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Cornell University Library 
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Cornell University 
 Library 
 
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 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924029006141 
 
THE LETTER OF PORPHYRY 
 THE NEO-PLATONIST 
 
< 
 
 
 o 
 
 S 
 
 R 
 O 
 
PORPHYRY 
 
 THE PHILOSOPHER 
 TO 
 
 HIS WIFE 
 MARCELLA 
 
 TRANSLATED WITH INTRODUCTION BY 
 
 ALICE ZIMMERN 
 
 GIRTON COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE 
 PREFACE BY 
 
 RICHARD GARNETT, C.B., LL.D. 
 
 LONDON 
 
 GEORGE REDWAY 
 1896 
 
 3> 
 
A. 
 
 ^l"! 
 
 in"\ 
 
PREFACE 
 
 No body of men should attract more 
 interest, and within certain limits more 
 sympathy, than those who in the third and 
 fourth centuries stood forth as the champions 
 of the creed and civilisation of the ancient 
 world. It is true that they failed to under- 
 stand their age ; it is also true that to the 
 believer in that Providential government of 
 the world known to the philosopher as " the 
 survival of the fittest," the fact that their 
 cause was lost is sufficient proof that in its 
 own brief day it was not fitting that it should 
 live. So it had been with Brutus and Cassius, 
 more endeared to posterity by their generous 
 errors than Augustus by his surpassing 
 5 
 
PREFACE 
 
 fortune. It is true that, with the sublime 
 exception of the Emperor Julian, these men 
 were not of heroic mould ; that for the most 
 part they were as far below the martyrs of 
 the Roman Republic in character as they trans- 
 cended them in virtue of their cause. There 
 are nevertheless two bright exceptions to the 
 general taint of imbecility, in Plotinus and his 
 pupil Porphyry, whose epistle to his wife 
 Marcella forms the substance of this little 
 volume. 
 
 The strongest impression which a reader 
 of this epistle is likely to receive from it is 
 one of admiration of its lofty morality 
 and deeply religious spirit. In both these 
 respects it may be paralleled with any 
 Christian work of its age ; and it possesses 
 two distinct advantages over all such writings 
 in (save for a little trifling with the pleasing 
 idea of guardian angels) its entire freedom 
 from superstition and its perfect disin- 
 terestedness. It is evident that a section at 
 least of the ancient world had, independently 
 6 
 
PREFACE 
 
 of any Christian influence,* attained to an 
 exalted moral and religious standard by the 
 beginning of the fourth century ; and it 
 becomes an interesting question why men in 
 Porphyry's position could do so little, not 
 merely to preserve the antique civilisation, 
 but to prevent the general corruption of 
 society. Christian and Pagan alike. The 
 answer, as it seems to us, may be best con- 
 veyed by the observation that, in Porphyry's 
 time, Christianity and philosophical Paganism 
 were changing places ; and that the exchange, 
 though ethically advantageous to Paganism in 
 the world of thought, was materially destruc- 
 tive to it in the world of fact. 
 
 From one point of view, it may be said 
 that but two religions exist in the world — 
 the religion of the flesh and the religion of 
 the spirit. The former is, of course, suscep- 
 tible of innumerable gradations, from the 
 
 * It is possible that Porphyry's four principles of faith, truth, love, 
 hope, may be adapted from St. Paul's faith, hope, and charity. But 
 this is very doubtful, and there is no other trace of indebtedness to 
 the New Testament, although citations from earlier philosophers are 
 numerous. 
 
 7 
 
PREFACE 
 
 grossest fetishism to the most refined sacra- 
 mental symbolism ; but at bottom these are 
 all alike, agreeing in the fundamental pro- 
 position that something or other material — 
 something to eat, or something to drink, or 
 something wherewith to be clothed, or 
 cleansed, or aspersed, or at least some cere- 
 mony visible if not tangible, is not merely an 
 accident of religion, but of its very essence. 
 When it is remembered that for countless 
 ages primitive man could have had no other 
 objects of veneration than material objects, 
 and that usage makes heredity, and heredity 
 the very mind itself, there can be no wonder 
 that this is still the creed of the immense 
 majority, and that the ancient religions in par- 
 ticular should have been surcharged with shows 
 and rites hardly distinguishable from magical 
 incantations. It is the glory of primitive 
 Christianity to have swept away the heathen 
 rites along with the heathen deities, and its 
 good fortune to have been simultaneously 
 delivered from the scarcely less burdensome 
 8 
 
PREFACE 
 
 Jewish ceremonies by the opportune destruc- 
 tion of Jerusalem. The New Testament is 
 anti-sacerdotal ; the " Teaching of the Twelve 
 Apostles " is anti-ritualistic ; the early records 
 of the Catacombs display dogma and ritual at 
 their minimum. Manifestly, however, the 
 standard of a small sect cannot be maintained 
 as it becomes an extensive society. Every 
 new convert brought of necessity his inherited 
 modicum of heathen prepossession ; and by 
 the time of Porphyry the Church was becom- 
 ing full of doctrines which would have aroused 
 the horror of the primitive Christians, and 
 ceremonies which would have excited their 
 ridicule. By this process, nevertheless, de- 
 formed as it might be from the point of view 
 of its original beauty, it was becoming a 
 power in secular things. During all the 
 period an exactly reverse movement had been 
 going on in philosophic heathenism, which, 
 though still trammelled by external veneration 
 for an official creed, was, under Seneca, Marcus 
 Aurelius, and Porphyry himself, growing 
 9 
 
PREFACE 
 
 as unworldly as Christianity in its purest 
 days. The ascending and descending buckets 
 had met in the well, and hung for a moment 
 in equilibrium; but every day altered this 
 balance to the disadvantage of philosophy. 
 Porphyry's profound consciousness of the 
 mutation of things breathes throughout his 
 treatise. Though nominally a professor of 
 the religion of the State, he writes like the 
 teacher of a conventicle. He addresses a 
 select flock, a sHlk Gemeinde. The prohibi- 
 tion to seek after riches practically excludes 
 the commercial classes from the sphere of his 
 influence : the prohibition to enter into con- 
 troversy debars the philosophical church from 
 extending itself by missionary effort, as the 
 Christian was doing every day. More signi- 
 ficant still, Porphyry has lost confidence in the 
 State. "The conventional law," he says, 
 meaning thereby the jurisprudence of the 
 public tribunals, "is subject to expediency, 
 and is difi^erently laid down at difi^erent times 
 according to the arbitrary will of the prevail- 
 
 lO 
 
PREFACE 
 
 ing government." This was very nearly the 
 position of the primitive Christians, except 
 that they were animated by the expectation 
 of a supernatural renovation of the world in 
 their own time. Porphyry could entertain no 
 such fallacious belief, but for want of it his 
 outlook on the world s affairs is discouraging ; 
 and his morality, though most spiritual, is 
 not sufficiently " on fire with emotion." 
 Philosophy is retiring into the cloister from 
 which Christianity is emerging. 
 
 It is evident, then, with all our admiration 
 for Porphyry's sanity and disinterestedness, so 
 infinitely above the current Christian theology 
 of his day, that he could not prevail in his 
 contest with the latter, nor was it for the 
 world's interest that he should. Philosophy 
 had lost the power of guiding men In the 
 mass, just at the time when it was most 
 imperative that that power should be exerted. 
 It certainly seemed for a space that the failure 
 of Christianity would be even more disastrous. 
 It is incontestable that Christianity has not 
 
PREFACE 
 
 always at first proved an unmixed benefit to 
 the nations which have adopted it. The 
 degeneracy of Saxons, Franks and Celts,* as 
 soon as the new religion had, become firmly 
 established among them, can be no merely 
 accidental coincidence. But the evil wrought 
 among these was nothing to the general 
 collapse of patriotism and public spirit 
 throughout the Roman Empire under Christian 
 influences. In theory the regenerated con- 
 verts ought to have surpassed their ancestors 
 in every virtue ; in fact, they sank to a lower 
 level than Greece or Rome had known in the 
 worst of times. Nothing can be more 
 comical, only that nothing can be more 
 tragical, than the attitude of St. Augustine, 
 calmly sitting down to plot out a heavenly 
 city in the midst of the ruin of the earthly 
 city which he had helped to bring about. 
 
 * A striking illustration of the lowering of the standard of heroism 
 and honour among the Irish, consequent upon the introduction of 
 Christianity, may be found by a comparison of the story of Maeldun, 
 in Joyce's " Old Celtic Romances," with the ancient heathen legends 
 that precede it. 
 
 12 
 
PREFACE 
 
 But in every case the remedy came through 
 the infusion of fresh unspoiled blood, and the 
 same agency which had destroyed the old 
 order proved itself adequate to control the 
 new. It is obvious that the Goths, Vandals, 
 Alans, Heruli and Gepidae, could not have 
 profited greatly by the instructions of Por- 
 phyry ; and that a prescient Providence had 
 done wisely to create the only instrument by 
 which, so far as we can see, they could have 
 been " subdued to the useful and the good ; " 
 at the cost, it must be admitted, of truth and 
 beauty which the world can ill spare. But 
 Providence, as Peer Gynt justly observes, " is 
 not economical." 
 
 Porphyry and his compeers had their day of 
 resurrection. If the thirty Christian contro- 
 versialists who had contended with him in 
 his life could have returned to earth near the 
 end of the fifteenth century, they would have 
 found the object of their animosity, with 
 other similar objects, enthroned not very far 
 13 
 
PREFACE 
 
 off the Fathers as commentators on the Greek 
 Scriptures, Plato and Aristotle. So it has 
 continued, so it may continue for ever, for 
 the ancient battle-field has shifted, or rather 
 sunk into the earth. We have spoken hitherto 
 as though Porphyry and the Christians were 
 irreconcilably at variance, but in truth both 
 were agreed upon a vpwTov \pEvSoc, which lay 
 at the root of their respective faiths. Both 
 were sure that things were not as Heaven 
 intended them to have been ; they differed 
 respecting the explanation: the Christians 
 holding that the world had incurred a 
 curse from which it needed redemption, Por- 
 phyry deeming that every human soul had 
 literally " tumbled " out of light into darkness. 
 This imaginary fall, it will be observed, is the 
 very keynote of this treatise. Both views, it 
 need not be said, are diametrically opposed to 
 the teaching of modern science, which, without 
 disputing the undeniable fact of the existence 
 of moral evil, explains it as the survival of 
 qualities useful, and indeed necessary, while 
 
PREFACE 
 
 man was passing through inferior grades of 
 being, but unlovely and noxious in the con- 
 dition which he has now attained, and more 
 and more so in proportion to every advance 
 of which this condition may prove capable. 
 This is no mere ingenious speculation, but a 
 truth pregnant with the most important 
 ethical results. To Porphyry and his contem- 
 poraries, the moral constitution was mainly the 
 concern of the individual. Science, by assert- 
 ing its physical origin and physical trans- 
 mission, makes it a concern of the race. 
 Hence a conception of duty to posterity, sur- 
 passing in grandeur and cogency any incentive 
 to right action which either Porphyry or his 
 opponents could conceive ; hence, too, that 
 present universal and irresistible shift of 
 religion from a theocentric to an anthropo- 
 centric attitude of which every thinking 
 man must in our time be conscious. These 
 circumstances lend especial interest to Por- 
 phyry's views on human duties, and it 
 is deeply to be lamented that the only extant 
 15 
 
PREFACE 
 
 manuscript of his treatise fails us just as he is 
 entering upon the subject. So far as he has 
 proceeded, he has spoken only of the duties 
 of the master towards the slave. His pre- 
 cepts are admirable as such, but he has not 
 delved to the root of the matter; he sees 
 nothing intrinsically wrong in the ownership 
 of man by man, and has no conception 
 of freedom as the inalienable prerogative 
 of every human being. That so excellent 
 a moralist should have been unable to perceive 
 in the fourth century what is plain to every 
 civilised man in the nineteenth, is of itself 
 a sufficient demonstration of the reality of 
 human progress. 
 
