animal instincts times call natural. By Nature he intended that which is best in man. for thy
Nature,"
means,
"
take Reason
guide."
The Roman in
Follow
"
Stoics cared
probably from
this
little
their
for theory, differing
brethren
in
Greece.
Epictetus impressed upon his disciples hardly anything beyond the necessity of strict moral discipline. Logic was useful in the last stage to clear the mind of correct false impressions, and read correctly cant," to "
the lesson taught by experience ; yet, even for this limited purpose, its usefulness was dubious. Simple
men, he thought, were better without intellectual and accomplishments, which sometimes puzzled them, sometimes puffed them up. Epictetus is particularly It emphatic in his disparagement of book-learning. sick and in fever all above in in the is bed, bath, "
man shows whether he
is a philosopher has no patience with the man who Books are time to read. complains that he has no where is the tranquil and to means a tranquillity, only is called if one is to fret and fume every time he
ness, that a
or
He
not."
lity,
away from
man who
his
?
Still
that
And
?
he
less
can he tolerate the
knows the whole volume
boasts that he
you not know a-crown
books
"
his Chrysippus.
who can
explain
is
worth but
it all is
Do
half-
worth no
spirit Marcus be no more and writes, "Pitch away your books, Musonius too So within." "Look distracted."
more than the
Rufus. "
says,
volume."
In the same
Those who are to be true philosophers," he do not need many words, nor should young "
NEOPLATONISM
14
men
attempt to learn
this welter
of theorems on which
the sophist plumes himself. In truth, this is to wear a man s life out. thing enough
most necessary and useful a farmer can all
he
not always at
is
These that
*
if
last
God
is
learn, for after
work."
words remind us of Tyndale s saying, spared his life, he would cause a boy that
driveth the plough to
than great
kind of
What
doctors."
know more of the Scriptures Erasmus again, in the preface
to his Paraphrases, spoke in a similar strain of the I long that the husbandman should sing portions of them to himself as he follows the plough that the weaver should hum them to the
Bible and
its
contents.
"
;
tune of his shuttle
that the voyager should beguile ; with these stories the tedium of his journey." Stoic,
simplify and the
Humanist, and Reformer were all anxious to The resemblance between Tyndale
dogma.
Roman
Both thought Stoic is very close. necessary beliefs are few, and attainable by the simplest man, without any help from instruction or that the
authority. It
may be
that the
Roman
Stoics did not wholly
own
creed, and this latitudinarianism enables them to smooth off many of its angles, and use language which, in their mouths, could have no real
believe their
Nevertheless the creed meaning. hundreds have read Epictetus and
is
there,
though
Marcus without
perceiving it. The Stoic theory of knowledge was very similar to that of Locke. What we know is, Firstly, a constant
stream of sensations, which
is
poured into us from
STOICISM without
1
secondly, those general conceptions which sensations, such as a man, a cow
;
we form from thirdly,
infers
5
;
propositions or judgments, which the mind from these conceptions. Sensations are the
whole raw material of thought there is nothing in the mind which does not come into it through the inlet of :
the senses,
All the
mind
contributes
is
the power of
The mind, a sheet of paper that works." Sense upon it, and it shakes these letters
remembering, grouping, distinguishing. they said, writes
is
"like
letters
together into syllables, words, and sentences. Like the stomach, it receives food and digests it, but, in the Stoic view, contributes nothing of its own. Nevertheless the Stoic, again like Locke, was a realist.
He
but believed
did not doubt the truth of his senses, that it is the actual receiving of ideas
"
from without, that gives us notice of the existence of other things, and makes us know that something doth exist at that time without us, which causes that idea in us,
how
though perhaps we neither know nor consider it does But he carried his principle further it."
than Locke, and maintained that the objects of which we have cognizance by sense are the only real exist ences ; that nothing can be said to be unless it is
apparent to sense. The two great questions of ancient, and indeed of all is
philosophy, are
What
that faculty (criterion)
is
that which
is ?
and What
by which we know that
it is ?
Here, accordingly, the Platonist joined issue with the Stoic. The Platonist insisted that sense knows nothing but sensations, and can
tell
us nothing what-
NEOPLATONISM
6
1
ever about the object that produces the sensations, just as the sight of the bright picture on the screen tells us nothing about the magic lantern behind the "
screen.
the
It is
Stoics,
"
wonderful,"
that
is,
everything by sense, should which sense has no power to grasp."
the Stoic realism
fact,
says Plotinus,
who prove
assert that that
In
most
is
untenable, unless
we
are
on the ground of mere experience, in asserting that everything must have a cause. According to the Platonist, the word must introduces a law not of
justified,
matter but of mind. a universal.
We
Experience cannot guarantee
are here on the great dividing line
of thought, where the two main schools part company. Stoic compared the mind to a sheet of paper
The "
that
works,"
but did not accurately explain
how
it
works, whether it does, or does not, bring something of its own to the work. Upon this all turns. Still
more vehemently did the Platonist object
Stoic tenet, that the cause of sensation really,
and therefore
that
which alone,
is
to the
that which
exists.
"
They
"that which put in the forefront," says Plotinus again, ov ; not the has but a hypothetical existence (TO and true exist non-existent), as if it were the real /*>}
ence, and put the last
first.
The reason
is
that sense
and they rely upon it for the foundation of their principles, and everything According to the Platonist the marks of true existence are eternity and unchangeableness. But the object of sense is for
is
their guide,
else."
As you put out your finger to touch it, ever shifting. Hence the one thing it has become something else. All else that exists, and can be known, is mind.
STOICISM
exists,
It
of thought.
life
far as
only in so
it
1
"participates"
can be known, only
7
in the true
in so far as
as it is ordered knowable, that is to say, in so far our for knowledge by the indwelling and prepared neither Being nor Not-being, is it itself mind. In it is
the //} ov. but something that hovers between the two, without qualities and formless, infinite, It is
shapeless know that it exists in a sense, but of any kind. It must be there, but bastard a reasoning." only by
We
"
we know nothing about it. Thus to the Platonist the
is object of knowledge The Stoic expressed matter.
mind, to the Stoic it is terms of matter," the Platonist almost, mind terms expressed matter but not "in
"in
altogether,
of
mind."
as different
and extension Spinoza regarded thought the Stoic was but modes of one substance, Whatever acts or is acted a body." Both Theism and Deism "
an absolute materialist.
he said, is excluded by this theory of Being. "
upon,"
are
Accordingly
the Stoic was a Pantheist.
God, the absolute Being, is
aether, the finest air,
but
still
or
is
Himself material.
"spirit,"
that
has extension and shape, and
is
is
He
"breath,"
tangible.
His
The Stoics shape is the sphere, the perfect shape. active and a passive, force an Him in distinguished and the manifestation of
force,
natura naturans and
natura naturata, but both were material. Out of God when at fixed intervals all things are evolved into Him, ;
the cycle
is
accomplished,
"
great
and is
conflagration."
to the world
things are absorbed by a is immanent in the world,
all
He
what the soul
is
to the body.
"
Mens
1
NEOPLATONISM
8
molem et magno se corpore miscet." The mode of creation or evolution was explained by the Logoi, or "words," which are a modification of the Platonic
agitat
The Idea was at first conceived as a pattern or shape, which the Creator impressed upon matter, as a seal upon wax. The Word is a force, or principle of
Idea.
a sort of seed (hence the spermatic Word), which fructifies matter and moulds it from within. "
"
life,
God Himself
is
vital forces.
all
the
Word of words, the sum-total of mode of expression was after
This
wards adopted by
all
Platonists,
though the heathen
In Philo and only in a physical sense. Christian literature, and in a few non-Christian writers writers use
it
Hermes Trismegistus, who show distinct traces of Christian influence, the Word is used as a Divine title,
like
in a sense very unlike its Stoic
meaning.
To
the Stoic, in fact, God was Natural Law, and his other name was Destiny. Thus we read in the
famous hymn of Cleanthes Lead me, O Zeus, and thou too, O Destiny, whithersoever ye have appointed "
:
for me to go. And if I refuse
the
all
same."
For
I
I shall
Man
will follow
become is
without hesitation.
evil,
but I shall follow
himself a part of the great
world-force, carried along in its all-embracing sweep, like a water-beetle in a torrent. He may struggle or he may let himself go, but the result is the same,
except
that, in the latter case,
and so
is
The
he embraces
his
doom,
at peace.
Stoics often use personal language of God. He cares for Father, King, our Escort in life. His martyr and servant. Epictetus sings the praises
He
is
STOICISM
19
For what else can I do, a lame old man ? were a nightingale I would play the part of a But now I am that of a swan. nightingale, if a swan
of
God
"
:
If I
a reasonable being.
But
all
this
Cleanthes.
must sing praises
I
to
God."
be understood in the sense of Such language, like much that we read is
to
day on the adoration of Nature, merely the impossibility of religion, or indeed of But emotion is personal, morality, without emotion. and we may say of Epictetus, what Epictetus said of
at the present testifies to
the Sceptics, that his own words proclaim the truth which his theory denies. Plotinus said of the Stoics, to be in the they only brought God in, in order When Him. want not fashion." They did Justin really that
"
Martyr himself
set out first
on the quest
to a Stoic,
after
truth, "
"
but,"
says he,
he applied I found
when
could learn nothing from him about God (for he knew nothing himself, and maintained that this doctrine I
was unnecessary),
The
religious
him and went
to
language of the Stoics
is
I quitted
again in another way,
because by
God
another."
deceptive they often mean
God within, the intelligence, which is to every man as a demon," or guardian angel. Indeed, they made no real difference between God and the soul. bit broken The soul was God, fragment,"
the
"
off"
"a
"a
Such a a piece of the extended and divisible Deity. part would be the same in kind as any other part, and hence the Stoic maintained that the wise man was in no way as
inferior to Zeus.
much
for
God
becomes egotism.
as
God
"Dion,"
for
they said,
Dion."
"does
Thus worship
NEOPLATONISM
20
God
Like
man in the opinion Some called it an ex
himself, the soul of
of the Stoics was material.
They could hardly hold that One of the signs
halation of the blood. it
was
in
any
true sense immortal.
of the times was the craving for a future life, but the Pantheist could not satisfy .it. Indeed the later Stoics
more
are
sceptical
Cleanthes held that
all
than
souls lived
forerunners.
their
on
till
the cyclic into the
when they would be absorbed
conflagration,
divine substance, the Heraclitean fire. Chrysippus confined this limited immortality to the souls of the wise ; but Epictetus passes the subject over without
Man
a word.
to the well
is
dies
;
broken.
the pitcher that went so often Aurelius doubts, but does not
At one time he speaks of the soul as death into the Seminal Word, the World Spirit; at another he calls death "perhaps an extinc tion, perhaps a change of abode."
actually deny.
absorbed
at
is no place or for humility. Another way of ex pressing the same defect is to say that Stoicism leaves
It is
obvious that in such a system there
for aspiration,
no room for Revelation. Locke too felt this difficulty. He was no Pantheist, but his sensational principles leave the human reason no other office than that of verifying the credentials of the divine message.
mind that
is
He
different
from our mind.
has spoken,
as a mystery, though
we must it
has no
God
made man s
mind.
we
God
s
are sure
accept the utterance vital relation to the
painful inductions of experience. ist
If
But the Panthe
mind a homogeneous sample of There could be no mystery at all. s
STOICISM
This to the
was
Platonist
21
the
offence
great
of
Stoicism.
The
disputed question, whether Stoicism is to be a religion, depends therefore on the prior
called
question, whether
can be a religion without
there
worship.
Pantheism cannot be hedonic, because it holds the God it cannot be altruistic,
stern belief in a present
because
seems
its
God
is
;
within.
also the
Hence
which
I,
is
and the world
Stoicism issued
God, because God
against
against the
is
I.
in defiance of
the world,
they often called it, the flesh." We may discern the first Western philosophy of suffering, for its
or, as
in
this system,
an absolute unity, no sooner touches God is the world ; splits into two.
to attain to
morality than it but practically the world is
Hence
"
it
Man
bent was clearly decided by that purpose. find happiness, so the
must
If so, happi
runs.
argument must be absolutely in his own power. But pleasure he cannot command pain he cannot avoid ; ness
;
therefore he must renounce pleasure,
without
Externals
wincing.
are
and bear pain
neither
good nor
happiness and misery depend entirely on our own will. We can think this if we choose, and, if we think so, it is so. evil
;
It
just here
is
Stoicism unreal
;
One
that
Buddhism
regards the world as
joins
hands with
real,
the other as
but both are Pantheistic, and both are systems
of resistance.
"
Whosoever,"
said
Buddha,
"
shall
adhere unweariedly to this law and discipline, he shall cross the ocean of life, and make an end of sorrow."
NEOPLATONISM
22
And again Rise up sit up what advantage is there in your sleeping? To men ailing, pierced by the darts of sorrow, what sleep indeed can there be ? Sloth is defilement, to be ever heedless is defilement. "
:
!
!
and wisdom root out your darts of (Rhys Davids, Buddhism, pp. 79, 132). The
earnestness
By
sorrow"
resistance to pain implies the avoidance of pleasure,
which
inevitably,
and most inevitably
in its highest
form of love, leads to pain. This policy of defiance can only be carried out by withdrawing into the citadel of self. Hence both systems are strongly individualistic.
Buddha.
"
"Be
Look
unto
Yet both
issue in
extreme
refused to bear the burden of
thus
be flouted.
punishment of
his
says
yourselves,"
says the Stoic.
and Pantheism seems
Pantheists, ality.
lights
within,"
Both were
to destroy individu self-assertion.
life,
and
life
Both
will
not
But the
Buddhist accepted the mistake with the amiable melan
choly of the Oriental, while the Stoic fought against it with the defiant self-reliance of the European. The is seen most clearly in the patience, with which the Buddhist waited for a Nirvana to be at
difference
many lives. The Stoic was always prepared to make his own Nirvana with his own knife. The door is always open," says Epictetus again and
tained only after
"
One
again.
so
much
of the worst features of Stoicism
suicide in
which the
last
itself,
is
not
as the theatrical effects with
great act of defiance was deliberately
surrounded.
The
Stoics
had no grace, but they taught the manly
virtues of self-reliance, fortitude, justice, purity, truth,
STOICISM
23
and, in a way, renunciation with splendid emphasis.
But the turn. live
rift
system makes
in their
"They teach,"
said Plutarch,
Yet
Nature.
according to
itself felt at
man
"that
all
that
every should
we mean
play of our speech by Nature, rank among material and social environment, they And if these external circum indifferent. all
in ordinary
the
things
which
stances,
in
themselves are of no import, turn
in killing himself. Surely against a man, he is justified but not is Nature indifferent, stupid, if she places that can in no way scene a in beings
thinking contribute
their
to
felicity,
and may lead
their
to
self-destruction."
Again, evil in the Stoic If there were no Nature.
theory evil,
is
according to
there would be no
both are necessary to the constitution of the remarks the sage of Chaeronea, an whole. Yet," they well-known a saying of Goethe, ticipating
good
;
"
"
spend
their
own
time in trying to jump off their
shadow."
Or again, Man they teach is a part of God yet some men are evil. As if the Deity were an animal whose legs should walk different ways." of man, but Epictetus insists on the sociability "
;
Stoicism
is
the
most
unsociable
doctrine
ever
Pleasure can hardly be tasted without a The stands absolutely alone.
preached. friend, but tranquillity
used magnificent language about the Worldwhich is full of friends City, the dear city of Zeus, in the enactments of fruit much and their words bore
Stoic
;
the great Stoic lawyers.
But to him, as
to Carlyle,
24
NEOPLATONISM
.
mankind were children as
weak hands
"
mostly
fools."
brats."
snivelling to cling
round
his
He
but for himself alone.
Epictetus speaks of Stoic allowed no
The
"
neck
he would
;
set a high value
suffer,
on social
and discharged them faithfully but he taught mere relations," chance juxtapositions. A man must perform them, because it is the will of God, but they have no vital affinity to happiness. duties,
;
that they are
"
For the give experience, but nothing more. sorrows or sins of others the Stoic consoled himself
They
"
very "do
easily.
Such
such things of
men,"
says
necessity."
Marcus Aurelius,
He
heard with the
same placid smile of the infidelity of his wife, the martyrdom of Blandina, or the revolt of a province.
Had
he believed
in the
immortality of the soul, he souls of others.
would have thought more of the
The
were
Stoics
in
theory determinists, but in most strenuous language
practice they insisted in the that the will
is
free,
to this
extent at least, that
it
can always, and at any moment, choose what is right. Not Zeus himself," says Epictetus, can conquer the will." Like a good king, a true father, he has "
"
"
given us a will untrammelled, uncompelled; he has put it wholly in our own control, and not left even
himself the power to thwart or hinder It is curious to note the many points of similarity between Stoicism and Calvinism. The Stoics be it."
lieved
in
instantaneous
conversion.
"
What,"
asks
if Lichas passed from vice to virtue Chrysippus, while hurled into the sea by Hercules like a stone "
from a
"
sling ?
The words remind
us of the knight
STOICISM
25
between the stirrup and the who found mercy mankind into two classes divided They ground." who could do nothing right, and the the fool" "wise man who could do nothing wrong. They As well," they said, taught that all sins are equal. "
:
"
"
"
"
be a mile under water as an
inch."
They
dis
assurance and final
and had disputes about Some of them perseverance.
were
all
paraged literature and antinomians
;
art,
of
them
may be
called
solifidians.
In
its
finer
traits,
as
has often
been remarked,
Stoicism bears a striking, though superficial, resem blance to the Epistles of St. Paul, and it is, perhaps, more than a historical coincidence that its chief
was Tarsus. Few, if any, of its great were Greeks, and its whole tone was professors anti-Hellenic. But it was admirably suited to the stronghold
rigid integrity of
the
Roman character, and to the Roman religion. Under
thin abstractions of the old
the early empire dissenters
;
it
it
was the philosophy of the
bear the sunshine
;
it
political
and could not ruined Seneca, and was itself
was framed
for rebellion,
by the purple of Aurelius. Stoicism left behind it many enduring
stifled
results, chief
of which, for our purposes, are the Logos doctrine in physics, and in morals the conviction that man s
happiness must be sought in the perfection of his moral and intellectual nature. They inherited this conviction from Socrates, but they deepened it im Their gospel is mensely, though in a one-sided way. that of the Strong Man, but it may be said that this
26
NEOPLATONISM
harsh
evangel ancient or in
Their
fault
teaching of
has
never been better preached
modern is
that
in
times.
they
Pantheism
refused
to
accept
the
on finding perfect unity in this world, and the force with which it pulls together the subject and object results in their spring facts.
insists
Hence it became evident ing more violently apart. that the point of union must be sought above, in the
God who made both the I and the who therefore is higher than either, and yet in Thus the craving of thought for the One is
conception of a Not-I, both.
and the opposition of mind and sense is susceptible of reconciliation ; there remains a
satisfied,
made
difference, but
This
is
the
no longer a contradiction. statement of the task
philosophical
attempted by the Platonists.
All the objections which
they urged against the Porch, rigorism,
with
its
its
moral inconsistency,
individualism, its
in general, and with Hellenism flow from the same source. particular,
religion
its
incompatibility in
II
THE PYTHAGOREANS
THE reaction against Stoicism was the work partly of the Pythagoreans, partly of the Platonists. The Plato himself names are not easy to distinguish. "
pythagorized,"
century after another.
and, towards the end of the second
Christ, the
The
two schools melt into one
distinctive features of
Pythagoreanism were the love of sacred numbers and the ascetic life. Pythagoras flourished
in
the sixth century before that the last
and Diogenes Laertius tells us those philosophers of his school were Christ,
"
toxenus
knew,"
of Tarentum.
whom
Aris-
the disciples of Philolaus and Eurytus Philolaus was one of the teachers of
and the mystic arithmetic of the Timaeus prob comes from him. Another famous name is that ably Plato,
of Lysis, the tutor of Epaminondas.
Aristotle wrote
a treatise, no
longer extant, on the Pythagoreans, and down to the end of the second century B.C. the sect attracted the attention of writers, among
whom
were Aristoxenus, Neanthes, Dicaearchus, and
Hermippus.
NEOPLATONISM
28
When we
are told that the school disappeared, \ve
must understand that
and ceased
it
renounced the
The Pythagorean
to write.
lecture-hall,
life
maintained
an apparently unbroken existence.
The
earliest distinct traces of this ascetic discipline
meet us
in the literature of the fourth century before but they are at first connected rather with the name of Orpheus than with that of Pythagoras.
Christ,
Herodotus
that the Egyptian priests
tells us,
would
not wear woollen garments in the temple, and were never buried in woollen,. agreeing in this with those "
we call Orphics and Pythagoreans." Woollen garments were forbidden from some mystic dread of animal contamination. The Hippolytus of Euripides, the stepson of the wicked Phaedra, eats no flesh, and that
lives in virgin chastity,
his king.
knew
Plato
because he takes Orpheus
for
a crowd of books ascribed to
Orpheus and Musaeus. Some thought that they were compiled, or interpolated, or invented by Onomacritus,
who tampered
with
the
text
Homer, and was
of
banished from Athens by Hipparchus
for forgery.
curious that Aristophanes had nothing to say about these ascetics. They can hardly have been numerous in his day. hundred years later the It is
A
they are now distinctively called, afford great sport to the comic writers. The Pythago reans," says one of the characters in the Tarentines of
Pythagoreans, as
"
Alexis,
"as
we
hear,
anything that has "Well,
but,"
the
life,
neither eat kitchen-stuff, nor
and they alone drink no
other replies,
Pythagorean, and he
eats
"
Epicharides is a Aye, but not till
"
dogs."
wine."
THE PYTHAGOREANS he has
them, and then they are no longer Eating dogs may be meant for demolish
killed "
alive."
ing
"
The
cynics."
meagre
29
wits
"
amused themselves with the the
the silence,
diet,
subtle disquisitions of
the Pythagoreans, and even scoffed at
them
as
"the
This was hard, for they washed oftener
unwashed."
than most people. a long interval
after
Again
we come
across
new
In Judaea it is thought by Zeller and Schiirer to have contributed to the rise of evidence of the
Life.
In the West, Cato heard Nearchus, a
Essenism.
Pythagorean, lecture at Tarentum in 209 translated the
Ennius
B.C.
works of Epicharnms of Megara, a
comic poet of the fifth century, who interlarded his jokes with a dash of heavy philosophizing. Towards the end of the second or beginning of the
more About ninety Pytha
century before Christ, the school broke once
first
into literary
productiveness.
gorean treatises belonging to this period are enume rated by Zeller. They were nearly all pseudonymous. bore on their title-page names that belong to
Many
the ancient history of the school, that of Pythagoras himself, of Brontinus his father-in-law, Theano his wife,
Telauges his son.
A
great
mass were attributed
The
to the old mathematician Archytas. is
the
Golden in
precepts
famous
Verses,
a.
brief
best
known
of
moral
collection
seventy-one hexameter
treatise is that of Ocellus
lines.
Another
Lucanus, in which
of a pantheist system is succeeded quaint rules for the ensurance of a beau
a brief sketch
by some tiful
progeny.
Ocellus
handed down
to the later
NEOPLATONISM
30
Platonic school the Aristotelian tenet of the eternity of creation.
In the in
first
century of
One
Rome.
B.C. its
we
who was
Figulus, praetor and Pompeian,
and enjoyed repute
writer,
and magician.
Vatinius
calling himself a
mancer.
as
P. Nigidius a voluminous
astrologer,
prophet,
charged by Cicero with
is
Pythagorean, and
If he really did
boys.
the school existing
find
adherents was
this,
sacrificing little
he was a mere necro
Cicero himself wrote a Timaeus, in which
The Nigidius figures as one of the dramatis personae. learned Varro made frequent mention of Pythagoreanism, and the no less learned Alexander Polyhistor,
who
flourished at
Rome
between
So and
B.C.
B.C. 62,
has left us an account of certain Pythagorean Com mentaries, which are of particular value, because they are thought to have been known to Aristotle, and in that case reach back beyond the apocryphal literature.
Pythagoras taught his disciples every evening, when What have I done they came back home, to say What have I left ? I done have What amiss ? duty the gods, but to to victims offer to Not undone?" "
:
swear by worship only at bloodless altars; not to the gods, but to live so that all men would believe
To revere elders to honour gods before before men, and parents before all heroes and heroes, To live so with one another as to make other men. friends of enemies, and never to make enemies of
their
word.
friends.
law
;
To
;
call
nothing their own
to resist lawlessness
that plant, nor any beast
is
;
;
to destroy
to support the
no cultivated That
not hurtful to man.
THE PYTHAGOREANS
31
with uproarious modesty and discretion consist neither
To avoid fullness of face. laughter, nor with a sullen flesh ; to practise the memory ; neither to say nor do in a passion ; to respect all (or not at all) anything kinds of augury; to sing hymns to the lyre, and To cherish a grateful remembrance of good men. avoid beans because they are windy, and so near akin to things that
noted, in
have
may be
Wind and
soul.
soul,
should be
it
expressed by the same word
(-Trvevfia)
Greek.
In respect of doctrines, Polyhistor tells us, his book of all things, taught that Monad was the beginning
and
Monad came
of the
that out
Indefinite Dyad, which
the
Monad,
is,
it
into
being the
were, the matter for
work upon.
the Cause, to
One God
as
The Monad
a phrase which
constantly the ; The Indefinite Dyad, or reappears in this sense. Two, is matter not yet shaped and ordered. It will be noticed that Polyhistor s authority speaks of it as
is
is
it
evolved out of the One, which
is
Pantheism and not
Out of the One and Two spring the other from these points, lines, superficies, and and numbers, solids. Hence the world we know, which is animated, Platonism.
intelligent,
earth,
and
which
is
spherical.
so that what to us
Thus
all
In the middle of
also spherical is
down,
is
science, physical
into arithmetic
and geometry.
and inhabited
it
all
is
the
round,
to the antipodes up.
and mental,
is
resolved
The Pythagoreans had
observed the numerical relations of musical sounds,
them the explanation of a modern savant finds the clue
and found as
in
everything, just to
eternity
in
NEOPLATONISM
32
They would have been
evolution.
terested
immensely in combination formulae of modern
the
in
Like ourselves, they measured the great
chemistry.
unknown by
the little known. They regarded number not as the manifestation of law, but as the law itself. To the Platonist law was the Idea, the thought of
God. Both numbers and ideas are immaterial, and thus they were readily confused. But the numbers were not only mathematical and scientific, they were also religious, and had a life of their own derived from
Judaea and
sprites,
and we
Babylonia.
shall see
They were
tricksy
what they made of Platonism
in the end.
The
the
soul,
broken
Commentaries proceed,
the aether,
off"
"cold
aether"
supposed to come from \I/ux w but because the aether is immortal. It
a
is
(^i/x
/
"bit
being
it
is
is
divided into
)>
immortal,
three parts, situated in different parts of the
body;
the intelligence, which inhabits the brain, is alone After death the soul still wears properly immortal. the shape of the body. Pure souls are conducted by Hermes to the Highest ; impure souls dwell in "
"
solitude, each
by
with their kind,
itself,
cut off from
all
communion
by the Furies in adamantine whole air is full of souls ; these are "bound
The demons and
chains."
heroes, and by them are sent dreams and prognostications of health and sickness to man and beast. To them appertain lustral arid rites, propitiatory augury, and omens. called
The Commentaries,
as
they stand, show
Stoic influence, quote the Golden Verses,
signs of
and give
to
THE PYTHAGOREANS
God
Hebrew
a
"the
title,
33
Highest."
Their exact
nature and date are uncertain, but we may accept them as perhaps the oldest existing monument of
Pythagoreanism.
Like the Golden
by heart; the philosophy
is
from the
form
to be learned
archaic, confused,
The Pythagoreans were
imperfect.
Verses, they
manual adapted
a sort of catechism or
and
spiritualists, yet,
can be seen that they had soul," it only imperfectly grasped what is meant by spirit. Their system was more a religion than a philosophy ; in fact, it was not a system, but a handful of leading ideas,
"cold
which were
numbers
allied
through
the
to Pantheism, yet could readily
to Platonism,
and were
finally
doctrine
of
be adapted
absorbed by that school.
believed in
They immortality, in transmigration, in communion with God they believed in the unity of God as the author of all. They had all, in One ;
taken
Eleatic One, a mere abstraction of the and made it an object of worship, that is to they had grasped the relation of science to faith.
the
schools, say,
But with this deity of the reason, not of the conscience, they combined all the gods and demigods of Poly created gods of Plato, a long range of theism, the beings of mixed nature, ranging from seraphic good ness to devilish maleficence. All were to be wor "
"
shipped and propitiated, though not in the same way. Equal honours must not be paid to gods and heroes. The gods are to be worshipped at all times "
with holy words, white garments, and purity ; the heroes only in the afternoon." Purity is to be attained by baths and sprinklings, and by avoiding things that
I
|
NEOPLATONISM
34 defile
the touch of a corpse, unclean food, and so
and marriage are not absolutely is to be understood as a but abstinence prohibited, We observe further a love of counsel of perfection. forth.
Flesh, wine,
music, a pitifulness, a tendency to socialism and to mysticism, generally a touch of art, of affection, of romance, that lead us very far away from the rigid common sense of Stoicism. The Pythagorean was
contact with the
in "
touched with
religious.
unseen, and his morality was or in other words, was
emotion,"
This was, naturally, the ground on which to do battle with the Church. The
Paganism elected
of the Porch, with its enthusiasm, had no chance at all.
agnosticism
in
utter
lack
of
Pythagoreanism seems to have had no existence Rome itself during the first or even the second
century after Christ, though Its chief records
elsewhere.
it made great progress come to us from a later
date, but with a
little careful sifting they yield a clear the ideas that were coming into vogue of picture between the times of Augustus and Marcus Aurelius.
We
have to do with two romances of markedly antilives of Pythagoras and of
Christian character, the
Apollonius of Tyana. There were scores of lives of Pythagoras, of which three are extant by Diogenes Laertius, Porphyry, and The last is perhaps the very worst lamblichus.
biography in existence. The truth is, that scarcely It is anything is known about this famous man. probable that he himself never put pen to paper, but even this is disputed.
THE PYTHAGOREANS
He
was born about 580
Samian,
some
or, as
son of Mnesarchus, a domiciled at ;
B.C.,
said, a
35
Tyrrhenian
Samos, taught by Pherecydes of Syros, initiated
in all
That he the Greek mysteries, and a great traveller. visited Egypt in the time of King Amasis is certain ; in later times he was said to have made acquaintance with Arabs, Chaldees, Hebrews,
Indians, Galatians,
From
in a word, all the inspired peoples of the East. his long-continued voyage,
he returned to Samos, but,
disgusted with the tyranny of Polycrates, and finding by experience that a prophet has no honour in his
own
country, he emigrated to Croton in South Italy, a famous in particular for its school of
flourishing city,
medicine and for enforced electric
his
by effect.
his practices,
brotherhood. passionate
its
Men
There
athletes.
striking
personality,
flocked
to hear him,
and formed themselves
The
moral
result
his teaching,
produced an adopted
into a sect, or
was a widespread "
reformation,
incontinence
and dis
appeared, luxury became discredited, and women hastened to exchange their golden ornaments for the attire" A change so (Grote, iv. p. 541). would excite many enemies, and hostility was embittered by the political activity of the new sect. A popular insurrection was headed by Ninon and Kylon the Pythagoreans were attacked in the temple
simplest violent
;
of Apollo, or the house of Milo
the building was and in the flames. What fire, many perished became of Pythagoras himself no man knew, but in the time of Cicero his tomb was shown at Metapontum. set
;
on
,/The sect never again attained to power, though, as
NEOPLATONISM
36
we have
seen, it continued in a way to exist both in and elsewhere. Italy That Pythagoras was regarded in very early times as endowed with miraculous powers there can be no doubt. Hermippus treats him as an impostor on this very account, and by so doing testifies to the
belief of his followers. Pythagoras not only taught the transmigration of souls, but professed to know what had happened to himself and to others in
previous existences. Xenophanes of Elea tells us, once seeing a dog beaten, he desired the striker
that
It is the soul of a friend of mine, Another story tells recognize by the voice." that the soul of Pythagoras had inhabited the body
to forbear, saying,
whom
"
I
of Hermotimus, and
in that shape recognized in temple at Branchidae the shield which, as Euphorbus, he had wielded in the Trojan war. He had a golden thigh, like Pelops, which he once showed
Apollo
s
to Abaris as a proof of his divine
writers
Some
added
mission.
Later
greatly to his
supernatural character. said that he was son not of Mnesarchus, but of
Apollo and Parthenis, the
was a widespread
"
virgin
belief that
avatar of the sun-god.
On
mother,"
and there
he was, at any rate, an one occasion, when he
on Mount Carmel, the sailors, him in for the boat below, saw him return to waiting them floating over rocks and precipices. He began
had
retired to pray
his ministry by causing a miraculous draught of fishes, cured diseases by incantations, appeared at one and the same time at Metapontum and Tauromenium, and
died
after a fast
prolonged for forty days.
He
was a
THE PYTHAGOREANS brother to the birds and beasts
;
37
an ox, into the ear
of which he had whispered, never ate beans any more, and a wild eagle perched upon his wrist, and allowed him to stroke its feathers. He was lord even of
inanimate nature, and
when he was
crossing the river "
to him, Hail, Nessus, or Caucasus, the waters cried of some doubt to lamblichus professes Pythagoras."
these miracles,
and
tells his
brethren that they went
god nothing was in to leave is, that wishes he credible. impression such things were possibly true of Pythagoras, but However, the stories certainly not true of our Lord. too
far, in
believing that of a
The
were current.
To
the
first
ascribed the century may probably be of the constitution of the Pytha
received account
about Diogenes Laertius says nothing gorean sect. writers represent it as a strictly organized it, but other
body consisting of two
or three distinct classes.
Of
these the highest alone, after a novitiate of five years were admitted to the inner secrets of the silence,
school.
The
initiated
one another by secret masons. The account
are signs,
said to have
recognized Free
like those of the
upon an idea, which had that philosophy was like long been gaining ground, the mysteries, and that every great teacher must have rests
esoteric as well as exoteric doctrines, is
to say,
which are not merely more
doctrines, that difficult,
but
more sacred than others, so that it is a sin to reveal them to the outer world. That the school had a compact form that it had the
is
highly probable from its history ; form ascribed to it in im-
particular
NEOPLATONISM
30
is The statements exceedingly dubious. of lamblichus and Porphyry have probably no other
perial times,
foundation than the
fact, that Pythagoras delighted to moral teaching in a parabolic form, in as they were called. Such were the symbols
clothe his "
"
maxims,
upon
"
not
to
not to poke the
"
one
s
face back
the
the
distiplina
steelyard,"
"not
to sit
admit swallows into the with a
fire
not
"
sword,"
upon a journey," the explanation
may be commended
of which
But
jump over
bushel,"
house,"
to turn
to
"not
a
to the ingenious reader.
which never did exist, and the arcani which to a certain extent did, were classes
weapons against the Church, which had a some what similar organization in the division into baptized and catechumens, and guarded the Eucharist from useful
all
but the
first.
Two
of the most attractive features of Pythagoreanon which the biographers with justice lay great ism, stress, are its
the high value
respect for
and Phintias
many
is
too well
it
sets
;
how
upon
and
friendship,
The romantic story of Damon known to need repetition but
similar, if less beautiful,
in the school
large
women.
Clinias of
;
anecdotes were current
Tarentum collected a
sum
Prorus
of money, and sailed to Cyrene to rescue from bankruptcy ; how another brother re
warded the good innkeeper, who had nursed and piously buried a destitute traveller. Pythagoras was reputed to have taught, that common,"
and
that
"
a friend
tf
is
friends
another
have self,"
all
in
and he
bequeathed a generous brotherly spirit to his disciples. Women, too, were the object of special care. The
THE PYTHAGOREANS
39
in great esteem, and Pythagoreans held chastity It was no a as looked upon celibacy special grace. doubt a consequence of their regard for sexual and that they treated women with a reverence purity,
unknown otherwise in the ancient world. believed them to be as capable of inspiration as
tenderness
They
men. They numbered women among their martyrs, such as Timycha, who bit her tongue out rather than and seventeen women are in her husband
betray cluded in what we
;
may
call
the calendar of saints
Down to the last women con given by lamblichus. tinued to occupy a conspicuous place in the history of the school. of Apollonius of
The biography lar to that of
Pythagoras.
discriminate
to
tedious the
life
Severus,
Germans
fact
from
composed by
command
of Julia
quite call
Here
early
fiction.
it
is is
The
very simi impossible
long
and
Philostratus, in obedience to
Domna, in
Tyana also
the
the wife of the third
century,
Emperor is
what
a Tendenz Roman, a novel with a pur
Hierocles, early in the fourth century, expressly and there can be no Apollonius against Christ, doubt that this comparison was in the mind of
pose. sets
Philostratus also.
quotes a fine saying of Apollonius When you wish to discipline yourself, and it is hot and you are thirsty, take a mouthful of cold water and This is the sole notice it out, and tell nobody." :
Epictetus
"
spit
man. He is by a contemporary of this remarkable the at said to have died about 98 A.D., age of a on He wrote books hundred. Sacrifice, and on
NEOPLATONISM
40
Astrological Prediction, which are lost with the excep collection of letters attributed
tion of a few lines.
A
him remains, but is of doubtful authenticity. All that we know with certainty is, that he was regarded as a perfect model of the Pythagorean life, and that he was credited with miraculous powers. For this last fact we can quote the testimony of his enemies. Moeragenes charged him with bewildering Euphrates the Stoic, and Lucian classes him as an impostor with to
Alexander of Abonoteichos.
We may notice here a point of some importance. The Pythagoreans, though they believed in witch craft, or magic, like that of Horace s Canidia, regarded the black art with a certain aversion. The miracu
powers, which they claimed for their most eminent men, depended, like those of the Buddhists, on extreme asceticism, and were never harmful. Hence it was possible for the Platonist Celsus, lous
though
a
magicians,"
believer
and
to
in
miracles,
to
write
"against
sympathize with the Epicurean
who
delighted in running down a charlatan. easy to see how Origen was led into the mistake of regarding Celsus as himself an Epicurean. What
Lucian, It is
was asserted by some against Apollonius and Alex ander, and by others against our Lord, was that their signs
and wonders were the proof not of
iddhi, of
white and beneficent
art, but of the black magic of the magus, or the prestidigitation of the goes. The distinction is subtle, for though black magic might not
be used to do harm,
it
was held lawful to employ
against the black magic of wicked people.
it
THE PYTHAGOREANS
The
clearest glimpse that
we
41
obtain of Apollonius,
on Sacrifices," is afforded by passage from his book in his Praeparatio Eusebius learned the quoted by a man wishes to pay fitting service Evangelica. and by that means to be singled out as an to the "
a.
"If
Deity, and goodness, he must offer to object of divine grace is One and that God, whom we called the First, who be after whom only can the other deities above all,
he must kindle no fire, nor promise any earthly thing. For He needs nothing, nor is not even from beings that are higher than we nourished or there any plant, any creature, produced free from pollution. To Him by earth or air, which is man must offer only the better word, I mean that
at recognized, no sacrifice
all
;
;
not uttered by the from the most Beautiful of
which
is
and ask good things by the most beautiful
lips, all,
This faculty is intelligence, to the great and Therefore which needs no organ. be offered." must all at supreme God no sacrifices
faculty that
The
we
possess.
writer distinguishes, in a
familiar to us, between the
gods, heroes,
way
that
One God and
is
already
the lower
Inferior deities might be
and demons.
The Lord of the reek of sacrifice. propitiated with we have the Here receives but nothing. All gives all, to what the united of Theism, sublimest conception Fathers of the "Church
rightly
regarded as
devil-
the paganism out of which worship, yet soaring above it
sprang.
But observe the price
at
which the heathen bought
The Father has become the Ineff high needs nothing," and cannot able, the Absolute, who
this
vision.
"
NEOPLATONISM
42
be thought, can only be seen, as a bright light, by the rapt intelligence, that is, by the intuitive power of the mind. The prayer offered to Him is no spoken petition, but
ecstatic
"the
better
communion,
in
word,"
the voiceless gaze of
which
all
consciousness
is
suspended as in a trance. this
Compare "
For Thou
with the language of the Psalmist
desirest not sacrifice, else
would
I give
:
it
Thee but Thou delightest not in burnt offerings. The sacrifice of God is a troubled spirit a broken ;
;
and
O
God, shalt Thou not despise." The Pagan God desired no sacrifice; but he knew For broken hearts there nothing of troubled spirits. was Cybele, or Isis, or Demeter, with the wild frenzy contrite heart,
of their mysteries. It was their function to deaden for a time, for they could not cure, the anguish of the
trembling soul.
How deceiver,
Apollonius was deceived, and how far needless to inquire. He lived habitually
far
it is
in that borderland of imagination, which is peopled with the creatures of fancy, and where nothing but the strong curb of Christian morality can save men
from delusion. life,
which
is
One scene
very
We
need not recount
much
his fictitious
a replica of that of Pythagoras.
only deserves notice, that of his Passion. began to persecute the philosophers,
When Domitian
Apollonius sailed to Italy to beard the tyrant.
He
was denounced by Euphrates, the Stoic Pharisee, and charged with having sacrificed a boy, with pretending to be God, and with speaking against Caesar. He
was not betrayed by a
disciple
Celsus treated the
THE PYTHAGOREANS
43
treachery of Judas as a proof of the
impotence of
Our Lord, who had not succeeded in persuading even His nearest adherents but Damis and Demetrius, two apostles who fill the place of St. Peter and St. Thomas, who doubt but do not deny, follow him to see the end.
Apollonius appears before the Emperor, is ill-treated, and challenged to save himself
mocked and
by a miracle. from
sight.
He
accepts the challenge, and vanishes Such, thinks Philostratus, should have
been the behaviour of our Lord. impossible.
mind
A
crucified Saviour
The
cross was
was to the heathen
same thing as an ass-headed God. time after the accession of Nerva, Apollonius ascended into heaven. At what precise date he the
Some
received divine honours
we cannot
say,
but that he
them is certain. Caracalla built him a shrine, and Aurelian was prevented from destroying Tyana by a vision of Apollonius, who came to inter
received
cede
The Emperor recognized his because he had seen his statue in so many
for his birthplace.
visitor,
fanes.
The romance
is marked by great and attacks the heathen
of Philostratus
bitterness against the Stoics,
priesthood for their blind, unreforming obstinacy. Its purpose is to advocate a new paganism, the pro gramme of which was the union of Church and State
under the Emperor as of bloody sacrifices,
mythologies were to
would come
To
God
s
vicegerent, the abolition
and Apollonius for Messiah. All be recognized, and if Christianity
in, a place should be found for it. the Pythagoreans of the first century belong
NEOPLATONISM
44
names of Moderatus of Gades in Spain, and Nicomachus of the Arabian Gerasa. The latter was a mathematician of some note, and speculated largely
also the
the
in
religious
significance
the reader will like to
know
of numbers.
Perhaps
exactly what this means.
One
denotes God, Intelligence, Form, and in religion Apollo (d-7ro\\a = not many), the Sun, or Atlas.
But as
evolved from the One, it also signifies In the first aspect it is the Matter, Darkness, Chaos. in female element in creation ; the the second male, all is
hence the Supreme
is
With
masculo-feminine.
Two
begins multiplicity, the antithesis of the many to the one ; hence, this again stands for Matter, and, in re
Three is the first true Aphrodite. exhibits the proportionate harmony of beginning, middle, and end; hence the sacred triplets which we see everywhere, in art, in science,
ligion, for Isis or
number, because
and
in theology.
it
Four was
are five fingers
and
five
also a mystery
;
are there
So was Five, for there senses ; and Seven, for this is
not four quarters of the sky
?
number of the planets. Greatest of all these sacred emblems was the Tetractys, by which the the
Pythagoreans swore, but whether thirty-six is uncertain.
To
us
it
all this
was
four, ten, or
seems incredibly
it gave a zest to the arid In pursuit of this will-of-thewisp the Pythagorean discovered geometry and the laws of music, as alchemists lighted upon chemistry,
childish, but at
any rate
science of numbers.
and
astrologers
men
find
One
on the science of the
stars.
Thus
kingdoms while searching for asses. other freak of Nicomachus is worth a word.
THE PYTHAGOREANS
45
and Ostanes, and Zoroaster Babylonians, he says, Change the gender call the stars flocks," ayeXm. we have second a add and g, and of this noun, of the name the and archangels angels," ayyeXoi, the of course, demons. the of is, and stars Angel
The
"
"
Greek word
for
"
messenger,"
but this was
far
too
simple an explanation for the Pythagorean. was used But, as a name for heavenly beings, angel
Testament, and in the Greek version from one of these sources, probably from the Septuagint, that the word had come to the of Nicomachus. Perhaps it had reached
only in the of the Old.
New
It is
knowledge
the ears even of Epictetus, for he says that "the from Zeus." Cynic is sent to man as an angel Here we seem to catch a glimpse of one of the
hidden pipes, through which a knowledge of the We see Bible was trickling into heathen thought. also the sensitiveness to Oriental influences, which
little
marked Pythagoreanism from
first
to last.
This
is
The the explanation of the Neoplatonist dualism. his Greek religion ; philosophy of Plotinus was purely only was hybrid.
Ill
THE PLATONISTS,
WE
must now turn
ATTICUS, ETC.
to those
men whose work
it
was
though with considerable differences, the distinctive teaching of Plato.
to revive,
The
revolt against the sceptical conclusions of the
Academics was begun by Antiochus of Ascalon, whose lectures Cicero attended at Athens in 79 B.C. From him dates the reaction in favour of dogmatism, that is, of the inculcation of definite systematic teaching. taught the Platonists once more to believe in attainability of truth,
and gave them a
of the master whose
name
He the
creed, the creed
they professed.
was long before the reaction gained a footing in Rome itself. Epictetus knew no readers of the It
Republic except a few ladies of the emancipated type, who prattled about the marriage arrangements of the ideal state, much as their modern sisters do "
about the dramas of Ibsen.
Down
to the
"
end of the
Flavian dynasty Roman society, or such part of it as cared to have a creed at all, was divided between
Epicureans who denied, Academics who doubted, and
THE PLATONISTS, ATTICUS, Stoics
who
numbered
ETC.
affirmed but hardly reasoned. in their ranks all the best
47
The
last
and strongest
characters.
Even in the Greek-speaking provinces, before Flavian times, we meet with no Platonist of eminence except the Alexandrian Philo, and the influence of this remarkable
man
did not
make
itself felt
till
late in the
second century, when a school of Christian scholars had arisen in his native town, and his Judaism was
no longer absolutely
unintelligible to a certain section
The names
of the Neoplatonists. cyllidas,
are
of
literary
of Thrasylus, Der-
Moderatus, Areios, Didymus, and Eudorus,
importance except for the student of last are history, and the dates of the two
little
uncertain.
Theon
of
Smyrna
(A.D.
20
rather to the roll of mathematicians.
140) belongs But, after the
first Christian century, we begin to meet number of distinguished names. Plutarch was born in A.D. 48 Dion Chrysostom about A.D. 50. To
middle of the
with a
;
the palmy days of the Antonines belong Favorinus, Calvisius Taurus, Nigrinus, Celsus, Atticus, Maximus About the Tyrius, and the famous physician Galen.
middle of the second century, the ideas, which gave! emerge in Albinus, or Alcinous
birth to Neoplatonism,
(there is some doubt as to his true name), and Apuleius, and take more and more distinct shape in Numenius and Ammonius Saccas. We have already observed the point of view from
which the Platonist opposed Stoicism. moral points of the sufficiency of virtue
and the brotherhood of man
On for
the great
happiness the two schools were almost
NEOPLATONISM
48
Even
in complete accord.
in physics, so far as their
roads lay together, there was a certain agreement. The Platonist added the transcendence to the imma
nence of God, and hence arose a considerable religious But, in all that touched what we call
difference.
natural science, he borrowed very freely the language of his rival. What he complained of was, that Stoicism
could give no that
it
had no
its
own conduct
and was unable
to explain the
sufficient
religion,
moral obligations that vehemence.
reason for
it
insisted
upon with such
A remarkable passage of Atticus, preserved by Eusebius in his Praeparatio Evangelica (xv. 4 9), will show the reader the attitude of Platonism towards another great
system of thought. Atticus belongs middle of the second century, and he is probably the writing against Peripatetics, the school of Aristotle. The main charge which he presses against Aristotle is, to the
that his morality this defect
is
he finds
commonplace Deism, and
in
and the causes of
;
in the
vagueness of
his teaching as to the immortality of the soul.
Aristotle regarded virtue as the
_-.
/
...;
mean between two
emotional extremes attained by habit under the guid ance of reason. Happiness, he taught, was the supreme object of man of happiness.
s
endeavour, and virtue is the chief cause But he allowed also a certain weight
to external goods, birth, wealth, health, beauty, and fortune generally. No one would call king Priam a happy man, and he would doubtless have added, no one
could give the name to regards as a
St.
Paul.
"
poor, low, vulgar,
This the Platonist
womanish
"
idea of
THE PLATON1STS, ATTICUS, It
happiness.
"takes
"
royal sceptre
it
;
away from
does not
ETC.
virtue
its
49
crown and
the heart, and cannot
fire
help the young and ardent. Virtue is no longer the "way to heaven," but a dull, earthly track, in which the fox
much chance as the eagle. Happiness itself becomes the sport of fortune a stroke of the clock gives it, and takes it away. has as
;
The the
Platonist
is
here in very close agreement with
Virtue
Stoic.
is
Earth can neither happiness. life of the soul. On this
make, nor mar, the true
position, that righteousness
that
where the mind
difference
is
is its
right all
between the
two
own is
sufficient reward,
right, there
schools.
was no
was
It
the
teaching of Plato himself. Readers of the Republic will remember the famous passage, where he insists, that the just
man
will
be happy, though he should be crucified In ethics as in physics, the difference
for his justice. lies
not in the
fact,
but in the way in which the fact was
linked on to a higher truth. To the Platonist virtue is the way to heaven," to the Stoic it is not. "
The
criticism of Atticus,
it
may be added,
is
just as
The
morality of Aristotle is commonplace, because and, commonplace, untrue. Doing a thing ten
far as
it
goes.
times over
will
not
make
us like
it,
if
the thing
is
disagreeable. But Atticus does not state the objection in the precise form that suggests itself at once to the
Christian reader of the Nicomachean Ethics. fault lies in the very
attempt to define
The initial
Happiness, that
For no man can define that which he has not attained, nor can we fathom the capacities
is,
Perfection.
of our nature, until they have received their utmost
D
NEOPLATONISM
go
The
expansion.
happiness
Platonist saw
in the vision of
he attempted to brought back the limitation.
clearly, for
he placed
for
-this,
God, but he did not see it define God Himself, and so
And
he omitted
further,
whom
Plato spoke, in but in consequence, of spite, might be happy not
to notice that the righteous man, of
his crucifixion.
reason for this low-pitched morality Atticus discerned, and here again he was right, in the Deism
The
of Aristotle.
Deism regards God
as creating
and
it to itself. equipping the world, and then leaving Nature is, as it were, a watch, which He sends forth
from His hands so perfectly adjusted that
Man
further interference.
and
this is his
only and
is
needs no
it
furnished with reason
;
Like Epi
sufficient guide.
as curus, says Atticus, Aristotle represents the gods "
spectators in a
Epicurus gether,"
them
Aristotle
close
the
it
;
them in the world," brings and hear, and yet teaches This may be a harsh judgment,
"imprisons
to see
enough do not care. was the general opinion. The Christian
that they
but
Nay, he is worse for while gods out of the world alto
theatre."
"turned
fathers,
no doubt, gathered from writers like Atticus the view, which with one accord they express, that, according to "
Aristotle,
providence
reaches
down
to the
moon,"
but
no further, and takes no count of what from them we have learned to call "sublunary" affairs. Deism is
of course materialistic, because
it
limits
God
locally,
Platonist. and it was therefore Pantheism he could speak of with equanimity, for though he would not allow that God was in Nature,
abhorrent
to
the
THE PLATONISTS, ATTICUS,
ETC.
51
he insisted very strongly that Nature was in God.; But Deism turns the Infinite into "an absentee landlord."
The
criticism of Atticus
may be
practically unjust, for Aristotle, is
hostile, but
"the
scribe of
it is
not
nature,"
certainly the author of that divorce from religion, left morality barren. Nor is it
which has so often
unjust to say that Aristotle in effect denies the im His expressions are obscure mortality of the soul. and uncertain. The soul, which is in his view
merely
sentient as
and emotional,
we should
may
is
an
"
entelechy,"
say, a function of the
bear to the body the relation of
The
boat."
"
Intelligence (VOVQ)
from out of
doors,"
and
a form,
or,
body, though "a
comes
it
sailor to his in afterwards
imperishable and divine.
is
But, whatever these enigmatic utterances no use is made of them. Rewards and
may mean,
punishments,
aspiration, grace, the
hope of infinite perfection in a wholly outside of the Peripatetic system. soul might as well be mortal, there is no "friend
future
The
"
ship
life, lie
between
it
the mortality is Platonic school ;
To
and God.
ence seemed dreadful.
The
cement
"
Atticus this indiffer
belief in the soul s
that
holds
"
ardent
"
all
that
in virtue flows
is, it
never can
is
from
"great
im the
and bright and
this faith.
and must be
together
If the soul
con and beauty, to which by its nature it belongs. To doubt its immortality is to doubt its existence, and such a doubt is a practical truly
die,
tact with the world of
denial of
all
life,
truth,
fellowship between
Thus Deism was found
in constant
God and man.
as unsatisfying as Pantheism.
NEOPLATONISM
52
These two systems are philosophies, but not religions. first has no grace, and the second has no righteous ness. But the second century was anxiously groping about for grace and righteousness and the spread of Platonism was due not more to its speculative power,
The
;
than to the spiritual cravings of the age. of wild religious emotion. passionate ; and the world
Heathenism s
It
was a time
is
generally nerves were strained by
physical misery, which in some districts was very acute, by the influx of maddening Oriental fanaticisms, and no doubt also by antagonism to Christianity. In the
time of Hadrian, Oenomaus wrote a book against the Oracles, entitled The Charlatans Unmasked, a little
later
Demonax
scoffed
at
the mysteries,
and
Lucian scoffed at everything. But these are isolated phenomena. The decadence of the Oracles, which Plutarch lamented, was merely accidental, caused by the shifting of population and political change. Men were not less anxious to pry into the future, but they
had found out cheaper,
safer,
and baser methods
for
the satisfaction of their curiosity. It is commonly said that the second century exhibits a marked advance in the direction of monotheism. This is by no means true. Philosophers spoke of One God, as they always had done, but they found at the same
time excellent reasons for worshipping every deity and every demon known to mythology. In the world at large polytheism
had never been so rampant or
so degraded. The deification of men was one of the signs of the times. Not to reckon the Caesars,
Apollonius, Neryllinus, Antinous, and Alexander of
THE PLATONISTS, ATTICUS, Abonoteichos, of characters,
whom
ETC.
the two last were infamous
received divine honours.
all
53
Peregrinus,
another bad man, aspired to the same dignity.
The
mother of Dion Chrysostom was worshipped, and Men7 probably there were many similar instances. addicted themselves- to particular divinities, but merely to the biggest and strongest of the supernatural
as
Naturally they were unable to distinguish Each nation
powers.
one deity very accurately from another.
had
its
own
hierarchy,
and these hierarchies were
The Zeus of Greece was con regarded as identical. fused with the Jupiter of Rome, the Osiris of Egypt, and the minor gods were inter same way. Mythologies were mixed
the Baal of Phoenicia,
changed
in the
but not simplified.
The
true characteristic of the age
is
to
be found in
the eager craving for some kind of divine grace and some kind of divine righteousness. To the heathen mind these ideas necessarily assumed the shape of possession, and a cere For these purposes the old Roman It lived on in Caesarreligion was absolutely useless. Roman history worship, which was no new thing lustral
purifications, frenzied
monial moral law.
Romulus and was as our own ceremony
begins with the apotheosis of
devoid of
spiritual significance as
of drinking the
Queen
s
health.
Caesarism typified the
blessings of political unity, and the ancient Roman deities were all moral emblems of the same kind.
They were not persons but has admirably shown.
dead and gone.
abstractions, as
But
Mommsen
any case they were The gods of Horace and Virgil are in
NEOPLATONISM
54
Greek gods, though they bear Latin names, and under the Empire the real character of the indigenous Roman worship was known only to the antiquarian. This singular religious revolution was effected quite noiselessly, and even the writers, by whom it was accomplished, do not seem to know what they were doing. They brought about for the two mythologies of Greece and
Rome to
same kind of
fusion, that
was
known mythologies under
the
the
all
being applied reign of the Antonines.
