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Select Works of Plotinus · 107 of 752 · tr. Thomas Taylor

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; the vital energy in a subject not so balanced as to display the mean of manly courage, will come out as either ferocity or faint-heartedness; and ambition... in love...; and the instinct towards good sets up the pursuit of semblant beauty; intellectual power at its lowest produces the extreme of wickedness, for wickedness is a miscalculating effort towards Intelligence. Any such quality, modified at best from its supreme form, deteriorates again within itself: things of any kind that approach from above, altered by merely leaving their source change further still by their blending with bodies, with Matter, with each other.
Themes
◆Evil As Privationtheology

Augustinian and Plotinian doctrine that evil has no positive being of its own but is a lack, distortion, or absence of the good — denying ontological dualism while preserving moral seriousness.

By stating that all graceless things are admixture, the text aligns with the view that evil or deficiency is a lack of pure being rather than a positive substance.

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◆Unity Of Beingtheology

The doctrine that all existence is ultimately one substance or one divine reality; non-duality as a theological claim.

The statement that the All is a God when the divine Soul is counted in suggests unity through divine inclusion.

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◇Body As Obstacleanthropology

The material body viewed as a prison, tomb, or source of error that hinders spiritual knowledge and return.

[auto] The material residue is described as little and graceless compared to the divine Soul, devaluing matter.

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◇Cosmic Dualismtheology

Ontological opposition between two primal principles (light/darkness, truth/lie, spirit/matter) as the fundamental structure of reality.

[auto] It establishes an ontological distinction between the separable divine Soul and the blended material Universe.

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◇Divine Simplicitytheology

The doctrine that God has no parts, divisions, or composite attributes; pure undivided being.

[auto] The passage contrasts gracelessness as admixture with the divine, implying that true divinity is simple and unblended.

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◇Emanation Hierarchycosmology

A chain of divine beings or principles flowing downward from a single transcendent source (the One or the Father), each level less perfect than the one above.

[auto] The text establishes a hierarchy where the divine Soul elevates the All to Godhood above the mere blend.

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◇Return To Sourcesoteriology

The soul's journey back to its divine origin, reversing the fall into matter through stages of purification or illumination.

[auto] Separating the soul from the admixture suggests a return to its pure, original state away from matter.

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◇Spiritual Ascentpraxis

A staged journey of the soul upward through heavenly realms or levels of being toward the divine source.

[auto] The instruction to separate the soul from the universe implies a process of purification and upward movement.

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Related passages · 2 parallels
◆christian_mysticism|The Life and Doctrines of Jacob Boehme|Chapter 5 (part 11)
“Man must know evil for the purpose of becoming able to realise the good, after which he returns to the latter; but as everything seeks for its own corresponding principle, he in whom evil has become paramount will remain in evil. p. 121 "…”
Both passages discuss the transformation and degradation of qualities as they move from a higher to a lower state. Passage A from Plotinus describes how divine qualities deteriorate when they enter the material world, while Passage B from the Theosophical text explains how divine love can be perverted into evil when received by a being aligned with evil.
◆renaissance_hermeticism|The Heroic Enthusiasts, Part I (Gli Eroici Furori)|Third Dialoguec
“Here he shows his love not to be like that of the butterfly, of the stag, and of the unicorn, who would flee away if they had knowledge of the fire, of the arrow, and of the snares, and who have no other sense than that of pleasure; but he…”
Both passages discuss the transformation and degradation of higher spiritual qualities as they manifest in the material world. Passage A describes how divine attributes deteriorate when they enter into recipients, while Passage B explains how love for divine beauty can be misunderstood and misdirected in the physical realm.