 RICHARD GARNETT. 
 
 British Museum, 
 October 1895. 
 
 16 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 In the year 332 B.C. Alexander the Greaty, 
 flushed with the victories of Granicus and Issus^, 
 took Tyre after a seven months' resistance, be-r- 
 sieged and captured Gaza, and marched thence in^ 
 undisputed course to the frontier of Egypt. Here 
 he conceived a mighty scheme : the foundation of 
 a city, which should be the centre and keystone of' 
 his rule, where Europe, Asia and Africa should 
 meet and hold communion, where the best intel- 
 lects of the known world should assemble, where- 
 the greatest of kings might show that he was also- 
 the pupil of the greatest of philosophers. 
 
 Thus Alexandria came into being with its two 
 splendid harbours, its Pharos, the wonder of the 
 world, its magnificent public buildings. Alexander 
 himself marked out the circuit of the walls, the 
 direction of the principal streets, and the sites of 
 the numerous temples. But he never saw the city 
 17 B 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 completed ; and, instead of his throne, it sheltered 
 his tomb.. 
 
 It was left for his successor in Egypt, Ptolemy 
 Soter, to make Alexander's dream a reality. His 
 desire was to collect about him an aristocracy of 
 intellect — the wise men of the world. And they 
 came ; for Ptolemy could offer them that with 
 which even wise men cannot dispense — honour and 
 security, and but little of these fell to their lot in 
 those troublous days of Greece. Thus originated 
 the celebrated Alexandrian Museum and the even 
 more celebrated Library. Thus there grew up a 
 second Athens, but an Athens tainted by Oriental 
 luxury, which could not tell proudly of its " love of 
 beauty free from extravagance." 
 
 This beautiful city at the meeting-place of three 
 continents was a fitting home for all that was best 
 in Art, Science, and Thought. It was natural that 
 Philosophy should revive in this genial influence, 
 and that, side by side with the dream of an universal 
 State should grow up the vision of an universal 
 philosophy, one that should contain within itself all 
 that was essential in all philosophies, should pene- 
 trate to the essence of things, and show that the 
 main features of all were identical. 
 
 The history of ancient philosophy resolves itself 
 into a continuous contest between Idealism and 
 Materialism ; and the balance sways backwards and 
 i8 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 forwards between them according to the spirit of 
 the age each school represents. The Stoic and 
 Epicurean schools represented a reaction against the 
 mere formalism of the later Academicians and 
 Peripatetics. But in the more luxurious days that 
 followed, Epicureanism degenerated into a mere cult 
 of pleasure, against which reaction was inevitable. 
 Stoicism held its ground the longest, and accom- 
 modated itself by internal changes to the changing 
 spirit ; until at last it too succumbed before the 
 newer teaching. 
 
 The centre of the new doctrine was Alexandria. 
 After the conquest of Egypt by Rome in 29 B.C. 
 this city lost some of its political importance, but it 
 became more than ever a centre of cosmopolitan 
 learning, where Greek and Roman, Jew and 
 Egyptian contributed their quota to the intel- 
 lectual life. The philosophers who founded Neo- 
 Platonism, really desired to revive the teachings of 
 their master Plato in their pristine purity, but 
 this was no longer possible. Just as the State was 
 no longer purely Greek, but a combination of 
 Roman, Greek and Eastern elements, so it was 
 natural that these other influences should tell on 
 thought ; and that, instead of pure Platonism re- 
 vived, the result should be an eclectic system, 
 combining in itself the best of all its prede- 
 cessors. 
 
 19 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 The form this philosophy took was a more or 
 less religious one ; indeed there would seem no 
 reason why we should not apply the term Religion 
 to many of the developments of Neo-Platonism, 
 since its prominent features were ethical, and its 
 fundamental principle was the need of direct com- 
 munion with the Deity by faith and not by reason. 
 The whole spirit of Neo-Platonism may be summed 
 up in the longing for a mystic union with God. 
 Whether this mysticism was a purely Greek de- 
 velopment, or whether it was due in part to inter- 
 course with Oriental nations, is a point much 
 disputed, and which it is not necessary to consider 
 here. 
 
 The greatest of all the Neo-Platonists, the 
 master whose doctrine was reflected and ex- 
 pounded by Porphyry, was Plotinus, the most 
 metaphysical, most mystical, most incomprehen- 
 sible of all. He flourished in the third century 
 A.D. But the problems he faced had already been 
 considered by others. The Neo-Pythagoreans, 
 as faithful followers of their master, had preached 
 the value of asceticism as a purifying agency — a 
 doctrine that formed an important item in the 
 Neo-Platonic creed. In the domain of meta- 
 physics, some of them had already ventured on the 
 expedient of combining two systems, in attempting 
 to reconcile the ideas of Plato with the Numbers 
 20 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 of Pythagoras. Both the eclecticism and the 
 asceticism are important features of Neo-Pla- 
 tonism. The link between Neo-Pythagoreanism 
 and Neo-Platonism was supplied by Plutarch 
 (50—120 A.D,), who aimed at a purer conception 
 of God. This very purification necessitated the 
 assumption of another power. Since unity and 
 goodness are the properties of God, multiplicity 
 and evil cannot be attributed to Him. Hence 
 Plutarch finds himself obliged to admit dualism. 
 What to the Jews was Satan, to the Christians the 
 Slanderer, to the Persians Ahriman, to Empedokles 
 Strife, to Aristotle Negation (<rr£/ori<Ttc)) to Plato 
 " the other" (OarEpov), was to Plutarch the first 
 principle of evil. The unity of God causes another 
 difficulty. How can He be brought into contact 
 with humanity ? This necessitates the assumption 
 of intermediate beings, and these too became a 
 dogma of Neo-Platonism. But the aim of the 
 philosopher must always be to purify his soul that 
 he may be directly united to God. 
 
 Stoicism too contributed its quota. Originally a 
 materialistic system, it was becoming imbued with 
 Platonism ; and we find the distinction between 
 soul and body emphasised, and the metaphor of the 
 body as a prison, while the need of some external 
 help to virtue was beginning to be felt. 
 
 The Jewish element which is undoubtedly 
 21 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 traceable was due chiefly to the great Philo. Un- 
 consciously the Jews absorbed the ideas of Greek 
 philosophy, and read them into their own Scrip- 
 tures, maintaining, and doubtless believing, that 
 they read them out of them. They believed in an 
 opposition between the divine and the terrestrial, and 
 in an abstract conception of good, which, however, 
 they materialised into a concrete Jehovah. The 
 intermediate beings they found ready to hand in 
 the angels of their Scriptures. To these Philo adds 
 the Logos. The great infinite indivisible Deity 
 has two special attributes — goodness and power. 
 The third, which combines and unites them, is the 
 Logos (Thought or Reason), for it is through this 
 that God is good and powerful. The Logos 
 becomes the mediator between God and the world, 
 the ambassador of God, who communicates His 
 message to man, the interpreter of His will, the 
 viceroy who accomplishes it, the instrument 
 through which God created the world ; on the 
 other hand, he is the representative of the world in 
 its relation to the Godhead, the high priest who 
 intercedes for it, the idea of ideas, united to the 
 intelligible prototype of the world. Philo further 
 combines Platonic myth and Jewish Scripture in 
 his doctrine of the Fall. The descent of soul into 
 body is the fell of man ; his task in life is by 
 philosophy to rise above and out of the body, and 
 
 22 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 be united once more with pure spirit, free from 
 carnal desire. 
 
 This doctrine of the Fall was a cardinal point of 
 Neo-Platonism. Nowadays one of the chief 
 points of difference between philosophy and theo- 
 logy is the question as to the Ascent or Descent 
 of Man. Evolution tells us that we have risen, 
 and shall rise still further, if not the individual, at 
 least the race ; theology maintains that the human 
 race has fallen from a condition of innocence, that 
 we are born in sin and must strive by divine 
 help to regain our lost purity. Not reason nor 
 our own power can make us virtuous, but only 
 direct help from above. Revelation and original 
 sin are the orthodox doctrines of theology, and 
 they are essential elements of the Alexandrian 
 teaching, 
 
 Philo might find the doctrine of the Fall in the 
 early chapters of Genesis, and in many passages of 
 Plato. The Phaedo tells how the baser souls become 
 entangled in bodies and are drawn down to earth; and 
 they, and not the divine power, are responsible for 
 the misfortune of their birth. Nothing can save 
 them but philosophy, and turning away the soul 
 from the things of this world. " For if a man had 
 always on his arrival in this world, dedicated him- 
 self from the first to sound philosophy, and had 
 been moderately fortunate in the number of his lot, 
 23 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 he might be happy here, and also his journey to 
 another life and return to this, instead of being 
 rough and underground, would be smooth and 
 ■heavenly."* 
 
 In Plato philosophy includes virtue, and the 
 moral is that the virtuous man must be happy in 
 'this world and the next. But the Alexandrian 
 philosophers went beyond Plato. They introduced 
 ,a mystical element foreign to him, and probably 
 due to Oriental influence. God could not be 
 approached merely by reason or virtue, but the 
 pure soul might grasp Him by direct contact, might 
 in rare moments be united to Him and one with 
 Him. Thus Neo-Platonism assumes a theological 
 character, and the Alexandrian movement in some 
 of its aspects tends towards the foundation of a 
 universal religion. 
 
 But, though many of its elements are found 
 •scattered among earlier systems, yet it was not a 
 mere patchwork of older teachings. It was a 
 complete metaphysical system, built up by dialectic, 
 and confessedly based on the teachings of Plato, 
 though including much that is foreign to him. 
 The real architect of this scheme was Plotinus, 
 and, as such, he may claim the title of founder of 
 Neo-Platonism, though it was his master Ammo- 
 nius that first pointed out the way. 
 
 * Plato: Republic X, 619 E, Jowett's tran»lation. 
 24 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 Plotinus was born at Lykopolis in Egypt in 204 
 A.D. So at least we have reason to believe, but the 
 great philosopher himself always refused to tell the 
 date and place of his birth, since he did not desire 
 to dwell on the details of that great misfortune, the 
 descent of soul into body. At the age of twenty- 
 eight, being inspired by a desire to study philo- 
 sophy^ he visited the leading schools of Alexandria, 
 but nowhere could he find the teaching he sought 
 for. At last a friend took him to the school of 
 Ammonius Saccas ; and, on hearing him, Plotinus 
 exclaimed : " This is the man I am seeking." 
 
