1 It is significant that the subject of the first treatise of Plotinos, after the departure of Porphyry, should treat of happiness as the object of life. These may have been the arguments he advanced to persuade Porphyry to abstain from suicide (to which he refers in sections 8, 16), and, rather, to take a trip to Sicily, the land of natural beauty. He also speaks of losing friends, in section 8. The next book, on Providence, may also have been inspired by reflections on this untoward and unexpected circumstance. We see also a change from abstract speculation to his more youthful fancy and comparative learning and culture.
2 Diog. Laert. x.; Cicero, de Fin. i. 14, 46.
3 Cicero, de Fin. 11, 26.
4 See Arist. Nic. Eth. vii. 13; Sextus Empiricus, Hypotyp. Pyrrhon, iii. 180; Stob. Ecl. ii. 7.
5 Arist. Nic. Eth. i. 10, 14.
6 Stob. Floril. i. 76.
7 See vi. 8.
8 In Plutarch, of Wickedness, and in Seneca, de Tranquil, Animi, 14.
9 De Providentia, 3.
10 De Provid. 5.
11 Aeschylus, Seven Against Thebes, 327.
12 The vegetative soul, the power that presides over the nutrition and growth of the body; see iv. 3.23.
13 See i. 8; also Numenius, 16.
14 i. 2.4.
15 Cicero, Tusculans. ii. 7.
16 The animal; see i. 1.10.
17 See i. 1.8, 10.
18 See the Theataetus, p. 176. Carv. 84; the Phaedo. p. 69, Cary, 37; the Republic, vi. p. 509; Cary, 19; x. p. 613, Cary, 12; the Laws, iv. p. 716, Cary, 8; also Plotinos i. 2.1.
19 See i. 9.
20 A Stoic confutation of Epicurus and the Gnostics. As soon as Porphyry has left him, Plotinos harks back to Amelius, on whose leaving he had written against the Gnostics. He also returns to Numenian thoughts. Bouillet notices that here Plotinos founded himself on Chrysippus, Marcus Aurelius, and Epictetus, and was followed by Nemesius. This new foundation enabled him to assume a rather independent attitude. Against Plato, he taught that matter derived existence from God, and that the union of the soul and body is not necessarily evil. Against Aristotle, he taught that God is not only the final, but also the efficient cause of the universe. Against the Stoics, he taught that the human soul is free, and is a cause, independent of the World Soul from which she proceeded. Against the Gnostics, he insisted that the creator is good, the world is the best possible, and Providence extends to mundane affairs. Against the Manicheans, he taught that the evil is not positive, but negative, and is no efficient cause, so that there is no dualism.
21 Diog. Laert. x. 133.
22 See iv. 2.4; vi. 7; see Plato, Philebus, p. 30, Cary, 56; Philo, Leg. Alleg, vi. 7.
23 Lactantius, de Ira Dei, 13.
24 Ireneus, Ref. Her. ii. 3.
25 As in vi. 7.1.
26 Philo, de Creatione Mundi, 6.
27 As the Gnostics taught; see ii. 9.1.
28 As was held by the Gnostics, who within the divinity distinguished potentiality and actuality, as we see in ii. 9.1.
29 See ii. 9.3. 8.
30 Numenius, 32.
31 Plato, Timaeus, p. 48, Cary, 21. Statesman, p. 273, Cary, 16; Laws, x. p. 904, Cary, 12.
32 See ii. 9.2.
33 From Aristotle, de Anima, 2.
34 This is the Aristotelian psychological scheme.
35 Clem. Al.; Strom. v. p. 712; Stobaeus, Ecl. Phys. i. p. 372, 446.
36 iv. 8.12; Plato, Tim. p. 41. 69; Cary, 16, 44.
37 Stob. Ecl. Eth. ii. 7.
38 iii. 2.13.
39 p. 253; Cary, 74.
40 Sen. 526.
41 According to Plato's Theaetetus, p. 176, Cary, 83; Numenius,16.
42 Seneca, de Provid. 2.
43 In his Republic, ix. p. 585, Cary, 10.
44 See iii. 1.9.
45 See iv. 3.12.
46 See iv. 3.5.
47 Gregory of Nyssa, Catech. Orat. 7.
48 As thought Sallust, Consp. Cat. 52.
49 Republic x. p. 620; Cary, 16; Numenius, 57.
50 As said Sallust, Conspiration of Catiline, 52.
51 As thought Epictetus, Manual, 31.
52 In his Republic, vi. p. 488; Cary, 4.
53 Marcus Aurelius. Thoughts, xi. 18.
54 As thought Cicero, de Nat. Deor. iii. 63. 64.
55 As thought Philo, de Prov. in Eus. Prep. Ev. viii. 14.
56 According to Plato, in the Sophist and Protagoras, and the Stoics, as in Marcus Aurelius. Meditations, vii. 63.
57 As did the writer of Revelation, iv. 6.
58 In his Timaeus, p. 29e, Cary, 10.
59 As said Chrysippus in Plutarch, de Comm. Not. adv. Stoicos, 13.
60 Mentioned by Plato in his Phaedrus, p. 248, Cary, 59; Republ. v. p. 451, Cary, 2; and in the famous hymn of Cleanthes, Stobaeus Ecl. Phys. i. 3.
