through Dionysius Areopagita, passed over to the mystics of the middle ages, according to whom contemplation and a predominating quietism were the business of men.

Ammonius Saccas is said to have been the chief founder of this school (220 B.C.) He said that the philosophy which originated amongst the people of the east, which was brought by Hermes to Egypt, and which was darkened and disturbed by the disputations of the Greeks, was restored to its purity by Plato, and that the religion of the people was at the bottom synonymous with this, and only required to be freed from its errors, which Jesus especially, an excellent man and friend of God, had done;-that he had the art to purify the imagination so that it could perceive spirits, and by their help could perform miracles (Brucker, Th. ii. S. 211; Büsching, a. O. S. 475).

The most intellectual of the new-Platonists is Plotinus, who lived in the deepest abstraction, often fasted and fell into ecstasy, in which he immediately perceived the moral condition of every man, and penetrated into the most concealed things. Once, as an humble widow who lived in his house, with her children had a valuable necklace stolen, she caused all the inmates to pass in review before Plotinus, who looked sharply at them, and then pointed to one, with the words "This is the thief;" and the man, after some denial, confessed. Porphyrius, his biographer, also relates of himself that Plotinus once came suddenly to him and said "Thy intention, O Porphyrius, has not its foundation in the spirit, but proceeds from a bodily ailment;" and he, therefore, advised him to travel to Rome, where, indeed, he was cured.

"Plotinus arrived," says Porphyrius, "in his spiritual illumination (daiμovie_pwri) at the direct view of God, who is supreme over all life and thought; for union with God was the object of all his philosophy and his cogitations. This union takes place through abstract contemplation, since God is not without but within us, not in a place but in the spirit. God is present to all, even to those who do not ceive him; but men fly from him, and go forth out of him, or rather out of themselves. The union with the body is only in part, as when one has his foot in the water, and by elevation of the spiritual centre we unite ourselves with the centre

per

of the universe. Disembodied things are not separated by space, but by the difference of qualities; if this difference ceases, they are immediately near each other. Now as God is everywhere, we are near him when we resemble him" (Æneid. 6. lib. ix. c. 8.) Men breathe and live through God, not rent away from him, and their choice consists in their inclination towards the divine in opposition to the attraction of the corporeal nature. Through this inclination the soul raises itself into the region where there is no more evil, but peace only, and there receives her true life in her tranquil union with the Eternal, by which beauty, uprightness, and virtue are produced, and the real strength of the spiritual man; for in the perfect union with God the soul looks into herself and into God, glorified and filled with the divine light, without any earthly_weight, which only again shows its power by darkening. But why does the soul not continue so? Because she has not yet quitted the earthly, in which she only occasionally reaches the higher vision, by which the gazing spirit is at rest, and stands at once above reason and that which is seen, and the perceiving and the perceived (subjective and objective) are no longer two but one. The soul is, namely, no longer self (purely subjective), but she is different-that, namely, which she beholds; she passes over into the objective as a point brought into contact with another becomes one point and not two (1. c. c. 10.) Therefore this condition is somewhat incomprehensible, because one cannot make that which is seen intelligible to another as different from the seer. Thence came the prohibition concerning the mysteries, not to impart the divine to the uninitiated, because it is essentially unimpartable to him who does not by his own perception participate in it.

In the highest state of contemplation the soul is at perfect rest, disposed to nothing more; transcending the beautiful, and ascending above the choir of the virtues, as one who has entered the holy of holies and has left the statues of the temple behind him, which at his going out again are the first visions that present themselves. These, according to the order, are the second contemplations, which present themselves after the first and innermost contemplation or vision, whose object is without form (objec

tive). Yet is the vision perhaps not a vision, but another kind of seeing, a stepping out of one's self, an exaltation and simplifying of one's self, a thought in rest. Plotinus asserts further that the contemplators must approach God and assimilate themselves to him, in order truly to know him. "The eye would never see the sun, if it were not of the nature of the sun-ηλιοειδής.”

;

The workings of nature take place also in opposing beams upon a spiritually wise man (dynamic): namely, out of the eternal light-fountain of God flow unceasing images (powers), shapes, or spirits, like the Idolen of Heraclitus that we may regard the universe as filled with spirits (Dämonen), and animated by them; and we may compare this to the human body, in which all parts hang together, and stand fast in manifold sympathy. The wise man seeks to discover the harmony of parts, and is not astonished when he finds it the most opposite things; when he finds stars agreeing with plants, and one indicated by the other. There exists but one only power, and this he calls the magical power of nature. To the community of spirits which surrounds us in manifold forms man can arrive only by withdrawing himself from the outward sensual attractions. Thence such community is obtained in ecstasy, which generally is the work of spirits. Plotinus himself had these spirits completely in his power, and through this he healed the most dangerous diseases, and obtained thus such a reputation that people believed him to possess a demon, by whose aid he foretold future events, and performed superhuman actions. His confidant and scholar, Porphyrius, related extraordinary things of him. He also himself knew his demon, and held familiar conversations with him. Amongst other things, when Æmilius invited him to attend the service of the church, he replied " The spirits must come to me, not I to the spirits."

