THEIR MYSTICISM. 301 



bear to talk concerning his family, or his parents, 

 or his country. He would not allow himself to be 

 represented by a painter or statuary; and once, 

 when Aurelius entreated him to permit a likeness 

 of him to be taken, he said, ' Is it not enough for 

 us to carry this image in which nature has en- 

 closed us, but we must also try to leave a more 

 durable image of this image, as if it were so great 

 a sight ?' And he retained the same temper to the 

 last. When he was dying, he said, ' I am trying 

 to bring the divinity which is in us to the divinity 

 which is in the universe.'" He was looked upon 

 by his successors with extraordinary admiration 

 and reverence ; and his disciple Porphyry collected 

 from his lips, or from fragmental notes, the six 

 Enneads of his doctrines (that is, parts each con- 

 sisting of nine Books,) which he arranged and 

 annotated. 



We have no difficulty in finding in this remark- 

 able work examples of mystical speculation. The 

 Intelligible World of realities or essences corre- 

 sponds to the world of sense 1 in the classes of 

 things which it includes. To the Intelligible World, 

 man's mind ascends, by a triple road which Plo- 

 tinus figuratively calls that of the Musician, the 

 Lover, the Philosopher 2 . The activity of the human 

 soul is identified by analogy with the motion of 

 the heavens. "This activity is about a middle 

 point, and thus it is circular; but a middle point 



1 vi. Ennead, iii. 1. Mi. E. ii. 2. 



