See STONE AGE.
NEOPLATONICS, The.
"There now [in the third century after Christ] arose another
school, which from its first beginnings announced itself as a
reform and support of the ancient faith, and, consequently, as
an enemy of the new religion. This was the Neoplatonic school
of Alexandria, founded by Ammonius Saccas and Plotinus, and
which was afterwards represented by Porphyrius, Amelius, and
Iamblicus. The doctrine of this school was the last, and in
many respects the best production of paganism, now in its
final struggle; the effort of a society, which acknowledged
its own defects, to regenerate and to purify itself.
Philosophy, and the religion of the vulgar, hitherto separated
and irreconcilable, joined in harmony together for mutual
support, and for a new existence. The Neoplatonics
endeavoured, therefore, to unite the different systems of
philosophy, especially the Pythagorean, Platonic, and
Aristotelean, in one body with the principles of oriental
learning, and thus to raise an edifice of universal, absolute
truth. In the same manner they represented the varied forms of
eastern and western religious worship as one entire whole,
which had manifested itself indeed in different ways, but at
the foundation of which there lay the same true faith. They
taught that 'every kind of homage and adoration, which men
offer to superior beings, is referred to heroes, demons, or
Gods, but, finally, to the one most-high God, the author of
all: that these demons are the chiefs and genii of the
different parts, elements, and powers of the world, of people,
countries, and cities, to obtain whose favour and protection,
it behoved men to honour them according to the rites and
customs of the ancients.'
{2248}
It is, therefore, manifest that these philosophers were
essentially hostile to the Christian religion,—the exclusive
character of which, and tendency to destroy all other
religions, stood in direct contrast with their doctrines: and
as their school was in its vigour at the very time in which
Christianity made its most rapid advances, and had struck
Paganism with a mortal wound, they employed themselves
especially, and more earnestly, than other philosophers, to
maintain their own tenets, and to destroy Christianity. They
in nowise, however, desired to defend heathenism, or its
worship, in their then degenerate and degrading state: their
ideal was a more pure, more noble, spiritualized, polytheism,
to establish which was the object which they had proposed to
themselves. Whilst, therefore, on the one hand, they preserved
the ancient and genuine truths which had sprung from primitive
tradition, and purified them from recent errors and
deformations; on the other, they adopted many of the doctrines
of the hated Christianity, and sought to reform paganism by
the aid of light which had streamed upon them from the
sanctuary of the Church. This admission and employment of
Christian truths are easily explained, if it be true, that two
of their chiefs, Ammonius and Porphyrius, had been Christians.
It is well known that they received instructions from
Christian masters. … This uniformity, or imitation, consists
not only in the use of terms, but in essential dogmas. The
Neoplatonic idea of three hypostases in one Godhead would not
have been heard of, if the Christian doctrine of the Trinity
had not preceded it. … Their doctrines respecting the minor
Gods, their influence and connexion with the supreme Being,
approached near to the Christian dogma of the angels. Nor is
the influence of Christianity less evident in the pure and
grave morality of the Neoplatonics: in their lessons which
teach the purifying of fallen souls, the detachment from the
senses, the crucifying … of the affections and passions, it
is easy to distinguish the Christian, from the commingled
pagan, elements. The Neoplatonics endeavoured to reform
polytheism by giving to men a doctrine more pure concerning
the Gods, by attributing an allegorical sense to the fables,
and a moral signification to the forms and ceremonies of
religion: they sought to raise the souls of men to piety, and
rejected from their mythology many of the degrading narrations
with which it had before abounded. It was their desire also to
abolish the sacrifices, for the Gods could only abhor the
slaughter, the dismemberment and the burning of animals. But
at the same time they reduced to a theory the apparitions of
the Gods; they declared magic to be the most divine of
sciences; they taught and defended theurgy, or the art of
invoking the Gods (those of an inferior order, who were united
to matter), and of compelling them to comply with the desires
of men."
_J. J. I. Döllinger,
History of the Church,
volume 1, pages 70-73._
ALSO IN:
_F. Ueberweg,
History of Philosophy,
sections 66-70 (volume 1)._
_C. Kingsley,
Alexandria and Her Schools._
NEPAUL, OR NIPAL, English war with the Ghorkas of.
See INDIA: A. D. 1805-1816.
NEPHTHALITES, The.
See HUNS, THE WHITE.
NÉRAC, Treaty of.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1578-1580.
NERESHEIM, Battle of.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1796 (APRIL-OCTOBER).
NERI AND BIANCHI (Blacks and Whites), The.
See FLORENCE: A. D. 1295-1300, and 1301-1313.
NERIUM, Headland of.
The ancient name of Cape Finisterre,
NERO, Roman Emperor, A. D. 54-68.