ig conjoined with intellect, and intellect, which is con- joined with the intelligible, by no means fall under the perception of sense. Intellect; however, is intelligible to intellect. But if intellect is the intelligible. object of intellect, intellect ‘will be its own intelligible object. If, therefore, intellect is an intellectual and not a sensible ‘object, it will be intelligible. But if it is intelligible to intellect, and not to sense, it will also be intelligent...The same. thing, therefore, will be that which is intelligent, or intellectually: perceives, and which is intellectually per- ceived, or is intelligible; and this will be true of the whole with respect to the whole; but not as he who rubs, and he who is rubbed. Intellect, therefore, does not intellectually perceive by one part, and. is intel- lectually perceived by another: for it is impartible, and the whole is an intelligible object of the whole. It. is likewise wholly intellect, having nothing in itself which can be conceived to be deprived of intelligence. Hence one part of it does not intellectually perceive, but not another part of it™. For, so far as it does not intel- lectually perceive, it will be unintelligent. Neither, there- fore, departing from this thing, does it pass on to that. For of that from which it departs, it has no intellectual perception. But if there is no transition in its intel- lections, it intellectually perceives all things at once.
If, therefore, it understands all things at once, and not this thing now, but another afterwards, it understands all things instantaneously and always * * **.
Hei ce, if all things are instantaneously per ceived by it, its perceptions have nothing to do with the past and m In the original, 3:0 ours reds sy ἑαυτοὺ vost, rods δὲ ov vost, which Hol- stenius erroneously translates, “ Ideoque non quidem unam sui partem intelhgit, alteram vero non intelligit.” For Porphyry is not here speak- ing. of intellect surveying its parts, but of its being wholly intellective, This is evident from what immediately follows.
-™ The-asterisks in the original denote something is wanting. Neves theless, what immediately fallows them, is 5. evidently connected with. what. immediately precedes, PERCEPTION OF INTELLIGIBLE NATURES. 237 the future, but subsist in an indivisible untemporal, now; so that the simultaneous, both according to multitude, and according to temporal interval, are. present. with intellect. Hence, too, all things subsist in it according to one, and in one, without interval, and without. time. But if this be the case, theré is nothing discursive or transitive in its intellections, and consequently they are without motion. Hence, they are energies ‘according to one, subsisting in one, and without increase or muta- tion, or any transition. If, however, the multitude sub- sists according to one, and the energy 18 collected together at once, and without time, an essence of this kind must necessarily always subsist in [an intelligible] one. But this is eternity. Hence, eternity is present with intellect. That nature, however, which does. not perceive intellectually according to one, and in one, but transitively, and with motion, so that in understanding it leaves one thing and apprehends another, divides and proceeds discursively, — this nature [which is soul] sub sists In conjunction with time. For with a motion of this kind, the future and. the past are consubsistent. -But. soul, changing its conceptions, passes from one thing to another; not that the prior conceptions depart, and the posterior accede in their place, but there is, as it were, a transition of the former, though they remain in the soul, and the latter accede, as if from some other place. They do not, however, accede in reality from another place; but they appear to do so in consequence of the self-motion. of the soul, and through her eye being directed to a survey of the different forms which she con- tains, and which have the relation of parts to her whole essence. For she resembles a fountain not flowing out- wardly, but circularly scattering its streams into itself. With the motion, therefore, of soul, time is consub- sistent; but eternity: 18 consubsistent with the perma- nency of intellect in itself*. [{ is not, however, divided © See the fourth book of my translation of Proclus, on the Timeus of Plato, in which the nature of time and eternity is most admirably 238 AUXILIARIES, ETC.