 Ammonius is accounted by some the founder of 
 Neo-Platonism. Originally a Christian, he had 
 abandoned that doctrine for the teaching of Plato, 
 and was endeavouring to refound Greek philosophy 
 on the double basis of Plato and Aristotle. He was 
 a poor man apparently, and had followed the trade 
 of a porter, but his wisdom drew around him many 
 of the best minds of his time. He designedly 
 abstained from committing his doctrines to writing, 
 herein following the example of the older Pythago- 
 rean schools ; and he exacted a promise from his 
 disciples, that they -too would not divulge to the 
 world at large his more secret dogtrines. His chief 
 pupils were Origen, Herennjus, Longinus and 
 Plotinus. Herennius is said to have first broken 
 his oath, and the others followed. 
 25 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 For eleven years Plotinus sat under Ammonius 
 Saccas ; then he set out for the East to study the 
 wisdom of Persia and India. At the age of forty 
 he settled in Rome, and there opened a school of 
 philosophy. Even before the edict of Caracalla had 
 conferred the rights of citizenship on provincial and 
 Italian alike, the Imperial city had learnt to wel- 
 come the great minds of the other nations over 
 whom she held sway. Rome was the intellectual 
 as well as the political centre, and every form of 
 philosophy, every religion but one, was held in 
 honour and found followers here. 
 
 In spite of the abstruse nature of his teaching, 
 crowds flocked around Plotinus. Men of science, 
 physicians, senators and lawyers came to hear him ; 
 even Roman ladies enrolled themselves among his 
 disciples. Rich men dying bequeathed their pro- 
 perty to him, and left their children in his charge, so 
 that his house was filled with youths and maidens. 
 The Emperor Gallienus even proposed to rebuild a 
 Campanian city, to bear the name Platonopolis, and 
 be administered by him on the principles of Plato's 
 Republic. This popularity of an abstruse philo- 
 sopher is a curious and perhaps unique phenomenon ; 
 and we can but ask whether Plotinus may not have 
 j condescended a little to his audience, and reserved 
 ' his inner doctrines for a privileged few. 
 
 Many anecdotes are told of Plotinus and his 
 26 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 admirers. He possessed in a strong degree the 
 power we now call thought-reading. On one 
 occasion a rich widow of his acquaintance had lost 
 a valuable necklace. Plotinus undertook to find 
 the thief, called up all the slaves, and at once named 
 the culprit. At another time he guessed and 
 frustrated Porphyry's intention of committing 
 suicide. He also foretold the future of all the lads 
 committed to his care. He entertained the greatest 
 contempt for his body, and refused to allow any 
 portrait of himself to be taken. When pressed on 
 this point, he answered : " As if it were not enough 
 to bear this image, with which Nature has sur- 
 rounded us, you think that a more lasting image of 
 this image should be left as a work worthy to be 
 inspected." However, a painter, who was one of 
 his admirers, studied his countenance during the 
 lectures, and produced his portrait from memory. 
 Those who knew him say that he was fair to look 
 upon, especially when his fece was lighted up by 
 the inspiration of speech. His hearers seem to 
 have been duly impressed with his ascetic prin- 
 ciples ; and it is amusing to read how one Roman 
 senator was unintentionally cured of the gout by re- 
 sorting to a low diet, in order to free his soul from 
 the thraldom of the body. 
 
 Plotinus died in 269 A.D., in the sixty-sixth year 
 of his age. He met his end with rejoicing, and 
 27 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 desired his friends to celebrate the day with glad- 
 ness. His last words were, " I am striving with all 
 my might to return the divine part of me to the 
 divine whole which fills the universe." After his 
 death his disciples consulted the oracle of Delphi as 
 to the place of his soul, and were told in answer 
 that it had escaped from the fetters of the body, 
 and now shared the lot of the higher demons, 
 striving ever upward in everlasting bliss. 
 
 Plotinus wrote in all fifty-four books, and the 
 task of editing and revising these fell to the lot of 
 his greatest disciple. Porphyry. Thanks to his 
 industry and devotion, the Enneads have been 
 preserved ; and this monumental work has main- 
 tained for posterity the leading tenets of Neo- 
 Platonism. 
 
 Its main theses had been enounced by its pre- 
 decessors, the opposition between matter and spirit, 
 the evil nature of matter, the necessity of extri- 
 cating ourselves from the body. These are as- 
 sumed without further proof, but Plotinus with his 
 wonderful metaphysical power describes, with 
 many intricacies, the hierarchy of heaven and earth, 
 traces in detail the line of beings intermediate 
 between the Supra-Rational, the Highest Being 
 (to irpwTov), the primal First Cause, which is Rest 
 and Unity, to which no attributes may be ascribed, 
 since attributes imply multiplicity, and the creatures 
 28 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 of the phenomenal world, which are sinful, moving, 
 ever changing. He distinguishes two spheres, that 
 of Intellect and that of Sense. Between the two 
 comes the Soul ; it is the outermost circle of light 
 that surrounds the primeval light ; outside all is dark- 
 ness. The world-soul must be distinguished from ' 
 the soul in man. Yet even these are not divided ; 
 only the bodies in which they dwell are distinct. 
 
 In the world of Sense unity is changed into 
 multiplicity, harmony into strife, pure reason into 
 a mixture of reason and necessity, eternity into 
 time, being into seeming and a flux of becoming. 
 Matter is the basis of everything sensual, and it is 
 the source of all evil, as the divine Being is the 
 source of all good. Yet Plotinus was too much of 
 a Greek to deny the beauty of the world. It must 
 be beautiful, he says, because it is part of the 
 general harmony ; but it is impure, because it 
 belongs to sense. On this very point of the beauty 
 of the world he combats the Christians, and in 
 spite of his own ascetic tendencies, blames their 
 contempt for the world, probably because to him 
 it seemed aimless and meaningless. Evil in his 
 eyes is weakness, a negation rather than an existent 
 thing ; evil action is a failure in the attempt at 
 right, therefore it needs no devil to prompt it. 
 
 Plotinus describes at great length the history of 
 the soul before it enters the body. In reality souls 
 29 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 enter bodies, because they are the links between 
 two worlds, and the tendency is downward. Here 
 he follows Plato. The soul is immortal, the body 
 is mortal ; a very bad soul may perish, a very good 
 soul may ascend to the stars ; average souls enter 
 bodies again. Death separates soul and body, but it 
 does not help the soul to rise, unless it has freed itself 
 from earthly taint by philosophy. The aim of the 
 philosopher is therefore to separate soul and body 
 by ending the desire of the soul for the body. 
 Hence Plotinus does not approve of suicide, for 
 nothing would be gained by this violent separation. 
 " There is," says Porphyry,* " a twofold death, the 
 one indeed universally known, in which the body is 
 liberated from the soul ; but the other peculiar to 
 philosophers, in which the soul is liberated from the 
 body. Nor does the one entirely follow the other." 
 The beauty of the world has an ethical value. It 
 kindles desire after the good, and thus we may 
 "rise on stepping-stones" from sensual to highest 
 beauty. 
 
 Plotinus does not deny a subordinate importance 
 to practical and political virtues. But far above 
 them are the theoretical or contemplative, by which 
 the soul, freed from evil, freed even from thought, 
 is united direct to the Highest Being. This is the 
 
 * " Auxiliaries to the Perception of Intelligible Natures, I." trans- 
 lated by Thomas Taylor. 
 
 30 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 condition of ecstasy, to which Plotinus is said to 
 have attained four times in six years. These 
 moments of ecstasy are short and rare, and the 
 direct upward path is on the same h'ne as the 
 downward. 
 
 The teaching of Plotinus is an esoteric doctrine ; 
 his spiritual beings may be identified in the teach- 
 ing of the vulgar with the gods of the popular 
 religion. He has a preference for this, as the 
 doctrine of his own country, but he is conscious 
 that the esoteric teaching of all religions is the 
 same, and hence is tolerant towards every other. 
 The multitude cannot attain this divine contem- 
 plation ; they must pursue the lower path of the 
 practical virtues. 
 
 Such are in very brief outline the cardinal doctrines 
 of Plotinus. That they were ever made known to 
 the world is due largely to his favourite pupil. 
 Porphyry. It was he who induced his master to 
 break his vow, and write books to clear up points 
 that were left obscure. Plotinus' writings filled 
 fifty-four books, and it was these that Porphyry 
 arranged in six Enneades (groups of nine). We 
 learn that Plotinus never revised a page, and both 
 wrote and spelt badly j hence his disciple's task can 
 have been no sinecure, and he well deserved the 
 epithet bestowed on him by Eunapius, " a kind of 
 Mercury's chain let down among men " to com- 
 31 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 municate to them the learning and wisdom from 
 above. 
 
 Porphyry was a Tyrian of good descent. He 
 was born in the year 233 A.D. He early showed a 
 fondness for travel, which seems to have been a 
 characteristic of the philosophers of those days, who 
 ranged from country to country, in search of the 
 teacher at whose feet it should be most profitable to 
 sit. There is some uncertainty about the hst of his 
 teachers and the places he visited. He studied 
 under Origen, perhaps at Cssarea, and he seems 
 at one time to have visited Alexandria. At Athens 
 he heard Apollonius and Longinus. At the age of 
 twenty he went to Rome, attracted by the fame of 
 Plotinus, but found that the great master had closed 
 his school and returned to the East. He then 
 went back to Longinus, and sat under him for 
 many years, becoming at last the chief ornament of 
 his school. Longinus was a man of such great 
 learning that " he was accounted a kind of living 
 library or walking study."* He was more of a 
 critic than a metaphysician, and he did not go with 
 the Alexandrians on all points, and refused to follow 
 Ammonius when he went beyond the limits of 
 Platonism. It is to him that Porphyry owes the 
 name by which we know him. His real name was 
 Malchus-^in the Syro-Phoenician language a king- 
 
 * Eunapius, translated by Smith. 
 32 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 and Longinus bestowed on him the title Porphyrius 
 {irop<pvpioc), either as symbolic of the royal purple, 
 or, as some say, on account of the favourite colour 
 of his garments. 
 
 At the age of thirty, he once more set out for 
 Rome, this time as a confirmed disciple of Lon- 
 ginus, and, apparently somewhat uplifted by spiri- 
 tual pride, if, as Eunapius assures us, he travelled to 
 Rome, " that he might measure the worth and 
 greatness of the city by the wisdom he found in it." 
 Here he soon came into conflict with Plotinus. 
 Having actually ventured to attack one of the 
 master's dogmas in a written treatise, he was 
 assailed in his turn by Amelias, one of Plotinus' 
 disciples. A written controversy ensued, from 
 which Porphyry issued converted — a result rare 
 surely in the history of controversy — and ever 
 afterwards he continued the most faithful and 
 orthodox of Neo-Platonists. So dear did he be- 
 come to his master, that the greater part of 
 Plotinus' books were actually written in answer to 
 Porphyry's questions, so perhaps it was but fair 
 after all that Porphyry should have the task of 
 putting them in order. 
 
