106 
16. The Divine, according to Plato, is Abstract Existence, 
apart from any particular form of it. He is rather a thing 
than a Person ; to ov, rather than 6 <ov. He is not yet the 
“ Absolute” of modern philosophy, for that is entirely 
without any connexion with anything else.* * * § But he has 
made many strides towards it. He is not only greater than 
all creatures, but He is actually beyond all being whatsoever. 
He exceeds substance in excellence and power. t This 
language found its way into the Christian Church, and may 
have had not a little to do with the fierce controversies on the 
Divinity of the Son of God which convulsed the East. They 
meet us in that border land between heathen philosophy and 
Christianity, the Gnostic heresies. Basilides, as we learn 
from Hippolytus, regarded the ultimate source of things as 
pure non-existence, J thus anticipating HegePs dictum, that 
“pure being is pure nothing.” § Valentinus represented his 
First Cause as depth unfathomable, and, according to some 
accounts, as dwelling for ever with Silence as his companion. || 
Christian fathers adopt Plato's language. It is found in the 
earliest extant apologist of the Christian Church, Justin 
Martyr. If Clement of Alexandria** and Origenff betray the 
* Mansel, Bampton Lectures, lect. iii. p. 50 . 
t It is to be observed that Plato uses this language, not of the 
“ Absolute ” or “ Infinite,” but of the Good. Dean Mansel has some- 
what misrepresented his language in his Bampton Lectures , p. 224. 
See Plato, Bepublic, book vi. sec. 19 ; Archer Butler, Lectures on 
Philosophy , ii. 59 ; and Ueberweg, History of Philosophy , vol. i., 
“ Plato.” Plato’s words are : ovk ovaiag ovrog rov ayadov , a\\’ tn 
£7 nxeiva rrjg ovaiag Trpta(3tiq, icai cvvapsi vn tpkxovrog. Knowledge, 
and truth, and even being itself, flow out of to ayadov. Meta- 
physical philosophy has not advanced since Plato’s time, in this respect 
at least. 
X Philosophumena, vii. 9. 
§ Hegel believed that every existing thing, by the conditions of existence, 
must blend two opposite ideas in itself. As pure light, without shadow, 
would be a medium in which it would be impossible to see, so pure being 
is a thing which has no actual existence, and is, therefore, identical with 
pure non-being. 
|| The question about the eternal existence of Silence with the Ultimate 
Cause, is asserted by Irenseus, but left doubtful by Hippolytus, whose 
information was more complete. Compare Iren., Adv. Haer., i. 1, with 
Hipp., Philosophumena , iv. 24. 
•[[ Justin cites Plato as his authority for the statement that “the eye of 
the mind could clearly see ” the to ov, yet that he was beyond all being 
(oiktIci), unspeakable, unexplainable, alone xa\ov xai ayaOov. Dial. c. 
Tryph., ch. iv. 
** Strom., ii. 2/ 
ft According to Origen, De Principiis , i. 1, God is “ simplex inteilectualis 
natura,” cognisable only by means of His works, It is imfortunate that we 
are left here to Rufinus’s Latin translation. 