The
religion of the old
and more morality than peoples.
and
Romans had
that of any
fewer fables
of the ancient
They worshipped the domestic, economic, Heaven was an exact copy of
political virtues..
the earthly state and household. Jupiter and Juno presided over all as Lord and Lady, Ops gave plenty, the
Penates watched
over the store-closet, Janus Every act and every condition of
guarded the door. life,
good or
evil,
great
or
insignificant,
had
its
Salus sent health, and heavenly superintendent. But these thin abstractions neither Febris fevers. lent
themselves
to
art
nor
ministered
Hence came the peculiar charm Roman mind it was, in fact, ;
emotions.
of Stoicism for the the philosophic ex
But art and pression of the national religious bent. are as emotion, dangerous inseparable in they may be,
As civilization broadens, the long run from worship. the feelings and the imagination are quickened and nutriment, and, if this necessity cannot be supplied from native sources, it must be met by The influx of Greek and importations from abroad.
demand
THE PLATONISTS, ATTICUS, Oriental ideas, that
ETC.
55
to say, of art and of enthusiasm, one sense a deterioration, for it But in another certainly lowered the moral tone. aspect it may be regarded as an essential step in the
into
Rome, was
is
in
education of the race.
Emotion,
was natural
as
passions were far
was sought for mainly from the
more
in its
times
in
when man
s
and rapid than now, keenest forms, and these came violent
far East. Cybele, with Atys and her was brought from Phrygia, by decree of the Senate itself, in the agony of the Hannibalian In 186 B.C. the Bacchic orgies took root in war. Rome, produced the most intolerable wickedness of
frantic Galli,
kinds, and were suppressed by the police with the most sanguinary rigour. From Egypt, in the latter days of the Republic, came I sis, Osiris, and Serapis. all
expresses the old Roman contempt for the brute gods of the Nile, and their intrusion met with vehement opposition on the part of the authorities. Virgil
On one
occasion the emperor Tiberius was so ex
asperated by a disgusting scandal, that he crucified the priests of Isis, pulled down the sanctuary, and
threw the statue of the goddess into the Tiber. But in the second the was early century struggle abandoned,
and temples of
Isis
were erected without
let
or hind
rance, even within the limits of the sacred pomoerium, that is to say, in the heart of the city of Rome.
About the same time the worship of the Persian Mithra attained to great popularity. "
Mithra,
the
Unconquered
especial favourite with the army.
Comrade,"
The
was
an
caves, in which
NEOPLATONISM
56
he was worshipped, are found wherever the Roman legions were stationed, in England and elsewhere. He belonged to the system of Zoroaster, which is still professed by the Parsees, and of all the ancient
most religions was the purest and Zoroastrianism tolerated no idols, and its
non-Biblical elevated.
chief symbol was the sacred fire. Its governing idea is dualism. In this world we see an unceasing and universal conflict between
and Ahriman the will
spirit
triumph, and Mithra
victory will be achieved.
the
monuments
is
evil.
the spirit of good, the good
One day
the mediator, by
Hence he
is
caverns.
whom
the
represented on
as a youth slaying a bull,
in
worshipped
Ormuzd
of
The cavern
and he was is
this
dark
and the bull typifies the power of evil. Mithraism had rites of initiation, sacraments, a hierarchy, and a society. It was widely diffused and strongly world,
organized.
But, except in the ecclesiastical writers,
heard
it
probably because it gave rise to no scandals, was sober in its ritual, and made no noise in the streets. Zoroastrianism, with much barbarous is little
superstition,
of,
combined a deep sense of moral
evil,
and
the pagan influences at work in the second century, it was, as far as we can judge, the most
of
all
wholesome. worship was far more stirring, and far more It was built upon the well-known dangerous. myth, which tells how Osiris was slain by the wicked demon Isis
Typhon, and how Isis his wife, with labour and sorrow, wandered over Egypt, gathering together the mutilated limbs of her murdered lord. Here again
THE PLATONISTS, ATTICUS, we have the strife of good and sensuous and passionate form. with a rattle in
mind
to
evil,
ETC.
but in a
Isis
57 far
more
was represented
her hand, because she stirred
the
Every point in her worship was rouse and excite. There were masquerad
frenzy.
calculated to
ing processions in the streets like those of a carnival,
there were
prolonged
fasts
modern and elaborate
scenic representations by night. What these were we can only divine, but from our knowledge of the
Egyptian Ritual of the Dead, and from such books as Mr. Le Page Renoufs Hibbert Lectures, we can form an idea, which will not be far wrong. The sorrows of Isis, the torments of the damned, the happiness the blessed, would be exhibited, with all the resources of the stage, before the eyes of spectators,
of"
up
to the pitch of excitement
by
fasting
wrought and expecta
tion. There they would see the crocodile lying in wait for the wretched soul that has not obeyed the
directions of the priest, and there they would learn the magic words, that enable the faithful to
escape from his jaws. Besides the great mysteries, which had their gorgeous temples and crowds of worshippers in the great cities, there were a host of
little ones, bringing the cup of frenzy to the lips of peasants in out-of-the-way corners. The vagabond priest of the Syrian goddess wandered
from village to
village,
with an
ass
laden with
his
paraphernalia, and a couple of dancing boys. At each hamlet they set up their idol, performed a wild dance, gashing their arms with knives as they whirled madly about, and made a collection.
NEOPLATONISM
58
All these orgiastic worships inculcated the belief in future life, as it presents itself to the mind of barbarians. That is -to say, as a scene of woe where
a
yet
some kind of happiness may be procured by due
payment.
Isis,
the terror
Adonis,
Thammuz,
Atys,
Dionysus
same family. They rest upon of the unseen and the tragedy of existence,
Zagreus are
all
of the
and they express these awful thoughts in fables of hideous deaths and savage mutilations. They are all of great antiquity, belonging to the primary stratum of
and their renewed popularity in the second century must be regarded as a sort of volcanic upheaval of the hidden depths. They all played upon fear, and all were unable to turn fear to any moral end. They fulfilled the task which Aristotle assigns to religious
belief,
tragedy, purging the breast from time to time of the swelling emotions of terror and pity, and so producing
a temporary calm. They told of a suffering God, and atonement but what they taught of a kind promised
men
to
bewail with frenzied lamentations was the
suffering, not the sinfulness,
of
life.
They
testify to
the deep unrest of the time and its readiness for better teaching, but what sort of character they tended to
shape we see in the case of Apuleius.
These maddening Oriental deities were not artistic and were not reasonable, and their worship was generally regarded by the heathen themselves only as a kind of safety-valve, a means of discharging the in perilous accumulation of religious melancholy shortest and safest way, by noise, and movement,
temporary
insanity.
On
all
the
and
these grounds they were
THE PLATONISTS, ATTICUS,
ETC.
59
viewed by the educated Greek with a certain reserve, upon the whole necessary and even salutary, yet not as possessing any high spiritual value. They be
as
longed to demons, not to gods, and, though the demons must be propitiated, because they can do us harm, they are not the givers of the most precious These must be looked for in the reasonable gifts. service of the
bright gods of
Greece too had
its
mysteries.
Olympus.
We know little
about
But the secret was well kept. they stood no doubt to those of Egypt in the same relation as the poetic tale of Demeter and Proserpine
the rites of Eleusis
to the ghastly
;
of Osiris.
myth
They had
the
same
office, that of providing
and
all
those states
anodynes for affliction, remorse, of mental disquiet, which under
Christian guidance lead to penitence.
But what the
educated Greek loved best were the serene and tranquil deities, who gave good things and never did harm, who presided with benignity over of life, and were never hard
all
the joys and interests
upon their worshippers. and all the choir of Homer, poets, had sung of them. and artists Pheidias, innumerable, had made them
live in
was the
marble.
Everywhere
their beautiful presence
the lecture-halls of the university, in market-place of the town, by haunted grove
visible, in
and stream. They dispensed prosperity, and merriment. Unfortunately
men
asters
come
mind
suited the ideal
the
bright
thick and
days of
to all
men wisdom,
are not always wise, fast.
and
dis
The Homeric frame
of
temperament of the Greek and life,
but
in
times
of
distress
NEOPLATONISM
60
heathenism turned instantly into devil-worship. This was largely its character even in Greece, and almost
When
universal elsewhere.
the beloved Germanicus
died, the people cast the images of the Penates into
Such wild
the gutter.
heaven
where a
civilization is
red-hot
with
recover.
in
Roman
Catholic countries, Renan has told us of
backward.
who
Breton blacksmith,
Virgin
threatened to shoe
In heathenism
it
was an every-day incident. is found the levo contra
"
Deum qui me innocentem my hands against God, who-
"
Procope, lift short cut my innocent I,
sustulit,"
a rude sculpture of two hands upraised Germanicus, the emperor Titus, Servianus
Below
in protest.
the
daughter did not
his
iron, if
At Rome, on the tomb of a young girl, following inscription Procope manus
life."
of
revolt against the injustice
unknown
not
is
is
Hadrian, and the emperor Julian, all same indignant sense of injustice in hearts and on their lips. Even professed sceptics,
in the time of
died with their
the
like Pliny the elder
and Lucan, believed
Human
hideous forms of magic.
in the
sacrifice
most
was not
unknown
the emperors Nero, Hadrian, Commodus, ; Didius Julianus, Heliogabalus, and Valerian were all
charged with
this crime.
witchcraft, that every
was believed
to
So universal was the belief
man
have commerce with the infernal
In the fourth century
powers. a wide reputation
among
St.
Athanasius enjoyed and even among
the heathen,
art.
In the
districts
were as
the Arians, for knowledge of the black
second century people
much
afraid of
in
of remarkable attainments
in
country
demons, as the inhabitants of an African
THE TLATONISTS, ATTICUS,
ETC.
6
1
kraal often are, with
good reason, of lions or elephants. of these malignant beings, ever ready to burst forth and injure. Religion was in the main a
The
was
air
full
device for escaping from their clutches, or for enlisting more powerful deities by arts which the
the aid of
This hag-ridden superstition was priests could teach. It underlies the necessary outcome of heathenism. all the art and poetry of the classic times. As soon as
men
left
behind them the buoyant thoughtlessness of charm of life wore off, and the
as soon as the
Homer,
question of the hereafter began to press, these frightful What we notice in the second century not the is, decay of faith, but the decline of other
dreams arose.
by which the inevitable tendency to devilhad been kept in check. Reason was just worship
interests,
strong
enough
to
rob
men
of
their
hopes,
but
absolutely powerless to correct their fears.
There is no reason whatever for supposing that the people at large had ceased to believe in the gods. The world was producing new deities in shoals, and even saints were forthcoming. Such was the aged priestess of
whom Dion
Chrysostom gives a charming and the Boeotian shepherd who was dis covered and exhibited by Herodes Atticus. Men called him Agathion, "the good angel," or Hercules, description,
because he spent his
life
in destroying wild beasts,
and
supposed him to be the son of the demigod Marathon. He would touch no food that had been prepared by a woman, and could detect by the smell whether female fingers
had drawn the milk.
There were no doubt plenty of sceptics
to
be found
NEOPLATONISM
62 in fashionable first
Roman
century, while the
society,
memory
especially during the
of the civil wars
still
endured, and Caligula, Nero, and Domitian reigned. But generally speaking, educated men felt towards the same way as Rudyard vulgar religion in much the s Baboo towards the Hindoo orgies, which he
Kipling
laughs fidelity
in though yet they drive him mad. Their was but skin deep, and they did not see how
at,
irreconcilable their Stoic, or Peripatetic, or Epicurean
theories were with the very roots of the established
worship. In the second century this was clearly understood. Worship was felt to be a necessity, and the existing
forms were thought to be so closely interlaced with the national life, that, if destroyed, they could not be replaced.
The
essential
factors
of
true
religion-
were all providence, prayei-j atonement, righteousness a sounder not Could to be found there. philosophy purify all these ideas,
and bind them together
down
reasonable unity, without pulling Could not heathenism be moralized?
in a
a single altar
This was the problem of the Platonists, and ours to ascertain where and why they failed.
?
is
IV PLATONISTS, NIGRINUS, DION CHRYSOSTOMUS
THE
Platonists of the latter half of the
first
and
the earlier half of the second century were not marked by any striking originality of thought, and do not
claim
a high place in the history of philosophy. Their interest is almost entirely religious. We shall express the same thing better by saying, that they were the champions of Hellenism. Hellenism is a
word very
Greek
distinctive
habits
of
of these
and
life
times
thinking.
:
it
means
The Greek
gods were inseparably associated with Greek culture. Their high priests were Homer, Solon, Pheidias,
Demosthenes. the authors of
They were all
the
arts,
the givers of civilization, all the sciences, the in-
spirers of Attic elegance in thought, expression, dress,
and manners. The age was not one of production its most characteristic offspring was the rhetorician.
;
was marked by a wide diffusion of what we and an ardent though taste
But
it
may
call intellectualism,
less
admiration of the old classical models.
The
were crowded with students, new pro were established and endowed, and a fessorships
universities
NEOPLATONISM
64 succession
of
Nerva
from
Emperors,
Marcus
to
and Aurelius, vied with one another in condescension literature of love The letters. of men liberality towards was amazingly widespread in the old Greek world. in a half-savage outpost like Olbia, on the shores of the Black Sea, the mass of the people are said to have known the Iliad by heart. Nor can there be
Even
much exaggeration of
in this statement, for the
harangues
of
Homeric
rhetoricians
the
allusions perfectly
were stuffed
full
and quotations, and these must have been familiar to the popular audiences to which
they were addressed. The revival of Hellenism
is
the distinctive feature
of the second century, and with it went hand-in-hand the revival of Platonism, the most Hellenic of all philosophies.
Epictetus
knew no
Calvisius
Platonists.
Taurus complains of the shoals of young men who wanted to plunge into idealism with unwashed feet," "
that
is,
without realizing the necessity of preparatory
Platonist would For, as St. Justin found, the to not explain his doctrines any one, that had not mathe a been regular training in abstract study.
through
matical science.
was
The task of the new philosophers movement by bringing philosophy
to regulate this
They did not want
into line with religion.
nor a single anything, not a single myth desired
end
to purify morals,
not, like the Stoics,
and hoped
literature are of far higher it
to
up
They
effect
this
through rigid discipline, but
by the spread of education. to Epictetus, because
to give
altar.
is
Hence
art,
science,
importance to them than through these means that
PLATONISTS, NIGRINUS, DION CHRYSOSTOMUS
65
But not through they proposed to make men better. these alone. held that the They highest culture is in separable from, does in fact kindle, faith in the divine ; that this faith in turn quickens and deepens
and
Thus worship becomes and the crown of philosophy. The
the insight of the thinker.
the secret of
life
student must approach his his shrine, in the
enters
They saw no
reverence.
Polytheism.
problem, as spirit
of
the
priest
holiness
and
difficulty in the established
All that was necessary was to graduate away a few of the more revolting
the gods, and explain fables about them.
We
shall discern their
aims and methods best by
We will taking a group of representative names. It belongs begin with Lucian s sketch of Nigrinus. to the age of the Antonines, but we may place it first, because it gives so clear a picture of the moral atmosphere of Platonism. When Lucian was on a to
visit
his
to
mitted,
and ushered
into the
whom
he found seated
pay
to
Rome, he
called
the
respects distinguished professor. personally unknown, he was immediately ad
Though
in
presence of Nigrinus,
his library.
On
the table
lay a sheet of geometrical diagrams
and a globe round the room were book-cases surmounted by busts of the ancient sages. Nigrinus was in the talking vein, and began by lamenting to his bright young visitor the contrast between the vulgar bustle of Rome and the simplicity of his beloved Athens,
much
May
as
fair
a
modern man
of letters might
or Cheapside with the groves of
;
compare Magdalen E
NEOPLATONISM
66
or the lime-walk of Trinity.
of
difference
teach,
Athens
and not is
There
perceptible, that to shut himself
the true
home
is
Nigrinus wanted to up with his books. philosopher, and to mix with the
of the
there the delight of the teacher
just this flavour
is
throng of ardent youth, and mark the change that steals over the noisy freshman, as he takes his first
The genial bath in the mysteries of the absolute. old professor passes on from the abstract to the concrete,
and
the restraining force of Attic
illustrates
by an anecdote of a rich undergraduate, who had passed under his eye in the old days. He came to the University with a host of slaves, dressed and
taste
bejewelled in the height of the mode, and strutted along the streets, thinking that all must admire and envy him. The Athenians set to work to teach him better,
for not harshly, nor by open contradiction, one has a right to live as he pleases in
after all every
a free
city,
but by good-humoured jests and lightly
If he went to the bath with a troop glancing asides. He is afraid of attendants, he would hear a whisper "
:
But the bath
of being assassinated. place, there
is
is
a very quiet
no real need of an army
here."
If
purple and gold,
he swaggered on the promenade he would be pursued by a ripple of undertoned banter Where does this See, spring is here already," or, in
:
"
"
or, Perhaps they are his peacock come from ? mother s clothes." And so gradually the rings were laid aside, the gorgeous raiment was exchanged lor "
"
simpler attire, the flowing locks were soberly trimmed, he and, before the young Fortunatus left the town,
PLATONISTS, NIGRINUS, DION CHRYSOSTOMUS
was
"much
educated
the
better;
tone
of
the
67
had
place
him."
This gay passage
interesting, because it helps to explain the intellectual change of the second century. It was a revival of Hellenism, a reaction against Romanism. The centre of thought was shifted from is
the banks of the Tiber to those of the Ilissus, as it was probably shifted again a little later on to those
of
the
When
Nile.
Nigrinus
Athens
quitted
for
Rome, he felt as if he had left the light of the sun. The coarseness, the harsh vices, and shameless im pudence of the antithesis to ligion
of
rugged
Platonism docile pellucid
air
of of
the
is
grossness
and
wills
appealed
nature
The
capital disgusted him.
Roman
to
sceptical
the
Greeks
Hellas,
not
intelligences.
temperate, ;
its
the
natural
Stoicism, the re
cultivated,
breath
is
the
miasma
of
the
Subura.
Another interesting figure is Dion of the Golden Mouth. Dion is far more of a rhetorician than of a philosopher, but on this very account he shows us more distinctly than anybody else the set of the times,
new-born zeal for religion, the awakening of a true and thorough-going religious morality. Nay, in Dion we behold a very singular the the
phenomenon,
gropings after the idea of a heathen church. He is almost the only writer of antiquity, who takes a keen, practical interest in social problems, and regards the elevation of the masses as a work. first
religious
is
This
a church view, wholly different from the attitude
of Stoicism, which taught that individual conversion
68
NEOPLATONISM
was the one thing needful, and that material circum stances did not signify in the least. Dion was born about the middle of the
first century Prusa (now Brussa), a moderate town of Bithynia, situated on the northern slopes of Mount Olympus.
in
He came father
whom His
of a wealthy equestrian family. His grand was a friend of the then reigning emperor, by he was presented with the Roman franchise. Pasicrates, was recognized as the chief Prusa to the end of his life, and his mother
father,
citizen of
was so beloved, that a statue and temple had been He was at first a rhetorician or her.
erected to
members
sophist, and, like other
of that curious pro
wandering from town to town. The rhetorician was one of the signs of the times, a fession, spent his life in
curious cross between an University Extension lecturer
and an operatic singer. We must remember,
that
in
the
second century
there were hardly any topics for a popular lecturer. All the Sophist could offer, was an exhibition of
about anything and every the It thing ; subject the better. was said of Swift, that he could have written finely brilliant
extempore
the
more
talk
trivial
about a broomstick. Sophist.
Dion,
in his
This was the ambition of the
younger days delivered
"
dis
as they were called, about a parrot and a gnat. plays," The merit of the orator lay in his readiness, his copi
ousness, his grandiloquence,
and the
skill
with which
he could interweave high-flown metaphors, appropriate or inappropriate allusions to Homer, and a dash of philosophical or
moral instruction.
The
Sophists
PLATONISTS, NIGRINUS, DION CHRVSOSTOMUS
69
were
full of stagey ways, and affected great splendour of apparel. They dressed in character, and on one occasion Dion, who was a thin little man, appeared
in a lion-skin,
no doubt
Latterly his style
to perorate
about Hercules.
became graver and more
practical
;
but he retained his sophistical mannerisms to the end, and could hardly make a speech without assuring his
audience that not
it
was quite extempore, and that he did
know what was coming
About
next.
this earlier stage in his career
information, unless
we may accept as
described by Philostrattis. ing author,
we have
romanc starting on his
According to
Vespasian, just
before
little
historical a scene this
expedition against Vitellius, gave audience at Alex andria to Euphrates the Stoic, Dion the Platonist, and
Apollonius the Pythagorean, and begged the advice of the three philosophers on the delicate question,
whether he should make himself emperor or not. Euphrates recommended him to re-establish the Republic; Dion preferred an oligarchy, but urged Vespasian to leave the decision people;
Apollonius
politics, for I
am
answered:
in the "I
hands of the
care
subject to the gods alone.
not about
But
I
do
not wish the flock to perish for want of a just and
moderate
shepherd."
Vespasian wished to show his
gratitude by rich gifts to his three counsellors. Apol lonius refused all reward Dion begged the discharge of a philosophic friend, who in a rash ;
Lasthenes,
moment had
enlisted in the
army ; Euphrates pulled out of his pocket a paper, which he had brought with him ready written, full of requests for himself and his
NEOPLATONISM
70
The
friends.
for
its
passage
impractical
is
intended as a cut
at Stoicism
intransigence
political
and
its
inconsistent morality.
In the reign of Domitian, Dion was in Rome, enjoy the intimate friendship of an illustrious man
ing
This was nearly related to the Imperial family. to death by probably Flavius Sabinus, who was put Domitian, A.D. 82. After this tragedy Dion fled from .Rome, whether banished by formal decree, or driven forth
he
fear, is uncertain.
by horror and personal
calls
his
exile
thirteen
lasted
years,
and
What it
is
Dion s praise that the touch of misfortune brought out the real goodness and sincerity of a somewhat He faced his adversity with cheerful nature. flighty
Often he had read, often he had the temptations of wealth and the about preached, Now if God allowed him, he of poverty. blessings
resignation.
would
find out for himself,
how
the truth was.
The
prophet no longer do what he was doing man
in prose, for the
Delphian Apollo spoke in verse, bade him the ends of the fully till he had come to "
in reliance
upon
this behest,
Dion
earth."
And,
set out to live the
of a wanderer, alone and in ragged garb, with of Plato and a nothing in his pocket but the Phaedo
life
his support partly speech of Demosthenes. He found or a a as bathman, partly labour manual gardener by charitable. the of alms the by this time of wandering we get but an occa
During
He tells us himself how, in sional glimpse of him. obedience to Apollo s command, he roamed as far as where the Borysthenes or Olbia on the Black Sea,
PLATONISTS, NIGRINUS, DION CHRYSOSTOMUS
;t
men of the town crowded into the theatre to hear him discourse about the gods, though the battle-signal was flying from the walls, and their harness was on their backs how he followed in the train of the army on the expedition against the Getae how towards the end of the time he met a holy priestess in a ;
;
country place in Greece, who prophesied the downfall of the tyrant, and the near end of his own sufferings. The death of Domitian delivered him from all appre
At the moment Dion was near a large camp, and the excitement of the soldiery at
hensions.
Roman
the news of the to
issue
Emperor s assassination seemed likely mutiny and outrage. Dion cast off his
in
and sprang upon the
cloak
"
altar,
exclaiming,
But
he, the wily Odysseus, stripped off his rags "he
was
never without an appropriate verse of
and
succeeded
Homer
in bringing the turbulent legions
over to the
side of Nerva.
Dion in retirement during the short but under Trajan he emerged again, and was treated with great distinction. On one occa Ill-health kept
reign of
Nerva
;
sion the soldier-emperor took him up in his triumphal I don t know what chariot, and said to him, "
you
mean, but set the
I
love you as
compliment
to his
the affront to his style. quite
myself."
Dion no doubt
goodness of nature against In truth he did not always
know what he meant
himself,
and Trajan
s
civilities
acted upon this uncertainty of purpose in a
way that About
shortly caused
look
him
great chagrin.
100 he returned to his native town to after his property, which had become sadly A.D.
NEOPLATON1SM
72
Dion was still dilapidated during his long absence. a Sophist at heart, with all the love of magnificence
marked
that
his class,
and he allowed himself
to
be
seduced by the dream of doing for poor little Prusa what Herodes Atticus had done for Athens. Only,
own enor
while Herodes had spent lavishly of his
mous
Dion had
beyond his golden Unfortunately things were just ripe for the tongue. most chimerical schemes. The Asiatic towns were agitated by the most furious rivalries, and Prusa was wealth,
determined not to be
little
capital
left
behind
in the race.
The
happy moment seemed to have arrived. There was the great Dion their townsman once more among them.
What might effect ?
to
not
Trajan
favour
their
his
his
influence
himself had city
in
townsmen
every to
the
with
said
Dion
way.
set
Emperor
he wished
that
easily
about
rebuilding persuaded Prusa it was an age of architectural extravagance on a scale of magnificence proportioned to the The work was begun, and splendid destiny in store. great expenses incurred, but
all
Trajan could
that
be induced to do was to make Prusa an to
add a hundred members
establish
there the
central
to the
offices
tration of the Bithynian revenues.
assize town,
senate,
for
and
to
the adminis
This was a sad
Those who had hopes. to refused pay up, and the subscriptions promised proconsul exacted the money from the township at blow
to
their
ambitious
The rate-payers were so exasperated by this unexpected turn of events, that they tried to set Dion s house on fire, and would have stoned the too perlarge.
PLATONISTS, NIGRINUS, DION CHRYSOSTOMUS suasive orator to death,
if
they could have laid hands
upon him. Dion was evidently not a took
this lesson too in
73
good
practical
part.
He
man, but he discarded the
ambition to lead a vestry, quitted Prusa, and contented himself with the affectionate admiration, that to the
attended
last
of his
years
was
life
friend
his
unquestioned literary and appears to have spent the last chiefly at Rome, where Plutarch his
upon
oratorical ability.
He
and Favorinus
probably about A.D. 120. Dion was a born sophist, and
his disciple,
and died
his orations are as a rule
too abstract and vague, and too verbose, to please the
modern
He
reader.
is
most
interesting,
when he
himself probably thought he was least so, in those speeches where he tells the amusing tale of his vexa tions at Prusa.
Among
other misdeeds he had ordered
the demolition of an old smithy, which his opponents insisted ought to have been preserved, as the workshop of the only distinguished artist in bronze, that the town had ever produced. Dion replied, that the place was so dilapidated, that every stroke of the hammer upon
the
anvil
workmen there
to
But
heads.
!
He knew
no other man of
it down upon the amazing how little reality How much he could have
Greek
his
bring
it is
in his speeches.
is
told us
threatened s
life
five or six passages, that set
But us
it is
due
to
Dion
from top to bottom, as Yet there are only
time did.
before us what he saw.
to add, that these few notices tell
more about the misery of the times, than we gather else. He had witnessed the terrible
from anybody
NEOPLATONISM
74
poverty and depopulation of the country districts, and He thought earnestly about a remedy for the evil.
speaks with manly indignation of the horrible cancer of sexual impurity, which sapped the life of the heathen world. He does not regard these frightful sins with the horror or the sternness of a Christian, but at any he points them out and condemns them. Indeed
rate
he
is
always wholesome and earnest.
of his
Many
orations were delivered with the very practical object of restoring peace between neighbouring towns, and in his
most complimentary harangues there
some point
of well-aimed admonition,
rebukes the Alexandrines
Dion had
in short a
as
is
always
when he
for their scurrilous tongues.
humane and philanthropic
spirit.
The
ancients describe his later harangues as those of a statesman," and both epithets counsellor," He has many points of affinity with are deserved. "
"a
is larger, more modern, more we may almost say. He has caught the Stoic idea of the World City, "the dear city of Zeus." Philosophy tells us of a good and loving communion between demons and men, wherein all the benefits of
Stoicism, but his view
Christian
"
citizenship
and law are granted, not indeed
brutes, but to all reasonable
and
juster,
he
says,
beings."
to
the
It is far better
than the boasted polity of Lycurgus,
which did not permit the Helots to become Spartans, and so fostered an undying enmity between the two. There is neither master nor slave in the city of God.
He
compares the world to the temple of Eleusis, in which, at one point in the celebration of the mysteries, the initiated danced round the novice with torches in
PLATONISTS, NIGRINUS, DION CHRYSOSTOMUS their hands.
So
the immortal
Gods
in this beautiful universe, not circle in
75
men
but
rhythmic chorus round the
whole race of man, bearing with them night and day, Dull is the heart that all the lights of heaven.
and
cannot see that fairest
celestial
among many
Him
band, and
who governs and
fair,
above
all,
orders
all
the wondrous show.
To Dion
this
The
Epictetus.
language meant more than it did to Stoic after all cared little for any but
own
the elect of his
loved
the
But Dion
conventicle.
and saw
poor,
in
really
the best
their virtues
The most attractive of his speeches is philosophy. the EuboiC) in which he paints their simplicity, their generosity and trustfulness, their domestic affection and It is a picture of some poor folk earnest piety.
who were good
to him,
when he was shipwrecked on
the iron-bound coast of Euboea, and
it
is
meant
to
show, how
love and goodness can sweeten the hardest Nothing could be more tender than this charm
lot.
ing prose idyll,
and the
feeling
which inspires
it,
is
undoubtedly genuine.
As regards Stoic
slavery again,
commonplaces.
the bad
man
penetrates different
is
Dion repeats the usual wise
always a slave.
man
alone
is
He considers the deeper into reality. in which men become slaves, and all
unjust.
The time had
not yet
for giving practical effect to such a truth as this,
and Dion did not always quite mean what he
He
recommends
slave.
free,
But here too he
methods,
pronounces them
come
The
said.
the master not to pursue a runaway
If the slave,
he asks, can be happy without a
NEOPLATONISM
76
who is supposed to be better than himself, cannot the master do without the slave, who is why to be worse than himself? But, when on supposed master,
to Prusa he found that his own human had taken the opportunity of absconding, he
his return
chattels
.manifests some, perhaps not unnatural, vexation.
Dion was an orator differing from other orators of method but in tone. After his exile he never again declaimed about parrots and gnats. A l his utterances are marked by moral seriousness. On this account men called him a philosopher. But he had no disciples, and never discussed. He became in fact a preacher, and we have to gather his philo sophical belief from those of his speeches, which most his time, not in
Of these the nearly approach to the type of sermon. most remarkable is the Olympic, delivered at Olympia in presence of the glorious statue of Zeus, the master
piece of Pheidias, which is in fact the text of his dis course. The speech is one of the best expositions of
Hellenism that we possess.
Dion enters upon his matter by an emphatic con demnation of Atheism and of Deism.
Many, he
up a bad god, what they womanish deity, whom the dark with cymbals and pipes. (This
says,
have
set
are pleased to call Pleasure, a
they adore in what the
is
doctrine"
Stoic
Hierocles
of Epicurus, what in
utilitarianism Carlyle scoffs at frying-pan.")
if
their heresy
We
called
"
the
"as
should not grudge them their
ended with
harlot
n.odern garb of the worship of the
its
their drinking songs.
jollity
But
they have taken away our gods and banished them
PLATONISTS, NIGRINUS, DION CHRYSOSTOMUS
77
from the world, saying that there is no mind in the universe and no ruler over it ; no providence and no creator. They are worse than the Deistical Peripatetics,
who
at
child,
by
least
who
have some sort of god, if only like a hoop, and then lets it bowl along
starts his
itself.
Where are we to look for sounder doctrine? First and foremost to the testimony of the soul itself, the belief that is born in every man. Secondly and thirdly, to the corroboration of poets and legislators, for there
is
no song, no
justice, without the inspiration
Fourthly, to the teaching of Art. For whence the sense of beauty in form and colour, and to
of God.
comes
what conclusions does
it
on? What
lead us
shall we say of creations of the sculptor or the painter, of Pheidias or Zeuxis ? For they do not deliver the same
But here a
the
difficulty arises.
fair
message as the verse of Homer, or the statutes of Solon.
The poet of human
song introduces into Olympus the tumult the law-giver s code embodies the passion
s
;
The breathing right. before us a figure call the marble, up glowing canvas, which is pure, beautiful, unchanging, but human. Can
ideal
this
of severe
unbending
be a worthy representation of
God ?
Here we reach the burning question of the
How
was polytheism,
idolatry, to
day.
be reconciled with
the reasonable service of an intelligent and spiritual To solve this problem we must call upon yet deity ? a fifth witness, the philosopher, whose orifice it is to explain an J harmonize the superficial divergences of the other four ; we must have recourse, as we should
7
NKOPLATONISM
8
modern jargon, to the higher criticism. This Dion proceeds to do in his oratorical fashion by calling up the spirit of Pheidias to answer for his statue. Thou noblest and best of artists, he says, no man will deny that thou hast wrought a vision of wondrous delight for The most toil worn of all Greeks and all barbarians. say in our
mankind, as he gazes on this statue of thine, would But hast forget all the woes and hardships of life. thou wrought for us a shape worthy of great and
lovely though
it
God
?
be, clothed in light
For
and
it is still the shape of man. Pheidias replies, that no human skill can adequately The gods are represent the majesty of the divine.
grace,
heaven ; they are the sun, moon, and stars. But these bright orbs do not satisfy the cravings of the heart. They are too simple and too far. Man wants in
As infants in the dark stretch gods that he can touch. forth their hands and cry for their father or mother, so "
men, loving the gods for their bounty and goodness, long to be with them, and speak to them." Hence the artless barbarians make gods of mountains or trees or shapeless stones.
But the cultivated Greek needs
some fitting image of the divine intelligence. we turn to the human body, attaching to which
Hence that
wisdom and utterance, and formless by the invisible represent
for us the vessel of
is
striving
"
God
to
visible form,
by the best symbol
in
our
power."
If
the sculptor s art is limited in its vehicle of expres Poetry is sions, there is a gain even in its simplicity. full of life and movement, but it is wild and turbulent. "
Homer
first
showed
to the
Greeks many beautiful
PLATONISTS, NfGRINUS, DION CHRYSOSTOMUS
images of
all
the gods,
clement, some
fearful
and of the great God of all, some and terrible. But my Zeus is
calm and ever mild, as Hellas.
79
the lord of peaceful
befits
and the wise counsel of Elis, Him, by my I set up here, and tranquil majestic in his unclouded of life and wealth and all that is good, beauty, giver art
father, saviour,
guardian of
all
mankind, as perfect a
God
counterfeit of the ineffable nature of
can
skill
In
as mortal
engrave."
passage we have the most plausible exposition of the Platonism of the second century, or the reformed this
Paganism, as
and the same King.
it
is
sometimes
They are
spiritual, just,
man must and can be
like
these
are
shocking
who
lives
tales,
to please
true art are safe
called, for they are
The Gods
thing.
and
and
them.
are
one
many, but one
is
and beneficent, and If
Homer
tells
us
the forgeries of the poet, to
astonish.
Reason and
sufficient guides.
Dion s plea for images is not without justice; what he defends is not idolatry, but In religious art. this again he went further than his contemporaries,
who
for the
most part admitted a
the god in the statue.
As
real presence of
for the masses,
it cannot be doubted, that they actually worshipped not only the work of men s hands, but shapeless stones, mountains, trees, and in Egypt beasts.
On the subject of the demons he says little or nothing. Spiritual beings are all god-like and good. Here too he was in advance of his times, and here too he did not see the state of things quite clearly. great part of the Greek ritual, and a still
A
larger
NEOPLATONISM
So
part of the barbarian religions, this
dark fact called
explanation.
It
was
causes, Polytheism
wrath
;
and
and the mode
was devil-worship, and
imperatively for some sort of the necessary result of two heathen notions of the divine
in
which
it
was handled forms
generally one of the most significant features religious thought of the second century.
in
the
PLUTARCH
PLUTARCH was as pure and amiable as Dion, and much higher order of ability. He was not an
of a
and speaks of the Sophists with gentle dislike He was not even a philosopher, the sense in which we apply the term to Plato, or
orator,
for their insincerity. in
Aristotle, or Locke. Philosophy was not his first, nor by any means his only, concern, and his principles are not always clear, He consistent, or developed.
belongs rather to the class of
men
critics, or essayists, or of letters, and in this he holds a foremost place.
Every subject that interested the mind of his time, is discussed in his voluminous pages, but the motive is almost always moral or All that he wrote religious. is
marked by a sincere and
He
beautiful piety.
was
the most learned, chatty, and agreeable of men, and never said an unkind thing of any one, except the historian Herodotus,
who was
as amiable as Plutarch
himself, but angered the Boeotian sage by disparage ment of the Boeotians. Plutarch loved his native
and deserted as it was in Jiis time by gods and men, he would not allow the world to forget, that it
soil,
F
82
NEOPLATONlSM
was the land of Cadmus, of Hesiod, of Pindar, of His one unfortunate Corinna, and Epaminondas. treatise,
"on
the Malignity of
as a natural,
Herodotus,"
may be
pardoned ill-aimed, outburst of indig nation against the injustice of mankind, who spoke of his countrymen as Boeotian swine." if
"
His
most men of
like that of
life,
Not
known.
letters, is little
One
that he courted obscurity.
of his
papers is on the maxim, "live forgotten." author of this adage," says Plutarch, "devised
shorter "The
that he might not be
it,
man
life
of a
He
was born about
and died about
He
studied,
But the tranquil
forgotten."
of the pen
is
marked by few
A.D.
no doubt
120, in the reign of Hadrian. at Athens,
under
Peripatetic and an lectured at Rome as a young man, Ammonius,"
a
incidents.
A.D. 48, in the reign of Claudius,
"the
Egyptian.
and
good
He
visited the
He had seen Alexandria capital again in later years. and Sparta but the greater part of his long life seems to have been spent almost entirely in his little native town of Chaeronea. There he was squire, mayor (or ;
archon), and priest, attending to the welfare of his tenants, managing the affairs of the community,
presiding at their sacrifices, passing the greater part of his time in his well-stored library, and making
excursions into the larger world. There life. about such a We something very English
occasional is
consider Plutarch as a sort of Greek Kingsley. His family held a considerable position, and were His great-grandfather Nicarchus, his rich in ability.
may
grandfather Lamprias, his father, whose
name
is
not
PLUTARCH
83
Timon and Lamprias, were all men of intelligence. Notwithstanding his retired life, he knew everybody that was worth knowing. Trajan
recorded, his brothers
and Hadrian are said
to
have honoured him with this
public dignities, and, though uncertain, he appears both princes.
Plutarch
is
to
probably
particular
still
best
known by
and age, less all
is
his Parallel
Lives, a series of biographical sketches, in
depicted and
fact
have enjoyed the esteem of
which he
compared the great heroes of Greek
Roman history side by side. In our scientific which thinks more of the general movement and of the individual life, which is highly impatient of
moral
reflections,
and
is
rather pleased
when
it
can prove that a fine saying was never uttered, or a fine deed never done, the Lives have become a grammar-school text. But, from the revival of Greek
one of the most
to the time of Rousseau, they were
popular books
in existence.
Montaigne delighted
in
them, Shakespeare drew the material for his Roman dramas from North s Translation, and Jeremy Taylor found in them an inexhaustible store of anecdote and illustration.
kingdom
for
There he read, how Lysimachus sold his a draught of wine, and repented too
how Phocion, when the populace applauded ; him, turned to his friends and asked, "What folly late
have
knows
I
uttered?"
not, that
how Alexander
one
tear of his
"
said,
mother
Antipater blots out all
the libels he has written against me ; how the dying Pericles, when his weeping friends were praising, some ;
his eloquence,
some
his courage,
some
his victories,
NEOPLATONISM
84
head from the
raised his
admire are of
all
you
through
To
little
pillow,
and
"
said,
What you
fortune ; the greatest things, or gifts of that no citizen ever wore black
forget,
me."
in Plutarch, as to Teufelsdrockh, the supreme
was the humano-anecdotical. There at work on the most picturesque
terest of history
he found human nature
and impressive
scale,
always the same
human
nature,
same lessons of piety, duty, always and kindliness. For our moderation, magnanimity, the
teaching
purpose the
present
Lives
are
of
importance as
and amiability of their showing not only the learning attitude of the thought of author, but the changing If
the time.
view of Caesar
is
as to St.
contrast this broad, social, artistic
with the sour Puritanism of the Stoic,
life
shall find
we
it
wiser and more
practical.
To
we
Epictetus
the corrupter-general, the devil ; to Plutarch, for good, Paul, he is a minister of God
minister. though possibly a very unfaithful the domestic handles of No other writer antiquity
One of the affections with such insight as Plutarch. Amatorius. called the is best of his treatises dialogue
A incident of real life. suggested by a comical of great personal named Ismenodora, widow wealthy It is
attractions
and
spotless character,
became enamoured
Her suitors young gentleman, Bacchon. not unwilling, and Bacchon, though -were furious, was afraid of the ridicule of his companions. when Ismenodora boldly Things were at a deadlock, cut the knot by carrying Bacchon off and marrying of a poor
him
there
and
then.
This gives
rise to
a discussion
PLUTARCH
man ought
whether a in
marrying a
wife
whether he
to marry,
and a
richer
and how he ought
himself,
85
little
is
justified
older than
The
to treat his wife.
dialogue is marked by its outspoken condemnation of that ghastly Greek vice, which cannot even be
named by
Christian
quisite treatment "In
marriage,"
than to
be
but
lips,
of the
says Plutarch,
its
of conjugal
"it
His tone
loved."
more by
still
subject
is
better to
is
that of a
ex
love.
love
modern
The wife is to be not the mistress only, gentleman. but the friend and companion of the husband, and he overflows with anecdotes of the purity, the courage,
the
marriage
in
of woman. Nor does view altogether lack a sacramental under the special care, not of the
generosity his
character; it is This goes to the earthly, but of the heavenly liros. root of the matter, and it is hardly too much to say,
that the
Amatorius
is
worth
on morality put together.
other heathen writings Plutarch s life was in strict all
accordance with his professions. This difference of moral tone implies of course a difference of moral theory, and in the de virtute morali Plutarch explains objections to Stoicism.
There the
are,
first
second desire.
second.
Hence
is
The
the
soul
Stoics
taught that
is
itself,
between reason and
admit the
They regard vice
scientific
he says, two great moral antitheses; between the soul and the world, the
in
is
very clearly his
the
soul
first,
an error of judgment.
"all
things are
but
not
the
as practically one.
Marcus Aurelius
opinion,"
that
is
to say,
NEOPLATONISM
86 that
moral
evil
consists
the mistaken idea that
in
Obviously then vice is a corrup pleasure is good. tion of the soul itself; in other words, of the God Thus Pantheism not only, as we have seen, within.
makes
bad men equally bad, but destroys all The whole soul is given of amendment.
all
possibility
up to evil, and there is absolutely nothing left, to which an appeal can be made. Plutarch admits both antitheses, but in a much The world is neither evil nor in modified form. Being the work of God,
different.
it
must be
either
a blessing or a scene of trial. Similarly, in the soul reason and desire are distinguished not as opposites, though they may become so, but as superior and inferior.
The
affection, for
Affection
is
office
of reason
is
not to extirpate
impossible, but to control it. the matter, reason the form, and each this
is
may be regarded as a mean between two Thus extremes, the too much and the too little. and foolhardiness mean between is a courage
moral virtue
cowardice.
On
this
view each virtue
musical harmony
;
the tumult
becomes a kind of of sound is formed
and regulated by the art of the composer. But now earthly music may be better or worse according to the ideal of the artist, and the skill whereby he realizes his ideal.
Where
the ideal
of the material, the result
is
not absolutely master
always discord, pain, the of effort and uncertainty.
is
accompaniment and sign So it is with virtue. Plutarch divides men classes, the
Temperate
into four
in (o-^pwr), the saint,
whom
PLUTARCH reason
so
is
supreme that there
on
resistance
87
the
part
of
the
Continent and the Incontinent
whom good and
is no longer any lower nature ; the
(e y/v-par//c, axparrjc),
in
evil are striving for the mastery,
predominating in the
and
first
evil in
good the second
;
the
region of free-will, as it is commonly called, of choice and its concomitants, shame, repent this
is
and
ance, pain
;
whom
is
evil
To
lastly the
as absolute as
Intemperate, the bad, in in the saint.
goodness
moral virtues the good things of the as Plutarch called them, the gifts of the world, or, are The musician gods, necessary and helpful. the
make
cannot play without an instrument, and he can music with an organ than with a drum.
finer
obvious to what practical differences the two According to Plutarch a good wife is
It is
theories lead.
a
blessing, according
The
indifferent.
hopeless scorn as
weak and
know
may of
men
;
naturaliter
a
thing
You are children of God you For the Platonist held that reason is ;
the first, abiding, un and always knows what is right. It may be violently overcome by desire,
it
it
"contemplates
Platonist appeals to the testimonium
Christianas;
system is, that than moral.
The
is
never persuaded to assent to sin. The worst can be forced to give evidence against him
The
self.
she
truths,"
sleep
it is
Epictetus
looked upon a bad man with former cried to the fool," the
"
never false;
but
"a
to
erring,
better."
changing
latter
it
is
the
aesthetic
chief
and
defect
animae in
his
intellectual rather
student will perceive, that in this analysis of
NEOPLATONISM
88
the practical virtues Plutarch has adopted bodily the The two agree again neces teaching of Aristotle. virtues above the intellectual the in setting sarily reason, or truth
merely their way of saying that faith must regulate conduct, a or dogma, But here obvious to need discussion.
This
practical.
too
is
and the begins the difference between the Peripatetic Platonist. Plutarch held that the reason (vovg), which is
not, properly speaking, in the body,
body
in
is
it,
was
because the
immediate contact with the
in
saw the divine nature, and possessed the
divine,
reason, dogma, and faith are same thing. Thus sound learning and true godliness are Plutarch was almost more priest than identified. He would have said, that he was a philosopher.
Thus
divine thoughts. different
names
for the
a priest. Religion is to philosopher, because he was him the crown of life, the source of all harmony and unity.
those,
Against
the
who make
pleasantly.
There
Epicureans he maintains, that pleasure the end, cannot live
no pure joy without a
is
pious,
We have seen how he applied this grateful spirit. maxim to the blessing of domestic happiness, but he learned
it
also
from the performance of his own temple of Apollo at Chaeronea.
priestly duties in the "
Nothing that we
cheers the
spirit
see,"
more
nothing that we do, effectually than the sights and
he says,
"
actions of our worship, when we celebrate a festival, or dance in a choir, or attend at a sacrifice. For there is
a good hope and
pitious
faith, that
the god will be pro
and favourably allow our
service,"
It is
on
PLUTARCH
89
the comforting nature of the belief
and on the natural
desire for perfection, that he rests the immortality of the soul, though he found it also in revelation.
Without religion then society "
Belief in the gods
cement of
the
is
first
itself is
and
the bulwark of
all society,
impossible.
chiefest thing, the all
laws."
to Plutarch as a golden
Like
mean
appeared between the marsh of superstition and the precipice of atheism. Atheism he regarded as a brutish way of virtue, religion
"
Superstition was as
thinking."
bad as atheism.
"
For
the crushing fear of the gods is inseparable from the But elsewhere he wish, that there were no gods."
Few men fear the gods so much, were better they should not fear them at Most men, being unlearned, yet not wholly
takes a wiser view. that
it "
all."
"
bad, worship the gods with a certain dread, which is called superstition ; yet the fear is immensely out
weighed by hope and joy, and the filial feeling with which they pray for and receive good things as the of the
gift
gods."
Superstition here means craven fear of the unseen. It tells a man that the gods act towards him like tyrants,
God chill
"by
wrath
is
good. but to warm, so "As
or
favour."
This
is
not true.
the property of fire not to is the property of the good
is
it it
Hence Plutarch was shocked by the Old Testament, of which he had a little indirect knowledge, because it speaks of the
to
benefit
wrath
not
to
of Jehovah.
Thus
harm."
God
is
beneficence pure and
Hellenism, intellectualism, recoiled from the popular devil-worship to the opposite ex* simple.
NEOPLATONISM
90 treme of
But Plutarch was a firm believer
geniality.
by rewards and punish ments, both in this world and in the world to come. Those God renders to every man what he deserves. who are incurable He slays at once, because they harm others, and themselves most of all. To others the divine government
in
"
He
For there
allows a space for repentance.
is
no
any should escape His hands." gods Plutarch meant the gods
fear, lest
of Greece, was to worship he bound each man, thought, though It was not lawful to the deities of his native land.
By
You see what a explain away their personality. of if turn for we the gods into us, gulf impiety gapes or or natural virtues." Nor were forces, affections, "
they to be questioned.
proof about each
theist,
free
not
from even
Pantheism were Like
all
good, and
and
as
you are going will
you and every
No
cavil."
the
If
that
altar,
Stoics,
who as
all
for
mono-
all
anybody
their else.
gods were pure, reasonable, and
One above Thus the minor
all
was Father, Ruler, and
became dependent indeed they are in the Timtzus, deities
acting as vicegerents of the Supreme.
calls
and leave
Hellenist was a
superstitious
that
inferior beings, as
pares
to ask for
shake with your
his school, Plutarch contented himself with
teaching Creator.
one,
every temple
sophistry
nothing
"
Celsus
com
them to proconsuls, and Nicomachus of Gerasa them "archangels," a name which he must have
borrowed from the Bible. Plutarch generally thinks and speaks of God under But at times he the old royal and paternal forms.
PLUTARCH
91
adopts the modern Pythagorean view, and identifies the Supreme with the absolute. One of the most interesting of his dialogues is on the letter E, which was fixed on the walls in three different places of the
Delphic temple. The letter was shaped much as in our English alphabet, but it was called Ei, and this diphthong may mean "Thou art." Ammonius takes /
!
the
name
explains
of the letter as a symbol of the Deity, and to mean "Thou art One." God is the
it
one substance, the Eternal, the
:
,
In this
All-sufficient.
adoption of the Pythagorean doctrine we find the first distinct step in the transition from Platonism to
Neoplatonism. But like Plato himself, Plutarch did not admit the eternity of creation as a necessary selfevolution of God. Another closely related doctrine, that of Ecstasy, has not yet attained in his definite position,
Plotinus.
which
it
occupies
in the
But he was a firm believer
mind
the
teaching of
in inspiration
and revelation of every kind. God manifests Himself by the heavenly graces of love and genius, by pre dictions, omens, dreams, by what we call possession, and by the ecstatic trance. Physical aids, the fumes of a sacred fountain, or the steam of the Pythian cleft are
sometimes
the great help
useful,
and
indeed
ordained
;
but
the preparation of the soul by quiet and detachment. Plutarch in fact believes in revela is
tion in the Christian
sense,
and
in
enthusiasm and
trance in the Pagan sense, as he saw
them
actually
manifested, especially in his own land of Boeotia, but hardly touches on the philosophic trance of Plotinus, and exhibits no taint of the mesmerism of the later
N EOPLATONISM of the Mysticism in the lower sense Neoplatonists. he But his into word is not yet welded system. for others to kindle. carefully laid the fuel
We
shall certainly not
in revelation, which
blame Plutarch the
is
for believing
of
corollary
necessary
man. belief in a God, who is wiser and better than as is that notice not, to have ecstasy But what we is, Zeller
seems to have thought, a necessary complement
of the doctrine of the absolute. shows,
much
pendent of
make
It
is,
Plutarch
as
older than that doctrine, and quite inde it.
All that Neoplatonism did, was sterile
ecstasy absolutely
by divesting
to
God
of
all relation to the world.
Down
to this point
elevating. is
Plutarch
s
creed
is
pure and
It is intellectual, yet in the fine saying,
better to love than to be
loved," it
is
"
It
unconsciously
it is more one with the teaching of our Lord blessed to give than to receive." Noble and even holy in fact lives might be inspired by his teaching, and were so inspired. Nor so far does there seem to be The immoral myths, any great difficulty in his way. which Homer weaves about the persons of the "
:
at
Plutarch Olympian gods, admitted of explanation. colours which yet compares them to the rainbow, refracts the light of the sun.
They might be
gently
of a crude, semi-barbarous put aside as the fancies be treated as moral anthropomorphism, or they might allegories.
Plutarch
s
Nevertheless there was a great difficulty ; doctrine was not a reform but a revolution,
and a conservative revolution, which is a contradiction He wanted to keep the whole ritual, and in terms,
PLUTARCH yet transfigure
it
to put a Christian
This could not be done,
body. the ritual
93
head on a heathen
for there
was
that in
which made the junction impossible. What he wanted to get rid of was Magic. But the itself,
Magic is the root from which Polytheism and dies only with the death of Polytheism. sprang, There were myths which could not be allegorized, belief in
and
rituals
which could not be brought under the unmixed beneficence of God.
general doctrine of the
They were
the frantic orgiastic cults which were con
nected with the names of Cybele, Dionysus Zagreus, Isis, Adonis, and many others. They had a certain
meaning, in so far as they gave barbarous expression to two great religious facts, the sense of sin and the need for an atonement. Platonism could not religious
account for either of these facts, and was rather shocked by them. Nevertheless there they were in Hellenism itself, and some kind of explanation must be pro vided.
This
difficulty
was met by the doctrine of
Demons. Plutarch approaches this subject several times from In his Commentary on the
different points of view.
TimcRus he maintains that God, the Supreme Intelli gence, the One Word, as he elsewhere calls Him, did
not create either body or soul.
Chaos, Matter, the
Indefinite Dyad, already possessed both. What God did, was to infuse reason and form into this tumultuous
disorderly
it.
is,
Thus as in
life.
His work
who does not
musician,
in the
is
compared
to that of a
create sound, but harmonizes
World-animal, which is a deity, there principle, the infused divine
man, a double
NEOPLATONISM <)4
by side with lawless
intelligence side is
the Evil Soul of Plato
Another remarkable of
desire.
This
last
laws.
On the Failing ancient seats of
treatise is that
The decay
Oracles.
the
s
of the
Plutarch. prophecy lay heavy on the pious mind of How could God so change, he asked, as to withdraw from man this special mark of His favour, through
which so many blessings had been showered on Greece in the great old
The
days
?
decline was unmistakable.
Boeotia had been
a land of inspiration ; now her glory was all but de The oracle of Teiresias at Orchomenos had parted.
At Ptous and since the great plague. Deso site of the fane. the on browsed Tegyra sheep lation had fallen on the famous oracles of Mopsus and
been
dumb
Amphilochus in Cilicia. Even at Delphi one Pythia did the work of the ancient three, and the responses were given no longer in verse but in bald prose. What was the reason? the gods
The rough-tongued Cynic
had packed up and
"
gone,"
said that
wrath at the
in
Others
wickedness of those who consulted them.
which sought a cause in the depopulation of Greece, with could was so terrible, that the whole country difficulty
the
send three thousand hoplites into the
same number in
despatched
field,
Megara had
that the single state of
the old days to fight the Persians at
Plataea.
Plutarch
himself
explanations.
what
will
be
these
cannot accept either of
To him they seemed thought of his
that oracles were given not
irreverent.
own answer by the gods
?
He
at all,
But held
but by
PLUTARCH the
demons who
be accounted
wait
95
upon them. Their cessation might by subterranean catastrophes
for either
diverting those earthy fumes, which at Delphi and elsewhere excited the convulsions of the priestess, or
by the death of the
Demon
himself.
For these beings,
though long-lived, are not eternal. In the reign of Tiberius Caesar a mysterious voice had sounded from islet of the Echinades group, bidding an great Pan Egyptian mariner spread the news, that a was dead." And Demetrius, Roman officer, while on duty in an island on the coast of England, had witnessed a wild tumult in the sky, which, the people
Paxae, an
"
told him, betokened the death of one of the princes of
the
air.
The demons, he
tells
us in this strange dialogue, are and epecially of the divine
the agents of Providence,
Such work
befits not the higher gods, To chaste givers of wealth." the Demons belong the mysteries, and all the dark side of religious life. Black and ill-omened days, on
retribution.
whom Hesiod
calls
"
"
which
men devour raw
flesh,
obscene cries at sacred
and beatings of the breast do not belong to the worship of any god, but are propitiatory rites to keep off evil demons." So with human sacrifices, and tales of barbarous lust, and stories of painful expiation, like that of Apollo after he had slain the altars, fasts,
python.
All these belong to the
"hard
gods,"
the
Alastors.
The same t/ie
Moon.
idea recurs in the dialogue On the Face in moon are both heaven and hell.
In the
There the good, after
their
appointed time of purgation,
NEOPLATONISM in the Elysian plain Thither on the side next the sun. go the evil to be awful that of Face, which is tormented in the shadow
become pure
spirits,
and dwell
But the good return again to the face of Proserpine. Some of them air as demons. the spaces below the sin
and abuse
endure the
trial
The fsis and
more powers these must once as man.
their
of
;
life
remarkable chiefly for
its repe Evil the of doctrine the of tition in another shape of Osiris murder the of wild The Soul. Egyptian myth
by Typhon
is
Osiris
is
to teach, that the world
meant
work, not of one author, but of two.
and Osiris, Ormuzd. against
against Isis
as
Ahriman
the
fights
in Parsee theology
Plutarch traces the belief in demons literature and all over the world.
