Body As Obstacle

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter Va

“In the next place, let us direct our attention to the solution of your inquiries. There is, therefore, the good itself which is beyond essence, and there is that good which subsists according to essence; I mean the essence which is most an…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter VII

“Of the extremes, therefore, one is supreme, transcendent, and perfect; but the other is last in dignity, deficient, and more imperfect. And the former, indeed, is capable of accomplishing all things at once, uniformly in an instant; but the…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter VIIIa

“But neither must we admit that cause of the distinction of these genera which you subjoin, viz. “ that it is an arrangement with reference to different bodies; as, for instance, 39 of Gods to etherial bodies, but of dæmons to aerial bodies…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter VIIIb

“Hence, through these things such a corporeal-formed division as you introduce, is demonstrated to be false. It is, indeed, especially necessary not to propose any thing of this kind; but if this should appear to you to be requisite, yet yo…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter Xa

“After these things, you again subjoin another division for yourself, “ in which you separate the essences of the more excellent genera by the difference of passive and impassive .” But neither do I admit this division. For no one of the mo…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter XIb

“[31] Things of this kind, therefore, are introduced for the sake of our soul, and of the diminution of the evils which adhere to it 55 through generation, and of a solution and liberation from its bonds. On this account, also, they are ver…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter XVa

“After this, you pass on to another division into contraries, viz. the division of Gods with reference to dæmons. For you say, “ that the Gods are pure intellects ;” but you propose this opinion as an hypothesis, or you narrate it as a dog…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter XVb

“Or what passion can accede to a thing of this kind, the purity of which the most worthy human manners cannot easily equal? You say, however, “ that the things which are offered in supplications are offered as to sensitive and psychical nat…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter XVII

“We will exchange, therefore, this division for the doubt which may be adduced by you against the present opinion. “ For ,” it may be said by you, “ how, conformably to what we assert, can the sun and moon, and the visible natures in the hea…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter XVIIIa

“Your next inquiry doubts, “ how some of the Gods are beneficent, but others malefic .” This opinion, therefore, is assumed from the predictors of nativities. It is, however, entirely remote from the truth. For all the Gods are good, and i…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter XVIIIb

“A certain thing of this kind also may take 71 place in the harmony and crasis of the universe: for the same things may be the salvation of the whole, through the perfection of the things inherent and the recipients; but may be noxious to th…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter XIXb

“And secondary genera, indeed, remain with invariable sameness in the one of such as are primary; but the primary impart from themselves union to the secondary genera, and all of them possess in each other the communion of an indissoluble co…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter XX

“After this, you again resume the same inquiries, of which what has been already said may be considered as a sufficient solution. Since, however, it is necessary, according to the proverb, frequently to speak of and consider things that are…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter XXI

“The division, however, of the passive from the impassive , which you adopt, may perhaps be rejected by some one, as not adapted to either of the more excellent genera, through the causes which we have before enumerated; and it also deserves…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter I

“It is also necessary to demonstrate to you, in what dæmons, heroes, and souls differ from each other, and whether this difference is according to essence, or according to power, or according to energy. I say, therefore, that dæmons are prod…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter IIIa

“Let us, however, now proceed to the appearances of the Gods and their perpetual attendants, and show what the difference is in their appearance. For you inquire, “ by what indication the presence of a God, or an angel, or an archangel, or…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter IVa

“Proceeding, therefore, to other peculiarities of them, we say, that with the Gods, indeed, there is acuteness and rapidity in the energies, which shine forth with greater celerity than those of intellect itself, though in themselves they ar…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter IVb

“And, with respect to archons, the light of those that have the government of the world is more pure; but of those that preside over matter, exhibits itself mingled from things of a dissimilar and contrary nature. And the light of souls man…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter V

“Moreover, that which purifies souls is perfect in the Gods; but in archangels it is anagogic. Angels alone dissolve the bond of generation. Dæmons draw souls down into nature; but heroes lead them to a providential attention to sensible wor…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter VI

“Moreover, the gifts arising from the manifestations are not all of them equal, nor have the same fruits. But the presence [44] of the Gods, indeed, imparts to us health of body, virtue of soul, purity of intellect, and in one word elevates…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter VII

“Moreover, in the manifestations there is an indication of the order which the powers that are seen possess. For the Gods are surrounded by either Gods or angels; but archangels have angels either preceding or coarranged with them, or follow…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter VIII

“Moreover, with respect to the tenuity and subtilty of light, the Gods extend a light so subtle that corporeal eyes cannot sustain it, 100 but are affected in the same manner as fishes, when they are drawn upward from turbid and thick water…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter I

“In the first place, therefore, you ask me to explain to you distinctly, “ what that is which is effected in the foreknowledge of future events? ” Immediately, however, that which you endeavour to learn is impossible. For, according to the m…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter II

“Concerning the divination, therefore, which takes place in sleep, you say as follows: “ We frequently obtain through dreams, when we are asleep, a knowledge of future events, not being in an ecstasy, through which we are much agitated, for…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter III

“The wise, [49] therefore, speak as follows: The soul having a twofold life, one being in conjunction with body, but the other being separate from all body; when we are awake we employ, for the most part, the life which is common with the bo…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter V

“There are, therefore, many species of divine possession, and divine inspiration is multifariously excited; whence, also, the signs of it are many and different. For either the Gods are different, by whom we are inspired, and thus produce a…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter VI

“That, however, which is the greatest thing is this, that he who [appears to] draw down a certain divinity, sees a spirit descending and entering into some one, recognizes its magnitude and quality, and is also mystically persuaded and gover…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter VII

“It is not, however, sufficient to learn these things alone, nor will he who only knows these become perfect in divine science. But it is requisite also to know what enthusiasm is, and how it is produced. It is falsely, therefore, supposed t…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter XVIII

“Another contest, however, awaits us, not less than that in which we have been before engaged, and which you immediately announce, concerning the causes of divination, “ whether a God, an angel, or a dæmon, or some other power, is present in…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter XX

“Omitting, therefore, these things, we may reasonably adduce a second cause, assigned by you, of the above mentioned particulars: viz. “ that the soul says and imagines these things, and that they are the passions of it, excited from small i…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter XXI

“Is, therefore, what you add in the third place more true; viz. “ that there is a certain mixed form of hypostasis, consisting of our soul and divine inspiration externally derived ?” Consider this then more accurately, lest we should be dec…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter XXII

“You say, therefore, “ that the soul generates the power which has an imaginative perception of futurity, through motions of this kind, or 177 that the things which are adduced from matter constitute dæmons through the powers that are inhere…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter XXIV

“In what follows, while you endeavour to unfold divination, you entirely subvert it. For if a passion of the soul is admitted to be the cause of it, what wise man will attribute to an unstable and stupid thing orderly and stable foreknowledg…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter XXV

“That which follows in the next place, descends from a divine alienation of mind to an ecstasy of the reasoning power which leads it to a worse condition, and absurdly says, “ that the cause of divination is the mania which happens in diseas…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter XXVIIIa

“You adduce, however, as a thing by no means to be despised, “ the artificers of efficacious images .” But I should wonder if these were admitted by any one of the theurgists who survey the true forms of the Gods. For why should any one exc…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter XXVIIIb

“The variety, however, of such like energies, and the composition of a multitude of material powers, are not only entirely separated from divine fabrication, but also from natural production. For nature produces her proper works collectivel…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter XXIX

“Why, therefore, does the maker of images, who effects these things, desert himself, though he is better than these images, and consists of 195 things of a more excellent nature, and confide in inanimate idols, which are inspired with the re…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter XXX

“You say, however, “ that the makers of images observe the motion of the celestial bodies, and can tell from the concurrence of what star, with a certain star or stars, predictions will be true or false; and also whether the things that are…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter IV

“What then shall we say concerning the next inquiry to this, viz. “ why the powers who are invoked think it requisite that he who worships them should be just, but they when called upon to act unjustly do not refuse so to act ?” To this I re…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter V

“The multitude, also, are accustomed to doubt in common the very same thing concerning providence, viz. why certain persons are afflicted undeservedly, as they have not done any thing unjustly prior to their being thus afflicted. For neither…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter IX

“After the body of the universe, also, many things are generated by the nature of it. For the concord of similars, and the contrariety of dissimilars, effect not a few things. Farther still, the assemblage of many things into the one animal…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter X

“We shall collect, therefore, what happens from these conclusions. For if certain invocators employ the physical or corporeal powers [91] of the universe, an involuntary gift of energy [from these powers], and which is without vice, takes pl…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter XIII

“Consider, therefore, also another genus of causes; how a stone or a herb frequently possess from themselves a nature corruptive, or again collective of generated natures. For this is not only the case with these, but this physical power is…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter II

“The hostile opposition, therefore, in the things that are now proposed, may be easily dissolved by demonstrating the dignity of wholes with 226 respect to parts, and by recalling to your recollection the exempt transcendency of the Gods abo…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter III

“Here, therefore, the same reasoning is likewise sufficient. For with us the enjoyment of bodies which once were united to soul, impresses in us heaviness and defilement, ingenerates in us voluptuousness, and produces many other diseases in…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter IVa

“Nor is that which so greatly disturbs you, and for which you so strenuously contend, attended with any difficulty, I mean abstinence from animals, [95] if it is rightly understood. For those who worship the Gods do not abstain from animals…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter VIII

“The same absurdities likewise happen from assigning, as the causes of what is effected by sacrifices, either certain numbers that are with us, such, for instance, as assuming the number 235 sixty in the crocodile, [97] as adapted to the sun…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter Xa

“We, however, admit all these assertions; physical essences, indeed, being coexcited as in one animal, according to aptitude or sympathy, as in another respect being subjects, and following and being subservient to the cause of the efficacy…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter Xb

“If, therefore, it is impossible that we should be the primordial causes of dæmons, it is, for the same reason, impossible that we should be the causes of their nutriment. 245…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter XI

“It appears to me, also, that the present question errs in another respect. For it is ignorant that the offering of sacrifices through fire has the power of consuming and destroying the matter of them in a greater degree; that it assimilates…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter XII

“For, in short, the vehicle [108] which is subservient to dæmons neither consists of matter, nor of the elements, nor of any other of the bodies known to us. What perfect supply of food, therefore, can there be from one essence to another [s…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter XV

“Let us then, in the next place, direct our attention to that which accords with what has been before said, and with our twofold condition of being. For there is a time when we become wholly soul, are out of the body, and sublimely revolve o…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter XVI

“Farther still, therefore, we must not disdain to add what follows; that we frequently perform something to the Gods who are the inspective guardians of body, and to good dæmons, for the sake of the necessary use of the body; as, for instanc…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter XVII

“What, therefore, shall we derive from the Gods who are entirely exempt from all human generation, with respect to sterility, or abundance or any thing else pertaining to [the mortal] life? Nothing whatever. For it is not the province of tho…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter XVIII

“According to another division, therefore, the numerous herd [or the great mass] of men is arranged under nature, is governed by physical powers, looks downward to the works of nature, gives completion to the administration of Fate, and to t…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter XIX

“On this subject, however, there is also the following division. Of divine essences and powers some have [a genesiurgic] soul and nature subject and ministrant to their fabrications, whenever they wish to use them. But others are entirely se…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter XXIII

“The various mode, therefore, of sanctity in sacred operations partly purifies and partly perfects some one of the things that are in us or about us. And some things, indeed, it restores to symmetry and order; but others it liberates from mo…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter I

“It is now, however, time for me to pass on to the next doubt which you propose, viz. “ Why it is requisite that the inspector [who presides over sacred rites] ought not to touch a dead body, though most sacred operations are performed throu…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter II

“After another manner, also, this doubt may be dissolved. For in men, indeed, who are detained in matter, bodies deprived of life produce a certain stain; because that which is not alive inserts a certain defilement in that which is living,…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter III

“In the next place we shall explain how divination is effected through sacred animals, such, for instance, as hawks. We must never say, therefore, that the Gods accede through bodies that are thus procured, being employed. For they do not pr…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter IV

“It is necessary, however, to think that the soul which uses divination of this kind, not only becomes an auditor of the prediction, but also contributes in no small degree from itself to the consummation of it, and of what pertains to its o…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter VII