61 Like the figure of the angel Mithra; see Franck, LaKabbale, p. 366.
62 As Hierocles wondered, de Prov. p. 82, London Ed.
63 In the words of Plato's Timaeus p. 48; Cary, 21; and Theaetetus, p. 176; Cary, 84; Numenius, 16.
64 Almost the words of John i. 1.
65 In the Laws, vii. p. 796, Cary, 6; p. 815, Cary, 18; and Philo, de Prov. in Eus. Prep. Ev. viii. 14.
66 As thought Epictetus in his Manual, 2, 6.
67 In his Philebus, p. 48, Cary, 106.
68 As thought Epictetus in his Manual. 8.
69 See iii. 8.
70 Numenius, 32.
71 Plato, Banquet, p. 187, Cary, 14.
72 Marcus Aurelius, Medit. ii. 13.
73 As thought Marcus Aurelius, in his Thoughts, xii. 42.
74 See iv. 3.24.
75 In his Manual, 37.
76 See iv. 1.9–12.
77 Marcus Aurelius, Medit. vii. 9; Seneca, Epist. 94.
78 Numenius, iii. 7.
79 This image was later adopted by Swedenborg in his "celestial man."
80 In close proximity to note 45, another distinctly Johannine expression.
81 Stoic ideas.
82 As Plato said in his Phaedrus, p. 247, Cary, 56.
83 See i. 8.2.
84 See ii. 3.17.
85 See ii. 3.13. Ficinus's translation.
86 A Stoic term.
87 Plato, Timaeus, p. 42, Cary, 17; see also Enn. ii. 3.10. 11, 15, 16.
88 Timaeus, p. 42, 91, Cary, 17, 72, 73.
89 See ii. 3.13.
90 Alcinous, de Doctrina Platonica, 26.
91 Gregory of Nyssa, Catech. Oratio, 7; Dionysius Areopagite, Divine Names, 4.
92 See ii. 3.7.
93 See iii. 2.6.
94 Plato, Timaeus, p. 31c, Cary, 11.
95 See Numenius. 14.
96 Clem. Al. Strom. v. 689.
97 In this book we no longer find detailed study of Plato, Aristotle and the Epicureans, as we did in the works of the Porphyrian period. Well indeed did Plotinos say that without Porphyry's objections he might have had little to say.
98 Porphyry, Principles of the theory of the Intelligibles, 31.
99 Olympiodorus, in Phaedonem, Cousin, Fragments, p. 404.
100 Ib., p. 432.
101 Ib., p. 418.
102 Ib., p. 431.
103 John Philoponus, Comm. in Arist., de Anima, i. 1.
104 See iii. 6.1.
105 By a triple pun, on "nous," "noêsis," and "to noêton."
106 Porphyry, Principles, 32.
107 By a pun.
108 See John i. 4, 9.
109 This anticipates Athanasius's explanations of the divine process.
110 See v. 1.4.
111 Porphyry, Principles, 26.
112 The Eleusynian Mysteries, Hymn to Ceres, 279; see vi. 9.11.
113 See v. 3.14.
114 In this book Plotinos harks back to the first book he had written, i. 6, to Plato's Banquet and Cratylos. Porphyry later agreed with some of it. Like St. John, Plotinos returns to God as love, in his old age. His former book had also been a re-statement of earlier thoughts.
115 See iii. 5.6.
116 See i. 6.2, 3.
117 See i. 6.3, 7.
118 Plato, Banquet, p. 206–208, Cary, 31, 32.
119 Plato, Banquet, p. 210, Cary, 34, sqq.
120 Porphyry, Biography of Plotinos, 15.
121 See i. 3.2.
122 See sect. 5, 6.
123 Plato, Banquet, p. 185, Cary, 12, 13.
124 By Plato, in his Cratylus, p. 396, Cary, 29, 30; interpreted to mean "pure Intelligence."
125 This is the principal power of the soul; see ii. 3.17.
126 See v. 8.12, 13.
127 Plotinos thus derives "eros" from "orasis," which, however far-fetched a derivation, is less so than that of Plato, from "esros," meaning to "flow into," Cratylos, p. 420, Cary, 79, 80.
