God is supreme king.[615] Eternity is now, but neither past nor
future.[616] The King in heaven is surrounded by leisure.[617] The Good
is above Being;[618] the divinity is the unity above the "Being and
Essence;[619] and connected with this is the unitary interpretation
of the name A-pollo,[620] following in the footsteps of Plutarch.
Nevertheless, the inferior divinity traverses the heavens,[621] in
a circular motion.[622] While Numenius does not specify this motion
as circular,[623] it is implied, inasmuch as the creator's passing
through the heavens must have followed their circular course. With
this perfect motion is connected the peculiar Numenian doctrine of
inexhaustible giving,[624] which gave a philosophical basis for the old
simile of radiation of light,[625] so that irradiation is the method
of creation,[626] and this is not far removed from emanationism. This
process consists of the descent of the intelligible into the material,
or, as Numenius puts it, that both the intelligible and the perceptible
participate in the ideas.[627] Thus intelligence is the uniting
principle that holds together the bodies whose tendency is to split
up, and scatter,[628] making a leakage or waste,[629] which process
invades even the divinity.[630] This uniting of scattering elements
produces a mixture or mingling,[608] of matter and reason,[631] which,
however, is limited to the energies of the existent, not to the
existent itself.[632] All things are in a flow,[633] and the whole all
is in all.[634] The divinity creates by glancing at the intelligence
above,[635] as a pilot.[636] The divinity is split by over-attention to
its charges.[637]
This leads us over to consideration of the soul. The chief effort
of Numenius is a polemic against the materialism of the Stoics,
and to it Plotinos devotes a whole book.[638] All souls, even the
lowest, are immortal.[639] Even qualities are incorporeal.[640]
The soul, therefore, remains incorporeal.[641] The soul, however,
is divisible.[642] This explains the report that Numenius taught
not various parts of the soul,[643] but two souls, which would be
opposed by Plotinos in his polemic against the Stoics,[644] but
taught in another place.[645] Such divisibility is indeed implied
in the formation of presentation as a by-product,[646] or a "common
part."[647] Moreover, the soul has to choose its own demon, or guardian
divinity.[648] Salvation as a goal appears in Numenius,[649] but not
in Plotinos, who opposes the Gnostic idea of the "saved souls,"[650]
though elsewhere he speaks of the paths of the musician,[651]
lover[652] and philosopher[653] in reaching ecstasy.[654] Still both
Gnostics and Plotinos insisted on the need of a savior.[655] Memory
is actualization of the soul.[656] In the highest ecstasy the soul is
alone with the alone.[657]