“Or this thing may likewise be explained as follows: Dæmons preside with a guardian power over arcane mysteries, and this in so remarkable a degree, because the orderly distribution of things in the universe is primarily contained in dæmons.…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter II

“Hear, therefore, the intellectual interpretation of symbols, according to the conceptions of the Egyptians; at the same time removing from your imagination and your ears the image of things symbolical, but elevating yourself to intellectual…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter III

“According to another order, however, he arranges the God Emeph [134] prior to, and as the leader of, the celestial Gods. And he says that this God is an intellect, itself intellectually perceiving itself, and converting intellections to its…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter VI

“You say, therefore, “ that according to many of the Egyptians, that which is in our power depends on the motion of the stars .” What the truth, however, is respecting this, it is necessary to unfold to you from the Hermaic conceptions. For…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter VII

“Hence that of which you are dubious is not true, “ that all things are bound with the indissoluble bonds of Necessity ,” which we call Fate. For the soul has a proper principle of circumduction to the intelligible, and of a separation from…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter VIII

“What then, is it not possible for a man to liberate himself [from fate] through the Gods that revolve in the heavens, and to consider the same as the leaders of fate, and yet as 311 those that bind our lives with indissoluble bonds? Perhaps…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter IV

“If, however, it be necessary, dismissing these particulars, to speak what appears to me to be the truth, you do not rightly infer “ that a knowledge of this mathematical science [143] cannot be obtained, because there is much dissonance con…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter IX

“After this, therefore, you also mention another disquisition concerning the peculiar dæmon, which represents “ some as worshiping two, but others three, dæmons of this kind .” The whole of this, however, is erroneous. For it is a false mode…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter X

“And this order is adapted to dæmons; one part of it being allied to those that are invoked; another being derived from more ancient causes; and the third part effecting a common completion from both the others. Do not, therefore, assimilate…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter III

“I wish, in the next place, to reply to such assertions as calumniate divine prediction. For you compare with it “ certain other methods which are conversant with the prediction of future events .” To me, however, it does not appear to be an…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter V

“But why am I prolix about these particulars? For I have abundantly shown, in what has been before said, the transcendency of divine above human divination. It is better, therefore, in compliance with your request, “ to point out to you the…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter VI

“Moreover, after it has conjoined the soul to the several parts of the universe, and to the total divine powers which pass through it; then it leads the soul to, and deposits it in, the whole Demiurgus, and causes it to be independent of all…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter VIIIc

“The fifth according to body, which is called corporeal-formed. And the sixth according to matter, and this is denominated material.” Olympiodorus adds, “or after another manner it may be said, that some of these are celestial, others ether…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter VIIIi

“This, however, our philanthropic lord and father Jupiter understanding, that we might not be entirely deprived of communion with the Gods, has given us observation through sacred arts , by which we have at hand sufficient assistance.” For t…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter VIIIm

“Thus, for instance, if the allotment of the soul was as far as to philosophy, the soul would be able, though it should not choose a philosophic but some other life, to energize in that life somewhat philosophically. There are also said to…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter VIIIq

“On the contrary, divinely-inspired poets, as Hermeas well observes, knock, as it were, at the gates of the Muses, and thus being filled from thence exclaim, Εσπετε νυν μοι Μουσαι And, Μηνιν αειδε θεα— And, Ανδρα μοι εννεπε Μουσα . For bein…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter VIIIr

“But there are a certain few who by employing a certain supernatural power of intellect, are removed from nature , &c. The class to which these few belong is beautifully unfolded, as follows, by Plotinus, in the beginning of his Treatise on…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter VIIIs

“Hence the Emperor Julian, in the fragments of his treatise against the Christians, preserved by Ciryl, says, speaking of the Christians, “If any one wishes to consider the truth respecting you, he will find that your impiety consists of the…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter VIIIu

“ελευθεροι δε οντες υπερανω παντων, ωσπερ φυλακες και επισκοποι ακριβεις του παντος, περιεχονται τῳ νυχθημερῳ το παν.——εχουσι προς ημας την μεγιστην δυναμιν. i. e. “We say, O son, that the body [of the universe] is comprehensive of all th…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter VIIIv

“Hence some of them preside over men, others over lions or other animals, and others over plants; and still more partially, some are the inspective guardians of the eye, others of the heart, and others of the liver.” He adds, “all things, ho…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter VIIIw

“Cathartic virtue, therefore, alone must be called the salvation of souls; since this cuts off, and vehemently obliterates, material natures, and the passions which adhere to us from generation; separates the soul and leads it to intellect;…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter VIII{

“The following testimony of an anonymous Greek writer, prefixed to the manuscript of this treatise, which Gale published, proves that this work was written by Iamblichus: Ιστεον οτι ο φιλοσοφος Προκλος υπομνηματιζων τας του μεγαλου Πλωτινου…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter VIII‚

“Proclus, in his MS. Commentary on the First Alcibiades of Plato, observes, “that in the mysteries some one of the more imperfect dæmons assumes the appearance of one that is more perfect, and draws down to himself souls that are not yet pu…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter VIIIƒ

“with evil dæmons], which are hurled forth before the Gods, but on entering the interior parts of the temple, unmoved, and guarded by the mystic rites, they genuinely receive in their bosom divine illumination, and divested of their garments…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter VIII†

“For these conceptions and these works teach us, that in reality we, through sacred operations, approach to divinity, but that divinity does not draw near to us. Hence Proclus in Alcibiad. εν ταις κλησεσι, και εν ταις αυτοψιαις προσιεναι π…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter VIII‡

““The soul is bound to the body, by a conversion to the passions arising from her union with it.” And, “the soul binds herself in the body.” Philolaus also says, that the ancient theologists and prophets asserted, ως δια τινας τιμωριας α ψυχ…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter VIII‰

“Prior, there are three orders of dæmons, the first of which are more intellectual , the second are of a more rational nature , and the third, of which Iamblichus is now speaking, are various, more irrational, and more material . 86 . Char…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter VIII‹

“και αετοι μεν, και δρακοντες, βιωσιμοι αυτοις προς υγειαν υποθεσις´ αιλουροι δε και κυνες, και κορακες αγρυπνητικα συμβολα. κηρος δε και πηλος εις τας των μοριων συμπλασεις παραλαμβανονται. φανταζει δε πολλακις, και πυρος ουρανιου εδοσεις…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter VIIIŒ

“It must also be observed, that this MS. of Psellus On Dæmons forms no part of his treatise On the Energy of Dæmons , published by Gaulminus; for it never was published. 94 . Hence Iamblichus (apud Stob. Eclog. Phys. p. 114), says, Ου…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter VIII

“The Pythagoreans, likewise, adorned numbers and figures with the appellations of the Gods. For they called the equilateral triangle, Minerva Coryphagenes, or begotten from the summit, and Tritogeneia because it is divided by three perpendi…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter VIII‘

“112 . Proclus on the First Alcibiades observes, “that about every God there is an innumerable multitude of dæmons, who have the same appellations with their leaders. And that these are delighted when they are called by the names of Apollo…”

◆Iamblichus: On the Mysteries | Chapter VIII’

““This is spoken after the manner of the pontiffs, by whom, according to ancient rites, in all sacrifices, after the appropriate Gods whom it was necessary to invoke to the sacrifice, all the divinities were invoked in general.” And in his A…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 11

“Section 7 7. The truth lies in the Consideration that the Couplement subsists by virtue of the Soul's presence. This, however, is not to say that the Soul gives itself as it is in itself to form either the Couplement or the body. No; from t…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 56

“Section 6 6. Well, but take the unhappy man: must not increase of time bring an increase of his unhappiness? Do not all troubles- long-lasting pains, sorrows, and everything of that type- yield a greater sum of misery in the longer time? An…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 65

“Section 4 4. But there are earlier and loftier beauties than these. In the sense-bound life we are no longer granted to know them, but the soul, taking no help from the organs, sees and proclaims them. To the vision of these we must mount,…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 85 (part 2)

“We teach that Virtue is not the Absolute Good and Beauty, because we know that These are earlier than Virtue and transcend it, and that it is good and beautiful by some participation in them. Now as, going upward from virtue, we come to th…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 121

“Section 18 18. Are the evils in the Universe necessary because it is of later origin than the Higher Sphere? Perhaps rather because without evil the All would be incomplete. For most or even all forms of evil serve the Universe- much as the…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 126

“Section 4 4. The present existence of the Ideal-Forms has been demonstrated elsewhere: we take up our argument from that point. If, then, there is more than one of such forming Ideas, there must of necessity be some character common to all…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 127

“Section 5 5. It may be objected that the Intellectual-Principle possesses its content in an eternal conjunction so that the two make a perfect unity, and that thus there is no Matter there. But that argument would equally cancel the Matter…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 130

“Section 8 8. What, then, is this Kind, this Matter, described as one stuff, continuous and without quality? Clearly since it is without quality it is incorporeal; bodiliness would be quality. It must be the basic stuff of all the entities o…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 146 (part 1)

“Section 1 1. Are not Being and Reality (to on and he ousia) distinct; must we not envisage Being as the substance stripped of all else, while Reality is this same thing, Being, accompanied by the others- Movement, Rest, Identity, Differenc…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 148

“Section 3 3. The Whiteness, therefore, in a human being is, clearly, to be classed not as a quality but as an activity- the act of a power which can make white; and similarly what we think of as qualities in the Intellectual Realm should be…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 162 (part 1)

“Section 6 6. And, what are we to think of the new forms of being they introduce- their "Exiles" and "Impressions" and "Repentings"? If all comes to states of the Soul- "Repentance" when it has undergone a change of purpose; "Impressions"…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 168 (part 1)

“Section 12 12. And how does this image set to its task immediately after it comes into being? By memory of what it has seen? But it was utterly non-existent, it could have no vision, either it or the Mother they bestow upon it. Another…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 168 (part 2)

“The theory, therefore, refers the entire process to pre-existing compulsions: the guilt inheres in the Primal Beings.…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 180

“Section 4 4. Another theory: The Universe is permeated by one Soul, Cause of all things and events; every separate phenomenon as a member of a whole moves in its place with the general movement; all the various causes spring into action fro…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 182

“Section 6 6. But in fact everything follows its own Kind; the birth is a horse because it comes from the Horse Kind, a man by springing from the Human Kind; offspring answers to species. Allow the kosmic circuit its part, a very powerful in…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 196

“Section 9 9. It would not be just, because Providence cannot be a something reducing us to nothingness: to think of Providence as everything, with no other thing in existence, is to annihilate the Universe; such a providence could have no f…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 203 (part 1)

“Section 16 16. But if all this is true, what room is left for evil? Where are we to place wrong-doing and sin? How explain that in a world organized in good, the efficient agents [human beings] behave unjustly, commit sin? And how comes…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 210 (part 2)

“The Reason-Principle of an ox does not occur except in connection with the Matter appropriate to the ox-Kind. It must be by such a process that the transmigration, of which we read takes place; the Soul must lose its nature, the Reason-Pri…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 217

“Section 3 3. What, then, is the spirit [guiding the present life and determining the future]? The Spirit of here and now. And the God? The God of here and now. Spirit, God; This in act within us, conducts every life; for, even here and now,…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 225

“Section 4 4. Does each individual Soul, then, contain within itself such a Love in essence and substantial reality? Since not only the pure All-Soul but also that of the Universe contain such a Love, it would be difficult to explain why our…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 228 (part 1)

“Section 7 7. This is the significance of Plato's account of the birth of Love. The drunkenness of the father Poros or Possession is caused by Nectar, "wine yet not existing"; Love is born before the realm of sense has come into being: Pen…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 236 (part 2)

“The causes originating the movement may be likened to the musician; what is moved is like the strings of his instrument, and once more, the Melodic Principle itself is not affected, but only the strings, though, however much the musician de…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 245 (part 1)

“Section 13 13. Further, they must explain in what sense they hold that Matter tends to slip away from its form [the Idea]. Can we conceive it stealing out from stones and rocks or whatever else envelops it? And of course they cannot pret…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 259

