THEIR MYSTICISM. 2U 



Svrian philosopher of this school, was beheaded by the former 

 ror on a charge that he had bound the -winds by the power of magii .' 

 But Julian, who shortly after succeeded to the purple, embraced with 

 ardor the opinions of lamblichus. Proclus (who died A. D. 48V) was 

 one of the greatest of the teachers of this school ; 9 and was, both in his 

 life and doctrines, a worthy successor of Plotinus, Porphyry, and Tam- 

 blichus. We possess a biography, or rather a panegyric of him, by his 

 (liscij.l<! Marinus, in which he is exhibited as a representation of the 

 ideal perfection of the philosophic character, according to the views of 

 the Neoplatonists. His virtues are arranged as physical, moral, puri- 

 ficatory, theoretic, and theurgic. Even in his boyhood, Apollo and 

 Minerva visited him in his dreams : he studied oratory at Alexandria, . 

 but it was at Athens that Plutarch and Lysianus initiated him in t he- 

 mysteries of the New Platonists. He received a kind of consecration 

 at the hands of the daughter of Plutarch, the. celebrated Asclepigenia. 

 who introduced him to the traditions of the Chaldeans, and the prac- 

 tices of theurgy ; he was also admitted to the mysteries of Eleusis. He 

 became celebrated for his knowledge and eloquence ; but especially for 

 his skill in the supernatural arts which were connected with the doc- 

 trines of his sect. He appears before us rather as a hierophant than ;, 

 philosopher. A large portion of his life was spent in evocations, puri- 

 fications, fastings, prayers, hymns, intercourse with apparitions, and 

 with the gods, and in the celebration of the festivals of Paganism, es- 

 pecially those which were held in honor of the Mother of the Gods. 

 His religious admiration extended to all forms of mythology. The 

 philosopher, said he, is not the priest of a single religion, but of all the 

 religions of the world. Accordingly, he composed hymns in honor of 

 all the divinities of Greece, Rome, Egypt, Arabia ; Christianity alone 

 was excluded from his favor. 



The reader will find an.intcresting view of the School of Alexandria, 

 in M. Uarlholemy Saint-Hilaire's Riqtport on the Memoires sent to th.- 

 Academy of Moral and Political Sciences at Paris, in consequence of 

 its having, in 1841, proposed this as the subject of a prize, which was 

 awarded iu 1844. M. Saint-Hilaire has prefixed to i\u$, Rapport a dis- 

 sertation on the Mysticism of that school. He, however, uses the term 

 Mysticism in a wider sense than my purpose, which regarded mainly 

 the bearing of the doctrines of this school upon the progress of the 

 Inductive Science?, has led me to do. Although he finds much to ad- 



* Gibbon, iii. 352. 9 Dej. iii. 41?. 



