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The Mystical Hymns of Orpheus - Platonic Philosophy

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ISTRODUCTION. xxv<br />

tion <strong>of</strong> which all knowledge is refunded into<br />

ignorance. Hence, as Plato says, in the<br />

conclusion <strong>of</strong> his first hypothesis in the Par-<br />

menides, " it can neither be named, nor<br />

spoken <strong>of</strong>, nor conceived by opinion, nor be<br />

known or perceived by any being." <strong>The</strong><br />

peculiarity also <strong>of</strong> this theology, and in which<br />

its transcendency consists is this, that it does<br />

not consider the highest God to be simply<br />

the principle <strong>of</strong> beings, but the principle <strong>of</strong><br />

principles, i. e. <strong>of</strong> deiform processions from<br />

itself, all which are eternally rooted in the<br />

unfathomable depths <strong>of</strong> the immensely great,<br />

source <strong>of</strong> their existence, and <strong>of</strong> which they<br />

may be called superessential ramifications, and<br />

superluminous blossoms.<br />

When the ineffable transcendency <strong>of</strong> the<br />

first God, which was considered (as I have<br />

elsewhere observed) to be the grand principle<br />

in the Heathen theology, by its most ancient<br />

promulgators, <strong>Orpheus</strong>, Pythagoras, and Plato,<br />

was forgotten, this oblivion was doubtless<br />

the cause <strong>of</strong> dead men being deified by the<br />

Pagans. Had they properly disposed their<br />

attention to this transcendency, they would<br />

have perceived it to be so immense as to<br />

surpass eternity, infinity, self-subsis tence, and<br />

even essence itself, and that these in reality

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