Greek
is
Typhon
all
through
He
finds
it
Empedocles, in Xenocrates, the Stoic Chrysippus, and in the Atomist Demo-
in Hesiod, in Plato, in in
critus
;
in Persia, in Thrace, in Phrygia, in
Britain.
shipped
The most
Egypt, in
which wor might have added Rome, Fever and Mephitis. It was everywhere.
He
sceptical wits
believed in devils.
who
Lucan
believed in nothing else and Pliny the Elder are
on this point as Apuleius. For the just as vulnerable "They sacrificed," there was no other faith. vulgar O "
the Apostle says,
These
facts
to
do not
devils."
alter
our estimate of Plutarch
s
own character, but they are absolutely ruinous to his With what effect could he denounce those system. claimed as her tribute, when by vices, which Astarte these the side of the holy gods he himself enthroned
PLUTARCH spirits
of darkness,
should do harm.
m
who must be
placated lest they
was through this breach that Lnnstian apologists stormed irresistibly in This part of Plutarch s doctrine It
is
interesting also
other aspects. It shows us that Gnosticism, of which the characteristic feature is the belief in an evil creator, was not so late in its
commonly supposed, and bearing on
the
this
appearance as is remark has an import-
authenticity of certain of the shows us again, that Hellenism :ould do nothing better with religious emotion than provide a sort of sink to The explanation carry it off. this fact goes down to the very root of the difference between Hellenism and the Gospel. letters of St. Paul.
It
VI CELSUS
SUCH was It has
shaken
Academy, and
the Platonism of
the second century.
from the scepticism of the to the world a definite body of
itself free
offers
dogmatic teaching. Its teaching is that of Plato, with a difference.
In
one aspect the difference is that between the original inspiration of genius, and the plodding industry of Platonism has passed the commentator or professor. from the free open air to the library. We see no Socrates quickening the spark of divine truth in dull his art of souls, like that of Menon s slave, by
but Nigrinus musing among his books We hear no longer the inimitably globes. myths of the Phaedrus or the Republic, graceful those parables, as we may call them, in which "
midwifery,"
and
"
"
dialectic divination, sober earnest,
blended together
like the
and
airy fancy are
hues of the rainbow.
We
miss the rare personality of Plato, so richly endowed both on the philosophic and on the sensuous side.
We miss the poetry and the sense of humour, and these influences have a serious bearing on the reality, the practicality of speculation.
What
Plato gave as
CELSUS
99
a tale told by ancient sages, as a vision, a possibility, the allegory of the Charioteer, the story of Er,
son of Armenius, the poetical cosmogony of TimaeuSy has become part and parcel of the cut-and-dried teaching of the school. Philosophy has become impersonal, methodical, in a sense less the
the
real.
great
Yet in another respect it is more charm of Plato is that he binds men
real.
The
to nothing.
But definiteness of thought is after all a necessity for to live and not to drift. Hence the
men who want
later Platonists
were driven, by the nature of things,
to ask their master precisely what he meant, to seize and define his leading thoughts, and as far as they
bring his idealism into an orderly whole. Plato used vague language even of the Ideas. His followers explained them to mean not only the great
could to
spiritual laws of beauty,
goodness, and truth, but the
actual patterns of existing things. They regarded God in the old-fashioned way as intelligent and good, yet
same time they spoke of Him as beyond and as existence," wanting nothing," the first of at
the
"
"
these phrases implying that
the
nor good. existing statues,"
does not think, and of the
He
outside
the
mind
of
God,
as Plotinus says, so that
wished to create pattern,
He
has no consciousness
could really be neither intelligent Again, they conceived of the ideas as
world, so that
it.
He
second that
He
must
first
"golden
the
Deity look about for the
and perhaps not recognize
All these crudities are
like
when
it
when He found
found in Plato himself,
often side by side with hints of a different complexion.
NEOPLATONISM
I00
What
his followers did,
second century, was to them, and
down
to the
middle of the
and harden
select, reiterate,
in this way to bring to light their inherent were more real again in another
They with ideal They could no longer play The deluge was upon them, and the republics. the existing State could be saved. question was, how
confusion.
manner.
their zeal for the conservation of the established This is why, by the side of the two deities religion.
Hence
and of their philosophy, the Supreme Intelligence Pantheon whole the the World-Spirit, they introduced and the of the popular mythology, the lower gods What Plato. in found This also they demons. clear the is their from master, them here
distinguishes had that the influence of the schools so far perception, was itself that to religion religion, been antagonistic and it with general that morality imperilled, and
What they were in danger of perishing. various the consolidate mythologies, to desired was and to to retain the whole fabric of Polytheism,
culture
by giving
of the
philosopher, guard the self-respect a more enlightened him, not instead but in addition,
creed of his own.
How far could men possible? to build a system that might hope on these lines The question will be to rival the Gospel ? How
far
was
this
pretend
men. The by one of these very attack upon True Word of Celsus was an elaborate and it is still this position from
answered
for us
Christianity to
precisely
be found almost entire
wrote in reply.
;
in the treatise
which Origen
CELSUS uncertain
It is
who Celsus
101 was, nor
is
it
possible
book with absolute accuracy. mentions the apotheosis of Antinous, and seems
to fix the date of his
He
speak of the devastation of Judaea after the sup of Barcochba s revolt towards the end of
to
pression
the reign of Hadrian, though his words the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus. facts
there
is
may
apply to
Beyond these
no very certain note of time.
But
persecution was raging against the Christians, and the Hence ship of the state was apparently in danger.
Keim
supposes that he wrote about 178
after the persecution of
A.D., just
Vienna, when Marcus Aurelius
was preparing In
for his expedition against the Quadi. case he was probably the Celsus to whom
this
Lucian dedicated his exposure of the famous quack, Alexander of Abonoteichos.
He
was undoubtedly a
Platonist,
though Origen
into the error of regarding him as an Epicurean. he was rather a cultivated man of the world,
fell
But
than a philosopher.
There is a tone about him, keen, scornful, positive, practical, which seems to de note familiarity with affairs on a large scale and in
He writes like a clever pro - consul. high position. There is a ring of menace in his words. Like many another magistrate in those days, he condescends and even to implore, but ends by pointing altar, and bidding the trembling Christian
to argue
to
the
bum
incense or die.
man,
that he saw with the eye of a true
But
it
is
characteristic of the
the dangers to which Aurelius was blind. resolute, clear-sighted man, the
meek
statesman
To
this
pertinacity of the
NEOPLATONISM
102
down-trodden Church was ominous of catastrophe and his diatribe resolves itself into a sort of fierce
;
appeal to the Christians to have mercy on the Empire. They must make concessions like everybody else ; they must if necessary be forced to make them, for the unity and very existence of the State are in jeopardy. Celsus insists that he
and
his information
is
knew
all
about Christianity, it does
indeed extensive, though
not penetrate to a real appreciation of the points at issue. "
He
the great
was awake "
or
to
the
distinction
between
and the
heretics,
Catholic Church
he sometimes confuses properly Christian teaching with the vagaries of an obscure Gnosticism, He had of which he knew more than Origen himself.
though
read the books of Genesis and Exodus, of Jonah and He had studied the four Gospels, and of Daniel. a general acquaintance with the besides possessed
phraseology of the whole Bible, which he
may have
acquired by reading or in conversation, for he had There is a highly talked]. with Christian priests. Celsus tells us involved here. interesting point
enough about the Catholic Church of his time to it was in all essentials the same then as now. The only articles in the Creed, with which he assure us, that
the explicitly deals, are the Incarnation, Hell, and
the
Resurrection
;
but
as
Descent into far
as
this
there was enlightened and bitter antagonist is aware, in the Church difference had never and been, any not, on these points. He knew the four Gospels, and the
four only, he alludes to the Epistles of St. Paul,
and
his
CELSUS silence
the
no proof that he did not possess the rest of as well, because he mentions no
is
New
103
Testament
book that he could not strike. Thus this trenchant critic becomes one of the most effective of apologists, and his evidence is all the more important, heathen
because there
book much
is
really
after the
as he was, he
no strong ground
Barcochba
revolt.
for dating his
Widely read
knew
of none but ignorant Christians, and had never heard of Justin, Tatian, Athenagoras,
And he does not Melito, Miltiades, or Apollinaris. to the infamous charges of child-murder and
refer
debauchery, which in the time of Aurelius were alleged currently against the Christians.
The True Word
falls
into
two
divisions, of
which
put into the mouth of a Jew, while in the second Celsus speaks in his o\\n voice. To the Jew the
first is
ascribed the task of attacking the person of our Part of what is here to be read, for instance, the Panthera legend, still exists in the Talmud, and is
Lord.
no doubt guided by what he had actually The arrangement gave lips of Jews. him a double advantage. It enabled him to assail the moral character of our Lord under cover. When Celsus
is
heard from the
in his own person he is much more temperate and conciliatory, "willing to wound, and yet afraid to strike/ Again, Celsus hated and scorned
he speaks
the Jews
they were
beyond the power of expression.
To him
Egyptian slaves, who had never done anything worth speaking of;" their sacred books were mean and ridiculous to the last He scoffs at
"runaway
Egyptian beast-worship
;
degree. the Jews were
infi-
NEOPLATONISM
104 nitely
beneath the Egyptians, and the Christians were
renegade Jews, at whom their own kinsmen made a mock. This is why the Jew is called in to demolish the Gospel, before Celsus takes up his parable, and, in a much less acrid tone, undertakes to show the
had missed though which they had missed precisely because
Christians the real truth, which they
not wholly
of their Jewishness.
The point insisted upon by the Jew is the weakness, the baseness, and the failure of the life of Jesus. He was the son of Panthera. The prophets foretold a "
great
armies
prince, lord of
all
the
earth,
all
nations,
all
not a pestilent fellow like this." Compare His passion with that of Bacchus in Euripides. King Pentheus, who had dared to imprison the god, was ;
torn in
But Pontius Pilate
pieces for his impiety.
did not Christ then, at any rate, if not before, show His divine power, save Him self from this shame, and punish those who were out suffered nothing.
Why
raging Himself and His Father
Cross the
He
?
See
how on
craved for drink, unable to bear
commonest
faithful ones,
fortitude.
And do
thirst
ye reproach us, ye
Him a god, nor He bore all this for the good of man,
because we do not count
agree with you that that we too might learn to bear chastisements truth
the
with
that after
He had
The
?
failed in life to
is, persuade any body, even His own disciples, He was punished thus. You will not surely say, that after He had failed to per
suade there.
men here, He went to Hades to persuade men You may invent absurd apologies for Him but, if
they are to be heard, what
;
is
to prevent us
from regard-
CELSUS
105
ing any one, who has been condemned and died a miser able death, as a divine messenger ? It needs but suf ficient
to say of any executed robber or was no robber but a god, for he foretold his fellow-robbers, -what he was to suffer." The evidence of miracles the Jew derides, on the
impudence
murderer
"
:
He
ground that our Lord Himself confessed that evil men them the evidence of prophecy, on the ground, that if He had known what He was to endure, He would have avoided it. could perform
It
;
has been said that the gospel leaves us with the
dilemma Aut Deus ant homo non distinctly adopts
the
not a good man.
bonus.
second alternative
The
later Platonists,
Celsus
Christ was
Porphyry and
Hierocles, had learned to use very different language, and preferred to argue, that the Church was unworthy of its Founder. But the True Word is valuable
on
this very account,
because
it
points
so
sharply the
radical, inherent
antagonism between Hellenism and Hellenism was always aesthetic, Christianity. dighified, aristocratic, and abhorred suffering as a Christ could not be God, personal degradation. just because He was crucified. It is curious to notice to what a depth of perplexity the clever Celsus was here reduced. If Christ had failed, why was he writing
book? There was no beauty in our Lord, that any Platonist should desire Him. It was still commonly believed in the Church, that our Lord s figure was plain and unattractive and this was a ground of offence, for personal grace had come to be regarded as a his
;
necessary
NEOPLATONISM
106
Socrates was ugly the philosopher. but the Greek Alexander traded largely
adornment as a Satyr
for ;
good looks. But the want of "wisdom was even more repulsive to Celsus than the want of "
on
his
On
dignity. "
This
none
But
for these things
any be ignorant, any
if
if
untaught,
:
none prudent,
wise,
evil.
he will speak for himself. Let no educated man enter
this point
their cry
is
any childish,
let
him come
in,
we count
foolish,
boldly.
if
any These
worthy, just as they are, of their God, therefore obvious, that they can, and will,
they count
and
is
it
and baseborn, and dullards, But and slaves, and silly women and children. is it wrong to be educated, and trained in the why best thoughts, and to be, and be known to be, wise ? persuade only
How
does
prevent a man from knowing God ? not rather help him in the attainment of all know the jugglers, who display their
all this
Why, does
it
We
truth ?
fools,
and then send to come into a dare not would they their there and sensible of men, pranks ; play company but wherever they see lads, or a group of slaves, or a abominable
tricks in the market-place,
round the hat
;
gathering of foolish fellows, thither they shoulder their
way, and there they show their wonders.
Just so
we
see in private houses wool-carders, cobblers, fullers, the most ignorant and the rudest fellows, never daring to
open
their lips in the hearing of grave elders
or
No but they get the children and sensible masters. foolish wenches into a corner, and tell them wonderful ;
things
;
me
;
to
Do
not listen to your father or your tutor, but
they talk nonsense, they are dotards, so stuffed
CELSUS
up with
107
idle prejudices, that they neither
We
anything right. live. Listen to
alone
and you
us,
know, nor do,
know how one ought
to
be happy, and the
will
will prosper. And while they are talking in this should the tutor or the father pass by, if they are way, prudent they run away, but the hot-headed ones egg
house
the children on to rebellion.
We
cannot
tell
you what
good, they whisper, while father or the tutor is here, because they are bad men and will punish us. Come away with us into the women s apartments, or the is
cobbler all
s,
about "
The
or the fuller
shop, and then
s
we
will tell
you
it.
priests of other mysteries,
he proceeds,
cry,
hand and discreet of tongue, ye that are pure of all stain, whose spirit knows no But guile, and whose life has been good and just. whom do these Christians invite? The sinner, the
Come, ye that
are clean of
foolish, the childish, the
dom
of
God
will
unhappy.
admit.
The
These the King
sinner
!
unjust, the thief, the burglar, the prisoner,
of temples and tombs. God sent to sinners
what harm
is
there
man
then,
wickedness,
God
unjust
that
the
is
the robber
Why, it is a robber s invitation Not to the sinless ? Why, !
!
in
being .without
sin?
The
brings himself low through his will receive, but the just, who practises if
virtue, and looks up receive. Men, who
he"
to
Him
from the
first,
He
will
not
rightly administer justice, compel the prisoner to cease from wails and laments, lest But God, as it justice should be warped by pity.
seems,
by
is
guided in His judgments, not by
flattery."
truth, but
NEOPLATONISM
108
Few
things in ancient literature are
more
striking
than the picture, which Celsus gives us here, of the
which Christianity was burrowing its way There into the most guarded recesses of pagan life. were shoals of these obscure missionaries, many of
manner
in
them doubtless very ignorant and very narrow, though many were neither one nor the other. Hermas and Blandina were slaves so were the popes Pius and ;
was the great Clement of Rome. So indeed were a multitude of distinguished heathen Callistus
;
so possibly
philosophers, including Epictetus. of whom Celsus speaks men,"
The
"
sensible
with
admiration, of God to the
denounced these humble servants magistrate, and clapped their hands, when they were
What a torn in pieces by wild beasts in the arena. of the scorn is his fierce afforded commentary by Kingdom of God upon the high-flown pagan phrases about the dear city of Zeus Celsus makes the mistake of supposing, that all But he makes the Christian teachers were ignorant. !
still
graver mistake of not asking what it was, that fullers and cobblers a power of persuasion denied the schools? Why did what he thought their
gave to
parrot cry, Believe, and thou shalt be saved," go home, where the doctrine of the Absolute passed unheeded? "
Celsus himself supplies that
"a
wicked
sensible
man"
man must
not
the answer.
He
believed,
wants no Redeemer, that a
come near God,
that
God
cannot forgive or pity, and that religion is an abstruse The science, which no "cobbler" can understand. nature
of
evil,
the nature of God, could
only be
CELSUS explained
to
philosophers
unhappy/ wanted geometry,
till
the
if
:
be saved,
to
and
astronomy,
Then, and not
109
let
the
"
mechanic,
them
theory
then, they might
of
hope
"
the
learn
first
ideas.
to see
God."
Origen cuts through
all this intellectual
one quotation from the Gospel,
"
system with Blessed are the pure
in heart,
for they shall see God." Justin Martyr s Platonism was knocked to pieces by one question from the old man, whom he met on the sea-shore How can the intelligence of man see God, except it be adorned with the Holy Spirit ? Of human nature :
the wise Greek was heart
more ignorant than a
The
child.
was an
unexplained riddle to him, a mere source of disturbance to the abstract laws of motion. To this day our knowledge of it is based that
upon
mystery of the Cross, which Celsus derided. The Platonists were therefore wholly wrong in their favourite contention, that there was nothing new in Christianity. To the heathen world sin was a new idea,
meekness a new virtue, and love a new law. Even were true that there is no saying in the Gospel to which some sort of parallel cannot be found if it
elsewhere,
it
would not follow
new.
A
watch
that the
is
a
new
Gospel as a whole thing,
is
not
though cog-wheels,
chains, and springs were all known before the first watch was made. If it were permissible to speak of our Lord for one moment as a scientific discoverer,
we might say
that
He
spiritual life in a set of
found the Supreme law of phenomena, which the Greek
had wholly neglected, and which even the Jew did not
NEOPLATONISM
110
He
understand, and that
philosophy and
thereby revolutionized
all
all ethics,
The same
unlovely spirit of scorn guides Celsus in treatment of the subject of revelation. Here
his
he differed from the Christian position of man in nature. "The race of Jews and
first
of
all
he
Christians,"
as to the
says,
"is
like a string of bats, or ants
coming out of a hole, or a pond, or worms met round frogs squatting together in church in a corner of the mud, disputing which are the more sinful, and saying God foretells everything to us. He leaves the whole world, the moving :
heavens, and neglects the broad earth to live amongst us alone. To us alone He sends messengers without cease, always
They
are
and next
to
likeness.
He
stars.
air,
scheming that we may be with Him. worms who say, There is a God, Him are we, His children and His
like
made
has
All
minister to us.
us lords of
for our sake
is
And now
the
;
all
all,
earth, water,
is
appointed to
worms go on to say, will come and
Because some of us are sinners, God burn up the unjust, in order that the *
eternal
as
life
with Him.
rest
may have
"
Celsus more than once speaks of Christians and Jews worms," but his language is something more than "
Roman contempt. His point is, makes the whole universe revolve round He would centre, and that this is wrong.
a mere outburst of that the Bible
man
as
not.
even allow that
its
man is much
they eat him, with as
The bee
is
equal
to
him
chief of the animals right as in
social
;
he eats them.
wisdom, the
CELSUS
1 1 I
elephant in conscientiousness, the stork in filial piety, is altogether more wonderful. The
and the phoenix
he concludes,
All,
God
not
is
made
for
man any more
than
or dolphins, but in order that this
for lions, eagles,
work, may be complete in all its parts. he draws the inference, that God is no more angry with man than with apes or flies. Origen was so staggered by this language, that he world, as
And
from
s
this
thought Celsus could be nothing but an Epicurean, an Atheist. Indeed, Celsus is altogether is, He misapprehends the position of his an wrong.
that
and he coarsely exaggerates one element Platonic theory, while leaving out of sight the considerations by which it was laboriously cor tagonists,
of the
rected.
The but
Bible does not say that all was made for man, man as the chiefest of all God s
does regard
it
visible works,
by virtue of the reason and conscience is endowed. He is the interpreter,
with which he
and
in
a
limited
sense the
created
all
ruler for
His
Almighty things He governs and cares for all ; purposes. the young lions that call upon Him. Yet of man, that that
"
crown
"
he
is
a
little
The own good
of nature.
lower than the
He
feedeth
it is
written
angels,"
and
Man is the things are put under his feet." and king of the world, but we do not therefore
all
was made for him, or that his the one sole object, for which the world exists. Just so we say that the Czar is the Emperor of Russia, without meaning that Russia was called affirm that the world
happiness
is
into existence for his
good
pleasure.
NEOPLATONISM
112
No
true Platonist could flatly
allowed that
man was
deny
all this.
They
a phrase the image of God, that he alone possessed in
Celsus ridicules, telligence, that he alone was immortal. that
But is
if
man by
virtue of his reason
the chief of creation,
it
and conscience
follows, that
the whole
must be ordered with some regard to the training and
development of those faculties. Each part has a meaning and value of its own, yet all strive towards the perfect fruit, and minister to its formation and This nutriment, sometimes by their own destruction. can is the sole ground on which modern science justify vivisection.
This again no true Platonist could flatly deny, though the school never attained to a consistent view its own meaning. man was involved
of
and
The in
subordination of nature to
their opposition
The
in their belief in Providence.
to Stoicism,
Stoics
main
tained that nature was indifferent, and had nothing at Plutarch replied, as we have seen, all to say to man. that this
was not
true, that the
training-ground for that the school
human
world was a proper and it is obvious ;
virtue
must be constructed with a view to
the needs of the scholar,
The same
thing
follows
from any conception of Providence. God cares for all the world, but He must care principally for that
which
is
principal.
an alien world and
He
cannot have flung reason into But the for itself.
left it to shift
hampered on many sides. They held is good, and yet that matter is evil seemed to them to follow that life, though a
Platonists were that the world
and
it
;
CELSUS
IIJ
is only a reformatory school, into which souls are sent to expiate the sins of a previous existence.
school,
Again, the conception of God as Absolute was every day gaining the upper hand of the conception of God
God the Absolute wants nothing," and knows and cares for nothing. Here Platonism differs from Atheism only by its contention, that, though God neither knows nor cares for the world, the world knows and cares for God. But the Abso as Father.
"
therefore
Celsus rightly maintains, can feel neither He got over this difficulty, like
lute,
as
love
nor wrath.
Plutarch, by assigning the administration of Provi dence entirely to the demons, "the masters of the Thus Polytheism prison-house," as he calls them.
becomes a
vital part of his monotheism, and the chief offence of Christianity is its crowning saying, that
God
is
Love.
Celsus held in
common
with
all his
world, being the work of the perfect able God, is itself perfect and
was not of God the
;
it
school that the
and unchange
Evil unchangeable. was the resistance of matter to
Hence the quantity thought. evil in the world was invariable.
divine
good and
of
both
He
could
not therefore admit any kind of evolution. All truth has been known from the first, and the world can never be either better or worse. Hence there never
can be any reason for God to come and set it right. This is the only serious point that he makes against the
Incarnation.
He
scoffs
at
the
idea
of
God
and leaving heaven vacant, in order coming to find out what He knew He scoffs again already. "
down,"
H
NEOPLATONISM
114
Our Lord, though Homer compelled admit that the gods had often appeared in
at the flesh of
him
to
human
shape.
But, without giving up his philosophy, for the
he could not admit that there was any need Incarnation.
Origen held that the world was growing worse, a view which at that particular period of history was by
no means without
foundation.
This
lends
some
appearance of force to the assertion of Celsus, that the Bible represents with His own work,
God
as
issuing
perpetually interfering new and ever more
stringent appeals to sinners, and issuing them in vain. But the Christian teacher also saw horn God s purpose
broadens down through the Old Testament into the New, how the light waxes brighter and clearer through the long line of prophets and symbols to the rising of the dayspring from on high. There is a deeper philosophy in the opening verses of the Epistle to the Hebrews, than any that Celsus had grasped. He could not admit, that truth grows or is increased.
He hoped for revelations like all Platonists, but to him revelation signified not the gift of knowledge or new
strength, but the
mere
sight of a Deity.
So much has been said of the influence of Greek philosophy upon the Church, that we should not omit evolution is a purely Christian idea.
to notice that
To the Greek unity implied fixity, to the Christian it It involved the idea of a living and growing whole. was thus that the Church answered the Gnostics, who regarded the Old Testament as false ; Athanasius explained the Incarnation.
it
was thus that
From
theology
CELSUS
115
this fruitful conception has passed into science, and from science it has made its way into philosophy.
The Church need not be afraid of its own child. The Resurrection of the Body Celsus rejects
with
Here again he labours under difficulties. The doctrine of the Church was not altogether what he makes it, nor does he fairly represent the state of opinion on his own side. Homer ascribes to the dwellers in Hades a material disdain.
profound
though shadowy existence. Plato in the story of Er, the son of Armenius, represents the spirits as coming in bodily shape, to cast lots for their
The
new
lives
upon
who
play so large a part in the system of Celsus, were corporeal. The gods, the sun, earth.
moon, and
defhons,
had proper bodies of
stars,
could assume
human shape when
it
their
own, and
so pleased them.
was generally allowed, that, till the spirit was finally purified from all taint of uncleanness, according to It
for
Empedocles its
corporeity in
of a
"
"
30,000
some
or cycles, it retained Many Platonists speak
hours,"
sense.
"
or element besides the recognized earth, fire, and water, of which the super-
fifth
four, air, terrestrial
body
organism
is
composed.
Celsus allows his scornful
He makes
one brief gibe
But here again
spirit to run
at the
away with him.
(<
seed,"
or glorified
body, of the Epistle to the Corinthians, and directs his artillery solely against the belief in the resurrection of "this
flesh."
He
on the absurdity of suppos once dissolved can ever again be But his chief point is the shame-
insists
ing, that the tissues
brought together. fulness of the belief.
The body
is
unclean, disgusting,,
NEOPLATONISM
Il6 "a
That God should ever unite Himself
miasma."
with such a mass of corruption
man
thing; that is
eyes"
"
adds,
He is
"the
God
"They
God
cannot do what
is
worms."
nothing
is
The argument that
Christians
"these
shameful, nor will
he
say,"
impossible.
the
of Celsus rests flesh
who have
is
a
He
But
do what
upon the deep-seated thing, and to
devilish
learned to look upon the body
as a worthy tabernacle of the Divine for
with
nature."
against
belief,
the inconceivable
hope of
with
that
is
should hope to see
But we must
no answer.
spirit, this calls
notice, that here too,
in the Resurrection of
the
Church dogma
the Body, as in Revelation, enfolded the germ of a philosophy
absolutely antagonistic to the whole current of Greek The way to that thought, and yet deeper and truer.
which the Hellenist sought in vain, lay through a right appreciation of his own flesh and blood. This Celsus might have learned from Christianity, in which unity,
he could find
"nothing
new."
was something absolutely new. on rested new motives, and implied new morality
Christianity, in fact, Its
standards or
;
its
doctrines, though not as yet explained
co-ordinated, were destined
Celsus philosophy. Christians with being revolution see
it
if
clearly.
stupidly
put
not new
He by
is
this,
to issue
and
he
"
revolutionists."
?
in
a
taunts
And what
new the is
But he was too passionate
forgot that, though a thing
"fullers
necessarily stupid in religion
felt
itself.
and
He
cobblers,"
it
a
to
may be is
not
forgot also that every
an inarticulate philosophy
;
indeed he did
CELSUS not in the least understand
I I
this,
7
or he would never
possible to unite the Absolute with the demons, or the religion of Greece with that of
have thought
it
Egypt.
As it was, he thought it must surely be possible to convince these simple men of the error of their ways. They could not persist in the infatuation of worship dead man," now that they ping "an impostor," had listened to the True Word. They must give up Jesus, and then the only question that could arise "a
between himself and them, was the lawfulness This accordingly he proceeds demon-worship.
make as simple as possible. You say, he tells them, that you may not
of to
serve two
But you are already doing so ; for you set You say, that Christ beside, and even above, God. masters.
you may not eat
demon
the
at
s
table.
But you
cannot help it. They send you corn and wine is the water you drink, the air you breathe.
;
theirs
They
marriages, and comfort you in trouble. cannot refuse their benefits, unless you go out of
bless your
You
the world they govern.
them due honour.
^
It
How, is
true,
then, can you refuse that God is to be
worshipped above all. But He permits and requires due observance to His agents, just as Caesar expects
men
to reverence his
own majesty
in the
person of
his pro-consuls.
If the Christian shrank from idolatry, Celsus comforted him with the assurance, that the statue was a mere symbol. But even here he cannot abstain
from a cruel
scoff.
Many of
the hot-headed Christians
?
NEOPLATONISM
Il8
eager for the martyr s crown, would strike the images of the gods, crying "See, I stand before your Zeus or :
your Apollo,
do me no
curse
I
harm."
buffet him, and he can answers Celsus "and do
him and
"Yes."
;
you not see that we stand before your demon, and not only curse Him, but banish Him from land and sea? And you, His consecrated image, we bind and
and your demon, Son of God as you call Him, cannot defend you." It was too true; the demons had been fed with Christian blood, and the crucify,
time for argument was surely past.
Celsus dwells
on the bright side of Hellenism, and no doubt it had a bright side but the persecuted Church knew too ;
well that murder, lust,
and malice belonged
to the
worship of the Greek gods as truly as feasting and music. It
a
is
strange sight, to
see
this
proud
Roman
appeal to the patriotism of those, whom he was ready He must have credit to crucify for the Name s sake.
how dangerous the Church might he had looked a little deeper, he would have realized the futility of the compromise he pro In the last sentence of the True Word he
for
discerning
become
;
but,
if
posed.
catechism professes his intention to write a sort of for those Christians who listened to his reasoning, as
But he makes no doubt that many would. treatise does not appear to have been called for.
this
VII
THE NEOPLATONIC TRINITY
SOMEWHERE about a change
-the
doctrine of
Out of
the middle of the second century
came over Platonism
this
God and
in its
two main
articles
the doctrine of the Ideas.
change sprang Neoplatonism
in the strict
sense of the term. Plato distinguishes between two worlds, the invisible visible, the spiritual and the material. The first is the eternal pattern of the second ; the second
and the
exists only first.
The
Becoming;
as
it
participates reproduces, the the world of Being, the second of because here all things are born, grow, in,"
first
is
decay, and die.
How
does a carpenter make a bed ? He does not the idea, the notion. All the beds in the world are built with one purpose, express one thought, par
make
ticipate in
one ruling conception.
The
carpenter does given to him ; but he makes the bed in accordance with the idea. But whence did he It was given to get the idea ? him from above. There are two the ideal
not
make
the actual
carpenter.
the idea
;
that
is
and beds, and two makers of beds, God and the
1
NEOPLATONISM
2O
Ideas are not separable in the same way as things we can see or touch. They run into one another.
that
A
bed
Sleep
a piece of furniture on which to take sleep. Thus all ideas usefulness is good. ;
is is
useful
culminate in the sovereign idea of the Good, the all knowledge and all existence. Of this wonder of beauty which is the author of science and truth, and yet surpasses them in beauty," Socrates It cannot speaks in the sixth book of the Republic. be described, for it is far above the reach of mortal words. Long training in abstract science leads on to
fountain of "
the
"
of dialectics, to the metaphysical faculty,
"hymn
that
is
to say, in which reason blends with the vision
of the poet and divination of the saint.
be expressed dimly in a figure. It The sun is "the child of the Good, begat in his
own
whom
and the things of
in the intellectual
is
It
can only
like the sun.
the
Good
likeness, to be in the visible world,
in relation to sight
Good
is
sight,
what the
world in relation to mind
and the things of mind." But in itself it is beyond the sun, and beyond all being in majesty and power." These last words form the definition which Plotinus To him God is the Good. gives of the supreme God. "
The same thought must
surely have crossed the
mind
of Plato himself, but for some reason he refrained from adopting it. This we see in the Timaeus, the Platonic 11
the
Book of Genesis.
Jowett called the Timaeus
most obscure and repulsive
reader of
all
the writings of
who does not mind difficulty,
obscurity,
whether the dialogue
Plato,"
is is
to
the
modern
and the reader,
puzzled by a further to be taken seriously
THE NEOPLATONIC TRINITY
121
But there can be or regarded as a mere jeu d? esprit. that the later Platonists took it very seriously indeed. They found in it the keystone of the Pla
no doubt
tonic system
;
and
themselves
felt,
if
Plato had a system at
all
it
is
leading principles should make for the subject is nothing less than the
certainly here that
its
God to the world and to man. Now in God is expressly distinguished from the
relation of
the Timaeus ideas.
They
are the
"
God looked when He It is
eternal
pattern,"
to
which
created the world.
obvious what a difficulty arises from this curious
If we are to press the psychological archaism. as God thinks man thinks. His thoughts are point, an and external He has no ideas suggested by object, bit of
We can scarcely understand, how such a notion can ever have arisen. Plato abhorred sensa of His own.
; yet it might be said, he has only translated sensationalism into heaven. But this strange defect adhered to the school for centuries, and Plutarch even
tionalism
There assigns a definite local habitation to the ideas. are a hundred and eighty-three worlds, he tells us, The space within is called arranged in a vast triangle. the Plain of Truth, and here dwell the eternal Forms. Plutarch,
however,
tells
us also, that
intelligence to be the place of
Forms.
A
some held little
later
Ideas the thoughts of God. Yet later still Porphyry opposed Plotinus on this very point, insisting that the Ideas were "outside
Alcinous (or Albinus)
of the times.
calls the
But Porphyry was already behind the had become evident, that this grotesque
mind."
It
conception was not tenable.
Henceforth
men
held
122 that in
NEOPLATONISM
God
own
thinks His
which we
thoughts, and that the world,
a copy of the Divine Mind.
live, is
former of the two propositions
God
telian doctrine that this
the
is
the
best
"
thinks
Neoplatonists were eclectic.
greatly
native
their
and coherency by
system
this
Himself."
of the
instance
The
in fact the Aristo
is
sense, It is
gained
Perhaps which
in
evident in
how
simplicity
adaptation of a Peripatetic
formula.
Side by side with this change, by which the Ideas finally the contents of the Divine Intelligence,
became
another was in progress, by which the number of the In divine Beings were increased from two to three. the Timaeus there are two, the Creator and the WorldSpirit.
created
The
latter is called "
heaven,"
a blessed
"
the only begotten and and is said to have
god,"
received soul and intelligence through the providence This is still in the main the position of of God.
But shortly afterwards we find the soul of the World-Spirit distinguished from its Intelligence. Thus we get a triplet Soul, Intelligence, and a higher Plutarch.
The
Intelligence.
point, as neither
as having
no
last
It is the
Cause, and yet the position is
spoken of as One, as a evil because above both,
no qualities, and wanting same time as mind and as self-
differences,
yet at the
nothing, conscious.
is
good nor
it
is
Pythagorean Monad, the Absolute This is the Aristotelian Deity.
of the Second Platonic Epistle (which
quoted by Justin Martyr, but cannot have been to either Philo of Alexandria or Plutarch, and
known
probably came into existence not very early in the
THE NEOPLATONIC TRINITY
123
second century), apparently of Albinus and Apuleius, and certainly of Numenius of Apamea. Numenius was the first to speak distinctly of Three Gods. He was a and a Syrian,
Jew
possibly
;
for
he was well acquainted with the Old Testament, quoted and allegorized the prophets, spoke of the Book of Genesis as a prophecy, and called Plato "an
Atticizing
Moses."
By
this phrase,
which would have
shocked Celsus unutterably, he meant that ism could be evolved by skilful
all
Platon-
interpretation out of
the Pentateuch.
It becomes therefore not impossible, Numenius was acquainted with the works of
that
Philo of Alexandria, which were written with this very There is, however, no clear purpose. that he
proof
was, and a strong argument on the other side is to be found in the fact, that he did not give his second Deity the Philonian title of
distinctively This Logos. has not been judged necessary to give in this little volume any account of the famous Alex andrian Jew. Philo lies altogether outside the line of is
why
it
development of heathen Platonism though he antici pated by more than a hundred years that onward step by which Alcinous identified the intelligible world with the mind of God. ;
One
further step
was needed, before this physical be brought into a satis Two divine intelligences might have factory shape. been possible, if they had been endowed with mutual
and
intellectual trinity could
desire.
This, however, was altogether repugnant to the Platonic notion of God wants nothing. Deity. He is Cause of All in a very peculiar not as sense,
NEOPLATONISM
124
man
cause of his
is
cause of
movement
own
actions, but as a
magnet
is
not an impelling, but an attracting cause. He is that, towards which all Hence there could not possibly be two things strive. in iron filings
;
equal or similar intelligences in the Divine world.
One
moves
and there thought is movement fore the other cannot is it the stable move," point towards which the other s movement is directed, a "
"
"
(all
"),
"
point
Hence
and nothing more.
it
cannot be an
cannot be anything at all. It is as it intelligence were an ideal spot outside the whole realm of existence, towards which the whole realm of existence is drawn. ;
it
has no name; but we may call it the One, the Good, two names which express different ways of regarding the same mysterious fountain of all life. It
This idea was present to the minds of Alcinous and it was not clearly grasped. The extreme
Numenius, but
elaboration with which Plotinus argues that the One exist, shows that the concep
could neither think nor tion It
to
was strange and repellent
to his
own
disciples.
was no doubt that philosopher, who gave final shape the Platonic Trinity Soul, Mind, and the One.
We
might say without absolute error that these
three represent the Platonic World-Spirit, the Aris totelian Deity, and the Pythagorean Monad, and that
we
Neoplatonism a fusion of
find here at the top of
Yet it is to be observed, three schools of thought. that there, is not .a single element in the new com bination, which
Plotinus
is
merely
not to be found in Plato himself. defined
and
sequence, what the Timaeus
tells
arranged in logical us about the Creator
THE NEOPLATONIC TRINITY
125
Mind, and the God of Nature, and what the Republic us about the Child of the Good, and the Good, which is "beyond all being." The Neoplatonists tells
were eclectic only
and
in that sense, in
historical thinkers
own system by
their
must be
so.
which
all
learned
They developed
the aid of hints derived from
other schools.
As
regards their philosophy, they were purely Greek. indeed regards it as a transformation of
Mommsen
Western thought in the spirit of the East. Tennemann, Ritter, and Harnack take much the same view.
On
dabbled
in Oriental speculations
the other hand, Richter pronounces it a creation of Greek thought, on which "essentially the spiritual forces of the time naturally exercised an influence." And Vacherot, while noticing that Plutarch
the Greek It
is
such as Zoroastrian
energetic reaction of the of the East." influences against a question not of individual thoughts, but
dualism, finds in ^lotinus
"an
mind
of balance and temperament. The leading Neo platonists were not Greeks ; but this is true also of the Stoics.
Orientalism
Again a certain impalpable lies
tinge of possibly at the very root of both and Platonism in the doctrine of
Pythagoreanism metempsychosis, and in a general leaning towards mysticism, which in the former is strongly marked.
But
in
Neoplatonism as a system there
is
not one
single idea, that does not flow in a straight line
the
from
Plotinus is a meta dialogues of Plato himself. physician rather than a moralist, that is to say, he has moved on to a new field, but at no point has he lost
NEOPLATONISM
126
touch with his master. the
phraseology,
His modes of reasoning,
character
of
aestheticism, are
precision, his
He moves among
the clouds
;
his
his
intelligence,
all
intensely Greek.
but,
if
his
he does not
succeed in introducing scientific exactness among the airy forms that surround him, it is not for want of a desperate struggle. It is not in their thought, but in their mysticism that we must seek for Oriental influences if they are to be found at all. Even here there was a Greek root.
Mysticism is
is
of
all
countries and
a vast difference between
wood
all
Hermes
times.
But there
tripping out of a
meet Odysseus, or even the Pythoness raving on her tripod, and the ecstatic vision of the Absolute. to
The one grew
out of the others; but no doubt the
growth was fostered and quickened by the increasing influence of the Mysteries and of these the most ;
powerful form was the Egyptian superstition of
Here
Isis.
whether Mysticism in the shape given to it by the Neoplatonists, was essential to their system, or whether it was really a foreign arises the question,
when they begin to shake beneath their feet. this depends largely the view, which the reader
adjunct, a branch at which they caught, felt
their
Upon
logic
will take, as to the value of their contribution to the
thought of the world. But we must postpone the point, till Plotinus has shown us what the Neoplatonic mystic was at its best. Vacherot, as we have seen, regards Neoplatonism as an energetic Teaction of Hellenism against foreign influences.
These were no doubt of many kinds
j
but
THE NEOPLATONIC TRINITY
127
the most menacing were either directly Christian or We have seen the set in motion by Christianity.
angry alarm of Celsus at the growth of the Church. But the ship of the faith, as it ploughed its way
onward, disturbed the waters
far
and wide.
Many
new movement with curious eyes, attended Church, as we learn from the Shepherd of
men watched
becoming
converts,
thought as is
what went on there, and, without
to see
Hermas,
result
the
assimilated
made them
was a
so
very bad
cluster of systems, in
so jumbled
up with
much
Christian
Hellenists.
The
which heathenism
Christianity, that
it
is
often
They are what say which predominates. Gnosticism was in no case as Gnosticism.
difficult to
we know
it formed a tertium quid properly speaking Christian between the Church and other ways of thinking, and sides the necessity of closing it forced upon both ;
Neither their ranks and defining their position. Christian nor Hellenist would have anything to do with
it.
Plotinus
is
as
just
emphatic
in
his
con
demnation of the Gnostic mingle-mangle as Irenaeus. In this way a peculiar interest attaches to the wild rhapsody, that goes by the
Hermes
name
of the Poemander of
belongs probably to the Trismegistus. second century, and contains a most singular farrago It
pantheism and Egyptian quasidrawn from the Book of the Dead. The philosophy of
Pythagorean
style
whom we can he was once a reasonable being. But dotted throughout (not, as Zeller thought, in only is
that of an opium-dreamer, of
just say, that it is
two of the thirteen chapters) with Christian phrases,
NEOPLATONISM
128
and it is the only pagan work, in ; which the second person of the Platonic Trinity is en titled the Logos. We see in it the absolute breakdown
uttered as in sleep
of philosophy in face of the new problems of the age. see Christianity, like the fig-tree rooted in the
We
Greek temple, loosening the
walls of a
joints of the
masonry, and helping on the work of secular decay. But we learn from it also to appreciate the real power of Plotinus, by whose strong hand the battle was once
more
set in array,
and the
forces of disintegration
checked, at any rate for a time. It is not necessary to treat at any length of the He was an orator writings of Apuleius of Madaura.
and a romancer but not an ;
even
his
original
;
"
Milesian tale
"
original thinker.
Indeed, is not
of the Golden Ass
the framework and most of the incidents of
the story are borrowed, and the reputation of Apuleius rests chiefly on his style, which, with all its elaborate
He was a man of and any one, who is inclined agree with Dr. Hatch in thinking that the im
euphuism,
is
not unpleasing.
peculiarly vile character to
;
morality of heathenism has been exaggerated, cannot do better than read through the Metamorphoses, and
compare
it
with
Tom Jones. The book
is all
the
more
was not meant to be instructive at all. Apuleius simply narrates and never moralizes, but the picture of life, which he gives, is several degrees
instructive, because
it
darker than that of Juvenal, a professed satirist. The book, however, has one redeeming feature, in This has of Cupid and Psyche. the
charming story
more than once been clothed
in
an English dress.
THE NEOPLATOM1C TRINITY
12c)
Mr. R. Bridges has turned it into graceful verse, and Thomas Taylor and William Adlington into plain
The
prose.
has been edited by Mr. A.
latter version
But this Lang, with a learned preface on folk-lore. artistic composition has very little indeed to do with It is really a very elaborate of piece allegory, metaphysics without tears. Psyche, the youngest, fairest, and sweetest daughter
Hottentots or Zulus.
of a king, was beloved by Cupid, yet knew not that she was beloved. By the God s command Zephyr
bore her on his wings
down
the hideous mountain
precipices to his palace in a fairy glade beneath.
It
was the most beautiful palace ever seen, full of all There is nothing, that was kinds of glorious things. "
not
there."
Here she was married bridegroom
He was
night.
but
straitly
grief,
"
Cupid.
But the heavenly
loving and good as heart could desire,
charged her
the two sisters she said he,
to
visited her only in the darkness of the
had
never more behind.
left
thou wilt bring upon
and on thyself
utter
me
to
look upon
"
Otherwise,"
the most poignant
destruction."
Nevertheless poor Psyche could not rest content, and teased until she gained an unwilling consent. The two sisters came, full of spite and envy, and
poured into her yielding ears the forgeries of their own Psyche listened, and was lost. Resolved to
malice.
break through the mystery of her life, she took into her bridal chamber a covered lamp and a knife. In the dead of night she bared the light, and beheld on the couch not the monster she feared, but the winged i
1
NEOPLATONISM
30
son of Venus, in all the radiance of his divine beauty. But, as she hung enraptured above him, a drop of
upon Cupid s shoulder, and awakened The god upbraided her sorrow with her fatal treachery, and flew out of sight on oil fell
scalding
him from fully
his sleep.
his golden pinions.
Psyche,
Cupid
s
who had wounded her thumb with one of now loved Love with her whole heart.
arrows,
In her despair she would have drowned herself; but Pan, the shepherd god, who bestows the gift of divin ation, soothed her grief with hope, bidding her pray.
So she
sets out
on her lonely pilgrimage
in quest of
First she Love, widowed, but no longer despairing. avenges herself on her two sisters, whom she drives to
self-destruction.
are none.
But the way
She turns
to
is
long,
and helpers there
Ceres, the
Queen
of the
Mysteries, she adores Juno, the goddess who softens the birth-pangs, but neither will protect her against the wrath of Venus, who is bent upon destroying the
mortal bride of her son.
At
last,
seeing
all
other
refuge vain, she makes submission, and casts herself She if received at at the feet of her mighty enemy. the palace gate by a handmaid named Habit, and
Yet here she scourged by Anxiety and Sorrow. least under the same roof with her beloved lord.
is
at
She shows her a bids her separate and huge heap them before nightfall according to their kinds. But a legion of little ants come to her relief, and the work
Venus
sets her
hard tasks to do.
of all sorts of grain,
is
done.
THE NEOPLATONIC TRINITY ShS S C ma ded f b S a handful of wool fronff from the golden fleeces of the sheep beyond the river.
T
J
"
6
noon," on, it
,
the sheep are
*l*^
^.iS and
fierce,
rf
Then thou
will
rend thee to
canst cross the water in safety and gather the tufts of wool, that thou wi,t find sticking on the branches of the
Again she of Styx.
neighbouring grove
is
Here the
crystal vase
eagle befriends her; he it back into her hand
go down
climb o end
/W
fills
and gives
Last and hardest of to
"
to fetch water from the dismal cataract
to
i^
all
her
her
labours, she is ordered Hades, and bring back from Proserpine At Wer Wh Se
f mteWi0n -
f
fli
"
Cements she had g!ng he -elf down, and
ending her woes, takes pity upon her the friendly ; begm to talk ; they warn her of all the s ,
stones the
way and enjom her not
peri
to
of
open the box.
She goes, and returns through perils unnumbered; but no sooner does she emerge into the light of day than cunosuy overcomes her. She lifts the lid; forth flfes
s "
"
C
lild
*
^^
Wh
m me
-,i
Shall vve nt e rpret the allegory ? Psyche is the Sou , ,s the love of the Ideal, the desire of the soul i
.
Cup.d
NEOPLATONISM
132
God.
for
His palace, stored with
beautiful things,
Mind
Divine
patterns of
two ugly
Heaven, the
is
all
manner of World, the
Intelligible
with the radiant Ideas, the eternal that is. But the Soul, prompted by its
filled
all
Anger and Desire,
sisters
rebels
;
it
will
not be
it
craves
content with the darkness of celestial light for visible sensual beauty,
atone for
its
still
cannot make
the
it,
that
upward
path, for this
feels the prick of the its
despair by Pan the tells
;
exiled to this earth to
is
folly.
Then begins soul which
and
home
below.
Demon,
is
a choice
heavenly dart, and is saved from
It
the spirit of prophecy,
heaven may be regained by prayer
;
who and
impulse of repentance is to cast off the hateful influence of Anger and Desire. the
first
But the ordinary consolations of ordinary religion insufficient for the gifted soul, which aspires
are
Neither the mysteries nor the Psyche frkist submit perforce to
to climb the heights.
gods
can help.
Venus, the mother of her darling, the patron lady of philosophic training, by which the heavenly love is
brought to the her friend, she
birth. is first
By Venus, her enemy and yet chastened in the ]|ard school of
Habit, Anxiety, and Sorrow, that
is,
of moral discipline,
for the practical virtues are the necessary purgation of
the aspiring soul. tasks.
The heap
Then of
she
many
is
trained in intellectual
kinds of grain
is
the
multifarious pageant of sensation, which the busy ants,
The golden the senses, arrange and discriminate. is the higher reflecting morality, which cannot be
wool
garnered
till
the heat of the day
is
passed,
till
the storm
THE NEOPLATONIC TRINITY and
stress of
Dialectic, of
youth
is
which the
over.
The water
33 of Styx
is
symbol is the eagle, which alone of all creatures can gaze unabashed upon the sun. Then comes the descent into hell, and the fitting
deadly sleep. What is this ? Is it that anguish of spirit, which St. John of the Cross called the Dark
Night of the Soul, the black and horrible darkness which precedes the mystic s vision ? Or is it death ? Perhaps
At any
it is
both, for one
rate, in
is
twin brother of the other.
the awakening that follows, the soul
clasps again the lover, to whom itonce proved faithless; and the issue of that embrace is not a mortal but an
immortal child, not base earthly Pleasure, but that Joy which can dwell in heaven.
VIII
WE
have now traced the history of Platonism down and at this point
to the eve of the advent of Plotinus, it
may be
well to pause,
great rival, the Christian
and
cast a glance
Church.
upon
its
The two systems
were in many important points wonderfully alike, and Platonism on its religious side was remarkably catholic Yet it did not adopt one single lesson or eclectic. It remained to the last in its tone from the Gospel. of
mind purely
predominantly
Was
heathen.
we here ideas?
aesthetic
and
egotistic, in its it
the
same
intellectual, in its
morals
modes
of worship purely with the Church, or are
of Greek recognize a distinct influence And if so, is it an influence that plays upon to
the surface only, or does it reach inwards, and effect more or less of a transformation ? The question is embarrassed by the fact, that the two different classes of word Hellenism is used
by two different senses. To the one it sig nifies that which is true and permanent in Greek is local, heathenish, thought, to the other that which writers in
and
transitory.
HELLENISM* Both
rest
philosophies,
135
upon philosophy, and on antagonistic the former on Hegel, the latter on
Kant ; and the opposition of principle leads to different conceptions of history and different rules of criticism. To the former belong the Tubingen school, Baur and Pfleiderer
to the latter the Ritschlian school,
Harnack Both claim Christianity as their property, and undertake to show by their own special methods how it came into existence, and how and in what order its documents were produced. The reader will see ;
and Hatch.
why Renan
said, that
Before
believe."
would seem Kant.
to
"few
we can
people have a right to dis date of St. John, it
settle the
be necessary to regulate Hegel and
we can attempt here
All
is
to
convey some
idea of the difference between these two points of view. For the first we may take a well-known passage from the philosophy of Clothes. Highest of all symbols are those wherein the Artist or Poet has risen into "
Prophet, and
all
men can
recognize a present
God
and worship the same I mean religious Symbols. Various enough have been such religious Symbols, what we call Religions ; as a man stood in this stage of culture or the other, and could worse or better body-forth the Godlike some Symbols with a transient ;
;
ask to
worth
many with only an what height man has carried
intrinsic
;
look on our divinest Symbol
and His
Life,
therefrom.
much
.
,
extrinsic. it
in this
If
thou
manner,
on Jesus of Nazareth, and His Biography, and what followed But, on the whole, as Time adds ;
.
the sacredness of Symbols, so likewise in his progress he at length defaces, or even desecrates to
NEOPLATONISM
136
them
and Symbols,
;
like all terrestrial garments,
wax
old."
In the dogmas and
of
the Churches," says the natural products Pfleiderer, Carlyle recognized of the historical stage of culture reached by the "
rites
all
"
peoples; to him they were the symbols in which the eternal idea must clothe itself for the consciousness of every age." All this is in fact
modem
Neoplatonism, a Neofrom the ancient by the assimilation of the scientific doctrine of evolution, and
platonism which
differs
partial assimilation of the Christian doctrine
by the
Hence
of character.
there
are divergencies in the
midst of a strong general resemblance. The view of Carlyle, of Dr. Pfleiderer, of the Master of Balliol, rests
upon metaphysics, on the
God by
possibility of
knowing
regards religion as a whole, as the natural evolution of capacities implanted in the soul
of
reason
man;
it
;
denies
regards
all
and
dogmas
all
it
religion
all
as
miraculous
interference;
imperfect and
as mythical
it
transitional
;
presentations, symbols
(Vorstellungen) of the eternal truth (BegrirT) ; yet it is optimistic, and believes that there are new and better things in store.
On
this
view Hellenism
is
precisely Idealism.
There are many difficulties in such a conception of It is Christianity, which we may at least point out. the product of evolutionary, and makes of our Lord "
the
age."
Yet the Jews rejected Him, and Judaism
has gone on evolving the
"higher
itself
criticism" is
along
making
its
own
lines.
this evolution
And more
HELLENISM
137
more difficult. Formerly we regarded the Promise as succeeded by the Law, and this by the Prophets, and it was possible to regard the light as
and
But modern writers treat
"
broadening slowly first
of
down."
"
prophetism,"
then of the
and the development
is
gone. absolute
of Christianity as "the not the language of evolution.
"
night of le^alism,
Again, Hegel spoke religion."
But
this is
Notions propounded almost two thousand years ago cannot be regarded as final by a Darwinian, either in dogma or in morals. Dr. Pfleiderer
criticizes
and corrects even what he
allows to have been the genuine teaching of our Lord. But if Christianity is not absolute, in what direction is the advance to be made ? Those who have rejected dogma must now attack morality in order to
justify
their
own
principles.
And
will this
Dr. Pfleiderer holds that his view evolution
is
better things?
optimistic.
But
not optimist. It may issue in degrada tion, and actually did so in the case of Judaism. But the main difficulty of this, as indeed of the is
rival hypothesis, is that
dignity attributed
of accounting for the peculiar
to our Lord.
It cannot, explain apart from His personal claims, His teaching was not more subversive of the But still less can ruling ideas than that of the Essenes.
why He was crucified, because,
explain why the Church regarded Him as God. There is agreement upon this point, that unless Jesus had been deified, Christianity could never have been it
more than
a Jewish sect. Yet the Divinity must be held to be an illusion, a mere symbol of the eternity and universality of the truth which This Jesus taught.
NEOPLATONISM
138 illusion
Paul,
generally regarded as originating with St. few, if any, traces of Hellenism, and
is
who shows
St. John, who had perhaps heard of Philo. can permit ourselves only one remark on this most Dr. Pfleiderer builds not indeed the singular view.
completed by
We
truth, but the
and
whole power of Christianity, on a natural and proposes
beautiful but wholly false mythology,
power while abolishing the mythology
to retain the
that created
According
Or may we hazard
it.
a second remark.
to Dr. Pfleiderer, the deification of a
secured the triumph of Christianity.
man
Yet the Platonists
and nothing happened. Idealism has the graces of breadth and sympathy.
deified Apollonius,
It sees in rites
and dogmas
"
clothes/ beautiful forms
more beautiful truths, which in their abstract form would never have won their way into the hearts Renan and Victor Hugo adore Catholicism, of men. and would leave it intact as the religion of the of
still
common
sort, just as
the Platonist did not in the least
the mysteries of Eleusis. Ritschlianism, on the other hand, regards these same rites and dogmas as stupid or cunning distortions,
want
to
with
interfere
into by which a primitive Protestantism was turned to be seems For this reason it finding Catholicism. favour with English Nonconformists, who welcome it as an ally against in
the
man
to
"
Sacerdotalism,"
help him
as the horse called
against .the stag, without
adequately weighing the consequences. Those who shrink from the difficulty of grappling with Ritschl of his
s
own
teaching
writings, will find a lucid
in
a pamphlet
summary
by G. Mielke, das
HELLENISM
139
Or they may be referred to System Albrecht Ritschls. Kaftan s Truth of the Christian Religion, which has been translated in Clark s series. Ritschlianism is a and there are differences of detail among But its general position is well denned. based on the philosophy of Kant, who insisted
free school, its
adherents. It is
upon the
of
relativity
what
taught, perceives
made
Sense, he knowledge. constructed to grasp reason
all
it is
;
We
cannot get be hind and correct either our perceptions or our reason thinks as
We
ings.
is
it
to reason.
must believe them; but cannot
tell
they correspond to objective realities or not.
Kant admitted,
this destructive criticism
admit, one exception. the speculative reason
open
W hile T
tell
to doubt, the practical
eternal
law of
the
right,
of
"
whether
Yet
to
seemed to the understanding and or
us nothing but what is moral reason grasps the
command,
imperative conscience.
or
Here, then, Kant found the one thing certain, the one road up from the world of appearance to the world of reality, categorical
ought,"
God, freedom and immortality. one ? If it is generally wrong
the one proof of
But why argue from
this
effect to cause,
sible in this all-important will recollect his
sistency.