“Section 7 7. Now comes the question whether, in all this discussion, we are not merely helping to make out a case for some other order of Beings and talking of matters alien to ourselves. But how could that be? What understanding can there…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 286 (part 2)

“In the case of things not endowed with intelligence, the "leading-principle" is their mere unity- a lower reproduction of the soul's efficiency. This is the deeper meaning of the profound passage [in the Timaeus], where we read "By blendin…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 288

“Section 1 1. The soul: what dubious questions concerning it admit of solution, or where we must abide our doubt- with, at least, the gain of recognizing the problem that confronts us- this is matter well worth attention. On what subject can…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 289 (part 1)

“Section 2 2. To this our first answer is that to place certain things under one identical class- by admitting an identical range of operation- is to make them of one common species, and puts an end to all mention of part; the reasonable co…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 290

“Section 3 3. Is it a question of part in the sense that, taking one living being, the soul in a finger might be called a part of the soul entire? This would carry the alternative that either there is no soul outside of body, or that- no sou…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 291

“Section 4 4. But if this is the true account of the unity of soul, we must be able to meet the problems that ensue: firstly, the difficulty of one thing being present at the same moment in all things; and, secondly, the difficulty of soul i…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 292

“Section 5 5. But what place is left for the particular souls, yours and mine and another's? May we suppose the Soul to be appropriated on the lower ranges to some individual, but to belong on the higher to that other sphere? At this there w…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 295 (part 1)

“Section 8 8. These considerations, amounting to the settlement of the question, are not countered by the phenomenon of sympathy; the response between soul and soul is due to the mere fact that all spring from that self-same soul [the next…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 295 (part 2)

“This means that it is no external limit that defines the individual being or the extension of souls any more than of God; on the contrary each in right of its own power is all that it chooses to be: and we are not to think of it as going fo…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 296 (part 2)

“The universe spreads as broad as the presence of soul; the bound of its expansion is the point at which, in its downward egression from the Supreme, it still has soul to bind it in one: it is a shadow as broad as the Reason-Principle procee…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 308

“Section 21 21. What does all this come to? What answer do we give to him who, with no opinion of his own to assert, asks us to explain this presence? And what do we say to the question whether there is one only mode of presence of the entir…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 309

“Section 22 22. May we think that the mode of the soul's presence to body is that of the presence of light to the air? This certainly is presence with distinction: the light penetrates through and through, but nowhere coalesces; the light is…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 313 (part 1)

“Section 26 26. Now if sensations of the active order depend upon the Couplement of soul and body, sensation must be of that double nature. Hence it is classed as one of the shared acts: the soul, in the feeling, may be compared to the wor…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 314

“Section 27 27. But of what soul; of that which we envisage as the more divine, by which we are human beings, or that other which springs from the All? Memory must be admitted in both of these, personal memories and shared memories; and when…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 324

“Section 4 4. In that realm it has also vision, through the Intellectual-Principle, of The Good which does not so hold to itself as not to reach the soul; what intervenes between them is not body and therefore is no hindrance- and, indeed, w…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 341

“Section 21 21. That this is the phase of the human being in which desire takes its origin is shown by observation of the different stages of life; in childhood, youth, maturity, the bodily desires differ; health or sickness also may change…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 343 (part 1)

“Section 23 23. A first principle is that the knowing of sensible objects is an act of the soul, or of the living conjoint, becoming aware of the quality of certain corporeal entities, and appropriating the ideas present in them. This appr…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 349 (part 2)

“Here we have to enquire into the nature and being of that vestige of the soul actually present in the living body: if there is truly a soul, then, as a thing never cut off from its total, it will go with soul as soul must: if it is rather t…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 351 (part 1)

“Section 31 31. Our problem embraces all act and all experience throughout the entire kosmos- whether due to nature, in the current phrase, or effected by art. The natural proceeds, we must hold, from the All towards its members and from t…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 362

“Section 42 42. It follows that, for the purposes which have induced this discussion, the stars have no need of memory or of any sense of petitions addressed to them; they give no such voluntary attention to prayers as some have thought: it…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 376

“Section 1 1. Perceptions are no imprints, we have said, are not to be thought of as seal-impressions on soul or mind: accepting this statement, there is one theory of memory which must be definitely rejected. Memory is not to be explained a…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 388

“Section 8 8. A. [sometimes appearing as 9] There are those who insist on the activities observed in bodies- warming, chilling, thrusting, pressing- and class soul with body, as it were to assure its efficacy. This ignores the double fact th…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 389

“Section 8 8. B. (10) If the soul is body and permeates the entire body-mass, still even in this entire permeation the blending must be in accord with what occurs in all cases of bodily admixing. Now: if in the admixing of bodies neither con…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 394

“Section 10 10. (15) That the soul is of the family of the diviner nature, the eternal, is clear from our demonstration that it is not material: besides it has neither shape or colour nor is it tangible. But there are other proofs. Assuming…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 396

“Section 12 12. (17) A further consideration is that if every soul is to be held dissoluble the universe must long since have ceased to be: if it is pretended that one kind of soul, our own for example, is mortal, and another, that of the Al…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 398

“Section 14 14. (19) As for the souls of the other living beings, fallen to the degree of entering brute bodies, these too must be immortal. And if there is in the animal world any other phase of soul, its only possible origin, since it is t…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 401

“Section 1 1. Many times it has happened: Lifted out of the body into myself; becoming external to all other things and self-encentered; beholding a marvellous beauty; then, more than ever, assured of community with the loftiest order; enact…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 408

“Section 8 8. And- if it is desirable to venture the more definite statement of a personal conviction clashing with the general view- even our human soul has not sunk entire; something of it is continuously in the Intellectual Realm, though…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 410

“Section 1 1. That the Soul of every individual is one thing we deduce from the fact that it is present entire at every point of the body- the sign of veritable unity- not some part of it here and another part there. In all sensitive beings…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 417

“Section 1 1. What can it be that has brought the souls to forget the father, God, and, though members of the Divine and entirely of that world, to ignore at once themselves and It? The evil that has overtaken them has its source in self-wil…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 418

“Section 2 2. Let every soul recall, then, at the outset the truth that soul is the author of all living things, that it has breathed the life into them all, whatever is nourished by earth and sea, all the creatures of the air, the divine st…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 419

“Section 3 3. The Soul once seen to be thus precious, thus divine, you may hold the faith that by its possession you are already nearing God: in the strength of this power make upwards towards Him: at no great distance you must attain: there…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 420

“Section 4 4. But there is yet another way to this knowledge: Admiring the world of sense as we look out upon its vastness and beauty and the order of its eternal march, thinking of the gods within it, seen and hidden, and the celestial spir…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 424

“Section 8 8. This is the explanation of Plato's Triplicity, in the passage where he names as the Primals the Beings gathered about the King of All, and establishes a Secondary containing the Secondaries, and a Third containing the Tertiarie…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 439

“Section 7 7. The contemplating of God, we might answer. But to admit its knowing God is to be compelled to admit its self-knowing. It will know what it holds from God, what God has given forth or may; with this knowledge, it knows itself at…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 460

“Section 7 7. Consider the act of ocular vision: There are two elements here; there is the form perceptible to the sense and there is the medium by which the eye sees that form. This medium is itself perceptible to the eye, distinct from the…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 461

“Section 8 8. So that we are left wondering whence it came, from within or without; and when it has gone, we say, "It was here. Yet no; it was beyond!" But we ought not to question whence; there is no whence, no coming or going in place; now…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 463

“Section 10 10. Still, do not, I urge you, look for The Good through any of these other things; if you do, you will see not itself but its trace: you must form the idea of that which is to be grasped cleanly standing to itself not in any com…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 482 (part 2)

“The greatness and power of the wisdom There we may know from this, that is embraces all the real Beings, and has made all, and all follow it, and yet that it is itself those beings, which sprang into being with it, so that all is one, and t…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 501

“Section 9 9. What, then, is the content- inevitably separated by our minds- of this one Intellectual-Principle? For there is no resource but to represent the items in accessible form just as we study the various articles constituting one sc…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 502

“Section 10 10. All, then, that is present in the sense realm as Idea comes from the Supreme. But what is not present as Idea, does not. Thus of things conflicting with nature, none is There: the inartistic is not contained in the arts; lame…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 509

“Section 1 1. Philosophy at a very early stage investigated the number and character of the Existents. Various theories resulted: some declared for one Existent, others for a finite number, others again for an infinite number, while as regar…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 510

“Section 2 2. But are we really obliged to posit the existence of such genera? Take Substance, for Substance must certainly be our starting-point: what are the grounds for regarding Substance as one single genus? It has been remarked that Su…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 511

“Section 3 3. But perhaps we should rather speak of some single category, embracing Intellectual Substance, Matter, Form, and the Composite of Matter and Form. One might refer to the family of the Heraclids as a unity in the sense, not of a…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 512 (part 2)

“True, greatness and smallness are not claimed to be quantities, but relations: but it is by their apparent possession of quantity that they are thought of as relations. All this, however, needs more careful examination. In sum, we hold th…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 540

“Section 2 2. In asserting that Being is not a unity, we do not mean to imply a definite number of existences; the number may well be infinite: we mean simply that it is many as well as one, that it is, so to speak, a diversified unity, a pl…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 549 (part 2)

“In the first place, the point is common to lines and yet is not their genus, and this unity we are considering may also be common to numbers and not be their genus- though, we need hardly say, the unity of Unity-Absolute is not that of the…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 551

“Section 13 13. We turn to ask why Quantity is not included among the primary genera, and Quality also. Quantity is not among the primaries, because these are permanently associated with Being. Motion is bound up with Actual Being [Being-in-…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 577 (part 1)

“Section 16 16. When each of the entities bound up with the pseudo-substance is taken apart from the rest, the name of Quality is given to that one among them, by which without pointing to essence or quantity or motion we signify the distin…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 584

“Section 23 23. The Motion which acts upon Sensible objects enters from without, and so shakes, drives, rouses and thrusts its participants that they may neither rest nor preserve their identity- and all to the end that they may be caught in…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 598

“Section 8 8. The light of our world can be allocated because it springs from a corporeal mass of known position, but conceive an immaterial entity, independent of body as being of earlier nature than all body, a nature firmly self-based or,…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 605

“Section 15 15. But how did this intruder find entrance? It had a certain aptitude and it grasped at that to which it was apt. In its nature it was capable of soul: but what is unfitted to receive soul entire- present entire but not for it-…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 606

“Section 16 16. But if that Principle can never fall to evil and we have given a true account of the soul's entry or presence to body, what are we to say of the periodic Descents and Returns, the punishments, the banishment into animal forms…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 614

“Section 7 7. To Real Being we go back, all that we have and are; to that we return as from that we came. Of what is There we have direct knowledge, not images or even impressions; and to know without image is to be; by our part in true know…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 627

“Section 7 7. It is inevitably necessary to think of all as contained within one nature; one nature must hold and encompass all; there cannot be as in the realm of sense thing apart from thing, here a sun and elsewhere something else; all mu…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 628

“Section 8 8. As then there is a Life-Form primal- which therefore is the Life-Form Absolute- and there is Intellectual-Principle or Being, Authentic Being, these, we affirm, contain all living things and all Number, and Absolute Justice and…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 635

“Section 15 15. We must repeat: The Collective Being, the Authentic, There, is at once Being and Intellectual-Principle and the Complete Living Form; thus it includes the total of living things; the Unity There is reproduced by the unity of…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 636 (part 1)

“Section 16 16. But here we may be questioned about these numbers which we describe as the primal and authentic: "Where do you place these numbers, in what genus among Beings? To everyone they seem to come under Quantity and you have certa…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 640 (part 2)

“If then the future is present, it must be present as having been foreconceived for later coming to be; at that divine stage therefore it lacks nothing and therefore can never lack; all existed, eternally and in such a way that at the later…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 642

“Section 3 3. What then is there to prevent man having been the object of planning There? No: all stands in that likeness, nothing to be added or taken away; this planning and reasoning is based only on an assumption; things are taken to be…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 645

“Section 6 6. But how can that higher soul have sense-perception? It is the perception of what falls under perception There, sensation in the mode of that realm: it is the source of the soul's perception of the sense-realm in its corresponde…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 676

