449 Enn., V., ix.
450 Enn., IV., viii.
451 Enn., V., ix., 2.
452 Readers of Pope’s Essay on Man will recognise this argument. It was, in fact, borrowed from Plotinus by Leibnitz, and handed on through Bolingbroke to Pope. There is no better introduction to Neo-Platonism than this beautiful poem.
453 Kirchner, Ph. d. Plot., p. 35. The triad of body, soul, and spirit is still to be met with in modern popular philosophy; but, contrary to the Greek order of priority, there is a noticeable tendency to rank soul, as the seat of emotion, higher than spirit or pure reason, particularly among persons whose opinions receive little countenance from the last-mentioned faculty.
454 Rep., VI., 508, C ff.; VII., 517, C.
455 Vol. I., p. 229.
456 Ibid., p. 235.
457 Aristot., Metaph., I., vi.
458 Enn., V., iv., 2; Kirchh., I., p. 72, l. 8.
459 This is the method of Fichte’s Wissenschaftslehre, which seems to show that Fichte was acquainted with Neo-Platonism, probably at second-hand.
460 Enn., IV., ix.
461 Ibid., 3; Kirchh., I., p, 75, l. 24.
462 Enn., VI., ix., 1.
463 Enn., VI., ix., 3; Kirchh., I., pp. 81 ff.
464 In the introductory essay prefixed to his work De l’École d’Alexandrie.
465 οὕτω δὲ καλῶν ἀμφοτέρων ὄντων, γνώσεώς τε καὶ ἀληθείας, ἄλλο καὶ κάλλιον ἔτι τούτων.—Rep., 508, E. οὐκ οὐσίας ὄντος τοῦ ἀγαθοῦ, ἀλλ’ ἔτι ἐπέκεινα τῆς οὐσίας πρεσβείᾳ καὶ δυνάμει ὑπερέχοντος.—Ibid., 509, B. The first of these passages is bracketed by Stallbaum, but not the second.
466 Symp., 211, E f.
467 Enn., V., i.
468 Enn., VI., ix., 3, sub fin.; ibid., 6, p. 764, E. (Kirchh., I., p. 87, l. 16); Enn., V., v., 6, p. 525, D. (Kirchh., II., p. 24, l. 24).
469 Enn., VI., ix., 9, sub fin.
470 Ibid., V., ii., I, p. 494, A. (Kirchh., I., p. 109, l. 7).
471 Ibid., V., i., 5, p. 487, C. (Kirchh., I., p. 101, l. 32).
472 Enn., V., i., 6, p. 487, B. (Kirchh., I., p. 101, l. 21).
473 Enn., V., i., 4, p. 485, E (Kirchh., I., pp. 99 f.).
474 Enn., V., ii., 1, p. 494, A; VI., ix., 2, p. 759, A; II., iv., 5, p. 162, A.
475 Enn., IV., iv., 16, p. 409, C (Kirchh., I., p. 283, l. 31).
476 Enn., V., ii., 2.
477 Enn., II., iv.
478 Aristot., Metaph., VII., x., sub fin.
479 Tim., 48, E, ff.
480 Ibid., 47, E.
481 Enn., II., iv., 5, p. 161, E (Kirchh., I., p. 114, l. 1).
482 Enn., II., iv., 11, sub fin.
483 Enn., III., vi., 14 f.
484 Enn., II., iv., 15, p. 169, A (Kirchh., I., p. 124, l. 17).
485 Ibid., 5, p. 162, A (Kirchh., I., p. 114, l. 12).
486 Ibid., III., ix., 3, p. 358, A (Kirchh., I., p. 128, l. 22).
487 Enn., III., iv., i.
488 Enn., II., iv., 15, p. 169, B (Kirchh., I., p. 124, l. 22).
489 Enn., IV., iii,, 9, p. 379, A (Kirchh., I., p. 244, l. 17). In one of his latest essays (Enn., I., viii., 7) Plotinus for a moment accepts the Platonic theory that evil must necessarily coexist with good as its correlative opposite, but quickly returns to the alternative theory that evil results from the gradual diminution and extinction of good (cp. Zeller, Ph. d. Gr., III., b, p. 549).
490 Enn., III., viii., 4 and 8.
491 Our own word ‘paragon’ is a curious record of the theory in question. It is derived from the Greek participial substantive ὁ παράγων, the producer. Now, according to Neo-Platonism, in the hierarchic series of existences, the product always strives, or should strive, to model itself on the producer, hence παράγων came to be used in the double sense of a cause and an exemplar. As such, it is one of the technical terms employed throughout the Institutiones Theologicae of Proclus. But, in time, the second or derivative meaning became so much the more important as to gain exclusive possession of the word on its adoption into modern languages.
