nists, Aristotelians, and other philosophers, which were at this time carried to such a height, that they did not scruple to corrupt the writings of their leaders, in order to furnish themselves with weapons of defence: Ammonius, a man divinely instructed, abandoning the controversies which had so long disgraced philosophy, and clearing away the superfluities of each system, demonstrated that, in certain great and necessary points, the doctrines of Plato and Aristotle were perfectly harmonious, and thus delivered to his disciples an institution of philosophy free from dispute." How far the system, which Ammonius and his followers framed, deserved the praise which Hierocles bestows upon it, will afterwards appear.

Ammonius had many eminent followers and hearers, both Pagan and Christian, who all, doubtless, promised themselves much illumination from a preceptor, who undertook to collect into a focus all the rays of ancient wisdom. He taught his select disciples certain sublime doctrines, and mystical practices, and was called Stodidaktos, the heaven-taught philosopher. These mysteries were communicated to them under a solemn injunction of secrecy. Porphyry relates, that Plotinus, with the rest of the disciples of Ammonius, promised, not to divulge certain dogmas which they learned in his school, but to lodge them safely in their purged minds. This circumstance açcounts for the fact, already mentioned on the authority of Longinus, that he left nothing in writing. Ammonius probably died about the year 243.95

Among those disciples of Ammonius, who were admitted to the knowledge of his mysteries, were Herennius, Origines, Longinus, and Plotinus.

Herennius and Origines are memorable for nothing, except their infidelity to their master, in violating their promise by divulging the secrets of his school. This Origines must not be confounded with Origen, the celebrated teacher of the Christian church in Alexandria; for the former was a Pagan, and seems to have written only two small treatises, which are now lost; whereas the latter rose

94 L. c. c. 3.

25 Jons. de Scr. Hist. Ph. 1. iii. c. 3. p. 282. "Fabr. Bib. Gr. y. iii. p. 120. Porph. 1. c. c. 2.

to great distinction among the Christian fathers, and was the author of many valuable works.

Dionysius Longinus," a native of Emesa, in Syria, was instructed by Cornelius Fronto, a nephew of Plutarch, in rhetoric, and afterwards became his heir. Whilst he was young he visited several celebrated seats of the muses, particularly Athens, Alexandria, and Rome, and attended upon the most eminent masters in language, eloquence, and philosophy, He was a great admirer of Plato,98 and honoured his memory with an annual festival.99 He chiefly followed the Eclectic system of Ammonius. So extensive and profound was his erudition, that he was called the living library,100 It is much to be regretted, that none of the writings of this celebrated scholar are extant, except one piece, which will be an eternal monument of his genius and taste, "A Treatise on the Sublime." Longinus was preceptor in the Greek language to Zenobia, queen of Palmyra; and, having been admitted to her counsels, shared her fortunes. That princess being conquered and taken prisoner by the Emperor Aurelian, in the year 273, her minister, was, by the emperor's command, put to death. Longinus had seen the Jewish seriptures; he quotes a passage from the writings of Moses, as an example of the Sublime; " and God said, Let there be light, and there was light."

The school of Ammonius was continued, and the Eclectic system completed, by the most celebrated of his disciples, Plotinus, the chief of the Alexandrian Platonists, from whom the school afterwards took its name. For our knowledge of the history and opinions of this philosopher, we may depend almost entirely upon the authority of Porphyry, who must, indeed, have been well acquainted with the particulars of his life, having enjoyed an inti

97 Suidas. Porph. Vit. Plot. c. xx. c. xiv. 96 Euseb. Prep. 1. x. c. 3. The common reading in Eusebius is Marivia, but we think, with Fabricius, that the passage should be read Maria, for it is not probable that Longinus, who was contemporary with Plotinus, and wrote against him, should observe a festival in honour of his memory. Longinus survived Plotinus only a few years.

* Bibl. Gr. v. iv. p. 436.

mate friendship with him for many years; but whose partiality for his sect, and propensity to fiction, will not suffer us to allow him implicit credit. The probable truth with respect to this philosopher is as follows:

Plotinus was born at Lycopolis, in Egypt, in the year 205. Concerning his parents, family, and early education, nothing is known. About the age of twenty years, he began to apply to the study of philosophy. After attending lectures in the different schools with which Alexandria at this time abounded, he attached himself to Ammonius, and continued to prosecute his philosophical studies under this master eleven years; probably because he found in Ammonius a disposition towards superstition and fanaticism similar to his own. Upon the death of his preceptor, having in his school frequently heard the Oriental philosophy commended, and expected to find in it that kind of doctrine concerning Divine natures, which he was most desirous of studying, he determined to travel into Persia and India, to learn wisdom of the magi and Gymnosophists. In this design he was probably encouraged by the success of Apollonius Tyanæus, whose magic arts, said to have been derived from these sources, had obtained him universal fame. It happened opportunely, that the emperor Gordian was, at this time, undertaking an expedition against the Parthians. Plotinus seized the occasion, and, in the year 243, joined the emperor's army. The affairs of Gordian proving unfortunate, and the emperor himself being killed, the philosopher fled, not without hazard, to Antioch; and afterwards came to Rome, where the purple was now possessed by Philip.