“Section 37 37. Those ascribing Intellection to the First have not supposed him to know the lesser, the emanant- though, indeed, some have thought it impossible that he should not know everything. But those denying his knowing of the lesser…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 681

“Section 42 42. Faced by the difficulty of placing these powers, you must in reason allocate to the secondaries what you count august: secondaries must not be foisted upon the First, or tertiaries upon the secondaries. Secondaries are to be…”

◆Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 714

“Section 10 10. But how comes the soul not to keep that ground? Because it has not yet escaped wholly: but there will be the time of vision unbroken, the self hindered no longer by any hindrance of body. Not that those hindrances beset that…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 6

“Section 2 2. This first enquiry obliges us to consider at the outset the nature of the Soul- that is whether a distinction is to be made between Soul and Essential Soul [between an individual Soul and the Soul-Kind in itself]. * * All matte…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 7

“Section 3 3. We may treat of the Soul as in the body- whether it be set above it or actually within it- since the association of the two constitutes the one thing called the living organism, the Animate. Now from this relation, from the Sou…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 8

“Section 4 4. Let us consider, then, the hypothesis of a coalescence. Now if there is a coalescence, the lower is ennobled, the nobler degraded; the body is raised in the scale of being as made participant in life; the Soul, as associated wi…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 13

“Section 9 9. That Soul, then, in us, will in its nature stand apart from all that can cause any of the evils which man does or suffers; for all such evil, as we have seen, belongs only to the Animate, the Couplement. But there is a difficul…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 14

“Section 10 10. It will be objected, that if the Soul constitutes the We [the personality] and We are subject to these states then the Soul must be subject to them, and similarly that what We do must be done by the Soul. But it has been obse…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 15

“Section 11 11. In childhood the main activity is in the Couplement and there is but little irradiation from the higher principles of our being: but when these higher principles act but feebly or rarely upon us their action is directed towar…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 16

“Section 12 12. But if Soul is sinless, how come the expiations? Here surely is a contradiction; on the one side the Soul is above all guilt; on the other, we hear of its sin, its purification, its expiation; it is doomed to the lower world,…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 19 (part 1)

“Section 1 1. Since Evil is here, "haunting this world by necessary law," and it is the Soul's design to escape from Evil, we must escape hence. But what is this escape? "In attaining Likeness to God," we read. And this is explained as "…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 21

“Section 3 3. We come now to that other mode of Likeness which, we read, is the fruit of the loftier virtues: discussing this we shall penetrate more deeply into the essence of the Civic Virtue and be able to define the nature of the higher…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 23

“Section 5 5. So we come to the scope of the purification: that understood, the nature of Likeness becomes clear. Likeness to what Principle? Identity with what God? The question is substantially this: how far does purification dispel the tw…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 27

“Section 1 1. What art is there, what method, what discipline to bring us there where we must go? The Term at which we must arrive we may take as agreed: we have established elsewhere, by many considerations, that our journey is to the Good,…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 28

“Section 2 2. The born lover, to whose degree the musician also may attain- and then either come to a stand or pass beyond- has a certain memory of beauty but, severed from it now, he no longer comprehends it: spellbound by visible lovelines…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 29

“Section 3 3. The metaphysician, equipped by that very character, winged already and not like those others, in need of disengagement, stirring of himself towards the supernal but doubting of the way, needs only a guide. He must be shown, the…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 32

“Section 6 6. Philosophy has other provinces, but Dialectic is its precious part: in its study of the laws of the universe, Philosophy draws on Dialectic much as other studies and crafts use Arithmetic, though, of course, the alliance betwee…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 38

“Section 5 5. But what of sorrows, illnesses and all else that inhibit the native activity? What of the suspension of consciousness which drugs or disease may bring about? Could either welfare or happiness be present under such conditions? A…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 40

“Section 7 7. Then why are these conditions sought and their contraries repelled by the man established in happiness? Here is our answer: These more pleasant conditions cannot, it is true, add any particle towards the Sage's felicity: but th…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 45

“Section 12 12. The pleasure demanded for the life cannot be in the enjoyments of the licentious or in any gratifications of the body- there is no place for these, and they stifle happiness- nor in any violent emotions- what could so move th…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 46

“Section 13 13. The characteristic activities are not hindered by outer events but merely adapt themselves, remaining always fine, and perhaps all the finer for dealing with the actual. When he has to handle particular cases and things, he m…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 47

“Section 14 14. For man, and especially the Sage, is not the Couplement of soul and body: the proof is that man can be disengaged from the body and disdain its nominal goods. It would be absurd to think that happiness begins and ends with th…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 48

“Section 15 15. But suppose two wise men, one of them possessing all that is supposed to be naturally welcome, while the other meets only with the very reverse: do we assert that they have an equal happiness? We do, if they are equally wise.…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 49

“Section 16 16. Those that refuse to place the Sage aloft in the Intellectual Realm but drag him down to the accidental, dreading accident for him, have substituted for the Sage we have in mind another person altogether; they offer us a tole…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 66 (part 1)

“Section 5 5. These Lovers, then, lovers of the beauty outside of sense, must be made to declare themselves. What do you feel in presence of the grace you discern in actions, in manners, in sound morality, in all the works and fruits of vi…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 67

“Section 6 6. For, as the ancient teaching was, moral-discipline and courage and every virtue, not even excepting Wisdom itself, all is purification. Hence the Mysteries with good reason adumbrate the immersion of the unpurified in filth, ev…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 68

“Section 7 7. Therefore we must ascend again towards the Good, the desired of every Soul. Anyone that has seen This, knows what I intend when I say that it is beautiful. Even the desire of it is to be desired as a Good. To attain it is for t…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 70

“Section 9 9. And this inner vision, what is its operation? Newly awakened it is all too feeble to bear the ultimate splendour. Therefore the Soul must be trained- to the habit of remarking, first, all noble pursuits, then the works of beaut…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 80

“Section 5 5. But, it will be objected, if this seeing and frequenting of the darkness is due to the lack of good, the Soul's evil has its source in that very lack; the darkness will be merely a secondary cause- and at once the Principle of…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 81 (part 1)

“Section 6 6. If this be so, how do we explain the teaching that evils can never pass away but "exist of necessity," that "while evil has no place in the divine order, it haunts mortal nature and this place for ever"? Does this mean that h…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 83

“Section 8 8. But there will still be some to deny that it is through this Matter that we ourselves become evil. They will say that neither ignorance nor wicked desires arise in Matter. Even if they admit that the unhappy condition within us…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 84

“Section 9 9. But what approach have we to the knowing of Good and Evil? And first of the Evil of soul: Virtue, we may know by the Intellectual-Principle and by means of the philosophic habit; but Vice? A a ruler marks off straight from croo…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 85 (part 1)

“Section 10 10. But if Matter is devoid of quality how can it be evil? It is described as being devoid of quality in the sense only that it does not essentially possess any of the qualities which it admits and which enter into it as into a…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 86

“Section 11 11. It may be suggested that Vice is feebleness in the Soul. We shall be reminded that the Vicious Soul is unstable, swept along from every ill to every other, quickly stirred by appetites, headlong to anger, as hasty to compromi…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 87

“Section 12 12. If the existence of Matter be denied, the necessity of this Principle must be demonstrated from the treatises "On Matter" where the question is copiously treated. To deny Evil a place among realities is necessarily to do away…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 96 (part 1)

“Section 6 6. We may now consider the question whether fire is the sole element existing in that celestial realm and whether there is any outgoing thence with the consequent need of renewal. Timaeus pronounced the material frame of the All…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 102

“Section 3 3. The truth may be resumed in this way: There is a lowest power of the Soul, a nearest to earth, and this is interwoven throughout the entire universe: another phase possesses sensation, while yet another includes the Reason whic…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 112 (part 2)

“For the Universe is in truth a thing of blend, and if we separate from it that separable Soul, the residue is little. The All is a God when the divine Soul is counted in with it; "the rest," we read, "is a mighty spirit and its ways are su…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 113

“Section 10 10. If all this be true, we must at once admit signification, though, neither singly nor collectively, can we ascribe to the stars any efficacy except in what concerns the [material] All and in what is of their own function. We m…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 114

“Section 11 11. And we must remember that what comes from the supernals does not enter into the recipients as it left the source; fire, for instance, will be duller; the loving instinct will degenerate and issue in ugly forms of the passion;…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 115

“Section 12 12. All that thus proceeds from the supernal combines into a unity and every existing entity takes something from this blended infusion so that the result is the thing itself plus some quality. The effluence does not make the hor…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 116

“Section 13 13. Of phenomena of this sphere some derive from the Kosmic Circuit and some not: we must take them singly and mark them off, assigning to each its origin. The gist of the whole matter lies in the consideration that Soul governs…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 117

“Section 14 14. What of poverty and riches, glory and power? In the case of inherited fortune, the stars merely announce a rich man, exactly as they announce the high social standing of the child born to a distinguished house. Wealth may be…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 119 (part 1)

“Section 16 16. The question arises what phase of the Soul enters into the union for the period of embodiment and what phase remains distinct, what is separable and what necessarily interlinked, and in general what the Living-Being is. On…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 119 (part 2)

“The better elements are compelled into existence and moulded to their function by the Reason-Principle directly; the less good are potentially present in the Reason-Principles, actually present in the phenomena themselves; the Soul's power…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 125

“Section 3 3. Now it may be observed, first of all, that we cannot hold utterly cheap either the indeterminate, or even a Kind whose very idea implies absence of form, provided only that it offer itself to its Priors and [through them] to th…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 134

“Section 12 12. It is the corporeal, then, that demands magnitude: the Ideal-Forms of body are Ideas installed in Mass. But these Ideas enter, not into Magnitude itself but into some subject that has been brought to Magnitude. For to suppose…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 162 (part 2)

“As a matter of fact the ancient doctrine of the Divine Essences was far the sounder and more instructed, and must be accepted by all not caught in the delusions that beset humanity: it is easy also to identify what has been conveyed in thes…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 164

“Section 8 8. To ask why the Soul has created the Kosmos, is to ask why there is a Soul and why a Creator creates. The question, also, implies a beginning in the eternal and, further, represents creation as the act of a changeful Being who t…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 165 (part 1)

“Section 9 9. Wealth and poverty, and all inequalities of that order, are made ground of complaint. But this is to ignore that the Sage demands no equality in such matters: he cannot think that to own many things is to be richer or that th…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 166

“Section 10 10. Under detailed investigation, many other tenets of this school- indeed we might say all- could be corrected with an abundance of proof. But I am withheld by regard for some of our own friends who fell in with this doctrine be…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 169

“Section 13 13. Those, then, that censure the constitution of the Kosmos do not understand what they are doing or where this audacity leads them. They do not understand that there is a successive order of Primals, Secondaries, Tertiaries and…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 174

“Section 18 18. But perhaps this school will maintain that, while their teaching leads to a hate and utter abandonment of the body, ours binds the Soul down in it. In other words: two people inhabit the one stately house; one of them declaim…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 181 (part 1)

“Section 5 5. But perhaps the explanation of every particular act or event is rather that they are determined by the spheric movement- the Phora- and by the changing position of the heavenly bodies as these stand at setting or rising or in…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 186

“Section 10 10. To sum the results of our argument: All things and events are foreshown and brought into being by causes; but the causation is of two Kinds; there are results originating from the Soul and results due to other causes, those o…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 188

“Section 1 1. To make the existence and coherent structure of this Universe depend upon automatic activity and upon chance is against all good sense. Such a notion could be entertained only where there is neither intelligence nor even ordina…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 194

“Section 7 7. A preliminary observation: in looking for excellence in this thing of mixture, the Kosmos, we cannot require all that is implied in the excellence of the unmingled; it is folly to ask for Firsts in the Secondary, and since this…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 195 (part 2)

“Bad men rule by the feebleness of the ruled: and this is just; the triumph of weaklings would not be just.…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 203 (part 2)

“That one Reason-Principle, then, must be the unification of conflicting Reason-Principles whose very opposition is the support of its coherence and, almost, of its Being. And indeed, if it were not multiple, it could not be a Universal Pri…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 211 (part 2)

“Thus a patient following his treatment is himself an agent and yet is acting in accordance with the doctor's method inspired by the art concerned with the causes of health and sickness: what one does against the laws of health is one's act,…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 218