from intellect in the same manner as time is from soul; because in intellect the consubsistent essences are united. But that which 1s perpetually moved, is the source of a false opinion of eternity, through the immeasurable extent of its motion producing a conception of eternity. And that which abides [in one,] is falsely conceived to be the-same with that which is fperpetually] moved. For that which is perpetually moved, evolves the time of itself in the same manner as the now of itself, and mul-. tiplies it, according to a temporal progression. Hence, some have apprehended that time is to be surveyed in permanency no less than in motion; and that eternity, as we have said, is infinite time; just as if each of these imparted its own properties to the other; time, which is always moved, adumbrating eternity by the perpetuity of. itself, and the sameness of its motion; and eternity, through being established in sameness of energy, becoming similar to time, by the permanency of itself arising from energy. In sensibles, however, the time of one thing is distimct from that of another. Thus, for instance, there is one time of the sun, and another of the moon, one time of the morning-star, and another of each of the planets. Hence, also, there is a different year of different planets. ‘The year, likewise, which comprehends these times, termi- nates as in a summit in the motion of the soul fof the universe,] according to the imitation of-which the celestial orbs are moved. The motion of this soul, how- ever, being of a different nature from that of the planets, the time of the former also is different from that of the latter. For the latter subsists with interval, and - 1s distinguished from the former by local motions and transitions. | unfolded. See, also, my translation of Plotinus, on Eternity and Time. In these works, what both these divine men have said of eternity, and what the former has said of time, contains, as it appears to me, the ne plus ultra of philosophical investigation on these most abstruse subjects.
APPENDIX.
APPENDIX.
ON THE WANDERINGS OF ULYSSES.
ne ee et In my History of the Restoration of the Platonic Theo- logy [see Vo]. II. of my Proclus on Euclid,] and in a note accompanying my translation of the treatise of Por- phyry, on the Cave of the Nymphs, in that work, 1 attempted, from the hints afforded by Porphyry, and the work of an anonymous Greek writer, De Ulyxis Error- ibus, to unfold the latent meaning of the wanderings of Ulysses, as narrated by Homer. But as, from my con- ᾿ tinued application to the philosophy of Plato for upwards of forty years, I now know much more of that philosophy than’ I then did, a period of thirty-five years having elapsed from that to the present time, I shall again attempt to explain those wanderings, rejecting some things, and retaining others which I had adopted before.
In the first place, it is necessary to observe, that Ulysses does not rank among the first heroic characters, or in other words, he was not one of those heroes who descend into the regions of mortality at certain periods, not only in compliance with that necessity through which all partial souls such- as ours descend periodically, but also for the purpose of benefiting others, and leading them back to their pristine state of perfection. Hence, he was by no.means such an exalted hero as Hercules, or Pythagoras, or Socrates, or Plato; for they largely bene- 242 ON THE WANDERINGS OF ULYSSES.
fited others; but he only benefited himself. For all his companions perished prior to his arrival at Ithaca. So that he was able to save himself, but not others. “ Hence,” says Olympiodorus, in his MS. Scholia on the Gorgias of Plato, ‘‘ it is said, that Ulysses wandered on the sea by the will of Neptune. For by this it is signified that the Odyssean life was neither terrestrial, nor yet celestial, but between these. Since, therefore, Nep- tune is the lord of the middle natures, on this account it is said, that Ulysses wandered through the will of Nep- tune, because he had a Neptunian allotment. Thus, also, theologists speak of the sons of Jupiter, Neptune, and Pluto; regarding the allotment of each. For we say, that he who has a divine and celestial polity, is the son of Jupiter; that he who has a terrestrial polity, is the son of Pluto; and he is the son of Neptune, whose polity or allotment is between these*.” Hence Ulysses, from his Neptunian allotment, was a man who ranked among the middle class of characters that transcend the majority of mankind..
In the next place, in order to understand accurately the recondite meaning of the wanderings of Ulysses, it is requisite to know what the most divine and theological poet Homer indicates by the Trojan war in the Iliad. For Homer, by combining fiction with historical facts, has delivered to us some very occult, mystic, and valuable information, in those two admirable peems, the Ilhad and ,Odyssey. Hence, by those who directed their attention. to this recondite information, he was said, conformably to the tragical mode of speaking, which was usual with the most ancient writers, to have been blind, because, as 2 Ala vos τοῦτο, καὶ τὸν Οδυσσεα Asyouct κατα ϑαλάτταν waavarbas Coudn rev Ἰοσειδωνος" σημαίνουσι γὰρ τὴν Οδυσσειον Cony, ors οὐδὲ χθονια ny, adr cute penv ἐπε ονραγια, αλλα μιᾶση' sire: οὐγ o Ποσειδὼν rou μεταξυ κύριος εσῖι, δια τουτὸ καὶ “τον Οδυσσεα φασι Govrn Ποσειδωγος [supple πλανασθαι!"} ἐπειδὴ τὸν xAnpov τοῦ Ποσειδωγος . LX EV. CUTO γοῦν και τοὺς LEY φασι Διὸς υιους, τοὺς δὲ ἸΠοσειδωγος, τοὺς δὲ Πλούτωνος, argog τοὺς κληροὺς exacglou* τὸν μὲν γὰρ ἔχοντα Seay xas oupaviay πολιτείαν Asoc φάμεν usev, τὸν δὲ χθογιαν, Πλουτῶνος, τὸν δὲ τηῦ μεταξὺ Ποσειδωνος.
