Page:Ferrier Works vol 2 1888 LECTURES IN GREEK PHILOSOPHY.pdf/529

474 5. Plotinus had many pupils and admirers. Of these the most faithful and intelligent was Porphyry, and to him he intrusted the arrangement and publication of his writings. They consisted of fifty-four books, which Porphyry divided, according to their subjects, into six parts. Each of these parts contained nine books, which he called Enneads, from the Greek word signifying nine. The philosophy, of Plotinus is styled Neo-Platonism, because it is a revival of the Platonic doctrines, and also Eclecticism, because it aimed at combining with Platonism whatever was worthy of adoption in the tenets of other philosophers. Its prevailing tone, however, is derived from the element which it borrowed from the East, a mysticism which blends the Creator with the creation, and confounds the human and the divine.

6. The philosophy of Plotinus, divested of its mystical complexion, presents to us the following principal points, which may be shortly exhibited in the form of question and answer:—First, What does philosophy aim at? At absolute truth. Secondly, What kind of truth is that? Truth for all intelligence, that is, for intellect considered simply as intellect, and not as this or any kind of intellect: a truth which any intellect is necessarily shut out from knowing is not an absolute truth. Thirdly, What is the truth for all intelligence? Unity; the oneness of all things. Fourthly, How so? Because, while