696 
P L O 
PLOT, f. [from plat.'] A fmall extent of ground.— 
Weeds grow not in the wild uncultivated wafte, but in 
garden plots, under the negligent hand of a gardener. 
Locke. 
It was a chofen plot of fertile land, 
Amongft wide waves fet like a little neft, 
As if it had by nature’s cunning hand 
Been choicely picked out from all the reft. Spenfer. 
We firft furvey the plot, then draw the model; 
And, when we fee the figure of the houfe, 
Then we muft rate the coft of the eredtion. Shake/p. 
A plantation laid out.—Some goddefs inhabited! this re¬ 
gion, who is the foul of this foil; for neither is any lefs 
than a goddefs worthy to be fhrined in fuch a heap of 
pleafures, nor any lefs than a goddefs could have made 
it fo perfedt a plot. Sidney. —A foam ; a fcheme ; a plan : 
[plat, Teut.]—The law of England never was properly 
applied unto the Irifh nation, as by a purpofed plot of 
government, but as they could infinuate and fteal them- 
felves under the fame by their humble carriage. Spenfer 
on Irelandi 
PLOT, f. [contradted from complot, Fr. Dr. Johnfon. 
— Plot is plighted : as, a pliyhted agreement; any agree¬ 
ment, to the performance of which the parties have 
plighted their faith to each other. Tooke’s Div. of Purl, 
ii. 129. Todd.] A confpiracy ; a fecret defign formed 
againft another.—I have o’erheard a plot of death upon 
him. ShaheJ'peare. 
O think what anxious moments pafs between 
The birth of plots and their laft fatal periods! 
Oh ! ’tis a dreadful interval of time, 
Made up of horrour all, and big with death. Addifon. 
An intrigue; an affair complicated, involved, and em- 
barrafled ; the ftory of a play, comprifing an artful invo¬ 
lution of affairs unravelled at laft by fome unexpedted 
means.—If the plot or intrigue muft be natural, and fuch 
as fprings from the fubjedt, then the winding-up of the 
plot muft be a probable confequence of all that went be¬ 
fore. Pope. —They deny the plot to be tragical, becatife 
its cataftrophe is a wedding, which hath ever been ac¬ 
counted comical. Gay. 
Produc’d his play, and begg’d the knight’s advice; 
Made him obferve the fubjedt and the plot. 
The manners, pafiions, unities; what not ? Pope. 
Stratagem; fecret combination to any ill end.—Wife to 
fruftrate all our plots and wiles. Milton. —Contrivance ; 
deep reach of thought: 
Who fays he was not 
A man of much plot, 
May repent that falfe accufation : 
Having plotted and penn’d 
Six plays to attend 
The farce of his negociation. Denham. 
To PLOT, v.n. To form fchemes of mifehief againft 
another, commonly againft thofe in authority. — The 
wicked plntteth againft the juft. Pfalm xxxvii. 12. 
This day he plotted in the council-houfe 
To murther me. Shaktfpeare's Rich. III. 
To contrive; to fcheme.—The count tells the marquis of 
a flying noife, that the prince did plot to be fecretly gone; 
to which the marquis anfwered, that, though love had 
made his highnefs fteal out of his own country, yet fear 
w ould never make him run out of Spain. Wotton. 
To PLOT, v. a. To plan; to contrive : 
Shame for his folly; forrow out of time 
For plotting an unprofitable crime. Drydtn. 
To deferibe according to ichnography.—This treatife 
plottcth down Cornwall as it now ftandeth, for the parti¬ 
culars. Carcw’s Surv. of Cornwall. 
P L O 
PLOT-PROO'F, aclj. Proof againft plots: 
The harlot king 
Is quite beyond mine arm, out of the blank 
And level of my brain, plot-proof. Shakefpeare. 
PLOT'ILE, a town of Samogitia: twenty-five miles 
north-north-weft of Miedniki. 
PLOTINOP'OLIS, in ancient geography, a town of 
Thrace, upon the river Hebrus : twenty-two miles from 
Trajanopolis, according to the Itinerary of Antonine. 
PLOTI'NUS, a celebrated Platonic philofopher of the 
Eclectic School, from whom it afterwards took its name, 
was a native of Egypt, and born at Lycopolis in the year 
205. We are not furniftied with any particulars refpedt- 
ing his parents, family, or early education ; and nearly 
all the information which we have concerning his hiftory 
or opinions we derive from Porphyry, w’ho was his inti¬ 
mate friend for many years, but whofe partiality to his 
fedt, and propenfity to the marvellous, render it neceflary 
that we fhould receive his relations with proper caution. 
It appears probable, that Plotinus began to apply to the 
ftudy of philofophy when he was about twenty years of 
age. For fome time he attended the ledlures of different 
famous profelfors, who then abounded at Alexandria; 
but, finding himfelf diflatisfied with their refpedtive fyftems, 
he was advifed by a friend to frequent the fchool of Arn- 
nionius, who, with the hope of reconciling the different 
opinions then fubfifting among philofophers, founded a 
diftindt ecledtic fchool, in which he taught his feledt dif- 
ciples certain fublime dodtrines, and myftical pradtices, 
which he communicated to them under a folemn injunc¬ 
tion of fecrecy. With the inftruction of fuch a precep¬ 
tor, Plotinus, whofe mind had a ftrong tindfure of enthu- 
fiafm, was highly delighted ; and he told his friend, that 
he had now met with a tutor in all refpedts fuited to his 
wiflies. Under this mafter he profecuted his philofophical 
ftudies during eleven years, and became a deep proficient 
in the abftrufe fubtleties and myftical flights of his fanci¬ 
ful fyftem. Upon the death of Ammonius, having fre¬ 
quently heard the oriental philofophy commended in his 
fchool, and expedting to find in it that kind of dodtrine 
concerning the divine natures which he was moft defirous 
of ftudying, he determined to travel into Perfia and India, 
to learn wifdom of the Magi and Gymnofophifts. In this 
refolution he was probably encouraged by the example 
of Apollonius Tyanaeus, whofe pretenfions to magic arts, 
faid to have been derived from thefe fources, had obtain¬ 
ed for him widely-extended fame. As the emperor Gor¬ 
dian was at this time undertaking an expedition againft 
the Parthians, Plotinus availed himfelf of fuch an oppor¬ 
tunity of fafe condudl into the eaftern regions, and in the 
year 243 joined the emperor’s army. The unfortunate 
iflue of that expedition, however, in w'hich the army was 
defeated, and the emperor killed, compelled the philofo¬ 
pher to feek his fafety in flight, and he with difficulty 
effedled his efcape to Antioch, whence he afterwards 
came to Rome. 
For fome time Plotinus confidered himfelf to be under 
an obligation not to difclofe the doctrines which he had 
learned in the fchool of Ammonius, in confequence of 
the injundtion of fecrecy to which he had (ubmitted: but 
two of his fellow-pupils Herenius and Origen, (who is 
not to be confounded with the Chriftian father of the 
fame name,) having publicly taught the myfteries of their 
mafter, he thought himfelf abfolved from his engagement, 
and became a ledturer in philofophy upon eclectic prin¬ 
ciples. During ten years he confined himfelf to oral 
difeourfe ; always converfing freely with his difciples, 
and encouraging them to afk queltions, and offer ob¬ 
jections, on the fubjedts of his ledtures. At length 
he found it neceflary, both for his own convenience 
and that of his pupils, to commit the fubftance of 
what he delivered to writing. He therefore wrote many 
volumes of metaphyfics, dialectics, and ethics, which 
were drawn up haftily and inaccurately, in the midft of 