“Section 4 4. But is this lower extremity of our intellective phase fettered to body for ever? No: if we turn, this turns by the same act. And the Soul of the All- are we to think that when it turns from this sphere its lower phase similarly…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 220 (part 1)

“Section 6 6. What, then, is the achieved Sage? One whose Act is determined by the higher phase of the Soul. It does not suffice to perfect virtue to have only this Spirit [equivalent in all men] as cooperator in the life: the acting forc…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 220 (part 2)

“In some cases it communicates its force by permanent presence the life principle in plants for instance- in other cases it withdraws after imparting its virtue- for instance where from the putridity of dead animal or vegetable matter a mult…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 222 (part 1)

“Section 1 1. What is Love? A God, a Celestial Spirit, a state of mind? Or is it, perhaps, sometimes to be thought of as a God or Spirit and sometimes merely as an experience? And what is it essentially in each of these respects? These…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 224

“Section 3 3. That Love is a Hypostasis [a "Person"] a Real-Being sprung from a Real-Being- lower than the parent but authentically existent- is beyond doubt. For the parent-Soul was a Real-Being sprung directly from the Act of the Hypostasi…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 227 (part 2)

“We are forced to assume that there is a Matter of the Intellectual Order, and that Beings partaking of it are thereby enabled to enter into the lower Matter, the corporeal.…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 230

“Section 9 9. This Poros, Possession, then, is the Reason-Principle of all that exists in the Intellectual Realm and in the supreme Intellect; but being more diffused, kneaded out as it were, it must touch Soul, be in Soul, [as the next lowe…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 234 (part 2)

“It is universally true that the characteristic Act of immaterial entities is performed without any change in them- otherwise they would at last be worn away- theirs is the Act of the unmoving; where act means suffering change, there is Matt…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 236 (part 1)

“Section 4 4. We have, however, still to examine what is called the affective phase of the Soul. This has, no doubt, been touched upon above where we dealt with the passions in general as grouped about the initiative phase of the Soul and…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 238 (part 2)

“It is lifeless objects that deal the severest blows; they hit hardest and hurt most; where there is life- that is to say participation in Being- there is beneficence towards the environment, all the greater as the measure of Being is fuller…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 240

“Section 8 8. It is a general principle that, to be modified, an object must be opposed in faculty, and in quality to the forces that enter and act upon it. Thus where heat is present, the change comes by something that chills, where damp by…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 241

“Section 9 9. In answer: It must, first, be noted that there are a variety of modes in which an object may be said to be present to another or to exist in another. There is a "presence" which acts by changing the object- for good or for ill-…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 246

“Section 14 14. But would this mean that if there were no Matter nothing would exist? Precisely as in the absence of a mirror, or something of similar power, there would be no reflection. A thing whose very nature is to be lodged in somethin…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 247

“Section 15 15. Now the objects attracting the sun-rays to themselves- illuminated by a fire of the sense-order- are necessarily of the sense-order; there is perceptibility because there has been a union of things at once external to each ot…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 253

“Section 1 1. Eternity and Time; two entirely separate things, we explain "the one having its being in the everlasting Kind, the other in the realm of Process, in our own Universe"; and, by continually using the words and assigning every phe…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 273

“Section 7 7. Certain Principles, then, we may take to be established- some self-evident, others brought out by our treatment above: All the forms of Authentic Existence spring from vision and are a vision. Everything that springs from these…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 285 (part 2)

“The magnitude present in any mass is definitely one thing, yet its identity from part to part does not imply any such community as would entail common experience; within that identity there is diversity, for it is a condition only, not the…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 294

“Section 7 7. So far, so good: but what of the passage in the Philebus taken to imply that the other souls are parts of the All-Soul? The statement there made does not bear the meaning read into it; it expresses only, what the author was the…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 298

“Section 11 11. I think, therefore, that those ancient sages, who sought to secure the presence of divine beings by the erection of shrines and statues, showed insight into the nature of the All; they perceived that, though this Soul is ever…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 304

“Section 17 17. Various considerations explain why the Souls going forth from the Intellectual proceed first to the heavenly regions. The heavens, as the noblest portion of sensible space, would border with the least exalted of the Intellect…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 305

“Section 18 18. There remains still something to be said on the question whether the soul uses deliberate reason before its descent and again when it has left the body. Reasoning is for this sphere; it is the act of the soul fallen into perp…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 307 (part 1)

“Section 20 20. Here a question rises to which we must find an answer: whether these and the other powers which we call "parts" of the Soul are situated, all, in place; or whether some have place and standpoint, others not; or whether again…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 307 (part 2)

“Because the soul is not seen and the body is: we perceive the body, and by its movement and sensation we understand that it is ensouled, and we say that it possesses a soul; to speak of residence is a natural sequence. If the soul were vis…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 312

“Section 25 25. Now comes the question, equally calling for an answer, whether those souls that have quitted the places of earth retain memory of their lives- all souls or some, of all things, or of some things, and, again, for ever or merel…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 313 (part 2)

“This being admitted, aspiration will belong to soul, and so, as a consequence, will that memory of the aspiration and of its attainment or frustration, without which the soul's nature would fall into the category of the unstable [that is to…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 315

“Section 28 28. Is memory vested in the faculty by which we perceive and learn? Or does it reside in the faculty by which we set things before our minds as objects of desire or of anger, the passionate faculty? This will be maintained on the…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 316

“Section 29 29. Are we, then, to refer memory to the perceptive faculty and so make one principle of our nature the seat of both awareness and remembrance? Now supposing the very Shade, as we were saying in the case of Hercules, has memory,…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 317

“Section 30 30. But what of the memory of mental acts: do these also fall under the imaging faculty? If every mental act is accompanied by an image we may well believe that this image, fixed and like a picture of the thought, would explain h…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 322

“Section 2 2. Enough on that point: we come now to the question of memory of the personality? There will not even be memory of the personality; no thought that the contemplator is the self- Socrates, for example- or that it is Intellect or S…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 327

“Section 7 7. Well but can they not tell themselves that yesterday, or last year, they moved round the earth, that they lived yesterday or at any given moment in their lives? Their living is eternal, and eternity is an unchanging unity. To i…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 330

“Section 10 10. The ordering principle is twofold; there is the principle known to us as the Demiurge and there is the Soul of the All; we apply the appellation "Zeus" sometimes to the Demiurge and sometimes to the principle conducting the u…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 340

“Section 20 20. As with bodily pain and pleasure so with the bodily desires; their origin, also, must be attributed to what thus stands midway, to that Nature we described as the corporeal. Body undetermined cannot be imagined to give rise t…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 343 (part 2)

“Thus, is the heat of a fire really at a distance from the flesh it warms, the intermediate space remaining unmodified; is it possible to see colour over a sheer blank intervening between the colour and the eye, the organ of vision reaching…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 347

“Section 27 27. If the earth transmits the generative soul to growing things- or retains it while allowing a vestige of it to constitute the vegetal principle in them- at once the earth is ensouled, as our flesh is, and any generative power…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 348 (part 1)

“Section 28 28. Thus much established, we may return on our path: we have to discuss the seat of the passionate element in the human being. Pleasures and pains- the conditions, that is, not the perception of them- and the nascent stage of…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 350

“Section 30 30. We have declared acts of memory unnecessary to the stars, but we allow them perceptions, hearing as well as seeing; for we said that prayers to them were heard- our supplications to the sun, and those, even, of certain other…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 367

“Section 1 1. We undertook to discuss the question whether sight is possible in the absence of any intervening medium, such as air or some other form of what is known as transparent body: this is the time and place. It has been explained tha…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 370 (part 1)

“Section 4 4. But there is the question of the linked light that must relate the visual organ to its object. Now, firstly: since the intervening air is not necessary- unless in the purely accidental sense that air may be necessary to light…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 373 (part 1)

“Section 7 7. Our investigation may be furthered by enquiring: Whether light finally perishes or simply returns to its source. If it be a thing requiring to be caught and kept, domiciled within a recipient, we might think of it finally pas…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 377

“Section 2 2. But if perception does not go by impression, what is the process? The mind affirms something not contained within it: this is precisely the characteristic of a power- not to accept impression but, within its allotted sphere, to…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 385

“Section 6 6. It is easy to show that if the Soul were a corporeal entity, there could be no sense-perception, no mental act, no knowledge, no moral excellence, nothing of all that is noble. There can be no perception without a unitary perci…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 387

“Section 8 8. It can be shown also that the intellectual act would similarly be impossible if the soul were any form of body. If sensation is apprehension by means of the soul's employment of the body, intellection cannot be a similar use of…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 390

“Section 8 8. C. (11) We come to the theory that this pneuma is an earlier form, one which on entering the cold and being tempered by it develops into soul by growing finer under that new condition. This is absurd at the start, since many li…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 392 (part 1)

“Section 8 8. E. (13) We come to the doctrine of the Entelechy, and must enquire how it is applied to soul. It is thought that in the Conjoint of body and soul the soul holds the rank of Form to the Matter which here is the ensouled body-…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 392 (part 2)

“The other order, the entire corporeal Kind, is process; it appears and it perishes; in reality it never possesses Being, but is merely protected, in so far as it has the capacity, by participating in what authentically is.…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 395

“Section 11 11. (16) What intelligent mind can doubt the immortality of such a value, one in which there is a life self-springing and therefore not to be destroyed? This is at any rate a life not imported from without, not present in the mod…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 399

“Section 15 15. (20) Thus far we have offered the considerations appropriate to those asking for demonstration: those whose need is conviction by evidence of the more material order are best met from the abundant records relevant to the subj…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 402 (part 1)

“Section 2 2. Enquiring, then, of Plato as to our own soul, we find ourselves forced to enquire into the nature of soul in general- to discover what there can be in its character to bring it into partnership with body, and, again, what this…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 403

“Section 3 3. The Human Soul, next; Everywhere we hear of it as in bitter and miserable durance in body, a victim to troubles and desires and fears and all forms of evil, the body its prison or its tomb, the kosmos its cave or cavern. Now th…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 406

“Section 6 6. Something besides a unity there must be or all would be indiscernibly buried, shapeless within that unbroken whole: none of the real beings [of the Intellectual Kosmos] would exist if that unity remained at halt within itself:…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 407

“Section 7 7. The Kind, then, with which we are dealing is twofold, the Intellectual against the sensible: better for the soul to dwell in the Intellectual, but, given its proper nature, it is under compulsion to participate in the sense-rea…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 411

“Section 2 2. Now to begin with, the unity of soul, mine and another's, is not enough to make the two totals of soul and body identical. An identical thing in different recipients will have different experiences; the identity Man, in me as I…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 414

“Section 5 5. How then can a multitude of essential beings be really one? Obviously either the one essence will be entire in all, or the many will rise from a one which remains unaltered and yet includes the one- many in virtue of giving its…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 423 (part 1)

“Section 7 7. We must be more explicit: The Intellectual-Principle stands as the image of The One, firstly because there is a certain necessity that the first should have its offspring, carrying onward much of its quality, in other words th…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 426

“Section 10 10. We have shown the inevitability of certain convictions as to the scheme of things: There exists a Principle which transcends Being; this is The One, whose nature we have sought to establish in so far as such matters lend them…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 433

“Section 1 1. Are we to think that a being knowing itself must contain diversity, that self-knowledge can be affirmed only when some one phase of the self perceives other phases, and that therefore an absolutely simplex entity would be equal…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 435

“Section 3 3. Sense sees a man and transmits the impression to the understanding. What does the understanding say? It has nothing to say as yet; it accepts and waits; unless, rather, it questions within itself "Who is this?"- someone it has…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 440 (part 1)

“Section 8 8. Now comes the question what sort of thing does the Intellectual-Principle see in seeing the Intellectual Realm and what in seeing itself? We are not to look for an Intellectual realm reminding us of the colour or shape to be…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 471

“Section 4 4. Another consideration is that if The Good [and First] is simplex and without need, it can neither need the intellective act nor possess what it does not need: it will therefore not have intellection. (Interpolation or corruptio…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 486

“Section 8 8. This then is Beauty primally: it is entire and omnipresent as an entirety; and therefore in none of its parts or members lacking in beauty; beautiful thus beyond denial. Certainly it cannot be anything [be, for example, Beauty]…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 494

