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Complete Works, Volume 2

Plotinus

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Pages and passages

1. Page 612. eby imposes on it a sort of permanence; here below, the parts, which as it were flow
2. Page 613. GNOSTIC DEMANDS FOR REASON OF WORLD'S CREATION ARE IDLE, AND INVOLVE STILL LARGER QUE
3. Page 614. INTELLIGENCE COULD NOT HAVE BEEN THE LAST DEGREE OF EXISTENCE. Intelligence, indeed,
4. Page 615. THIS IS THE BEST OF ALL POSSIBLE WORLDS BECAUSE WE CAN ACHIEVE VIRTUE. What would be
5. Page 616. THE INEQUALITY OF RICHES IS OF NO MOMENT TO AN ETERNAL BEING. 9. No one would complai
6. Page 616. MOREOVER THIS WORLD CONTAINS TRADITIONS OF DIVINITY. Not only are there here below st
7. Page 617. TRUE KNOWLEDGE SHOWN NOT BY UNIFICATION, BUT REVELATION OF DIVINE POWER. It is not by
8. Page 618. MODESTY IS A PART OF GOODNESS; PRIDE IS FOLLY. If, however, you pretend to scorn thes
9. Page 619. OTHER GNOSTIC INCONSISTENCIES. (Gnostics) admit that the Divinity interests Himself i
10. Page 620. PLOTINOS ADDRESSES HIMSELF TO THOSE OF HIS FRIENDS WHO WERE FORMERLY GNOSTIC, NOT TO
11. Page 620. PLOTINOS HAS NO INTENTION OF WRITING A FULL CONFUTATION. Following another kind of di
12. Page 620. GNOSTIC THEORY OF CREATION BY MERE ILLUMINATION.386 Neither will we controvert an ass
13. Page 621. THE NUMBERLESS INTELLECTUAL DIFFICULTIES OF SUCH A THEORY.
14. Page 621. 11. To begin with, if the Soul did not descend, if she limited herself to illuminatin
15. Page 621. be a "soul of growth and generation," how could it be said to have created for the pu
16. Page 623. HOW THE GNOSTIC DEMIURGE CREATED.
17. Page 623. 12. How could this newly formed image (the demiurgic creator) have undertaken to crea
18. Page 623. organization of the entire organism are formed at once in the germ born at the monthl
19. Page 624. THE NECESSITY OF THE ILLUMINATION OF THE DARKNESS MUST HAVE BEEN ETERNAL. Indeed, if
20. Page 625. EVEN THE EXISTENCE OF THE DARKNESS MUST BE RELATED TO THE SOUL. If matter is also sai
21. Page 625. INSTEAD OF COMPLAINING OF THE WORLD, UNDERSTAND IT AND FIT YOURSELF TO IT.
22. Page 625. 13. Those who complain of the nature of the world do not know what they are doing, no
23. Page 625. ir times of birth, the places of their residence, and the dispositions of their souls
24. Page 627. GNOSTICS WRONGLY IMAGINE INTELLIGIBLE ENTITIES CAN BE BEWITCHED.387 14. Another error
25. Page 627. THEIR EXPLANATION OF DISEASE AS DEMONIACAL POSSESSION IS WRONG. They also pride thems
26. Page 628. THE GENUINE VALUE OF GNOSTICISM SEEN IN ITS LOW MORAL ASPECTS. The reader must now cl
27. Page 629. THE GNOSTIC DESTINY OF MAN IS DEMORALIZING. 15. We should however observe the moral e
28. Page 629. THE GNOSTICS IGNORE VIRTUE WITHOUT WHICH GOD IS A MERE WORD. Nevertheless, those who
29. Page 630. SCORN OF THIS WORLD IS NO GUARANTEE OF GOODNESS. 16. One does not become a good man m
30. Page 631. TO EXCEPT CERTAIN CLASSES OF BEING FROM DIVINE CARE IS TO SHOW CALLOUSNESS OF DISPOSI
31. Page 631. How could it ever be considered pious to claim that divine Providence does not extend
32. Page 631. y in the course of a discussion, such a comparison is really an impiety. To doubt suc
33. Page 633. GNOSTICS JUSTIFY THEIR HATE OF THE BODY BY PLATO; IN THIS CASE THEY SHOULD FOLLOW HIM
34. Page 634. GNOSTICS BOAST OF LACK OF APPRECIATION OF BEAUTY ALREADY RECOGNIZED. The (Gnostics) p
35. Page 634. EVEN EXTERIOR OR PARTIAL BEAUTY NEED NOT CONFLICT WITH THE BEAUTY OF THE UNIVERSE; AN
36. Page 634. We must further observe that it is not the same beauty that is seen in the parts and
37. Page 634. ease would have been impossible inasmuch as it already possessed everything. Nor coul
38. Page 635. RECOGNITION OF THE BEAUTY OF THE BODY NEED NOT IMPLY ATTACHMENT THERETO; IT IS COMPAT
39. Page 636. GNOSTICS ACKNOWLEDGE KINSHIP WITH DEPRAVED MEN, BUT REFUSE IT TO THE BEAUTIFUL UNIVER
40. Page 637. GNOSTICS WHO BOAST SUPERIORITY TO THE DIVINITIES WHO CANNOT LEAVE THEIR BODIES ARE IN
41. Page 637. THE JEALOUS DISTINCTION BETWEEN THE SPIRITUAL, PSYCHIC AND MATERIAL IS DUE CHIEFLY TO
42. Page 639. FOOTNOTES 1 A Stoic term. 2 As says Parmenides, verse 80. 3 Cicero, Tusc. i. 16; Nat.
43. Page 639. 59 de Gen. et Corr. ii. 2, 3. 60 As objected Aristotle, in de Gen. et Corr. i. 7. 61
44. Page 639. 125 See ii. 3.7. 126 Plato, Rep. x. C 617; C x. 286. 127 See iv. 4, 24, 40, 43; iv. 9
45. Page 639. 174 As Aristotle again thought. 175 As thought Aristotle, de Gener. Anim. v. 1. 176 S
46. Page 639. 223 Such as Numenius fr. 20. 224 Pun on "agalmata," which has already done duty for "
47. Page 639. 250 "Doxa," which is derived from "dechesthai," to receive. 251 We would, in other wo
48. Page 639. 288 See ii. 9.11. 289 Between the sense-world, and the intelligible world, see iv. 3.
49. Page 639. 316 Such as Pythagoras and Plato, Life of Plot. 23. 317 See ii. 9.17. 318 The doctrin
50. Page 639. 377 See ii. 9.9 378 See i. 6.7. 379 In his Phaedo, pp. 66, 67; Cary, 29–32. 380 That
51. Page 639. Transcriber's Notes Punctuation and spelling were made consistent when a predominant
52. Page 639. Footnote Issues In these notes, "anchor" means the reference to a footnote, and "foot