Million Book Collection - The Fishers of Men Ministries

THE NEOPLATONIC PHILOSOPHY AND EPOCH 2/9before this life; the second, its condition during thlife : the third, its condition after this life.As to the pre-existence of the soul, Plotinus says,Before this generation had taken place (that is,before our entrance into this life), we were there asother men, and some as gods, pure souls, mind boundup with the universal substance, being portions ofthe intelligible not parted off nor detached from it,ut being of the Whole." As long as souls2 continuein this state they are free from all sufFerinand as portions of the World-soul rule with it thworld, without being in it. They are outside thworld, since in that which is beyond the senses theris neither time nor change. There is in them neithethe faculty of discursive thought, nor selfness, nor remembrance, for they do not need to seekknowledge, which they eithej* do not yet or no longerpossess, but as they are perfectly transparent to eother, they see immediately in themselves the Mind,and all Essence, and the superessential Good. Yetsouls cannot continue in this their original state.As the original unity produces multiplicity, so by thesame necessity the Soul must produce something else,and communicate itself to that which is beneath it.And thus individual souls by a necessity, which is athe same time called a fall and a fault, pass by aneternal law into a body suited to their quality andwill. This descent3 is at once by an internal impulse,by the power of the absolute cause, and for the adornmentof the corporeal world. Souls pass into a bodybecause the Soul of the universe, according to the1 Enncad, vi. 4, 14. Quoted by Zeller, v. 512. z Ibid. v. 513.3 Enncad, iv. 8, 5. poirr) aure^ovai^ /ecu ctm'p Swct/tews, /cat rov /xer'a,\jTT)v Kocr^crec w5t ^pxerat- Quoted by Zeller, v. 515.i