 For six years Porphyry sat under Plotinus, and 
 listened to the doctrines of the evil of matter, the 
 baseness of body, and the greatness of the philoso- 
 pher's task. At last despair at the smallness of his 
 33 c 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 own powers came over him, and " he conceived a 
 hatred of body, and could no longer endure the 
 fetters of mortality." * 
 
 " Thus at the same time abandoning the causes 
 of his sorrow and delight, away he hastened to 
 Lilybasum, where he lay bewailing himself, and 
 macerating himself with hunger, and abstaining 
 from all manner of food, and withal from all human 
 conversation. Nor was the great Plotinus out of 
 the way in his conjecture of what was become of 
 him. He tracked him therefore by his footsteps, 
 and searching diligently after the young fugitive, 
 found him where he lay all alone in a sad condition ; 
 at which time, with a wealthy store of comfortable 
 words, he recalled his soul just ready to take flight 
 from his body, and strengthened his body to receive 
 his soul. And thus revived, he returned to himself 
 again, and wrote down in a book the discourses 
 that passed between them." t 
 
 Such is Eunapius' version of the story, but there 
 are others which state that Plotinus sought 
 Porphyry out in Rome, and advised him to go to 
 Sicily, thinking perhaps that rest and change might 
 help him to shake ofF his melancholy. There is a 
 good deal of obscurity about the details of Porphyry's 
 life, for it does not seem as though any faithful 
 
 * Thomas Taylor, " Introduction to Select Works of Porphyry." 
 f Eunapius, translated by Smith, 
 
 34 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 disciple had done for him what he did for Plotinus, 
 and given the world an account of his master. It 
 seems agreed that he remained for some time in 
 Sicily, and Christian writers assert that his time 
 there was spent in writing fifteen books against 
 their doctrines. Frpm Sicily he passed to Car- 
 thage, and thence returned to Rome after the death 
 of Plotinus. Here he taught for some years, and 
 here, in 302 a.d., he married Marcella, a Roman 
 lady, the widow of a friend. Nothing further is 
 known to us about her. There is a conjecture that 
 she had once been a Christian, and that after her 
 marriage she reverted to her early faith. The 
 evidence for this is a passage in Porphyry's collection 
 of oracles {irspt rrig 'k Xoyltov ^i\oao(j)iag), quoted 
 by St. Augustine and others, in which a husband asks 
 the oracle by what means he may turn his wife from 
 Christianity. The answer is that it would be easier 
 to write on water or fly through air than to recall her 
 erring mind. There seems, however, no ground for 
 supposing that this refers to Porphyry's wife, and 
 the evidence of his own words in his letter to 
 Marcella seems sufficient to disprove the hypo- 
 thesis. 
 
 In order that there should be no mistake about 
 
 the motives that prompted his marriage. Porphyry 
 
 seems to have explained that it was no mere 
 
 commonplace love nor the desire to promote his 
 
 35 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 own domestic comfort, or to have children of his 
 own, but because she had a disposition suited to 
 philosophy, and because he desired to give her a 
 home and help her bring up her seven children. 
 Ten months after the marriage the husband was 
 called away on some business which he describes as 
 connected with "the aiFairs of the Greeks,"* and 
 the will of the gods. And this journey has given 
 rise to many conjectures. A passage of Lactantius 
 deals with the persecutions endured by the Chris- 
 tians of Bithyniain the year 302. In these, he says, 
 two men took a leading part, one of whom pro- 
 fessed to be a high priest of philosophy [antistes 
 fhilosophiee\ but was in reality a man of vicious 
 habits, who hunted after wealth, while preaching 
 the beauty of poverty. It has been suggested that 
 the person here alluded to was Porphyry, and that 
 he had been sent hither by the Emperor Diocle- 
 tian to put down the Christians. The slander, for 
 such we may surely consider it, is of old standing, t 
 but the discovery of the letter to Marcella, in 
 which he hints that his journey was taken for 
 religious reasons, has given some fresh colour to the 
 story. 
 
 Perhaps the best refutation may be found in the 
 language used about him by his Christian oppo- 
 
 * Letter to Marcella. 
 f Vide Holstenius, " Vita Porphyrii." 
 36 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 nents, who certainly had no reasons to deal gently 
 with him ; and yet bear full testimony to the 
 nobility of his character. Whoever the unworthy 
 philosopher may have been, we are surely justified 
 in believing the vices and excesses described to be 
 incompatible with the asceticism and simplicity of 
 life which Porphyry is known to have practised, 
 and which he is not likely to have abandoned at the 
 age of sixty-nine. He might have seen no objection 
 to persecuting the Christians, since their religion 
 was the one exception to his rule of universal 
 toleration, but he had other means of attack at his 
 disposal, if it is true that thirty Christians were 
 required to refute his writings against them. 
 
 The latter part of Porphyry's life is largely lost 
 in obscurity, but it seems certain that he returned 
 once more to Rome, and died there. Of the 
 manner of his death we know nothing. Even the 
 date is uncertain, but it was probably about 305. 
 
 It was during this last absence that he wrote the 
 letter to his wife, which was completely lost for so' 
 many centuries, and was only discovered in 1816 
 by Cardinal Mai, when searching for manuscripts of 
 Dionysius of Halicarnassus in the Ambrosian 
 Library at Milan. It aims at impressing on Marcella 
 the consolations of philosophy, and it bids her not 
 grieve for " the absence of him who sustains thy 
 soul, and Js to thee father, husband, teacher and 
 37 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 kindred," since it is but the " shadow and visible 
 image " which are absent, while if she can learn to 
 ascend into herself, "collecting together all the 
 powers which the body has scattered and broken up 
 into a multitude of parts, unlike their former unity, 
 to which concentration lent strength," then soul 
 may meet soul in all purity, and distance be anni- 
 hilated. Thus his attempt at consolation becomes 
 a text, on which to hang a simple version of his 
 philosophy, suited to the feminine understanding, 
 and it thus supplies something like an easy abstract 
 of Porphyry's ethical teaching, which he who runs 
 may read. 
 
 The letter to Marcella suggests a religious treatise, 
 and this is natural, since it was the ethical side of 
 Neo-Platonism that, attracted Porphyry, and his 
 practical tendency led him to consider the 
 conduct of life, as based on the teachings of his 
 master. 
 
 The aim of philosophy is a moral life, the cure of 
 moral evils, the purification of our activity. Know- 
 ledge is only a means of purification, not in itself 
 an essential part of the highest life. The philo- 
 sopher is the physician of the soul. The motive of 
 philosophy is the salvation of the soul. 
 
 There is an essential opposition between matter 
 and spirit, yet the world of sense has sprung from 
 the world of spirit. The highest power produced 
 38 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 one below it, and so on in a downward course, in 
 which multiplicity and evil increase, the further in 
 the scale beings are removed from the great First 
 Cause, for " everything which generates by its very 
 essence generates that which is inferior to itself."* 
 At last the soul which hovers between the two 
 worlds inclines downwards, and produces a lower 
 power akin to the body, which combines with it. 
 Now this descent on the part of the soul is volun- 
 tary, just as in Plato it is the souls which are 
 weighted by the corporeal that are dragged down, 
 again into the visible world.f It is the soul which 
 seeks the body. " Nature indeed binds the body to 
 the soul, but the soul binds herself to the body. 
 Nature therefore liberates the body from the soul,, 
 but the soul liberates herself from the body." J 
 
 Before ever the soul entered this earthly life, it 
 dwelt in the heaven of the fixed stars. Thence it 
 descended to earth through the seven planetary 
 spheres, clothing itself from their substance with 
 an aerial body {irvsvfia). This accompanies it 
 when it leaves the earthly body, and is fashioned 
 according to its preference for some earthly form. 
 The purest souls receive ethereal bodies, the next 
 class solar, the third class lunar bodies. Those 
 
 • Porphyry, "Auxiliaries to the Perception of InteUigibler 
 Natures," I. Translated by Thomas Taylor. 
 
 t Phzdo. t "Auxiliaries," 
 
 39 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 lowest in the scale, who have weighted their Trvivfia 
 by the damp mists of earthly atmosphere, are drawn 
 down below the earth. The pure souls have a 
 merely spiritual existence, free from desire, imagi- 
 nation, and remembrance of earthly things. 
 
 It follows that the aim of the philosopher must 
 be to rise to the height of these pure spirits. Since 
 body is opposed to soul, since love of God cannot 
 be combined with love of the body, the aim of life 
 must be the purification of the soul, and its 
 liberation from the bonds of the body. This is not 
 attained by death alone, but by freeing the soul 
 from a longing for the body. 
 
 There are four classes of virtues : the political 
 virtues, the purifying virtues, the intellectual 
 virtues, the contemplative virtues. The political 
 virtues tend to moderate passions, the purifying to 
 withdraw the soul from earthly things, the intel- 
 lectual then enable man to turn towards the First 
 Cause, but the contemplative lead him straight to 
 God. " The political virtues therefore adorn the 
 mortal man, and are the forerunners of purifica- 
 tions. The virtue of him who proceeds to the 
 contemplative life consists in a departure from 
 terrestrial concerns."* " He who energises accord- 
 ing to the practical virtues is a worthy man ; but he 
 who energises according to the cathartic (purifying) 
 
 * "Auxiliaries," II. 
 40 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 virtues is an angelic man, or is also a good 
 demon. He who energises according to the intel- 
 lectual virtues alone is a god, but he who energises 
 according to the paradeigmatic* virtues is the father 
 ofgods."t 
 
 The last contain in themselves all the rest, but it 
 is the purifying to which we must give most heed, 
 for these lead the way to the others. It is these 
 that shall set us on the first rung of the upward 
 ladder, which can lead us back to the glory whence 
 we came. " He who wishes to return to his proper 
 kindred and associates, should not only with alacrity 
 begin the journey, but in order that he may be 
 properly received, should meditate how he may 
 divest himself of everything of a foreign nature 
 which he has assumed, and should recall to his 
 memory such things as he has forgotten, and with- 
 out which he cannot be admitted to his kindred and 
 friends." J To attain this it is necessary that "we 
 should divest ourselves of everything of a mortal 
 nature which we have assumed, together with an 
 adhering affection for it, which is the cause of our 
 
 * The paradeigma [TrapiZayiia) is the First Cause — the great 
 model and pattern of the universe. (See Plato, Tim. z8 C, Ref. 500 E.) 
 The paradeigmatic virtues are those by which the soul becomes one 
 with God. 
 
 + "Auxiliaries," II. 
 
 X " On Abstinence from Animal Food," I. Translated by 
 Thomcs Taylor 
 
 4« 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 descent, and that we should excite our recollection 
 of that blessed and eternal essence, and should 
 hasten our return to the nature which is without 
 colour and without quality, earnestly endeavouring 
 to accomplish two things : one that we may cast 
 aside everything material and mortal, but the other 
 that we may properly return and be conversant 
 with our true kindred, ascending to them in a way 
 contrary to that in which we descended hither."* 
 We must then "endeavour to the utmost of our 
 power to withdraw ourselves from sense and imagi- 
 nation and the irrationality with which they are 
 attended, and also from the passions which subsist 
 about them, as far as the necessity of our condition 
 in this life will permit .... We must therefore 
 divest ourselves of our manifold garments, both of 
 this visible and fleshly vestment, and of those with 
 which we are internally clothed, and which are 
 proximate to our cutaneous habiliments ; and we 
 must enter the stadium naked and unclothed, striv- 
 ing for the greatest of all prizes, the Olympia of the 
 soul." 
 