By the help of spirits, or through his extraordinary spiritual power, he was able to operate upon his enemies. When a strife arose between him and one Olympius, as to which held the first rank in philosophy, Olympius challenged him to a trial of magical arts. Plotinus let loose upon him all his science, and said to his disciples, "Now the body of Olympius shrinks together like a purse;" which Olympius found, and that so painfully, that he abstained from his hos

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tility, and acknowledged Plotinus to be possessed of the highest spiritual power (Porphyr. vita Plot. c. 10). For the rest, Plotinus based his doctrine on the idea of universal harmony, according to Plato in the Banquet; yet he used certain figures to unite medical science with theosophy, and ascribed an especial power to certain words, as well as to harmonious sounds, which wonderfully expel evil spirits.

Porphyrius, one of the most renowned eclectics, had similar views. "The mind," he said, "must be purified if it is to become participant of the vision of God and his angels. There are good and bad spirits; the good conduct everything to healing, insure our health, and assist us in our business and exertions. The good spirits warn us in dreams of impending dangers, or by some other means" (Porph. de abstinentia, ii.)

That man may unite his soul to God, Porphyrius was firmly pursuaded. "To this end," said he, "there requires no sacrifice, except a perfectly pure mind. Through the highest purity and chastity we shall approach nearer to God, and receive in the contemplation of Him the true knowledge and insight."

Very remarkable is the letter which Porphyrius wrote to Anebo, an Egyptian priest (Porphyrii epistola ad Anebonem Ægyptium, in Iambl. de mysteriis Egypt. edit. Gale, Oxonii, 1678.) This Anebo was probably the name of Anubis, the son of Osiris, who had a temple and received divine honours. The priest also bore the name of the god. In this letter he puts to Anebo nothing but questions on God, -on the demons, on prayer, on nature, on the signs of separation of the corporeal from the soul. Whether in the apparitions of ecstasy, God, the archangels, and angels speak with us, and as ignorance of divine things is a closed fountain and a defect of piety, how far knowledge or want of knowledge extends. On all these questions he desired from Anebo to learn the truth, and, above all, on the fore"In sleep," he says, knowledge of future things. 66 we arrive at a knowledge of the future, and that often without any convulsive agitation (sine exstasi tumultuosa), for our body is really in rest. But yet we do not always perceive things so distinctly as when awake.

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'Many see future things in an inspiration, or in a divine

transport, and this truly as though they were awake and their senses in activity.

"Of those who fall into a transport, I see some who are especially excited when they hear a song, a cymbal, or a drum; and this is particularly the case with the Corybantes and the frenzied (qui Corybantismo patiuntur, aut Sabazio obtinentur), or the servants of Cybele (aut qui deorum matri operantur). To some this happens when they drink water; for example, to the priests of Apollo at Colophon; to others when they sit at the entrance of a cave, as the utterers of the oracles at Delphi; to others through the rising of steam from water, as the prophetesses at Branchis; to others through certain signs, by which they enter into community with spirits, etc. Others, again, in everything else perfectly self-possessed, are inspired simply by the imagination, and this through the help either of the darkness, or through certain drinks, or through singing, or by leaning on some particular substance, against a wall, or in the open air, or through the influence of the sun, or even of a planet. Others also have prognosticated through birds, entrails,"

etc.

He inquires farther regarding the arts and occasions of soothsaying, whether gods and spirits actually become the means of it, or whether our own souls vaticinate out of their own strength; whether all this be nothing more than an inward concealed spark, which only requires to be fanned into a flame; or whether soothsaying consists partly of divine inspiration, and partly proceeds from the soul's own power? That the cause lies in the soul itself appears very likely, he continues (1. c. p. 4), since, in some, vapours and incenses, in others prayers and consecrations, are necessary; and to this it must be added that not all vaticinate, but only the younger and more delicate persons. Thus every vaticination proceeds either from a transport, or from diseased confusion of the imagination, or madness (insania), or from too long and much watching, or from an excited imagination during sickness, or, finally, from magic arts. The whole of nature and all parts of the universe have a reciprocating agreement: nature, so to say, is but one animal: therefore nature and all parts of the world communicate their prognostications. To Porphyrius it did not