each all, and infinite the glory. Each of them is great; the small is great; the sun, There, is all the
stars; and every star, again, is all the stars and sun. While some manner of being is dominant in
each, all are mirrored in every other.
In addition to the imperfection which the world inevitably possesses because it is a copy, there is,
for Plotinus as for the Christians, the more positive evil that results from sin. Sin is a consequence
of free will, which Plotinus upholds as against the determinists, and, more particularly, the
astrologers. He does not venture to deny the validity of astrology altogether, but he attempts to set
bounds to it, so as to make what remains compatible with free will. He does the same as regards
magic; the sage, he says, is exempt from the power of the magician. Porphyry relates that a rival
philosopher tried to put evil spells on Plotinus, but that, because of his holiness and wisdom, the
spells recoiled on the rival. Porphyry, and all the followers of Plotinus, are much more
superstitious than he is. Superstition, in him, is as slight as was possible in that age.
Let us now endeavor to sum up the merits and defects of the doctrine taught by Plotinus, and in
the main accepted by Christian theology so long as it remained systematic and intellectual.
There is, first and foremost, the construction of what Plotinus believed to be a secure refuge for
ideals and hopes, and one, moreover, which involved both moral and intellectual effort. In the
third century, and in the centuries after the barbarian invasion, western civilization came near to
total destruction. It was fortunate that, while theology was almost the sole surviving mental
activity, the system that was accepted was not purely superstitious, but preserved, though
sometimes deeply buried, doctrines which embodied much of the work of Greek intellect and
much of the moral devotion that is common to the Stoics and the Neoplatonists. This made
possible the rise of the scholastic philosophy, and later, with the Renaissance, the stimulus derived
from the renewed study of Plato, and thence of the other ancients.
On the other hand, the philosophy of Plotinus has the defect of encouraging men to look within
rather than to look without: when we look within we see nous, which is divine, while when we
look without we see the imperfections of the sensible world. This kind of subjectivity was a
gradual growth; it is to be found in the doctrines