PLOTINUS, the most original and important philosopher of the Neoplatonic school, was born at Lycopolis in Egypt 205 A.D.; but such was his utter indifference to things human, "being ashamed almost to live in a body," that he ,never would divulge even his parentage. He would never allow his birthday to be celebrated, although he gave feasts on those of Socrates and Plato; nor would he ever permit a painter or sculptor to per petuate his features, or, as lie called it, to produce the image of an image—the body being to hint only a faint image of existence. He deemed it tedious enough already to have to drag about this image whithersoever he went in this life. His body was alto gether contemptible in his eyes; he would see no physician in his illness, and was very .sparing iu the use of food, refraining from meat, often even from bread. Strangely enough, his desire for the study of philosophy did not arise within him before his 28th year, when he repaired to Alexandria, and there, after having sv4 at the feet of the great masters for some time without feeling satisfied with their teachings, lie at last became acquainted with Ammonius &let:as, and in him found the desired teacher. For 10 years lie zealously attended his lectures. and although he had agreed, with two of his fellow-students, never to make known aught of Ammonins's teachings to the world, lie yet became the chief representative and author of that school, less as a pupil than as an independent thinker, who taking his stand upon its theorems, developed them to their full extent. In 242 he joined Gordianus's expedition to Persia., in order to devote himself to the philosophy of India and Persia; but the emperor being murdered in Mesopotamia, he had to repair hurriedly to Antioch, whence, in 244, he went to Home. His lectures bete were attended not only by crowds of eager youths, but men and women of the highest circles flocked to hear him. Not only Platonic wisdom, in Neoplatonic garb, but asceticism and time charm of a purely contemplative life, were the themes on-which he, in ever-new varia tions. and with an extraordinary depth and brilliancy, held forth; and such was the impression his earnestness made upon his hearers, that several of them really gave up their fortunes to the poor, set their slaves free, and devoted themselves to a life of and ascetic piety. Dying patents intrusted their children and money to him, well know ing that an honester guardian, and one more anxious for his charges, could not be found. It is hardly surprising to find that his contemporaries coupled with his rare vir tues the gift of working miracles. Sixty years old, he thought of realizing Plato's dream, by founding an aristocratical and communistic commonwealth like the latter's " republic;" and the emperor Gallienus was ready to grant the site of two cities ill Cam , paida for his "Platonopolis;" but his courtiers prevented time fulfillment of this promise. Plotin us died from a complication of diseases, in 270. at Puteoli, 66 years of age. . Although he began to write very late in life, he yet left 54 books of very different size and contents. His MS. being very carelesSly written, he asked his pupil Porphyry to revise and correct it for him. The latter also divided it into six principal divisions, each subdivided again into nine books or enneads. The most important parts are those which treat of beauty, fate, immortality of soul, the good, or one• the three original sub . stances, of free will, against gnostics, of providence, of the genesis of ideas, of the iuflu ence of the stars, of the supreme good, etc. The language is very unequal in the differ
eat portions, according to the mood and circumstances to which they individually owe their existence; hut it always is original, compact, and graphic in the extreme.
Plotinus's system was based chiefly on Plato's theorem of the ideas; only that Plato assumed the ideas to be the link between the visible and the invisible, or between the supreme Deity and the world. Plotinus held the doctrine of emanation, that is, the constant transmission of powers from the ithsoluto to the creation, through several agencies, the first of which is " pure intelligence," whence flows the " soul of the world," whence, again, the souls of "men" and "animals," and finally " matter " itself. (For a fuller account of this part of Plotinus's system in its historical connection, see Niso PLAToNtsrs.) Men thus belong to two worlds, that of the senses and that of pure intel ligence. It depends upon ourselves, however, to which of the two worlds we direct our thoughts most and belong to finally. The ordinary virtues, as justice, moderation, valor, and the like, are only the beginning and very first preparation to our elevation into the spiritual realm; purification, or the exercise of purifying virtues, is a further step, to which we attain partly through mathematics and dialectic; and the abandon ment of all earthly interests for those of intellectual meditation is the nearest approach to the goal. The higher our soul rises in this sphere of intellect, the deeper it sinks into the ocean of the good and the pure, until at last its union with God is complete, and it is no longer thought but vision and ecstasies which pervade it. These are a few snatches of Plotinus's philosophical rhapsodies, to which may be further added his mysterious belief in a kind of metempsychosis, by which souls, not sufficiently purified during life, return after death, and inhabit, according to their bent, men, animals, and even plants. He further held views of his own respecting gods and demons, whom he divided into dif ferent classes, according to their degrees; and professed faith in mantic, astrology, and magic, the conviction of the truth of which sciences he derived front his theory of the harmony in the intellectual world reflected by the material world. Yet it is clear from his dicta on these subjects. that he did not believe in, these so-called sciences in the gross sense of the herd, hut that lie bad a vague knowledge of those mysterious laws of attrac tion and repu1=ion which go through nature. Plotinus's philosophy, which, as it were, tried to combine all the systems of Anaxagoras, Parmenides, the Pythagoreans, Plato, and Socrates, and the Stott into one, was the last and boldest attempt of the ancient Greek world to explain the mystery of the creation and of existence. Its influence upon modern philosophy is remarkable. Prom Spinoza to Sehelling, the reminiscences of Plotinns, irrespective of the drift of particular parts of their systems, recur constantly.
Plotinus's works were well-nigh forgotten, when Marsilius Ficinus first published a Latin paraphrase of them (Florence, 1499), which was followed by the Ed. Pr. of the original (Basel, 1580 and 1615). The first critical edition, however, is due to Creuzer (Oxford, 1835, 3 vols.). Others are those of Dhlmer (Paris, 1855) and. Kirchhoff (1856). Parts of his works were translated into German by Engelhard (1890); into English by Taylor (1794 and 1817); into French by Bouillet (1861, 3 vols.). See Kirchner, Die Phil, osuphie des (1854).