Kant
why case?
wicked scoff followers
s
at this
that
men
"ought"
is
so
to
do
built,
without doing what
we
right,
that
it
sublime incon
endeavour
Kaftan, for instance, thorough-going. science as contingent as anything else. the world
be more makes con When we say to
we mean
they cannot
call right.
to
be permis Readers of Heine
should
simply, that
be happy
Nevertheless, the
NEOPLATONISM
140
Ritschlian also must have a
way
This he finds
up.
which guarantees the being, nature and of God and the soul. Thus the Kantian purpose metaphysics come back again, but only in a religious
in
Faith,
only to religious men, and to the individual.
shape,
only by
direct
communication
The proof
of Faith
s
message Kaftan
finds, in
con
formity with his general principles, not in speculation of any kind, but in History. know, from History,
We
that Jesus Christ brought to
the Father
s
loving the doctrine of the
man
the
full
revelation of
and planted it on earth in Atonement and in the institution will,
Kingdom of God." We know, from History, that this doctrine and this institu tion do make men free. They include the sum of of the Church, or
"
also
the highest knowledge attainable, that is to say, of moral and religious belief, the only kind of knowledge that brings
man
into his true relation to
God.
Thus
is supernatural, aesthetical, mystical or specu can be brushed aside as of no religious value. But the Ritschlians regard all these elements in
all
that
lative,
common
Christianity also as unhistorical, that
is
to
say, as later importations. .a man who disarms the robber by going Ritschlianism makes peace with science by naked, from the excluding Kingdom of God all that science
Like
can possibly dispute.
work of Christ consist
Yet, after
it
all,
makes the
in Revelation, in the imparting
some kind of knowledge, not in satisfaction and this moralizing of the Atonement is precisely of
what
"
"
;
Dr.
Pfleiderer
regards
with
approbation as
HELLENISM
141
But, with this far-reaching limitation, "In high view of the Person of Christ.
"Hellenism."
holds
it
a
Him," says Kaftan, "faith has, Christ has for us the value of "
not
is
to
be taken to mean that
indeed that the
He
Ritschlian
is
would
Knowledge
If pressed
not.
cannot know; and, avail.
and recognizes, God." Such language
God."
if is
"
reply
:
Do
He
this
point
not ask.
We
upon
we could know,
not
God, nor
is
it
would not
religion."
In this austere system Hellenism means, firstly, the setting of knowledge above faith, or the co-ordination of knowledge with faith ; secondly, all externalism or legalism in doctrine, in the sacraments, in ritual or
The Church is the kingdom of God, the body of those who have absolute faith in Christ, and discipline.
there
is
a tendency to
of the Tares
deny that the significant Parable and the Wheat was really uttered by our
Lord. It will
be seen that we have here an entirely dif
indeed a contradictory, sense of the word Hellenism. To the Idealist this word signifies Platon-
ferent,
To
ism, regarded as true.
the Ritschlian
partly Platonism, regarded as false,
it
signifies
but mainly the
influence of the unregenerate, or half-regenerate, world, which is always striving to get hold of the pure gospel
and
pull
it
down
to
its
own dead
level.
By
this
agency
the simple kingdom of God was transformed into the Catholic Church. There is no doubt a germ of truth
Worldliness is a vera causa of deterioration, else there would have been no Reformation, Ritschlianism
in this.
is
a truly religious
mode
of thought,
and
is
right again
NEOPLATONISM
142 in is
maintaining that the grace of the one thing that
difficulties arise
makes
God
in
Jesus Christ
But what
the Christian.
when these two truths are made the
foundation of a system Ritschlianism will have nothing to do with intellec did not reveal Dr. Hatch, tual belief. !
"
"
God,"
metaphysics,"
says
because Kant taught that the know
an Sick is impossible. We must ledge of the Ding schools. leave this point to be fought out by the rival is Dr. so and a is But Kant himself metaphysician, Hatch.
They
limit metaphysics, in
what Heine and
in others think an arbitrary fashion, but they believe
God, a
They
soul, a revelation.
believe above
all
in
to the the moral law, and the moral law belongs to no are if And help metaphysics essence of Deity. on without points, disputed we entering faith, may ask, in the Christ revealed the Father, or why St. Paul lesson of humility, the drew the to Philippians Epistle doctrine a lesson new to the heathen world, from the
why
of the pre-existence of Christ ? minimizes Again, the Ritschlian faith. disciplinary aids to difference extraordinary
schools.
The
all
sacramental or
Here again we observe an of
"legalising
view between the two
which Baur called Jewish,
becomes on the Ritschlian theory mainly or entirely But the truth is, that this vein of thought Hellenic. undoubted teaching of our is in the Gospels, in the Lord Himself.
We
believe that
He
instituted the "
Catholic sacraments.
But
at
any
rate
Catholicism
He
spoke of the Father as wages." as King or Master, and of His reward
is
to
be found wherever
"
HELLENISM But
finally,
143
the Ritschlian view It
rightly insists, pessimistic.
is,
as Dr. Pfleiderer
teaches
that
God
is
Greek Plutarch, it denies that sees in St. Bernard much more to
Father, but, like the
He
is
It
holy.
lament than to admire.
It regards St. Athanasius as having saved Christianity from complete Hellenization
by a definition which is radically absurd. It represents Church as the product of dull scholasticism and
the
uninspired moralism, the creation of the pedant, the and the man in the street. And to the
bureaucrat,
scientific world the remedy, which it proposes, will It invites men appear even worse than the disease. to go not forward, but back to a Gospel, of which
hardly any two of the critical school give the same account, a Gospel which had from the first so little vitality, that
very days,
it
degenerated into an alien type in the life as it possessed was at the
when such
strongest.
The theology of the Church was not Hellenic. This Celsus shows beyond the possibility of doubt. Even Dr. Hatch does not assert that it is. What he main tains in his curiously oblique Hibbert Lectures
whatever selves,
may be
the
"
"tendency" "
tendency conduct,
is
said as to the definitions in to
to insist
upon
Hellenic.
But
define,
is,
that
them
and the further
the definitions as affecting it
seems unreasonable to
call the
process by one name, when we must call the result by another. Even the process was not that of the Greek schools, as was shown Mr. Gore in his
by
Bampton Lectures. And lastly, the insistence on agree ment in dogma was the very antipodes of Hellenism.
NEOPLATONISM
144
What
the Greek claimed was liberty of thought.
The
were persecuted was that very reason why Christians they were exclusive. We must use the word Hellenism in its proper which is rather that of the Idealist than that of sense,
the Ritschlian, to denote that which
is
distinctively
we
Greek in thought, conduct, and religion. What Greek are to ask is how, and to what extent, properly ideas affected the selves
to
discipline,
the
and
investigation.
Church? But we must confine our
region of speculation. ritual lie outside the
Organization, of our
limits
IX THE GNOSTICS AND APOLOGISTS PLATONISM ment.
is
to
be found even
in the
New
Testa
St.
John gives to the Saviour the title of Logos itle borrowed most probably, though through what channels we know not, from the
Alexandrines. It answers to the creative Intelligence of Plotinus, but Word was not used by the heathen Platonists except in baser Stoic sense of natural force. Platonic Philonism may be detected also in the to the
Hebrews
Epistle
commentators have fancied that Platonism underlay even a famous of St. Paul >me
passage
where the Apostle speaks of the the "shape" of man. Form 6, 7),
(Phil.
form
"
of
ii.
God
belongs, at any rate in the usage of Plotinus, to the ideas, and to the second though not to the first god,
hmgs. >f
a
slave,"
nr^oiHK.fo1 accidental. It
shape only to visible Paul goes on to speak of the "form and the resemblance appears to be *purely
But
St.
would be most
"
strange, if it were otherwise. Some Christians were educated men, and why should they not express themselves in educated language, so far as it lent itself to their purpose? Philosophy is a
NEOPLATONISM
146
mode
of reason, and
much of what Greek philosophy The Gospel was given not to
taught was destroy reason, or the language of reason, but to fulfil. In applying to Christ the Jewish Platonic title of true.
John was following the example of St. Paul Athens, when he preached upon the Unknown St.
Logos, at
God unto
Whom
"
ye ignorantly worship,
Him
declare I
you."
When
Hellenism endeavoured to thrust into the
creed notions at variance with
Church
The
It cast
resisted.
living import, the
its
out Gnosticism.
history of this struggle, in spite of the dullness
of the details,
attempt
is
most
to capture
Gnosticism was an
instructive.
the Church
Hellenism, and would have
in the
interests
of
resulted, if successful, in
About this there is the destruction of Christianity. no dispute. But the Gnostics have been called the "
first
theologians,"
tempted
to
in doing in
do
on the ground, that they only at what the Fathers succeeded
in a hurry,
more
leisurely fashion, that
is,
to foist
upon
the Church an alien and destructive system of meta Yet they certainly would have destroyed the physics.
Church, and the Fathers certainly did not. The history of Gnosticism extends from an uncer
somewhere about the Christian era to the end of the second century. After this time it ran off into other forms, especially Manichaeanism, which had tain date,
a long
life,
and was known
originated partly
in
to St.
the vast
Thomas Aquinas.
and
shifting
It
mass of
Babylonian, Syrian, and Jewish angel lore, partly in the Zoroastrian doctrine of an evil and a good god.
THE GNOSTICS AND APOLOGISTS
147
tinged more or less with Greek philosophy, mainly Pythagorean or deeply Platonist. Pythagoreanism had Oriental affinities to
The phantasmagoria resulting was
begin with, and the foggy Eastern intellect saw no difference
between the abstract conceptions of the
schools and the concrete shapes of
its
own mythology.
the later Platonists hardly kept the two apart ; the triads of lamblichus and Proclus are barely dis
Even
If we tinguishable from the Gnostic emanations. add to these considerations, what we learn from the
Shepherd Qi Hernias, or Lanciani s Pagan and Christian Rome, that there were numbers of people, who regarded the Church with an intelligent and not unfriendly curiosity as the last tian services
and
new
thing,
who attended the we have
yet lived Gentile lives,
conditions out of which Gnosticism arose.
duced a multitude of
arbitrary systems,
Chris all
It
the
pro
which defy
because they are so arbitrary. They stretch away in a long line from the doors of the classification,
Church to the vestibule of the pagan schools. None was properly Christian, and none was properly philo They were opposed at the one end by sophical. Irenaeus and Hippolytus, at the other by Plotintis and Zostrianus and Aquilinus, against whom Amelius. the Neoplatonists wrote, are not otherwise known to us, but they belong to the same family as Basilides and
Valentinus.
The former were excommunicated by the
schools and the latter by the Church. The Gnostics started from the Platonic axiom, that
God
is
good and nothing else, and from a fact of man s works are often evil. Like
observation, that
NEOPLATONISM
148
Platonism, indeed like all the Greek schools, would not admit that man makes his own evil.
must come from matter, and
therefore
of the wicked
This
in
is,
spirit,
fact,
at the
Plutarch, as
we have
most
Gnosticism.
one that
That
is the operation created the sensible world.
possibility of a
seen, held the
"
Even Plato
bad
same
soul,"
belief.
and It is
permanent and characteristic feature of Indeed, in Marcion it is almost the only
survives.
it is
It is
ing.
who
the Persian Ahriman.
had hinted the
they Evil
not a Christian doctrine goes without say
not even Greek,
difficult as
it
may seem
to
draw the line between the Platonic theory of Matter and the Gnostic tenet of a god of matter. But it made a dogma of that, which to the Platonist was a difficulty. Whatever might be the explanation of evil, it could not possibly be a god \ of this the Platonist felt no doubt. And the world is the work of God, and
therefore cannot be bad, though
it
may
fall
short of
the divine plan. Farther, the perceptions of sense are the condition of the higher intellectual knowledge. We gather our first ide is of God from the world itself.
What the
then becomes of either religion or philosophy, if You step of the ladder is broken away ? "
first
cannot become
"
good," says Plotinus, by despising the and the that are all beautiful and therein, world, gods The bad man if he is not and God, things. despises wholly bad, by despising God he will become The Gnostic, others said, wanted a sixth sense, for his natural five senses showed him nothing but the so."
devil.
THE GNOSTICS AND APOLOGISTS
149
To
the Gnostic, theoretically, salvation meant en lightenment, or knowledge. But, from the point of view of practical religion, it meant deliverance from the clutches of a hostile external power. By the Christianizing sects this was held to be the work of
who brought
to light the
hidden mysteries of the cosmogonies. Yet not by His death, for they more or less denied the reality of the Passion, and not for all. There were three classes of men the earthly, or hylic, the psychic, and the spiritual ; the publican and sinner belong to the first, and must Their dualism perish eternally. led naturally to a harsh asceticism, for which also it Jesus,
Wisdom, including
is
curious
self,
all
to notice
reproved them.
that Plotinus, an ascetic him There are indeed two kinds of
and what the Platonist says is entirely harmony with the sharp remark of Clement, who
asceticism, in
observes of Basilides, that he hated the Creator though he ate His food, breathed His air, and in His world had the strange gospel of Gnosis preached to him. Gnostic asceticism starv ought to have led to
prompt
ation,
but
like all
fanaticism,
it
tended to produce
a result It issued exactly opposite to its principles. frequently in the most disgusting antinomianism, in which the rites of Aphrodite Pandemos were known as
"spiritual
communion."
Porphyry notices this fact Yet further, the belief
as well as the Christian Fathers.
m
a devil-god leads
Plotinus inevitably Jo magic. charges them with this also, not only because they cast out devils," but because they thought to com mand the divine favour by hymns, noises, "
"
breathings,
NEOPLATONISM
15
and whistlings
"
of a
the technique was
is
"
technical
not
"
description.
difficult to guess,
What
and Gnostic
amulets remain in plenty to illustrate. What Irenaeus tells us about Marcus is by no means mere Christian prejudice, and is not to be compared, as Dr. Harnack compares it, to the Christian doctrine of the Eucharist even in its mediaeval shape. Indeed there is nothing
more
surprising in the history of the Church than the slightness of the degree, in which the prevalent belief in art-magic infected the sacraments. This alone is
show, how correct and thorough was the moral teaching of the Church. The Gnostics were the first regular commentators
sufficient to
on the
New
Indeed they could not help Valentinus found in the plural word
Testament.
themselves. aeons,
of which
which
in
his
Emanations.
St.
Paul
is
rather fond, the
name
system belongs hierarchy of Heracleon the Basilidian discovered in to
the
the husband, that was not a husband, of the Samaritan Woman her Pleroma or guardian angel. Books that
contained such mysteries obviously required to be turned over word by word ; the rebus was no good without a key. The Gnostics v/ere aided in their search for the non-existent by allegorism, that fatal engine devised by pagans, who were ashamed of their
The Christians mythology, yet would not give it up. adopted it not from the Gnostics, but from Philo, or the spirit of the age.
but they used possessed,"
in the
it
They wasted much time over
mainly to
to find, that
Old, and in
this
is
it ;
discover what they already to say, the New Testament
"
they were not altogether wrong.
THE GNOSTICS AND APOLOGISTS The Gnostics appealed
a
to
also
151
secret
tradition
handed down from the Apostles. Against this the Church very naturally opposed her own tradition. What else could she do ?
The Gnostics were "
the higher
jective
criticism,"
also the
the
canons to find
first,
practitioners of
first
that
is,
who applied sub
interpolations"
documents
in
happen to suit their theory or "pragmat Thus Marcion mutilated the Gospel of St. Hellenism They were the first to find
that did not ism."
Luke.
"
"
in the teaching of our
they called it Judaism and the Apostles (Iren.
iii.
2,
and
2),
to set
Lord
"Paulin-
Catholicism," and to take philosophy against as the norm of what is possible or impossible for God,
ism
"
and
"
to hold that belief in the facts of the creed
necessary for a Christian or the Kantians are their
reader
may
But, for first
is
not
Whether the Church natural and lawful issue the man.
decide.
all
these reasons, the Gnostics were not the
theologians.
they were the
Those, who
first,
call
them
who attempted
so,
mean
that
to spoil the pure
But it is Gospel, by setting knowledge above faith. surely allowable to ask, of what kind was their know ledge,
and what
fruits
it
bore
?
The answer must
that their Gnosis does not even pretend to
from
the
New
Testament.
The
evil
be,
be derived
god comes
from a foreign and hostile source. And certainly it cannot be denied, that Gnosticism had a tendency to express itself in forms of life, that were heathen
and not
Christian.
At best
it
as a half-way house, through which
may be regarded many pagans, like
NEOPLATON1SM
152
Ambrosius or
St.
Augustine, found their way into the
Church.
The second century is the age of the Apologists. They were men who, living in a time when everybody, even emperors, professed to honour philosophy, that is to say truth, and when yet Christians were put to death to truth, thought that they might venture plead for toleration. Christians, they maintained, were for their
moral
men and good
citizens,
and
their
dogmas were
not so unlike the conclusions of the schools as to call for their extermination
fire
by
and sword.
"What
we are punished for," they said, is merely the Name. You think that the Name is a cover for horrid crimes, "
you will listen to reason, is not the case." Their object was to present Christianity from the
but
this, if
common-sense point of view, without using arguments that a heathen would not recognize, and without going into needless they present, of the
details. life
Hence
the view, which
of the Church
is
by no means
In particular they give us only the merest
complete. outline of the Liturgy.
With one exception they abhorred the very name of The To them it meant rationalism. philosophy. "
who
"
Greeks,"
more
says Aristides,
foolish than the
treatise full of bitter
contradict one
his
Hermias wrote a
mockery of the schools.
another,"
what comes into
profess to be wise are
Chaldaeans."
;
They
each utters just they hate each other they
cries Tatian,
head
"
receive large salaries from the
"
;
Emperor
in order that
for nothing." they may not wear their long beards Theophilus could not find the most ordinary truth in
THE GNOSTICS AND APOLOGISTS
153
their writings, true,
it
is
for, if any of their sayings seem to be mingled with error." "Among
says
us,"
Athenagoras,
might find laymen, artisans, old women, showing by deed the benefit of their profes sion, even if they cannot explain by word the the word
has
"you
good
done them/
Irenaeus
the schools with calling ignorance knowledge; if they had really known the truth, the Incarnation
charges
would
have been needless. phers as Justin
"patriarchs is
Tertullian regards the philoso of heresy," "friends of error."
an exception.
He
had been a philosopher, before he became a Christian, and was no more ashamed of his philosophy, than he was of his Chris
Even after his conversion he wore the tianity. garb of the schools, the blanket-cloak or pallium. He saw
m
Greek science part of the great Praeparatio EvanReason is the handmaid of faith. It
gehca.
men
teaches
to love truth
and
to discern
It gives truth,
it.
and sharpens that hunger and thirst for divine know which can only be satisfied by Him, who is the
ledge,
Light of the world. fustm,
and
it
leads
This
him
is
the general position of
to dwell with
predominant
emphasis on the Johannine doctrine of the Logos which is the golden bridge between dialectic and revelation.
The Word made
all
men,
is
in all
men
speaks truth to them, and saves them, if they will but follow His guidance. "They who have lived with the Word are Christians, even though they have be-n counted godless, such as Socrates, Heraclitus, and those like unto them among the Greeks." Since the proclamation of the Gospel, he held, that none could
NEOPLATONISM
154
be saved, unless he accepted Jesus as the Christ, that Still he was inclined to is, as the promised Messiah.
go so
far as to
extend the
name
of Christian to those
who, while they accepted Jesus as Christ, yet denied His eternal pre-existence and His miraculous birth, because these could not be not, that
"
demonstrated,"
could
proved exactly from the Old there are some," he says, "of our
to say, be
is
Testament.
"For
who confess that He is Christ, but insist that He is man born of man. With them I do not concur;
race,
and the majority agree with me, and would not say so either, since
Himself not
we have been commanded by
to believe in the doctrines of
Christ
man, but
in
those things which were preached by the blessed prophets and by Himself." That is to say, Justin regards the belief in the divinity of our Lord as rest ing on the authority of Christ Himself, and as not capable of absolute proof from the words of the Jewish Scripture.
whom,
He
He
is
though not
thinking of the Ebionites, some of all, held that Jesus was mere man.
might perhaps be saved," pro vided that with their observance of the law they united
judged
"
that they
the confession of
"
the Christ of
God,"
and did not
upon binding the law on Gentile converts. The belief of Justin himself was that of the Church
insist
at large,
and
it
was
built
there arises a question. the belief in our Lord
upon the Gospels. Is
But here
Hellenism to be found
in
Divinity, or in its disbelief? Again, did Hellenism cause the tolerance of Justin, or Accord the intolerance of other Christian teachers ? s
ing to Celsus, neither the belief nor the intolerance
THE GNOSTICS AND APOLOGISTS was Hellenic. But Celsus is tolerance
is
According right.
to Dr.
The
Hatch, both were.
belief
Christian also;
but
155
is
Christian;
the
marks the man
it
trained in the free atmosphere of the Hellenic schools.
In one respect, however, the Apologists undoubtedly philosophized. They are the first exponents of the
modern doctrine of the Freedom of the. Will. Dr. Hatch found the same teaching in Epictetus and the later Stoics,
accuracy.
but in
No
this he did not display his usual Greek school ever held the same
language as the Christian Church. The Platonists did not regard the Will as a distinct faculty. They considered it as an inclination of
To
them we may say there were two wills, or instinctive desires: that of the mind for truth, that of the flesh for Aristotle made Will an gratification. character.
independent mental the selection of
end
act,
but confines
means towards
its
a given
operation to
end
;
how
the
given, the all-important question, he does not attempt to decide. The later Stoics, in spite of their fatalism, went a step this. The sensual is
beyond
man,
they held, is the slave of his delusive fancies, and has no freedom at all. Yet there is such a thing as freedom. It is right and this is
judgment, absolutely any time. We are always free to be free, because the one end is open to choice. The Apologists, in their recoil from the Fatalism of the Stoics and Gnostics, went further still. in our
power
at
Will,
they taught, is the independent faculty of choice it ; selects not the means only, but the end, and not one end only but both. Life and death are clearly set
NEOPLATONISM
156
men
before
in
God
Word, and each deliberately
s
chooses for himself either one or the other, either good or evil. Freewill in this sense belongs to men
and angels. For God, the end is fixed by the goodness of His Divine nature, but even He selects means.
The It
is
origin of this doctrine
found
in
is undoubtedly Biblical. It was held as a both Testaments.
necessary corollary of the belief in Divine rewards and In the But it is absolutely un-Greek. punishments. light
of this conception, moral evil
is
no longer a
disease, the view of all Hellenic schools without ex
This
ception, but a rebellion.
point
of
view,
and
is
moral
its
an entirely different are
consequences
immense,
No
one seems ever
have suggested that the
to
counter doctrine of Grace
an obvious resemblance
is
Hellenic, though
Both are Biblical
heavenly Eros.
Jewish, and Grace
more
is
it
has
to the Platonic theory of the ;
but Freewill
The
Christian.
is
more
former,
we may say, is more ethical, the latter more religious. The predominance of one or the other gives rise to two which are sometimes, though improperly, called by the names of Catholicism and Paulinism. Both exist side by side in the Gospels. different aspects of Christianity,
We
find
them
in the titles of
in the offices of
our Lord
conception of heaven
as a
God
as King, as Father;
as Saviour, as
hope
Judge
deferred, as
;
in the
"wages,"
or as a present kingdom, as the peace and joy of the Holy Spirit ; in the view of the Christian life as a new law, or as
freedom
;
in fear
the antithesis of works
and
and love faith.
as motives
It is
;
in
probable that
THE GNOSTICS AND APOLOGISTS
157
Peter and the majority of the Twelve inclined to more ethical view. St. John insists upon love almost to the destruction of Freewill, and St. Paul St.
the
carries the
doctrine of Grace
to
the very verge of
individualism.
The history of the Church has been marked by re actions of the one tendency against the other. The spirit of discipline is the first and most obvious need of the Church, but
it leads to dryness and formalism. these evils appear, the Christian mind turns instinctively to the love of St. John, the grace of St. Paul, and fills once more the empty bottles with wine. And as these again issue in their characteristic defects
When
of vagueness of belief law,
The
and disunion, the need of the which guarantees the freedom, again asserts itself. first
be found
great revival of Paulinism or Johanninism is to at the end of the second century in Irenaeus
and the Alexandrines; the next in the theology of Athanasius the next in that of Augustine ; another at the Reformation ; and we are living at the close of ;
another.
In
all
these crises
we can
yet detect the influence
of the literae humaniores, of cultivated sympathetic thought, of poetry, philosophy in our own time of science also, acting in unison with the Spirit of God to break the fetters of conventionalism, and lift men into nearer communion with their Father and with ;
one
another. If Hellenism may be taken to mean the love of truth and beauty for their own sakes, and of all kinds of truth and beauty and this is, in fact, the noblest part of its this has been its task, to
meaning remind the Church from time
appointed
to time that her
158
NEOPLATONISM
dogmas spring from, and
are intimately connected with,
But the great laws of physical and human nature. Hellenism also tells the Church, that those laws are without any metaphysical and in this it is a bad counsellor. all-sufficient
"
"
explanations,
X THE ALEXANDRINES CLEMENT, or we may call him St. Clement, lived from about 150 to about 213 Origen from about 185 to 254. The first was born in the middle of the reign ;
of Antoninus Pius
;
the second died in consequence of
Clement
his sufferings in the persecution of Decius.
remember
would
well
the
philosophic
Emperors.
Origen died just before the shameful disasters of the reign of Gallienus. There were general persecu tions under Aurelius and Severus, and every now and
again the governors of particular provinces lighted the flame, as Arrius Antoninus under Commodus in Asia,
Scapula at Carthage under Caracalla, Serenianus in
Cappadocia under Maximin. But upon the whole, as Lanciani shows, Christian and heathen got on amaz
The Ostian potter did not care the least whether his lamps should be decorated with Bacchus or with the Good Shepherd ; it was for
ingly well together. i.n
his
customers to
decide.
The
profession
of
the
Gospel was not more dangerous than many other things
;
it
offered considerable prospect of gain to the
poor who could
get
upon the church-roll
;
to the clever
NEOPLATONISM
l6o
who might hope
for office
;
to all travellers, "
who by
could secure free
means of commendatory and comfortable quarters wherever they went. The Church was already a powerful and munificent cor its poration, and numberless parasites fed upon letters
"
simple-minded charity, like Peregrinus, whom Lucian Peace had led to laxity took for one of his butts.
and corruption.
Numbers
flocked into the
Church
heathen ways with them. Long before the end of the second century the Church had become a landowner. Pope Victor enjoyed influence
who brought
their
at the Imperial Court,
and from the time of Severus,
perhaps from that of St. Paul, there were many suckled Caracalla was Christians about the palace. "
on Christian the
milk."
Alexander Severus awarded to that was claimed by the
Church a piece of land
guild of licensed victuallers, quoted Christian maxims, thought highly of their mode of electing bishops, and
up a bust of Christ in his private chapel. The Emperor Philip is said to have been a Christian, and
set
to have submitted to Christian reproof. It was the age of Gnosticism, of Noetianism, of Artemonite Unitarianism, of the Puritan revolts of Montanism and Novatianism, of the Easter and
These exciting topics called forth a host of learned writers, whose names are recorded in
Penance disputes.
the pages of Eusebius, from Hegesippus to Hippolytus. They insisted on the authority of the Scriptures and of ecclesiastical tradition they shaped the liturgy ;
and formed the canon they regulated the calendar with a view to the due observance of Easter they ;
;
THE ALEXANDRINES
l6l
reduced prophecy under rule they established the theory and practice of the sacrament of penance, and ;
of infant baptism into
its final
;
and they brought the Episcopacy
The law
that bishops should be was made good even at by bishops Alexandria in Clement s time. Monasticism had not It yet begun, but its principles were already at work. is hardly an exaggeration to say, that there was no
shape.
consecrated
essential difference
between the Church of Origen s Middle Ages. Transubstan-
time and that of the tiation
was the prevalent
was not as
belief,
though the doctrine
of course, expressed in the technical language of the Latin schoolmen.
At
yet,
this crisis
drines.
It
began the activity of the great Alexanwas conditioned by a liberal education re
ceived in the famous catechetical school founded, under the Bishop, possibly by the Apologist Athenagoras, but more probably by Pantaenus, a converted Stoic
philosopher, and by a double reaction, against Gnosti cism or semi-heathen intellectualism on the one
hand, and, on the other, against the formalism of those whom Clement calls the Orthodoxasts," and Origen the simpler brethren." The object is to show that "
"
and pure faith are not enemies, but bring back to the Church the right of St. Paul and St. John. understanding The School of St. Mark produced many eminent names, notably the great Dionysius, in whom the true philosophy
friends,
and
to
blessed spirit of peacemaking, the crown of true learn shone with the purest lustre. But we must con
ing,
fine ourselves to the
two most striking
those figures, O
L
.
NEOPLATONISM
162
Both were learned men, and of Clement and Origen. a good acquaintance with Greek literature, possessed Numenius, Cronius and HarpocraAmmonius had Origen possibly been a pupil of a and as a Christian life who porter on Saccas, began the quays, and ended it as a heathen and the most
down
to the time of
tion.
Clement was,
famous lecturer of the time.
to
some
extent, under the influence of Philo, the Jew Platonist
In century, who distinguished the First the Second, and to the latter gave
of the
first
effable
God from
the
title
fuller
of Logos or
account of
this
Divine Intelligence.
man
eminent
may, perhaps, venture
to
refer
For a
the present writer to his Christian
But Philo s importance Both before and after may easily be overrated. Clement the philosophy of churchmen was drawn from heathen writers, and Clement s own mind was Platonists
of Alexandria.
shaped by teachers,
whom
he had learned to respect,
before he ever heard of the metaphysical Jew. In temperament the two great doctors were strongly Clement was a Greek, Origen a native opposed.
Clement appears to have been at first a Egyptian. heathen. Origen was son of the martyr Leonidas, like and, Timothy, learned the Scriptures as a child. Clement was a
bom
orator
and friend of the Muses,
anecdotes and
fine sayings, loving of literature, from the Rabe shape of Athens to the austere eloquence of
delighting in apt
everything in the laisian
comedy
the Schools
;
loving
indeed
thing, except perhaps labour.
reader,
and a
prolific
everybody and every Yet he was a diligent
though unmethodical
writer.
THE ALEXANDRINES
The
163
chief of his extant works
is the Stromateis, Carpet This was a favourite book-title
bags, or Miscellanies. at that time,
used by
many
authors from Plutarch to
present the contrast between Gnosticism and the true Gnosis or Knowledge of the Origen.
Its object is to
Catholic Church.
It flows
like
a river through
left
unfinished at
Origen,
flat
book,
in sinuous
on the other hand, was
Routh
in a sense.
meanders is
last.
schoolmen and scholars, erudite as
on
and flowery meadows, and
as
or Tischendorf.
The
the
subtle as
Bible,
He
is
prince
of
Aquinas, as a man of one
its text, its
exposition,
furnished him with the motive for incessant
toil,
and
he cared for nothing except in so far as it could be bent to this end. The charm of Hellenism, its belles did not touch him. Even its philosophy he regarded with a certain disfavour. As a boy he coveted martyrdom he died a confessor. The first lettres, its artj
\
part of his spiritual course he spent in the austerest
and his days and nights to the last were devoted to labours of which no Greek writer had any asceticism,
There was iron in his mould, and it had conception. been heated in the furnace. But there was also a gran deur and a tenderness, which gave him an extraordinary hold on the mind of his contemporaries. We know hardly anything of Clement, but almost all that Origen did was chronicled by friends or foes. We must not attempt to give the long list of his For works, or the details of his well-known career. our purpose it is sufficient to say, that he was infinitely
more
laborious than
Clement, that he had passed
NEOPLATONISM
164
through deeper experiences, and that his intellect was
more comprehensive, and more
bolder, keener,
Clement is apt him as what we
plined. strikes
catch at
to
disci
anything that
"
call
suggestive."
Origen
never forgets the relation of the part to the whole, never slurs over a difficulty, and his boldest flights are It
generalizations.
much
may be on
Learning, with
Clement.
this
account that he
and much more
less liberal
load
its
is
ecclesiastical than
of facts,
is
the
ballast of speculation.
Like Justin, Clement found in the Gospel the true Truth, he held, is one shape under philosophy. There is one river of truth, but names. many "
many
streams
Truth
is
into
fall
on
it
this side
and on
that."
Pentheus, torn asunder by each seizes a limb, and each thinks
like the corpse of
the Bacchants
;
she has the whole
;
a famous simile borrowed from
the Platonist Numenius.
Philosophy must not be
judged by the sins of the heathen, any more than It is the Christianity by the defects of Churchmen. gift
but
of the
and
live
chaste
has abiding
nature,
the
its
lives.
utility.
best
natural fruit
was
It
whom
those
justified
it
Word, and
righteousness.
a
true
is
not iniquity,
covenant,
and
renounce idolatry Further, Clement held that Man must dedicate his whole
it
efforts
led
to
of his noblest faculties, to
God. He can neither understand the Scriptures, nor give a reason for the faith that is in him, nor do his duty in the world, without cultivated thought. Hence
Clement sophize,"
calls
that
upon men and women alike to philo is to think, and if they can, to study. "
THE ALEXANDRINES They
are not to
fear
bogies,"
truth can hurt them. that does
It is
harm, not the
165
not to fancy that any
the ghost of
knowledge True knowledge,
reality.
Gnosis, belongs not to the Gnostics, or Knowalls, rior to the schools, but to the Church, which has received the One Body in the Incarnation of the Divine Word.
Thus philosophy becomes something more than a Clement not only blesses its
praeparatio Evangelica. past work, but promises the future,
if it will
it a place of high dignity in take service in the army of Christ.
Regarding the Creed as the expression of ultimate truth, he saw rays shoot out from it in all directions to the furthest limits of
human
Two
capacity.
thoughts are combined of light towards the perfect day
in this view, the slow
idea,
and
and an
is
the
infinite
stable centre.
first
germ
(this
we
of what
great
growing
was Justin
call
s
Evolution),
growth of knowledge from a fixed and
The Incarnation
is
sum
the
past, and the promise of all the future. Clement s view was perhaps a little too
of
all
the
optimistic.
He
did not allow sufficiently for the love of battle, which cleaves to the old Adam even in matters of research.
Nor did he
see clearly
issues in variety of character. in so far as
from
he
is
righteous,"
"
he
how One
variety of belief
righteous man, "
says,
does not
differ
He
hardly recognized any distinction between a good Stoic and a good Christian, though he himself makes love the secret of righteousness. another."
He Origen, on the other hand, was a pessimist. thought that the world was growing worse, and this vijvv increased, as
it
must always do, the positiveness
1
NEOPLATONJSM
66
He
of his disposition.
much
and philosophy he
"
says,
sets the Bible
much
lower, than Clement.
higher, "
Few,"
have taken of the spoils of the Egyptians
and made of them the furniture of the tabernacle." He knew Celsus, and looked upon Hellenism as a He hostile power to be conquered and stripped. took the gold and used it ; but it must first be cast into the melting-pot.
guard against the it a little harshly.
The
is
eclecticism
;
a necessary safe but Origen puts
influence of Hellenism on these two distin
guished i,
This rule
silliest
men may be summed up under three heads, God; 2, the Morality of God; 3, of man in the Church.
the Notion of
the
life
As regards the Notion of God, Platonism rendered them signal service. It taught them what is meant by the words, God is a Spirit." To the Stoics, and to the popular understanding, the Deity was material, and this opinion prevailed for some time in the i.
"
Church.
We
tullian, in the
and in monks.
the
traces of
in Irenaeus, in
it
Ter-
Clementine Homilies, perhaps
in Melito,
the
Egyptian
anthropomorphism
of
It leads logically either to
Unitarianism.
j
find
That which
is
Tritheism, or to
material
is
divisible.
Three material things cannot be one. But God is One. The Platonists held that the Divine Being is of the nature of thought, which
is
timeless
and
indivisible.
Three thoughts may very easily really and truly For one. instance, Justice, Wisdom, and Fortitude the all are knowledge of the Good. Wisdom is the be
knowledge
in itself; Justice the
knowledge as applied
THE ALEXANDRINES to
the distinction of
167
mine and thine
same knowledge regarded
Fortitude the
;
as resisting the impact of
They differ, according to the Platonist, not only in their contact with matter, in their mode of dealing with circumstance, but in themselves ; they are fear.
This
distinct, yet they are one.
Platonism to the Church.
It
is
the great service of
in fact the
is
one step
from the Baptismal Formula to the Nicene Creed. Platonism thus supplied the wanted explanation of the unity
and
could not
Persons, but
co-eternity of the Divine
be used
express the co-equality. Whether the subordination of Origen is traditional or it
to
metaphysical may be open to question ; but there is no doubt whatever that to the Pagan schools the
word
"
hompousios
"
did not imply equality.
Indeed
the case of Deity this notion was expressly ex The Intelligence was inferior to the One, cluded.
in
the Soul to the Intelligence, in virtue of the rule that The "the child is always worse than the father." definition of Athanasius
rested
on
Scripture,
was
on the
no sense Greek.
in
religious
the Christian doctrine of redemption
;
a wholly different cycle of thought. But Clement was not content with Egyptians."
It
experience, on in a word, on
"
spoiling the
In his lazy eclectic way he borrowed
from the schools the whole definition of the First and
Second Persons.
The Father
Pythagorean One, the Absolute sciousness of the Father, the ing.
is ;
the
the
Monad, the
Son
One become
is
the con
self-reflect
Others had used the same kind of language The doctrine of the Monad was not
before him.
1
NEOPLATONISM
68
quite so abstract in the mind of Numenius and his it afterwards became ; but the main
contemporaries, as
was that they did not as yet discern clearly
difference
what
God
not a
to. The Monad is a Cause, but has great physical but no religious
amounted
it
it
;
shapes a mystical philosophy, yet raises no
import;
it
barrier,
as
we
shall
against
see,
Clement could
idolatry.
not,
the
most abject
and did
not,
really
believe in this self-contradictory Deity, who has But he tried hard consciousness of the world. believe in
it,
and
life.
religious
it
no to
affected seriously his view of the
Origen was
far
more
He
clear-sighted.
man
has in Jesus, and from the world, a true though imperfect knowledge of the Father, and he could not allow that the Supreme was apathetic ;
held that
"
"
"God,"
2.
he
The
writes,
"has
sight of sin
to believe in an evil
the passion of love." suffering led the Gnostics
and
God,
to
whom
they attributed
also the absurd function of punishing the evil that he
has caused.
but not
just.
The true God, they thought, The Alexandrines maintained
is
good,
that
He
His severity is merely the reverse of His fatherly love. And, as a corollary of this, they adopted the famous Platonic axiom, that the
is
both good and
to
amend.
There they
into a grave inconsistency.
They
held, like all
object of fell
just, that
all
punishment
is
But the Church, that the seat of evil is in the will. the Platonic axiom is the outcome of a system, which teaches that sin has nothing to do with will, that the never chooses wrong, and that vice but a form of bodily disease, nothing
soul
itself
is
THE ALEXANDRINES These two theories of
evil are
169
wholly different, and
lead to two wholly different theories of punishment. If evil is disease, the cure is chastisement, and chastise
ment
cure.
is
By way
of medicine or by
the sufferer can be healed,
and ex hypothesi the soul view, evil
it
is
way of surgery
time
sufficient
is
On
immortal.
allowed,
the other
rebellion against a law, the revolt of one
is
against another.
will
if
Ignorance
is
not
though
sin,
the punishment of sin. Evil begins when will of the bad man sets itself against the
may be
the
"
k
I
Thou
shalt not
"
In this case the object the Sovereign, personified Law, in inflicting is Punishment is the penalties self-preservation. "
of the ruler.
of the
safeguard of Law, that is to say, of the unity, life, and welfare of the whole, and of the individual in and It does not aim at amendment, through the whole. but at the maintenance of that law, which alone
can amend.
That
this
is
so
is
evident from the
the sufferer refuses to acknowledge the that, of the law, his punishment only makes him justice fact
if
worse.
The inadequacy
of
obvious.
It
teaches
punish a
man
unless
and
that, if
he
will
the
us
we
Platonic
that
theory
we have no
are sure that he will
seems
right
to
amend
;
not amend, we must go on increas
ad infinitum for the smallest offence, we have broken him down. Mild as it seems, leaves no place for either repentance or forgiveness.
ing the penalties until it
Sin
is
ignorance, and ignorance
God.
And
is
eternal,
because
so long as ignor ance endures, punishment must endure. But, if sin the soul
is
inferior to
NEOPLATON1SM
17 is
rebellion, then submission
is
No
peace.
punishment can be needed, except
for
further
the sake of
example, a consideration that may weigh with the State, whose laws are uncertain in their operation, but not with Almighty God. of
Further, experience teaches us that the punishments God are not curative. Shame and remorse indeed
are so, but
these must be considered rather as the
pangs of returning
life.
Nor again
is
discipline, the
punitive.
be regarded as as such is hard
Pharaoh
hardened These words shocked Origen inex
loving severity of the
Holy
Spirit, to
The proper penalty of sin ness and indifference. God," it is written, "
s
heart."
"
He felt that they could not be brought within the circle of his ideas ; but he could not see, pressibly.
that this stubborn verse contained the very truth he
wanted. In
this particular point
a mistaken theory has been It led the Church to
productive of great disasters. that
"debtor
and
creditor"
theory of
Luther discovered the taproot of
all
sin, in
which
the mediaeval
It made Forgiveness corruptions. unmeaning. The Christian was forgiven once in Baptism, because all
previous sins had been committed "in ignorance"; but now that he had received the Light, he could never
be forgiven again.
Further,
it
made
the Cross, the
pardon, an absolutely unintelligible For why did the spotless Lamb suffer if all mystery. or how could His sorrows suffering is medicinal ?
fountain
profit
own ?
of
those
who can be healed
only through their
THE ALEXANDRINES These remarks apply more or Nicene Church at large. Clement and Origen was
The
iyi to
less
the ante-
work of
peculiar to
merely
enlarge
the
prevalent belief in Purgatory into that of Universal Salvation, which is found in Clement, but was elabor
ated into a system by Origen.
It rests partly
corrective Platonic theory of punishment,
the Aristotelian axiom, that justice binds
on the
partly
God
on
to deal
all men, which is quite as untenable. saw clearly, that in this world no such equality Origen find no way of escape but by import and could rules,
equally with
ing into Christian theology the whole Platonic account Antenatal sin and of the origin and destiny of man. birth "
earth as
upon
"
the purer souls
spirits
punishment, the descent of
its
who come
freely
down
in prison, the resurrection of
created for
itself
by the
to help the an ethereal body
"spermatic
logos"
of the
gradual rise through aeons and seons of further trials, the final consummation all this is soul,
the
Neoplatonic, and all this Origen read into Scripture his method of allegorism. Origen s after eternity not to be wise above that falls under the warning
by
"
which
is
His prior eternity
written."
is
demolished
by a passage in Justin s Trypho "Are the souls man, "that this is the reason aware," asks the old they are in fleshly bodies, and that they sinned I think not," replies Justin. "Then before birth ?
why
"
it
"
would seem,
chastisement.
they
are
that
Nay,
chastised,
chastisement."
I if
they cannot should not they
profit
even
by
the
say, that
do not perceive the
NEOPLATONISM
172
Yet Origen used
his
Hellenism to defend a purely
Christian thesis, the morality of God.
Both Clement and Origen were firm believers which they had received. Every article is to be found in Clement, and Origen wrote out
3.
in the Creed,
of
it
his regula fidei in the
beginning of the
But they were both, though Origen
De
Prinripiis.
in a less degree,
To both the supreme tinged with intellectualism. effort is the knowledge of God, and
end of human
heaven presents itself as that ideal world in which all mysteries will be explained, and reason, the noblest part of man, will attain to perfect satisfaction. They that the road lay through Love, and in this the
added
They added
Platonist agreed. Christ,"
and from
also,
this the Platonist
dissented, provided that
"through
Jesus
would not have
by Christ he might have been
allowed to understand the pure, divine, unembodied intelligence, which he recognized as a distinct Person
The
ality.
by
love,
question is, what is meant by knowledge, and by Jesus Christ? The Alexandrines
held that love is
that
is
of the ideal, not of the material
;
this
and that Jesus Christ is the ideal, and His Flesh was merely the veil of Godhead, a
Platonic
;
necessary screen to prevent men s eyes from being blinded ; this again is half Platonic. As to knowledge, there was a very broad, practical difference. The
held that the Gospel was a philosophy, was within the reach of old women." The
Christiai s
yet
it
Platonist maintained, that no
"
one could know God, and studied
unless he had taken a University degree, geometry and the laws of music. There
is
plainly a
THE ALEXANDRINES Both sides
great difference of spirit here.
"recollection,"
"contemplation,"
173
but
insist
the
upon
Christian
Thomas
a Kempis, with the Bible on of Nigrinus, with his Nevertheless it is clear, diagrams and his Euclid. that neither knowledge nor love could be rightly
type his
that of
is
knees
;
the heathen that
understood, till Athanasius destroyed for ever the old Hellenic philosophic aversion to "the flesh."
But
in
many
points intellectualism
in
is
agreement
with the purest spirituality. The Alexandrines taught not only that God is our Father, but that the believer is already His son. not as yet perfectly.
The kingdom In
is
within, though
they were in harmony
this
with the general sentiment of the Church, which was the already praying, not for the coming, but for delay of the end," that the Divine Will might have "
time
to
realize life
perfect
itself
is
upon
"wages,"
earth.
"a
The view
crown,"
"a
that
beatific
they had no wish to alter, because it is evidently just ; but they destroyed the gross, sensual conceptions of the heavenly banquet," which vision,"
"
attended
what
is
known
as
Chiliasm.
With
the
general frame and discipline of the Church, as it existed in their time, they had no desire to meddle.
Their sense of the need of unity was as strong as it well could be. They were not Protestants. But within the creed and within the discipline they insisted
on freedom
They held
as the heritage of every true Christian. that in the Sacraments (here again their
Platonism comes but the
spirit.
in), it is
not the matter that profits,
They acknowledged
the three orders,
NEOPLATONISM
ry4
and did not in any way interfere with their official But Clement regards the Gnostic," the position. as the true Christian, only earthly sacrificer, because "
he brings to the Father the offering of his own to the Gnostic the judgment of
and ascribes
spirit,
souls,
Even Origen did could exercise the power
whether he be ordained or not. not admit that the priest
Indeed of the Keys, unless he were a holy man. this view is to be found in Cyprian and the Constitutiones Apostolicae.
Yet they were not Protestants,
and probably, even if they had lived in the days of Tetzel, would have stood rather with Contarini than with Luther. For they were content to buy freedom at the price of reserve, and recognized different types of Churchmanship. Both, but Clement more especi ally, divided the Christian experience into two kinds of life. In modem times we have divided it into two kinds of Church.
In this the Alexandrines were, from one point From of view, restricting the doctrine of Freewill. another they were attempting to harmonize the teaching of the whole Canon of the New Testament or perhaps we should rather say, to assign their ;
rightful influence to the teaching of St.
aim
Paul and
St.
in true eclectic fashion,
John. They pursued this not by grasping the inner harmony of Freewill and Grace, but by putting the latter on the top of the former, so as to
The
make
it
grow out of it. of combining
inherent difficulty
antitheses, which
is
two such was vastly
already very great, increased by Platonism. Clement really takes his
THE ALEXANDRINES
175
from the current distinction between practical or moral and intellectual, virtue.
start
and contemplative,
The
philosophers, whom he followed, regarded the former as merely negative or purificatory. They break the hold of desire, and set the soul free. Affection
must be thus exterminated, the "apathetic,"
divine light of
tlie
must become
spirit
can really see and love the Monad. This heathen intellectual-
before
it
ism threw over the imagination of Clement the same sort of glamour, as scientific phraseology
sometimes
exercises at the present time. It led him to a mode of talking, which is a Christianized form of the
fairy
tale of Apuleius.
The two fear
and
and
Lives are opposed, as law and freedom, love, symbol and truth, negative holiness
and grace, heaven as a frame of spirit. The
positive righteousness, freewill
as a reward,
and heaven
lower begins with faith in the sense of submission,
it
fostered by grace, in the sense of the external favour or help of God, and issues in holiness, or purification from desire. It is a life of struggle, sacrifice, is
post
poned basis
desire, "reasonable
is
self-love,"
and
its
scriptural
the Parable of the Talents.
But now, through obedience and growing reflection we learn to understand and to love. the Gradually
servant becomes a son. the light grows, with the Lord."
which
till
Temptations
at last the believer is
Henceforth he in
away, and
fall
is filled
"
one
with,
spirit
upborne
this Life is no by, grace, longer favour or power, but loving communion. He attains to perfect Apathy, because no thought stirs against the Saviour s
NEOPLATONISM
!y6
secrets.
does God s will, because he cannot help he knows, because love is the key to all He has sacrificed even the consciousness of
sacrifice,
and there
He
mind.
doing
it
;
absolutely nothing
is
to desire, because in Christ
Disinterested
Love
so
he has
famous in
all.
left
him
for
This
the
is
It
later mysticism.
that
expresses itself in the "mystic paradox," better to be with Christ in hell, than- without
it
is
Him
in
demands nothing but to be not allowed to love, and pray the Beloved even to cast a glance or a thought upon him. Like all mystics, Clement speaks of "silent prayer," he stopped short, and left the dream but at this
heaven.
The
true mystic will
point and the ing of dreams to the heathen Neoplatonists found to be is reason The partly Christian monks. in the brightness of his disposition,
but
still
more
in
that spirit of godly fear, which tinged so deeply the devotion of the early Church. Men did not venture to
grasp at the Beatific Vision,
till
their
heads had been
by sensuous allegorisms of the Song of Songs. No one can help loving Clement, yet it is difficult If he had hunted through not to be angry with him.
fired
the dictionary of scientific jargon on purpose, he could word than hardly have picked out a more disastrous
Apathy. "inner
But way"
his
of
Two all
Lives are the
the
Mystics,
"outer"
and
and the Church
would have been poorer without Thomas a Kempis. We may say that he has drawn the Lower Life in a and tolerance, not of worldly com spirit of charity
He wanted to find a place in the Kingdom promise. of God for those to whom their Christian pilgrimage
THE ALEXANDRINES
177
a battle, those
is
who are in the just sense of the "apathetic," who feel sadly their own lack of and joy. To most of us probably Miss Rossetti s
word fire
words go home "We
who tremble at Thy Word, walk in darkness towards our close by terrors curbed and spurred,
are of those
Who
faltering
Of mortal
life,
We
are of those.
Not ours the heart Thy loftiest love hath Not such as we Thy lily and Thy rose. Yet, Hope of those who hope with hope
We
Of
are of
the Higher Life
deferred
those."
may we
his Platonic affectation,
stirred
Clement
not say that, with is a true child of
all
St.
John ? His Apathy after all is the Love of the Last Supper, whereof the love between the Father and the Eternal Word is the archetype and fountain. Or rather, what Clement calls Apathy, it has been termed Detachment in later is its concomitant. times,
The monks held
it
to lead not to the sanctifica-
but to the renunciation, of the Platonic taint crept in tion,
all
ties. Here Clement held the
earthly
again.
Platonism, but shrank from
He
its extreme conclusions. was the most amiable and sociable of mankind.
Nevertheless, that love
is Its loins are unearthly. uplifted for the heavenly summons, shrinks not only from caresses and
its
girded,
and
it
ear
is
endearments, not directly spiritual from engrossing study, from the questions of the Its type is day." Mary, not Martha; Clement, not but even from
all
labour which
is
"
Origen
;
and
its
work
is
to
fill
the reservoir, not to
irrigate the fields.
M
NEOPLATONISM fault in
The main is
Clement
Many
too systematic.
s
description
illustrious
by
Gospels, and fear
in
love.
that
do
in the
and
love in fear
There is ever Probably no one
interlock.
it
Christians do no
to either of his categories. really belong side in the world, as they lie side
Lives
is
attained
the discipline of without passing through or Origen, or Wesley. the -servant," like Luther, Life is at once t But the conception of the Higher it is not disinterested ; ideal-love never can be exclude to seems It too narrow.
"sonship"
"
"
its
nature-and
sense of the Fatherhood those who, with the fullest fear of His Kingship. of God, combine the deepest "Woe the cry of St. Paul, It does not really explain "-and it does scant the Gospel is me if I preach not !
justice
the
to those
whom we may
scholars,
great
rulers,
call practical
missionaries,
saints,
organizers,
of the Church.
philanthropists be considers The work of the Alexandrines must
materialism rather as a reformation, a reaction against into hitherto advance an as than and formalism,
unexplored regions. The reaction was conditioned by enlightenmei In form it Whence did this enlightenment come? was Platonic, in substance it was Evangelical. Partly did it harmonized with the Gospel, partly where The reader must now decide for himself
not.
it
Platonism was
where
it
where
it
They
in fact the voice of the
the aspired beyond
limits
Holy
their
Spirit,
of revelation,
led astray.
above put knowledge
faith,
but even
this
is
THE ALEXANDRINES not wrong unless the New Testament Wisdom is the fruit, and not the seed.
is
wrong, for
They may,
perhaps, have erred in attributing too high a value to the intellectual factor of Wisdom, and in depreciating to the same extent the other elements of the Christian character. It is a question of degree. It is
not their
fault,
but their crowning merit, that
they welcomed knowledge as the ally of faith, and saw in God s children not one In type, but several. My Father s House are mansions." "
many
XI PLOTINUS
WE may
the chronology of exhibit in tabular form
Plotinus as given by
PorphyryAge of
Regnal Emperor.
Severus
Year. .
13
Plot.
Plotinus born.
(205-6)
27
of
Becomes student at
Alex
philosophy andria; attaches him self to
Ammonias, and him II
remains with years.
of Joins expedition Gordian against the the After Persians. es Emperor s defeat
capes to Antioch. (244-5) (246-7)
Philip
40 .-
Rome.
year of Claudius. Ten years after his settlement in Rome, to Plotinus begins
(253-4)
Gallienus
Settles in
Amelius joins him, and remains with him first 24 years, till the
write.
10
(262-3)
...
58
Porphyry,
who had
already been some time in Rome, is in troduced to Plotinus ; little
remains with him six
At this date Plotinus had written Enneads. While 21
years.
him Porphyry was with he wrote 24 more.
.
l8l
PLOTINUS
E,npero,
Gallienus
...
15 (ab.)
(
Porphyry
267-8 about)
retires
to
Sicily.
Claudius
...
I
...
thither five
n 2
,,
...
(269-70)...
66
him more En-
sends
Plotinus
......
(268-9)
"ads.
Plotinus sends
Por
phyry the remaining four Enneads, and dies towards the end of the year.
The
dates do not
fit
with exact precision.
Porphyry
got at the birth-year by calculating backwards from the Either he placed the birth a year too late, or death.
he added a year
to his master s age.
He
did not
know
Plotinus would the day, nor even the month. never speak upon the subject, though he kept as
He and Socrates. not and would body,"
festivals the birthdays of Plato
seemed
to
be ashamed of
his
"
allow his portrait to be painted. There was, however, a likeness of him, taken by Carterius, a famous artist,
who was
secretly introduced into the lecture-room s features.
by
Amelius, and stole the shy philosopher
Origen
men feast/
that
tells us, that in
the Scriptures none but bad
are recorded to have kept their birthdays as a
The
trait is
quite Platonic.
Porphyry does not even
was born.
tell
this
wanted
to
bit
of
information
out
it is
surprising
us where Plotinus
According to Eunapius and
a native of Lycopolis, in Egypt. left
But
Stiidas
he was
Porphyry possibly designedly.
convey a touch of mystery, and
in this
He he
succeeded, for the learned Empress Eudocia, in her Bed of Violets written in the eleventh century, says,
NEOPLATONISM
g2
X
of no country, but Plotinus appears to have been some say he was a Lycopolite." mheri The Roman name Plotinus was possibly
The philosopher from Plotina, the wife of Trajan. a freedman from descended a Copt, may have been of the Empress. no doubt At the age of twenty-seven, having course, he entered through the ordinary preparatory for the definite study the University of Alexandria,
Here
of
he listened
philosophy. teacher after another, but
"went
to
away
one famous
full
of sorrow,
last a friend introduced
with head hanging down." At At Saccas. him to the class-room of Ammonius is the This end of the lecture Plotinus exclaimed, i
^
"
For eleven years he re famous teacher mained the attached disciple of this
man
I
was looking
for."
the tale of ( Our readers will remember that in could only be gathered and Psyche the golden wool Aristotle and after the heat of noonday, ^thought These to hear moral philosophy." young men unfit "
words were seriously meant.
No
one was thought had
until he discussion of first principles ripe for the was eligible he which at attained the age of thirty, or the or priesthood for the consulate in the state,
the episcopate in the Church. to Plotinus was released from his allegiance of the latter; but his death the monius, probably by With the were not yet completed.
