tact with facts, because they belong to a different region from the facts; as when we connect natural events with moral or historical causes, or seek spiritual meanings in the properties of number and figure. Thus the character of mysticism is, that it refers particulars, not to generalizations homogeneous and immediate, but to such as are heterogeneous and remote; to which we must add, that the process of this reference is not a calm act of the intellect, but is accompanied with a glow of enthusiastic feeling.

1. Neoplatonic Theosophy. The Newer Platonism is the first example of this mystical philosophy which I shall consider. The main points which here require our notice are, the doctrine of an intellectual world resulting from the act of the Divine Mind, as the only reality; and the aspiration after the union of the human soul with this Divine Mind, as the object of human existence. The "ideas" of Plato were forms of our knowledge; but among the Neoplatonists they became really existing, indeed the only really existing, objects; and the inaccessible scheme of the universe which these ideas constitute, was offered as the great subject of philosophical contemplation. The desire of the human mind to approach towards its Creator and Preserver, and to obtain a spiritual access to Him, leads to an employment of the thoughts which is well worth the notice of the religious philosopher; but such an effort, even when founded on revelation and well regulated, is not a means of advance in physics:

and when it is the mere result of natural enthusiasm, it may easily obtain such a place in men's minds as to unfit them for the successful prosecution of natural philosophy. The temper, therefore, which introduces such supernatural communion into the general course of its speculations, may be properly treated as mystical, and as one of the causes of the decline of science in the Stationary Period. The Neoplatonic philosophy requires our notice as one of the most remarkable forms of this mysticism.

Though Ammonius Saccas, who flourished at the end of the second century, is looked upon as the beginner of the Neoplatonists, his disciple Plotinus is, in reality, the great founder of the school, both by his works, which still remain to us, and by the enthusiasm which his character and manners inspired among his followers. He lived a life of meditation, gentleness, and self-denial, and died in the second year of the reign of Claudius (A. D. 270.) His disciple, Porphyry, has given us a Life of him, from which we may see how well his habitual manners were suited to make his doctrines impressive. "Plotinus, the philosopher of our time," Porphyry thus begins his biography, " appeared like a person ashamed that he was in the body. In consequence of this disposition, he could not bear to talk concerning his family, or his parents, or his country. He would not allow himself to be represented by a painter or statuary; and once, when Aurelius entreated him to permit a likeness of him to be taken,

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he said, Is it not enough for us to carry this image in which nature has enclosed us, but we must also try to leave a more durable image of this image, as if it were so great a sight?' And he retained the same temper to the last. When he was dying, he said,

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I am trying to bring the divinity which is in us to the divinity which is in the universe."" He was looked upon by his successors with extraordinary admiration and reverence; and his disciple Porphyry collected from his lips, or from fragmental notes, the six Enneads of his doctrines (that is, parts each consisting of nine books,) which he arranged and annotated.

We have no difficulty in finding in this remarkable work examples of mystical speculation. Besides the general tendency of the doctrines, the intelligible world of realities or essences corresponds to the world of sense' in the classes of things which it includes. To the intelligible world, man's mind ascends, by a triple road which Plotinus figuratively calls that of the musician, the lover, the philosopher. The activity of the human soul is identified by analogy with the motion of the heavens. "This activity is about a middle point, and thus it is circular; but a middle point is not the same in body and in the soul; in that, the middle point is local, in this, it is that on which the rest depends. There is, however, an analogy; for as in one case, so in the other, there must be a middle point, and as 1vi Ennead iii. 1. 2 ii E. ii. 2.

the sphere revolves about its centre, the soul revolves about God through its affections."

The conclusion of the work is, as might be supposed, upon the approach to, union with, and fruition of God. The author refers again to the analogy between the movements of the soul and those of the heavens. "We move round him like a choral dance; even when we look from him we revolve about him; we do not always look at him, but when we do, we have satisfaction and rest, and the harmony which belongs to that divine movement. In this movement, the mind beholds the fountain of life, the fountain of mind, the origin of being, the cause of good, the root of the soul." "There will be a time when this vision shall be continual; the mind being no more interrupted, nor suffering any perturbation from the body. Yet that which beholds is not that which is disturbed; and when this vision becomes dim, it does not obscure the knowledge which resides in demonstration, and faith, and reasoning; but the vision itself is not reason, but greater than reason, and before reason"."

The fifth book of the third Ennead, has for its subject the Dæmon which belongs to each man. It is entitled "Concerning Love;" and the doctrine appears to be, that the love, or common source of the passions which is in each man's mind, is "the dæmon which they say accompanies each man." These

4 Ib. 9.

3 vi Enn. ix. 8.

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Ficinus, Comm. in v. Enn. iii.

5 Ib. 10.

dæmons were, however, (at least by later writers,) invested with a visible aspect and with a personal character, including a resemblance of human passions and motives. It is curious thus to see an untenable and visionary generalization falling back into the domain of the senses and the fancy, after a vain attempt to support itself in the region of the reason. This imagination soon produced pretensions to the power of making these dæmons or genii visible; and the Treatise on the Mysteries of the Egyptians, which is attributed to Iamblichus, gives an account of the secret ceremonies, the mysterious words, the sacrifices and expiations, by which this was to be done.

It is unnecessary for us to dwell on the progress of this school; to point out the growth of the theurgy which thus arose; or to describe the attempts to claim a high antiquity for this system, and to make Orpheus, the poet, the first promulgator of its doctrines. The system, like all mystical systems, assumed the character rather of a religion than of a theory. The opinions of its disciples materially influenced their lives. It gave the world the spectacle of an austere morality, a devotional exaltation, combined with the grossest superstitions of Paganism. The successors of Iamblichus appeared rather to hold a priesthood, than the chair of a philosophical school. They were persecuted by Constantine and Constantius, as opponents of Christianity.