PLOTINUS. THE LATER PLATONISTS. 297 



respect of the Platonic philosophers. A few passages, in which 

 Ammianus mentions Christianity in favourable terms, 1 have been 

 adduced to prove that he was himself a Christian. But it is surely 

 one thing to approve of the morality, another to have embraced the 

 doctrines, of a religion; it is one thing to contrast the intemperate 

 conduct of certain Christians with the benevolent spirit of their pro- 

 fessed principles, and another to have himself adopted those principles. 

 A Jew not unfrequently appeals to Christian charity, yet it by no 

 means follows that he is converted. The manner in which he ascribes 

 sudden relief, in a moment of distress, to sacrifices offered in the 

 temple of Castor, 2 is, perhaps, of itself sufficient to show that the 

 author was a pagan. 



Some, who devoted their time chiefly to the illustration of the 

 Aristotelian philosophy, may be, with more propriety, considered in 

 the class of Peripatetic philosophers, such, for instance, were Olym- 

 piodorus, the preceptor of Proclus, and Simplicius. 



Although the exalted conceptions of Plato had filled the minds of his character of 

 later followers with high and fervent aspirations, they appeared to have 

 despaired of attaining to the magic of his immitable style. The lan- 

 guage of Plotinus, teeming with ideas, is yet confused, immethodical, 

 and unadorned. It is a task, therefore, of considerable difficulty to 

 develop arguments which are rather sketched than completed, and to 

 present in a clear light the whole of a system, of which the parts are 

 not only, separately considered, obscure, but, in their general relations, 

 ill-connected. The labours of Porphyry, however, insufficient as we 

 cannot but deem them, have doubtless prevented the confusion from 

 being still greater than it is at present. 



At the request of Plotinus, whose theories his habits of intimacy The 

 enabled him to ascertain, he distributed his works into ' Enneades,' to 

 which he added some comments of his own. This work, one of the 

 most curious of ancient monuments, is highly useful as an exposition, 

 for such it is, rather than an elementary view, of the transcendental 

 philosophy of his age. We shall endeavour to point out, though in 

 a very concise manner, its most leading features. 



Each of the six ' Enneades' is composed of nine books. The first, 



aggressuros, procudere linguas ad majores moneo stylos. Of the thirty-one books, 

 into which the History of Ammianus was divided, only the last eighteen, beginning 

 after the death of Magnentius, in 353, are extant ; though full of digressions, they 

 are highly valuable for the information they contain, and the candour they evince. 

 There is a good edition of Ammianus, with the notes of F. Lindenbrogius, Hen. and 

 Hadr. Valesius, Jas. Gronovius, Th. Reinesius, and J. Augustin. Wagner, by C. 

 Gottlob. Aug. Erfurdt, in 3 vols. 8vo, Leips. The Dictionnaire Bibliographique 

 remarks: II y a une traduction Fran9aise d'Ammien Marcellin dont j'ignore le 

 nom de 1'auteur, elle est en 3 vols. in-12, d'abord imprime'e a Berlin, puis a Lyon 

 en 1778 (torn. iv. p. 18). The author of the translation in question was M. de 

 Moulines, who undertook it at the request of Frederick II. 



1 Especially because he says of George, the bishop, " Professionis suae oblitus, quae 

 nihil nisi justum suadet et lene, ad delatorum ausa feralia desciscebat" (lib. xxii.) 



2 Lib. six. c. 10. 