 To attain this end we must tread the path of 
 asceticism, not merely abstaining from food, but 
 also checking all desire for it. " For what benefit 
 shall we derive by abstaining from deeds, when at 
 
 *"On Abstinence from Animal Food," I. Translated by 
 Thomas Taylor. 
 
 42 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 the same time we tenaciously adhere to the causes 
 from which the deeds proceed ? " We must subdue 
 our passions by abstinence from those visible per- 
 ceptions which excite them. 
 
 " Among these passions and perturbations those 
 which arise from food are to be enumerated."* 
 
 Thus to avoid excess in food is a help towards 
 the higher life. We should especially avoid flesh 
 food, because it weights and clogs our bodies, and 
 — which is even worse — may introduce malefic 
 demons into them. A vegetarian diet is to be pre- 
 ferred. Among other arguments against animal 
 food. Porphyry introduces one in his treatise on 
 the subject that must have been very unusual in 
 that age — the injustice towards the animals them- 
 selves. He even speaks of them with some affec- 
 tion, and tells some of the little stories about their 
 sagacity that are so common nowadays, but rare 
 surely in the mouth of a Hellene — e.g., "A lamprey 
 was so accustomed to the Roman Crassus as to 
 come to him when he called it by its name, on 
 which account Crassus was so affectionately dis- 
 posed towards it that he exceedingly lamented its 
 death, though prior to this he had borne the loss 
 of his three children with moderation." t 
 
 * " On Abstinence from Animal Food," I. Translated by 
 Thomas Taylor. 
 t Ibid. III. 
 
 43 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 Abstinence from animal food is an act of justice, 
 and — which is even more important — it is a help 
 on the upward path, " since for that purpose it is 
 necessary to exchange the life which the multitude 
 leads for another, and to become purified both in 
 words and deeds." * 
 
 The aim being a purer and higher life, every 
 right means to that end should be adopted. It was 
 this need of external aids that turned the later Neo- 
 Platonists towards the help of religion. Porphyry 
 is willing to tolerate the polytheism of the multi- 
 tude, while himself accepting their gods as symbols, 
 and giving an esoteric interpretation to their 
 mythology. The wise men are the few, and they 
 must not hold the opinions of the multitude con- 
 cerning God, but they may join in the common 
 worship, provided that their sacrifices are only " the 
 first offerings of fruits that are used by men and 
 cakes made of the fine flour of wheat." t Those 
 whose thoughts are not pure should not speak of 
 God, and even the pure-minded will say little, " for 
 the knowledge of God makes discourse short." t 
 Sacrifice, though permissible, is of no special value 
 either to giver or receiver. " We are not harmed 
 by reverencing God's altars, or benefited by neglect- 
 
 * " On Abstinence from Animal Food," I. Translated by 
 Thomas Taylor. 
 
 •)• liU. IV. J Letter to Marcella. 
 
 44 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 ing them. But whoever honours God under the 
 impression that He is in need of him, ignorantly 
 supposes himself to be greater than God." " God is 
 not in need of any one, and the wise man is in 
 need of God alone." * Prayer is allowed with limi- 
 tations. The highest God must not be invoked by 
 the human voice. We may pray to the gods of the 
 second class, but we must not ask anything un- 
 worthy of them. " For to each of the divinities a 
 sacrifice is to be made of the first-fruits of the 
 things which he bestows, and through which he 
 nourishes and preserves us. As therefore the 
 husbandman offers handfuls of the fruits and berries 
 which the season first produces, thus also we should 
 offer to the divinities the first-fruits of our concep- 
 tions of their transcendent excellence, giving them 
 thanks for the contemplation which they impart to 
 us and truly nourishing us through the vision of 
 themselves which they afford us, associating with, 
 appearing to, and shining upon us for our salva- 
 tion." t 
 
 There seems a little inconsistency in Porphyry's 
 tolerance of the popular belief in material deities ; 
 and his Christian opponents did not hesitate to 
 accuse him of cowardice in refusing to renounce 
 polytheism entirely. But Porphyry, Hke many 
 another noble Pagan, shrank from Christianity as a 
 
 « Letter to Marcella. t " Abstinence," II. 
 
 45 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 revolutionary and uncompromising doctrine ; and, 
 while willing to see good in every national religion, 
 such as the Jewish, Chaldasan and Egyptian, he 
 remained to the last one of the bitterest foes of 
 Christianity. It may be that the very points of 
 resemblance between the two creeds tended to 
 emphasise the differences, and unquestionably even 
 amid the fiercest disputes they influenced each 
 other strongly, though probably Zeller is right in 
 thinking that Christianity borrowed more from 
 Neo-Platonism than the latter from Christianity. 
 Porphyry wrote fifteen books against the Chris- 
 tians. He was a formidable foe, for his knowledge 
 of the Bible was wide and accurate, and he antici- 
 cipated the German critics in discovering the late 
 date of the Book of Daniel. It is believed that 
 these books were purposely destroyed by his oppo- 
 nents ; at any rate they have not come down to us, 
 but those who are curious as to the controversy will 
 find many references to it in the writings of St. 
 Augustine. All that is impure and gross in the 
 religion of the multitude Porphyry lays to the 
 charge of evil demons. It is they who cause the 
 belief that evil comes from the gods, and that 
 they must be appeased by the sacrifice of animals. 
 They do this that they may nourish themselves 
 with the smoke from the altars ; moreover, they are 
 the authors of magic and of everything that is base 
 46 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 in connection with Paganism. Even for the multi- 
 tude he desires to purify religion, and with a view 
 to this he expounds the inner meaning of the 
 Platonic and other myths, on which he lays great 
 stress. But the true philosopher will take little 
 heed of outward forms, for they do not concern him. 
 Like the Stoic sage, " he is his own priest ; he only 
 is beloved by God, and knows how to pray." 
 
 Plotinus marks the highest metaphysical, Por- 
 phyry the highest ethical attainment of Neo- 
 Platonism. After him it degenerated. The religious 
 side preponderated, and with it elaborate interpreta- 
 tions of myths, magic, and the like, which tended 
 towards a restoration of polytheism. At a later 
 date in the schools of Athens the revived study of 
 Aristotle led philosophy back to scientific principles. 
 But its work was done, for Christianity had 
 triumphed ; it degenerated into mere scholasticism, 
 and in this form dragged on an obscure existence 
 until Justinian closed the schools of Athens in 529. 
 But even then the end of Neo-Platonism had not 
 come. The revived study of Plato at the Re- 
 nascence produced new forms of it ; and in our 
 own day the Theosophists hold many of its tenets. 
 As long as Plato is read and honoured — and that 
 will be for many a long day — it is probable that he 
 will receive fresh interpretations j and those who 
 seek after signs and wonders will confound his 
 47 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 teaching with that of the later degenerate Neo- 
 Platonists. For the intelligible interpretation of 
 pure Neo-Platonism at its best Porphyry has done 
 more than any other philosopher. 
 
 Unfortunately but few of his many works have 
 come down to us except in fragments. " Rhetoric, 
 grammar, numbers, geometry, music, philosophy, 
 natural and magical operations " are named with 
 magnificent vagueness by Eunapius as the subjects 
 with which he dealt. Those that have come down 
 to us fairly complete are — (i) A Life of Pytha- 
 goras. (2) A Life of Plotinus. (3) A treatise on 
 abstinence from animal food (TrEjoi aTro^ijc Ippvxwv). 
 (4) The Cave of the Nymphs {TrspX rov iv 'OSwito-ei^ 
 Twv vvfi(j)wv avTpov), an allegorical interpretation of 
 a passage in the Odyssey. (5) Auxiliaries to the 
 perception of intelligible natures (dfopfial ttjooc to. 
 voriTo), a sort of anthology, with comment, from 
 Plotinus. (6) A letter to Marcella, of which the 
 end is wanting. 
 
 Thomas Taylor the Platonist (1750-1835), who 
 devoted so much loving care to a revival of Platonic 
 study, has translated the third, fourth and fifth of 
 these, and summarised the life of Plotinus. The 
 letter to Marcella is not an original work, being 
 full of quotations from Homer, Plato, Epicurus 
 and the Pythagorean philosophers. But it forms 
 an excellent summary of Porphyry's ethical views, 
 48 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 and the purpose for which it was written — to con- 
 sole his wife in his absence — gives it an additional 
 interest. As far as I am aware, no English trans- 
 lation of this letter has as yet appeared ; and I am 
 therefore venturing to offer my own to the public^ 
 though I am deeply conscious of my inability 
 worthily to perform this task. I can but hope that 
 it may be of some use and interest to those who 
 care to study the great minds of other creeds, in 
 order to realise more fully than before the essential 
 unity of truth. 
 
 Five editions of this letter have appeared, the 
 first in 1 8 1 6j by Cardinal Mai ; the second by 
 Orelli (1819) ; the third by Mai, in his collection 
 Classici Auctores (1831); the fourth and fifth by 
 Nauck, in the Teubner Classics (i860 and 1886). 
 My translation has been made from Mai's text, but 
 I have adopted many of the suggestive readings in 
 the Teubner edition. I have also had access to an 
 Italian translation by Chinazzi. 
 
 In the opinion of experts the Codex is not anterior 
 to the fifteenth century, and perhaps is of a later datej 
 it is preserved in a volume with several Greek 
 pamphlets in the Ambrosian Library at Milan ; and 
 by permission of Dr. Antonio Ceriani my friend 
 Signor E. Torelli Viollier was able to execute the 
 photograph of the open volume exhibiting the 
 
 49 D 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 Codex which my publisher has reproduced as a 
 frontispiece. 
 
 To all these I desire to offer my warmest thanks ; 
 as well as to Dr. Garnett for his help and sympathy 
 throughout the work, to Mr. R. D. Hicks of 
 Trinity College, Cambridge, for most valuable 
 assistance with the translation, and to Professor 
 Postgate for several helpful suggestions. 
 