ON THE WANDERINGS OF ULYSSES. 243 Proclus observes’, he separated himself from sensible beauty, and extended the intellect of his soul to invisible ~ and true harmony. He was said, therefore, to be blind, because that intellectual beauty to which he raised him- self cannot be perceived by corporeal eyes. Thus, too, Orpheus is tragically said to have been lacerated in an all-various manner, because men of that age partially participated of his mystic doctrine. The princzpal part of it, however, was received by the Lesbians; and on this account, his head, when separated from his body, is said to have been carried to Lesbos. Hence, the Platonic Hermeas, conformably to this opinion of the occult meaning of the Iliad, beautifully explains as follows’ the Trojan war, in his Scholia on the Phedrus of Plato: “ By Ion, we must understand the generated and material place, which is so denominated from mud and matter (παρα τὴν ἰλυν καὶ τὴν vany,) and in which there are war and sedition. But the Trojans are material forms, and all the lives which subsist about bodies. Hence, also, the Trojans are called genustne (ιθαγενεις). For all the lives which subsist about bodies, and irrational® souls, are favourable and attentive to their proper matter. On the contrary, the Greeks are rational souls, coming from Greece, 2. 6. from the intelligible into matter. Hence, the Greeks are called foreigners (επηλυδὲς,)} and vanquish the Trojans, as being of a superior order. But they fight with each other about the image of Helen, as the poet says [about the image of Eneas].
Around the phantom Greeks and Trojans fight®.
Helen signifying intelligible beauty, being a certain vessel (ελενοη τις ovca,) attracting to itself intellect. An efflux, therefore, of this intelligible beauty is imparted to matter > In Plat. Polit. p. 398.
© Instead of avadcyes ψυχαι, in this place, it is necessary to read ἀλογοι ψυχαι.
ἀ Iliad, V. ν. 451.
a 244 ON THE WANDERINGS OF ULYSSES.
through Venus; and about this efflux of beauty the Greeks fight with the Trojans [. 6. rational with irrational lives*]. And those, indeed, that oppose and vanquish matter, return to the intelligible world, which is their true country; but those who do not, as is the case with the’ multitude, are bound to matter. As, therefore, the © prophet, in the tenth book of the Republic, previously to ‘the:descent of souls, announces to them how they may return [to their pristine felicity], according to periods of a thousand and ten thousand years; thus, also, Calchas predicts to the. Greeks their return in ten years, the number ten being the symbol of a perfect period. And as, in the lives of souls, some are elevated through philo- sophy, others through ‘the amatory art, and others through the royal and wailike disciplines; so with respect to the Greeks, some act with rectitude through prudence, but others through war or love, and their return is different [according to their different pursuits].”: The first obviously fabulous’ adventure, then, of Ulysses, is that of the Lotophagi, which Homer beauti- fully narrates, and whose narration Pope very elegantly. translates as follows: . The trees around them all their fruit produce, ᾿ . Lotos the name, and dulcet is the juice ἢ] -(Thence call’d Lotophagi) which, whoso tastes, Insatiate riots in the sweet repasts, " Nor other home, nor other care intends, But quits his house, his country, and his friends.
© Conformably to this, Proclus, in Plat. Polit. p.398, says, ‘ that all the beauty subsisting about generation [or the regions of sense], from “the fabrication of things, is signified by Helen; about which there is a perpetual battle of souls, till the more intellectual having vanquished the more irrational forms of life, retarn to the place from whence they originally came.” For the beauty which is in the realms of generation, is an efflux of intelligible beauty.
f This second line is, in Pope’s version, ἐς Lotos the 1 name, divine, nectarious juice!” which I have altered as above, as being more conformable to the original.