492 Enn., III., iv., 2.
493 Enn., I., ii., 1.
494 Ibid., 3.
495 Enn., I., ii., 6, sub fin.
496 Ibid., 5.
497 Ibid., ix.
498 Enn., I., iii.
499 Rep., VI., 511.
500 See the conclusion of the Posterior Analytics.
501 Enn., III., vii., 1, p. 325, C (Kirchh., II., p. 282, l. 13).
502 Zeller’s last volume, giving a full account of the Neo-Platonic school, has recently reached a third edition, but it belongs to a connected work, and contains, in addition, a mass of information possessing special interest for theologians. It has not, however, been translated into English, nor apparently is there any intention of translating it. Our own literature on the subject is represented by a worthless book of Kingsley’s, entitled Alexandria and her Schools, and a novel by a lady, called the Wards of Plotinus.
503 Enn., VI., ix., sub fin.
504 Enn., III., ii., 15, p. 266, E (Kirchh., II., p. 336, l. 31). M. Renan talks of the period from 235 to 284 as ‘cet enfer d’un demi-siècle où sombre toute philosophie, toute civilité, toute délicatesse’ (Marc-Aurèle, p. 498). As, however, this epoch produced Neo-Platonism, the expression ‘toute philosophie’ is rather misplaced.
505 Enn., IV., iv., 17, p. 410, B. (Kirchh., I., p. 285, l. 1).
506 Ph. d. Gr., III., b, pp. 69 ff, 419 ff.
507 Op. cit., pp. 419 ff.
508 Zeller, p. 447.
509 Enn., V., v., p. 520, A. (Kirchh., II., p. 18, l. 3). This is the only passage in the Enneads where the Sceptics seem to be alluded to.
510 Loc. cit.
511 Vita, x., sub fin.
512 For specimens of his treatment, see Zeller, pp. 622 ff.
513 For the theology of Plotinus see Zeller, pp. 619 ff, and for the daemons, p. 570. In our opinion, Zeller attributes a much stronger religious faith to Plotinus than can be proved from the passages to which he refers.
514 Enn., V., vii.
515 Enn., V., vii., I, p. 539, B. (Kirchh., I., p. 145, l. 23).
516 For references, see Zeller, pp. 588 ff.
517 Enn., VI., ii., 3, p. 598, A. (Kirchh., II., p. 227).
518 Enn., II., ix.
519 Ibid., cap. 6.
520 Ibid., 14.
521 Enn., II., ix., 15.
522 Kirchner, Die Ph. d. Plot., pp. 1-24, 175-208. Cp. Steinhart, Meletemata Plotiniana, p. 4.
523 Two other popular misconceptions may be traced back, in part at least, to the exclusively transcendental interpretation of Plato’s philosophy. By drawing away attention from the Socratic dialogues, it broke the connexion between Socrates and his chief disciple, thus leaving the former to be estimated exclusively from Xenophon’s view of his character as a moral and religious teacher. True, Xenophon himself supplies us with the data which prove that Socrates was, above all things, a dialectician, but only in the reflex light of Plato’s subsequent developments can their real significance be perceived. On the other hand, the attempt to combine Aristotle with Plato led to a serious misunderstanding of the actual relation between the two. When the whole ideal element of his philosophy had been drawn off and employed to heighten still further the transcendentalism of his master’s teaching, the Stagirite came to be judged entirely by the residual elements, by the logical, physical, and critical portions of his system. On the strength of these, he was represented as the type of whatever is most opposed to Plato, and, in particular, of a practical, prosaic turn of mind, which was quite alien from his true character.
524 Χαλεπὸν μὲν γνωσθῆναι ... γιγνωσκόμενον δὲ μᾶλλον τῷ ἀπ’ αὐτοῦ γεννήματι τῇ οὐσίᾳ. (Enn., VI., ix., 5, p. 763, B.) Πᾶν τὸ θεῖον αὐτὸ μὲν διὰ τὴν ὑπερούσιον ἕνωσιν ἄρρητόν ἐστι καὶ ἄγνωστον πᾶσι τοῖς δευτέροις· ἀπὸ δὲ τῶν μετεχόντων ληπτόν ἐστι καὶ γνωστόν. (Proclus, Institutiones Theologicae, cxxiii.), cp. Proclus, ibid., clxii.