 50 
 
PORPHYRY THE PHILOSOPHER 
 TO MARCELLA 
 
PORPHYRY THE PHILOSOPHER 
 TO MARCELLA 
 
 I. I CHOSE thee as my wife, Marcella, though 
 thou wert the mother of five daughters and two 
 sons, some of whom are still little children, and 
 the others approaching a marriageable age ; and I 
 was not deterred by the multitude of things which 
 would be needful for their maintenance. And it 
 was not for the sake of having children that I 
 wedded thee, deeming that the lovers of true 
 wisdom were my children, and that thy children 
 too would be mine if ever these should embrace 
 right philosophy, when educated by us. Nor 
 yet was it because a superfluity of riches had fallen 
 either to thy lot or mine. For such necessaries 
 as are ours must suffice us who are poor. Neither 
 did I expect that thou wouldst afford me any ease 
 through thy ministrations as I advanced in years, 
 for thy frame is delicate, and more in need of 
 care from others than fitted to succour or watch 
 53 
 
PORPHYRY THE PHILOSOPHER 
 
 over them. Nor yet did I desire other housewifely 
 care from thee, nor sought I after honour and 
 praise from those who would not willingly have 
 undertaken such a burden for the mere sake of 
 doing good. Nay, it was far otherwise, for 
 throfugh the folly of thy fellow-citi?ens, and their 
 envy towards thee and thine, I encountered much 
 ill-speaking, and contrary to all expectation, I 
 fell into danger of death at their hands on your 
 behalf 
 
 2. For none of these causes did I choose another 
 to be partner of my life, but there was a twofold and 
 reasonable cause that swayed me. One part was 
 that I deemed I should thus propitiate the gods of 
 generation ; just as Sokrates in his prison chose to 
 compose popular music, for the sake of safety in his 
 departure from life, instead of his customary labours in 
 philosophy, so did I strive to propitiate the divinities 
 who preside over this tragi-comedy of ours,and shrank 
 not from celebrating in all willingness the marriage 
 hymn, though I took as my lot thy numerous 
 children, and thy straitened circumstances, and the 
 malice of evil-speakers. Nor were there lacking 
 any of th6se passions usually connected with a play 
 — jealousy, hatred, laughter, quarrelling and anger; 
 this alone excepted, that it was not with a view to 
 ourselves but for the sake of others that we enacted 
 this spectacle in honour of the gods. 
 54 
 
TO MARCELLA 
 
 3. Another worthier reason, in nowise resembling 
 that commonplace one, was that I admired thee 
 because thy disposition was suited to true philo- 
 sophy ; and when thou wast bereaved of thy hus- 
 band, a man dear to me, I deemed it not fitting to 
 leave thee without a helpmeet and wise protector 
 suited to thy character. Wherefore I drove away all 
 who were minded to use insult under false pretence, 
 and I endured foolish contumely, and bore in patience 
 with the plots laid against me, and strove, as far as 
 in my power lay, to deliver thee from all who tried 
 to lord it over thee. I recalled thee also to thy 
 proper mode of life, and gave thee a share in philo- 
 sophy, pointing out to thee a doctrine that should 
 guide thy life. And who could be a more faithful 
 witness to me than thyself, for I should deem it 
 shame to equivocate to thee, or conceal aught of 
 mine from thee, or to withhold from thee (who 
 honourest truth above all things, and therefore 
 didst deem our marriage a gift of Heaven) a 
 truthful relation from beginning to end of all 
 that I have done with respect to and during our 
 union. 
 
 4. Now had my business permitted me to remain 
 longer in your country, it would have been possible 
 for thee to still thy thirst with fresh and plentiful 
 draughts from fountains close at hand, so that, not 
 contenting thyself with as much of this gift as 
 
 55 
 
PORPHYRY THE PHILOSOPHER 
 
 would be requisite for ends of utility, thou couldst 
 rejoice in easily supplying thyself at thy leisure with 
 plentiful refreshment. But now the affairs of the 
 Greeks requiring me, and the gods too urging me 
 on, it was impossible for thee, though willing, to 
 answer the summons, with so large a number of 
 daughters attending thee. And I held it to be 
 both foolish and wicked to cast them thus without 
 thee among ill-disposed men. And now that I am 
 compelled to delay here, though I cherish the 
 hope of a speedy return, I would deem it right to 
 warn thee to keep firm hold of those gifts thou 
 ■didst receive in those ten months during which 
 thou didst live with me, and not to cast away that 
 thou already hast from desire and longing for more. 
 As for me, I am making what haste I can to rejoin 
 thee. 
 
 5. Yet considering the uncertainty of the future, 
 in travelling I must, in sending thee consolation, 
 lay upon thee commands. And I would say some- 
 what that this is more suitable for thee than to 
 take care of thyself and thy house, 
 
 " And keep all things in safety," 
 
 left behind as thou art, not unlike Philoktetes in 
 
 the tragedy, suffering from his sore, though his 
 
 sore was caused by a baleful serpent, thine by the 
 
 56 
 
TO MARCELLA 
 
 knowledge of the nature and extent of the descent 
 to earth which has befallen our souls. Albeit the 
 gods have not forsaken us, as the sons of Atreus 
 forsook him, but they have become our helpers and 
 have been mindful of us. Now seeing thou art hard 
 beset in a contest, attended with much wrestling and 
 labour, I earnestly beg thee to keep firm hold upon 
 philosophy, the only sure refuge, and not to yield 
 more than is fitting to the perplexities caused by 
 my absence. Do not from desire for my instruc- 
 tion cast away what thou hast already received, and 
 do not faint before the multitude of other cares that 
 encompass thee, abandoning thyself to the rushing 
 stream of outward things. Rather bear in mind 
 that it is not by ease that men attain the possession 
 of the true good, and practise thyself for the life 
 thou expectest to lead by help of those very troubles 
 which are the only opponents to thy fortitude that 
 are able to disturb and constrain thee. As for 
 plots laid against us, it is easy for those to despise 
 them who are accustomed to disregard all that does\ 
 not lie in our own power, and who deem that' 
 injustice rather recoils upon the doer than injures 
 those who believe that the worst injury inflicted on 
 them can cause them but little loss. 
 
 6. Now thou mayest console thyself for the 
 absence of him who sustains thy soulj and is to 
 thee fether, husband, teacher, and kindred, yea, if 
 57 
 
PORPHYRY THE PHILOSOPHER 
 
 thou wilt, even fatherland, though this seems to 
 oiFer a reasonable ground for unhappiness, by 
 placing before thee as arbiter not feeling but 
 reason. In the first place consider that, as I have 
 said before, it is impossible that those who desire to 
 be mindful of their return, should accomplish their 
 journey home from this terrestrial exile pleasantly 
 and easily, as through some smooth plain. For 
 no two things can be more entirely opposed to one 
 another than a life of pleasure and ease, and the 
 ascent to the gods. As the summits of mountains 
 cannot be reached without danger and toil, so it is 
 not possible to emerge from the inmost depths of 
 the body through pleasure and ease which drag men 
 down to the body. For 'tis by anxious thought that 
 we reach the road, and by recollection of our fall. 
 But even if we encounter difficulties in our way, 
 hardship is natural to the ascent, for it is given to 
 the gods alone to lead an easy life. But ease is 
 most dangerous for souls which have sunk to this 
 earthly life, making them forgetful in the pursuit of 
 alien things, and bringing on a state of slumber if 
 we fall asleep, beguiled by alluring visions. 
 
 7. Now there are some chains that are of very 
 heavy gold, but, because of their beauty, they 
 persuaded women who in their folly do not perceive 
 the weight, that they contribute to ornament, 
 and thus got them to bear fetters easily. But 
 S8 
 
TO MARCELLA 
 
 other fetters which are of iron compelled them 
 to a knowledge of their sins, and by pain forced 
 them to repent and seek release from the weight'; 
 while escape from the golden imprisonment, through 
 the delight felt in it, often causes grievous woe. 
 Whence it has seemed to men of wisdom that 
 labours conduce to virtue more than do pleasures. 
 And to toil is better for man, aye, and for woman 
 too, than to let the soul be puffed up and enervated 
 by pleasure. For labour must lead the way to 
 every fair possession, and he must toil who is eager 
 to attain virtue. Thou knowest that Herakles and 
 the Dioskuri, and Asklepius and all other children 
 of the gods, through toil and steadfastness accom- 
 plished the blessed journey to heaven. For it is not 
 those who live a life of pleasure that make the ascent 
 to the gods, but rather those who have nobly learnt 
 to endure the greatest misfortunes. 
 
 8. I know full well that there could be no 
 greater contest than that which now lies before 
 thee, smce thou thinkest that in me thou wilt lose 
 the path of safety and the guide therein. Yet thy 
 circumstances are not altogether unendurable, if 
 thou cast from thee the unreasoning distress of 
 mind which springs from the feelings, and deem it 
 no trivial matter to remember those words by 
 which thou wert with divine rites initiated into true 
 philosophy, approving by thy deeds the fidelity 
 59 
 
PORPHYRY THE PHILOSOPHER 
 
 with which they have been apprehended. For it is 
 a man's actions that naturally afford demonstrations 
 of his opinions, and whoever holds a belief must live 
 in accordance with it, in order that he may himself 
 be a faithful witness to the hearers of his words. 
 What was it then that we learnt from those men 
 who possess the clearest knowledge to be found 
 among mortals ? Was it not this — that I am in 
 reality not this person who can be touched or per- 
 ceived by any of the senses, but that which is farthest 
 removed from the body, the colourless and form- 
 less essence which can by no means be touched by 
 the hands, but is grasped by the mind alone. And 
 it is not from outward things that we receive those 
 principles which are implanted in us. We receive 
 only the keynote as in a chorus, which recalls to 
 our remembrance those things which we received 
 from the god who gave them us ere we set forth 
 on our wanderings. 
 
 9. Moreover, is not every emotion of the soul 
 most hostile to its safety ? And is not want of 
 education the mother of all the passions ? Now 
 education does not consist in the absorption of a 
 large amount of knowledge, but in casting off the 
 affections of the soul. Now the passions are the 
 beginning of diseases. And vice is the disease of 
 the soul J and every vice is disgraceful. And the 
 disgraceful is opposed to the good. Now since the 
 60 ■ 
 
TO MARCELLA 
 
 divine nature is good, it is impossible for it to 
 consort with vice, since Plato says it is unlawful 
 for the impure to approach the pure. Where- 
 fore even now we need to purge away all our 
 passions, and the sins that spring therefrom. Was 
 it not this thou didst so much approve, reading 
 as it were divine characters within thee, disclosed 
 by my words ? Is it not then absurd, though thou 
 art persuaded that thou hast in thee the saving 
 and the saved, the losing and the lost, wealth and 
 poverty, father and husband, and a guide to all true 
 good, to pant after the mere shadow of a leader, as 
 though thou hadst not within thyself a true leader, 
 and all riches within thine own power ? And this 
 must thou lose and fly from, if thou descend to 
 the flesh, instead of turning towards that which saves 
 and is saved. 
 
 10. As for my shadow and visible image, as thou 
 wast not profited by their presence, so now their 
 absence is not hurtful if thou attempt to fly from 
 the body. But thou wouldst meet with me in all 
 purity, and I should be most truly present and asso- 
 ciated with thee, night and day, in purity and with 
 the fairest kind of converse which can never be 
 broken up, if thou wouldst practise to ascend into 
 thyself, collecting together all the powers which 
 the body has scattered and broken up into a 
 multitude of parts unlike their former unity to 
 6i 
 
PORPHYRY THE PHILOSOPHER 
 
 which concentration lent strength. Thou shouldst 
 collect and combine into one the thoughts im- 
 planted within thee, endeavouring to isolate those 
 that are confused, and to drag to light those that 
 are enveloped in darkness. The divine Plato too 
 made this his starting-point, summoning us away 
 from the sensible to the intelligible. Also if thou 
 wouldst remember, thou wouldst combine what thou 
 hast heard, and recall it by memory, desiring to turn 
 thy mind to discourses of this kind as to excellent 
 counsellors, and afterwards practising in action what 
 thou hast learnt, bearing it in mind in thy labours. 
 