ON THE WANDERINGS OF ULYSSES. 248 The-three we sent from off th’ enchanting ground We dragg’d reluctant, and by-force we bound: The rest in haste forsook the pleasing shore, Or, the charm tasted, had return’d no more &.
Plato, in the 8th book of his Republic, has admirably _ unfolded to us what the lotos occultly indicates, viz. that it signifies ““ false and arrogant reasonings and opinions:” for daily experience shows. that nothing is more enchant- Ing and delicious than these to such as have made no’ solid proficiency in virtue, and who, like: some of the companions of Ulysses, being fascinated by erroneous. _conceptions, consign their true country and true kindred to oblivion, and desire to live for ever lost in the intoxica- tion of fallacious delight.
The next adventure of Ulysses is that of the Cyclops, whom he deprived of sight, and irritated by reproaches. But according to Porphyry, in the above-mentioned excellent treatise, this is no other than the natal demon. of Ulysses, or the demon to whose protecting power he became subject, as soon as he was born". In order, however, to understand perfectly the arcane. meaning of this fable, it is necessary to observe, that according to the ancient theology, those souls that in the present life will speedily return to their pristine felicity in the intelli- ligible world, have not the essential demon, or the dzemon which is inseparable from the essence of the soul, different from the demon that presides over the birth; for they are one and the same. But the case is otherwise with more imperfect souls; as the natal is in these differ- ent from the essential demon'. As Ulysses, therefore, h Vid. Censoris, De Die Natali, cap. ili.
1 This is evident from the following passage in the Commentary of Proclus, on the First Alcibiades of Plato: Ταῖς μὲν οὖν awoxaracratines ζωσαις Luyaic o αυτος ἔστιν aves κάγταυϑα δαιμων" ταῖς δὲ ατελεσῆεραις αλλος μεν ὁ κατ᾽ οὐσίαν δαίμων, αλλος δὲ ὁ xaTa τὸν προβεβλημένον βιογ. ἢ. 37, Edit. Creuz. But for a copious account of the essential demon, and of the different orders and offices of demons, see the notes accompanying my translation. of the First Alcibiades, Phedo, and Gorgias of Plato.
246 ON THE WANDERINGS OF ULYSSES does not rank among the more perfect heroic characters, and was not one who in the present life is immediately ascending to his kindred star, or, in Platonic language, to the paternal port, the soul’s true paradise of rest; but was a man who, prior to this, had many laborious wanderings to accomplish, and many difficulties and dangers of no common magnitude to sustain, his natal was not the same with his essential demon. As he is, however, - departing from a sensible to an intellectual life, though circuitously and slowly, he is represented in so doing as blinding and irritating his natal demon. For he who blinds the eye of sense, and extinguishes its light, after his will has profoundly assented to its use, must expect punishment for the deed; as necessary ultimately to his own ‘peculiar good, and the general order of the universe. Indeed, troubles and misfortunes: resulting from such undertakings, not only contribute to appease the anger of their authors, but likewise purify and benefit the subjects of their revenge. According to the Greek theology, therefore, he who, in the present life, while he is in the road of virtue, and is eagerly searching for wisdom, perceives that there is a great resemblance between his destiny and that of Ulysses, may safely conclude, that either here, or in a prior state of existence, he has volun- tarily submitted to the power of his natal.demon, and has now deprived him of sight; or in other words, has abandoned a life of sense; and that he has been profoundly delighted with the nature of matter, and is now abrogating the confessions which he made. This, too, is insinuated in the beautiful story of Cupid and Psyche, by Apuleius, when the terrestrial Venus sends Mercury with a book in which her name is inserbed, to apprehend Psyche as a fugitive from her mistress. For this whole story relates to the descent of the soul into this tetrene body, and its wanderings and punishments, till it returns to its true country and pristine felicity *.
k See the note (p. 90) accompanying my translation of the Metamor- phosis of Apuleius, ON THE WANDERINGS OF ULYSSES. 247 In the next fable, which is that of AXolus, the poet appears to me to signify that providence of divinity which ‘is of an elevating and guardian nature, the influence of which, when properly received by the sub- jects of it, enables them to pass with security over the stormy sea of life to their native land; but when this influence is neglected through the sleep of reason, the - negligence is followed by a temporary destruction of hope. This providence also of the Gods is not only one, but all-various, which Homer appears to indicate by Aolus; the word aioacs signifying various and manifold. As the advancement, therefore, of Ulysses in the virtues is as yet imperfect, extending no farther than to the ethical and polstical, which are but adumbrations of the true virtues, the cathartic and theoretic'!, he is said to have fallen asleep, and to have been thereby disappointed of his wishes, his soul not being at that time in a truly vigilant state, as not having yet elevated its eye to real being from objects of sense which resemble the delusions of dreams.
