Page:The Origin of Christian Science.djvu/128

120 her way is the more obvious is it that she follows another who first traveled these devious and doubtful paths.

Forgetting for the present other points let us see how the Neoplatonists too confuse the ideas of life and eternity. Plotinus defines eternity as “life which is now infinite, because it is all, and nothing of which is consumed, because nothing pertaining to it is either past or future, since otherwise it would not be all things at once.” This is also his conception of mind or intellect. He has the same idea of the relation of time and eternity that Mrs. Eddy has, saying: “With respect to eternity and time, we say that each of these is different from the other.” That is, time is no part of eternity, as the context shows. In essence or nature they are different.

Of the same opinion too is Spinoza who says: “Eternity cannot be defined in terms of time, or have any relation to time.” Both Plotinus and Spinoza exclude the idea of past and future from eternity. Plotinus says that eternity and not time is in the “intelligible world” and that intellect or mind “is the true eternity”. Porphyry thinks eternity is an attribute of intellect.