While therefore providentially Plotinos has ever been of great
importance theologically, philosophically and mystically, we cannot
leave him without honestly facing the question of his value as an
original thinker. It is evident that his success was in inverse ratio
to originality; but we can also see that he could not have held
together those three spheres of interest without the momentum of a
wonderful personality. This will be evident at a glance to any reader
of his biography. But after all we are here concerned not so much
with his personality as with his value as an original thinker. This
question is mooted by, and cannot be laid aside because of its decisive
influence on the problem of his dependence of Numenius. The greater
part of the latter's works being irretrievably lost, we can judge only
from what we have; and as to the rest, we must ask ourselves, was
Plotinos the kind of a man who would have depended on some other man's
thoughts? Is he likely to have sketched out a great scheme and filled
it in; or rather, was he likely to depend on personal suggestion,
and embroider on it, so to speak. Elsewhere we have demonstrated a
development of his opinions, for instance, about matter. Was this due
to progressiveness, or to indefiniteness? The reader must judge for
himself.