128 For this distinction, see ii. 3.17, 18.
129 For the two Loves, see v. 8.13, and vi. 9.9.
130 See iii. 4.
131 See iv. 9.
132 Plato, Banq. 203: Cary, 29.
133 In his Isis and Osiris, p. 372, 374.
134 See i. 1.
135 Plato, Banquet, p. 202, Cary, 27, 28; Porphyry, de Abst. ii. 37, sqq.
136 In section 4.
137 Plato, Epinomis, p. 984, Cary, 8; Porphyry, de Abst. ii. 37–42.
138 See ii. 4.3.
139 See ii. 4.3.
140 An expression often used by the Platonists; see the Lexicon Platonicum, by the grammarian Timaeus, sub voce "oistra."
141 See Plato, Banquet, p. 203, Cary, 29.
142 See iii. 4.6.
143 See iii. 4.3.
144 A Stoic distinction.
145 P. 246, Cary, 56.
146 P. 28, Cary, 50.
147 Didymus, Etym. Magn. p. 179, Heidelb. p. 162, Lips.
148 Timaeus Locrius, of the Soul of the World, p. 550, ed. Gale, Cary, 4.
149 Origen, c. Cels., iv. p. 533.
150 "logoi."
151 Proclus, Theology of Plato, vi. 23.
152 As the generation of the world, in Plato's Timaeus, p. 28, 29, Cary, 9; and the erecting into separate Gods various powers of the same divinity, as Proclus said, in his commentary thereon, in Parm. i. 30.
153 ii. 3.17; ii. 9.2.
154 Pun on "Poros" and "euporia."
155 See ii. 4.16.
156 See books ii. 3; ii. 9; iii. 1, 2, 3, 4, for the foundations on which this summary of Plotinos's doctrine of evil is contained. To do this, he was compelled to return to Plato, whose Theaetetus, Statesman, Timaeus and Laws he consulted. Aristotle seems to have been more interested in natural phenomena and human virtue than in the root-questions of the destiny of the universe, and the nature of the divinity; so Plotinos studies him little here. But it will be seen that here Plotinos entirely returns to the later Plato, through Numenius.
157 As thought Empedocles, 318–320.
158 i. 6.2.
159 i. 8.7.
160 i. 8.3.
161 As thought Plato in his Laws, iv. p. 716; Cary, 7, 8.
162 As thought Plato in his Philebus, p. 28; Cary 49, 50.
163 See v. 1; vi. 9.2.
164 Numenius, fr. 32.
165 As said Plato, in his second Letter, 2.312.
166 See iii. 8.9; iv. 7.14; vi. 4.2; vi. 9.2.
167 As held by Plato in the Parmenides and First Alcibiades.
168 See ii. 4.8–16.
169 It is noteworthy that Plotinos in his old age here finally recognizes Evil in itself, just as Plato in his later work, the Laws (x. p. 897; Cary, 8) adds to the good World-soul, an evil one. This, for Plotinos, was harking back to Numenius's evil world-soul, fr. 16.
170 In his First Alcibiades, p. 122; Cary, 37.
171 See i. 1.12.
172 This means created things, which are contingent and perishable; see ii. 4.5, 6.
173 See ii. 4.10–12. This idea of irradiation is practically emanationism; and besides Plotinos's interest in orientalism (Porphyry Biography, 3), it harks back to Numenius, fr. 26.3; 27a.10.
174 Held by Plato in his Theaetetus, p. 176; Cary, 84, 85; and Republic, ii. 279; Cary, 18, and of Numenius, fr. 16.
175 See i. 2.1.
176 In the Theaetetus, p. 176; Cary, 84, 85.
177 Numenius, fr. 10; Plato, Rep. vi. p. 509b; Cary, 19.
178 As Plato suggested in his Philebus, p. 23; Cary, 35–37.
179 Numenius, fr. 17.
180 Mentioned by Plato in the Timaeus, pp. 28, 30, 38; Cary, 9, 10, 14.
181 From the Timaeus, p. 41; Cary, 16, 17.
182 See i. 2.1; i. 6.8.
183 That is, the relative inferiority of beings which, proceeding from each other, become more and more distant from the good; see ii. 5.5; ii. 9.8, 13; v. 1; Philo, Leg. Alleg. ii. p. 74.
184 See i. 8.1.
185 ii. 4.12.
186 Numenius, fr. 26.3.
187 Diog. Laertes vii.
188 See ii. 6.