By the adventure of the Lestrigons, which follows in the next place, Homer represents to us Ulysses flying. from voracity, and fierce and savage manners; a flight indispensably necessary, as preparatory to his attainment of the higher virtues.
In the next adventure, which contains the beautiful allegory of Circe, we shall find some deep arcana of philosophy contained, exclusive of its connexion with Ulysses. By the Aéean isle, then, in which the palace of Circe was situated, the region of sorrow and lamentation is signified, as is evident from the name of the island itself. And, by Circe, we must understand the Goddess of sense. For thus Porphyry, in Stobeus, p. 141: “ Homer calls the period and revolution of regeneration in a circle, Circe, the daughter of the Sun, who perpetu- ally connects and combines all corruption with genera- ' For an accurate account of the gradation of the virtues, ὃ see Por- phyry’s Auxiliaries to Intelligibles,.p. 217.
248 ON THE WANDERINGS OF ULYSSES.
tion, arid. generation again with corruption.” And this is asserted still more explicitly by Proclus, in his Scholia on the Cratylus of Plato. For he says, “ Circe is that divine power which weaves all the life contained in the four elements, and, at the same time, by her song harmonizes the whole sublunary world. But the shuttle with which she weaves, is represented by theologists as golden, because her essence is intellectual, pure, imma- terial, and unmingled with generation; all which is signi- fied by the shuttle being golden. And her employment consists in separating™ stable things from such as are in motion, according to divine diversity.” _ And he also informs us, ““ that Circe ranks among the divinities who preside over generation, or the regions of sense.” Homer, too, with great propriety, represents Circe, who rules over the realms of generation, as waited on by Nymphs sprung from fountains; for Nymphs, says Hermias (in Plat. Phedrum,) are Goddesses who preside over regeneration, and are the attendants of Bacchus, the son of Semele: On this account, they are present with water; that is, they ascend, as it were, into, and rule over generation. But this Dionysius, or Bacchus, supplies the regeneration - of every sensible nature.”
Hence we may observe, that the Aean isle, or this region of sense, is, with great propriety, called the abode of trouble and lamentation. In this region, then, the companions of Ulysses, in consequence of being very imperfect characters, are changed, through the incanta- tions of the Goddess, into brutes, 2.e. into unworthy and irrational habits and manners. Ulysses, however, as one who is returning, though slowly, to the proper perfection of his nature, is, by the assistance of Mercury, or reason, prevented from destruction. Hence intellect, roused by its impassive power, and at the same time armed with prudent anger, and the plant-moly, or temperance, which is able to repel the allurements of pleasure, wars on m For the shuttle is a symbol of separating power.
ON THE WANDERINGS OF ULYSSES. 249 sensible delight, and prevents the effects of its transform- ing power. Ulysses, also, though he was not able to lead his companions back to their native land, the paternal port of the soul, yet saves them from being transformed, through the enchantments of sense, into an irrational life.