For some time Plotinus was prevented from laying open the stores of wisdom which he had collected, by the oath of secrecy which he had taken in the school of Ammonius: but, after his fellow disciples, Herennius and Origines, had disclosed the mysteries of their master, he thought himself no longer bound by his promise, and became a public preceptor in philosophy, upon Eclectic principles. During a period of ten years, he confined himself entirely to oral discourse; always conversing freely with his disciples, who

Conf. Porph. Vit. Plotin, ap. Fab. Eunap. p. 1. Suidas in Porph. t. iii. p. 133.

were very numerous, and encouraging them to start difficulties, and propose questions, upon every subject. At last he found it necessary, for his own convenience and that of his pupils, to commit the substance of his lectures to writing. Many volumes of metaphysics, dialectics, and ethics, thus produced with haste and inaccuracy in the midst of various engagements, were suffered to pass into the hands of his pupils without being transcribed. This may in part account for the great obscurity and confusion, which are still found in these writings, after all the pains that Porphyry took to correct them. These books, which are fifty-four in number, are distributed under six classes, called Enneads. Proclus wrote commentaries upon them, and Dexippus defended them against the Peripatetics.*

Although the novelty of the plan of instruction, which Plotinus followed, brought him many hearers, through the obscurity and subtlety of his doctrine he had but few disciples. Nothing could exceed the assiduity with which he taught those who were willing to become his followers, or the ardour with which he himself applied to philosophical speculations. It was his frequent practice, to prepare himself for his sublime contemplations by watching and fasting. In such high reputation was Plotinus for wisdom, that many private quarrels were referred to his arbitration, and parents, upon their death-beds, often seat for him, to intrust him with the charge of their children. He resided twenty-six years at Rome, where he enjoyed the friendship of many persons of high rank, and particularly of the emperor Galienus. The use which Plotinus made of his interest with that prince was a memorable proof of the romantic turn of his mind. He requested the emperor to rebuild a city in Campania, which had been formerly rased, and to grant it, with the neighbouring territory, to a body of philosophers, who should be governed by the laws of Plato, and should call the city Platonopolis; at the same time promising, that he himself, with his friends, would lay the foundation of this philosophical colony. The emperor was himself inclined to listen to the proposal, but was dissuaded by his friends.

It was another proof of the fanatical spirit of Plotinus, that, though well skilled in the medical art, he had such a

4 Fabricius, v. iv. p. 154.

contempt for the body, that he could never be prevailed upon to make use of any means to cure the diseases to which his constitution was subject, or to alleviate his pain. He had learned from Pythagoras and Plato, that the soul is sent into the body for the punishment of its former sins, and must in this prison pass through a severe servitude, before it can be sufficiently purified to return to the Divine fountain from which it flowed. Such was his contempt of the corporeal vehicle in which his soul was inclosed, that he would never suffer the day of his birth to be celebrated, or any portrait to be taken of his person. Amelius, one of his pupils, however, desirous of obtaining a picture of his master, introduced a painter, named Casterius, into the school, which any one was at liberty to visit, in hopes that, by attentively observing his features, he might be able to delineate the likeness from memory. This the painter accomplished with great success; and Amelius became possessed of a portrait of Plotinus without his knowledge.

By his rigorous abstinence, and determined neglect of his health, Plotinus, at last, brought himself into a state of disease and infirmity, which rendered the latter part of his life exceedingly painful. Forsaken by his friends, excepting only Eustochius (for Porphyry was at that time in Sicily), he left Rome, and retired into Campania, to the estate of Zathus, one of his former disciples, now deceased. By the hospitality of the heirs of this old friend, Plotinus was supported till his death. When he found his end approaching, he said to Eustochius, "The Divine principle within me is now hastening to unite itself with that Divine Being which animates the universe:" herein expressing a leading principle of his philosophy, that the human soul is an emanation from the Divine nature, and will return to the source whence it proceeded. Plotinus died in the year 270, aged sixty-six years.

Porphyry, in relating the life of Plotinus, represents him as having been possessed of miraculous powers, similar to those which he ascribes to Pythagoras, and doubtless with the same artful design: but the characters of fiction are so strongly marked upon the whole narrative, that, after what has been already said concerning the marvellous parts of the history of Pythagoras, and of Apollonius