“Section 2 2. What is this other place and how it is accessible? It is to be reached by those who, born with the nature of the lover, are also authentically philosophic by inherent temper; in pain of love towards beauty but not held by mater…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 499

“Section 7 7. Knowledge in the reasoning soul is on the one side concerned with objects of sense, though indeed this can scarcely be called knowledge and is better indicated as opinion or surface-knowing; it is of later origin than the objec…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 500

“Section 8 8. If, then, the Intellection is an act upon the inner content [of a perfect unity], that content is at once the Idea [as object: eidos] and the Idea itself [as concept: idea]. What, then, is that content? An Intellectual-Principl…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 504

“Section 12 12. It should however be added that if the Idea of man exists in the Supreme, there must exist the Idea of reasoning man and of man with his arts and crafts; such arts as are the offspring of intellect Must be There. It must be o…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 506

“Section 14 14. There is, thus, a Nature comprehending in the Intellectual all that exists, and this Principle must be the source of all. But how, seeing that the veritable source must be a unity, simplex utterly? The mode by which from the…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 512 (part 1)

“Section 4 4. We are told that number is Quantity in the primary sense, number together with all continuous magnitude, space and time: these are the standards to which all else that is considered as Quantity is referred, including motion wh…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 521

“Section 14 14. The Academy and the Lyceum are places, and parts of Place, just as "above," "below," "here" are species or parts of Place; the difference is of minuter delimitation. If then "above," "below," "the middle" are places- Delphi,…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 543

“Section 5 5. A first point demanding consideration: Bodies- those, for example, of animals and plants- are each a multiplicity founded on colour and shape and magnitude, and on the forms and arrangement of parts: yet all these elements spri…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 549 (part 1)

“Section 11 11. We are bound however to enquire under what mode unity is contained in Being. How is what is termed the "dividing" effected- especially the dividing of the genera Being and unity? Is it the same division, or is it different…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 552

“Section 14 14. Why is Quality, again, not included among the Primaries? Because like Quantity it is a posterior, subsequent to Substance. Primary Substance must necessarily contain Quantity and Quality as its consequents; it cannot owe its…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 569

“Section 8 8. The division into elements must, in short, be abandoned, especially in regard to Sensible Substance, known necessarily by sense rather than by reason. We must no longer look for help in constituent parts, since such parts will…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 577 (part 2)

“But we refrain from assigning Soul to Sensible Substance, on the ground that we have already referred to Quality [which is Sensible] those affections of Soul which are related to body. On the contrary, Soul, conceived apart from affection…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 585

“Section 24 24. With regard to locomotion: if ascending is to be held contrary to descending, and circular motion different [in kind] from motion in a straight line, we may ask how this difference is to be defined- the difference, for exampl…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 586

“Section 25 25. The nature of integration and disintegrations calls for scrutiny. Are they different from the motions above mentioned, from coming-to-be and passing-away, from growth and decay, from change of place and from alteration? or mu…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 594

“Section 4 4. But how explain beings by the side of Being, and the variety of intelligences and of souls, when Being has the unity of omnipresent identity and not merely that of a species, and when intellect and soul are likewise numerically…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 608

“Section 1 1. The integral omnipresence of a unity numerically identical is in fact universally received; for all men instinctively affirm the god in each of us to be one, the same in all. It would be taken as certain if no one asked How or…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 609

“Section 2 2. Now the reasoning faculty which undertakes this problem is not a unity but a thing of parts; it brings the bodily nature into the enquiry, borrowing its principles from the corporeal: thus it thinks of the Essential Existence a…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 616

“Section 9 9. The elements in their totality, as they stand produced, may be thought of as one spheric figure; this cannot be the piecemeal product of many makers each working from some one point on some one portion. There must be one cause;…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 619

“Section 12 12. To return: How is that Power present to the universe? As a One Life. Consider the life in any living thing; it does not reach only to some fixed point, unable to permeate the entire being; it is omnipresent. If on this again…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 631

“Section 11 11. It may be suggested that the decad is nothing more than so many henads; admitting the one henad why should we reject the ten? As the one is a real existence why not the rest? We are certainly not compelled to attach that one…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 636 (part 2)

“When you enumerate two things- say, animal and beauty- each of these remains one thing; the number is your production; it lay within yourself; it is you that elaborate quantity, here the dyad. But when you declare virtue to be a Tetrad, yo…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 652 (part 1)

“Section 13 13. For Intellectual-Principle is not a simplex, nor is the soul that proceeds from it: on the contrary things include variety in the degree of their simplicity, that is to say in so far as they are not compounds but Principles…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 652 (part 2)

“To a traveller over land, all is earth but earth abounding in difference: so in this journey the life through which Intellectual-Principle passes is one life but, in its ceaseless changing, a varied life. Throughout this endless variation…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 663

“Section 24 24. But ourselves- how does it touch us? We may recall what we have said of the nature of the light shining from it into Intellectual-Principle and so by participation into the soul. But for the moment let us leave that aside and…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 677

“Section 38 38. And yet this "He Is" does not truly apply: the Supreme has no need of Being: even "He is good" does not apply since it indicates Being: the "is" should not suggest something predicated of another thing; it is to state identit…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 679 (part 1)

“Section 40 40. That there can be no intellection in the First will be patent to those that have had such contact; but some further confirmation is desirable, if indeed words can carry the matter; we need overwhelming persuasion. It must b…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 695 (part 1)

“Section 13 13. Our enquiry obliges us to use terms not strictly applicable: we insist, once more, that not even for the purpose of forming the concept of the Supreme may we make it a duality; if now we do, it is merely for the sake of conv…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 697

“Section 15 15. Lovable, very love, the Supreme is also self-love in that He is lovely no otherwise than from Himself and in Himself. Self-presence can hold only in the identity of associated with associating; since, in the Supreme, associat…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 702

“Section 20 20. The difficulty will be raised that God would seem to have existed before thus coming into existence; if He makes Himself, then in regard to the self which He makes He is not yet in being and as maker He exists before this Him…”

◇Select Works of Plotinus | Select Works, Section 706

“Section 2 2. It may be suggested that, while in the unities of the partial order the essence and the unity are distinct, yet in collective existence, in Real Being, they are identical, so that when we have grasped Being we hold unity; Real…”

◆Gospel of Philip | Section 1a

“(Above image of the Gospel of Thomas courtesy of the Institute for Antiquity and Christianity, Claremont Graduate University) Visit the Bookstore for a complete selection of translations and books about The Nag Hammadi Library The Nag Hamma…”

◆Gospel of Philip | Section 1f

“When wanton women see a man sitting alone, the man is overcome. They fondle him and pollute him. When wanton men see a beautiful woman sitting alone, they overcome her, and she is violated and polluted. But when spirits see a man and his…”

◆Gospel of Philip | Section 1i

“His seed was Jesus, and the plant was the cross.” The tree of life in the middle of that garden of paradise is an olive tree, and from the olive tree comes chrism, and from that oil comes the resurrection. THE WORLD EATS BODIES The world e…”

◆Gospel of Philip | Section 1k

“If you become light, light will share you. If you are of those from above, one of those from above will rest in you. If you become a horse or a donkey or bull or dog or sheep or another animal that is wild or tame, then neither a person n…”

◆Gospel of Thomas | Logion 1

“And he said, "Whoever finds the interpretation of these sayings will not experience death."…”

◆Gospel of Thomas | Logion 15

“Jesus said, "When you see one who was not born of woman, prostrate yourselves on your faces and worship him. That one is your father."…”

◆Gospel of Thomas | Logion 17

“Jesus said, "I shall give you what no eye has seen and what no ear has heard and what no hand has touched and what has never occurred to the human mind."…”

◆Gospel of Thomas | Logion 27

“<Jesus said,> "If you do not fast as regards the world, you will not find the kingdom. If you do not observe the Sabbath as a Sabbath, you will not see the father."…”

◆The Secret Teachings of All Ages (Manly P. Hall) | Introductiond

“Both Pythagoras and Empedocles accepted the theory of transmigration, the latter saying: "A boy I was, then did a maid become; a plant, bird, fish, and in the vast sea swum." Archytas is credited with invention of the screw and the crane.…”

◆The Secret Teachings of All Ages (Manly P. Hall) | Introductione

“He himself declared philosophy to be the way of true happiness and its purpose twofold: (1) to contemplate God, and (2) to abstract the soul from corporeal sense. The principles of all things he conceived to be three in number: God , matte…”

◆The Secret Teachings of All Ages (Manly P. Hall) | The Ancient Mysteries and Secret Societies Which Have Influenced Modern Masonic Symbolismm

“Of these shoots one is manifested from above, which is the Great Power, the Universal Mind ordering all things, male, and the other, [is manifested] from below, the Great Thought, female, producing all things. Hence pairing with each other…”

◆The Secret Teachings of All Ages (Manly P. Hall) | The Ancient Mysteries and Secret Societies Which Have Influenced Modern Masonic Symbolismn

“In discussing the original meaning of this word, Godfrey Higgins, in his Celtic Druids, has demonstrated that the numerological powers of the letters forming the word Abraxas when added together result in the sum of 365. The same author al…”

◆The Secret Teachings of All Ages (Manly P. Hall) | The Ancient Mysteries and Secret Societies Which Have Influenced Modern Masonic Symbolismp

“In an oracle delivered to the King of Cyprus, Serapis described himself thus: ''A god I am such as I show to thee, The Starry Heavens are my head, my trunk the sea, Earth forms my feet, mine ears the air supplies, The Sun's far-darting, bri…”

◆The Secret Teachings of All Ages (Manly P. Hall) | The Ancient Mysteries and Secret Societies Which Have Influenced Modern Masonic Symbolismw

“The Mysteries were the channels through which this one philosophic light was disseminated, and their initiates, resplendent with intellectual and spiritual understanding, were the perfect fruitage of the divine tree, bearing witness before…”

◆The Secret Teachings of All Ages (Manly P. Hall) | The Ancient Mysteries and Secret Societies Which Have Influenced Modern Masonic Symbolismx

“Pluto, the lord of the underworld, represents the body intelligence of man; and the rape of Persephone is symbolic of the divine nature assaulted and defiled by the animal soul and dragged downward into the somber darkness of Hades, which i…”

◆The Secret Teachings of All Ages (Manly P. Hall) | The Ancient Mysteries and Secret Societies Which Have Influenced Modern Masonic Symbolism~

“By the symbolism of his music he communicated the divine secrets to humanity, and several authors have declared that the gods, though loving him, feared that he would overthrow their kingdom and therefore reluctantly encompassed his destruc…”

◆Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names | Chapter 1, Section 1c

“59 59 ὡς οὐκ ὄντος ἴχνους τῶν ἐπὶ τὴν κρυφίαν αὐτῆς ἀπειρίαν διεληλυθότων. Two interpretations of this passage are possible: (1) Those who have penetrated the hidden Depths cannot describe the Vision (cf. Dante, Par. xxxiii. 55–66) ; (2…”

◆Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names | Chapter 1, Section 1d

“And we press upwards to those beams which in the Holy Scripture shine upon us; wherefrom we gain the light which leads us unto 55 the Divine praises 64 64 πρὸς τοὺς θεαρχικοὺς ὕμνους. Either (1) “leads us to declare the Divine praises”; or…”

◆Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names | Chapter 1, Section 1f

“And in all the other Divine enlightenments which the occult Tradition of our inspired teachers hath, by mystic Interpretation, accordant with the Scriptures, bestowed upon us, we also have been initiated: apprehending these things in the pr…”

◆Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names | Chapter 1, Section 1l

“The formless essence (ἀμορφία) of a thing is simple and imageless—a Platonic idea—perceived by the mind; things which have bodily form are, as it were, types and symbols perceived by the senses. 54 Or “indeterminate.” 55 Thus the three gra…”

◆Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names | Chapter 1, Section 1n

“82 ἐν θειοτέρᾳ μιμήσει τῶν ὑπερουρανίων νοῶν—i. e. the angels. 83 Luke xx. 36 84 Meditation leads on to Contemplation; and the higher kind of Contemplation is performed by the Via Negativa. 85 i.e. The Angels. I have throughout trans…”

◆Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names | Chapter 2, Section 1m