Am
Wanderjahre view of perfecting his experience by personal acquaint and Hindoos, ance with the wisdom of the Persians of the he attached himself to the expedition
ill-
starred
PLOTINUS
183
Gordian. Gordian was murdered at the very outset of the campaign by Philip, and Plotinus returned imme Hence after a brief stay he made diately to Antioch. his
Rome.
he spent the only to die. At Alexandria he had acquired a knowledge of all
way
to
remainder of his
In
life,
the
leaving
capital
it
forms of Greek thought, of Christianity, for Ammonius was a renegade, and of those bastard systems that
we know
as
Gnosticism.
chosen, out of
all
What he had
this seething flood
deliberately
of opinion, was
the teaching of the inspired porter, the new Platonism, the idealist religion, to be hereafter expanded by the patient labour of his devout and original mind.
Rome was exile to a student like Nigrinus ; but it was the fitting post for an apostle like Plotinus. Athens was impossible, because it was the seat of the Diadochus, the high-priest of conservative Platonism,
and in any case was too far distant from the centre of life. Plotinus was drawn to the banks of the Tiber by the
same motives as St. At Rome he lived priest-philosopher. the poor, nor was
Paul. for twenty-six years the life of a
He it
did not preach the gospel to to found a
possible for him
Church but in life and in thought he was true to his high idealist creed. Knowledge he regarded as but the means to communion with a personal God, and to ;
the fuller performance of the Divine Will.
He
lived
and dissuading his friends from taking part in them, and exercised the strictest When he lay dying he refused to take self-discipline. a treacle," popular nostrum composed of the flesh of in privacy, disliking politics,
"
NEOPLATONISM
184
meat even adders, saying that he had never used the of domesticated animals ; and his sleep was of the His friends were numerous and devoted, shortest. and included the Emperor Gallienus (who tolerated At one time he Christianity), and his wife Salonina. is
have obtained from his imperial patrons town in Campania,
said to
permission to refound a deserted
which was an ideal
to
be called Platonopolis, and governed as
state.
Fortunately the project
fell
through,
and Plotinus escaped the unpleasant experiences of Dio Chrysostom, and indeed of Plato himself. But the fascination of his priestly character
is
best illus
trated by the story of his Wards. of the noblest Many," says Porphyry,
men and women, when death drew near, brought to him their boys and girls, and property, and entrusted all to him His house was full as to a holy and divine guardian. of boys and maidens, among whom was Polemo, for whose education he was so careful that he would "
listen to his
"
He endured even to school-boy verses. of his wards possessions,
go through the accounts
and was most accurate and business-like, saying that, until they became philosophers, their property and revenues ought to be kept intact and secure." When they became philosophers, he hoped that they would renounce their wealth, like Rogatianus the senator, who gave away all his possessions, emanci pated his slaves, resigned the praetorship, and did not keep even a roof
to sleep under.
Like a true priest again he was a peacemaker, and many a feud between the hot-blooded Roman nobles
PLOTINUS
185
was composed by his influence. Among the official But this says Porphyry, he had no enemy.
class,
popularity with the great raised him up adversaries the philosophers," who were for the most "
among
Olympius, who had also been a pupil of Ammonias, and envied the success of his old class-mate, tried to bewitch him. But his part a self-seeking race.
recoiled
sorceries
was more
upon
own
his
and finding
pate,
than to do harm, he desisted. Plotinus revenged himself by comparing Olympius to an empty purse, a body without a soul. that he
The meaning
likely to suffer
of the story
that Plotinus, as the
is,
chosen servant of the One God, could not be hurt by the demons who were at the beck and call of Olympius. In
many ways he enjoyed
favour.
marks of the Divine
special
Four times, while Porphyry was
Plotinus attain to the beatific vision.
in
Rome, did
To Porphyry
himself this grace was but once vouchsafed, and then not till his sixty-eighth year. Once, in the temple of
summoned a demon to appear presence of Plotinus ; but to the great alarm of the enchanter, a god revealed himself. Plotinus could an Egyptian priest
Isis,
in the
Once he detected a
read the secrets of the soul. thief
He
by looking on the
foretold that
life.
He
Polemo would
divined
suicide; told
faces
Porphyr/s
of a crowd of slaves. live
him the cause of
ordered him to
a brief and stormy
commit depression, and
intention his
to
travel.
He
died of a disease in the throat, at the country house of Zethus, in Campania, six miles from Minturnae.
When
the
end was
at
hand, he sent for
1
NEOPLATONISM
86
Eustochius,
who was
living
not
far
off at Puteoli.
Eustochius was long in coming, and when at last he I was waiting for entered the room Plotinus said, "
The
you.
Divine it
in
divine in
me
Thus he
all."
were, the ideal creed.
is
struggling to go
closed his
life,
As he drew
up
to the
repeating, as
his last breath,
a serpent crawled from under the bed, and vanished in a crevice of the wall.
He had always been a delicate man, suffering much from indigestion. He had a defective articulation, and stumbled over awkward words. When he spoke he perspired freely. He was as shy as a girl, and on one occasion broke down
in his discourse,
because the
famous Origen (the heathen) was present. He had When Diophanes the autocratic ways of shy men. read a paper in defence of impurity, Plotinus ordered
Porphyry to reply to defend himself.
it.
He
seldom condescended
to
Rome he taught a pact with Erennius and Origen not to vulgarize the doctrines of Ammonius by publication. During this period his lectures For ten years
orally, having,
seem "
to
it
after his arrival in
is
said,
made
have been of a loose conversational kind,
with no order, and a good deal of
nonsense,"
says
he were provoking his hearers to In this temporary abstention themselves." "
Amelius, think for
as
if
from writing, we find a trace of the disciplina arcani, or Economy, which from the Platonic schools crept into the Church.
Such reserve books.
is, of course, impossible in an age of Erennius and Origen broke the pact, and
PLOTINUS
i8 7
Plotinus followed their example. Porphyry gives a curious account of his He could not literary method. spell correctly, wrote a very bad hand, and ran the words into one another. His sight was so weak that
he could never bear
He did not put
to read over
what he had
written.
he had clearly arranged in his own mind all that he meant to Then he say. wrote as if copying from a book, and if interrupted would go on again from the point where he left off, as if nothing
pen
to paper,
till
had happened.
Porphyry speaks of the
terseness, the pregnancy, the passion, and enthusiasm of his style. shall convey the best impression to
We
an English reader by saying that the
style of
Browning There is no
grammar. is
in
its
it is
remarkably
subtlety
difficult
like
and lack of
word, but the whole
infinitely hard.
His school was more
like a literary society
than a
class-room.
Generally the course was to read a passage from some standard author, Severus, Cronius,
Numenius, Gaius, or Atticus among the Platonists Aspasius,
Alexander, or Adrastus
among
;
the Peri
Upon this text there would be free dis and the master would expound his views. Sometimes one of the disciples read an essay. Sometimes one of them would request the master to lecture on a special point, such as the union of the patetics.
cussion,
soul
with
the
body. Occasionally distinguished Origen or Thaumasius, would attend, and there would be a sort of Out of these field-day. visitors,
like
discussions grew the Enneads, so called from the six
groups of nine
in
which Porphyry arranged them.
1
NEOPLATONISM
88
His most constant friends were Amelius Gentitta Tuscan, who quoted St. John, and wrote
anus,
many volumes
against Scythopolis or Bethshan
the
Gnostics
Paulinus
;
of
Eustochius, an Alexandrine an another physician Zethus, Arabian, physician ; Castricius Firmus, MarZoticus, a critic and poet ;
;
;
cellus
Orrontius,
Roman
nobles
;
and Rogatianus, four of Alexandria, a rhetor
Sabinillus,
Serapion
turned philosopher and a number of ladies, Gemina, her daughter of the same name, Amphicleia, Chione. ;
Chief of the band, though late in joining, was Porphyry or Malchus (King), a Tyrian. Plotinus called him poet, philosopher, and priest," saved "
him from life
him
his executor.
"against
him as much of his make known, and appointed
self-destruction, told
own
as he chose to
the
Porphyry wrote a famous book
Christians."
There
is
a taint of super
contentiousness, and inaccuracy about him, and he stands on a much lower intellectual level than stition,
his master.
But he was not an unworthy
disciple,
and
a respectable place in the history of his school. Plotinus was a man of reading and of wide ex
fills
He had surveyed all the schools, and perience. But all learned much from Stoics and Peripatetics. his ideas, whatever the source from which they emanated, have been transformed and welded into
new
relations
His system all
by the is
fire
of his
own
creative genius. it
Platonism, though the best fruits of Greek thought.
has absorbed Further,
it
is
Hellenism in substance, form, and method. Through his residence in Alexandria, Plotinus was no doubt
PLOTINUS familiar with
many forms
of Eastern opinion
189
of Orientalism, but no trace
be found in the Enneads. Everything flows in a direct line from the teaching of his Greek predecessors. He was himself an Eastern, but
is
to
activity was in any way can only have been through the sentiments, and the result must be looked for if
his
intellectual
modified by his origin,
it
simply in the profoundly religious cast of all his In this, as in other points, he speculations. repre sents the culminating point of a tendency universal
among the Greeks themselves. But when we observe how many of his nearest adherents were Eastern, like it is possible to think, that the fervour of his devotion was intensified by his Coptic blood. Much the same thing is true of Stoicism also. The Orient has always been the land of inspiration.
himself,
Plotinus was charged with
filching the
ideas of
Numenius.
His friends repelled the attack with a heat that we cannot quite understand, for there was certainly a
connection
they explain the
between the two.
Nor do by main
difference, further than
taining that Plotinus was far superior in
What they mean probably is, that Numenius still possesses attributes, absolutely unconditioned.
"
accuracy."
the
and
One is
But they may mean,
of
not that
Numenius was a Jew. According to Porphyry and his circle, the spiritual was Ammonius Saccas. Ammonius left no writings, and the brace of quotations that bear father of Plotinus
his
name must be regarded
have no means
with doubt.
Hence we
for estimating the exact relationship
NEOPLATONISM between him and
his great
disciple.
But
it
must
the final have included the two leading points, of identification the and definition of the Absolute, Neither God. of with the Intelligence the
Ideas
was
in
a
strict
sense the creation of
Ammomus,
but
the mind which brought them his must have been them with that co into clear relation, and stamped With what is the life of doctrines.
herency which difficulty
these
conceptions
won
their
footing
is
that both Porphyry and evident from the facts, and the new theory of ideas, Longinus opposed that Plotinus spends page the One cannot think.
that page in arguing the find we Here then
after
the Conservative and the New dividing line between of Plotinus to Ammomus. Platonism, and the debt
Both conceptions are of the highest importance. between ancient and modern They form the bridge And whatever may be thought of the metaphysics.
now
the new theory of ideas Neoplatonist One, can hardly believe that there so firmly rooted that we not accepted. was once a time when it was is
XII
THE WORLD OF SENSE LIKE
the
all
Greek
sharp distinction
World of
I
Idealists, Plotinus drew a very between the World of Sense and the
Intelligence.
The World
of Sense is in itself manifold, imper manent, half -real, and therefore imperfectly knowable. It is i.
marked
By
Multiplicity.
interminable
host
of
observe their recurrence
combinations,
we gather them
again into of a horse
rise to that
still
we
comparison of
it
offers
sensations,
of
to
us
sight,
is
sound,
larger groups.
in
more or
into groups,
less
fixed
and these
From
the conception of an animal, and from a animals with all plants and all
all
inorganic things to that of sensible existence. generalize; we unify; and, in proportion as succeed in laying hold of a principle of
unity,
begin to know. All
things
The
that
an
These we can in no way grasp we have reduced them to order.
touch, taste, smell. or understand, till
We
What
unity
is
We we we
in the things themselves.
because they are one There could be no army, no chorus, no flock of are,
are,
NEOPLATONISM not one ; no house, no ship ; for, sheep, if each were it is no longer the or house ship loses its unity, if the But in a higher sense it is in a house or a ship."
the Divine imparted to the things by are akin minds our Mind, and we perceive it because
Mind.
It
is
to the Divine.
By Change. -The
2.
had learned from
Platonists " "
Heraclitus that water.
God bed
all
things
river."
The man who goes to same man who rose in the
"
I am." alone can say is not the
at night
All that
we
see
is
Heraclitus said,
peace,"
;
dead."
From
this again
world cannot in enduring, and
By
is
"belongs
the law of
only to the
follows that the sensible
be known. For knowledge also. object must endure
itself
its
Strife.
it
;
has taken a
it, it
before you can point your Perpetual mutability different shape. "
cloud
like a drifting
finger at
3.
same
cannot step twice into the
"You
morning.
life
a stream of
like
flow
Here again Heraclitus taught
is
the
is the cease Platonist that the condition of existence and Life begets death, less play of antagonisms. is the father of said Heraclitus, War," death- life. "
"
all things,
he found
and the king of fault with
all,"
Homer
for
and on praying
this
ground
"that
strife
and men." In the might perish from among gods the s poet had unwittingly judgment philosopher
of for all things are the children cursed the world, the This idea was a commonplace among strife." "
Platonists.
They were not dismayed
so
much by
the s the apparent harshness of the world march, by of survival laws of life-in-death, of competition and
THE WORLD OF SENSE.
I
]
0*
the fittest. Whatever is lawful seemed to admit of some kind of explanation, though rot a wholly satis The main difficulties they found in factory one.
imperfection of type, and above all, How they grappled with these per here it is sufficient to plexities we shall see later on notice that in the sensible world they discerned lawlessness, in
in
moral
evil.
;
everywhere traces of inadequacy, a weakening of the ideal, as in a picture that
only partially realizes the
But the power to recognize im perfection depends on the knowledge of the perfect.
artist s
It is
conception.
by the law that we condemn the
law, says Plotinus, does not
does lawlessness make law. fact, that
order
is
make
lawless.
Now
lawlessness, neither
Disorder
is
due
to the
superimposed by a higher intelligence
upon things or
creatures, that are for some reason or another imperfectly receptive of it. Here again then the sensible world cannot be understood in itself.
We
must look to the ideal of which it is the image, shadow and we claim to possess this ideal by the very fact that we can venture to pass judgment the
;
on the deficiencies of the shadow.
Here everything is bound in 4. By Necessity. the iron chain of causality. Everything has a cause ; the cause is outside it, and yet determines its nature. Even man
himself, so far as he is an animal, is not His reasonings depend on sensations, and these on external objects. His will is limited by circumstances; even his virtues are called into free.
existence
with
by the nature of the peculiar difficulties which he has to contend. Nevertheless an
N
NEOPLATONISM universal,
and therefore
him
true, belief tells
that he
freedom to be found ? Not is free. where all depends in this material contingent world, on something else, but in the realm of thought. determined only by Thought is cause and not effect, are itself, the laws of truth and goodness, which
Where then
is
Thus again therefore self-determined, therefore free. we are led to believe in the existence of another world higher and better than the world of sense.
From these considerations it followed that the of world we live in is a world of half reality, a world not becoming, not of being, apprehended by opinion, we which of facts sense, by true knowledge. The
We do think most certain, are really least certain. not are purely subjective. not even know that they a stepping-stone to understanding; we must begin with them ; but they play us sad tricks, because they make it most difficult for us to avoid to spiritual existence the qualities which
They
are
attributing
we are accustomed to recognize in Those who have read the Republic
finite
objects.
of Plato
will
Cave. recollect the famous allegory of the men in the is that of St. Paul. Plotinus of simile favourite The
The world
is
like a mirror, in
man
which a
he adds, shadows of realities. Only," Matter." see not do and mirror, you
"
"
If
we look
closely at the world of sense,
a combination of two factors
that
it is
(ii.)
Qualities.
I.
The
(i.)
sees the
you see the
we discover Matter and
reader must distinguish carefully between
Matter and Material or
Stuff.
THE WORLD OP SENSE. .
*
I
195
According to the Timaeus of Plato, the Cosmos was made by God out of Necessity or Chaos, stuff
primeval
that
is,
already
certain
possessing
attributes, including, no doubt, solidity and extension, but piled together without order, and heaving to and
with a discordant, unintelligent movement. is represented in later times by Plutarch,
fro
view it
led to the belief in an evil creator side
For
the good. "
manufactured
Ormuzd,
But the
by side with
determined material
this
article,"
must owe
it
This
whom
its
an!, as
is already a not moulded by
it is
nature to Ahriman.
later Platonists, as
Albinus (or Alcinous)
and Plotinus, follow on this point the teaching of Aristotle was the first to the Peripatetics and Stoics. use
the
word Matter
(in
Greek
Latin Materia,
JTyte,
as
wood
a term
of
;
in
the
building stuff), the impalpable, invisible sub stratum of things, in contradistinction from the visible schools,
denote
From him
Form. to
to
the
Stoics,
and
these two famous phrases passed from them to Neoplatonism.
Plotinus differs from Aristotle in
some minor
details,
but practically what he did was to clear the idealist use of the word from any sort of ambiguity. Strip off from any finite existence all attributes of every kind ; take
away
from
it
colour,
taste,
smell,
warmth,
and the residuum is matter. The necessity of such a residuum was established partly by appeal to the universal belief of the schools, partly by the scientific axiom that nothing can come out of nothing, and nothing can return texture, solidity, shape, extension,
into
nothing.
Suppose a case of complete change,
NEOrLATONlSM
196
such as that of the grub into the butterfly. There has been complete alteration, yet no death, no breach of continuity. Something has persisted the Form :
has been entirely renewed, but the Matter subsists unaffected.
Hence
Matter
the
called
is
nurse,
of the Form.
substratum
vehicle,
receptacle,
must not be
It
supposed that the Matter becomes the Form, or that It is acquires qualities by union with the Form.
it
merely the principle of the condition of yet
there the
is
We
Latin.
it
"
itself
is
to
is
be found
it
is
Form,
it
it is
is
in
nothing
all
Matter
is
But,
if
and ness,
all
space.
when
no
darkness.
Its
its
if it
existence
subtle
exist.
be joined to is
a future, a
Greek marked the
exquisite turns of expression.
not Nothing (OVK: ov), but No Thing (fju) 6V). it has no qualities, what can we know about
In the night so,
potentially,
The
one of
distinction by
;
things.
of being.
promise
?
continuous,
cannot be said either to exist or not to
Actually
it
"one,
approach we can make that intangible aether, which
physicists speak of as pervading It
receives shape,
Matter, but to the Greek no body." It immaterial ; it has call
has no parts or divisions; The nearest unqualified." it
cohesion, the
s
It
It remains always exactly what shaped." For modern readers absolutely undefined. a trap in the word we have borrowed from
matter
to
"
not
is
was,
it
Form
manifestation.
its
light
all
is
Can
colours are black, says Plotinus, strips its object of all definite-
mind
the
it
and it sees nothing but the be said even to see the darkness,
left,
THE WORLD OF SENSE. for
can see
it
197
only as solid, and matter has no
it
Is thinking
solidity?
I
thinking about about Nothing, the
as
about Matter, then, the same
Nothing
mind
is
?
No
;
blank, but
when we think when we think
about Matter, we have a kind of impression of the So Plato said that we conceived of it by
shapeless.
a r
"
bastard
reasoning."
be seen that the Neoplatonist went very near to denying the existence of matter. If, as he defined it, it was not nothing, it was, at any rate, It
will
next to nothing. Sometimes Plotinus seems inclined blot it out altogether, as Bishop Berkeley did,
to
and Carlyle; but
this is
merely due to his love of
starting every possible hypothesis.
matter
lies
him
lands
eternal,
be
it
at the root of his
The
eternity of
whole system, and
it
two grave difficulties. If matter is ought, on his own most cherished principles, in
he regards it as the cause of evil. has no And, qualities, it ought to be a perfectly indifferent medium for the form. Yet, as we shall to
perfect, yet
if it
was much in the world for which he could account only by supposing that matter had a certain see, there
power of
resistance, a sort of imperfect transparence,
so that the
form often succeeded only
suffusing the matter with
This
is
partially in
its light.
the fundamental difficulty of Platonism.
It
does not succeed, after all, in attaining that unity towards which all philosophy aspires. It issues in a dualism. Matter is distinguished from God, therefore
limits
God
both physically and morally,.
This explains why the Platonist was so anxious to
NEOPLATONISM
198
reduce the conception of Matter to the lowest possible term, why he ascribed to it a merely hypothetical existence. If he could show that Matter was all but nothing, he could also
He
almighty.
show
God was
that
all
but
narrowed the gulf to a mere chink,
but could not close
it
altogether.
had done what modern philosophers are do, if he had set the human mind on the
If Plotinus
inclined to
same plane with bodily existence, and found in God common and sole cause of both, he would have been compelled to distinguish between finite and the
and
infinite spirits,
further,
he would
physical
this
he thought impossible.
have imported moral
imperfection into the
But,
evil
self-evolution
and
of the
We
and thus again have limited God. In some must always remain. cannot leap off our own shadow, as Goethe said.
No
philosophy can solve the insoluble.
divine,
shape or another the dualism
The
best
which approaches nearest to a solu philosophy and tion, explains the most, and the most important, is
that
phenomena of
life.
worth while to dwell upon the definition of Matter, for it is one of the most interesting words in It is
language. theological,
Endless controversies, philosophical and the doctrine of have centred round it ;
transubstantiation, for instance, with
all its
momentous
consequences, hinges upon the definition of Plotinus, which in words agrees with, but in substance absolutely differs from, that of Aristotle.
a Christian, Christianity.
and
Plotinus
But the word
Yet Aristotle was not was has
an
antagonist of received a more
THE WORLD OF SENSE.
199
I
immediate and practical interest in our own times. For the Matter of Plotinus is, in fact, the Infinite, the
X
God, of the modern Agnostic. Agnosticism begins by setting the Finite against the Infinite, and endeavours to grasp the Infinite by throwing on one side all those properties or limitations which make the Finite. This is precisely the method, the via negativa, pursued by Plotinus in his hunt after matter. The Naturally the result is the same.
^
Infinite itself
of
a presupposition of all knowledge, but in mere negation, involved in our perception
is
a
it is
all finite
believe in
it
things, yet in itself ;
yet cannot
know
We
No it,
Thing. because
it is
must like a
vast sheet of grey paper stretched across the sky, with no lines or divisions upon which the eye can rest.
We
have a
sort of consciousness of
as Plotinus said, of the shapeless.
-h
It
Matter, the Infinite, of the Platonist
4-
Agnostic
calls
an impression,
it,
;
is,
in fact, the
but,
good, the Platonist called
what the
evil.
This
startling contradiction depends on the view that taken as to the nature of qualities. If the Infinite
.
the perfect, the finite
is
imperfect
and
;
if this
is is
im
perfection comes from its finitude, finitude as such is bad. Hence the qualities which define and limit and
negate the Infinite are in themselves
evil.
Platonist the qualities are precisely that
-h
existence, ,
life
and beauty.
far as reality is to
be found
They
But to the
which gives
are the reality, so
in this world.
It is true
that they are but shadows, imperfect copies of the heavenly realities, but the imperfection is due precisely to their contamination
by the
Infinite.
NEOPLATONISM
2-00
Things would have been a great deal clearer, if the had only used the word Law in its modern
Platonist
When he spoke of law, he meant convention we call law, he called Idea. But, if we may
sense..
what
;
translate his teaching into our
ology,
it
amounts
to this, that
good, and where
is "
Liberty,"
there
is
says Mr. Ruskin,
own
familiar phrase
where there "
is
law there
no law there
is
evil.
whether in the body,
soul, or political estate of
man, is only another word final and the issue of Death, Putrefaction ; Death, the body, soul, and political estate being healthy only for
by their bonds and laws." and simple. Liberty here material,
Law
is
which
in
itself
is
This is
is
Platonism pure
the indefinite, infinite,
no good and no
thing.
neither finite nor infinite, though both terms
may be applied to it with equal impropriety. It is the reality and the life, and qualities are the scintil lations, the bubbles on the stream, by which we ascertain the presence
and the nature of the
life.
XIII
THE WORLD OF SENSE II.
THE
passages on the subject of 6 throughout vi. 3, 8, 9, 10, 15. sensible existence Plotinus considered to be
Qualities are
All
II
leading
Enn.
ii.
:
an aggregate of Matter and Qualities. He devoted much labour and space to a thorough and exceedingly keen-sighted criticism of the Categories of Aristotle,
which no student of the history of philosophy ought to neglect. But for our present purpose it is sufficient to notice
one of the most important of
his
conclu
All Qualities, whether of what we call in the narrower sense of the word quality, such as colour, 7 warmth, and so forth, or of quantity, or of movement, sions.
or of relation, may be divided from another point of view into those which are complementary to the existence, and those which are not.
By those which
are
not,
he means acquired or
fortuitous dispositions, such as virtue, beauty, health, disease ; or transient affections, such as or ;
blushing the operations of one body upon another, such as the warmth of a garment which has been placed near the fire and then removed. These do not concern the
NEOPLATONISM
202
existence of the thing.
no
man because he
of
;
bad,
happens to be red-hot.
it
The
last
not well chosen from a modern point of but to the ancient physicist, heat was a property
instance
view
is
because
less iron
They come and go, and make is neither more nor less a and iron is neither more nor
A man
real difference.
is
was caused by
fire,
Hence when found dent, a quality
fire,
and belonged to it was a mere
in other things
gone
astray, as
it
were, from
its
fire.
acci
proper
habitat.
The
really important qualities are the
complement
which belong to a particular thing, which what it is, and with the matter constitute its
ary, those
make
it
A particular man produces in us a particular group of impressions; he has a certain sensible existence.
these define him, and ; other objects of perception. We cannot analyze the sensations that he causes in us ; But can we account for them they are ultimate facts.
height, shape, colour, carriage
mark him
off
from
all
any way ? Can we explain how they come to be there for us to perceive, and to be there in that peculiar combination? Plotinus thought that we could, and in
looked upon the complex group of sensations pro duced by an individual object as the energies of a Logos, by which that individual object was made.
Logos
is
requires to
another famous term of the schools.
It
be distinguished from Idea, and from
Eidos, or Form.
The Idea
is
the Divine
most abstract expression. of
all
Thought It
is
that exists in this world.
in its highest and the ultimate cause
Before
God
could
THE WORLD OF SENSE. there must have
create,
distinct notion or idea of "
How
was
it
H
203
His intelligence a
been
in
what
He meant
He
possible that
should
to create.
first
wish to
form a horse, and then invent the type of a horse Obviously, the type of a horse must have existed first (vi.
? "
7, 8).
Form
is
sometimes used as practically synonymous
Where they are distinguished it is in this way, that Idea belongs to the Intelligence, the second person of the Neoplatonist Trinity, while Form resides with Idea.
in the Soul, the third person. The Soul is busy with the world of becoming, over which it presides. Hence the ideas which it has received from above have
become forms they have taken shape as it were they are more concrete. Forms, Plotinus says, are all ;
;
"
are
They
sensible."
what we mean
nearly
Natural Kinds or Types. The Form is still a thought, but of plunging into material existence.
about to become the
particular.
into or evolves the Logos, but a power or energy.
which
At is
it is
by
on the point
It is the general
this stage
it
changes
no longer a thought,
generally translated Word," owing to the influence of the English version of St. John s Gospel,
Logos
"
is
and we may render
it
that the usage signifies
not
"
is
accordance with general it should be noticed
in
usage by this expression.
Yet
inaccurate and misleading. Logos but an account or speech,"
Word
"
"
"
description of anything." Hence it acquired the sense of definition, reasonable explanation. From this again it came by a natural transition to denote that which
NEOPLATONISM
204
forms the basis of the explanation, the cause, the living force or energy which brings the thing into being,
and
makes
is
what
it
it
In this
is.
last
it
acceptation
a
coinage of the Stoics, from whom it was borrowed by The difference between its usage the Neoplatonists.
by the two schools depends on the difference The between their respective conceptions of God. their deity was the soul of Stoics were Pantheists ;
Word was
the world, and the indwelling
a
therefore
cause, an immediate operation of the creative
first
But the Neoplatonists were Theists and Tran-.
mind.
and
scendentalists,
Word
in their teaching accordingly the
a secondary
is
cause,
we mean by
nearly to what
and approaches very
physical law.
Only the
regarded as a living force, proceeding from, and inseparably connected with, a thought in the
law
is
Divine mind, of which
Nor
it
is
the likeness, the shadow.
force
wholly unintelligent, though its operation resembles rather instinct, and it bears to the Idea or the Form the relation of the sleeping to the is
this
waking mind.
And now we can Word is often called "
spe.rma>
seed
"),
see
what Qualities
are.
The
(from the Greek like the seed which "
"
spermatic
because
it
is
carries implicit within itself all the properties of the
developed of the rose fore life,
this
The texture, colour, fragrance, shape come from the seed. They must there
plant. all
have lain in the seed as hidden powers or laws of which manifest themselves to our perception in way. This of course is but an analogy, for the seed
itself is material.
What we
are to understand
is,
that
i
THE WORLD OF
SENSE.
II
205
whenever the Word, shot out as it were from the divine comes into contact with matter, it "makes a thing."
soul,
All
its
come
manifold activities
"
bod^hood," solidity,
nomena
that
go with
into play
these.
It creates,
ox or the horse as we see them.
it
produces
all
the phe say, the
;
and extension, and
we may
Not
that
it
moulds
or qualifies the Matter, The Matter is in no case anything but a sort of reflecting surface on which the
Form
able by
is
of
picture
modes of
Word
itself,
means of the Word a sensible picture
sensible apprehension.
such
as
is
Hence though
always combined with
being in fact
(etx<fywVrog),
project a
to
adapted to our
we
are able to abstract
the
Form
it
life
as
we
(x<api&tp)t
see
it
the
Matter at
work,
and consider
it
in
or the Idea.
be gathered from what has been said that Idea, Form, and Word belong properly to the works of God. They bring down life. It should be noticed, It will
however, that on the one hand every natural thing shares in life so far as it is capable. Even a stone has energies,
is
some limited degree, because it the other hand, certain exceptions
a cause in
has a word.
On
were admitted, abnormalities, things contrary to nature.
There was no idea of
human
art,
fever.
As
to the products of
there was a divergence of opinion.
Most
Platonists, according to Albinus (or Alcinous), would not allow that a house, a shield, a picture had any idea.
They were works of man, not of God. of Plotinus
(v. 9,
n),
alf
creations of art
In the view
and industry
are ideal in a secondary sense, in so far that is as they embody the thoughts of the derived intelligence of
NEOPLATONlSM
2o6
man.
Thus he
able to
is
speak of the form of a
These house, as Plato spoke of the idea of a bed. instances will help the reader to grasp the general meaning of the doctrine of Form. What we recognize
when we
see a house
been
is
mind of
the plan, the
the
a concrete thought, and could not have there unless the thought had preceded it.
builder.
It is
Doors, windows,
rooms, the
chimneys, the arrangement of the or stone, or
brick,
mud,
or marble,
of
which the walls are composed, are all expressions of the word of the man who dwelt under this roof, and
make himself
tried to
surroundings would his poverty, in
In one building we discern another his love of art, in another rr s
political condition,
Everywhere, so
meaning
is
illegible,
So
stumbles. is
another his
in
aspira
religious
we can grasp the idea, Where the generating purpose, we understand.
tions.
the
as comfortable as his material
allow.
it is
far as
the order confused, knowledge
in the
world at large.
The
effect
always a symbol of the cause, the thing of the mind
that called
it
Thus we distinctly
into being. arrive
at
formulated
the
idealist
position
as
first
by the great Neoplatonist. none other than the thought of
The external world is God transmuted into vital
law. What we cognize or recognize therein are the traces, imitations, shadows of intelligence. We know them in so far as they are shadows ; we do not know them in so far as they are
The modern way of expressing the only shadows. same view is that there is no object without a subject, no thing without a thinker.
Nothing can
exist,
THE WORLD OF SENSE. nothing be known, except in so arranged, brought
into
far
II
2OJ
as
it
is
made,
relation with other
definite
things by an ordering reason.
There
remain
still
phenomena
of the
for consideration
Space and Time. The same general considerations, conditions
of
sensible
there
is
here
also.
because they are the
real,
with
is
call
that rule all the
existence, apply
Space and Time are half shadows of realities. It qualities.
two important
world, which we
sensible
them
as with
all
Colour does not belong to the idea, yetsomething in the idea, which ultimately pro
duces colour.
It
is
just the
same with Space and
Time. It
two
will
assist the reader,
most
instructive
if
we
passages
translate here the
on the
of
subject
Space.
The
first is
"
Every else, if
JEnnead
v. 5,
9
cause or in something anything after that which caused it
effect is either in its
there
is
(any secondary cause, that
is).
For inasmuch as
it
brought into being by something else, and wanted that something else in order that it might come to be, is
wants
it absolutely ; wherefore it is in therefore are in the last before things
it
it.
The
them
;
last
these
again in those before them ; and one thing is in another up to the first principle of all. But the first principle, inasmuch as it has nothing before it, cannot be in anything else ; and since it cannot be in anything, it embraces in itself all those things that are in what precedes them. But, though it embraces
NEOPLATONISM
20 g
them, and contains them, it is not dissipated among Since it contains, then, without being contained. is is nowhere where it is not contained, there yet not is it if And Otherwise it does not contain. not. So that it is, and is not is not it is not. ;
contained,
because
it
is
not limited, but able to be everywhere,
because free from
For
all restraint.
if it is
it
unable,
and what lies beyond is bounded by something else, and God reaches in it, that boundary does not share and will be no to that boundary and no further, that
but subject to the things longer independent, which are in some beyond Him, Things, therefore, are those but are things which thing, are where they li
;
nowhere are
everywhere."
The other passage is Ennead vi. 8, The whole difficulty, that besets
n us in the con
arises from our first sideration of the world of sense, and then, when of kind chaos, a as
assuming Space, we have set up this notion of Space ations, bringing
in
our imagin
Then when we have we begin to ask whence and how we as if He were a new arrival,
God
into
it.
brought Him in, did He come, and,
and what He have been wondering how He got here, from some abyss, if He had suddenly emerged is, as It is needful, or dropped down from the clouds. cause of all this perplexity, and then, to cut away the our thought of Him, cast Space away altogether from
and not suppose seated
that
in anything,
He is, just that Him to be, and
as
He
is
in anything, or lies, or
or that
He
that
He
is,
Space,
came
and like
at
as reason
all,
is
but
proves
everything
else,
THE WORLD OF SENSE. is
Himthat
after
Space indeed
II
is
2O9
after everything
else." x
Rather more has been translated here than is requisite for our immediate purpose, but it will all help the reader on his way. Space, it will be seen, is explained by the general doctrine of The causality. effect is
bodies,
always in the cause. it
them
When
the
Word makes
and so makes space. Space is the last of all things it is made by bodies which are made by words, which come from the gives
extension, ;
mind.
Everything
therefore
is
in
is
mind, which
nothing, and therefore If the reader is a
conclusion,
in that
is
which precedes
it; all-
in
God, who is everywhere and nowhere.
little
is
in
startled
by this abrupt he must remember that existence, ac
cording to Plotinus,
is thought, and then ask himself thoughts exist in the mind. What, for instance are the length and breadth of the idea of or
how
how
justice,
is it
of these
parted off from other ideas? abstract
notions
What
is
true
is
obviously true also of conceptions derived from material things, if we can reason about them as Plotinus held that we could without forming a picture of them. Even if
we do
form some sort of picture, what is the size of our imaginative presentation of an ox, or how is it separated from the thought of an animal, or in which particular pigeon-hole of the
And where help us means.
at
is
the
mind
any rate
We commonly
to
mind
is
it
stored
away?
These questions understand what Plotinus itself?
speak of the world as -in space. o
NEOPLATONISM
210
According to the Neoplatonist, space is and nowhere else. Space, in fact,
in the is
world \
extension.
by space, they are limited by their own space or shape; the limit is from within, and not from without. Thus space, place, room, bulk, If bodies are limited
are
only, different
names
existence.
corporeal about the body, and is
really
meant by
for
the
same property of
the body, or rather this distinction shows us what It
"in."
is
in
Bodies cannot be
"in"
; they may be adjacent, or circumjacent, but The never injacent, if that word may be coined.
bodies
wine
is
surrounded by the pitcher, but
it is
not
"in"
the pitcher in the same sense in which a thought is the mind, as a part which implies the whole, and is inter-penetrated by every other part, as an "in"
energy of the undivided
Thus Space existence, a
life.
turns out to be a
rough
similitude
mere mode of earthly of the
true
spiritual
word Carefully interrogated, the little will lead us up from things "here" to things From the materialized ideas flattened "yonder."
existence. "in"
out into length and breadth so as to become visible, we can rise to the conception of the same ideas as in the Divine they exist, one in all and all in one,
Mind. It is the
a special
The nists.
same with Time, to the treatment of which book of the Enneads (iii. 7) is devoted.
subject
They
a commonplace with the later Platoset Time over against Eternity as its
is
They are counterpart, but not as its contradictory. is not Time infinite. as finite and not distinguished
THE WORLD OF SENSE.
211
II
a piece snipped off from Eternity and measured out. It is just as eternal in the vulgar sense of the word as Eternity
Eternity
It is
itself.
made
image of
"an
Eternity"
visible.
Eternity is defined as the life of Being, that the Divine Intelligence ; and here, therefore, we to some extent anticipate the doctrine of
Conceive of a geometer who science, so that all Euclid
mind
is
is
is
of
must God.
absolute master of his
present at once to his
an articulated system, a host of pro in unity. ordered Conceive of him further positions as making no immediate use of his knowledge, but s
gaze as
Think sitting with eyes closed contemplating it. next of the Intelligence of God as the fullness of all abstract thoughts. Each idea is perfectly distinct and conscious, yet they melt into one another, and they are felt as the powers of one life, and the conscious ness of their unity parateness.
there will
is
as clear as that of their dis
In such an Intelligence, says Plotinus, be sameness and yet difference, rest and
movement. There will be life but no change, because nothing can be added to it and nothing taken Hence it will have no past or future, only away.
yet
present.
The Divine the
is
it
Intelligence
We
includes
We may
is
it
its
property, its are not. far from a correct definition if
say that Eternity
God.
unity in diversity,
One-Many, and Eternity
nature.
we
is
1
all life,
is
life,
which
and never
loses
even say that Eternity
is
infinite
because
any part of is
the
itself.
same
as
NEOPLATONISM
2I2
In the Divine Soul the unity is
diversity
is
weakened and the
It is no longer One-Many, Reasoning has taken the place and creation has begun. With it
increased.
but One and Many. of contemplation,
Time
is
begins Time. not exist out of the soul.
born of the It
is
the
soul,
and does
movement
of the
which grasps one thought after reasoning faculty, from one perception to another. another, and passes with the successive changes It is not to be confused of external things, such as
the stars
;
these are in
but reveal it. Time time ; they do not create time, lower the life, as Eternity the property of is, in brief, the relation of in stand These two is
of the higher.
cause and
Thus Time is
effect,
of substance and shadow. is a fact of sensible existence,
while Space
Both may be called Laws purely subjective. lower regions of thought. the of of Thought, but only for all, but certainly for indeed It is possible, not of intelli the whom in higher faculty some for those Being, with ideas, to deal with gence
is
awake
divested of these and
pure
all
other sensible limitations.
XIV THE INTELLIGIBLE WORLD ABOVE, around, within the World of Sense, which not unreal because it partakes of reality, yet is but a shadow, a semblance, stands the World of Intelli is
gence, which truly exists, and can be It truly known. characterized by Unity, Eternity, Goodness, Beauty, Truth, Freedom, and Life. All these things we see as in a glass "here," darkly, but "yonder "face to is
face.
"
Here
Plotinus most
and
"
yonder"
commonly marks
are the words by which the difference between
the two worlds.
Two
of
features
especial notice. i.
It is
the
It is
For
Many.
it is
of the world of sense.
though
not
world
Intelligible
Many,
yet
it is
call
for
One.
the archetype, the pattern
Whatever
is
"here"
is
also
in
exactly the same sense, because its mode of existence is different. There is no matter yonder, yet there is which "yonder,"
something
to
corresponds divisible
complex,
like
Ideas
it.
bodies, yet
"
after"
simpler, earlier
others.
than
are
some
not
compound and and more
are lower
The idea
of animal
is
of man, and intelligence stands to soul in the relation of form. Soul is a child that
NEOPLATONISM
214
in it. There are no qualities of intelligence and which issue in qualities. there are powers yonder, yet "
"
There There
no room, yet mind is the room of the ideas. no time, yet time, the moving life of the soul,
is is
the child and image of eternity. For this aspect of intelligence the most speaking name is Life. Here again we will translate Plotinus
is
12)
(vi. 7,
we
Yonder, as after
say that this All is framed after the a pattern, the All must first exist
yonder as a living
entity,
since
"For
an animal
;
and since
its
idea
Heaven, complete, everything must exist yonder. therefore, must exist there as an animal, not without what here we call its stars, and this is the idea of
is
Yonder too of course must be the Earth, more richly furnished with life in
heaven.
not bare, but far it
are
all
;
creatures that
rooted in
life.
Sea,
ebbing and flowing
move on dry
too,
is
land and plants yonder, and all water
in abiding life
that inhabit the water,
and
all
are part of the all yonder, and the same reason as Air itself.
which
is
;
and
all
creatures
the tribes of the air all
aerial beings, for
For how should that
in the living not live itself, seeing that
even
Surely then every animal must of neces For as each of the great parts of the sity be yonder. world is, so of necessity is the nature of the creatures
here
it
lives ?
that
it
contains.
As then heaven
itself exists
yonder,
so yonder exist all the animals that dwell in heaven, and it is not possible that it should be otherwise."
The word only
"animals"
sentient
creatures,
passage embraces not but plants and inorganic
in this
THE INTELLIGIBLE WORLD All share in a kind of
substances.
life
215
in so far as they
are moulded by a word. They answer to a thought, and therefore it cannot be beneath the dignity of
the Divine Intelligence to contemplate their ideas. Existence in one of its aspects is life, or has life, and life is teeming, prolific, manifold. This real and fertile
the main avenue through which to reach the notion of Deity. the infinite variety of qualities, even
conception
is
Plotinus endeavours Life begets
all
opposite and warring It makes our bodies ;
move and
qualities,
such as heat and cold.
makes the world
it
in
which they
Plotinus speaks, with something ap to proaching contempt, of logic, as a mere system of barren rules, and professes to be guided by a truly scientific
act.
method.
fault, that,
It
was
his misfortune
and not
his
there was scarcely anything of science, except in the way of
in his time,
name
deserving the
mathematics, and to some extent of surgery. abstractions were not mere abstractions.
But
He
his
does
not attempt to get at the unconditioned by leaving out the conditioned. In this way we make God
merely the Great Denial ; He is not this and not and so we banish Him altogether, building up a
that,
high wall, as
The
were, round the verge of the world. remains unsolved and unsolvable, be
it
difficulty
cause no number of negatives will make an affirmative ; ten thousand ignorances will not create knowledge. The method of Plotinus is the exact opposite. He starts
that
with an affirmative, with a
we know.
God
seed-thought, a word
is,
full
and
fact,
is Life.
with something
Here we have a
of powers capable of separate
NEOPLATONISM
2l6
and
What we have
diversified manifestations.
to view this
is
next,
life
in
itself,
as perfect
to
and
do
free.
This we can achieve, because its earthly limitations lend us a hand, as it were ; they are traces," which mark "
Hence we must by no means out the upward path. deny them, or leave them out of count, but simply We dismiss the particular, but carry transform them.
We leave the thing, but grasp with us the general. God is God, not the energy that causes the thing. nothing, but because He embraces all those energies. He is absolute, but not unconditioned. And this Anagoge or upward path Plotinus held to be
He
because
is
to us, because the
open
human mind
is
a copy,
and
may become an exact copy, of the mind of God. Intelligence, therefore is Many, because it is the fullness of thought (copce). in
exists
golden
The
the Divine Nous,
statues,"
which
sum-total of the Ideas
not outside of
God must
"
it,
like
search for and look
He can think. It is not to be supposed must needs run about in search of notions, perhaps not finding them at all, perhaps not recog This is the lot of man, nizing them when found. whose life is spent often in the search, sometimes in the vain search, after truth. But to the Deity all
up
to,
that
before
He
knowledge is always equally present. This, as we have already seen, was the master-thought, which gave birth to Idealism as a coherent whole, and clinched it into an intelligible system. 2.
But
it is
also
One.
"
"
Suppose,"
says
eyes of Lynceus,
Plotinus,
who could
that thou
hadst the
see into the inside of
THE INTELLIGIBLE WORLD things.
Suppose
(v.
8,
217
9) that thou couldst view the
world from without, and
it was a great sphere of transparent glass full of light, so that thou couldst see at a glance all that is in it. Keeping this supposition in mind, conceive another sphere divested of bulk, of place, of the notion of matter that is in thee. Do
not try to
make
than the
the second sphere merely smaller
God to thy aid, who made the first, sphere of which thou hast an imagination. And may He come bringing with Him His own world with all the gods that are in it, being one and all, and all in but
call
all
blending into one, and in their powers being but in the one sovereign power all being one, or rather all being the One.! Let us observe how Plotinus struggles to define the idea of immaterial existence. each,
different,
He
was the
He
task. all
first
writer
who
words are coined
of
under the grasp of the senses.
for instance,
that
exactly what
a positive sense.
and has
thee,"
it
life
is
we mean But
enlisted
"
we
Hence
tangible,
does not the nature
We
say,
We
infinite.
the negative word has the notion of matter is in
all
;
language in life is
interpreter.
what
and
in negatives.
immaterial or
though the other notion of cannot find a faithful
that,
difficulty, that
to anything that
mind can only be expressed
know
grappled with this
to express the visible
and do not apply exactly fall
fairly
was confronted by the usual
its "
service, so
in thee
We
"
too,
can think
can only say what it is not. is; general habit of Plotinus is to couple a positive with a negative. Thus, when he speaks of an idea as it
The
NEOPLATONISM
2i8
will say, part, yet not a part," part of the mind, he because the word part applies properly only to things "a
that
we can break
in pieces
inasmuch as
said to have parts
may be
yet a notion
;
is
it
complex, and can
incapable of physical division. which has no equivalent Similarly, for omnipresence,
be denned, -though
in Greek,
he
it is
"
will say,
everywhere and yet "immaterial
In the passage just quoted, not mean begs the reader to notice, does Size does
sphere."
not
come
in at
nowhere."
sphere," "a
all.
he
smaller
What he
Most wants to get at is the pure idea of a sphere. an have only men being unapt for abstract thought, "
can only grasp the notion by forming
imagination,"
an actual picture or image of
it.
Such pictures are
too concrete, they bring out the lines of division too clearly ; they belong to the soul, but not to the
We want not exactly to obliterate these But for this we want see to but through them. lines, teach us to think can alone who of God, .,the help intelligence.
about that which transcends experience. Intelligence, the Intellectual World, then, Trc ora) in all its diversity, because (eV
opou
thoughts form a living whole. the others
;
if
we know one
Each
all
carries with
perfectly,
One
is
its
it all
we know
all.
from They are like the rays of a circle shooting out one in one point, like the manifold virtues immanent has It material. seed. Yet even these similes are too
been said of
"
the flower in the crannied wall "
if I
What you I
should
are, root
could understand
and
all,
and
all in all,
know what God and man
is."
"-
THE INTELLIGIBLE WORLD
219
For the whole world went to the making of that wind-blown plant. If we knew exactly how it came to be there, we should know how the Almighty
The
created the universe.
roots of everything spring
from the Divine Mind, and these roots are thoughts of which each lies in, and interpenetrates other, every
in a it is
manner
past expression, yet intelligible, because
commonest experience of life. But we cannot
the
adequately express "
"
Express
means
it,
because to speak
to
"
flatten
is
to divide.
out."
Intelligence again is One, because in it the thinker, the act of thought, the object of thought, are all one. The Soul, the lower reasoning sees itself as faculty,
Another. scious of a
To
use the
riot-I.
modern
phrase, the I raw- stuff of its
The
imported from abroad
;
its office
is
to
is
con
knowledge manufacture
is it
by judging, combining, discriminating the materials It is busy about external supplied by sense. things, and therefore does not "think itself," in though,
order to perform
work
must be helped by knowledge supplied to it from above. But the Eternal Intelligence does not need to run to and fro its
in search of information.
correctly,
it
It possesses all the ideas,
it
d9es not want to discover them, because it sees them, and always sees them. In this act of contemplation the distinction of subject and object is really lost they are merely phases of the same thing ; the thought is the self. ;
Thus "
thinks
in all
the Divine Intelligence, in Aristotelian phrase, itself," sees all knowledge in itself, and itself
knowledge.
It is
perfect
self-consciousness,
NEOPLATONISM
220
Mind withdrawn cause
that
into
conception of Existence is
and seeing
itself,
to say, in
is
itself. ;
This
in its
all life is
the highest
the Intelligence
is
Being,
God.
To this height the human reason can attain, though But not without preparation, and not without prayer. there is still a further step needed, before the system is
All things exist, because they are one. a word of many different meanings.
complete.
But unity
is
Creatures have
it
;
a chorus, a ship, a horse are each
but their parts are separable and the combination ; evanescent. Thoughts have it, yet we can analyze
one is
and distinguish thoughts. Still more emphatically Yet even here we can take note Intelligence has it. of the difference between thinker and thought, if only In all these cases, as phases of the same energy. is derived they then, even in the highest, -the unity have unity, but are but not the One are ;
One,
not unity.
they above the Many ;
Hence
we must
One ; above Existence, the Cause of Existence the Conceivable, the Inconceivable. According
to
Plotinus,
Being
requires
set the ;
above
for
its
as we trans adequate explanation two hypostases, or, that ArePersons in late the word English theology.
Soul and Intelligence the One, or the
Good.
and one Person that Is Not, These three constitute the
Neoplatonic Trinity. On the one This is a topic of the highest interest. these that doubt no be can there speculations hand, aided greatly in the clear formulation of Christian made it possible to truth, to this extent that they
THE INTELLIGIBLE WORLD
how
understand
the
Three Divine Persons of the
Baptismal Formula should yet be
On
221
One
in "Godhead.
the other,
the place assigned by the heathen philosophers to the doctrine of the One, combined with the purely intellectual character of their system, was largely, though by no means entirely, the cause of the rapid degradation of Neoplatonism, scornful judgment usually passed upon it
and of the by
modem
Before we proceed, then, to the fuller consideration of the doctrine of God, it will be well to historians.
we can, how Plotinus reached it, and what he meant by it. Partly, as we have seen, the Neoplatonist Trinity was see, if
historical.
It
combines the Pythagorean One, and the
Aristotelian Intelligence, with the Platonic
But partly also
Creator.
has a psychological basis. The real method of Plotinus is undoubtedly based upon observation of the phenomena of human con sciousness.
He
Hence
himself points out
The
of psychology. position
it
between the
the importance
soul occupies an intermediate intelligible
to
and the
sensible.
us
opens knowledge in both How again, he directions, upwards and downwards. asks (v. 3, 8), could we even talk about intelligence (iv.
3,
i)
it
we did not in some sort possess it ? Again, all three hypostases belong to us (v. i, 10). Often it is difficult to ascertain with precision whether he is speaking of the divine or of the human does soul, so if
immediately
the knowledge of the one pass into that of the other. It is really if
we
then at this point that
are to grasp the
mode
in
we ought
which
his
to begin,
system was
222
NEOPLATONISM.
developed, and avoid the temptation to mere barren
Yet
criticism.
must be acknowledged that
it
this is
not the method which Plotinus himself professes to
Or
follow.
we say
shall
for
it is
equally true
that
he has no method?
What is it then that Can we discover there The answer Trinity ?
the
human mind
the
"
shadow
"
has to
us
tell
?
of the Plotintan
to the question
must be
in the
the
Neo-
affirmative.
Other
and
both before
writers,
after
have distinguished between two modes of mental activity the Verstand and the Vernunft\\\z. Reason or Soul, and the Intelligence or Nous. They
platonists,
are generally differentiated in much the same way. In the first, the mind goes forth to discover or to act ; in the second,
it
returns
upon
itself
In the
first,
the
antithesis of subject and object is sharply defined ; in In the first, the second, it is blurred or obliterated.
the particular is compared with the general, and so understood ; the second deals with generals only.
But beyond these two we may discern a third phase, the mind withdraws into itself, and becomes as
when
were a mere point. So it is in sleep, or in waking moments, when no definite thought is present, and
it
consciousness into
its
Then
is
again
in action,
sciousness
it
darts forth
and is
life
not
like the course .of
and
Mind
a blank.
innermost source, and
diastole
is
its
has contracted
all its
itself
channels are dry.
energies in contemplation,
once more
in full flow.
Con
equable ; it has pulsations, the blood, and sometimes the systole
seem
strictly
to stand
still.
Yet the
life
is
un-
THE INTELLIGIBLE WORLD interrupted,
223
and the hidden basis of the mind
is
always
there.
But what
is
hidden
this
basis ?
It
is
neither
thinker nor thought, for where one of these is, the other must be, and where there is no thought there It is therefore neither, yet it is can be no thinker. the cause of both, the ultimate power which, as the fountain of unity and life, is the Oneness, the Good
of the individual. It
is
not conscious, and has no name, because, all activity, it has as yet assumed
though the root of
no
We may
definite shape.
not
exist.
say then, that it does we are limiting the
so saying,
in
Only
idea of existence to that of distinct thought.
One does
not
not
exist,
existence, but because
Hidden though sheds forth
we
yet
it
it
is
because
above
is
it
The
beneath
it.
be behind the
light
which
it
a favourite image with Plotinus), that it must be there, because of the
(this is
know This
inexplicable mystery is precisely the No man thing in which we most certainly believe. light.
doubts that he Plotinus
said
but
is
one that
;
that he
the
is
usage, we are when we feel,
cannot
individuality
we must understand
known, means by knowledge.
himself.
Ordinarily,
in
our English
know when we can describe, when we can explain. The last
said to
or
be
exactly what he
or is
the only sense of the word admitted by the Greek philosopher.
Things composite can be described
by a drawing.
Though
the
thing
in
itself
language or may never
NEOPLATONISM
2 24
have been seen the
of
parts
it
it,
it
strange animal ; yet colour, lines, texture will be
may be some
the
and those who
familiar,
what
;
see
the drawing will
know
means.
for instance the colour of Simple facts of sense, in words they admit of redness, cannot be described but not of representation; hence they ;
presentation,
But those who cannot be conveyed to the blind. know them. sense that in have eyes can see them, and to a reference Further, they can be explained by thus the sensation of redness is the effect of This is the the vibration of a particular ray of light. the Plotinus of mind only true sense in the
cause
;
scientific,
of knowledge, and in this sense only
is
colour a real
thing.
Now
unity cannot
be described, and cannot be
be felt as we feel colour. It is explained, but it may from all other feelings in two it differs but a feeling, It is from within and not features. remarkable very have from without, and it is inalienable. A man may the no sense of colour, and yet be a man; but the sense of his unity departs, he
moment
a
man
real,
does
is
no more.
Thus
that which cannot be
known,
is
not
most not exist, is yet, in the view of Plotinus, the of all things. certain, and the most important
XV DOCTRINE OF GOD PLOTINUS
by no means a methodical
is
He
writer.
expands conception of the Deity over and over again in many different parts of the Enneads, and in many different connections. It will be neces his
we have done,
sary, before
said,
we
and explain
its
to formulate
bearings.
what he has
But, to begin with,
shall best consult the interests of the reader
translating, with occasional condensations,
by one of the
more important passages, and thus putting position to judge for himself.
We
will
with
start
Ennead, which Hypostases."
is
the
book of the
in a
Fifth
of the Three Principal the motive of the investigation
entitled
Here
first
him
"
What supplied by the question of moral evil. can it be that caused the soul of man to forget its Father, God, and to be ignorant both of itself and of "
is
Him ?
The
root of the disaster must be sought in
the manifold nature of the soul, in desire for independence.
its
audacity,
and
Like a child that has been
long absent from home, and brought up abroad, it does not know its father, and therefore cannot perp
NEOPLATONISM
226 fectly
know
has learned to honour things the pleasures of this world.
It
itself.
below
that are
itself,
But he who honours and admires, confesses himself by that very act to be inferior. And when the soul thus deliberately sets itself beneath the things of a day, it makes itself the least honourable, the most
mortal of
all
things,
and can form no idea of the
nature or the power of God. "
There are two ways
to raise the soul again
convincing
it
of the
in
which we may endeavour this miserable fall, by
from
baseness of the attractions of
own high birth and dignity. method is by far the more important. For without it we cannot even make the former
earth, or
This
by teaching
it its
latter
intelligible."
Thus Plotinus
places the New Birth before Re in the intellectual system of
But indeed
pentance.
