Million Book Collection - The Fishers of Men Ministries

THE NEOPLATONIC PHILOSOPHY AND EPOCH 2J Ito the furthest limit of the possible : and this productionis not one of reflection and free-will, which haveno place in the First One, but simple necessity ofnature. As every complete being strives to produceanother, the most perfect and the most powerful mustabove all work producingly, the best communicateitself ungrudgingly. The First One overflows, and inoverflowing produces another. But in this he wouldnot only exclude all thought of generation in time ; hewould likewise expressly guard against the thought ofemanation by remarking that the inferior must not beconceived as an efflux of the superior. The First Oneremains in itself unmoved and unlessened, while thestream of being goes forth from it; the Derived is inIt, but not It in the Derived. He uses other imagesexpressly to show the immanence of this relation.The First One is the Root; the Derived, the Plant:that the Sun, and this its Light-atmosphere. TheDerived stands to the First One not as a part to thewhole, but as the effect to its cause. It is not takenfrom the substance of the First One, but without lesseningor change of this substance is established and supportedby its power. In fact these images serve tconceal want of precision in the;conception. There isa contradiction to be covered by them, and it consistsin this, that the First One is the cause of the Derived,but yet is required to be enclosed in itself, and to needno completion. Now, cause as such cannot be conceivedwithout effect, nor power without its result.Here, on the contrary, a cause is maintained which isessentially outside its effect, and does not need itmpletion of its beingiThat which is produced is entirely dependent up1 Zeller, v. 444.