“καὶ τῆς εἰρημένης ἑνώσεως ἴδια καὶ αὖθις τῆς διακρίσεως εἶνάι τινας ἰδικὰς καὶ ἱνώσεις καὶ διακρίσεις. This, as it stands, must be translated: “They say that certain qualities belong to the said Undifference, and that to Differentiation, o…”

◆Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names | Chapter 3, Section 1d

“233 Cf p. 77, n. 1. 234 This is profound. Spatial metaphors are always dangerous, though unavoidable, in Theology. In space if A is touching B then B must be touching A. In the spiritual world this is not so. God is near me (or rathe…”

◆Pseudo-Dionysius: The Divine Names | Chapter 4, Section 1e

“260 260 The light permeates water but it does not permeate a stone. It passes over the stone and permeates the water beyond it. Yea, and it contributes to the birth of material bodies and brings them unto life, and nourishes them that the…”

◆Plato: Phaedo | Section 1d

“Socrates replied: And have you, Cebes and Simmias, who are acquainted with Philolaus, never heard him speak of this? I never understood him, Socrates. My words, too, are only an echo; but I am very willing to say what I have heard: and in…”

◆Plato: Phaedo | Section 1e

“And I rather imagine that Cebes is referring to you; he thinks that you are too ready to leave us, and too ready to leave the gods who, as you acknowledge, are our good rulers. Yes, replied Socrates; there is reason in that. And this indi…”

◆Plato: Phaedo | Section 1f

“And being dead is the attainment of this separation; when the soul exists in herself, and is parted from the body and the body is parted from the soul-that is death? Exactly: that and nothing else, he replied. And what do you say of anoth…”

◆Plato: Phaedo | Section 1g

“And he attains to the knowledge of them in their highest purity who goes to each of them with the mind alone, not allowing when in the act of thought the intrusion or introduction of sight or any other sense in the company of reason, but wi…”

◆Plato: Phaedo | Section 1h

“And now that the hour of departure is appointed to me, this is the hope with which I depart, and not I only, but every man who believes that he has his mind purified. Certainly, replied Simmias. And what is purification but the separation…”

◆Plato: Phaedo | Section 1i

“They are temperate because they are intemperate-which may seem to be a contradiction, but is nevertheless the sort of thing which happens with this foolish temperance. For there are pleasures which they must have, and are afraid of losing;…”

◆Plato: Phaedo | Section 1k

“That is clear, he replied. Then the inference is, that our souls are in the world below? That is true. And one of the two processes or generations is visible-for surely the act of dying is visible? Surely, he said. And may not the othe…”

◆Plato: Phaedo | Section 1m

“And yet from these equals, although differing from the idea of equality, you conceived and attained that idea? Very true, he said. Which might be like, or might be unlike them? Yes. But that makes no difference; whenever from seeing one…”

◆Agrippa: The Philosophy of Natural Magic, Chapter XI — How Occult Virtues are Infused into the Several Kinds of Things by Ideas Through the Help of the Soul of the World, And Rays of the Stars; and what Things Abound Most with this Virtue | Chapter XI, Section 1

“CHAPTER XI. How Occult Virtues are Infused into the Several Kinds of Things by Ideas Through the Help of the Soul of the World, And Rays of the Stars; and what Things Abound Most with this Virtue . Platonists say that all inferior bodies ar…”

◆Agrippa: The Philosophy of Natural Magic, Chapter LVIII — Of the Reviving of the Dead, and of Sleeping or Hibernating (Wanting Victuals) Many Years Together | Chapter LVIII, Section 1a

“CHAPTER LVIII. Of the Reviving of the Dead, and of Sleeping or Hibernating (Wanting Victuals) Many Years Together . The Arabian philosophers agree that some men may elevate themselves above the powers of their body and above their sensiti…”

◆Agrippa: The Philosophy of Natural Magic, Chapter LX — Of Madness, and Divinations which are made when men are awake, and of the Power of a Melancholy Humor, by which Spirits are sometimes induced into Men's Bodies | Chapter LX, Section 1c

“There are also some prognostics which are in the middle, betwixt natural and supernatural divination, as in those who are near to death, and, being weakened with old age, do sometimes foresee things to come, because, as saith Plato, by how…”

◆The Heroic Enthusiasts, Part I (Gli Eroici Furori) | First Dialogued

“Some are called in vain to put in a ready appearance, and are chiefly those which proceed from the lower instincts, and which obey the reason either not at all, or very little; and forcing himself to prevent their actions and condemn those…”

◆The Heroic Enthusiasts, Part I (Gli Eroici Furori) | Second Dialoguec

“I can very well conceive, from what you have said, the condition of that heroic enthusiast, who says, "My hopes are ice and my desires are glowing," because he is not in the temperance of mediocrity, but, in the excess of contradictions, hi…”

◆The Heroic Enthusiasts, Part I (Gli Eroici Furori) | Second Dialoguee

“Herein he proves that his love is truly heroic; because he proposes to himself as the chief aim, not corporeal beauty, but rather the grace of the spirit, and the inclination of the affections in which, rather than in the beauty of the body…”

◆The Heroic Enthusiasts, Part I (Gli Eroici Furori) | Third Dialoguef

“Fitly, therefore, this rapture of heroic enthusiasm feeds on such "high emprise." For the object is infinite, and in action most simple, and our intellectual power cannot apprehend the infinite except in speech or in a certain manner of spe…”

◆The Heroic Enthusiasts, Part I (Gli Eroici Furori) | Fourth Dialogueh

“Heaven the second gift denies, To him who does the first despise. With these and similar reasons the soul, taking part with the weakest, seeks to recall the thoughts to the care of the body. And these, although late, come and show themsel…”

◆Orphic Hymns | Front Matter, p. 4 (part 2)

“For a self-motive being, is the cause of motion to those, which are moved by another, in the same manner as that which is immovable, inserts in all beings the power of moving. And again, that which is moved only, must depend on those natur…”

◆Orphic Hymns | Front Matter, p. 4 (part 7)

“And although the same employment is common both to the ruler, and those who are ruled; yet the latter, if destitute of a leader, could no longer conspire together in one occupation; as the concord of the fingers and ` dancers, and the exped…”

◆Orphic Hymns | Front Matter, p. 6 (part 3)

“Thus a bond among men, is the impediment and retention of action: but in divine concerns it insinuates a conjunction and ineffable union with causes; and hence the Saturnian bonds signify the union of the deiurgus of the universe, with the…”

◆Orphic Hymns | Hymn XXXIII. APOLLO (part 3)

“Ζεὺς δέ τε πάντων ἐςὶ ϑεὸς, πάντων τε κεραςὴς, Πνέυμασι συζι#ων, ( ) φωναῖσι τε ἀερομικτοις· That is, "But Jupiter is the God of all, and the mingler of all things; whistling with the breathing winds and aerial voices." And this perfectly a…”

◆Orphic Hymns | Hymn XXXVIII. CORYBAS * The FUMIGATION from FRANKINCENSE

“XXXVIII. TO CORYBAS * The FUMIGATION from FRANKINCENSE. THE mighty ruler of this earthly ball, For ever flowing, to these rites I call; p. 170 Martial and blest, unseen by mortal sight, Preventing fears, and pleas'd with gloomy night: Hence…”

◆Orphic Hymns | Hymn LXXV. THE MUSES (part 1)

“LXXV. TO THE MUSES. The FUMIGATION from FRANKINCENSE. Daughters of Jove, dire-sounding and divine, 1 Renown'd Pierian, sweetly speaking Nine; p. 206 To those whose breasts your sacred furies fire Much-form'd, the objects of supreme desi…”

◆The Golden Verses of Pythagoras | Section 4 (part 2)

“Wherein have I done amiss? What have I done? What have I omitted that I ought to have done? 43. If in this examination thou find that thou hast done amiss, reprimand thyself severely for it; 44. And if thou hast done any good, rejoice.…”

◆The Golden Verses of Pythagoras | Section 5 (part 3)

“"Thou shalt not hope what thou ought'st not to hope," knowing the nature of all things, and what is possible. 55. The Gods near at hand are virtue and truth. p. 17 59, 60. The fatal strife is caused by our inclination "madly to run cou…”

◆Corpus Hermeticum 2: The Serapeum | Section 1a

“To Asclepius <This dialogue sets forth the difference between the physical and metaphysical worlds in the context of Greek natural philosophy. Some of the language is fairly technical: the "errant spheres" of sections 6 and 7 are the celes…”

◆Corpus Hermeticum 2: The Serapeum | Section 1b

“A: How is it, then, that things down here, Thrice-greatest one, are moved with those that are [already] moved? For thou hast said the errant spheres were moved by the inerrant one. H: This is not, O Asclepius, a moving with, but one again…”

◆Corpus Hermeticum 5: The Discourse of Hermes to Asclepius | Section 1a

“Though Unmanifest God Is Most Manifest 1. I will recount to thee this sermon (logos) too, O Tat, that thou may'st cease to be without the mysteries of the God beyond all name. And mark thou well how that which to the many seems unmanifest…”

◆Corpus Hermeticum 8: The Eight Sphere | Section 1a

“That No One of Existing Things doth Perish, but Men in Error Speak of Their Changes as Destructions and as Deaths <The idea of cyclic change central to CH III, "The Sacred Sermon", also takes center stage here. A current of ancient specula…”

◆Corpus Hermeticum 9: The Decalogue | Section 1a

“On Thought and Sense <This somewhat diffuse essay covers a series of topics, starting with (and to some extent from) the concept that the set of perceptions we call "thoughts" and the set we call "sensory perceptions" are not significantly…”

◆Corpus Hermeticum 10: The Sermon on the Mount | Section 1a

“The Key <This longer tractate presents itself explicitly as a summary or abridgement of the General Sermons (CH II-IX), and discusses the Hermetic view of knowledge and its role in the lives and afterlives of human beings. The attentive re…”

◆Corpus Hermeticum 10: The Sermon on the Mount | Section 1f

“But God is o'er them all, and God contains them all. God's rays, to use a figure, are His energies; the Cosmos's are natures, the arts and sciences are man's. The energies act through the Cosmos, thence through the nature-rays of Cosmos u…”

◆Corpus Hermeticum 12: The Prayer | Section 1b

“But for the moment, [Tat,] let be the teaching as to vice and Fate, for we have spoken of these things in other [of our sermons]; but now our teaching (logos) is about the Mind: - what Mind can do, and how it is [so] different - in men bein…”

◆The Dhammapada | Chapter I, Section 1e

“It is the negative of the fourth Nidâna, the so-called Upâdâna, which Köppen has well explained by Anhänglichkeit, 'taking to the world, loving the world.' Köppen, Die Religion des Buddha, p. 610. Cf. Suttanipâta, v. 470 .]…”

◆The Dhammapada | Chapter II, Section 1b

“A Bhikshu (mendicant) who delights in earnestness, who looks with fear on thoughtlessness, [25. Childers explains this island again as the state of an Arhat (arahatta-phalam). 28. Cf. Childers, Dictionary, Preface, p. xiv. See Vinaya,…”

◆The Dhammapada | Chapter III, Section 1b

“That s ru means 'to run,' and is in fact a merely dialectic variety of sru, has been proved by Burnouf, while Boehtlingk thinks the substitution of s for s is a mistake. Â s rava therefore, or âsrava, meant originally 'the running out towa…”

◆The Dhammapada | Chapter IV, Section 1a

“p. 16 CHAPTER IV. FLOWERS [1] . 44. Who shall overcome this earth, and the world of Yama (the lord of the departed), and the world of the gods? Who shall find out the plainly shown path of virtue, as a clever man finds out the (right)…”

◆The Dhammapada | Chapter VI, Section 1b

“I would rather take the whole sentence together as a gloss upon the word va g anti:--va g antîti arahatta ñ ânena apaka ddh antâ kh andarâga m vi g ahanti; va g anti means that, ridding themselves of lust by the wisdom which Arhatship confe…”

◆The Dhammapada | Chapter XI, Section 1a

“p. 41 CHAPTER XI. OLD AGE. 146. How is there laughter, how is there joy, as this world is always burning? Why do you not seek a light, ye who are surrounded by darkness? 147. Look at this dressed-up lump, covered with wounds, joined…”