Neoplatonism, what the New Testament means by will be sought for in vain. We are to rise first to the conception of the true Existence of
Repentance God, and
this
knowledge
will of itself
cure the audacity
of the soul. First then, let every Soul consider this ; how by breathing life into them Soul made all animals, the creatures of earth, seaT air, the divine stars in "
heaven
;
made
the sun,
made
the
great
firmament
us, and not only made but ordered it, so that it swings round in due course. Yet is this Soul a different nature from what it orders, and moves, and vivifies. It must needs then be more precious than its creations. For they are born, and, when the Soul
above
DOCTRINE OF GOD which ministers
And
is,
because
be asked how the
if it
whole or Let
all deceit,
it
and be
all
be
is
that surrounds
all
still,
all
calm and
and
and heaven
it
Let such a
tranquil. let
;
the
that en
body
the frettings of the body,
all it
is
has escaped that bewitches the soul
that disturbs
still,
no small one, and
itself is
gaze, because
and from
of other men, and
Soul banish
ministered, in the
is
frame the answer thus.
Soul be gazed upon by another soul,
this great
human soul which deemed worthy so to
velopes
life
in the part, let us
a
from
abandons them, they die ; it never abandons itself.
their life
but the Soul ever
227
let
;
earth,
And
itself.
and
then
sea, let
and
the
air
man
think of Soul as streaming, pouring, rushing, shining him from all sides while he stands quiet. As the
into
rays of the
make
sun, striking
upon some dark mass of
shine with the splendour of gold, so cloud, also Soul, coming into the body of heaven, gave it life it
and immortality, and woke
it
up from
sleep.
Thus
heaven, being moved the
by
wise
with an everlasting movement guidance of Soul, became a happy
and the indwelling of Soul gave high dignity stuff, earth, and water, or rather the darkness of matter and No Thing, and abhorred, as the poet says, by the gods/
creature, to
heaven which was before dead
The
nature and power of Soul will become still and more distinct, if we consider how it embraces and guides the heaven by its will. For it gives itself to all this huge bulk, and there is no "
clearer
particle of space, great or
with Soul.
Of
the
small, that
body one
part
is
is
not
filled
here, another
NEOPLATONISM
228
there ; some parts are opposed, some are interde But with the Soul it is otherwise. It is pendent. not cut up into little bits, so that each particle makes
a different
and
who begot is
but all things live by the whole Soul, present everywhere, like to the father
life,
all
is
it
Heaven it is One
both in unity and in ubiquity. vast and disparate, but by virtue of Soul it,
and a god. The sun too is a god, because it has Soul, and so are the other stars, and so are we, if we for the dead are viler than dung. are anything, Now what makes gods must be older than they.
And
our soul belongs to the same family, and, when it purged from all accretions, you will
you can see
same precious
find the
more precious by For all such corporeal.
thing, Soul,
than anything that
far
is
And if they be things are earth. which the fire burns? It of part that
all
add
to
is
is
what
the
air.
And
if
that
is
same with
the elements, even
compounded of
them water and
fire,
if
you
the things of
earth are worthy of desire, only because they have Soul, why should man forsake himself to desire
When
another?
thou reverest the Soul in another,
thou art revering thyself. Since then Soul is so precious and divine a thing, believing henceforth that thou hast a strong helper in "
thy quest after God, take this cause with thee, and go up to Him who is Yonder. And of a truth thou
Him
wilt find
tween. the
Soul
whom
not far
off,
Grasp then what s
for there is
neighbour above, after
the Soul
is.
is
not
much be
diviner than this Divine,
whom and
For though the Soul
is
from
a thing
DOCTRINE OF GOD as our
argument proved, the word, which
As
Intelligence.
from the word
in
man
s
229 an image of
it
is
is
uttered, springs
and
soul, so is the All-Soul,
the whole energy by which it shoots forth life to give existence to other things, a word of Intelligence.
Just as in fire we can distinguish the essential heat from the sensible heat, which it sends forth ; only in the world yonder we must think of the heat not as actually streaming forth, but as partly abiding in its coming into existence. Inasmuch, then, as it comes forth from Intelligence, the Soul is intelli
source, partly
gent, its
and
its
intelligence
perfection
the father as
is
shows
derived from
who begot
it,
compared with the
itself in
reasonings,
Him who
is,
as
it
and
were,
so that the child Its
father.
is not perfect existence then is
derived from Intelligence, and is the energizing word of the Intelligence, to which it looks For when up. it
gazes on
Intelligence,
activities
from within, as
are
only true
the
its
it
possesses
its
ideas
and
And these property. of the soul, which it
own
activities
and by inheritance; the intellectually, movements come from another source, and
possesses inferior
are affections of an inferior soul.
makes
Intelligence then
doubly divine, because it is its because it dwells within it. For there it
father, is
and
nothing
betwixt, save their essential difference, but the one is after and But even recipient, the other is Form.
the matter of Intelligence intelligent
And is
and simple
even from
this
it is
as
is
beautiful,
because
it
is
the Intelligence itself. evident, that the Intelligence is
better than the Soul, which
is
of such a
nature."
NEOPLATONISM
230
The
reader
hence of
and
in
"father"
is
prior
observe
here
will
to Soul
stands
that
and
giver
Intelligence
Form
the relation of
to
Word,
superior, because the higher
always,
and
never
receiver.
Form may be
analyzed, being a larger conception than Word, Soul may be spoken of as And it of Intelligence. matter in a sense the Further, as
"
"
be noticed that Plotinus speaks here of two The first, which has no "affections," is the souls.
will
soul
the
Divine;
of
Nature,
Heaven and This too
generally.
lower sense. difficult
become
The
and
second,
is
inferior, is
that
of
Earth, and of the body "divine,"
distinction
is
but in a
much
one of the most
points in the system of Plotinus, but it will resume a little clearer as we proceed.
We
the translation. "The
We
same thing maybe seen
admire this visible universe
in the following way.
when we behold
its
vastness, beauty, and the order of its ever lasting movement, and the gods that are therein some visible, some invisible, and the demons, and But It is well. animals, and all the host of plants. and and true to the world, yonder archetype, go up
and
its
see the intellectual patterns of
own
right, in their native
all,
everlasting in their
wisdom and
life.
See too
and perfect who is life of the true Saturnian God, Wisdom, For He embraces in Fullness and Intelligence.
their prince, the undefiled Intelligence
Himself
God,
all
all
that
is
immortal,
soul, ever-abiding.
all
intelligence, all
For why should
seek to change, being perfect?
And
He
whither need
DOCTRINE OF GOD
He He "
go, since
in
all
And how
Himself?
can
grow, since
absolutely complete ? Wherefore also all that is with Him is perfect, that
He may is
He has He is
231
be absolutely perfect, having nothing which Himself, which He
imperfect, having nothing in
And He need
does not think.
not search for His
And His blessed thoughts, because He has them. ness is not acquired, but all is in eternity, and this is the true Eternity, which Time counterfeits as it runs round the Soul, passing over some thoughts and attending to others. For to the soul belongs sequence of ideas
;
at
one time
a horse; always telligence
grasps
things abiding
it
considers Socrates, at another
some one same
in the
am, and never For yonder there
shall
no
But In
definite object.
has then within itself
It
all.
state
be,
;
is
it
never
;
it
is
have
and no past because are the abide, things same, and they is
future
;
all
always been.
but
all
satisfied
And each of them is and and the sum-total is all Intelligence Being, Intelligence and all Being Intelligence by thinking making Being, and Being by being thought giving to with themselves as they are.
;
Intelligence the act of thought and Being. But the act of thought has a cause other than "
itself,
which
is
cause also of Being.
Both then have
Things yonder co-exist, and never fail one another, but still here we have a duality which makes a unity, Intelligence and Being, Thinker and Thought a cause.
;
Intelligence corresponding to Thinker as Being does to Thought. Now there can be no thinking without difference or without
identity.
Hence we
obtain as
NEOPLATONISM
232
our
conceptions Intelligence, Being, Difference, To these we must add Movement and Identity. first
Rest.
must have Movement to think, Difference to be at once
Intelligence
Rest to be changeless,
If you take away the Differ The becomes one, and will keep silence. also must be different of thought objects
thinker and thought.
ence
it
several
from one another, yet the same, because each
is
one
and there is something common in all, yet And these aspects of the differentia is an otherness. Intelligence, being many, make number and quantity,
with
itself,
and the individuality of the ideas makes quality also, and these ideal distinctions are the principles from
which sensible distinctions
The are
by Plotinus,
five
proceed."
here ascribed to Intelligence the Sophistes of Plato, and are
attributes
borrowed from
called
the
five
summa
in his criticism of the Categories,
genera
ultimate laws of Being.
of true
existence, the
five
They have been explained
in outline in the preceding chapter.
We
final antitheses, Thought and and Rest, Sameness and Difference. Being, Motion must not be obliterated, because on them They and all all life knowledge. They account for depend If do not exist, there is nothing for everything. they us to know. Yet again they must be reconciled, or knowledge itself is divided, and ceases to be
have here three
knowledge. Plotinus finds a reconciliation, though not an ab solutely complete reconciliation, in the Intelligence of God. In Him thought can be seen as the cause
DOCTRINE OF GOD of Being.
In
Him,
as indeed
templation, subject and thinker thinks himself.
of Himself,
is
no change.
God
Hence, even
diverse.
with
The
unity
can grasp
as nearly
is ;
still
it
is
;
there
itself is it
life,
in this
motion, a play of activity.
abstract con
identical
God
is
therefore
an
which
act, is
is
is
living thought.
complete as anything that we not ideally perfect, and must
be regarded as given, as derived-. the ultimate cause of All ?
is
and
quick
sameness there
therefore
then
the
;
ever thinks the whole
absolutely conscious It carries
all
are
object
Yet consciousness
therefore dual.
and
in
233
What
Whence then came this Manifold God, this OneMany? We can see now the necessity of this diversity of Being, but
we crave for some solution of the problem that has always vexed philosophy, how from the absolutely One anything at all came into existence, whether a multitude or a duality.
did
not remain by itself? "Let us seek an answer, calling
Why
it
God Himself
to
our aid, not with audible words, but reaching out in prayer with our soul, for that is the in which we
way
can pray, alone to
Him
alone.
He then that would behold Him who dwells in the innermost shrine by Himself and remains tranquil "
beyond
must
gaze on that which, in com parison with the statues in the outer shrine, abides, or rather on the first statue coming forth and revealing all,
fix
his
itself in this wise. "
All that
which
it
is
moved must have something towards Now since He has nothing, we
moves.
234
NEOPLATONISM
must not suppose
that
He
is
moved.
But whatso
ever cpmes into being after Him must have come into being, because He turned Himself towards
Himself.
We
must not
really
think
of birth
in
when we are thinking of things that ever are, though in word we cannot help ascribing becoming to them, when we assign to them a cause and an order. And so we must say, that they became without His For if He moved, the thing which became moving. would be third in order His movement being the time,
;
first,
and
He
Himself the second.
If then the thing
was second, it must have taken existence without His moving, or inclining, or wishing, or stirring in any way. How can this be, and what must we think about Him who abides? We may conceive, that though He abides, there is a shining round about
Him
like the bright light of the sun,
which ever runs
round about the sun, though the sun abides.
Simi
so
long as they abide, give forth necessarily an essence, which flows outwards and larly,
all
things,
envelopes them, and depends upon the power that is present within, a sort of image of the archetypes from
which they sprang. So fire gives forth its heat, and snow does not keep its coldness hidden within ; and sweet-smelling things in particular show what we
mean, for, as long as they exist, something goes forth from them and surrounds them, and this is an essence which all bystanders enjoy. So all things, so soon
That then, which is always an perfect, always begets everlasting offspring, yet always something that is less than itself.
as they are perfect, beget.
DOCTRINE OF GOD
235
What then shall we say of the most perfect of all ? Nothing comes from Him, except the greatest things "
that
Him. Him, and
Now
follow
follows
is
Intelligence looks to
He
the
greatest is
second,
Him, and wants Him
And
does not want Intelligence.
begotten of
Him
thing
that
is
that
For
Intelligence.
alone, but
which
is
better than Intelligence,
is
that,
and Intelligence is better than all things, things are after it ; for instance, even soul
Intelligence,
because is
is it
all
a word, an energy of Intelligence, as Intelligence of the One. But the word of Soul is dim, for is a phantom of Intelligence, and must look up
And so Intelligence must look up Intelligence. the One, that it may be Intelligence. But it sees Him not as disparate, but because it is after Him ; there is nothing between, any more than
to
to
there that its
begotten yearns
satisfaction
the
for
Him, and
in
all
and
begetter,
especially so
And when
gotten and begetter are unique. of
Now
between Soul and Intelligence.
is
is
all
finds
when be the best
begetter, of necessity the begotten is with that they are separated by their di (Terence
is
Him, so alone."
How
One beget Intelligence, His Because, by turning Himself to Himself, He
then does the
image? began to
One
is
itself,
see,
and
the power of
as
it
Plotinus
this seeing all things.
is
Intelligence.
were, from the power, and sees
here
expresses
The
Intelligence separates its effects.
the
kindly intention of and the reader will pro
speaking more clearly," bably feel anxious for more
light.
But the
text
NEOPLATONISM
236
and suddenly breaks down into a gulf of corruption, not does such part of it as might be translated In some mystic way by "turning greatly help. to
itself
itself,"
yet
"without
moving,"
the
One
became conscious, the Intelligence was filled with shot forth to Ideas, the Soul with Forms, the Words life began. of stream quicken matter, and the great to the Each looked up to the cause above it, light of the abiding Sun, and drank in life, meaning, power, according to the measure of its capacity. difficulties are, first, the notion of a The two great
cause acting by attraction, it
to attract
and
;
when
second, the
"
there
is
becoming
nothing for conscious."
the
may be put aside for the present. As to second, we have seen that it admits of explanation,
in
so
The
first
far
as
it
finds
an analogy in the nature of
We
do "become individuality. reader is to put the of asks Plotinus that All
human
the notion
of becoming.
never faints or
sleeps
conscious."
The Divine
like ours,
away
Intelligence
but as we have a
oneness, so has He.
which
We will omit a passage of some length, Plotinus brings his teaching into relation with myth and ology and with the views of earlier philosophers, with the tenth chapter, which will show us in
proceed
how
close was the link between his psychology
his metaphysics. u
We have shown that above
and
after
Being must be the One,
But now as Intelligence and Soul. are in nature, so must they also be in us.
Him
these Three
Our
and
soul then also
is
divine,
and of another, not a
DOCTRINE OF GOD sensible nature, like it
has
And
all soul.
237
it is
perfect
when
But there are two kinds of Intelligence, one which argues, one which gives the power of arguing .~ The arguing part of the soul then, which needs for the performance of its function no Intelligence.
bodily organ, but possesses its energy in purity, so it is able to argue purely, is separable, and not mixed with body ; about this there can be no mistake. that
We must give We must not all
a
home
in the
realm of the
seek a place to fix For so alone can
place.
external,
it
immaterial,
nothing to the
flesh.
it
in
;
intelligible.
it
is
outside
be independent, if it stands alone and owes Therefore Plato saith of the it
world, "And further the Creator clothed soul as with a garment," that
it
with the
meaning part of the soul which abides in the intelligible world; and of man he saith that he lifts up his head to heaven. And
when we exhort men to "detachment," we do not mean that the soul is to be locally detached by
physical separation; but
we mean
that
it
should not
condescend we are speaking of the imagination and of estrangement from the body if it be possible to lead and carry upwards not only the higher form of the soul, but that also which has its abode in this world, which alone
body, and
is
is
the creator
busied with the
and moulder of the
body."
Here we have the Platonic division of the soul two parts, a higher and a lower. This will
itself into
receive explanation further on. "Since
then there
is
things just and beautiful,
a soul which reasons about
and
since there
is
a power of
NEOPL ATOM ISM
2 38
reasoning which asks, is this just? is this beautiful? the just must ba an abiding thing, and from that thing the soul acquires the power of reasoning about it. How else could it reason about it? But the soul sometimes reasons about these things, and
times does not.
There must then be
in us
an
some
Intelli
gence which does not reason, but always has the idea of justice. Further, there must be in us the principle, the cause, the God of Intelligence. For He is not but abides, and, since it is not in spac that is seen in many, according as each is able to
divisible,
He
abides,
receive
Him
as another
circle is in itself,
and
that
circle,
in
is
the
So
self.
also the centre of a
yet contains in itself every point
and
the
radii
derive
their
peculiar nature from it. For, by that within us which is like the radius, we touch that centre, and are with
and depend upon
it,
And
it.
those of us
thitherwards, are fast rooted in
who bend
it.
How
is it, then, that though we possess such high we do not ^apprehend, but leave them, for the most part of our time, idle nay, some never use them at all ? The answer is, that the Intelligence and "
faculties,
;
the
One
are always active,
and thus the soul possesses
It does not follow, that when everlasting movement. we have no sense of them, they are not there, for all
that
is
come when
the soul
to us
a
is
not instantly sensible ; faculties But into consciousness.
when they come
faculty
does
perceptions of sense,
whole
soul.
not
communicate with
the
has not yet permeated the In such a case we do not yet know, it
because not merely a part of the
soul,
but the whole
DOCTRINE OF GOD
239
Furthermore in sense perception. it lives, that has while of a soul, thing every part discharges without intermission its own function. soul,
is
absorbed
But knowledge does not begin,
till
there
is
communi
and apprehension. If, then, there is to be apprehension of what is intellectually present, the apprehending faculty must turn inwards, and fix cation
attention yonder. Just as a singer, who wants must a shut out all other notes, and catch to note, its
when it comes, we must shut out physical sounds, except so far as is necessary, and keep the apprehen sive power of the soul clean, and ready to hear the strain his ear to catch the true note
so in this world
voices from
above."
The word rendered apprehension (aVn A^tc) means both
and
Sense supplies the or imprint of the thing as it (TVTTOQ) Intelligence supplies (/^roBiSwo-i) the soul "
"
grasping soul with a type
"
help."
"
"
is
seen.
with the idea or form of the thing, as it ought to be. By the forms, the soul interprets the grasping "
"
by means of the true note and if need be,
types, just as the singer,
which
his art supplies,
recognizes,
corrects, the note emitted
by
his lyre or voice.
and apprehension there can be no real knowledge.
without
"
"
communication,"
Intelligence
sense-knowledge must chime together, as and this correspondence of the two faculties as "co-perception
Thus,
"
it
is
and
were
;
known
"
(ffvvatffQrjffit;).
"The
understanding,
criticizing the types supplied by sense, sees the forms, and sees them by what we may call co-perception
"
(i.
i,
9).
If
we conceive of an
earthly clock with a
NEOPLATONISM
some idea
we get heavenly chiming apparatus, the two are exactly When of what Plotinus means. shall
time is right. together the The chime is always there, but not always audible, its own, and goes its because the clock has a will of
own way. But
this is
Thus Eternity comes a point that must
consider the nature of moral
lie
evil.
to differ from
by
till
Time.
we come
to
XVI GOD, HIS NATURE
AND OPERATIONS
PLOTINUS, like all his schoo., admitted the existence of a number of lower deities,-Heaven, with its Stars Nature, Earth> the DemQns A][
^
_
degree are causes,
and deserve worship.
3
But
^
But the supreme cause, God in the proper sense of the word mnds far above all these created deities, and embraces lunself a umty of Three Hypostases. Hypostasis s a Sto.c word, wh,ch is used as
Qa
generally
fa,
or
Bemg.
it
equivalent
more exactly the underlymg cause of the phenomenal manifestation. signifies
of
-"
.
Persons of the Christian
~only speak of God
Be n tu
f
Ch ei
P
St
S is
fjn
a Perso
Trinity.
the Father as
"-
but a
For they "beyond
purely intellec-
j^^^5.S^^S 1SS I
m
the fullness of
its
power.
All are eternal, but the
Q
NEOPLATONISM
242
second
is
inferior to the first,
because
for the same the third to the second, the Good. the is One, The first
begotten,"
and
reason.
The two names
and
fullness of
1
Unity is life, which everything strives. towards is the good Power of all things, One is the Fountain of Life, the of them, none he is but for that very reason no Virtue, no Will, no has no Form, no Beauty, no Movement or Activity, Thought, no Consciousness, no Being. The second is Intelligence, the One-Many, to Plotinus expressly refuses World. Intelligible his in which system the title Logos, apply to him Here life and force.
mean the same
thing.
t
means
little
more than physical Here are
full play. thought are in
stored away in
memory,
for
God
all
the Ideas, not
has no memory, but
in infinite diversity and eternal always equally vivid, the Divine mind involves sameness. Each thought of each idea is in a sense Hence each and all the rest.
all
the whole life,
mind
Yet each
(roC-c).
an energy of
its
own,
is
is
separate,
has a
not Intelligence, but an
Intelligence (vovc rc). This is the highest conception of Being,
And it. Being, makes Being by thinking the thought the is thought, plane the thinker
on
this
is
i
thinker.
The
third
Soul, the
is
abides, but the
Many
preponderance.
is
One and Many,
increasing,
and on the road
to
of a just know Plotinus insists on the importance in both It "gives us information ledge of Soul.
GOD, HIS
On
directions."
one
side,
it is
in
darkness.
is
it
beyond
It is
touch with
Above
on another with nature.
gence, circle
NATURE AND OPERATIONS
it
243 Intelli is
day, the outer ring of the
or like the moon, the two higher hypostases It is the it were the Light and the Sun.
;
being as
God
that
within us, is
life that we know, the most properly ourselves. The spirit the beautiful world spread round about us,
is
being that
nearest to us, the
is
Soul.
.Yet
it is
precisely here that difficulties accumulate.
The reason
is
obvious.
Soul
is
the central knot in
the system of Plotinus. Under this heading he has to grapple with the insoluble difficulty of all philo
Here,
sophy.
if
anywhere, must be found the syn
thesis of all the antitheses, physical, intellectual,
and
One and the Many, Thought and Extension, Good and Evil, Time and Eternity, Freedom and Necessity, God and Man. Part of the difficulty the Neoplatonists met, as we have seen, by the distinction between Mind and moral, the
Matter. Matter is really No Thing, yet it is the cause of divisibility and sensible existence. This is the congenital defect of all Platonism ; it admits a
cause which
is
not a
cause,
and
in spite of all its
God by something that is not Himself. that when God draws near to Matter, He
protests limits It follows
must undergo an evolution and differentiation. There are, in fact, two souls one, that of God, which is pure :
thought in
man
And one, that of Nature, which is power. these two come into contact, and even into ;
antagonism.
NEOPLATONISM
244
On
off a
one side the divine soul gives
stream of
which grows weaker as it flows onwards, which, though never wholly unintelligent, is instinct rather
life
Soul becomes Nature the Forms or become words, powers, forces. These words thoughts
than reason.
;
enter into partnership with Matter, and create bodies, including that of man.
On
the other side, as Intelligence embraced the of separate intelligences, so Soul enfolds within itself all individual souls. They are it, and it is they.
sum
And
individual
these
souls, led by natural desire, guard and care for the bodies that the word has built for them, though never breaking away from their source. Thus man, and indeed all "
come down
"
to
that lives, has a double soul
;
one which makes
his
and upon it a one which has ship governs it, like the pilot of sense and desire, another which regulates and controls the senses and the desires, bringing with it, to use again visible
frame,
another which
"
rides
"
;
our former illustration, the right time from heaven,
and so checking the aberrations of the earthly clock. These souls are all distinct, yet they are also all one, and Plotinus constantly passes over from one to .the other, especially
from the soul of
God
to the soul
of man, without warning the reader what he is doing. It is necessary to exercise the greatest caution, and
even then point
it
is
only too possible to go wrong, on a scholarly interpreters of Neo-
where such
If platonism as Kirchner and Zeller are at variance. are to gather a clear conception of the Soul of
we
God, we must keep
in
mind
a passage where Plotinus
NATURE AND OPERATIONS
GOD, HIS
245
has expressed himself more distinctly than is his wont v He who would know what Intelligence is, 9) "
(
-
5
3>
must understand Soul, and the divinest part of Soul.
You may first,
gain this understanding by stripping off, the body of man, your own body ; next, the soul,
which moulded
this
body.
Sense must be laid aside
with the greatest care, and desire and anger and
such absurd emotions, as inclining strongly to what
What
mortal.
is left is
this Soul,
all is
which we called an
image of Intelligence, guarding a portion of the light of that sun." The better Soul, then, has no emotions,
no consciousness of the world below, no senses and no faculty that requires sense as the condition of its It is in
exercise.
It
Intelligence!
What to our
it
thinks
"
is
fact
thinks
nothing but a paler copy of difference. (voel), but with a "
Form, a weakened Idea, answering
"
general
conception,"
only that
it
from above and not from below, and
is
is
derived
archetype,
The Forms are not its own, but given to hence subject and object are not identical. Soul
not type. it
;
thinks
itself as
another
;
the thought
is
recognized as
is no longer All the Forms are thought. one object is more there, but attention has begun
coming, as imparted. the
"
fullness
"
Further, the soul
of
;
luminously present than another.
In the
passage
translated in the last chapter Plotinus ascribes to the
Soul a sequence of notions ; at one time it looks on Socrates, at another on a horse, and so forth ; but else
where
(iv. 4,
of order,
i) it
is
and not of
explained that this sequence is time, as when we look upon the
countenance of a friend we may be more distinctly
NEOPLATONISM
246
conscious of his eyes, though at the same time we So too he speaks of it as see all the features. "reasoning"
(\oyieyie
ov),
but not
he schemes, contrives, or grapples
The
Soul has its
with;
no
difficulties
practical is
reasoning
merely
appropriate and beholds in the Intelligence.
like
with
identify itself
the
man when difficulties.
to
contend
endeavour
with the ideas that
to it
not in Time, though of the a concomitant Time is its offspring, being those of its of lower forms separate lives activity, It is
which succeed one another, and are some longer, some though it has a nature semblance of division. comes into contact with matter it assumes
Nor
shorter.
which
lends
When
it
a limit, takes indivisible itself into
will
It
and of
little
all
divisible,
to
upon
it
the
a definite extension, as the
sun parts and distributes light the different chambers of a house.. of
readily be
intellectual
Plotinus.
all-important.
flow
it
the
perceived, from this laborious
obscure description, that the Divine Soul
still
mind of is
is
itself
is
or religious significance in the But on the physical side Soul
It is
the great reservoir from which It of life and force.
the minor conduits
and thus again enables rest satisfied with the admire, comprehend, In this way it comes to world in which we live. have even considerable religious weight, because it
supplies the key to creation,
us to
All things were the safeguard against pessimism. made by God, and all are beautiful and good, so far as they can reflect the Divine idea, and can lead us up to their author.
is
GOD, HIS NATURE
The is
his
AND OPERATIONS
chief logical difficulty in the
247
way of Plotinus
He
conception of Cause.
regards it as drawing, not as pushing as a magnet or gravita like attracting tion, not as going forth to mould. There is but one ;
movement
all
;
things strive towards
God
sistently in all that
each looks
;
up to that above it. Any other view in makes God dependent. He holds his
his opinion
theory con concerns the moral or intellectual
But it will not explain how things came to be. Involution cannot account for evolution. He meets the difficulty by came to maintaining that nothing life.
"
:
be/
that all
is
or scheme.
plan
God
in fact equally eternal.
Creation
is
as
old
as
Where He is, there is life. The work of we may use the phrase, is compared to running over, to the evening
cannot
Himself.
creation, if
a
full
cup
upon the clouds, to the scent diffused about a flower. But these are mere When we turn towards metaphors. the Real, we rfmst put away the illusion of becoming." In Him is no shadow of change. Change is the light striking
"
failure of
matter to maintain
its
footing within the
circle of light.
But the lower soul has into the
does
body, cares for
this desire
it,
"
desire
"
(opefe), enters
Where then guards Plutarch found it in it.
come from?
matter, and believed accordingly in an Plotinus would on no account admit this. desire,
like
this again
all
else,
evil
god.
But then
must flow from the One, and Thus again he leaves
he would not admit.
an all-important word without any sort of explanation. The Divine Soul is split into two. One half comes
NCOPLATQNISM
248 straight
down, the other runs round a corner, and
when
reappears as Nature, has
it
But how
faculty.
As a theory open
of
somehow
got a
new
?
life,
then, the system of Plotinus
to the grave objection, that
it
for that desire of the soul for the
is
does not account
body, which yet he
As a theory
regards as the basis of physical existence.
of knowledge, the notion of an attracting, self-con tained cause is intelligible enough. commonly
We
speak of the mind as seeking, as drawn onwards by the Truth, and the love of the soul for the One would
be a
sufficient explanation of
mental
activity,
without
our supposing that the Truth has any wish to be
Even
known.
in the sphere
the notion spiritual experience
morality and the capable of consistent
of is
and it was consistently applied. But According to Plotinus, only at a tremendous cost. Man may love God, love. without God is Goodness man. love cannot but God Religion is the desire for the can reach Man star, and cannot be the star.
application,
happy unless he does
;
but the star does not
know
he anything about him, and does not care whether reaches
it
or not.
We
see here the
full
meaning of
the derision which Celsus pours upon the Incarnation. According to the Platonist, God could not possibly "
come down." The words, No man can come unto "
the Father which hath sent Platonic,
draw
Me
him,"
except
are half
and half the contradiction of Platonism.
The Deity "send,"
Me
of
Plotinus
"
draws,"
but could neither
nor think of sending any one.
GOD, HIS NATURE
AND OPERATIONS
249
It is not easy to combine the belief in Providence, or the practice of prayer, with an absolute introverted
Deity.
Man
must approach the Supreme Intelligence, as
we have
seen, with prayer, that is with devotion, not supplication, with the unspoken prayer of Apollonius
The philosopher could not say, All he could do Thy light and Thy truth
and Clement. send out
was
to
"O
"
!
turn
his
towards the light and wait. by those who are not philoso
soul
Petitions, are addressed
phers, to the inferior gods, the sun
and
stars.
Hence
Plotinus treats prayer, in the proper sense of the word, under the heading of magic. The Sun being a god
cannot see or hear or remember
but being involved ; he comes under the general law of natural sympathy. A certain thrill may pass from the wor
in nature
shipper to him, just as one string of a lyre will vibrate when another is struck. Evil prayers cannot touch the gods at
all.
Providence was one of
The
the
Platonist war-cries.
school regarded themselves as the
champions
of this belief against Epicurean Atheists, Aristotelian Deists, Stoic Fatalists, and Gnostic Dualists. Plotinus explains the subject at great length ; but he spends force mainly in accounting for evil, which he
his
would not allow God.
to
be
in
any way connected with
Particular providence, which Plutarch, Celsus,
and Maximus Tyrius ascribed denies.
It
creation,
and implies
in the Deity.
is
irreconcileable
All that
"
"
foreseeing is left,
the
to
with
then,
the
and is
demons, he eternity
of "
"
planning
the belief, that
NEOPLATONISM the world as a whole
gence
The
K ara
vovv),"
schools
rival
His
(
difference
is
"in
accordance with
intelli
and admits of a rational explanation. the Neoplatonist and the and of in the conception of God,
between
lies
As
relation to the world.
Plotinus maintained
that
against the Epicurean,
God
does nothing, but
the Gnostic, that He works great things;" as against the Stoic, that He is trans is the Good; as against that He draws as against the Peripatetic, cendent ;
men
to Himself.
might be labelled Centripetal Theism.
If the theology of Plotinus
a phrase,
we should
call
it
witl
XVII
MAN
IN
NATURE
PLOTINUS seldom touches upon physical science. has been blamed for this, but hardly with justice. was a metaphysician, and all we can ask of such
He He
an one
is,
that
his
inconsistent with what
speculations should
neither be
known, nor discourage further research. That he was not unscientific, as the word was then understood, is shown by the numbers of physicians, musicians, and mathematicians who were is
attracted by his teaching.
Nor does there seem to be any reason why a modern chemist should not be a Neoplatonist if he chose.
To
Plotinus, physical science could not
knowledge of matter, because matter was Its field was the relation of God to the
mode -
of the combination of
Two
The
life
mean
No
the
Thing.
world,
the
with matter.
ideas were of great importance in his mind. that causation excludes
first is
necessity.
thing has a cause, but there of these all are in their soul of
Every
a hierarchy of causes;
degree intelligent, and the possesses a certain power of selfWhereas Fatalism reduces everything
man even
determination.
is
NEOPLATONISM
252 to
one
;
even the distinction of cause and
effect is
lost.
The second is that unity does not destroy indi The One is wholly everywhere, because viduality. life is
All souls
not divisible.
are
one because they
come from as
"
the One, yet they are distinct numerically thoughts in the same mind," and they differ even "
in quality.
If Providence were
no providence, provide
It
for."
all,
there would be
would be nothing for it must have an object; it comes
for there
that object, for instance, to
man, not
to destroy
to
to
him,
but to co-operate with him, in such a way as to leave his
that
manhood
Of
intact.
nothing that
"
is
can
individuality Plotinus says, perish."
These two propositions are in fact corollaries of the fundamental Platonic contention that Being is not one, but many. In the world
of
Becoming
there
is
multiplicity, things or bodies of every sort
They
are
not directly by the Soul of God, but
made
by Nature,
endless
and kind.
the
World-spirit.
Nature supplies the
word which, as we have seen, imposes bulk, shape, and quality upon matter. Nature is the sum of words as the Soul is of Forms and the Intelligence of a word, a creating power, a soulCompared with the offspring of the earlier soul. that of sleep com like is Divine her consciousness Ideas.
She
is
life,
pared with waking.
She
is
in
fact
a
buffer-soul
inserted to disguise the transition from the inward to the outward action of God, and from thought to desire,
and
for
this
latter
purpose she creates yet
MAN
IN
NATURE
Her weakness
another buffer-soul.
253 is
the reason
why
Production, says Plotinus, is the result of insufficient power of contemplation, as we see in she creates.
the case of the geometer,
who
is
obliged to call sight
diagrams on paper, because vivid not his intelligence enough to reason about Thus Euclid writes a book, without this them help. and Nature creates a world. Her "theory" externalizes to his aid,
and draw
his
is
itself
and projects a
The words
"
theorem."
or forces differ,
and produce accordingly and organic, stones,
different kinds of bodies, inorganic
men.
animals,
plants,
According
to their different
degree of receptivity, Nature supplies them with a natural soul, the "other soul," "shadow of a soul," "
word of a
powers of
which brings with it the lower To the vegetative and the sentient. gives what it is capable of using, and
soul,"
life,
each body God no more. The union of this lower soul with the body makes the compositum," the animal. "
man
But
comes
has also a higher soul, the true Ego.
him
It
from God, and is like God. To the lower belong the animal life, pleasure and pain, desire, anger, sense ; the higher differs from the Divine only in this, that, while connected with the body,
to
it
straight
possesses memory, imagination, discursive and a finite will, faculties which form a
reasoning, link
between the absolute and the conditioned
in
telligence.
The soul proper comes down to occupy the body which Nature has prepared and endowed for it. No force
is
needed.
It
comes
"
neither
willingly
nor
NEOPLATONISM that to but driven by natural instinct, because men When care. which it comes needs its fostering a build of a God, they desire to secure the presence
sent,"
fit for Him, capable of receiving temple or a statue and dwells among Him, and then His power descends then places her and them. So Nature makes an idol,
handiwork under the patronage of the Divine. whether Plotinus could not quite make up his mind, It was not. or sin a was soul the coming down of the
But the tradition of a necessary part of his system. and worked a was it chastisement, that his school held exist of character earthly the of out this view penal the fanciful doctrine of the ence, by the addition of soul into the body of human the of transmigration This Plotinus could not bring himself to brutes.
deny
it
was part of
his
Hence he
religion, vacillates.
philosophy. as coming speaks of the soul
being
its
inferior to "
own
master,"
down through
through
At others ,soul
itself."
though not of his At one time he "
desire of
"honouring
joins
body
things for the
does good in coming shows in act its marvellous power.
the perfection of
It
whole."
down, because it Had there been no souls, the infinite richness of the Better for the soul Ideal would have been unknown. be indignant with not Yet we must to stay at home. earth she gains on her for coming, even though the sad knowledge of evil
"
;
for the
experience of evil
of the Good in those begets a clearer knowledge discern evil scientific to feeble whose powers are too ally without experience"
the philosopher speaks,
(Enn.
iv.
8,
5
8).
Here
MAN The
IN
NATURE
255
current conception of the relation of soul to
body was absolutely reversed by Plotinus. The soul is not in the body on the contrary, the body is in the ;
soul like
net in the
"a
Soul, the Ego, rides
Man
s
The
feet are
soul
Each
is
hypostases.
earth, but his
head
is
in heaven.
never separated from the first cause. in contact with all three of the Divine
is
soul
on
pervaded, yet transcended. like a pilot on a ship.
sea,"
upon body,
But here again comes
in the doctrine of
The union may be dormant. Man has receptivity. what he uses. Hence there will be three classes only of men those in whom Soul is operative, those in :
whom
Intelligence, those in
demon
or guardian angel
whom
is
the Good.
Man s
the faculty next above
that which
in, his conduct he obeys. world, according to Plotinus, is JiOt^only the best possible world, but the oliIy~pQSjiible world, the
The
of
^
theOrefle^iii__m^a41r -its parts wisdom of its Maker. It is the one glory^and ^
the
face seen
many
"m
many
mirrors, the ^one voice
heard
in
ears, a
copy, though a pale copy, of the eternal This Plotinus presses very archetype. strongly the half-Christian Gnostics. against They desire, he a new earth," to which says, But they hope to go. do why they profess to love the pattern, when they "
disparage that of which dualistic
pessimism
it
is
the pattern?
Against
this
argument is unanswerable. The Christian might reply, that on the showing of Plotinus himself the pattern is better, and thus he might justify his yearning for heaven. Plotinus would have retorted, that in the mystic vision the philosopher
NEOPLATONISM
256
Archetype, even here upon serene content is strongly con trasted with the divine discontent of the Christian. possesses
The
the
the
All,
Hence
earth.
his
question arises whether his mysticism
is
reason
and whether his vision is possible. That the world is imperfect Plotinus knew full well. If it were perfect, it would be God. He grapples manfully with the problem of what is called physical able,
evil.
Partly he found a reason for
in the resistance
it
of matter; the word cannot always control or pene trate the medium of its manifestation. Partly it is to
be regarded as a chastisement Partly he denied that it was evil. the
The
All.
part cannot be
sense as the whole
evil. is
a drama.
war.
;
One
It
antenatal
We
perfect in the
tears as a criterion of
not harmful.
is
Life
has a unity though its parts are at The plays the hero, another the clown. role,
and, as he plays well or
because he
is
him a
gives
ill,
worse place in other dramas.
what he
Hardship strengthens
better.
battle with difficulties, in
which we may expect
we
take
God
s
always calling
him
Life
way, but
Providence does not leave
is,
better or a
men, and makes them help
same
It
poet assigns to each his
if
sin.
necessary to
is
the statue must have feet as well
must not take Children weep over what
as a face.
for
man
not
to
to better things
is
:
a constant
God s
otherwise.
perish, but
is
the Divine law
says that to the good, life shall be good, and vice versa. Plotinus did not deny the difference between good
and
evil fortune,
of the whole
is
but he minimized
mixed, but
if
"
it.
The
nature
any one detaches
his
MAN soul, the rest
no great
is
NATURE
IN
matter."
257 In this cheerful,
manly view we read the difference between Stoicism and Platonism. The former said that "the that is to say, slich part of our environment as we rest,"
How Plotinus cannot control, did not matter at all dealt with moral evil we shall see later on. One very remarkable feature of the Plotinian view of Nature is expressed by the word Sympathy. Every part of the whole, by virtue of its provenance from the One, unison.
And
set in the
is
this
quire contact, but
same
is
and vibrates
in
capable of acting at a distance*
By
this thrill of affinity Plotinus
He
went so
world,
key,
sympathetic affection does not re explained sensation, were another
far as to affirm that, if there
we should not be able
to perceive
it,
even
if
were exactly like our own, because the soul that made it would not be in touch with ours. But in
it
this
The
way he was able to defend astrology and magic. stars do not cause good or evil fortune, yet as all
movements may prog Magic cannot affect the higher soul, but it has power over the lower, by subtle physical influences, which it has at its command. In this way even a good man may be bewitched, and in consequence may nor can he ward off suffer disease or even death
nature
is
interdependent, their
nosticate.
;
these baleful assaults, except by the use of counter
charms. extent. far as
The demons have power
He
his life
over him to this
subject to their malefic influences, so
is
is
relative.
Plotinus saw no essential
difference between the art of the physician and that of the enchanter; both made use of natural powers.
R
NEOPLATONISM con seen, and in this very to move at of the prayer power nection, he explained any rate the lower gods. aloof from these It is possible that he held proudly at least he left the gate but vulgar superstitions; he does not wide open. Yet we may notice that use of mesmerism or artificial have made In
this way, as
we have
seem to any means to induce the mystic
The
position
As regards
his
of
man
is
body and
vision.
therefore a double one. his
irrational
soul,
he
is
of physical causation, and has entangled in the chain Only in his but a limited power of self-assertion.
Ego can he be
free.
XVIII THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL
WE
must content ourselves with
setting before the
reader an abstract of the famous argument of Plotinus on the Soul s immortality (Rnn. v. 7).
The
Platonist
had
to establish
two propositions
That the Soul is not a Body. II. That it is not a Harmony or Form, or as we might say, Function of a Body. If he could demon strate these two points, it follows that the soul must I.
belong to the immaterial,
intelligible
world
;
that
it is
a real Being or Ousia, and therefore eternal. i. The critique of materialism is based partly on the conception of life, partly on that of unity. .
The
soul has
life
of
material substance, not
They never
exhibit
life,
This
not true of any even of the four elements.
itself.
is
except as something that has
obviously been brought
to
them.
But
if
no one
material substance possesses life, no aggregate of such substances can generate it; "the unintelligent cannot
Indeed no body can so much beget the intelligent." as exist without soul. Organism implies an organizing For a word comes to the matter and principle.
NEOPLATONISM
260
makes
and the word can only come from
a body,
it
soul.
Some, Leucippus Democritus, and Epicurus, built up the world out of atoms. An atom has no magni tude, and no qualities. Since it has no magnitude, no number of them will form a bulk. Since it has no qualities, it can never give birth to sympathy. But the characteristic of soul
is,
that each part
is
in
sympathy
with the others, and with the whole.
cannot be, as the Stoics asserted, an affection of For matter does not shape itself, or put life into itself. Where then does the affection come from ? It
matter.
There must be some Giver of Life outside and above For there could not be such a all material nature. thing as a body, if there were no soul-power. Perhaps even matter itself could not exist, and all would
go to wreck,
if
there were no order, no word, no
intelligence. if it
Again,
life would possess one Whereas life causes many It heat and cold, colour, and others.
were a body,
definite set of attributes.
and diverse, would have but one movement, again
it
has many.
does not grow.
It
It is the
has no
that of gravitation, but
cause of growth, yet
size,
no
it
parts.
Further, the immateriality of the soul results from a consideration of its powers.
From
The
Sense.
we perceive an the
ear,
it
combined
;
may
be,
at the
because there
sentient subject
is
object, the eye reports
is
another.
The
same time they are
one percipient
one.
When
one sensation sensations
;
are
distinguished,
faculty, as
it
were, at
THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL
261
the centre of a circle, whose radii are represented by the different senses.
From Memory. -If the soul is a body, we must suppose that perception imprints a kind of stamp upon The
it.
imprint will
obliterate
From
it
The finger Some explain
Pain.
the smart.
Are we
decay, or later imprints will
in either case there will
;
is
hurt,
this fact
be no. memory. and the Ego feels
by transmission.
to say then, that first the finger
is pained, next the nerve, next the brain, and lastly the percipient? No ; there is one pain, not many. Again, each link in the chain would know only what was reported to it by the last link. The mind would be aware that the
brain was suffering, not that the finger was hurt.
It
follows that the soul
must be in union with the whole must be one and the same in every part.
body it From the power ;
of abstract thought. the immaterial, cannot be material. capacity for aesthetic and moral ideas. corporeal,
What
the
If the soul
virtue a kind of spirit or breath ?
is
thinks
And from
is
Grant
ing that a spirit might be strong or beautiful, how it be Virtue again comes and just or chaste ? goes, but, if the soul be material, it must
could
always
remain as It
it
is.
was maintained by some in the time of Plotinus, was a physical force, analogous to heat. this he answers that force is not material, and
that the soul
To
that forces of mind, thought, perception, desire, differ in kind from the forces of nature.
A
further
argument
of conceiving the
is
mode
based upon the impossibility of combination of soul and
NEOPLATONISM
262 body,
and
if
both are material.
Lastly, Plotinus considers
rejects a peculiar Stoic view,
which regarded mind
produced out of matter by a process of evolution. is expressed by four words denoting four successive
as It
stages of existence, Condition, Nature, Soul, Intelli gence, which correspond to the modes of being of a Truly there jelly, a jelly-fish, a monkey, and a man. is
nothing new under the sun, and we have here the rough draught of Darwinism struck out by some
first
Plotinus remarks upon this
doctor of the Porch.
curious anticipation of our modern perplexities, thalt it puts the worst first, and makes the existence of God
Again, that
hypothetical.
nature,
inorganic
account (TO
comes
Condition, or let us say is first, there nothing to if
for the evolution,
The
ayoy).
have some
jelly
nothing to set things going cannot evolve itself; it must
definite goal
sallying forth at
;
random
it
cannot be thought of as
in quest of
The attracting cause must be there, begins; that prior to
is
to say,
mind and
the unknown.
before the evolution
intelligence
inorganic nature, and not
must be
posterior.
The
directed primarily to establish the preargument existence of God, but the human soul is part of God, is
and
so what
We may
is
true of the one
is
true of the other.
notice that Plotinus does not here
deny the
possibility of physical evolution; that is, the growth of more perfect out of less perfect bodies. What he
traverses
is the evolution of life. Physical evolution not incompatible with his general view. He ad mitted a periodicity of Nature, a constant succession of youth, maturity, -and death, in the whole as in the
is
THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL
263
and any amount of phenomenal change he could for. On the other hand, he believed in per manence of type. There is, however, a curious and
parts,
account
obscure passage
(v.
which
9, 13), in
the contents of the ideal world
is
it
may be
argued that larger than
those of the phenomenal, and this might be applied to the alteration of existing types, or the emergence of new types. But the question had not yet arisen. The
knowledge of Nature did not exist. All we can say is, that Plotinus hit the root of the matter when he asserted that growth, without an ordering
requisite
mind, 2.
is
inconceivable.
Soul, then,
is
different
depend on the body ?
Is
if,
from Body. as
many
But does
it
think, a function
of the organism? In ancient times this view took two expressions. The Pythagoreans regarded Soul as a
Harmony, the
Peripatetics as a
Form
(Entelechy)
of Body.
When the chords of a lyre are rightly strained, they acquire a certain relation, which we call harmony. So it has been held, a certain natural relation of the differ ent, life
elements, of which or soul.
But soul
is
a thing,
body
is
harmony
composed, generates
a relation.
Again, the
mind
constantly resists the body. Again, if health is harmony, disease is discord, and the soul is changed or
gone.
Again, there must be another soul to
make the Thus
harmony the chords cannot tune themselves. soul must come first, and strike the keynote. ;
impossible to bring music out of discorci or ?
death.
life
It is
out of
NEOPLATONISM
364
Peripatetic defined soul, in much the form of an organism capable of
The way, as
the
same
"
life."
To
answers by repeating, what is surely a conclusive argument, that there is, as a matter of fact,
this Plotinus
war between the
spirit
as divisible as matter.
and the If
Form, again,
flesh.
you break
is
off the leg of a
you take away a part of its form. But you may man, and yet his Ego will remain whole as ever. This is one of Butler s arguments,
statue,
lop off the limbs of a as
and
it is
the
man
not destroyed by the objection that if you hit with a stick on a particular spot of his head
If he loses a leg, will no longer be able to speak. the faculty of sense remains intact, though one of its of organs is gone ; and if he loses his brain the power
he
thought
may remain, though no
itself
its
by
material vehicle.
longer able to manifest Plotinus held that while
is separable from the This, he thought was proved by the suspension of the faculties in sleep, and by the nature of abstract
form
is
inseparable, intelligence
body.
thought. the conclusion follows, that soul does not exist merely because it is the form of something. It is itself a thing, which does not receive being as a
From
all this
result of its establishment in a body, but has a life of its
own, before
it
comes
to belong
to this
or
that
The body did not beget the soul. animal. What, then, is it ? If it is neither a body nor an affection of the body, but a mode of moral and physical energy, containing results
;
it
many
capacities,
must be a kind of thing
material existences.
Clearly
it is
producing many from all
differing
what we
call a
Being.
THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL For
all
265
bodily existence must be called Becoming, not it is ever becoming, ever perishing, and
being, because
never truly
is,
but
in being, so far as
lives, it
while
it
lives,
by participation
does participate.
Yet another argument
for the
soul
s
immortality and in the capacity nature of virtue, which reveals the Divine image within us. Nothing but evil makes us doubt, that we are of Plotinus finds in
its
for virtue,
one substance (o^oovawc) with the Divine. This fine argument we must leave to the reader s own power of divination.
The sum and Soul
is
Life,
and
substance of the whole matter that Life
is.
is,
that
XIX ETHICS
MAN,
as
seen, belongs to
we have
two worlds, and
creature of circumstance, partly
partly the has his feet in the water.
is
Hence he
He
who was
to a thete, or serf,
more
aptly
still,
is
half- slave, half-free
to the dancer in a choir.
not.
compared ;
or
The music
has power over him, the measure also constrains him, but there are certain movements which are all his Plotinus
own.
on
insists "If
individuality.
cause,
would be
all
when
cause, and,
What, then, necessity
There that
we
is
God,"
good."
the
becomes a kind of
very strongly and very often
cause
he says, "were sole Yet everything has a is
outside
the
self,
it
necessity.
the sphere of freedom,
and what of
? is
an universal belief (two to) which tells us Yet if we look more closely, it
are free.
does not say that we are our
own
masters.
Con
sciousness assures us only of this, that we are free in so far as we can carry out our wishes (vi. 8). It is at best of action is never free. In truth,
mijced
nature,
because always
relative
to
qircuni*
ETHICS
We
267
we would, but what we can. The moment we go outside ourselves, we are caught in a stream of causes, over which we have no stances.
do, not what
Success is not in our power, only right motive and right conduct. Even the motive is not always free. In many
control.
cases, perhaps in most,
it
is
a
mere
"imagination"
(akiiTacn a) or opinion, dictated by our bodily needs. All bad men, and in some things even good men,
are guided by sense, which is purely relative. Aristotle held that a man was a free agent, if he was acquainted with the particulars of his action ; if he killed a man,
and knew what he was doing.
for instance,
Plotinus
universal, of the ignorance moral law, thou shalt do no murder," makes the deed involuntary. Aristotle held that the man ought
considers
of the
that "
know
suppose he does not know, that he ought to know Freedom, then, is to be found, not in the outward to
this.
"
But,"
retorts Plotinus,
"
it."
energy nor in sense-knowledge, but in the wish, and this runs up to Intelligence and the knowledge of the Good.
This
the sole cause of liberty.
is
Those,
who by
the practice of moral virtue have attained to a true understanding, are emancipated. They have a master,
it
is
true,
but they are that, which
is
their
master.
God Himself is
else than s
is
not to be called
free,
because
He
For man, liberty is nothing law." His will is free, when it
the cause of freedom.
at
"
a living
one with the mind of God.
contraries
is
not
freedom,
"for
to
The power of be able to do
NEOPLATONISM
268
a sign of inability to
is
things opposite the best."
cleave to
Vice therefore, in the view of the Neoplatonist, It is in fact
involuntary.
bad man uses
is
The
the sleep of the soul.
bodily faculties, but suffers his So in the assembly, intelligence when the elders are wrapt in thought, the unruly his
dormant.
to lie
"
mob, craving food and complaining of its discomforts, If the whole meeting into unseemly uproar. them from comes to word a and will keep quiet, they some wise signor, the tumult is allayed, and the casts
worse does not remains
Otherwise, worse prevails,
prevail.
the
silent,
if
the
better
because
clamouring throng cannot receive the word above"
The
(vi. 4,
the reins. in
15).
divine, and can suffer no con nods and slumbers, and lets go The cure of this moral evil is to be found
soul itself
tamination.
But
is
it
which wakes the
philosophy,
drawing of Providence,
dreamer,
in love of the ideal.
in
the
Whether
It universally applicable, is dubious. are divided men a favourite idea with Plotinus, that
the is
the
from
remedy
into three
is
Some mount
a*
little
sustain themselves called
virtuous.
heaven and stay it is
Some
classes.
rise
above sense.
towards heaven, but cannot
they drop again to earth, and are Some divine men climb up to ;
there.
possible for a
never
man
He
does not explain, whether
altogether to change his class.
Celsus has shown us, that one cardinal sin of the Church, in the eyes of the philosopher, was, that it
promised the
Beatific Vision to cobblers.
In any
ETHICS
269
case Plotinus thought it monstrous to suppose, that the suffering of one man could make another better. "
For
a
bad man
to ask
some one
else to
become
his
saviour, by the sacrifice of himself, is not lawful even in prayer." This is probably a sly hit at Christianity ; at any rate we have here in a nutshell the whole
difference between the two systems.
Virtue the
likeness
is
"
"
political
intellectual
(i.
to
God.
or practical,
It
two grades,
has
and the
"
"
greater
or
2).
Of
the former Plotinus seldom speaks, and always It with clear reference to its provisional character. is
"
beautiful,
fairer
than the morning
star,"
a stepping-stone to better things.
It is
The
a
but
struggle -with injustice it
would be
better
if
makes
yet but
contingent.
man
stronger,
no
injustice.
there were
Conscious Again, the need of action is distracting. ness and attention stand in inverse proportion ; the more we have to attend to the act of reading, the less conscious we are of what
is
read.
Considered from an empirical point of view, the office of moral virtue is to "limit and measure the desires and affections in general, and to take away Its work is mainly negative ; it mud of vice, and is a "purification." the wipes away But it has also a positive effect. Virtue intelligizes
false
opinions."
"
"
The really important thing is, that it is a form, a law, and forms and laws come from God. The Neoplatonist, as a rule, practised a rigid asceticism, but he was not ascetic in his demands
the soul.
upon
others.
There
is
even a tinge of antinomianism,
NEOPLATONISM
270
or perhaps we should say a touch of geniality about Plotinus. Little things do not matter, so long as they are not
done on purpose.
"
Nothing of
this
kind
But we sin (dpapTia), but rather right action. to aim not at being without sin, but at being is
ought God.
man does
things of this kind without will, a demon, or rather he has a a and double, god
If then a
he
is
companion at But his own.
his side if
whose
virtue
is
he does them not, he
different is
pure
from
God."
The
It is greater virtue springs out of the less. the turning or "conversion" (einaTpo^rj) of the soul from sense to God. Man turns his face to the light,
and sees the ideal beauty, not afar off, but in his soul. For even before conversion he possessed the ideas,
away in a dark corner." The greater and needs no action it is communion The world does not give it, and with the Divine.
though virtue
"thrust
is
free,
;
cannot take
it away. connected with virtue Closely
is
happiness.
The
he behaves like a bad man is doomed to misery But for the good, life wolf, and he becomes a wolf." "
;
is
good.
Happiness is not pleasure, though it is pleasant, and intelligence are beautiful, and beauty is crowned with grace which the soul seeks with love. hence its good must come It is "intensity of for life
life,"
In not from without, but from within and above. details Plotinus is here almost completely Stoic. Ex Sympathetic sorrow is a weakness of the soul. ternal blessings or misfortunes
or
do not contribute
detract from, the felicity of the wise.
The
to,
lyre
ETHICS
271
does not make the musician.
If it is bad, the player or he will sing without instrument, But his general conception is the reverse of
one. the
new
a
will get
For he regards action as incompatible
Stoic.
with happiness
4).
(i.
The reward punishment
of the good is fullness of the life, of the evil is wolfishness. But what
about the future
and
this,
what
?
Plotinus
he does
says very
about
little
merely repeats the The wicked are
say
traditional doctrine of his school. in
punished Hades, or they come back to earth to expiate their sins in other and lower forms of life.
The
soul that
is
purified
by philosophy returns
to the
and to it death is gain. what, becomes of the lower soul of man he
intelligible world,
As
to
felt
If it great difficulty. passes into other bodies;
is
the
if
it
life of the body, it belongs to the soul
it will go whithersoever that goes. But tra dition affirmed that the eidolon of Heracles was in
proper,
the Elysian Fields, while the soul of Heracles was a god in heaven. Here Plotinus leaves the question. With him, as with all his Homer stands side school,
by side with philosophy, and polytheism with
the
Absolute.
The
morality of the
tellectual,
plays a
Neoplatonists
and therefore purely
great
part in
their
absent from their ethics.
physics, but
This
why they could not found
is
individual.
a
is
purely in
Sympathy is
wholly
the main reason
church, or
even
an
enduring philosophy. Again, there
is
no place
in
Neoplatonism
for that
NEOPLATONISM
272 fear
of
God, which
The man
beginning of Wisdom,
the
is
himself never
sins.
God
is
above man, But
and adoration.
and there is room or humility, or there is no remorse, or repentance, In other words, matter. not do Little things dread. is-not He enough He is high high, though the One for aspiration
;
Hence does not charge the angels with- folly. too and short too easy. made is road to Him Lastly,
are entirely un Neoplatonic morals mere Action purifies, but in itself it is
the
practical!
distraction.
