Plotinus was by birth an Egyptian, a native of Sycopolis. He died at
the conclusion of the second year of the reign of M. Aurelius Flavius
Claudius, at the age of sixty-six. On his friend Eustochius coming from
a distance and approaching him when dying, he said: "As yet I have
expected you, and now I endeavor that my divine part may return to that
divine nature which flourishes throughout the universe."
Taylor says of him, "He was a philosopher pre-eminently distinguished
for the strength and profundity of his intellect, and the purity and
elevation of his life. He was wise without the usual mixture of human
darkness, and great without the general combination of human weakness
and imperfection. He seems to have left the orb of light solely for the
benefit of mankind, that he might teach them how to repair the ruin
contracted by their exile from good, and how to return to their true
country and legitimate kindred allies. I do not mean that he descended
into mortality for unfolding the sublimest truths to the multitude,
for this would have been a vain and ridiculous attempt, since their
eyes, as Plato justly observes, are not strong enough to look at truth.
But he came as a guide to the few who are born with a divine destiny,
and are struggling to gain the lost region of light, but know not how
to break the fetters by which they are detained; who are impatient to
leave the obscure cavern of sense, where all is delusion and shadow,
and to ascend to the realms of intellect, where all is substance and
reality."
His biographers speak of him with the truest admiration. He was foreign
from all sophistical ostentation and pride, and conducted himself in
the company of disputants with the same freedom and ease as in his
familiar discourses; for true wisdom, when it is deeply possessed,
gives affability and modesty to the manners, illumines the countenance
with a divine serenity, and diffuses over the whole external form an
air of dignity and ease. Nor did he hastily disclose to every one the
logical necessities latent in his conversation. He was strenuous in
discourse, and powerful in discovering what was appropriate. While
he was speaking, there was every indication of the predominance of
intellect in his conceptions. The light of it diffused itself over
his countenance, which was indeed, at all times, lovely, but was
then particularly beautiful; a certain attenuated and dewy moisture
appeared on his face, and a pleasing mildness shone forth. Then, also,
he exhibited a gentleness in receiving questions, and demonstrated a
vigor uncommonly robust in their solution. He was rapidly filled with
what he read, and having in a few words given the meaning of a profound
theory, he arose. He borrowed nothing from others, his conceptions
being entirely his own, and his theories original. He could by no means
endure to read twice what he had written. Such, indeed, was the power
of his intellect, that when he had once conceived the whole disposition
of his thoughts from the beginning to the end, and had afterwards
committed them to writing, his composition was so connected, that he
appeared to be merely transcribing a book. Hence he would discuss his
domestic affairs without departing from the actual intention of his
mind, and at one and the same time transact the necessary negotiations
of friendship, and preserve an uninterrupted survey of the things he
had proposed to consider. In consequence of this uncommon power of
intellection, when he returned to writing, after the departure of the
person with whom he had been conversing, he did not review what he had
written; and yet he so connected the preceding with the subsequent
conceptions, as if his composition had not been interrupted. Hence,
he was at the same time present with others and with himself; so that
the self-converted energy of his intellect was never remitted, except
in sleep, which his admirable temperance in meats and drinks, and his
constant conversion to intellect, contributed in no small measure
to expel. Though he was attentive to his pupils and the necessary
concerns of life, the intellectual energy of his soul while he was
awake never suffered any interruption from externals, nor any remission
of vigor. He was likewise extremely mild in his manners, and easy
of access to all his friends and adherents. Hence, so great was his
philosophic urbanity, that though he resided at Rome six and twenty
years, and had been the arbitrator in many litigious causes which he
amicably dissolved, yet he had scarcely an enemy throughout that vast
and illustrious city. Indeed, he was so highly esteemed, not only by
the senate and people of Rome, that the Emperor Galienus and his wife
Salonica honored his person and reverenced his doctrine; and relying
on his benevolence, requested that a city in Campania, which had been
formerly destroyed, might be restored, and rendered a fit habitation
for philosophers, and besides this, that it might be governed by the
laws of Plato, and called Platonopolis.