 II. Reason tells us that the divine is present 
 everywhere and in all men, but that only the mind 
 of the wise man is sanctified as its temple, and God 
 is best honoured by him who knows Him best. 
 And this must naturally be the wise man alone, 
 who in wisdom must honour the Divine, and in 
 wisdom adorn for it a temple in his thought, 
 honouring it with a living statue, the mind 
 
 moulded in His image Now God is not 
 
 in need of any one, and the wise man is in 
 need of God alone. For no one could become 
 good and noble, unless he knew the goodness and 
 beauty which proceed from the Deity. Nor is any 
 man unhappy, unless he has fitted up his soul as 
 a dwelling-place for evil spirits. To the wise man 
 God gives the authority of a god. And a man is 
 62 
 
TO MARCELLA 
 
 purified hy the knowledge of God, and issuing 
 from God, he follows after righteousness. 
 
 12. Let God be at hand to behold and examine 
 every act and deed and word. And let us con- 
 sider Him the author of all our good deeds. But 
 of evil we ourselves are the authors, since it is we 
 who made choice of it, but God is without blame. 
 Wherefore we should pray to God for that which 
 is worthy of Him,, and we should pray for what we 
 could attain from none other. And we must pray 
 that we may attain after our labours those things 
 that are preceded by toil and virtue ; for the prayer 
 of the slothful is but vain speech. Neither ask of 
 God what thou wilt not hold fast when thou hast 
 attained it, since God's gifts cannot be taken from 
 thee, and He will not give what thou wilt not hold 
 fast. What thou wilt not require when thou art 
 rid of the, body, that despise, but practise thyself in 
 that thou wilt need when thou art set free, calling 
 on God to be thy helper. Thou wilt need none 
 of those things which chance often gives and again 
 takes away. Do not make any request before the 
 fitting season, but only when God makes plain the 
 right desire implanted by nature within thee. 
 
 13. Hereby can God best be reflected, who can- 
 not be seen by the body, nor yet by an impure soul 
 darkened by vice. For purity is God's beauty, and 
 His light is the life-giving flame of truth. Every 
 63 
 
PORPHYRY THE PHILOSOPHER 
 
 vice is deceived by ignorance, and turned astray by 
 wickedness. Wherefore desire and ask of God 
 what is in accordance with His own will and nature, 
 well assured that, inasmuch as a man longs after the 
 body and the things of the body in so far does he 
 fail to know God, and is blind to the sight of 
 God, even though all men should hold him as a god. 
 Now the wise man, if known by only few, or, if 
 thou wilt, unknown to all, yet is known by God, 
 and is reflected by his likeness to Him. Let then thy 
 mind follow after God, and let the soul follow the 
 mind, and let the body be subservient to the soul as 
 far as may be, the pure body serving the pure soul. 
 For if it be defiled by the emotions of the soul, the 
 defilement reacts upon the soul itself. 
 
 14. In a pure body where soul and mind are loved 
 by God, words should conform with deeds : since it 
 is better for thee to cast a stone at random than a 
 word, and to be defeated speaking the truth rather 
 than conquer through deceit ; for he who conquers 
 by deceit is worsted in his character. And lies are 
 witnesses unto evil deeds. It is impossible for a 
 man who loves God also to love pleasure and the 
 body, for he who loves these must needs be a lover 
 of riches. And he who loves riches must be un- 
 righteous. And the unrighteous man is impious 
 towards God and his fathers, and transgresses 
 against all men. And though he slay whole 
 64 
 
TO MARCELLA 
 
 hecatombs in sacrifice, and adorn the temples witk 
 ten thousand gifts, yet is he impious and godless,, 
 and at heart a plunderer of holy places. Wherefore 
 we should shun all addicted to love of the body as- 
 godless and impure. 
 
 15- Do not associate with any one whose opinions, 
 cannot profit thee, nor join with him in converse 
 about God. For it is not safe to speak of God with 
 those who are corrupted by false opinion. Yea, and 
 in their presence to speak truth or falsehood about 
 God is fraught with equal danger. It is not fitting 
 for a man who is not purified from unholy deeds 
 to speak of God himself, nor must we suppose that 
 he who speaks of Him with such is not guilty of a 
 crime. We should hear and use speech concerning 
 God as though in His presence. Godlike deeds 
 should precede talk of God, and in the presence of 
 the multitude we should keep silence concerning- 
 Him, for the knowledge of God is not suitable to 
 the vain conceit of the soul. Esteem it better to- 
 keep silence than to let fall random words about 
 God. Thou wilt become worthy of God if thou 
 deem it wrong either to speak or do or know aught 
 unworthy of Him. Now a man who was worthy 
 of God would be himself a god. 
 
 1 6. Thou wilt best honour God by making thy- 
 mind like unto Him, and this thou canst do by 
 virtue alone. For only virtue can draw the soul' 
 
 65 E 
 
PORPHYRY THE PHILOSOPHER 
 
 upward to that which is akin to it. Next to God 
 there is nothing great but virtue, yet God is greater 
 than virtue. Now God strengthens the man who 
 does noble deeds. But an evil spirit is the instigator 
 of evil deeds. The wicked soul flies from God, 
 and would fain that His providence did not exist, 
 and it shrinks from the divine law which punishes 
 all the wicked. But the wise man's soul is like 
 God, and ever beholds Him and dwells with Him. 
 If the ruler takes pleasure in the ruled, then God 
 too cares for the wise man and watches over him. 
 Therefore is the wise man blest, because he is in 
 God's keeping. 'Tis not his speech that is accept- 
 able to God, but his deed ; for the wise man 
 honours God even in his silence, while the fool 
 dishonours Him even while praying and offering 
 sacrifice. Thus the wise man only is a priest ; he 
 only is beloved by God, and knows how to pray, 
 
 17. The man who practises wisdom practises the 
 knowledge of God ; and he shows his piety not by 
 continued prayers and sacrifices but by his actions. 
 No one could become well-pleasing to God by the 
 opinions of men or the vain talk of the Sophists. 
 But he makes himself well-pleasing and consecrate 
 to God by assimilating his own disposition to the 
 blessed and incorruptible nature. And it is he who 
 makes himself impious and displeasing to God, for 
 God does not injure him (since the divine nature 
 66 
 
TO MARCELLA 
 
 can only work good), but he injures himself, chiefly 
 through his wrong opinion concerning God. Not 
 he who disregards the images of the gods is impious, 
 but he who holds the opinions of the multitude con- 
 cerning God. But do thou entertain no thought un- 
 worthy of God or of His blessedness and immortality. 
 
 1 8. The chief fruit of piety is to honour God 
 according to the laws of our country, not deeming 
 that God has need of anything, but that He calls us 
 to honour Him by His truly reverend and blessed 
 majesty. We are not harmed by reverencing God's 
 altars, nor benefited by neglecting them. But who- 
 ever honours God under the impression that He is in 
 need of him, he unconsciously deems himself greater 
 than God. 'Tis not when they are angry that the 
 gods do us harm, but when they are not under- 
 stood. Anger is foreign to the gods, for anger is 
 involuntary, and there is nothing involuntary in 
 God. Do not then dishonour the divine nature by 
 false human opinions, since thou wilt not injure the 
 eternally blessed One, whose immortal nature is 
 incapable of injury, but thou wilt blind thyself to 
 the conception of what is greatest and chiefest. 
 
 19. Again thou couldst not suppose my meaning 
 to be this when I exhort thee to reverence the 
 gods, since it would be absurd to command this as 
 though the matter admitted a question. And we do 
 not worship Him only by doing or thinking this or 
 
 67 
 
PORPHYRY THE PHILOSOPHER 
 
 that, neither can tears or supplications turn God 
 from His purpose, nor yet is God honoured by 
 sacrifices nor glorified by plentiful offerings ; but it 
 is the godlike mind that remains stably fixed in its 
 place that is united to God. For like must needs 
 approach like. But the sacrifices of fools are mere 
 food 1 for fire, and the offerings they bring help 
 the robbers of temples to lead their evil life. But, 
 as was said before, let thy temple be the mind that 
 is within thee. This must thou tend and adorn, 
 that it may be a fitting dwelling for God. Yet let 
 not the adornment and the reception of God be but 
 for a day, to be followed by mockery and folly and 
 the return of the evil spirit. 
 
 20. If, then, thou ever bear in mind that where- 
 soever thy soul walks and inspires thy body with 
 activity, God is present and overlooks all thy 
 counsels and actions, then wilt thou feel reverence 
 before the unforgotten presence of the spectator, 
 and thou wilt have God to dwell with thee. And 
 even though thy mouth discourse the sound of some 
 other thing, let thy thought and mind be turned 
 towards God. Thus shall even thy speech be in- 
 spired, shining through the light of God's truth and 
 flowing the more easily j for the knowledge of God 
 makes discourse short. 
 
 21. But wheresoever forgetfulness of God shall 
 enter in, there must the evil spirit dwell. For the 
 
 68 
 
TO MARCELLA 
 
 soul is a dwelling-place, as thou hast learnt, either 
 of gods or of evil spirits. If the gods are present, 
 it will do what is good both in word and in deed ; 
 but if it has welcomed in the evil guest, it does all 
 things in wickedness. Whensoever, then, thou 
 beholdest a man doing or rejoicing in that which is 
 evil, know that he has denied God in his heart and 
 is the dwelling-place of an evil spirit. They who 
 believe that God exists and governs all things have 
 this reward of their knowledge and firm faith : they 
 have learnt that God has forethought for all things, 
 and that there exist angels, divine and good spirits, 
 who behold all that is done, and from whose notice 
 we cannot escape. Being persuaded that this is so, 
 they are careful not to fall in their life, keeping 
 before their eyes the constant presence of the gods 
 whence they cannot escape. And they have attained 
 to a wise mode of life, and know the gods and are 
 known by them. 
 
 22. On the other hand, they who believe that 
 the gods do not exist and that the universe is not 
 governed by God's providence, have this punish- 
 ment : they neither believe themselves, nor yet do 
 they put faith in others who assert that the gods 
 exist, and that the universe is not directed by whirl- 
 ing motion void of reason. Thus they have cast 
 themselves into unspeakable peril, trusting to an 
 unreasoning and uncertain impulse in the events of 
 69 
 
PORPHYRY THE PHILOSOPHER 
 
 life ; and they do all that is unlawful in the en- 
 deavour to remove the belief in God. Assuredly 
 such men are forsaken by the gods for their ignorance 
 and unbelief. Yet they cannot flee and escape the 
 notice of the gods or of justice their attendant, but 
 having chosen an evil and erring life, though they 
 know not the gods, yet are they known by them 
 and by justice that dwells with the gods. 
 
 23. Even if they think they honour the gods, and 
 are persuaded that they exist, yet neglect virtue and 
 wisdom, they really have denied the divinities and 
 dishonour them. Mere unreasoning faith without 
 right living does not attain to God. Nor is it an act 
 of piety to honour God without having first ascer- 
 tained in what manner He delights to be honoured. 
 If, then. He is gratified and won over by libations 
 and sacrifices, it would not be just that while all men 
 make the same requests they should obtain different 
 answers to their prayers. But if there is nothing that 
 God desires less than this, while he delights only in 
 the purification of the mind, which every man can 
 attain of his own free choice, what injustice could 
 there be ? But if the divine nature delights in 
 both kinds of service, it should receive honour by 
 sacred rites according to each man's power, and by 
 the thoughts of his mind even beyond that power. 
 It is not wrong to pray to God, since ingratitude 
 is a grievous wrong. 
 