The
desire to
ness of intelligence. to moral perfection.
think
the
much and do
do
arises out of
Conduct has no
The way nothing.
to
feeble
inner relation
be happy
is
to
XX ON BEAUTY INTELLECTUAL Virtue is the Upward Path (aVayo/y//), to God. In the sleep of his soul
which leads us back
man
has forgotten his Father, yet he by a dumb impulse, fo\^ and reach towards him Him,
Him
is
drawn towards
"
byjiecessity of
t
Him
they cannot
iia.tuie -as<
Two
be^"
motives carry us upwards^the loveof Beauty, and the love of Good. The desire for Good is universal, and is
The love of Beauty is not universal it is new life, and its birth-pangs are sharp. The perception and the awe of Beauty (v. 5, r 2), and awakening of Love, come to men when they already,
sweet.
;
the "
the
it were, know, and are awake. But the Good, since has always been an object of congenial desire, is with them even while they sleep, and does not awe them
as it
when they begin
to see, because it ever attends t^iem, not recollected at any particular moment. Nay, they do not see it, because they have it even in sleep. But the love of Beauty, when it comes, causes
and
is
pain,
because they must
and then desire. This love therefore is second, and not till men begin to understand does it tell them that the Beautiful is. first
see
NEOPLATONISM
274
But the older and unconscious desire testifies that Good is older and prior to Beauty." The love of Good is older and natural. Never
the
"
"
Good
theless, as
Good, as a
above Form or Being, the love of moral motive, comes after, and
is
distinctly
reaches higher, than the love of Beauty.
Upward Path
two sections.
falls into
Hence the The love of
Beauty carries a man up to the top of Being, and then hands him over to the love of Good.
We
must consider, then,
half of the
way
in this chapter the lower over which presides the idea of the Divine Intelligence. It is the sphere (i.
3,
i)
Beauty; that is, of Art and Knowledge. Three classes of men are capable of the journey. Or the road, we may say, has
The
for the Musician, the
second
for the Lover, the third for the Philosopher.
The
three branches.
first is
beauty of sound, of shape and colour, and of reasoned truth all lead to the same goal. But all these pilgrims All woo the same goddess, though are lovers alike. with different
What, then,
gifts.
is
the Beautiful that
they seek? It is
within us, and not without.
we
loveliness that as
Narcissus
the pool
Beauty
fell
(v. 8, (i.
seek,
is
own
reflection in
2).
6 throughout) has
common
the inner
often forget this,
in love with his
in sights, in sounds,
that
It is
though we
many
manifestations,
in virtue, in truth.
to all these ?
What
is
it
What that
is
it
makes
them beautiful? Let us begin with objects of sight, for in them we What is their charm ? find a key.
may
ON BEAUTY
The common Yet this
whole
is
opinion
not
will
is,
that
For
suffice.
275
it
if it
resides in symmetry. be so, the composite
But how
beautiful, while the parts are not.
can any number of uglinesses produce beauty ? There must be beauty also in the part, the simple, the inOtherwise what becomes of beauty of
composite. colour ?
How is gold beautiful,
or the stars
?
"
What
"
sweet, but so
is
or lightning by night,
again of sound
the note.
What
?
The melody is mean by
again do we
the symmetry of virtue or of intelligence ? In these mind there is no proportion, either geometrical
acts of
And
or arithmetical. it
may be
harmonious as
Why
we
say that there
is
harmony,
then
-are
we
to the better nature. is
is
as
truth.
attracted
shocked by the ugly? that which
if
replied, that well-ordered falsehood
by the
beautiful,
and
because the soul belongs Hence whenever she discerns It is
akin to herself, or a trace of that which
akin, she rejoices and flutters with gladness, and takes it home to herself, and remembers herself
is
and her parentage.
Things are beautiful
in so far as
they partake of form, which gives them unity, the shadow of the One, and grace. They are beautiful in a word that comes from the gods. are ugly when the form, the word, has failed to control the matter ; when they do not adequately
by participation
They
represent the thought of the Creator. Sense recognizes the presence or absence of form, and its judgment is valid, when the rest of the soul co-operates in
its
judgment.
delivers this verdict,
Or perhaps
soul herself
comparing the report of sense
NEOPLATONISM
276
with the form which she possesses, and using this as The Parthenon is but a concrete expres her canon. sion of the idea of Pheidias.
When we
behold
it,
we
how
the shape given by the artist masters the We alien material, and rides upon the other shapes. see
man grasp the whole, and welcome it, just as a good it because a in virtue trait of over some child, rejoices harmonizes with the truth in himself. It is the same with colour.
This too
is
a form,
"
a bodiless
light."
however, higher beauties, which it is not given to sense to behold, but soul sees and ex we must presses them without the aid of organs. These "
There
are,
mount up and contemplate, leaving sense below.
But
now you cannot speak intelligibly about visible beauty to those who have never seen it, and do not perceive that it is beautiful for instance, to those who were born And there is the same difficulty in describing blind. moral loveliness to those who do not allow the beauty ;
or other things of the same to those who have no virtue of nature, or the light is the face of justice and selffair how conception,
of habits,
or sciences,
morning star. Men have seen, and must be that eye with which the soul beholds the immaterial. And vision must have
control, fairer than the evening or
must
first
been followed by delight, and wonder, and rapture, far because greater than what they felt over earthly things, these For true. the of hold now are laying they and and love, and sweet wonder, craving, feelings, awe,
and
delicious rapture, must attend
all
that
is
beautiful.
these emotions are possible, and almost all souls do experience them, even about objects that are not
And
ON BEAUTY seen
;
277
but especially those souls that are more suscep It is the same with human
tible of spiritual desire.
passion ; all feel it, but the wound is far deeper with some than with others, and these are said to love."
What, then,
which
is it
with exultation
fills
the lovers of the unseen
when they behold
the purity of tem
perance, the severity of fortitude, in themselves or in others ? They will tell you that virtue is the truth of truths,
the
eternally
clothe the soul in light and find the answer. "
full
fair.
?
But why does the truth Let us look
at its opposite,
Take, then, an ugly soul, intemperate and unjust, of lusts, full of confusion, fearful through cowardice,
envious through meanness, thinking nothing but what is mortal and base, crooked in all its parts, living a life
of fleshly passion, and thinking ugliness delightful. we not say that its ugliness came upon it as an evil
Shall
from without, that polluted with
all
it
maimed it and has made it
that
is
bad, so that
it
unclean, has no pure life,
no pure sensation, because its very life is dimmed by the mixture of evil, and contaminated by much death, so that it can no longer see what a soul ought to see, and is no longer permitted to abide in itself, because it is perpetually dragged outwards and downwards towards the darkness ? It is unclean then, and pulled in all directions by cords towards the objects that im
portune material
its ;
it
senses
;
it is
soiled with the body,
has received into
itself
by the an alien form, and
is altered by a debasing mixture, just as when a man tumbles into mire or mud, so that he no longer shows his beauty, and nothing can be seen but the filth which
NEOPLATONISM
278
When then ugliness cleaves to a man the by plastering on of a foreign substance, and has become his work, he must wash and be clean, before sticks to him.
he can again be what he was. If, then, we say that is ugly by mixture and contamination and
a soul
condescension towards the body and matter, we shall
be
right."
The remedy
is
rope,"
is
says Zeller, "
"
purification,"
Cut the get rid of desire. and the balloon will rise." Virtue "
to "
detachment."
away every weight, and
at
The
believer casts
once the Divine without
catches hold of the Divine within, and lifts him up. Earthly beauty reveals the glory of the Soul by which it
was made, and from he do not turn
seeker,
"if
vantage ground the back upon the music,"
this
his
hear the heavenly harmony of Intelligence. Plotinus, it will be observed, does not resolve
will
Goodness
into Beauty, but as
he empties Goodness
of moral significance, he is compelled to use Beauty To this accordingly he as his first and chief motive. attaches whatever there is left in his system of repent
ance and awe. of
first
The
Repentance
is
the delicious anguish
love.
relation of art to morality,
summary
fashion.
Vice
is
ugliness.
he would decide Ugliness
is
in
painful,
depicted the more painful It is painful because it represents God s it will be. over the failures, the triumph of the amorphous
and the more
realistically
ordering word, the power of darkness, the
and
horrible.
unknown
XXI VISION
INTELLECTUAL or
aesthetic virtue leads men up to Intelligence, into the realm of truth, of beauty, and of freedom. Here the soul is truly free. It can do
what
it
wishes,
unimpeded by misleading desires, by There is no
hostile wills, or adverse circumstances.
law of
God
to
in
the
sacrifice
be carried out salvation
of
improvement of the world. this for
Himself.
Man s
duty
at
the
any cost of brethren
self-
or
the
Providence can do is
all
to unite himself with
God by mounting upwards and leaving the world The kingdom of God is meditation. Sense
behind. is
our messenger, Intelligence our king, and we are
kings
when we
happy
there
Still
stages.
are like
"
:
it is
Him
<W
i K i vov
never weary when
)
it is
Life
is
pure."
even in the intellectual life there are two In the first, God s laws are written upon the
soul (v. 3, 4 ). but we discern
We know
Him
God, know
as a glorified
Him
perfectly
image of ourselves
projected before the eyes as an object of contempla 1 We know Him, but we know Him as 1). another, as something that we and tion (v. 8,
possess,
therefore
NEOPLATONISM
2 8o
Even this is a high grace. The that has been given. and the birth of in God "sees soul painless travail His Son/ We can understand arm-chair, closes
his
vision sees the
before
him.
this.
his
Plotinus
eyes,
down
sits
and with
in
inner
his
whole realm of knowledge spread out It is a conscious, but not a vividly
us in this connection, conscious, state, for he tells stand that in perception acuteness and agreeableness sensations The most pungent in inverse relation. are those of pain
;
the things that
we know
best
and
us like that are best worth knowing do not excite unfamiliar or less worthy objects
Ego has no senses." But we ought not There God,"
to
8,
(v.
be content to
a higher stage in which become the Beautiful and
is
we
"The
n).
here.
rest "
are
full
Intelligence,
of in
images, even the most glorious, return into ourselves, and see God there by direct as the Second Person of the Trinity beholds
which we leave
all
vision,
the First.
To to
the
One
all
He
and their proof. If mere hypothesis, everything becomes He must be in some sense knowable,
virtue, their perfection is
uncertain.
We
subject
him
was and
and
It Plotinus constantly recurs. all of knowledge the crown and keystone
this
a
could be
or felt. only by being seen condense the more important
known
will translate or
passages on this interesting topic. of Vision First, as to the possibility "
We
can
tell
what
He
is
not, but
what
(v.
14).
3,
He
is
we
281
VISION
cannot
so that
tell,
we
are driven to describe
Him
by His operations. But there is no reason why we should not have Him, even if we cannot describe
Those who
Him.
who
are inspired (er6ovffnovreg), those (KCITO^OL), know this much, that
are possessed
them they have something greater than them if they do not know what. From what what have some from they speak, they they feel, which moves as of that of them, something conception So it is with us, when we different from themselves. within
selves,
even
use the pure
Intelligence."
It is illustrated
by the act of sight (v. 5, 7). We and the light that
see two things, the sensible form,
makes
it
saw the
visible.
But we should not know that we
light r unless
sees Being,
we saw the form.
by light given by the One.
So Intelligence It must turn
away from all objects, and contemplate this light. But the analogy of the eye will carry us still farther. For the eye has light in itself that light which you see when you squeeze your eyelids. The Intelligence must concentrate itself on this inner light.
must go up then further to the Good (i. 6, 7) which every soul craves. Those who have seen know what I say, how beautiful it is. For it is
"We
for it
desirable as
we
attain to
and
Good, and we yearn towards it. But by climbing up and turning towards it,
it
we put on Those who go up to holy shrines must cleanse themselves, and put off their old vesture, and enter in naked, till having left behind all stripping off the outer garments, that
in our
that
is
downward
course.
alien to the god, with their pure selves they
NEOPLATONISM
282
see the pure deity, sincere, simple, clean, on all
things depend, towards
whom
all
whom
things look,
and
For He is they are, and live, and think. If we the cause of Life and Intelligence and Being. can but see Him, with what love shall we be filled, in
whom
with what desire, longing to
With what joy "
shall
What, then,
is
we
the
be united with
exult
way
How
?
Him
!
!
shall
one behold
beauty which abides in the inmost sanctuary, and comes not forth lest any profane eye should see it ? Courage let him that is able, press that
ineffable
!
into the holy place, leaving behind the sight of the
and not turning back to gaze upon the bodily charms that once attracted him. For when we see
eyes,
we ought not to run after it, but an image, a trace, a shadow, and For if one to that which is the archetype.
material loveliness to
know
flee
that
it
is
hastens to embrace as true the
fair image reflected on the water, like Hylas, he sinks into the stream and is seen no more. So he who sets his affection on
earthly beauty,
and
will
not
let it go, falls
not with
body but with soul, into abysses dark and horrible, to the intelligence, where he is blind and abides in Hades, and
will
clung to here. land
-j
dwell
Let us
with fly
this is the exhortation
and how mount up?
the shadows that he
then to our dear father of truth.
But how
fly,
Even
as the master (Plato) in a that says, parable, Odysseus flew from the witch
Circe or from Calypso, willing not to stay for any visible delights or any sensual beauty. And our fatherland
is
the place from which
we came, and our
VISION
283
is yonder. But what is the vehicle, the track ? Thou needest not go afoot
Father is
carry
men
hither
and
thither
and what ;
for feet
from land to land.
Nor
shalt thou get thee ship or chariot. Leave all and look not back, but close thy eyes as it were, and get thee a new sight. Wake up that vision which all have, but few employ. this
What, then, does the inner vision see ? On first waking it cannot clearly discern those bright objects. Hence we must train the Soul by itself, first of all to see beautiful habits, then beautiful works I do "
;
mean works of Then behold the not
but the works of good men. soul of those that do beautiful
art,
works. "
Now how
soul
Go
?
thou
that
art
thou to see the beauty of a good and look, and if thou findest
to thyself art
not yet beautiful, as the sculptor of a
be beautiful, chips and files away, smooth and that pure, till he brings out a lovely face on his statue, so do thou chip off what statue, that is to
making is
this
superfluous,
what
is
what
straighten
dark and make
it
is
bright,
crooked, cleanse
and cease not
to
labour at thy statue till the Divine radiance of virtue shine forth, till thou behold self-control mounted
upon her holy and hast seen self;
this
if
pedestal. thyself,
If thou hast
become
virtue,
and walked chastely with thy
thou hast nothing that hinders thee from in
way becoming one, naught
thy inner
self,
foreign mingled with
but art wholly true
light,
not measured
by size, not limited by shape, nor yet swollen to infinitude, but without dimensions of any kind, as
NEOPLATONISM
284
being greater than every measure and better than aught that has quantity if, I say, thou art this, and seest thyself
and
be of good cheer, mount no guide, and look with all thy
art sight,
up, for thou needest might."
Elsewhere
(v.
5,
the vision
3),
is
to a
compared
royal procession. "
This nature (Intelligence)
God, a second God,
is
who shows Himself before we can behold the first. The First sits above on Intelligence as on a glorious throne, which depends on Him. For it was right that
He
should be mounted, not on the soulless, nor immediately on soul, but that there should be an ineffable
beauty
great king appears
degree,
then
Him
go before
to
in state, first
those
who
are
as
;
come
when some
those of less
greater
more
and
dignified, then his body-guard who have somewhat of royalty in their show, then those who are honoured
next to himself.
After
alt
self
appears suddenly, and
all,
that
is,
these the great king him pray and do obeisance ;
all
who have not gone away
before,
satisfied
with the glorious pageant that preceded the He is King of kings and Father of gods.
Those, to
whom
king."
this vision is granted, despise
even
thought (vi. 7, 35), which before they delighted in. For thought is a kind of movement, but in the vision is no movement. One who had entered into a palace rich and beautiful through its richness, would "
gaze with wonder on
all
its
varied
treasures,"
like
Psyche in the palace of Cupid, till he caught sight of the Master of the House. But when he beholds "
VISION
285
Him who is far more lovely than any of His statues, and worthy of the true contemplation, he forgets the treasures and marks their lord alone. He looks and cannot remove his eyes, till by the persistence of his gaze he no longer sees an object, but blends his what was object
sight with the thing seen, so that
becomes
The
sight,
and he
forgets all other
spectacles."
not to be regarded as unfruitful. It contact (iira^fi) with the Divine, and in this union
is
Vision
is
the perfect soul
God Himself
"
"
like
begets
thoughts and beautiful virtues. the soul conceives when filled with tiful
It is a special grace,
"
beau
All these things
Him
"
(vi. 9, 9).
and being the self-manifestation
can be given only by Him whom it is prepared by moral purity, by and knowledge but these things only lift us as it
of the One, reveals. art
it
The way
;
were out of the depths of a mine on to the plane of The shining of the sun must come to us. earth. All
we can do
is
to
fit
ourselves for His coming, and
wait patiently for the dawn.
we must be
"He
"quiet."
We is
cannot force
God
;
within, yet not within.
We
must not ask whence, for there is no whence. He never comes, and He never goes ; but Wherefore we must appears, and does not appear.
For
Him, but wait quietly till He show Him we must make ourselves ready to behold, only
not pursue self,
as the eye awaits the
above the horizon
and gives Himself Several points the Vision.
dayspring.
And He swims
from the ocean, as the poets say to our gaze
may be
"
(v. 5, 8).
noticed in this description of
NEOPLATONISM j
286
accompanied by a complete, suspension of
It is
external consciousness whether It
it
in the
is
the
;
body or
comes suddenly. This
We.are never told
distinctly
is
soul not.
repeatedly emphasized. as long it endures ;
how
long as the soul will or can
all
does not know
"
"
is
the most definite
St. Theresa s trances are said to phrase employed. half-an-hour. have lasted about
Plotinus
It is rare. it
enjoyed
would
8,
(iv.
tells
us that he
had
"
often
"
From Porphyry s account it was entranced about once a towards the end of his life. Por i).
appear that he
year, at
any
rate
phyry himself had seen the vision but once. St. It was not attended by any sense of fear. direst the of the Cross anguish passed through John of soul before he beheld in
itself."
"the essential truth nakedly But Plotinus always speaks of the revela
tion as attended
by joy unspeakable. It was the manifest not pictorial.
The Vision was
One, and could not therefore In this it however majestic. any shape the visions of the Old Testament differs from Prophets, which often, as in the case of Isaiah and ation of the Formless
come
in
Ezekiel, presented definite forms and scenes to the eye of the soul. Some of the mediaeval mystics regarded
these definite and particular manifestations with great suspicion as possible delusions of the Evil One.
They were aware which
that fasting
and
sleeplessness, with
they were
hallucinations,
only too familiar, will produce visits of the devil, or phantasms of
sensuous and enticing delights, and were wisely on
VISION their
287
The Neoplatonists of
guard.
group were ascetic
;
but not
the
at all in the
Plotinian
same sense
monks. Their diet was spare, but wholesome they were on friendly terms with the physician, and took reasonable care of their bodily health. They had little to fear from those airy fancies, as the Christian ;
whether seductive or horrible, which are bred
of
enfeebled nerves or a disordered stomach.
no words were heard.
Lastly,
There was no voice
of the Lord saying, "Go, and tell this people." The revelation was not communicable. It was granted to the individual soul for his
own comfort and
edifica
became a witness. He have seen and know," and
It is true that the seer
tion.
I could say thenceforth, his vision made him a holier man. "
sense, the manifestation of the
To some
withal.
profit
extent
In this indirect
spirit
this
was given to is
true
of
all
But on the Christian prophet revelation prophecy. laid a burden Woe is me if I preach not the Whereas the effect of the Neoplatonist Gospel." "
:
vision
was to draw the seer from the world of action.
Preaching other
wise
is
just as contingent, just as unfree as
mode of dealing man will avoid it.
fallen into the
same
any
with the external, and the Christian mystics
error,
may have
but only by denying their
principles.
When
Plotinus speaks of waiting for the revelation,
he perhaps does not mean, that the man is to sit with This of itself would be eyes shut and hands folded. pressing God.
What he seems
there should be absolutely
to inculcate
no desire even
is
that
for the all-
NEOPLATONISM
288
The
desirable.
believer
must put himself absolutely
He is always meditating, least he and suddenly, when expects it, the palaceand the doors will be opened, King will step forth. hands of God.
into the
has been said that the Agnostic Deity
It
the is
same
as the Platonist Matter or
No
not this equally true of the One ? Plotinus emphatically denied this.
One The
agreed former is
reality
power sense
and
;
And
Matter and the
being formless, but in nothing else. unreal, the latter is more real than all
the former
mere
is
potentiality, the latter
we have but
is
a vague, disquieting
as of something
shapeless, horrible, lawless, the latter brings with it of the evil; presence If
the sweetest rapture. see
really
Thing.
in
of the former
;
is
it,
touch
it,
feel
we cannot
We
it.
fullness
of
life.
communicated.
This also
What
is
is
the
is
it
cannot be
revelation
it,
yet
our true It is the
it.
defined or
There
perfect health?
nothing vague or indefinite about admit of description. Revelation
in this sense
it
even better than other things, because we are in self, our inmost personality ;
we can
explain,
can know
it
is
does not
of a Presence, of a
Personality ; and without denying the possibility of revelation altogether, we can hardly say that the vision
of Plotinus
is
inconceivable.
But two questions force themselves upon what he says here sane or not sane? And necessary part of his system
The
first is
Is
us. is
it
a
?
by no means easy to answer.
Plotinus
shared, though only to a limited extent, the super-
VISION
But
stition of his age.
demons and
289
his superstition, his belief in
magic, has nothing whatever to do In practice the two are wholly dis
in
with his vision.
connected, and if there is any link between them it can only be one of historical sequence, of more or less
remote causation.
His
intellect
was singularly acute and logical, and tells us, by no means an un
he was, as Porphyry practical
man, so
far as
he chose to entangle himself
Yet he was a visionary. that the experiences he doubt There can be no
in matters of business.
Nor are they unique. Nor do an betoken unhealthy mind or body. Not to they of St. Paul, who was as sane a man as ever speak describes are real.
same singular phenomenon in a book as the In Memoriam. modern thoroughly
lived,
we
The in
find, the
great point
is,
so
was be a
that the trance of Plotinus
no way mechanical or
self-induced.
If this
stands in a different class from the by whirling movement or gazing on produced torpor He a bright object, or any form of mesmerism. fact, his vision
it to be a Divine manifestation. The may be left to the judgment of the reader. All we will insist upon is, that Plotinus was by no
himself believed point that
means a besotted
fanatic.
But did the Vision belong to his system, or is it a mere accretion whose roots are elsewhere ? We may say with
confidence, that
it
springs
not
from his
We have already philosophy, but from his religion. It seen something of the history of the doctrine. rested
upon
facts.
Philo found an instance of the
T
NEOPLATONISM
296
in the Hebrew prophets ; Plu tarch in the Pythoness or the Corybantes. The Pythagorean seized upon the idea as opening the
"
divine intoxication
"
only possible way in which the One could be known, and the Egyptian Plotinus fixed it in the forefront of his creed.
But
it
was not
proved by the
really necessary.
fact that
Neoplatonism
This indeed
is
in all its essential
own days as Idealism ; but with out this mystical element. The modem disciple of Plotinus insists that the supreme unity, the synthesis
features exists in our
of
all antitheses,
can be known in other ways.
But why then does Plotinus lay such stress on this To this it may be particular kind of knowledge? replied that he does not represent the Vision as an
A man indispensable condition of the spiritual life. in the where dwell Divine subject might Intelligence, and object all virtues,
are one, might enjoy happiness, practise
and possess
all knowledge, yet conceivably he might in this life never enjoy the Beatific Vision. Yet he held it up before man s eyes as a hope that
ought to cherish, and whether the Vision as he conceived it be sane or not, there can be no doubt that this way madness In individual cases it all
"
lies."
might be wholesome, but as a system it is necessarily A host of unclean spirits sloth, presump deadly. imposture come flocking in, and the very foundations of intelligence and even morality are destroyed. tion, self-delusion,
The Vision,
Christian
when
Church
also believes in a Beatific
the saints will see
"
face to
face,"
when
VISION they will be like God, and "see Him as He But she keeps this hope against the Great Day, and while is."
steadily
asserting, that
some holy
souls
have been
privileged to see things unspeakable, she forbids her children to think that in this life they can scale the summit of all things. Here we see in a glass darkly. None knoweth the Father save the Son. For others
the vision this
is
"in
Christ,"
conditioned vision
not immediate; and even
who can exhaust?
But the strength of the Church lay in her posses sion of a revelation, and one, and probably not the least, among the motives of Plotinus was the desire to outbid her.
xxii PORPHYRY
THE
successors of Plotinus differ from their great
master in
many remarkable
ways. a high and fine enthusiasm, a noble conception of the Divine, and a grand faith in Man s feet are in the mud, the possibilities of man.
About Plotinus there
is
Hence communion
but his head reaches up to the One. possible for
him
to attain to perfect
is
Later Neoplatonists took a
the Fountain of Life.
An
illimitable hierarchy of beings
sanguine view. extends from God to earth.
less
it
with
Man may
climb as high
as the angels, but not beyond. Plotinus, like
all his
school,
is
cism, a commentator on sacred is singularly free.
He
tinged with scholasti
texts.
follows the
But
spirit,
his
method
not the
letter,
and borrows nothing that he does not transform. Imagination in him is more than logic his results are His followers become more consistent and original. and more eclectic and pedantic. They pride them selves on making Aristotle and Plato agree, even in ;
where they are poles asunder. Plotinus holds fast to the conception of immateri-
their theory of Being,
PORPHYRY ality with
came
after
293
the intuition of true genius.
could not grasp
Those who
this fine idea.
It
slips
from their hands, as Eurydice from the embrace of The Plotinian Trinity begins at once to Orpheus. materialize and break up. In Plotinus philosophy almost takes and
wing, breaks loose to form a religion He left by itself. behind him a compact system of Idealism, and a lofty spiritual mysticism.
Yet
in
the background of his
thought lay the whole of polytheism, with ful
magic linked on
all its
hate
to his philosophy
of the sympathy of nature.
He
by the doctrine himself was a man of
serene and fearless intelligence, who dwelt content in the realm of Ideas, a servant of the highest God, to
whom
demons did homage. He could put them mind their hideous forms and noxious arts could do him no harm. For him the upward path the
out of his
seems
;
to lie past the gates of hell, along a secure and^ track, where the spirits of evil have little or no
happy power to molest the pilgrim. But he left all the horrors of Graeco-Oriental super stition intact. He even strengthened their hold upon the imagination by supplying them with a sort of scientific basis. To minds of weaker mould these phantoms of the pit, the grotesque and ghastly creations of Egyptian and Syrian demonology, seemed the nearest and most pressing facts of the To them spiritual life. the
way appeared
to lead almost to
its
summit
right
through hell itself; and the most precious of all know ledge was that which explained the names of devils and angels, how to distinguish one from the other, by
NEOPLATONISM
294
what amulets or charms ministers of light,
to purchase the aid of the
and outwit the cunning of the
foul
fiend.
The most important
of the immediate disciples of
Plotinus was Porphyry. He was a Tyrian, though born His real name was Malchus, perhaps in Batanea.
which was turned into Greek by Amelias as
"
King,"
by Longinus as Porphyrius, "purple-clad." born probably in 232 studied at Athens under Longinus, famous as a critic, still more famous as the Basileus,
He was
;
Rome in
minister of Zenobia; went to
himself to Plotinus. rid of a
into
fit
such
suicide.
262 and attached
In 268 he retired to Sicily to get
of hypochondria, which had plunged depression,
From
Sicily
him
he even contemplated he visited Carthage, where, he that
he had a tame partridge that could all but The rest of his life was spent in Rome. Late
tells us,
talk.
in
life
he married Marcella, a poor widow with many The union appears to have been purely
children.
and was probably contracted to enable him to At Rome he died, confer benefits without scandal. s at an late in Diocletian age somewhat above reign,
formal,
sixty-eight.
From Longinus, whom Eunapius
calls
"
a living
library and walking museum," he acquired his learn ing and his style, which is clear, elegant, and longwinded. He stood to Plotinus in the same relation as
Dumont
to
Bentham
"
;
for Plotinus,
heavenly-mindedness, and of expression, was thought
But Porphyry,
like a
by reason of
his twisty, enigmatic
to be laborious
Hermaic chain
let
his
mode
and hard.
down
to
man,
his
by
many
PORPHYRY
295
made
everything clear and
sided culture
straightforward." "
The most
learned of
him, and this
calls
duction
to
philosophers," St.
Augustine
the general estimate. His Intro the Categories of Aristotle, still extant, is
formed the basis of all
treatises
on formal
logic through
the middle ages to recent times. He wrote also on and the of philosophy history philosophy, grammar,
and
rhetoric, mathematics,
religion.
The most famous
of his works was that Against the Christians, in fifteen books, in which he criticized the Scriptures from a rationalistic point of view,
Book
of Daniel
Antiochus (c/^opjuai),
a
full
and maintained that the
was not written
We
Epiphanes.
till
possess
the the
time of Sentences
an abstract of Neoplatonism, of which will be found in Vacherot, a Life
analysis
of Pythagoras, a Letter
to
his
wife
Marcella, four
books on Abstinence from Flesh, two little mytho logical treatises on The Styx and the Grotto of the Nymphs, and some considerable fragments of other treatises.
Philosophically he did not differ greatly from his master. He appears to have followed Amelius in
dividing
the
Divine
Being, Thought, and
Intelligence Life,
and
classes of entities as proceeding
into three terms,
in regarding different
from each.
What he
not clear, but he paved the way for taught precisely the Syrian and Athenian schools. Zeller says that he is
denied the independence of matter and derived all from the One, but the passages quoted do not bear this
out.
He
believed in transmigration, but, like
NEOPLATONISM
296
lamblichus, did not allow that the soul of a brute. pass into the body of
The shifted.
man
could
the accent is teaching is nearly the same, but The sense of moral evil is more oppressive. Plotinus is longer and more difficult.
The way up held, that in
body
its
descent the soul puts on an ethereal
in heaven, the region of the fixed stars.
who have
lived a
good moral
on
life
Those
earth, rise after
sun, but not higher, until after successive incarnations they have attained to perfect far as
death as
detachment.
the
Thus
all
resurrections,
till
the
last,
were
resurrections of a body. Porphyry went a step further, and held that the body was never wholly put off, that
a
corporeal
(Trj/eu/xa)
was
envelope
of
grosser texture permanence of a human
finer
essential to the
or
Moreover, the soul starts on its downward course from the fixed stars, and puts on its garments In this odd way in the lower world of the planets. soul.
and the flesh becomes everything was put a step lower, It became burden. a permanent necessary to add virtue. Of this of ladder the to round another Porphyry says there are four degrees, the
political, the
and the paradeigmatic. Of purificatory, the theoretic, these the third and the last correspond to the Divine Soul and Intelligence, and lie beyond the horizon of It followed from all this that man cannot this life. attain to
defects the
life
perfect
wisdom
In this deeper sense of this
in
this
present
life
;
must be made good by the grace of God to come.
postponement of the
sin, this
his
in
view of the body,
Beatific Vision,
we may
PORPHYRY
2 97
trace a certain approximation to Christian teaching. tells us that Porphyry had been a Christian.
Socrates
In his younger days he himself
met Origen, and he were renegades,
tells
he had
us, that
knew the Bible. There Ammonius Saccas. But it is
certainly
like
doubtful that Porphyry was one. His acquaintance with the Scriptures proves little. None know them so well, as those who read to confute them. He was a man of sombre, melancholy rnood, and he was a fanatic. The austerest would stand generally thought
puritan aghast at the severity of Porphyry s morality. His treatise on Abstinence is directed not to men of the
world
Some
they are past praying for but to philosophers. of his fellow-disciples, Castricius Firmus in
had returned
particular,
to a laxer
meat. with
mode
of
life,
after the
All
to eat
his loins to deal faithfully
Porphyry girds up them.
death of Plotinus
and allowed themselves
pleasure
is
abominable.
racing, the theatre, dancing, marriage,
Horse-
and mutton-
chops are equally accursed. Those who indulge in these things are the servants of devils, not of God.
But what was the reason food? Not transmigration. cannibalism aa
;
for
his
horror of flesh
He
did not regard it as this ground failed him but he could ;
most physical reason," which had been imparted to him by an Egyptian priest. The soul of the murdered lingers near the corpse from which it has been unjustly severed, and seeks to allege
possession of
it.
necromancer, from
This we
know from
tales of ghosts,
regain the arts of the
and from the
fact
NEOPLATONISM
298
may be
acquired by eating the Hence it is heart of a crow, a hawk, or a mole.
that the gift of augury
clear that the soul of the
murdered sheep
will enter
mutton. him who unlawfully the the influence of Clemen trace Here we seem to tine Homilies, or some writing of the same school. The most singular thing about him is, that he was a man of most sceptical mind, and saw the difficulties assimilates
into
its
of polytheism quite as clearly as those of Christianity. His Letter to Anebos brings out all the contradictions,
paganism with the keenest Yet he definitely cast in his
absurdities, immoralities of
and
cruellest candour.
untenable
lot with the
side.
His sentiments are admirable. He was a deeply religious man, of high, pure, and tender, if exagger A long list of fine sayings may be ated, morality. extracted from his writings.
asks not sacrifice
"God
He looks not on nor long prayers, but a pious life. "True religion is to know the lips, but on the life." God, and
to imitate
soul of the wise; "
One ought
with costly
must be
Of
true temple
is
the true
is
the
priest."
to offer sacrifice with a clean heart, not
:
holy,
He
He that
quotes the famous Epidaurian would enter the fragrant shrine
and holiness
the angels, to
archy, he taught
than
The
man
the wise
gifts." "
inscription
"
Him."
"
is
to think holy
thoughts,"
whom
he gave a place in his hier that they should be imitated rather
invoked."
He The What
was
far
from orthodox
in his
general principles.
established cults were, in his view,
the ordinary
man
seeks
by
all
wrong.
oracles, prayers,
PORPHYRY sacrifices
wealth,
health,
these
nothing but
is
things
the
all
goods of the of
gratification
devils
seek such blessings the magic to which
renounced
the
flesh,
Over Those who power. and the use devils-, may worship
the
or
299
lust.
have
The sage has they respond. and gives himself up to the
pleasure,
contemplation of the ideal God. Then surely he is safe? Not at
all.
The Demons
bar his way to God. Hence Apollo once told the prophet, that, before his prayers could be heard, he
must
"pay
ransom
They crowd even tians
to the Evil
One."
the temples.
Hence
and Phoenicians, before they begin
the
Egyp
their worship,
break symbolic fetters, sacrifice certain animals, and beat the air with branches of trees to expel the wicked spirits.
Otherwise the
God cannot
appear.
They have power by magic even over the elect. Sosipatra, a Platonist saint, was bewitched by a love philtre administered to her lust
a
could not be driven out
more potent Demon
The vile Maximus summoned
by Philometor. till
to her aid.
Bad Lastly, they have wonderful powers of deceit. spirits can change their shape, and appear as angels.
Thus they have misled
individuals, states,
and even
philosophers.
Porphyry is the most devout believer in Hecate and her hell-dogs, in jinns, hobgoblins, spectres, amu lets, spells,
for the
that
the
and can give most philosophical reasons
most
ridiculous superstitions.
Christian
Everything
alleged against Polytheism he admits in the coolest way. It was true that the
NEOPLATONISM
300
sacrificed to devils, not to
Greek
that the ficent.
God.
It
was true
corporeal, mortal, mostly male It was true that they were deceivers, and that
demons were
philosophy was no safeguard.
It
was true that they
demanded and received human sacrifice. He tells us that human blood was regularly poured upon the time in Arcadia and
altars in his
even
at
Rome
Jupiter Latiaris
at
Carthage, and that
was annually sprinkled
with the blood of a gladiator. What are we to say of this man,
who found the New Testament incredible, and took the Arabian Nights There is probably no one like him in the as gospel ? All the Neoplatonists whole history of literature. were two men, but no man that ever lived was at once so sane and so insane as Porphyry.
He recoil
shows us against
the
extraordinary violence
Christianity.
These
men
of the
hated the
Church, and would believe anything rather than what Yet what they hated was obviously it taught them.
There its metaphysics. a of doctrine the remains only suffering Christ, and all that this involves, the meekness, the toleration of neither
its
moral austerity nor
ignorance, the discipline of service (see de Civitate
Dei,
x. 24, 28).
Augustine makes two observations that are worthy of notice. The Hellenism for which Porphyry It was as novel as fought was not Hellenism at all. St.
"
Christianity.
the saint,
"
Thou
didst learn these
things,"
says
not from Plato, but from thy Chaldaean
masters."
Again, the curious arts of the Chaldaeans were
all
PORPHYRY
and Porphyry himself knew this. and all noxious magic rites were those found guilty of them were to be
against
the
Human
sacrifices
law,
capital crimes
crucified or
;
thrown
sion of magical artis
apud
30 z
se
to the beasts.
books was
fatal.
Even "
the posses Libros magicae
neminem habere
licet ; et penes quosambustis his publice bonisque adenitis, honestiores in insulam deportantur, humi-
cumque
liores
reperti sint,
Nee enim tantum huius puniuntur. sed etiam scientia prohibita est." Emperors themselves dabbled in the black art, and the law was not always strictly enforced. But nothing could be plainer or more severe than the language of the Roman code. capite
artis professio,
XXIII IAMBLICHUS AND THE MEN OF JULIAN
IAMBLICHUS was the founder of what
known
is
commonly
as the Syrian school of Neoplatonism.
It is
not specially Syrian in a geographical sense, but it is marked by a fresh and stronger inrush of Syrian with its theology grosser conceptions, its wild and nonsensical trick of playing with numbers, and its craving for the baser forms of the supernatural. So far as it has any affinity with Greek thought, it may be called a Pythagoreanism run mad. But its true relations are to be sought rather in the lower forms
of Gnosticism.
During the predominance of
school Platonism becomes a mere .
adjunct, a
this
mere
excuse for theosophy. lamblichus belonged to a wealthy family of Chalcis in Coelesyria. He was a pupil of Anatolius, and after
wards of Porphyry. town.
The
Later he lectured in his native
dates of his
birth
and death are not
He was alive in the reign of accurately known. His Constantine, but did not survive that emperor. death
may be
placed about 330.
IAMHLICHUS AND THE MEN OF JULIAN
303
Like the Schoolmen, the great Neoplatonist doctors names of honour. That of their special
had
lamblichus
famous is
is
hero,"
the Julian calls him and in the spurious letters of Julian he
spoken of as
"the
whole
the
"
"
saviour of world."
means
little
"
Divine."
the precious treasure of all Greeks," the benefactor of the Hellenism,"
This wonder and adoration
less
than
God
tellectual ability, but to his this
for
fame
for miracles,
time forth knowledge was regarded as of
value, except in so
as
far
hero
he owed not to his
it
in
From little
issued in supernatural
When the gulf was opening beneath its feet, powers. miracles were the last arbitrament to which Paganism appealed. "
Why,
O
occasion,
wisdom ?
"
him on one "dost thou grudge us the more perfect They had been told that, when lamblichus why,"
said his prayers, he
said his disciples to
was
lifted to
a height of ten cubits
more perfect wisdom," far from the ground. This more precious than dull mathematics or hazy Ideas, "
came from the Brahmins to Apollonius, from him to lamblichus, -and from him to our modern mediums. "
Levitation
"
is
one of
its
favourite manifestations,
lamblichus modestly disclaimed the grace, but his
At biographer Eunapius clearly means us to believe. Gadara were two basins of warm water known as Eros and Anteros, Love and Love-for-Love. dipped
his fingers in the pools,
lamblichus
whispered some magic
words, and straightway two charming little Cupids were seen kissing and embracing each other, as they An Egyptian called up played over the surface.
NEOPLATONISM
304 Apollo by his
spells.
appeared.
is
"It
gladiator, not the
the
A
stern
and savage
said lamblichus,
soul,"
lamblichus renounced as
futile
the great task of created the
How God
world we cannot know.
enough
is
It is
the cause of All, and that to
But
impossible.
a
God."
the later Greek philosophy.
He
figure "of
if in this
to believe that
Him
nothing is he cherished a wholesome
scepticism, in another he threw open the floodgates wide. Pythagoras, he says, rightly taught that we are not to disbelieve anything miraculous about the Gods
The Gods can do all things, or the divine dogmas. and we are not to measure them by the limited power and intelligence that they have given to mankind (Protrepticus, xxi.). Hence we require a "
science
"
that will teach us
about the Gods. as saying,
"
not
"Be
Come and
to disbelieve faithless,"
learn
what
will
is
nothing
the
same
abolish
thy
unbelief."
It is possible to recognize
tion to the language,
The
object of lamblichus
God, and knowledge worship.
God
and what
He
is
here a certain approxima ideas, of the Church.
and even the is
is
Miracle,
not being or thought, but
merely a preparation He is more than we
for are,
does we cannot understand, because we
are not gods, and cannot
do
it
ourselves.
We know Him
partly from ourselves, so far as our nature reflects His, partly from history
and
revelation.
These two kinds
of knowledge, inasmuch as both flow from the same source and have a common meeting-place, will har
monize with and supplement each
other, but faith in
IAMBLICHUS AND THE MEN OF JULIAN
305
the larger personality from which both proceed will be
above
either.
Unfortunately history and revelation, as lamblichus knew them, were composed of all the fables of all the mythologies his philosophy was not so much Platonism as Pythagoreanism, which explains everything by which was to science sacred numbers, and the cure disbelief was magic. ;
"
"
What
Plato and Plotinus were concerned for was
the inner essence of Paganism, the joyous, intellectual, thoroughly human life of Hellenism, the religion of poets, artists, legislators, thinkers, of the natural at
his
To
best.
But
expression.
and
his
work
the sand.
man
this
Plotinus gave almost perfect
life is
not all intellectual and joyous, ruins like a house built upon
fell
to
What lamblichus had
next his heart was
Hellenism as a practical system. Those sweepings of idolatry, which Plato cast aside as vile falsehoods against the Highest, became to him necessaries of life, because in them too there was a truth. Such as they
were, in their all
that the
own
villainous shapes, they
Greek knew of
in the
conveyed
way of personal
Hence they could not be given nor could into the background. be shoved up, they Such a change in the attitude towards religion was religious experience.
necessarily attended
by a change equally great in the grasp or expound
It is difficult to
basis.
philosophic the teaching
of lamblichus, partly because of its inherent confusion, partly because it has to be pieced In together out of quotations made by other writers. its
main
features
it
was reproduced and brought into
NEOPLATONISM
306
order by the keener intelligence of Proclus, and as the Rudiments of Proclus are extant and easily acces sible in
on the
Didot
s
subject,
the present
it
we may defer what must be said we come to the school of Athens. For
edition,
till
will suffice to state, that
philosophy entirely
on one
*place of the Ideas.
side,
and
lamblichus puts sets the
The philosophy
Gods
in
allowed to
is
all life, thought, and flow through the Gods, that is, Somehow the through Zeus, Apollo, and the rest. Ideas create the Gods, but it is with the Gods alone
remain as a mental exercise, but
made
being are
that
we
to
are really concerned.
Now
as the
Gods were
innumerable, lamblichus wanted also innumerable ideas to account for them, and this he accomplished by splitting up the indivisible intelligence of Plotinus into
three.
Thinking, Thought, and the Thinker
Each of these begets three separate beings. another Triad, and so ad infinitum, and by the side of
became
the Triads there
is
a
Hebdomad.
Thus he expanded The inworldly
the series of the over-worldly Gods.
Gods comprised Gods proper, Angels, Demons, and Heroes. The 12 Olympian Gods give birth to 36 other orders, these to 72 others, these again to 360 Besides these we have 21 world-rulers (KOU^Oothers. Kjoarojogy),
and 42 orders of Nature Gods.
It is
obvious
He is dealing with the seven doing. twelve the planets, signs of the zodiac, the 365 laws of thought, except in so of the not with year, days far as the triplet may have some basis in Psychology. what he
is
In his morality he hardens the pessimistic tendency of Porphyry. The outlook under Constantine was
IAMBLICHUS AND THE MEN OF JULIAN
307
Persecution roused the Christian to ardour, the near of the End, and the coming of his Lord in
hopeless.
and
fired all his thoughts with the belief in
ness
But it took all heart out of the Pagan. the dismal apprehensions of the time, the soul sinks further and further from God. triumph.
Amid
away
lamblichus
adds yet another round to the ladder of the
virtue.
Above
four degrees
of Porphyry he sets a fifth, the theurgic, hieratic, or priestly virtues. The soul is never without a body; it is definitely separated from the Divine Intelligence ; the sense-powers are part of it ; and it can never rise above the Here on earth angels. it dwells among foes, and in its utter helplessness it must look for salvation not to the Divine goodness or love, but to the constant interposition of Divine
power.
And
own way, an
this
power must be invoked
inscrutable way,
He
sacramental means which
in
God
s
by the use of those
has ordained.
In other
words, by magic.
Here comes
in
by way of commentary the de Mysteriis, which, though not written by lamblichus himself, represents the inner life of his school. It presents itself as a reply to Porphyry
s
sceptical Letter
toAnebos, and professes to be the work of Abammon, the master of Anebos. It uses all the fine old language about the Gods this the reader will kindly take for granted. But to what does it ;
all
What was in
it
that Julian really
wanted
to set
amount
?
up again
place of Christianity ? It was not knowledge, but revelation. All Greek wisdom is derived from the East. Plato and Pytha-
-
NEOPLATONISM
308
goras were mere interpreters, imperfect interpreters, All religion of lessons learned in Egyptian temples.
comes from
Osiris or Bel, all philosophy
The author complains
Trismegistus. neologism of the Greeks,
from Hermes
of the restless
and appeals from the babel once delivered in Thebes "
of the schools to the
"
faith
and Nineveh.
Know thyself," the watchword old proverb, Know thy of the Socratic schools, means no longer Know thy weakness and need of divine nature," but The
"
"
"
help."
And
help can be vouchsafed only by means of
apparitions.
But apparitions were dangerous any man can Demon that
distinguish the
God
Scarcely things. that helps, from the
im
It is therefore of vital destroys. of this saving lore, as rudiments the to learn portance
handed down not by irresponsible individuals, but by A God always wears the learned and holy priests. Demons are same shape, and is always friendly. changeable sometimes big, sometimes little, some times hideous, yet lovely when they choose. Angels are neither so changeable as demons nor so constant as Gods, but are sweeter and less awful than Arch
Of Archons, those who rule the elements more comely than the ugly sprites who preside
angels.
are
Before the appearance of a over shapeless matter. a Demon there is seen lurid, smoky flame ; good spirits
heralded by variously coloured glows of light. Some Demons are attended by fierce beasts. Demons are
do harm, or minister to sensual gratification Angels Archangels perseverance, give virtue and wisdom ;
;
IAMBLICHUS AND THE MEN OF JULIAN spiritual strength,
and the power of vision
309
Gods
the
;
alone impart love and joy. Their coming may be invited, though not com pelled, by use of the prescribed means, magic songs and potions, sacred characters written, perhaps with
phosphorus, on a wall, by a glass of water, by a table, a staff, certain kinds of wood, stone, or grain, lastly
by prayer.
And what was the prayer? Sometimes it was a If the God lingered, the priest might menace threat. him with consequences unseal the
ask, I will
"
:
If thoir dost not
what
stars, reveal the secrets of
I
Isis,
and give up the limbs of Osiris to Typhon." But in all cases the prayer was not an outpouring of soul to the Father; but the utterance of certain formulas.
The words were
a mere jargon, which had no reference to anything in particular, which had indeed no sense at
all, yet brought an answer, God only knew why. ^Edesius was in perplexity he had recourse to
which he had most
prayer in
confidence."
When "
that
Which
was Eunapius does not have samples of these amazing
particular abracadabra this
inform
us,
liturgies.
but we
They
consisted
mainly of strings of bar
Honest Greek was no good. One ran Meu, Threu, Mor, Phor, Teux, Za, Zon, The, Lou, Ge, Ze. The famous "Ephesian letters" were Aski, Kataski, Aix (or Lix), Tetrax, Damnameneus, names.
baric
Aision.
Sabaoth,
Adonai,
Cherubim,
Seraphim,
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob furnished another equally potent and more intelligible invocation. It
is
not easy to guess whether such ill-sounding
NEOPLATONISM
3 io
Meu and Threu
as
vocables
are
names of
real
demons, or mere hocus pocus, but these Neoplatonist shed some light on what our Lord meant, prayers
when He warned His
vain repeti
"
disciples against
It will be observed, that though the Hellenists
tions."
borrowed from the Old Testamert, no one appears of to have followed the example of the seven sons Sceva. "A "
They spared Christian
old
wiser than these
is
the Crucified woman,"
One
says
this insult.
St.
Augustine,
philosophers."
men by whom Julian advice he relied, whose was led captive, and on in political affairs. wholly in religious, and largely so called men, utterly is the They are hardly to be Such was the
element of position.
faith of
It
virility is
the
absent from their Eastern
curious to note, that in
com
the fourth
and the philosopher seem to In the second century have exchanged the fourth he is the in the was the rhetor woman, and orator, and litterateur a was who man.
century
the
rhetor
characters.
Libanius,
has more common-sense, force, heroes than any other among the intelligence, of of Eunapius. Indeed, if we compare the men
sat loose to philosophy,
and
the the time, Athanasius with lamblichus, Basil and two Gregories with Aedesius, Chrysanthius, Maximus, was the voyage on it is easy to see how hopeless
which Julian embarked.
Maximus deserves
special
notice.
He
was the
owed chief agent in the perversion of Julian, and he His kind. his success to magic of the most dubious to telepathy brethren confined themselves mainly
IAMBLICHUS AND THE MEN OF JULIAN
311
and thought-reading, but he could do things which the more sober regarded askance, as trenching upon the domain of Goetia or the black art. Eusebius gave
Julian an ambiguous warning against him, perhaps only intended to whet the prince s curiosity. Chrysanthius, he said,
merce with
was the
real teacher
hylic powers,
who
;
Maximus had com
drive
men
to
madness.
Julian of course pressed for an explanation, and was then told how by burning a few grains of frank
incense and repeating a hymn, Maximus had made the statue of Hecate first smile, then laugh outright. "
When we
were alarmed
at the sight," continued he cried, Do not be ingenuous narrator, frightened in a moment the torches in the hands
the
"
;
of the goddess will light up. And quicker than the word there they were, all aflame. But I think nothing of these things ; no more should you ; the great
thing
replied,
is
purification
"Farewell,
books of magic)
;
and
by the
stick to
word."
Julian
your books (your
you have shown
me
the
man
I
He
kissed Chrysanthius, and flew off to Ephesus, where Maximus was.
wanted."
When santhius
became Emperor, he sent for Chry and Maximus. Chrysanthius refused the Julian
but Maximus hastened to court on the wings of desire, undeterred by the evil omens that met him on the road. His conduct was marked by
invitation,
pride, corruption, and greed. He retained his influence throughout the reign of Jovian, but under
and Valens fell into and treated with such prisoned,
Valentinian
disgrace, severity
was im that
he
3
I
NEOPLATONISM
2
resolved
upon
His wife brought him poison, fell dead at his
suicide.
drank
first
to give
feet.
But
at this
him courage, and supreme moment
He
him, and he would not drink.
his heart failed
was released from
prison, tried to get a living as a sophist, and failed ; and finally made his way back to Constantinople,
once more brought towards the end of But, the reign of Valens, he suffered himself to overstep the narrow line, that parted theurgy from high
where
his reputation as a wizard
him money and
At a
treason. fatal
success.
seance,
held in a private house, the
question was propounded, who should be the
A
next Emperor. metal bowl, bearing within its rim the letters of the alphabet, was placed upon a table. Over it leaned the hierophant, holding between his fingers a ring suspended from a Carpathian "
"
The
thread.
touched one
THEO
ring letter
vibrated after
and stopped.
within
another.
The
thing
the
bowl,
and
It
spelled
out
leaked
out.
It
was undoubtedly a case of inquiring against the life of the Emperor," and all concerned in it were "
Maximus had not been present, but put to death. he had heard and not reported the secret, and he perished with the others.
He
It is
idolaters.
human
we said, special notice for two often urged that these men were not They said that they were not ; indeed no
deserves, as
reasons.
But they being ever allowed that he was. all believed that the god or the demon
one and
dwelt in the image and animated it. The statue of Hecate could laugh, if it was rightly approached.
IAMBLICHUS AND THE MEN OF JULIAN But there
is
a
graver question that meets us honest, or was he a rogue?
Was Maximus
here.
The same doubt whole
the
still
313
attaches to Eusebius, and indeed to
tribe
that
hung about
Julian.
When
an oracle printed on his hand, some kind of trickery ?
./Edesius displayed
was not
this
At any
rate the Syrian school has
either religious or
no
living interest,
They were not merely dissenters. The same worldly
scientific.
dissenters, but political
that degraded the Church during the Arian controversy, acted upon the Pagans with ten times greater virulence. Intelligence and sanctity
ambitions, bitter
when party strife comes in at school of Athens had accepted its defeat, renounced the world, and settled down to
fly
out of the window
the door.
The
peaceful industry.
Philosophy was never persecuted except by Julian, by which the Apostate in effect drove
for the decrees,
the Christians out of public schools, were blows at learning.
Heathenism
and
magic
were
treated
enough, though, in the case of the latter, nothing was really done that went beyond the positive enactments of the old Roman law. Shortly harshly
before his death Constantine prohibited
and
Constantius
went
further
all
sacrifices,
ordering all temples to be closed still,
heathen worship to cease, and all under penalty of death and confiscation.
These
decrees, however, were not enforced with absolute The ancient cult was still tolerated at uniformity.
Rome, at Alexandria, and to some extent at Athens, and probably elsewhere. In the year 368, five years
NEOPLATONISM word Julian s death, the occurs in a law of Valentinian. after
"Paganism"
By
this
first
time the
towns were mainly Christian, and the old creed was or country districts. driven back into the pagi," refused to wear the Gratian About the same time "
ornaments belonging to the Pontifex Maximus, but He was the last Emperor that still retained the title.
stamped it on his coins. from the senate house in
He it was, who removed Rome the statue and altar
The reign of Theodosius is marked by of Victory. two notable events. In 391 the famous Serapeum of at Alexandria was razed, and the sacred places Hellenism delivered over to the black-robed monks, that
of
their says Eunapius, "but In 394 the senate of Rome, the life
in
"men
shape," swine."
is
was formally converted, very stronghold of idolatry, and "cast the skin of the old serpent." These events decrees.
were attended by new and more stringent In 415 Hypatia was murdered at Alex
informs andria; and in 423 Theodosius the younger
That the world in an edict that Paganism is extinct. the facts, this was not strictly accurate is evident from that
practices,
that
against those barians as a that
made no
Proclus
St.
who
disguise
Augustine
of
and
his
religious
Orosius
wrote
the bar regarded the invasion of on the national apostasy, and
judgment to Justinian was compelled
tolerate
Damascius
the time of Constantius to
From his friends. that of Theodosius the pagans appear to have enjoyed enforced by the external a
and
precarious toleration, troubles of the empire. But, even under the sharpest
IAMBLICHUS AND THE MEN OF JULIAN edicts,
few
if
any appear to have
their religious opinions.
Known
315
lost their lives for
adherents of the old
gods held high positions in the state, there was no on their use of the pen, and they retained
restriction
a practical monopoly of the schools. Magic was a very different thing, and unfortunately it was the Siamese twin of heathenism. It was, as we
have seen, condemned under penalty of death by the Roman law, which entirely ignored the nice distinction
between Goetia and Theurgy, the black and the white There were arts. Themis sometimes slumbered.
many magical books
in Ephesus in St. Paul s time. But the penalties might be enforced. Our Lord was called a Goes, and it is probable that many Christians
were put to death on
mounted
this charge.
When
a Christian
Jewish law against witchcraft came in to sharpen the severity of Roman the
throne,
the
old
jurisprudence. Eunapius tells us, that under Constantine ^Edesius was obliged to dissemble his
miraculous powers. bitter prosecution,
Under Constantius which issued
there was a
in the
imprisonment and torture of a number of persons, though no one "Ammianus appears to have actually lost his life. complains that no one could wear an amulet round his neck to keep off the ague, or walk through a cemetery by night, without jeopardizing his life as
No sensible man, he or necromancer. would that witchcraft deserved punish adds, deny but severe not to be enforced ment, penalties ought
a magician
except in the case of offences against the life of the This in fact had been the usual practice. sovereign.
NEOPLATONISM
316
have seen what was the fate of Maximus under not confined to heathen Valens, but the danger was
We
John Chrysostorn nearly a book of magic out of the through fishing
philosophers. lost his
life
Orontes.
In
374
Finally, in
St.
