PLOTINUS. THE LATER PLATONISTS. 293 



The most distinguished disciple of Porphyry was Jamblicus, of jambiicus. 

 Chalcis, in Ccelo-Syria. He taught 1 the Plotinian theories, if with less 

 eloquence and learning, with even greater celebrity and success. Not 

 content with the aim of his enthusiastic predecessor to elevate the 

 mind to an ecstatic intuition of the Divinity, he laid claim to theurgic 

 powers, pretending by certain forms and ceremonies to call down and 

 command the assistance of supernatural beings. The fame of his 

 miracles was so great, that he acquired the name of wonderful and 

 divine teacher. His character seems to us more liable to the charge 

 of studied imposture than of overheated fanaticism. But we are aware 

 how unsafe it is to judge by the cold rules of ordinary life the conduct 

 of such men as are born with intensely ardent imaginations, and with 

 a sensibility more tremblingly alive to the varied impulses of nature, 

 and, it may be, not untinged with hypochondriacal gloom. 



His writings, though they evince much reading and throw light on the 

 Alexandrian school, are destitute of clearness, method, and originality. 8 



Plutarque, torn. xiii. ; Schoell, Hist, de la Litterature Grecque, torn, v.) The best 

 edition is that of J. de Rhoeur (Utrecht, 1767, in 4to). It has been joined in one 

 volume to the edition of the work, On the Cave of the Nymphs, which had been 

 published in 1765 by R. M. Van Goens. The Researches, or Questions respecting 

 Homer ('O/xTj/Ji/ca rjT^uaTa), which belonged to a large work on the Iliad, were pub- 

 lished by J. Lascaris, at Rome, in 1518 ; by And. d'Asola, in 1521 ; by J. Bedout, 

 in 1539; and are to be found in the editions of Homer by J. Camerarius and 

 Micyllns (Basle, 1541, 1543, and 1551), and J. Barnes (Cambridge, 1714). His 

 work, On Prosody, was published by Villoison (Anecdota Graeca, vol. ii. p. 103). 

 The piece Ilept rrjs e/c Koy'uav fyiKoffotyias, On Philosophy according to the Oracles, 

 and his Letter to Marcella, his wife, were first published by M. Ang. Maius (Milan, 

 1816, in 8vo), and have been reprinted, with critical remarks, in the Gnomic Col- 

 lection of J. C. Orelli, vol. i. See also some remarks on the Letter to Marcella, by 

 Raoul-Rochette, in the Journal des Savans, Avril, 1817. For an account of his 

 other extant works, and his treatise on the Categories of Aristotle, &c., see Fabricius, 

 Hist. Graec. ; Schoell, De la Litt. Grecq. torn. v. ; and his Life by M. Daunou, in 

 the Biog. Univ. torn. xxxv. 



1 His first teacher had been Anatolius, who presided in a Peripatetic school at 

 Alexandria. There is a fragment of Anatolius still extant, entitled, Of Sympathies 

 and Antipathies, which was published with the version and notes of J. Rendtorf, by 

 Fabricius, in the old edition of his Biblioth. Graec. torn. iv. p. 295. 



2 There is no entire collection of the works of Jamblicus. His Life of Pytha- 

 goras was edited by Theoph. Kiessling (Leips. 1813, 2 vols. 8vo). The piece Flepl 

 Koivfjs /j.adr][ji.aTiKTJs eTrttTT^/iTjs, which contains fragments of the old Pythagorean 

 philosophers, was first published by Villoisou, in his Anecdota Graeca, vol. ii. p. 188, 

 and reprinted by J. G. Firis. (Copenhagen, 1790, in 4to.) His commentary, On 

 Nicomachus's Institutes of Arithmetic, was published by Sam. Tennulius, in 1667 

 and 1668 (2 vols. 4to). The curious work, To eo\oyovfj.fva TY)S A/nfl/rjjTiKrJy, 

 was printed at Paris, in 1543, 4to, by Christ. Wechel, and at Leipzig in 1817, 

 8vo, with notes, by Fr. Ast. The treatise on the Mysteries of the Egyptians, which 

 is, under the name of Abammon Magister, ascribed to Jamblicus, was edited by Th. 

 Gale, Oxford, 1678, fol. Christ. Meiners thinks it is not a work of Jamblicus. It 

 was composed in order to solve the difficulties proposed by Porphyry in his Letter 

 to the Egyptian Anebo. (" Judicium de libro qui de Mysteriis ./Egypt, inscribitur," 

 in Comm. Soc. Scient. Getting, torn, iv.) His arguments are answered by Tenne- 

 mann. Stobaeus has preserved a fragment of the work of Jamblicus On the Soul, 

 and also several parts of his Letters. 