 70 
 
TO MARC ELLA 
 
 24. No god is in fault for a man's wiclcedness, 
 but the man who has chosen it for himself. The 
 prayer which is accompanied by base actions is im- 
 pure, and therefore not acceptable to God 5 but that 
 which is accompanied by noble actions is pure, and 
 at the same time acceptable. 
 
 There are four first principles that must be up- 
 held concerning God — faith, truth, love, hope. We 
 must have faith that our only salvation is in turning 
 to God. And having faith, we must strive with 
 all our might to know the truth about God. And 
 when we know this, we must love Him we do 
 know. And when we love Him we must nourish 
 our souls on good hopes for our life, for it is by 
 their good hopes good men are superior to bad 
 ones. Let then these four principles be firmly 
 held. 
 
 25. Next let these three laws be distinguished. 
 First, the law of God ; second, the law of human 
 nature ; third, that which is laid down for nations 
 and states. The law of nature fixes the limits of 
 bodily needs, and shows what is necessary to these, 
 and condemns all striving after what is needless and 
 superfluous. Now that which is established and 
 laid down for States regulates by fixed agreements 
 the common relations of men, by their mutual 
 observance of the covenants laid down. But the 
 divine law is implanted by the mind, for their 
 
 71 
 
PORPHYRY THE PHILOSOPHER 
 
 •welfare, in the thoughts of reasoning souls, and 
 it is found truthfully inscribed therein. The 
 law of humanity is transgressed by him who 
 through vain opinions knows it not, owing to his 
 excessive love for the pleasures of the body. And 
 it is broken and despised by those who, even for the 
 tody's sake, gain the mastery over the body. But 
 the conventional law is subject to expediency, and 
 is differently laid down at different times according 
 to the arbitrary will of the prevailing government. 
 It punishes him who transgresses it, but it cannot 
 reach a man's secret thoughts and intentions. 
 
 26. The divine law is unknown to the soul that 
 folly and intemperance have rendered impure, but 
 it shines forth in self-control and wisdom. -It is 
 impossible to transgress this, for there is nothing in 
 man that can transcend it. Nor can it be despised, 
 for it cannot shine forth in a man who will despise 
 it. Nor is it moved by chances of fortune, because 
 it is in truth superior to chance and stronger than 
 any form of violence. Mind alone knows it, and 
 diligently pursues the search thereafter, and finds 
 it imprinted in itself, and supplies from it food to 
 the soul as to its own body. We must regard the 
 rational soul as the body of the mind, which the 
 mind nourishes by bringing into recognition, 
 through the light that is in it, the thoughts 
 within, which mind imprinted and engraved in the 
 72 
 
TO MARCELLA 
 
 soul in accordance with the truth of the divine law. 
 Thus mind is become teacher and saviour, nurse, 
 guardian and leader, speaking the truth in silence, 
 unfolding and giving forth the divine law ; and 
 looking on the impressions thereof in itself it 
 beholds them implanted in the soul from all 
 eternity. 
 
 27. You must therefore first understand the law 
 of nature, and then proceed to the divine law, by 
 which also the natural law hath been prescribed. 
 And if you make these your starting-point you 
 shall never fear the written law. For written laws 
 are made for the benefit of good men, not that they 
 may do no wrong, but that they may not suffer it. 
 Natural wealth is limited, and it is easy to attain. 
 But the wealth desired of vain opinions has no 
 limits, and is hard to attain. The true philosopher 
 therefore, following nature and not vain opinions, 
 is self-sufficing in all things ; for in the light of 
 the requirements of nature every possession is 
 some wealth, but in the light of unlimited desires 
 even the greatest wealth is but poverty. Truly 
 it is no uncommon thing to find a man who 
 is rich if tried by the standard at which 
 nature aims, but poor by the standard of vain 
 opinions. No fool is satisfied with what he pos- 
 sesses ; he rather mourns for what he has not. Just 
 as men in a fever are always thirsty through the 
 73 
 
PORPHYRY THE PHILOSOPHER 
 
 grievous nature of their malady, and desire things 
 quite opposed to one another, so men whose souls 
 are ill-regulated are ever in want of all things, and 
 experience ever-varying desires through their greed. 
 
 28. Wherefore the gods, too, have commanded us 
 to purify ourselves by abstaining from food and 
 from love, bringing those who follow after piety 
 within the law of that nature which they them- 
 selves have formed, since everything which trans- 
 gresses this law is loathsome and deadly. The 
 multitude, however, fearing simplicity in their mode 
 of life, because of this fear, turn to the pursuits 
 that can best procure riches. And many have 
 attained wealth, and yet not found release from 
 their troubles, but have exchanged them for greater 
 ones. Wherefore philosophers say that pothing is 
 so necessary as to know thoroughly what is un- 
 necessary, and moreover that to be self-sufficing is 
 the greatest of all wealth, and that it is honourable 
 not to ask anything of any man. Wherefore, too, 
 they exhort us to strive, not to acquire some 
 necessary thing, but rather to remain of good cheer 
 if we have not acquired it. 
 
 29. Neither let us accuse our flesh as the cause 
 of great evils, nor attribute our troubles to outward 
 things. Rather let us seek the cause of these things 
 in our souls, and casting away every vain striving 
 and hope for fleeting joys, let us become completely 
 74 
 
TO MARCELLA 
 
 masters of ourselves. For a man is unhappy either 
 through fear or through unlimited and empty desire. 
 Yet if he bridle these, he can attain to a happy mind. 
 But in as far as thou art in want, it is through forget- 
 fulness of thy nature that thou feelest the want. 
 For hereby thou causest to thyself vague fears and 
 desires. And it were better for thee to be content 
 and lie on a bed of rushes than to be troubled 
 though thou hast a golden couch and a luxurious 
 table acquired by labour and sorrow. Whilst the 
 pile of wealth is growing bigger, life is growing 
 wretched. 
 
 30. Do not think it unnatural that when the 
 flesh cries out for anything, the soul should cry out 
 too. The cry of the flesh is, " Let me not hunger, 
 or thirst, or shiver," and 'tis hard for the soul to 
 restrain these desires. 'Tis hard, too, for it by 
 help of its own natural self-sufiicing to disregard 
 day by day the exhortations of nature, and to teach 
 it to esteem the concerns of life as of little account. 
 And when we enjoy good fortune, to learn to bear 
 ill fortune, and when we are unfortunate not to 
 hold of great account the possessions of those who 
 enjoy good fortune. And to receive with a calm 
 mind the good gifts of fortune, and to stand firm 
 against her seeming ills. Yea, all that the many 
 hold good is but a fleeting thing. 
 
 31. But wisdom and knowledge have no part in 
 
 75 
 
PORPHYRY THE PHILOSOPHER 
 
 chance. It is not painful to lack the gifts of chance, 
 but rather to endure the unprofitable trouble of vain 
 ambition. For every disturbance and unprofitable 
 desire is removed by the love of true philosophy. 
 Vain is the word of that philosopher who can ease 
 no mortal trouble. As there is no profit in the 
 physician's art unless it cure the diseases of the 
 body, so there is none in philosophy, unless it expel 
 the troubles of the soul. These and other like 
 <;ommands are laid on us by the law of our nature. 
 
 32. Now the divine law cries aloud in the pure 
 region of the mind : " Unless thou consider that 
 thy body is joined to thee as the outer covering to 
 the child in the womb and the stalk to the 
 sprouting corn, thou canst not know thyself." Nor 
 can any one know himself who does not hold this 
 opinion. As the outer covering grows with the 
 child, and the stalk with the corn, yet, when they 
 come to maturity, both are cast away, thus too 
 the body which is fastened to the soul at birth 
 is not a part of the man. But as the outer 
 covering was formed along with the child that it 
 may come to being in the womb, so likewise the 
 body was yoked to the man that he may come to 
 being on earth. In as far as a man turns to 
 the mortal part of himself, in so far he makes his 
 mind incommensurate with immortality. And 
 in as far as he refrains from sharing the feelings 
 76 
 
TO MARCELLA 
 
 of the body, in such a measure does he approach 
 the divine. The wise man who is beloved of G od 
 strives and toils as much for the good of his soul 
 as others do for the good of their body. He deems- 
 that he cannot become self-sufficing merely by 
 remembering what he has heard, but strives 
 by practising it to hasten on towards his 
 duty. 
 
 33. Naked was he sent into the world, and 
 naked shall he call on Him that sent him. For 
 God listens only to those who are not weighed 
 down by alien things, guarding those who are pure 
 from corruption. Consider it a great help towards 
 the blessed life if the captive in the thralls of nature 
 takes his captor captive. For we are bound in the 
 chains that nature has cast around us, by the belly, 
 the throat and the other parts of the body, and by 
 the use of these and the pleasant sensations that 
 arise therefrom and the fears they occasion. But if 
 we rise superior to their witchcraft, and avoid the 
 snares laid by them, we have led our captor captive. 
 Neither trouble thyself much whether thou be male 
 or female in body, nor look on thyself as a woman,, 
 for I did not approach thee as such. Flee all that 
 is womanish in the soul, as though thou hadst a 
 man's body about thee. For what is born from 
 a virgin soul and a pure mind is most blessed, 
 since imperishable springs from imperishable. But 
 
 n 
 
PORPHYRY THE PHILOSOPHER 
 
 what the body produces is held corrupt by all the 
 gods. 
 
 34. It is a great proof of wisdom to hold the 
 body in thrall. Often men cast ofF certain parts of 
 the body ; be thou ready for the soul's safety to 
 cast away the whole body. Hesitate not to die for 
 that for whose sake thou art willing to live. Let 
 reason then direct all our impulses, and banish from 
 us tyrannous and godless masters. For the rule of 
 the passions is harder than that of tyrants, since it is 
 impossible for a man to be free who is governed by 
 his passions. As many as are the passions of the 
 soul, so many cruel masters have we. 
 
 35. Strive not to wrong thy slaves nor to correct 
 them when thou art angry. And before correcting 
 them, prove to them that thou dost this for their 
 good, and give them an opportunity for excuse. 
 When purchasing slaves, avoid the stubborn ones. 
 Accustom thyself to do many things thyself, for 
 our own labour is simple and easy. And men 
 should use each limb for the purpose for which 
 nature intended it to be used. Nature needs no 
 more. Th^ who do not use their own bodies, 
 but make excessive use of others, commit a 
 twofold wrong, and are ungrateful to nature that 
 has given them these parts. Never use thy 
 bodily parts merely for the sake of pleasure, for it is 
 far better to die than to obscure thy soul by in- 
 
 78 
 
TO MARCELLA 
 
 temperance .... correct the vice of thy nature. 
 .... If thou give aught to thy slaves, distinguish 
 the better ones by a share of honour .... for it is 
 impossible that he who does w^rong to man should 
 honour God. But look on the love of mankind as 
 the foundation of thy piety. And .... 
 
 [here the MS. ENDS ABRUPTLY.] 
 
 Printed ty Ballantyne, Hanson & Co. 
 London and Edinburgh.