es
how the second principle issues by emanation out of the first, and the
third out of the second. The mechanism of this process may be
illustrated by recalling how from the body of the sun issues forth
light, and from light emerges heat. In the procession of the third from
the second principle it is really Thought arising from Reason; but
Thought is the Soul. The mundane soul he considers as united to nothing;
but on these details he falls into much mysticism, and it is often
difficult to see clearly his precise meaning, as when he says that
Reason is surrounded by Eternity, but the Soul is surrounded by Time. He
carries Idealism to its last extreme, and, as has been said, looks upon
the visible world as a semblance only, deducing from his doctrine moral
reflections to be a comfort in the trials of life. Thus he says that
"sensuous life is a mere stage-play; all the misery in it is only
imaginary, all grief a mere cheat of the players." "The soul is not in
the game; it looks on, while nothing more than the external phantom
weeps and laments." "Passive affections and misery light only on the
outward shadow of man." The great end of existence is to draw the soul
from external things and fasten it in contemplation on God. Such
considerations teach us a contempt for virtue as well as for vice: "Once
united with God, man leaves the virtues, as on entering the sanctuary he
leaves the images of the gods in the ante-temple behind." Hence we
should struggle to free ourselves from everything low and mean: to
cultivate truth, and devote life to intimate communion with God,
divesting ourselves of all personality, and passing into the condition
of ecstasy, in which the soul is loosened from its material prison,
separated from individual consciousness, and absorbed in the infinite
intelligence from which it emanated. "In ecstasy it contemplates real
existence; it identifies itself with that which it contemplates." Our
reminiscence passes into intuition. In all these views of Plotinus the
tincture of Orientalism predominates; the principles and practices are
altogether Indian. The Supreme Being of the system is the "unus qui est
omnia;" the intention of the theory of emanation is to find a
philosophical connexion between him and the soul of man; the process for
passing into ecstasy by sitting long in an invariable posture, by
looking steadfastly at the tip of the nose, or by observing for a long
time an unusual or definite manner of b