After this follows the allegory respecting the descent of Ulysses into Hades, which occultly signifies, that he still lived a life according to sense, and not according to intellect, and that, in consequence of not having yet van- - quished a terrestrial life, he was involved in obscurity. For ancient wise men universally considered Hades as com- mencing in the present state. of existence, and that sense 1s nothing more than the energy of the dormant soul, and a perception, as it were, of the delusions of dreams, as I have abundantly proved in my treatise on the Mysteries. The secret meaning, also, of what Ulysses saw in Hades, is no less beautiful than profound, as the following extract from the manuscript Commentary of Olympiodorus, on the Gorgias of Plato, abundantly evinces: “ Ulysses,” says he, “ descending into Hades, saw, among others, ‘Sysiphus, and Tityus, and Tantalus. And Tityus he saw lying on the earth, and a vulture devouring his liver; the liver signifying that he lived solely according to the epithymetic part of his nature [or that part of the soul which is the source of desires,] and that through this, indeed, he was, indeed, internally prudent; but earth signifying the terrestrial condition of his prudence. But Sysiphus, living under the dominion of ambition and anger, was employed in continually rolling a stone up an eminence, because it perpetually descended again; its descent implying the vicious government of himself; and his rolling the stone, the hard, refractory, and, as it were, rebounding condition of his life. And, lastly, he saw Tantalus extended by the side of a lake, and that there was a tree before him, with abundance of fruit on its branches, which he desired to gather, but it vanished from his view. And this indeed indicates, that he lived 250 ON THE WANDERINGS OF ULYSSES.
under the dominion of the phantasy; but his hanging over the lake, and in vain attempting to drink, denotes the elusive, humid, and rapidly-gliding condition of such a life.”: We must now, however, view Ulysses passing from sense to imagination; in the course of which voyage he is assailed by various temptations of great power, and destructive effect. We shall perceive him victorious in some of these, and sinking under others; but struggling against the incursions of all. Among the first of these is the enchanting melody of the Sirens, Whose song is death, and makes destruction please.
But what is occultly signified by the Sirens, is beautifully unfolded by Proclus, on the Cratylus. of Plato, as fol- lows: “ The divine Plato knew that there are three kinds of Sirens; the celestial, which is under the govern-. ment of Jupiter; that which is effective of generation, and is under the government of Neptune; and that which ἐς cathartic, and is under the government of Pluto. It is common to all these, to incline all things through an harmonic motion to their ruling Gods. Hence, when the soul is in the heavens, they are desirous of uniting it to the divine life which flourishes there. But it 18 proper that souls living in generation should sail beyond them, like the Homeric Ulysses, that they may not be allured by generation, of which the sea is an image. And when souls are in Hades, the Sirens are desirous of uniting them through intellectual conceptions to Pluto. So that Plato knew that in the kingdom of Hades there are Gods, demons, and souls, who dance, as it were, round Pluto, allured by the Sirens that dwell there.” Ulysses, therefore, as now proceeding to a life which is under the dominion of imagination, but which ig superior to a life consisting wholly in sensitive energies, abandons those alluring and fraudulent pleasures of sense, which charm the soul with flattering and mellifluous incantations. Hence he closes with divine reasons and energies, as with ON THE WANDERINGS OF ULYSSES. 251 wax, the impulses of desire.and the organs of sense; so that every passage being barred from access, they may in- vain warble the song of ecstasy, and expect to ruin the soul by the enchanting strain. He also restrains the corporeal assaults by the bands of morality, and thus employs the senses without yielding to their impetuous invasions; and experiences delight without resigning the empire of reason to its fascinating control.
Ulysses, having escaped the dangers of the Sirens, passes on to the rocks of Scylla and Charybdis, of terrific appearance and irresistible force. By these two rocks the poet seems ‘to signify the passions of anger and — desire, and their concomitants, that compress human life on both sides; and which every one must experience who proceeds, like Ulysses, in a regular manner to an intellectual state of existence. Some of these are, like Scylla, of a lofty malignity; fraudulent, yet latent and obscure, as being concealed in the penetration of the soul. And such is revenge, and other passions of a stmilar kind. In these recesses a demon, the prince of such passions, resides. For the Chaldean oracles assert that terrestrial demons dwell in the soul, which is replete with irrational affections". This demon also may justly be denominated a dire and enraged dog, who partly exposes his own malice, and partly hides it in impene- trable obscurity. Hence he is capable of producing mis- chief in a twofold: respect. For he privately hurts by . malignant stratagems, openly ravishes the soul on the lofty rock of fury, and rends it with the triple evil of deadly teeth, viz. dereliction of duty, hatred of humanity, and self-conceit. Indeed, a demon of this kind will be perpetually vigilant in endeavouring to destroy, at one " And this is the meaning of the Chaldaic oracle, — Soy ayleroy ϑηρες χθονὸς οἰκησουσίν. ὁ. 6. “ The wild beasts of the earth shall inhabit thy vessel.” For, as