525 De Princip., ii., quoted by Ritter and Preller, p. 536 f.
526 Inst. Theol., lxxii., cp. Zeller, p. 808, where it is denied, wrongly, as we think, that Plotinus held the same view.
527 The following sketch is based on the accounts given of the period to which it relates in the works of Zeller and Vacherot.
528 De Civit. Dei, VIII., v., quoted by Kirchner, p. 208.
529 Enn., II., ix., 18, p. 217, C; for Syrianus and Proclus, see Zeller, p. 738. The Emperor Constantine is said to have remained a sun-worshipper all his life (Vacherot, II., p. 153); and even Philo Judaeus speaks of the stars as visible gods (Zeller, p. 393).
530 Quoted by Ritter and Preller, p. 539.
531 Compare the report of Agathias with the series of questions put to Priscian, quoted in the Dissertation by M. Quicherat, prefixed to Dübner’s edition of Priscian’s Solutiones (printed after Plotinus in Didot’s edition, pp. 549 ff).
532 M. Vacherot says (II., p. 400), without giving any authority for his statement, that the Neo-Platonists were driven from Persia by the persecution of the Magi; and that they returned home ‘furtivement,’ which is certainly incorrect. They returned openly, under the protection of a treaty between Persia and Rome.
533 Repub., IX., sub fin.
534 Hauréau, Histoire de la Philosophie Scolastique, I., p. 372.
535 For Gilbert de la Porrée see Hauréau, I., chap. xviii.
536 Jourdain, Recherches critiques sur les Traductions latines d’Aristote.
537 The term Nominalist is here used in the wide sense given to it by Hauréau. See the last chapter of his work on the Scholastic Philosophy.
538 Works I., p. 405 in Ellis and Spedding’s edition.
539 ‘Historia naturalis ... materia prima philosophiae.’ De Aug., II., iii.
540 The ‘notions and conceptions’ of the Advancement of Learning (Works, III., p. 356) is rendered by ‘axiomata’ in the De Augmentis (I., p. 567), where in both instances the question is entirely about Forms. Cp. § 8 of Prof. Fowler’s Introduction to the Novum Organum.
541 Analyt. Prior., II., xxx.
542 Prof. Bain, after mentioning that the second book of the Topics ‘sets forth in a crude condition the principal canons of inductive logic,’ goes on to say that ‘these statements cannot be called germs for they never germinated’ (Grote’s Minor Works, p. 14). May they not have germinated in the Novum Organum?
543 Descartes showed a much deeper insight into the scientific conditions of industrial progress than Bacon. His words are, ‘On peut trouver une philosophie pratique par laquelle connoissant la force et les actions du feu, de l’eau, de l’air, des astres, des cieux, et de tous les autres corps qui nous environnent, aussi distinctement que nous connoissons les divers mestiers de nos artisans, nous les pourrions employer en même façon à tous les usages auxquels ils sont propres, et ainsi nous rendre comme maistres et possesseurs de la Nature.’ Discours de la Méthode, Sixième Partie. This passage has been recently quoted by Dr. Bridges (‘Comte’s Definition of Life,’ Fortnightly Review for June 1881, p. 684) to illustrate what seems a very questionable position. He says that the Copernican astronomy, by revealing the infinitude of the universe, made men despair of comprehending nature in her totality, and thus threw them back on enquiries of more directly human interest and practical applicability; particularly specifying ‘the lofty utilitarianism of the Novum Organum and of the Discours de la Méthode,’ as ‘one of the first concomitants’ ‘of this intellectual revolution.‘ There seems to be a double misconception here: for, in the first place, Bacon could hardly have been influenced by a theory which he persistently rejected; and, in the next place, neither Bacon nor Descartes showed a trace of the positivist tendency to despair of attaining absolute and universal knowledge. Both of them expected to discover the inmost essences of things; and neither of them imagined that a different set of conditions might come into play outside the boundaries of the visible universe. In fact they believed themselves to be enlarging instead of restricting the field of mental vision; and it was from this very enlargement that they anticipated the most momentous practical results. It was with Locke, as we shall see hereafter, that the sceptical or agnostic movement began. In this same article, Dr. Bridges repeats, probably on Comte’s authority, the incredible statement that ‘Thales taught the Egyptian priests those two or three elementary truths as to the laws of triangles, which enabled them to tell the height of the pyramid by measuring its shadow.’ Comte’s ignorance or carelessness in relating this story as a well-attested fact was long ago noticed with astonishment by Grote. (Life of George Grote, p. 204.)