394 Theodosius forbade magic
maiestas, etiamsi nihil kinds under pain of of de salute quaesierit." aut salutem contra principum Yet even this did not prevent Proclus from enjoying "
all
a
cabalistic
man, and purchasers and
as
a
medicine
books continued
to
find
harmless
reputation
students.
Upon the whole Paganism was not cruelly treated, and died almost a natural death. There was never any
Inquisition.
The adherents
of
Jupiter
were
The never called upon to blaspheme their of Edicts did not extend beyond the prohibition bruta than more were little public observances, and like the assassination excesses, Deplorable fulmina. of Hypatia, were rare, and were the work of popular As for magic, it suffered under the old fanaticism. have heathen statutes, and if Christians ought not to find could rate at they believed in any God.
witchcraft,
ample
their justification for
the enlightened Porphyry.
conduct in the writings of
XXIV THE SCHOOL OF ATHENS PROCLUS was born 8,
412,
if
the
in
Constantinople on February from his horoscope is
calculation
correct ; but possibly in 410, in the reign of Theodosius II.; three years before the murder of Hypatia, and twenty-one years after the demolition of the Sera-
peum. His father, Patricius, and mother, Marcella, were Lycians, and not after his birth long
returned
Xanthus in that country. Like many of the famous Platonic teachers, he was wealthy, and he possessed, what in this flesh-hating but esthetic school was regarded as one of the chief to
qualifications of a
teacher, striking personal beauty. of a pardonable Marinus vanity.
Nor was he devoid had seen numerous
portraits of him.
While yet but a boy he was sent to Alexandria, where he studied under Leonas, a rhetorician, and Orion, a grammarian and priest. He learnt Latin also with a view to the law, his father s profession. But while on a brief visit to Constantinople, the god dess of the city appeared to him in a dream, and called
him
to
philosophy.
On
his
return to Alex-
NEOPLATONISM
318
andria he read Aristotle with the Peripatetic Olympioa religious dorus, and mathematics with Heron, "
man."
Hence he passed at the age of nineteen to Athens, where the gods were still worshipped, and the most famous teachers of the day were to be found. Two incidents were related in after times as ominous of When he landed from his ship, his future eminence. he
sat
down
Socrates,
for
a
moment
rest in
s
the shrine of
not knowing where he was, and the
water he drank on Attic
soil
first
was drawn from the arrival he went up to
Shortly after his It was late in the day, the Acropolis.
sacred well.
who was "
words,
just barring the gates,
Unless you had come,
and the porter, greeted him with the I
should have shut
up."
He
arrived in Athens just in time to hear Plutarch,
who died two
years afterwards.
read seven years, sharpening
Under Syrianus he
his intelligence with the
and drugging it with the study of Aristotle and Plato, and Chaldaean books. Oracles, the Orphic Verses, But the teacher who left the deepest mark upon his character was Asclepigeneia, the daughter of Plutarch, from whom he acquired the whole art and practice of On the death of Syrianus, about 438, he theurgy.
became head of the school, Diadochus or successor, and about the same time, at the age of twenty-eight, he on the Timaus, which he published his Commentary At Athens he his as masterpiece. himself regarded
though once he was obliged of his religious opinions. account on probably
remained to
fly,
till
his death,
THE SCHOOL OF ATHENS and remained home.
He is
for
some time
described as a
attractiveness.
He
man
in shelter in his
319 Lycian
of singular amiability and
remained unmarried, but took the
liveliest interest in the welfare of his friends, their
and
children.
wives
His friendship with Archiadas was
thought worthy of comparison with that of Damon Phintias. Though a most laborious student, he
and
He was took an active part in municipal affairs. a severe and diligent teacher, not sparing of rebuke, flashing out at times into anger, yet placable, watching the morals and progress of his pupils with a friendly
but exacting
eye.
In his personal habits he was he would taste meat,
ascetic to an extreme degree, yet if
pressed to dp so at a banquet, for courtesy s sake. Every day, Marinus tells us, he delivered five lectures
or more,
and wrote 700
lines.
The
afternoons were
generally spent in conversing on philosophic subjects as he took his exercise, and in the evenings he held a
With all these occupations he combine an unremitting round of religious Three times a day at dawn, at mid observances. and at A evening he worshipped the sun. day, was of in spent every night great part singing hymns,
sort of conversazione.
managed
to
and prayers, especially for sick friends. month he went down to the sea to perform his Every He observed all the feasts and fasts of lustrations. the Egyptian calendar, and many others, and once
sacrifice,
every year he held a solemn office for the repose of the dead.
For such a
life at
that time
no small courage was
NEOPLATONISM
320 wanted.
But Proclus did not lack resolution.
When
upon Syrianus, it was the evening of the new moon, and the old professor dis missed him rather curtly, being anxious to get to his devotions as soon as possible, and not knowing what manner of man he had to deal with. But happening to cast a glance through the window, he saw Proclus he paid his freshman
s
call
take off his shoes, and do obeisance to the crescent in the open street. In later times the house of
moon
Proclus, apparently
it
was the
official
residence of the
Diadochus or Rector, adjoined the temple of Asclepios, and lay just under the Acropolis. This was conveni ent, as
he could pass
to
and from
his devotions secure
from prying and hostile eyes.
By
study, .maceration of the flesh, and careful of the rules of Asclepigeneia, Proclus
observance
attained through the political and purificatory to the theurgic virtues. This is the point of view from which
Marinus, his pupil and successor, envisages his life. He became an "eyewitness." Rufinus saw a halo of light
round
his
head as he lectured.
The Gods
honoured him with constant apparitions, especially in dreams. He was assured that he belonged to the
Hermaic chain," the Platonic apostolical succession, and that the soul of Nicomachus the Pythagorean inhabited his body. When the statue of Pallas was "
removed from the Parthenon, the goddess appeared to him, and declared her intention of taking up her abode under his roof. Machaon, Pan, Hecate, the Mother of the gods, were constant visitants, and His vision Asclepios came to heal him of the gout.
THE SCHOOL OF ATHENS is
32!
no longer trance communion with the Absolute, but and his
actual personal converse with bodily Gods,
at showing that these bodily Gods were the Absolute, and not, as Plotinus thought, inferior created beings.
system aims
He wrought miracles also, which Marinus tells us were beyond number. He could summon rain in time of drought, and also prevent earthquakes, though how
this latter
power was ascertained
By prayer he restored to
is
hard to
see.
health the daughter of at Before who the Archiadas, point of death. lay the exercise of his supernatural gifts he made use of full
the usual magic paraphernalia Chaldsean lustra the sort of teetotum, Chaldcean a tions, strophalos,"
all
"
the
"
wryneck,"
familiar
to
of
readers
Pindar and
Theocritus, and the tripod.
His death was portended by an eclipse of the sun, which caused an extraordinary darkness, during which the stars were seen at noonday. He expired on April 17, 485, and was buried in the Syrianus, in the eastern suburb of
same tomb with Athens, under
Mount
Lycabettus. Proclus represents the expiring struggle of Poly theism. Plotinus found Paganism a shelter under the wings of his Platonism, but treated it as the There is a certain tolerant religion of the vulgar. scorn in his attitude, as in that of the the Sanskrit mythology.
This,
Vedanta towards
however, was
fatal.
Porphyry showed only too clearly, the moment the Gods were seated below the Highest they became
For
as
devils.
Their figures must be carried back without a
x
NEQPLATONISM
322
moment s was
delay into the It
lost.
Holy
would never do
of Holies, or the
game
to confess in the face
of the Church that Hellas had two religions. This is what Proclus saw, and this is the danger he set himself to avert.
This religious object he achieved by the destruction of Neoplatonism. The system of Plotinus is severely scientific. It is
worked out with a single purpose on true idealist lines, and issues in an unity as complete as is attain able by the mind of man. Polytheism indeed is there, but
used,
it
and
smuggled in, if the expression may be might be completely dropped without is
The many Gods are general result. but an expression for the Divine Intelligence which permeates all and holds all in sympathy. The object
affecting the
which Plotinus himself aspires is the One, the Good, the Fountain of the one chain of life and Proclus reason, which reaches through all that is. to
breaks up this unity at every joint in its stem. The distinctive feature of his method is its schol
His Rudiments of Theology is modelled on Euclid, and proceeds, like the Ethics of Spinoza, in deductive catenation from one proposition to another. The distinctive feature of his scholasticism again is a
asticism.
For this a tendency to divide everything into threes. sort of justification may be found in what Vacherot calls
"
the
Law
of the
Ternary."
Every product
being
complex involves
three principles
finite,
and compositum
or has three
remains in
its
;
cause, goes forth
from
finite,
moments
its
in it
cause, and
THE SCHOOL OF ATHENS returns to
One can
cause.
its
But Proclus brings in fashion, and the result
this.
trary
neither
the
attach a meaning to
his triads in
most
arbi
a confusion which
is
of Zeller
learning
323
nor the lucidity of
Vacherot can render intelligible. Three leading points may be
signalized.
i.
Proclus
Matter.
denies expressly the independence of All comes from the One. Matter in the
later Platonists
is so vanishing a quantity, that its total disappearance makes little or no difference, except in
regard to the origin of
When
evil.
Proclus says,
"
the
he hardly contradicts Plotinus, for even according to that philosopher the body is form, and form is divine. Nevertheless the change left Proclus without any means whatever of accounting for moral evil. All that he of bad men is that
body
is
divine,"
says
they are not receptive," they the divine light." 2.
The
it
systems
of lamblichus
like nonsense, yet there
and
must
rational explanation.
It appears to use of the arbitrary system of a Mind which participates and a
upon the
If there
mind which
the
sounds
some
rest entirely
Triads.
way of
(a>
in
point
Proclus, for surely be
out of the
three hypostases of the Platonic Trinity are 0rn). This is the most exas
incommunicable perating
"go
is
thought, be a
is
participated in, there
mind which
is
must
also,
not participated
Proclus
in, which incommunicable (^re x perex^e^og, dfildeKros). But the result is that the Plotinian Good, Intelligence, Soul cease to be fountains of life or causes at all! The whole system of the Enneads becomes a mere is
^
NEOPLATONISM
324
cabinet of curiosities, and nothing is left vitality except the Gods and individual souls.
with any
Probably
this result is in fact the reason. 3.
one great chain of Life. In This follows infinity of chains.
In Plotinus there
Proclus there
is
an
is
from what has been said. Each God is a cause and head of a separate family. From the Incommunicable One spring one knows Each has the character a host of Henads. not how of absolute being, yet each has distinctive qualities. The Henads run down in long lines ; the Intelligible are followed by the Intellectual, these by the Over-
From the again by the Inworldly. from the of the In family Being, Intelligible springs tellectual that of Intelligence, from the Overworldly worldly, these
that
of Soul, from
These into
"
principal
one
river
;
the
chains
that
"
Inworldly that
of Nature.
are mainly like brooks falling
which has a body may also have
a soul and an intelligence
;
but they subdivide as they
go down, there are different kinds of intelligences and different kinds of souls dependent on them, so is perpetually branching off into other Further, there are chains in which the inter
that the river rivers.
mediate links are wanting intelligence,
;
there
may be
and existence without form.
soul without
Yet
further,
the principal chains have to be multiplied by the number of Henads ; for each chain is a family de
pending on a God, and exhibiting throughout the It includes not only characteristic of that God.
Demons, and human
beings, but the stones, plants, animals, which bear signature of
Angels,
Heroes,
THE SCHOOL OF ATHENS the deity, to
and have sacramental
325
virtues with respect
But these divine characteristics are taken
him.
liturgy, so that the
from the pagan
divisions of philosophy are split
up
simple intelligible to suit the endless
ramifications of Polytheism. It
is
details.
needless to perplex the reader with further Enough has been said to show the principal
object that Proclus
had
in
view,
and
the
whereby he sought to attain it. The fact did not want the philosophy, or wanted
is,
means that
he
only to the supreme entities of the school, the One, the Intelligence, the Soul, are
justify his religion.
not Gods at
all.
He
it
felt that
They do not
feed the spiritual
he labels them the shelf.
It
incommunicable,"
and puts them on
as easy to drop
Platonism out of
"
is
life
Hence
nor minister to the formation of character.
Proclus as Polytheism out of Plotinus. How much depends here on our estimate of the
and ability of Proclus Victor Cousin, no bad judge, rates him among the first of ancient thinkers, and there can be little doubt that he was a good and religious man. But if so, how powerful is character
!
the fact that philosophy, even the noblest, cannot satisfy the instincts of the
his testimony
best
and
to
soul!
The
enough
to force Proclus to
school were strong Incarnation ; but the deny the fruits of all the systems were before prejudices
of the
though all him, he could find none to quench the hunger and thirst after righteousness.
There is, however, another lesson. Proclus aban doned knowledge. God is known, he said, neither "
NEOPLATONISM
3 26
^
nor by opinion, nor by science, nor by reasoning, of that but is, affinity by necessarily," by intuition,
Each God is known to those who belong to and share his character. Necessarily must mean by emotion, or some kind of unreasoning nature.
"
his
"
chain
faith, for
or
"
"
Proclus excludes
mixed
He
reason.
is
the operations of pure a metaphysician, but he
all
The uses his metaphysics to destroy metaphysics. ideas are "incommunicable," or, as Dr. Hatch says, "
God does
not
reveal
We know
metaphysics."
neither the finite nor the infinite, but the third term, Is not this very
the compositum. of Kantism
?
Yet
this
much
view did not
the position
save Proclus
from the most abject superstition, and its evil effects have been witnessed more than once in the Church. It is nothing but a residuum of metaphysics that saves Schleiermacher or
Kant from herding with the
Anabaptists.
There remains, as Proclus might have seen if he had been willing to apply his triads here also, a third If philosophy by itself is barren, and faith by course. itself is
lish
unbridled, there
Faith
tum.
Faith.
may be
here too a composi
and Reason may estab This has always been the position of
may
aid Reason,
Christian theology.
The
succession of the Diadochi ran on after the
death of Proclus for forty-four years, through Marinus the Samaritan, Isidorus, Zenodotus (about this
name
But there is some doubt), Hegias, and Damascius. was school the of expiring the most famous member commentaries on Aristotle Simplicius, whose learned
THE SCHOOL OF ATHENS
327
furnish a rich
mine of information to the student of Greek philosophy. The only glimpse we get of the
men is afforded by the Life of work of Damascius. It is a catalogue of marvels of the most puerile Some of description. them are natural phenomena, which science has personality of these
Isidore, the
since
learned to explain. Tiberius had a donkey, which could be made to give off sparks by rubbing his coat. The simple beast was thus used to his master s
prophesy
elevation to the purple equal truth as the first telegraph.
we may regard him with known ancestor of the electric Ammonianus had another donkey, which ;
but
was so fond of hearing poetry that hay.
it forgot to eat its the future by gazing into a another by means of a crystal sphere ;
One could read
glass of water
;
another by watching the shapes of the clouds a new art. Asclepiodotus could read in the dark, and Eusebius cast out a devil by adjuring "the rays of the sun, and the God of the Hebrews." And all the while the practitioners of these arts were being hunted down by the police, and often for their curi paid with their lives. Such was the "
martyrdom
osity^
appointed for Neoplatonism. In 528 Justinian ordained a new and more stringent persecution, in which Macedonius, Phocas, and
came
Asclepiodotus, the Quaestor perished. In 529 blow. The schools of Athens were
Thomas
the final
closed and their
endowments
confiscated.
By
this
time the income of the Platonic chair had risen by successive legacies from three pieces (ro/^a), the rent of the garden in the Academe, bequeathed to his
NEOPLATONISM
328 disciples
by Plato himself,
thousand.
Doubtless
told.
ment of
it
something more than a
to
What became
money we
of the
are not
was not spent on the encourage
letters.
One scene remains, half tragedy, half comedy. Driven from the temples and lecture-halls of Athens, a
band
little
of seven sages, including Damascius,
Simplicius, Eulalius, Priscian, Hermias, Diogenes, and Isidore, wandered across the desert to seek shelter in
them
Persia was to
Persia.
home of And Khosru Nushirvan
a sacred land, the
the Zoroastrian mysteries.
was the friend and patron of Greek culture. He had caused Aristotle and Plato to be translated into Syriac,
and accepted from Priscian the dedication of There was this amount of found
a learned treatise.
ation for their credulous belief,
Plato was realized
in
the
"
that the republic of
despotic
government of
Persia, and. that a patriot king reigned over the
hap But they were Their repentance," adds Gibbon, soon undeceived. a "was expressed by precipitate return, and they loudly declared that they had rather die on the borders of
piest
and most virtuous of
nations."
"
the Empire than enjoy the wealth and favour of the After all, Christian Greece was less barbarian." intolerable than the favoured land of
In 533 Khosru
made
Ormuzd and
of
peace with the Romans, and stipulated that the seven sages should be exempted from the penal laws, which Justinian Mithra.
enacted against his pagan greatly to his honour.
With
this
incident
his
first
subjects.
we may
The
fact
close our story.
is
But
THE SCHOOL OF ATHENS life
knows no
329
which are but as landmarks on
dates,
The stream flows past them, a swamp, sometimes gathering its The Neoin a brimming channel.
the banks of a river.
sometimes waters
lost in
again
platonist held that nothing perishes, and Neoplatonism is still alive, though broken to pieces like the
body of Osiris, or still more aptly, like the image of Its table-rapping, its crystal spheres, gold and clay. its levitations, its
in full
play.
telepathy,
its
materializations,, are all
Within two miles of the spot where
these lines are written, in the depths of the English midlands, is a theurgist whom Damascius would have
revered as a saint.
bosom
Its
mysticism has lived on in the Its idealism can
of the Christian Church.
never die.
Time
has pronounced its verdict. Heathenism is In their effort fools. is the of and belief dead, magic to save Polytheism, the ancient sages
succeeded only,
like Mezentius, in shackling a corpse to the living
;
the
union could only infect with disease that which other wise possessed the seeds of health. inanities of
Knowledge of none.
It
All the drivelling
Neoplatonism spring from external
was not given
nature to
this fatal cause.
they had almost
their time.
But they
dealt with those supremely interesting eternal ques tions to
which science,
after all, supplies
no answer
communion of God and Man. It mind within us that we must look for their
the nature and the is
to the
solution, so far as reason can
The
hope
to find a solution.
Neoplatonists believed that there is a mind, and their analysis of its operations, primitive and in some
NEOPLATONISM
330
differs mainly in respects fantastic as it may be, is still dualism from that which largely held.
They were sistent
the
to attain to a clear
first
view of what
is
meant by
its
and con
spiritual existence,
of the nature of being, regarded as devoid of exten sion
By this great advance they divisibility. the founders of theology, of metaphysics, of
and
became
Their in general. psychology, and of mental science stock of mediaeval common the are ideas leading
schoolmen and of modern thinkers, down to Hegel
and Carlyle. But what judgment
are
we
to pass
on
their practical
results ?
They taught, if we look at their doctrines and forget their practice, that there is One God, the fountain of life,
name is the thought, and beauty, whose highest He is above nature yet in nature, containing,
Good.
By His word
not contained. a meaning
;
in
Him
rest,
ence, order, perfection, to
Him They
all
things are,
and have
Him flow, all exist He is law, and happiness
and from
;
belongs eternity. as a taught that Nature, though changing
wisp of vapour,
God which
it
is
in type as eternal as the
reflects.
They
taught that
thought of
man
is
indi
an exile from
world he vidually eternal, that in this home, yet that God is in him, and ever draws is
him
upwards by the golden cord of reason. They taught that the upward path lies through duty and thoughtfulness to conscious
communion
with the Divine
;
that
this is the fullness of being, and happiness, which the They world does not give, and cannot take away.
THE SCHOOL OF ATHENS taught that sin
is
own punishment
331
alienation from
God, and brings its is wolfish, and life and in the life to
the sensual
;
misery dogs his steps, in this
man
come.
Even their crowning doctrine of the Ineffable One not so irrational or so agnostic as it seems. Two of the Divine Hypostases could be known, and they included not only the Goodness, Wisdom, and
is
Justice,
but even the eternity of God. It was but the Person ality itself, the ultimate root of the Divine Being, that the Neoplatonists held to be withdrawn from rational cognizance.
Even
this
might be
personality of one another.
as we feel the Simon discerned
felt,
Jules
in the Neoplatonist Trinity a sincere attempt to recon cile the results of pure speculation with those of the
The Supreme God of Plotinus neither the Eleatic One, a mere abstract number, who is devoid of all power of creation ; nor, on the other hand, the in one of anthropomorphic religious experience. is
deity,
the forms under which
He
is
the
Head
of
all
He
things, in
whom
demands of reason and conscience, strive to find their
any
has been misconceived.
satisfaction,
the conflicting
science and faith
the synthesis of
all
the antitheses.
How
like is all this to
Christianity
!
Yet the two
systems are so unlike that no truce between them was possible. And after a struggle of little more than
200
"
years,
What
the Galilaean
conquered."
were^ the causes of this bitter hostility, and what means did God thus pull down the high by thoughts of the sons of Plato?
NEOPLATONISM us Augustine has given seventh book of his Confessions. St.
answer in
the
the
He was led through Platonism to the Gospel, and well he knew of what he writes. Common-sense led him to reject astrology, and
The
the magical futilities that follow in its train. cause of evil was a deeper and far more terrible did he wrestle with it before he and all
long
problem,
was led
see
to
that
moral
evil,
but from springs not from matter, The a disease but a rebellion.
He
Incarnation.
the real will,
last
that
difficulty, it
is
not
step was the
read in the books of the Platonists
Word was God, and that by Him all things were made but that the Word became Flesh and dwelt among us, this he did not read there.
that the
;
not ignorance, but the cause of ignor the worse to the better ; ance, the sullen resistance of came down," emptied Himself, took upon that God Him the form of a servant to heal this strife these
That
evil is
"
were the points.
whether ancient or According to the philosopher, come cannot down, the universal can modern, God not
embody
itself in
the particular.
Not
that
the
was exactly loveless. He might God an unchanging love ; but being with love to said be Him could He only draw all things unto unchanging, He could not go forth upon the mountains to of the Platonist
self,
seek the lost sheep.
But observe. The Love which St. Augustine dis covered was suffering love. Precisely in the suffering Thus the lies its difference from Platonic love. Incarnation
can
be understood
only through
the
THE SCHOOL OF ATHENS
The
Crucifixion. is
distinctive
emblem
333
of Christianity
the Cross.
There are modern
thinkers,
who
find the whole
essence of the Gospel in Plato and Plotinus. There is even an influential school of theology, which inclines in the same direction, which stumbles over the notion of the just suffering for the unjust, and vicarious with a certain dread. regards the word "
"
What we
call Sanctification, the
forgiven sinner
becomes one
mode by which
spirit
we may take it by itself, largely common Idealism. The idea of sonship belongs to
if
-to
"
"
later
Greek schools, even
sinner forgiven
the
with the Lord,
to Stoicism.
all
But how
is
is,
all
the the
Is there such a thing as forgive the penal ignorance enlightened, and the penal hardness softened, and the upward way
ness?
How
made
possible?
sufferings of Death,"
tears of
?
is
The Church "
Christ,"
replied, "Through the
through the sacrifice of His is broken by the This was what the Platonist
as the wilfulness of the child his
mother.
denied, and denies.
What
are
known
as
"ethical
theories"
of the
Atonement, are widely diffused in these vague and But they ignore the commonest good-natured days. fact of life, the law of vicarious suffering ; they render the Gospel in the terms of Plato, and they may be held, and actually are held, by those who deny the
Incarnation altogether.
XXV LATER INFLUENCE OF PLATONISM ON THE CHURCH ORIGENISM, that is to say, the theodicy of Origen, was little more than an incident in the history of the Origen s theory of creation vanished almost His tenet of Catharsis, or Purification, immediately. was absorbed by the growing belief in Purgatory but it was held that after death no repentance, no change Church.
;
of will, was possible. Universalism, though condemned, reappeared from time to time, but was generally based, as
we
shall
see,
on a
different
foundation.
The
doctor is buried learning of the great Alexandrine under the mountain of modern acquirements, like
Typhoeus under Inarime, but he left to the Christian from world, even though his heirs do not always know
whom
the legacy
is
derived,
his
fearless
spirit,
his
beneath
of the spirit Allegorism, that is to say, the love the letter, his devotion to learning and his profound and
dogma. Like Augustus, he found his city of brick, and he left it of marble. It is needless to dwell in detail on the influence of Platonism, or Neoplatonism, upon the main stream
cultivated belief in essential
of theology after
Origen.
Even before Nicaea
that
INFLUENCE OF PLATONISM ON THE CHURCH influence was
almost wholly limited
is
the idea of
taught the Church that material not consistent with true religion, nor with the
timeless existence.
ism
.to
33$
It
right understanding of Scripture, but the interest in
the
full
humanity of our Lord was much more than save the Church, as a whole, from the
sufficient to
opposite danger of identifying the God of conscience with the abstractions of the schools.
Idealism pointed out the direction in which the No meeting point of religion and science must lie.
more than rise
from
this
can be accomplished, until science can first cause.As yet this has
results to the
not been done, but so long as science lags behind, as well attempt to reconcile Euclid with
we might
Shakespeare, as faith
complete
with
herself
before
When
she
Science must
biology.
she can
enter
upon
the
her God, we shall be in a position to whether her laws are judge akin, or not akin, to those of conscience enlightened
question.
has discovered
revelation. At present we can only insist that, at every turn, science presupposes Mind, which has so far eluded her grasp, that the Thing is a
by
Thought, though how the Thought came to be a Thing we do not know. like
Arianism,
other
Hence
Aristotelic.
it
ante-Nicene
insisted
upon the
heresies,
was
solitary unity
of the First Cause, and applied to every other form of being the Aristotelic distinction of and potentiality
actuality, of
matter and form.
could not be
Two
same thing
as Created,
It
followed that there
uncreated, that Begotten meant the
and
that
neither
Son nor
NEOPLATONISM
336 Spirit
could be
"
"
everlasting
(qidioG
:
the
word
does not occur in Aristotle, and al^v^ in his diction, All these positions means simply the sum of time "
").
Plotinus would have denied.
"Begetting,"
indeed,
is
the very word that he employs to denote the relation Athanasius also denied of his timeless hypostases.
them, but not for the same reasons as Plotinus. The his faith is expressed in one sentence of the
ground of
De
"
Incarnatione.
create
all,
and
intercede for
The Word
sufficient
all
with the
to
alone was able to re
suffer
Father."
for
all,
and
to
For the mediator
of forgiveness, for the example of obedience, for the representative and High priest, he, like St. Anselm, wanted a Saviour, who was truly a Divine Person, not
merely the Intelligence of God, not the mere unfolding of the Monad into consciousness. Athanasius taught the existence of Three Persons in one Deity.
The
three hypostases of the Neoplatonist really formed but
one, and that an incomplete, because purely intellectual It was by no person. the Church at Nicaea.
From for
this
means Hellenism
that saved
time philosophy becomes a mere
Christian culture.
and worked out
its
Theology went
own
destiny.
Plotinian or earlier stamp, was
still,
its
name
own
way, Platonism, of the indeed, called in
to illustrate the doctrine of the Trinity, or of divine
a limited application of providence, or to support, by In this its arguments, the deathlessness of the soul. sense its traces are to be found in many of the Greek
eighth century, when darkness settled on the Eastern Church, in the lumina Cappa-
fathers
down
to the
INFLUENCE OF PLATONISM ON THE CHURCH
337
in
dodae, Eusebius, Cyril, Theodoret, Nemesius, Aeneas of Gaza. In the West, the idealist cast of thought found its noblest and most enduring expression in the
This great divine theology of St. Augustine. the works of the Greek philosophers only in Latin translations and ran analyses, but his
knew
thought
parallel to theirs. is
a
defect,"
man that
is
as to the Platonist
Augustine
the power of love
s
crowning merit. light casts the darkest shadow. claimed or deserved. The
cry
always
but by grace,
effort,
love.
The emphatic proclamation of St.
evil
and the reconciliation between God and
brought about, not by
by
is,
To him
"What
didst
Thou
see in
is
But the brightest
Love
is
of the
given, not
beloved
is
me?"
Non sum tanti, Jesu, quanti Amor tuus aestimat." Only by logical inconsistency can the exaltation of love be saved from determinism, and only by pantheism from the exaggeration of moral evil. was Augustine
and no pantheist.
logical,
He
fallen nature, but against a real
drew a dark picture of sin he set a real love.
Like all the great doctors, he builds his theology on conscience, not on the abstract reason. The love that he preaches is the love of Jesus, not of the Absolute ;
and
this
ism,
if
indeed, the main reason of his austerity. For Jesus is the most austere of masters, and John is the most austere of evangelists. From Platonis,
Augustine
so
it
may be
casting off in
its
on through Luther, course more and more of those called, runs
NEOPLATONISM
338
that kept Augustiniansalutary restraining influences, Church. the Catholic of bounds ism within the
We little
ever,
have
Nicaea Plato nism became
said, that after
more than an accomplishment. one remarkable
There
is,
how
exception to this statement ; it Bishop of Ptolemais in the
Synesius of Cyrene,
is
of Kingsley know him Libyan Pentapolis. Readers written for this series has been his and biography well, a burly, jolly, kindly, was He Gardner. Miss by
man
cultivated
famous
;
the very ideal of a squire-parson which ran back for seventeen
;
for his genealogy,
hundred
years,
and began with the god Herakles, known Gibbon calls it "
"
the longest pedigree ever
for his friendship with at least a
Hypatia,
middle-aged woman,
and dogs, and
who
was, by the way,
for his love of horses
his hatred of oppression.
An
educated
who was honour Tory gentleman, we may style him, his bold and statesmanlike by ably distinguished in an age of great disorder championship of the poor and calamity. But he was also an exceedingly Broad
Theophilus of Alexandria pro him Bishop, Synesius felt two posed to consecrate
Churchman.
When
his love for his wife great difficulties,
logical opinions.
and
his theo
Let us hear what he has to say on
these points.
God and the philus gave me a
law and the sacred hand of Theo wife.
I
do
therefore give
all
men
will neither solemnly protest, that I
know, and do be separated from her, nor will I live with her secretly But I shall will and pray, that many as a paramour.
to
good children may be
bom
to us.
INFLUENCE OF PLATONISM ON THE CHURCH
339
"There is one other thing that Theophilus need It is the not be told, because he knows it already. indeed is It chief point of all. difficult, impossible,
that those beliefs which the demonstrations of science
have implanted
in
the soul, should be shaken.
In
many respects philosophy contradicts received dogmas. I shall nev.er believe that the soul is born after the I shall not say, that the world and its parts body. are destined to perish together. The much preached-
of Resurrection
am
far
I
look upon as a holy mystery, and
)l
from agreeing with the opinion of the many.
The
philosophic intelligence, in short, while it beTrroldsthe truth, admits the necessity of lying. Light"eorreF"
spends to truth, but the eye is dull of vision ; it cannot As twilight without injury gaze on the infinite light. is more comfortable for the eye, so, I hold, is falsehood The truth can only for the common run of people. be harmful for those who are unable to gaze on the If the laws of the priesthood permit
reality.
hold
this position,
then
I
me
to
can accept consecration,
my philosophy to myself at home, and preaching fables out of doors." Gibbon chuckles over Synesius with great delight, and thinks the love of a wife and the love of philosophy
keeping
equally amusing in a prelate.
Most readers
will think,
manly conjugal fidelity is a fine trait, and that it would have been better for the Church if there had been more bishops like him in this. But his orthodoxy
that his
leaves
much
to be desired.
creation was an open question
The ;
date of the soul
s
and he does not say
exactly what he believed about the
Day
of
Judgment
NEOPLATONISM
340
and the Resurrection. But he puts philosophy above "lies the creed, and seems to regard all dogmas as
"
in the Platonic sense, that
use Carlyle
s
expression,
is
to say, as allegories, or, to There is, in fact,
clothes."
not have any of his works that might neither and heathen a Neoplatonist, been written by whether decide can Vacherot nor quite Miss Gardner But he was a good man, he was a Christian at all. very
little
in
and a good Bishop, and he rode
straight.
He
did
not hold his tongue that he might hold preferment. What he sought in the Episcopacy was not lucre, but Whether the opportunity of great and perilous work. but there this is a sufficient excuse may be doubted ;
can be no doubt as to the immorality of Theophilus, who persecuted Chrysostom and consecrated Synesius. We have been speaking of the influence of the older the whole, by no Neoplatonism, which was, upon
means unhealthy. But in the sixth century, when the shadows of night were beginning to fall, we come into contact with a much more questionable phenome which gathering up, non, the influence of Proclianism, of a feeling never wholly and giving shape to, phase in absent from the Church, and already conspicuous This to birth the Mysticism. Monks, gave Clement and the Areopagite. begins for literature with Dionysius Who this author was is not known, but his date
can be fixed with tolerable accuracy.
His works
in a conference, held at Constantinople
were quoted under Justinian, in 532. are
steeped
in the
On
the other hand, they of Proclus, terminology peculiar
a and presuppose the Rudiments of that philosopher,
INFLUENCE OF PLATONISM ON THE CHURCH
341
work which cannot well have been composed before He calls himself Dionysius the priest, and represents himself as the friend of Timothy and Titus, as the contemporary of the Apostles, as a disciple of 440.
Hierotheus the pupil of - after Paul." him,
calls
St.
He
Paul
"
; my teacher he does not speik either of "
Athens or of the Areopagus, but, in the first mention that we have of him, he is styled "the Areopagite." Whether it was his intention to himself off as pass
the
converted
Athenian judge may be doubted. He speaks of himself as having been at Heliopolis in Egypt on the day of the Crucifixion, and we should hardly expect to find an Areopagite there. In any case the domino may have been merely an odd piece of mystic self-denial. In the Letter to it
Demophilus dropped entirely ; and possibly Dionysius himself would have been to learn greatly is
surprised
that his
harmless masquerade had been taken seriously. it made him the patron saint of France. Dionysius starts with the "chains," the
But
"triplets"
of Proclus. is
stands the Trinity. Beneath this the Celestial Hierarchy, a square of three triplets 1.
Angels, Archangels,
3-
21
all
Thrones, Cherubim, Seraphim. Powers, Dominions, Mights.
2.
i.
Above
;
Col.
i.
Principalities.
(Cp.
Eph
16.)
Beneath i.
ment. 2.
this again comes the Earthly Hierarchy Three Sacraments; Baptism, Eucharist, Oint
Three Ecclesiastical Orders;
Bishop.
Deacon,
Priest,
NEOPLATONISM
342
Three Lay Orders municants, Monks.
Non-communicants,
;
3.
In each of these triplets the lowest
member
Com is
put
first.
triple
tion
;
down
Hierarchies flows
the
through
Right
the
and Perfec grace of Purification, Enlightenment, links of the chain passing it on to the higher
the lower.
With Dionysius place at
all
as with Proclus, philosophy has
in the religious
The
life.
no
object of con
Further it will be purely ecclesiastical. Saviour and observed, how between the superessential man is interposed a long-drawn procession, on earth in of officers, symbols, rites ; in heaven of angels is to provide the The object interminable sequence.
templation
is
soul with a staircase,
up which
from mystery to mystery, the very fount of
The
light.
it
star to
climb from
may
star, till
result
is
it
reaches
to shut out the
and to give the mystic penitent from his Redeemer, he has no time to do that dream to so much about, anything.
The
length of the
Upward
"endless genealogies,"
a
Path, spun out through but not universal
common
has no justification, either Nor has Mysticism philosophy. direct or indirect, with connection, necessary
feature of Mysticism. in Scripture or
any
is
It
in
Sometimes, as in called. metaphysics properly so naturally Plotinus, it has a direct connection, growing Sometimes it has a negative out of the speculations. or indirect connection
pious souls of the schools, and take grow weary of the debates ;
it
is
a recoil
;
INFLUENCE OF PLATONISM ON THE CHURCH
343
refuge in positive affirmations. But the great Mystics, the Hebrew and Christian prophets, knew nothing whatever about the perplexities of the intelligence.
In
Mysticism appears to have but two essential
fact,
features
the belief in the possibility of contact with
the personality of God, and the denial of
must be regarded, as
abolished
practically
before
the
to all
people; the question
religious
takes
contact
Both the belief and the denial are
place.
which
evil,
either as in itself non-existent, or
is
common
only,
when
ceases to be.
evil
The Areopagite like Proclus,
mounted.
expounds
but only, the ladder by which he the prince of Mystics, because he starts with metaphysics,
down
to kick
He
is
the rationale
of
his
belief with
perfect
simplicity, without the least attempt to compromise with theology.
God Himself is are Being, Life,
He
triplet). all
is
a Trinity, whose first manifestations and Wisdom (this again is a Proclian the Absolute, above all Essence, and
Knowledge.
Such knowledge as we have of
Him
derived entirely from Scripture. It has two branches, according as it is directed to His operations or His
is
Self.
we express our knowledge in two by position or by abstraction ; that is to say,
Accordingly,
ways
by analogies, Life, call
Light,
Him
as
when we
Reason
;
or
infinite, timeless,
the higher and better
call
Him
Father, King,
by negations, immaterial.
method
;
as when we The latter is
and the task of the
perfected believer is to rise up, above all symbols and metaphors, to the bare idea, from ignorance draping
NEOPLATONISM
344
words to ignorance confessed, to penetrate darkness," in which God dwells on the secret
itself in
the
"
To Dionysius darkness means heights of Sinai. 11 and is metaphysical, but with other formlessness "
"
"
Mystics
it
the believer
often bears a moral sense, and expresses s impatience with the confusions, not of
thought, but of
The Upward Path
life.
possible by Love, the Inner Light,
Love
made
Eros
no longer Agape, but Eros.
is
is
and the word
for
is
a
mouth of the Mystic it is It has become sensuous and
Platonic term, but in the
no longer purely ideal. passionate, and expresses the to
merge
into another.
desire of one personality
The change
the famous phrase of Ignatius
is
marked by
My Love is
"
:
crucified,"
which Dionysius quotes at the expense of an ana chronism ; but, more distinctly still, by the free use of the Song of Songs, which inspired the Amatory
Hymns
of Hierotheus, and was always a favourite
book with the Mystics. Here we trace the same Syrian
that
influences
shaped the thoughts of lamblichus and Proclus. Hierotheus is probably to be identified with BarSudaili, an Edessan Monophysite abbot of the fifth century.
Lord
is
The yearning
of the
distinctively Christian
;
at
soul
for
the same
the
Risen
time,
it
is
the only result left of the Humanity of Jesus ; for in the mind of Dionysius the sacraments, the Life, the
mere symbols. They belong to the This Earthly Hierarchy, and must be left behind. all ordinances, above mount to is that it belief, possible Passion,
all
law,
are
all
doctrine,
is
the
common
property of the
INFLUENCE OF PLATONISM ON THE CHURCH and tended more and more, as and the Church more corrupt,
Mystics,
stricter
grew
them with the be regarded,
discipline to embroil
Indeed Mysticism
authorities.
almost
as
universally,
a
345
is
to
not
revolt,
against difficulties of belief, but against the wickedness of the times, and the inability of the Church to bridle
the world about her.
In Mysticism Eros
God and man, which
in
is the only moral link left between other words, the one point on
rests the personality of either.
Evil, and with it Justice are blotted out entirely from the
For
There cannot, he
God
and Responsibility,
mind
of Dionysius. All is of
says, be two principles.
the only difference is, that those things which Evil is partake more of God are nearer to Him. ;
Nothing
;
it
cannot be.
and therefore cannot
act.
The Greek
philosophers, from Heraclitus downwards, thought that what we call physical evil might be But Dionysius necessary to the sum of things.
may indeed be
denies
this.
Life
death
but, if
you look
;
produces
life,
closer,
it is
said to
come out
of
not the death, which
but the living force enduring through,
and fed by, the dissolution of the organism. There is no such Take away from thing as a bad nature. the lion its ferocity, and you rob the creature of the Vice is mis safeguard given to it by its Creator. taken virtue.
merely
All
is
good.
What we
call
evil,
is
inability to discharge the
the divinely-fashioned nature.
proper functions of Hence Justice is that
whereby God preserves each essence intact in its appointed station, and enables it to do its proper
NEOPLATONISM
346
treats pure Platonism, and Dionysius Atone the to the theme without a single reference
This
work.
is
ment.
Thus his own
the Mystic,
as
Plutarch
said,
"jumps
off
shadow."
Indeed Dionysius, that
possible
the
like Proclus,
does not think
it
Cross, or any other agency, can
near to him, but change the mind of God. We draw is everywhere He because to near He never draws us, well-known a in passage, and changes not. Hence, of light let down from Prayer is compared to a chain As we climb up it, hand over hand, we heaven. seem to draw the chain down, but really draw our Or again, to the cable of a ship. It is selves up. a fastened to rock and, as the manner hauls upon it, he
rock nearer to his seems, but only seems, to pull the the of The boat. Areopagite s expression beauty
must not disguise from us the view
is
that his
fact,
whole
Pantheistic.
back to Thus, by another road, we have come freedom insists Dionysius upon Origen
Universalism. abolishes
;
takes
from Justice, But to or no meaning. his
start
Origen which to Dionysius has little both God is End as well as Beginning, and the goal it.
coincides.
But these dry abstracts of thought are no better of the siccus, in which all the perfume of flower is evaporated. Mysticism is the paradox
than a hortus
paradoxes. its
easier to gibe at ; yet, in all there is something that lies very
Nothing
extravagances,
is
close to the heart of Christianity.
It
seems so barren
INFLUENCE OF PLATONISM ON THE CHURCH yet,
directly or indirectly,
347
what force there was
in
Francis, or Bernard, or Bonaventura, or Grossetete, or a Kempis Let us listen to the story of
Carpus,
!
and see what the find the
real
Dionysius was.
Here we
shall
to the contradiction.
key Carpus was a man of Crete, so favoured by God, that he never celebrated the Eucharist without enjoy
Yet once the saint ing a vision of heavenly bliss. had violated the law of love, and he told Dionysius
how he had been chastised for his sin. One of his converts had been seduced back
into
heathenism
There by an unregenerate comrade. must have been something peculiarly distressing in the circumstances, for Carpus was so deeply shocked, that instead of praying for the two sinners, as he In ought to have done, he was filled with wrath. this agitation of mind he retired to rest, and after
a brief and troubled slumber, rose at midnight to But his anger was still perform his usual devotions.
hot within him, and on his knees he begged God to blast with His thunderbolt both the tempter and the
tempted. Scarce had he framed this dreadful petition, when the house seemed to be riven asunder, and a blaze of unearthly light shone all around. Raising his eyes, he saw Jesus, seated on the ridge of heaven, en
compassed by angels in human form. But, looking down, he beheld the two wretches whom he had cursed, staggering on the brink of a hideous gulf.
Out
of the pit
came
who hauled and
and shadows as of men, cozened and fascinated the dragged, serpents,
NEOPLATONISM
348 pair, so
unhappy
half-resisting, half-consenting,
that,
they were tumbling into the abyss. Carpus gazed on their peril with
fierce delight, and them again, because they had not yet But once more he raised his eyes. Jesus perished. had stepped down from His throne in pity, and was
cursed
holding out His arms to the
the angels also were clinging
;
two sinners, and pulling them back from the
precipice.
Reach out thy Lord spoke to Carpus For I am ready once more to hand, and smite Me. Do thou see to it suffer for the salvation of men. whether thou wouldest rather dwell with God, and the
Then
"
the
:
;
angels, or with the dragons in the
good and merciful pit-
The works
of Dionysius were translated into Latin in the ninth century, and again by
by Scotus Erigena
John of Salisbury sophical, the other i.
His work
fell
From
in the twelfth.
his influence parts into
date
this
two streams, one more philo
more
religious.
in with those other causes,
which
produced the great Pantheistic outburst of the twelfth These were the streaming in from Sicily, century. and afterwards more fully from Spain, of the Arabian
and Jewish Aristotelianism, which, under the influence of Neoplatonism and Orientalism, had assumed a With Aristotle came the strongly Pantheistic cast.
De
Causis,
which
and the Fons mixture of this
is,
in fact, the
Vitae
of the
perilous
had led everywhere
to
Rudiments of Proclus,
The Mahomedanism The explosions.
Jew Avicebron.
stuff with
violent
"
INFLUENCE OF PLATONISM ON THE CHURCH doctrine of
Avicenna,"
says Makrizi,
religion disasters too terrible
"brought
for words.
only to foster the errors of heretics, their
the
cism,
impiety fresh revolt, as the
and succeeded
impiety."
champion in
Gazali of
It
349
upon
served
and added (Algazel)
to
led
orthodox
mysti destroying philosophy in the
East.
In Spain, the writings of Ibn-Rosch (Averroes) pro voked another violent outbreak of persecution, and here too the licence of thought was suppressed by the arm of the law. From Spain the moved on
cyclone through Provence into the French schools.
Towards
the end of the twelfth century, David of Dinan and Amaury of Chartres (or de Bennes) taught that God is all, and that all is God a heresy which was traced ;
back by Gerson to the audacious Scotus Erigena, "who had borrowed it from a monk named Maximus."
Maximus was
the
well-known
commentator
on
himself professed to have learned what he taught from the Epistles of St. Paul but he ; was the disciple not only of Dionysius, but of another Dionysius.
Amaury
famous mystic, Joachim of Flora (Fiore in Calabria), who spoke of Rome as the Whore of Babylon, and prophesied the advent of the third age, the age of the Holy Ghost, when all sacerdotalism was to be swept The Pantheism of the Amalricians away. brought them into direct collision with the Church. It taught,
that
Holy Spirit was as truly in Ovid as Augustine," and that all sacraments are dead "the
Nine of the
in St.
forms.
disciples of Amaury were burnt by the Council of Paris in 1210, and the reading of the
NEOPLATONISM
35
of Aristotle was for a time Physics and Metaphysics But Joachitism lingered long in the prohibited. South of France, and the infection clung to the
schools of Paris:
As
late as
1276 Etienne Tempier,
some
that Bishop of Paris, complains
of his students
in philosophy, maintained, things might be true as if faith the Catholic to true according though not "that
;
against the truth of truths, truth in the sayings of damned were there scripture,
and
there were two
as
if,
Gentiles."
The danger
to the
great,
and the danger
Church was undoubtedly very to philosophy was hardly less.
not of fell in the thirteenth century, an age fruitful in great men most of but regeneration, decay It was averted for the time, and great achievements. sword or fagot, though both were freely em not
But
it
by
the stirring life, which ployed, but by the great Dominican teachers, Albert and the powerful orders of the Friars. wish to pursue the interesting, and in
brought forth
and Thomas, But those who
England little referred to be must known, history of scholasticism, and the works of Vacherot, Jourdain, Haureau, the Inquisition in the (See also History of New York Harper Lea. Middle Ages, by H. C.
Renan.
:
Brothers, 1888.) 2.
Nor can we do more than
for the history of
New
Mysticism.
Testament prophets
absent from the Church. times in wild revolt.
But
it
It
point out authorities the days of the
From
has never been wholly has manifested
for the strong
itself at
hand
of
St.
Paul the Corinthian prophets would have rent the
INFLUENCE OF PLATONISM ON THE CHURCH Church
351
and the history of the ; Montanists, of the Fraticelli, of the Anabaptists shows how fiery and explosive the Inner Light may be, when heated into pieces
by contagion and opposition. Mysticism is always a But in our Western world it has protesting spirit. shown, upon the whole, neither the taste nor the capacity for organizing multitudes too sensitive, too fond of reverie.
it is
;
too fastidious,
The Church would
be nothing without it; for it is the spirit of the prophet and of the saint; but it can neither form nor sustain a church, for this is the work of the priest.
There
properly speaking, no history of the Mystics ; They are like a chain of stars, each separated from the other by a gulf. We can trace is,
only biographies.
resemblances, even connections tell us, is
;
but they themselves
that the light
not passed on at
books; and the Tauler wakes
or
comes direct from the all. Yet the Mystic
sun,
and
usually reads beacon of Dionysius, or Joachim, the kindred soul across seas or
centuries.
A
dry history of the French Victorines
found
in
Haure au.
The
troubles
of the
will
be
spiritual
Franciscans are recorded by Milman, Neander, and Lea. German Mysticism is the theme of many learned works which are enumerated in the
mengeschichte of Dr.
Harnack
Bernard, a Kempis, Fenelon,
;
and the
lives
Dog-
of
St.
Madame de Guyon, and
Swedenborg are readily accessible. Those who are interested in the subject will not fail to read Vaughan s
Hours with
the Mystics.
Two books within easy reach Dark Night of the Soul, by
of English readers are the
NEOPLATONISM
352 St.
John of the Cross, and the immortal De Imitatione ;
the former shows us Mysticism at is
above
of a
all praise.
Kempis
A
to earlier Mystics will
Story of the Imitatio
Wheatley.
its
worst, the latter
good account of the Christi,
relation
be found
in the
by Mr. Leonard A.
INDEX (For names ofprincipal philosophers,
ACADEMICS, 10
sqq.
see list
Aedesius, 309, 315.
34, 54, 59, 77 sqq., Albertus 199, 288.
of chapters.}
Aestheticism, 25,
273 sqq.
Agathion, 61. Agnosticism, Magnus, 350. Albinus (or Alcinous), 47, 121, 123 Sq. 195, 205. Alexander of Abonoteichos, 52, 101, 106. Alexander Polyhistor, 30. 28. t
349-
Alexis, Amaury Ammianus Marcellinus, 315! Ammonius Saccas, 47, 91.
Amelias, 147, 186, 188.
Ammonius
the Peripatetic, 82, 162, 182, 189, 297. Angel, 45, 306, 324, 341. 46. Apathy, 168, 175 Sqq.
Apprehension,
philosophers, sqq., 88,
350. 318.
348
sqq.
Archytas,
122, 155, 171, 195,
29.
Antiochus,
Arab
239.
Aristotle,
I9 8, 335, 348.
48
30,
Aquinas, 146,
Asceticism, 28, 34, 149, 181, 269, 297. Asclepigeneia, Athanasius, 60, 115, 142, 157, 167, 173, 336. Atone
ment, 43, 53 sqq., 149, 170, 333, 346. SOD, 310, 314, 332, 337 /
Augustine, 157, 295.
BAR-SUDAILI, 344 Berkeley, 12, 197. Bernard, 142, 347. Blandma, 24, 108. Buddhism, 21, 40. CALLISTUS (Pope), 108. Calvisius .
84, 197. icism,
102,
149, 297. 30,
Carpus, 347.
35-
141, 151,
Taurus, 64. Carlyle, 23, Castricius Firmus, 188, 297. Cathol I5 6, 173. Chastity, 38, 74, 84, 128
Chrysanthius, 310 City of God, 23,
Cement of Rome, eternal
m
108.
sq.
74,
Chrysippus, 20, 24. IO 8. Cleanthes,
earlier Platonists, 91,
326, 328.
20.
Co-perception,
247; work of evil God, 148; mode cannot be understood, 304.
DAMASCIUS,
Cicero 18,
93
;
of,
239. Creation, eternal in later, 2Q
234
Cyprian, 174. David of Dinan, 349.
sqq., 243,
247
Deification of
z
354
-
men,
INDEX
Deism, 50,
52, 61, 137.
76.
Demonax,
Demons,
52.
agents of Providence, 19, 33, 41, 90, 95, 117 ; mediators of pagan atonement, 53, 93 ; devils, 60, 299, 308 ; prophets, Diogenes Laertius, 27, 95, 132 ; casting out of, 149, 327. of
Dionysius
37-
34?
Alexandria,
171.
the
Dionysius
Areopagite, 340 sqq.
EBIONITES,
42,
Ecstasy,
154.
Epicharmus,
Ennius, 29.
91,
Empedocles,
133.
108, 155. Epicurus, IO sqq., 50. 1 86. Eudocia, 181. Essenes, 29, 137.
Christian,
Eusebius,
41, 48,
Evil, in Stoicism, 23
327.
256
Plotinus,
Amaury, FEAR, 58,
Euphrates, 40, 69.
160.
Eusebius, Pagan, 311, evil god, 96, 147 ; theory of 323 ; of Dionysius, 345 ; of
Evolution, 113, 115, 136, 262.
349. 89,
;
of Proclus,
;
115.
10 sqq., 46, 87, Erasmus, 14. Erennius,
Epictetus,
29.
299,
175,
Form, 2O2
345.
-
Fraticelli,
35
*
Future State, 95, 171, 271, 296.
GNOSTICISM, 97, 102, 127, 146, 255. Golden Verses, 29, 32. HEGESIPPUS, 160. Hellenism, 63, 134 sqq. Heraclitus, 153, Hennas, 108, 147. Hermes Trismegistus, 127, 308. 192. Herodes Atticus, 61, 72. Herodotus, 28, 82. Hierocles, Hierotheus (Bar-Sudaili), 344.
39, 105.
Human
60.
1
IDEA, 119, 121
sq. t
214^.
132, 202,
1
157,
JOACHIM
Irenaeus, 147, 150, 151, 153, Inspired peoples, 35. Isis, 56. Isidorus, 326, 327. of Flora, 349. John, St., 145, 157, 161, 177, 248,
66.
John Chrysostom, 316,
337.
Idealism, modern, 135.
Incarnation, 36, 104, 113, 248,
Idolatry, 77, 117, 254, 310.
254.
Hippolytus, 147,
Hypostasis, 241.
Sacrifice, 60, 95, 300.
19, 64,
Justin Martyr,
109,
122, 153, 171.
LAWS, 1
Locke,
8, 20.
167.
MAGIC,
14,
20.
Platonic, 93, 128, 203, 242.
Love,
Christian, 65.
349.
; against heathenism, 313, Logos, Stoic, spermatic or seminal,
against Magic, 301, 312, 315
327.
Stoic,
168,
172,
24.
Platonic,
Christian, 145, 85,
248,
128,
177, 269, 332, 337, 344.
153,
273.
Lucian, 52,
Luther, 170, 174, 178, 337. 40, 60, 149, 249, 257, 300, 303, 307, 315, 321. Makrizi, Man s place in Nature, ill, 257. Marcus Aurelius,
20, 24, 25, 85.
Marinus, biographer of Proclus,
Matter, 93, 194, 205, 323.
Maximus, 310.
317326.
Maximus
the
355 Monk,
Maximus
349.
Tyrius,
47,
249.
Melito,
166.
Mithraism, 155. Kufus, S
13.
340
W">
NATURE
Moderatus, 44, 47. Musaeus, 28. Musonius Mysteries, 55 Sqq. t 126. Mysticism, 176, 279
sqq.
W
251
Nicomachus,
44, 90.
Numenius,
47,
123,
IO2, 189.
OCELLUS LUCANUS, 91,
117,
121,
29.
Olympius, 185. One, 33, 41, 52, 124, 166, 185, 189, 220, 223, 233, 279, 349. 242. One-Many Intelligence, 213
One and Many = Soul,
m-
233
=
sqq., 242.
Oracles, 52, 70, 94, 312. heathen, 186. Orpheus, 28.
Orgies, 55
17, 31, 33, 86, 127.
Paul, St.,
Ongen, PANTAENUS, 161. Pantheism, 2 5, 4, US, 142, 145, 157, sqq.
161, 178, 183, 289, 350.
PerePheidias, 76 sqq. Philo, 47, 122, 123, 162 289 Pius, pope, 108. Plato, 10, 49, 98, 118, 232. Plutarch of Athens, 318. Prayer, 41, 89, 249, 257, 298, 309, 346. Pnscianus, 328. Providence, 50, 90, 95, 117, 249. REALISM in Art, 278. Resurrection of Body, 115, 271, 296, 307, 339- Ritschlianism, 138 sqq. Rogatianus, 184. Roman
,
grinus, 53.
religion, 54.
SCEPTICISM, u. Seneca,
25.
Ruskin, 200. Schools closed, 327. Scotus Erigena, 348. Sensationalism, 15. Simplicity 326, 328.
Socrates, 25, 106, 153, 318.
gorean, 32, 263.
Of
85.
Apuleius, 307.
Plotinus,
129 5qq
Of
Soul, Stoic view, 19. PythaView of Plutarch,
Aristotelian, 51, 264. 124, 212, .
219,
Of Of lambli chus,
222, 226, 243, 257
Of Porphyry, 296. 325. Coming down
Proclus, creates of, 254 ; body, 205, 227, 244, 253, 259. Immortality of, 20, 51, 89, and 259. lower soul of man, Higher 253, 258, 271 ; not in body, 255. Space, 207. Spinoza, 17. Superstition, 89. Synesms of Cyrene, 338. Syrian Goddess, 57. Syrianus 318, 320.
TARSUS,
25. Tempier, Bishop of Paris, 350. Tertullian, 166. Time, 210, 240. Transmigation, 33 ; into brutes, 36, 254, 271, 320; not into brutes, 296. Trinity, Platonist, 119
s ??-> 2
93>
3 2 3-
UTILITARIANISM,
Christian, 166, 221, 335, 341, 343. 10, 76.
VISION, of different kinds, 279^^., 320, 347.
WILL,
24, 155, 174, 193, 266, 345.
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