◆The Dhammapada | Chapter XI, Section 1b

“In the Rudrâya n âvadâna of the Divyâvadâna this verse appears as, Yânîmâny apariddhâni vikshiptâni di s o di s a h , Kapotavar n âny asthîni tâni d ri sh t vaiha kâ rati h . See Schiefner, Mél. Asiat. VIII, p. 589; G âtaka, vol. i. p…”

◆The Dhammapada | Chapter XI, Section 1c

“I had formerly translated anibbisan, as not resting (anirvi s an), but the commentator seems to authorise the meaning of not finding (avindanto, alabhanto), and in that case all the material difficulties of the verse seem to me to disappear…”

◆The Masnavi, Book I (Rumi) | PROLOGUEb

“Knowest thou why thy mirror reflects not? Because the rust has not been scoured from its face. If it were purified from all rust and defilement, It would reflect the shining of the SUN Of GOD.6 O friends, ye have now heard this tale, Whic…”

◆The Masnavi, Book I (Rumi) | STORY II

“The Oilman and his Parrot. An oilman possessed a parrot which used to amuse him with its agreeable prattle, and to watch his shop when he went out. One day, when the parrot was alone in the shop, a cat upset one of the oil-jars. When the oi…”

◆The Masnavi, Book I (Rumi) | STORY IIIa

“The Jewish King, his Vazir, and the Christians. A certain Jewish king used to persecute the Christians, desiring to exterminate their faith. His Vazir persuaded him to try a stratagem, namely, to mutilate the Vazir himself, and expel him…”

◆The Masnavi, Book I (Rumi) | STORY IV

“Another Tyrannical Jewish King. A certain Jewish king, the same who is referred to in the Sura "Signs of the Zodiac," I made up his mind to utterly exterminate the Christian faith, and with that view he set up a huge idol, and issued comman…”

◆The Masnavi, Book I (Rumi) | STORY Vc

“The skill taught by God to the silkworm Is a learning beyond the reach of the elephant. The earthly Adam was taught of God names, 4 So that his glory reached the seventh heaven. He laid low the name and fame of the angels, 5 Yet blind ind…”

◆The Masnavi, Book I (Rumi) | STORY VIa

“Omar and the Ambassador. The hare, having delivered his companions from the tyranny of the lion, in the manner just described, proceeds to improve the occasion by exhorting them to engage in a greater and more arduous warfare, viz., the st…”

◆The Masnavi, Book I (Rumi) | STORY VIIa

“The Merchant and his Clever Parrot. There was a certain merchant who kept a parrot in a cage. Being about to travel to Hindustan on business, he asked the parrot if he had any message to send to his kinsmen in that country, and the parrot…”

◆The Masnavi, Book I (Rumi) | STORY IXb

“Woman is a ray of God, not a mere mistress, The Creator's self, as it were, not a mere creature! Moses and Pharaoh, alike doers of God's will, as Light and Darkness. Poison and Antidote. Verily, both Moses and Pharaoh walked in the right…”

◆The Writings of Chuang Tzu (Inner Chapters) | Book 127 (part 1)

“p. 223 BOOK V. PART I. SECTION V. Teh Khung Fû, or 'The Seal of Virtue Complete 1 .' 1. In Lû 2 there was a Wang Thâi 3 who had lost both his feet 4 ; while his disciples who followed and went about with him were as numerous as those o…”

◆The Writings of Chuang Tzu (Inner Chapters) | Book 127 (part 4)

“for many months, when I was drawn to the man; and before he had been with me a full year, I had confidence in him. The state being without a chief minister, I (was minded) to commit the government to him. He responded to my proposal sorro…”

◆The Writings of Chuang Tzu (Inner Chapters) | Book 127 (part 7)

“Shû-shan or Shû hill was, probably, where he dwelt:--'Toeless of Shû hill.' 229:1 'Heaven' here is a synonym of Tâo. Perhaps the meaning is 'unavoidable;' it is so in the Tâoistic order of things. 229:2 It was in the sixteenth year of duk…”

◆The Writings of Chuang Tzu (Inner Chapters) | Book 128 (part 12)

“All things begin from nothing and end in nothing. Their birth and their death are only the creations of our thought, the going and coming of the primary ether. When we have penetrated to the non-reality of life and death, what remains of…”

◆The Writings of Chuang Tzu (Inner Chapters) | Book 129 (part 4)

“It conducts nothing and anticipates nothing; it responds to (what is before it), but does not retain it. Thus he is able to deal successfully with all things, and injures none. 7. The Ruler 3 of the Southern Ocean was Shû 4 , the p. 267…”

◇Tao Te Ching | Chapter 12

“Colour's five hues from th' eyes their sight will take; Music's five notes the ears as deaf can make; The flavours five deprive the mouth of taste; The chariot course, and the wild hunting waste Make mad the mind; and objects rare and stran…”

◇Tao Te Ching | Chapter 13

“Favour and disgrace would seem equally to be feared; honour and great calamity, to be regarded as personal conditions (of the same kind). What is meant by speaking thus of favour and disgrace? Disgrace is being in a low position (after the…”

◇The Writings of Chuang Tzu (Inner Chapters) | Book 127 (part 2)

“'As a verification of the (power of) the original endowment, when it has been preserved, take the result of fearlessness,-how the heroic spirit of a single brave soldier has been thrown into an army of nine hosts 4 . If a man only seeking…”

◆The Book of Concealed Mystery (Siphra Dtzenioutha) | 1c

“And to it also pertain the following names, namely, the name) IH, Yah (whensoever it is written in full with A in this manner:) IVD HA, Yod Ha (and containeth the number of the numeral powers of the letters of the Tetragrammaton, namely, 26…”

◆The Book of Concealed Mystery (Siphra Dtzenioutha) | 1f

“[The letters of the Hebrew alphabet are divided into three classes, the three mothers as they are called, AMSh; the seven duplex letters, BGDKPRTh, so called because they are sometimes tenues and sometimes aspirates, according to whether th…”

◆The Book of Enoch (1 Enoch, Charles translation) | Chapter XII

“XII-XVI. Dream Vision of Enoch: his intercession for Azâzêl and the fallen Angels: and his announcement to them of their first and final doom . CHAPTER XII. 1. Before these things Enoch was hidden, and no one of the children of men knew whe…”

◆The Book of Enoch (1 Enoch, Charles translation) | Chapter XIV (part 2)

“None of the angels could enter and could behold His face by reason of the magnificence and glory and no flesh could behold Him. 22. The flaming fire was round about Him, and a great fire stood before Him, and none around could draw nigh H…”

◆The Book of Enoch (1 Enoch, Charles translation) | Chapter XXXIX

“XXXIX. The Abode of the Righteous and of the Elect One: the Praises of the Blessed . CHAPTER XXXIX. 1. [ And it †shall come to pass in those days that elect and holy children †will descend from the high heaven, and their seed †will become o…”

◆The Book of Enoch (1 Enoch, Charles translation) | Chapter LX (part 1)

“LX. Book of Noah--a Fragment . p. 76 Quaking of Heaven: Behemoth and Leviathan: the Elements . CHAPTER LX. 1. In the year five hundred, in the seventh month, on the fourteenth day of the month in the life of †Enoch†. In that Parable…”

◆Gnostic John the Baptizer — Portents at John's Birth | Section 4

“Yahyā proclaims in the nights, Yōhānā on the Night's evenings. 4 YAHYĀ proclaims in the nights and says: "Through my Father's discourses I give light and through the praise of the Man, my creator, I have freed my soul from the world and fr…”

◆Gnostic John the Baptizer — Portents at John's Birth | Section 7

“YAHYĀ proclaims and speaks: "Ye nobles, who lie there, ye ladies, who will not awaken,—ye who lie there, what will you do on the Day of the Judgment? When the soul strips off the body, on Judgment-Day what will you do? O thou distracted, ju…”

◆Gnostic John the Baptizer — Portents at John's Birth | Section 15

“When the youth saw her alone, he set himself free and fell down from the cloud. He set himself free and fell down from the cloud and kissed the mouth of Enishbai. When Anōsh, the treasure, saw him [do this], he spake unto Yahyā in Jerusalem…”

◆Gnostic John the Baptizer — Portents at John's Birth | Section 16

“When Messiah said this, Yahyā cries aloud; tears come to him without ceasing, and he speaks: "[God] forbid that the high King of Light should look for lot in deceivers. The soul is not like the blood, that it should become heated in the bod…”

◆Gnostic John the Baptizer — Portents at John's Birth | Section 17

“"[The women] who wept ran hither and thither and [the men] who wailed ran hither and thither, as long as the body lay there before them. When the soul leaves the body, four 2 go forth to the graveyard. [The women] who wept ran hither and th…”

◆Gnostic John the Baptizer — Some Typical Extracts | Section 15

“"Who will come, who tell me what was before this? When the heaven was not yet outspread and stars were not yet in it figured, when the earth was not yet condensed and into the water no condensation had fallen, when sun and moon came not as…”

◆The Kalevala | Rune IVc

“Deck thy brow with silken ribbon, Trim with gold thy throbbing temples, And thy neck with pearly necklace, Hang the gold-cross on thy bosom, Robe thyself in pure, white linen Spun from flax of finest fiber; Wear withal the richest short-fro…”

◆The Kalevala | Rune IVd

“Thus the tearful maiden answered: Therefore do I weep and sorrow, Wretched maiden all my life long, Since poor Aino, thou hast given, Since thy daughter thou hast promised To the aged Wainamoinen, Comfort to his years declining Prop to stay…”

◆The Kalevala | Rune XXIIIg

“"Thus did I, a youthful housewife, At the right time, all my duties, Drenched myself in perspiration, Hoped for better times to follow; But I only rose to labor, Knowing neither rest nor pleasure. I was blamed by all the household, With un…”

◆The Kalevala | Rune XXXVc

“When the day-star led the morning, When the second day was dawning, Then the maid addressed Kullervo, Questioned thus the wicked wizard: "Of what tribe art thou descended, Of what race thy hero-father? Tell thy lineage and kindred.` This,…”

◆The Kalevala | Rune XXXVd

“In the court-yard stood the mother, Thus the wicked son addressed her: "Faithful mother, fond and tender, Hadst thou slain me when an infant, Smoked my life out in the chamber, In a winding-sheet hadst thrown me To the cataract and whirlpoo…”

◆The Egyptian Book of the Dead (Papyrus of Ani) | Chapter 43 (part 44)

“The preservation of the corruptible body too was in some way connected with the life in the world to come, and its preservation was necessary to ensure eternal life; otherwise the prayers recited to this end would have been futile, and the…”

◆The Egyptian Heaven and Hell | Chapter 30 (part 2)

“When the disk is on the horizon all men know that the monsters of the Tuat have failed to destroy AFU-RA or to obstruct his passage, that the god has, with the aid of KHEPERA, made all his transformations, that he has appeared in the sky ag…”

◇The Egyptian Book of the Dead (Papyrus of Ani) | Chapter 5 (part 3)

“When Isis heard of this she went to Byblos, and, gaining admittance to the palace through the report of the royal maidens, she was made nurse to one of the king's sons, Instead of nursing the child in the ordinary way, Isis gave him her fin…”

◇The Egyptian Heaven and Hell | Chapter 31

“Sacred-texts Egypt The Egyptian Heaven and Hell by E. A. Wallis Budge [1905] This is a three volume collection of texts and commentary about the Ancient Egyptian alternate reality called the Tuat. The Tuat was both the region that the boat…”

◆The Mabinogion | Tale TALIESINj

“And the king caused them to fetch Elphin in haste from his dungeon, and placed him before Taliesin. And it is said, that immediately he sang a verse, so that the chains opened from about his feet. “I adore the Supreme, Lord of all animati…”

◆The Mabinogion | Tale TALIESINl

“And then said Taliesin, “Elphin, behold a payment and reward unto thee, for having taken me out of the weir, and for having reared me from that time until now.” And on this spot stands a pool of water, which is to this time called Pwllbair.…”

◆The Poetic Edda: Hovamol | Section 1j

“On his ring swore Othin | the oath, methinks; Who now his troth shall trust? Suttung's betrayal | he sought with drink, And Gunnloth to grief he left. * * * 111. It is time to chant | from the chanter's stool; By the wells of Urth I was,…”