544 Whewell notices this ‘Stationary Interval’ (History of the Inductive Sciences, Bk. XVI., chapter iii., sect. 3), but without determining either its just limits or its real cause.
545 Compreso che sarà il moto di quest’ astro mondano in cui siamo ... s’aprirà la porta de l’intelligenza de li principi veri di cose naturali. De l’Infinito Universo e Mondi, p. 51, Wagner’s Ed.
546 ‘Sono amputate radici che germogliano, son cose antiche che rivegnono. Ibid., p. 82.
547 Principio Causa et Uno, p. 225. For David of Dinan, whose opinions are known only through the reports of Albertus and Aquinas, see Hauréau, II., iv.
548 Galileo’s words are:—‘Il moto circulare è naturale del tutto e delle parti mentre sono in ottima disposizione.’ Dialoghi sui Massimi Sistemi. Opere, Vol. I., p. 265; see also p. 38.
549 Dialoghi, p. 211.
550 ‘Non posso trovar termine all’ammirazione mia come abbia possuto in Aristarco e nel Copernico far la ragione tanta violenza al senso che contro a questo ella si sia fatta padrona della loro credulità.’ Dialoghi, p. 358.
551 Ibid., p. 370.
552 ‘Kepler était persuadé de l’existence de ces lois en suivant cette pensée de Platon: que Dieu, en créant le monde, avait dû faire de la géometrie.’ Arago, Œuvres III., p. 212.
553 De Aug., III., v. Works, I., p. 571.
554 This is well brought out in a remarkable series of articles on the Philosophy of Hobbes recently published by Tönnies in the Vierteljahrsschrift fur wissenschaftliche Philosophie.
555 Leviathan, chap. xv., sub fin.
556 Leviathan, chap. xi., sub fin.
557 Leviathan, chap. vi.
558 Spaccio della Bestia Trionfante, sub in.
559 Advancement of Learning, Ellis and Spedding, III., p. 428.
560 Republic, VI., 511, Jowett’s Trans. III., p. 398.
561 Plotinus himself expresses a doubt as to whether the One is, properly speaking, all things or not (Enn., V., ii., sub in.); but in his essay on Substance and Quality, he defines qualities as energies of the substance to which they belong (Enn., II., vi. 3). Now all things are, according to his philosophy, energies of the One. There would, therefore, be no difficulty in considering it as their substance.
563 V., 853; IV., 780-800; V., 1025.
564 Just the same remark applies to the monads of Leibnitz. Each monad reflects all the others, and infers that its reflections represent a reality from the infinite creative power of God. Descartes’ appeal to the divine veracity represents the same method in a less developed stage. The root-idea here is to be sought for, not in Greek thought but in the Christian doctrine of a supernatural revelation.
565 The formal cause of a thing is its species, the concept under which it is immediately subsumed; the efficient cause is what brings it into existence. Thus the formal cause of a man is humanity, the efficient cause, his father.
566 Eth., I., prop. xvi.; II., prop. iii.; prop. v.; prop. xviii., schol.; prop. xxviii.; prop. xl., schol. ii.; V., prop. xxix., schol.; prop. xl., schol. (The passage last referred to is the clearest and most decisive.)
567 See the passage from the Republic quoted above.
568 The tendency of logicians is now, contrariwise, to force reasoning into parallelism with mathematical physics by interpreting the proposition as an equation between subject and predicate.
569 III., prop. ii., schol.
570 II., vii., schol.
571 III., ix. and xi.
572 Greek tragedy is just the reverse—an expansion of the old patriarchal relations into a mould fitted to receive the highest thought and feeling of a civilised age.
573 For the whole subject of Spinoza’s mathematical method, see Windelband’s paper on Spinoza in the Vierteljahrsschrift für wissenschaftliche Philosophie, 1877. Some points in the last paragraph were suggested by Mr. Pollock’s Spinoza (pp. 255, 264).
574 Essay, Bk. iv., ch. 12.
575 See the references to Epictêtus, supra, p. 21.
576 What Aristotle has written on the subject is not ethics but natural history.
577 ‘Ne remarque-t-on comment chaque recherche analytique de Laplace a fait ressortir dans notre globe et dans l’univers des conditions d’ordre et de durée?’—Arago, Œuvres, III., p. 496.